Shel_B

What is "really good brown sugar?" Interesting comment about maillard reaction. Something to look into. Thanks!

Go here http://www.amazon.com/De-Buyer-Mineral-Inch-Fry/product-reviews/B002S52X1E/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?showViewpoints=1 and scroll down to the seasoning tips in the first or second review. I did essentially the same thing with my Matfer skillet, and it worked a stitch. Pay attention, don't take shortcuts.

My bad ... and it should be noted that a bunch of people answered the question I posed and offered suggestions, one of which worked beautifully. Hmmm ...

I'm sure you're right, but as with everything else, I start at the beginning and use what I have. Each time I make a recipe, I adjust it based on previous results. I keep notes on how I measure, what changes I make to ingredients, amounts, and technique. When I get a scale, I'll concern myself with weight. Right now I'm perfecting how I measure to get repeatable results. I've done that with my popovers and I can duplicate the results. Now, with the popovers, it's time to start making adjustments. The same process will be used with the cookies. And, for anyone who cares, the first batch was quite a learning experience. I made the cookies too big and laid them out too close, so a couple ran into one another. There was, however, a nice crispness to the bottom and edges, but the middle was a bit too cakelike for my taste. Maybe that's because I made the cookies too big. The second batch was made smaller, and the cookies look like they may be crisper throughout. Gotta wait until they cool further to be sure. I made the third batch smaller still, and the spread looks perfect, with cookies that are closer to the size I wanted and plenty of room between each cookie. They look a little thinner, so maybe they will be less cakelike in the center. Also, I've been adjusting the baking time for each batch, and that seems to be helping some as well. If nothing else, this is a fun way to spend the afternoon. Thanks to all who have been helpful.

I never said I was going to change the original recipe - never! Maybe you misunderstood the purpose of my questions. I'm on a quest for knowledge - in this case I want to know what happens when proportions in a particular recipe are changed. Then, if after making the cookies a few times, and know what I'm doing, I'll have the needed info to make the changes I want, if I want to change anything. Or maybe I'll never make chocolate chip cookies again <LOL> The first batch is about to come out of the oven. Gotta run ...

She roasts a lot of SM's coffee, and I know she's roasted some of their Ethiopian blends. I'll let you know what she says, and, if I can, I'll taste some the next time I'm at her home.

Thanks for posting your comments. Sweet Maria's is a local outfit, and we sometimes grab one or another of their beans. However, a close friend is very much a Sweet Maria's customer, and I passed along your information to her. I'd be interested in getting her opinion on the blend.

Your tips are appreciated. Thank you! It's about time to start mixing and baking. Bust one more question, though. If I reduce the amount of brown sugar, with the intent of getting a somewhat crisper cookie, can I leave the amount of white sugar the same as in the original recipe? And, if reducing the brown sugar while at the same time increasing the white sugar, will that also give a crisper result. In other words, can I play around with the amounts and proportions of the two sugars to "customize" the cookie, and, if so, at what point might there be too little of the sugar or too much of the sugar?

Very helpful ... thanks!

I am going to try my hand at baking a batch of chocolate chip cookies. I have never made cookies before, so this will be a learning experience and somewhat of an adventure. I am going to start with a simple recipe, what may be considered a standard, the Toll House recipe. The recipe calls for brown sugar, and at the supermarket last night I saw a few types of brown sugar: dark brown, light brown, some just described as brown, etc. What does brown sugar bring to the recipe, and how do the different shades of brown sugar effect the result? Also, all the recipes I've looked at call for "packed" brown sugar. How much do I pack it? The degree of packing would change the amount of brown sugar in the mixture, which would, I imagine, change the result. Are there some "packing" guidelines? Is there a standard for the various brown sugars, or do different brands of dark have different amounts of molasses in them (it's molasses that makes the sugar brown, yes), so that one brand of dark may not be the same as another? And this, then, goes back to the question, "what does brown sugar bring to the recipe?" Thanks!

Thanks so much for your suggestions. Now that she's gotten the info from this thread, it'll be interesting to see what she decides upon.

After talking about this earlier, she's going to taste the Triple Sec and the rum, and see what she might want to go with. I've never tasted Triple Sec, so I couldn't offer much advice. Thanks so much for your suggestions.

Thanks. We just got back from an event, and discussed this. She has two kinds of rum, one of which is Baccardi. If the rum goes well with the other ingredients, maybe she'll use it. Thanks for your help and direct response to the question. The thing is, neither of us drink much - in fact, you could almost say that we're abstemious - so we're pretty much ignorant of the types of liquor in her closet.

Exactly, and thank you. You said it better, and with far greater diplomacy, than I could have.

The choices are the ones mentioned in the original post.

Rum and triple sec, both of which have been mentioned more than once, seems like good choices for the intended purpose.

Toots is going to be making this cake http://www.nytimes.com/recipes/1015378/orange-cake-ancona-style.html for an event this weekend. The recipe calls for the addition of some ouzo. She has no ouzo, and is not particularly interested in buying some for this one time use. She does, however, have triple sec, vodka, brandy, rum, sweet vermouth and some sweetish white wine in the fridge. Oh, she may also have some advocaat. Which of those choices might work best with the recipe. I suggested brandy, but was thinking the rum might also work. Am I even close? Which would you suggest? Would leaving out the alcohol altogether be an acceptable solution? Thanks!

My next purchase will be a kitchen scale. I have a quick, general question: Are there any scales where the tare weight can be greater than the capacity of the scale, i.e., say I get a scale with a 1-lb capacity but the bowl or vessel weighs more than 1-lb empty. Can I still get a tare weight?

Uhm...I do. I will use the reds in pasta sauces (and pour a glass for the cook, too ). Sometimes I'll use a white when I bake salmon or make some sort of seafood fettucini on the stove. 2Buck Chuck now costs a little more than 2bucks. It's drinkable and it's cheap which is fine by me. I don't drink much wine these days, but even when I had a nice cellar there was always a place for 2 Buck Chuck. I now use the merlot for cooking, especially when I make a particular spaghetti sauce.

Where are you located? I like Caggiano. They don't have a website, but here's some info: http://www.elysewinery.com/recipes_13_1908997775.pdf

Much of the dairy in the local TJ's is just a little to a lot less than the supermarkets in the area, and, for the most part, the quality is equal to or better than those supermarkets. TJ's has good prices and a nice selection of cheese. Today Toots and I hit Costco, and Toots specifically compared some cheese prices. Costco was a little less expensive, but a much larger amount of cheese had to be purchased. I compared some frozen berries, and TJ's had the better prices. Coffee prices were comparable, but at Costco we had to buy 3-lbs but a more reasonable amount (about a pound) could be had at TJ's, and TJ's had a wider selection. Meat was something of a tossup, depending on the cut. TJ's eggs are better priced than the local supermarkets, and TJ's has better prices and a more interesting selection of breads. Butter is substantially less spendy at TJ's. Bottled water of the type I sometimes buy is about 20% less than the local supermarkets. Cereals (like Cheerios, Shredded Wheat, Kashi products, and oatmeal varieties) are generally much less expensive at TJ's. Snack crackers are a better deal at TJ's, and they have some very nice, and unique, selections.

Rosemary-Olive Oil Popovers: I was wondering if extra virgin olive oil would be an acceptable replacement for butter (or shortening) as the fat to mix into the popover batter. I'd like to make a rosemary-olive oil infused popover. America's Test Kitchen, or maybe Cook's Illustrated, suggested that using full fat milk may inhibit the rise in their popovers because the milk was "too heavy" with fat. Might rosemary infused olive oil have that same effect? Also, since popovers depend, at least in part, on steam (as I understand it) to give them their rise, would a higher fat butter, which has less water than a typical American supermarket butter, inhibit rising to some degree? Thanks!

Is there a proper way to wash a potato, and, if so, what is it?

Not that I'm going to make a cake with gold or silver leaf, but I am curious as to how much of the leaf would be needed for a cake as described above.

You mentioned that you cook the orzo al dente, and maybe there's more residual starch on the grains than with spaghetti and other pasta shapes. Is the other pasta you use also Ronzoni? Perhaps there's a different amount of starch and protein in the Ronzoni orzo compared to other brands, or even other shapes of the same brand. I'm only guessing here ...