claire797
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Posts posted by claire797
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Get out your magnifying glasses & figure this out. Just a Hatfield & McCoy type feud of the ages type thing? Bet it started somewhere with an in-law!!!!
What do y'all think???
Okay, since you asked
My theory is that our mothers introduced us to cake during our formative years. Some mothers were non-cooks and some were great cooks. My mother, for instance, was a non-cook with very low self-esteem. However, every year she banned everyone from the kitchen, pulled out a cake mix and with much trepidation, made a birthday cake. The "homemade" cake made her so proud and everyone enjoyed it and praised her heartily. She had no desire to be a scratch baker, but she did want to do something special for her children and family every year and believe me, doing it from a mix was a huge step!
For others, perhaps it is the opposite. Their mothers or fathers were great bakers and their childhood memories are of well-made scratch cakes. A box cake would be a ridiculous shortcut -- a sign that their parent just didn't want to take the time.
At any rate, cakes are tied closely with family customs and rituals and many of those cakes have been Duncan Hines. When non-cake mix users make a blanket statement that all cake mix is bad, cake mix users may perceive that as a slight to their family and/or the way they were brought up.
As for what's better -- family biases aside, it's hard to say. I've had some outrageously good scratch cakes and some pretty darn bad scratch cakes as well. Cake mix cakes usually taste the same to me these days, but every once in a while someone will doctor one up and it will taste as good or better than a scratch cake. After reading this board and other boards and honing my own skills as a baker, I've become extremely self conscious and apologetic on the occasion when I've had to use a mix. Usually people just laugh and say how much they love the cake while I sit there and feel guilty for "cheating".
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Well, we all perceive taste differently, but no one I know has said they thought the Pam With Flour tasted objectionable. As for the smell, it has a vanilla scent to it so it's actually quite nice (unlike Baker's Joy or No-Flour Pam). I rarely use cooking spray, but the flour-added Pam is an exception. It's worked perfectly in many situations with extremely sticky cakes, so I'm a fan.
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Have you tried flour-added Pam? It's also called "Pam for Baking". I have been using it for quite a while now and haven't had one failure. Unlike some other baking sprays, the taste and smell is not objectionable. Performance-wise, it's been better than any other method -- including greasing with shortening or flouring.
If you are determined not to use spray, you might want to try using shortening instead of butter for greasing. I don't know the scientific reason why shortening seems to work better, but in my experience, it always has. Just melt it, paint it own with a brush, then flour the surface.
Oh, and don't be impatient with your cooling
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For baking, I just set the whole bowl of batter on the kitchen scale, set the tare to zero, then add however many ounces/grams of honey the recipe requires. Unless you know the conversions by heart, you'll need to check the label on the honey to see what the weight of a tablespoon is, then add accordingly
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We had dinner there a few weeks ago and the food was incredible. Atmosphere was very strip-mall and plain. That is, until 8:00 when the music and dancing started. At that point, the whole experience became surreal -- authentic food, fun music, dancing and everything you expect from an evening out. Couldn't get much better, strip mall or otherwise.
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as has been said above...the menu is uninteresting...but most of it is competently, even well, executed.
Uninteresting to some, but not to me. I thought it sounded good. I'm more interested in the "competently and well executed" part. That's just me, and I realize I am not half the gourmet as most people here.
as for the scene: as a general rule of thumb...if you're an out of towner and you've heard of a place...(except for the obvious like Per Se)...its no longer really that hip.
Yes, that makes sense. It's not that way in Austin, though. The "scenes" have stayed scenes for years. If you asked me for a hot restaurant, it would probably be one that had been around for a few years. People here seem to shy away from restaurants that are extremely new.
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Lets try to keep this conversation on Bette. Comments on other restauraunts can be made on their respective threads unless the are relevant to the discussion of Bette.
Thanks
Back to Bette,
I'm still interested in hearing reviews from people who have a very balanced attitude toward scene/food. If anyone has any more info, post away!
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Well, thanks to everyone's suggestions and pointers, I'm done.
We chose Da Silvano for Friday, and Suvir's place Devi for Saturday night.
I feel pretty good about the choices, but I'm still sad to have only been able to pick 2.
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Make a reservation at da silvano. there is alot of people watching to do there, it a bit pricy. I like bar pitti next door better, for the food (it used to be owned by a team, that split into the pitti/silvano camps)
bette schmette. I was not moved by the scene or, really, the food. next.
Glad to hear they take reservations. I'll give it a shot.
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Let me amend that to: Po is fine, but in my opinion, if you're eating only two dinners in Manhattan, spending one of them at Po would be NUTS.
The menu didn't look that appealing anyway. Lupa still sounds great. And there's still Morimoto...
It's hard choosing new places from thousands of miles away. I should just stick to some place I know.
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BTW. The other place I've heard over and over again is Da Silvano. It sounds fun, but we have a show at 9:30. I'm afraid we'd get to Da Silvano for a 7:00 dinner and have to wait an hour or two for a table. Usually that would be fine, but not when there's a show.
The Da Silvano thread I have never been so I can't comment on it.
I scanned the thread. Overally, positive reviews. Wonder what their reservation policy is? Sounds like on a Friday night, there's be a two hour wait.
In the past 10 minutes I also looked up both Del Posto and Morimoto and Del Posto sounds great. I'm just afraid we'd never get in at 7:00 on a Friday night. I wonder if one of Mario's older places like Lupa or Po would honor a 7:00 reservation and hold to it (give or take 30 minutes). Neither place is in the area, but I am 100% sure we'd have a good meal.
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with that said, its also a year old..which means that it's no longer as hip as it was....for a true scene you're probably better off at Del Posto or Morimoto.
Ah! Thanks! Two more I've never heard of. Just when I think I have a nice, small pool of restaurants from which to choose, someone throws in a few more. Thank You, Nathan.
(I'm obsessing over this trip instead of something else, so you've provided me with more to focus on
)I'd say go with Morimoto over Del Posto.
Okay, will do.
BTW. The other place I've heard over and over again is Da Silvano. It sounds fun, but we have a show at 9:30. I'm afraid we'd get to Da Silvano for a 7:00 dinner and have to wait an hour or two for a table. Usually that would be fine, but not when there's a show.
So it would be nice to go somewhere where we could make a reservation. The other option would be to catch the 7:30 show and eat dinner at 10:00. Sorry to ramble...
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Because it's more a "scene" place than a real serious restaurant. (Although people I know who ate there were surprised at how good it was.)
I have to admit, I kind of like scenes. People watching is high on my list of hobbies. But based on the types of places I frequent in my town, scenes and good food aren't necessarily mutually exclusive. In fact, I can think of 5 scenes that are also considered top restaurants in town.
That said, I have been to other cities where scene places served really sub-par food and do not want to be in that situation again. Based on the reviews and where our show is, Bette seems like a good choice. Hopefully, it will be the best of both worlds......if I even go. Too many restaurants, not enough time
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I'm not familiar with Bette, but what criteria are you using to pick out those two restaurants?
Hi Pan,
Bette is Amy Sacco's newish restaurant. I like her for some reason and want to go there, but only if the food is good quality. I can find something I like in just about any cuisine, so our main criteria is that the place uses fresh ingredients and the restaurant is comfortable and fun. And being that we are tourists from Texas, I'd like it the place to be different than something we'd find here in Austin. We're also going to see The Upright Citizens Brigade which is in or near Chelsea, so I'm focusing on Chelsea and lower (we're staying WAY downtown). Bette just seems like a new and interesting place. It's just interesting that not a lot of real gourmets have heard of it........I'm wondering why.
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Any more opinions on Bette? I'm trying to pick two, and only TWO
restaurants to visit while in NYC. Bette is on the list, but I need more info... -
I'll bet it is!
I think people may be latching on to the cakes which have tricks -- cold ovens, heavy cream, cream cheese...that sort of thing. Yours looks great, though. I put it in my Mastercook file.
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Thanks for the review, Alan.
Like you, I've never found pound cake particularly exciting, but I feel compelled to keep trying different versions. I'll try Becca's version with your changes.
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I may be way off in left field, but could it have to do with the flour being beaten up with the cream cheese? Maybe you are toughening up the gluten in the flour somehow with the beating? Most of the recipes I have with flour say to add it near the end. That is, after you've added the eggs.
I generally find my cheesecakes are smoother when I thoroughly beat the cream cheese, flavorings and sugar then gently stir in the eggs and starch (flour).
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Here's what the pound cake looks like. Several days later, and its still great stuff. Sweet, dense, vanilla goodness.
It always tastes so much better having sat around a bit.
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It sounds like a coconut sugar cookie to me. Maybe they used desicated coconut in place of some of the sugar?
What supermarket was it?
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BUT of course.........I'm way off topic because theres nothing chewie about those chocolate cookies. Actually, I don't think I've ever eaten a chewie chocolate cookie. I can't even think of one made commercially, can you?
Exactly! I'm reading this thread and thinking "I thought we were looking for chewy?". The sparkle cookies are soft and fudgy. I think mudslides are fudgy too.
As for what I think people classify as chewy, my guess is something like the chocolate crinkle cookie or the Hershey's chewy chocolate cookie. A cookie that is medium to thin thickness, crispy around the edges, soft but has a bit of pull to it. But even cookies classified as chewy aren't really chewy.
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*There's different formulas but basically cream equal parts of shortening and flour then add an equal part of oil--keep in a plastic container and apply with a brush or paper towel.
The melted shortening and flour combo works perfectly. What I do is mix those together, paint them on the pans and then put the pans in the freezer to harden the shortening.
But a much, much easier way is to just use flour-added Pam -- the new kind, which they've made especially for bakers. It works much better than regular baking spray and has a nice smell.
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Old-fashioned rolled oats will make the cookie chewier, while the quick oats will have a little softer texture. Instant will just dissolve into the dough.
It's nice to finally have an authoritative answer to this question
. Most recipes just seem to state what kind of oats you should use without saying why.BTW. I love your web site and look forward to trying some of your recipes.
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i plan on making some oatmeal raisin cookies but was wondering if i have to used rolled oats as the recipes states. can i used quick-oats? will there be a noticable difference? thanks!
I sub quick for rolled all the time and the cookies still turn out good. The texture will be different, but not necessarily in a bad way. You might have some problem if you tried to sub instant oats. I believe those are different than quick.
Honoring the Life and Work of fifi (Linda LaRose)
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She was a good person. It's sad to hear she's gone.