SundaySous

" Cook the candy mixture. (Here's where you need an adult to help!) 1. Put the cup of water into the sauce pan and heat until it boils. 2. Add 2 cups of sugar to the boiling water while stirring. Keep stirring until the sugar dissolves. (If you have a candy thermometer the temperature of the sugar water should reach 240 degrees Fahrenheit.) 3. Remove pan from heat. If you want to add flavoring or color, stir it in now." When you made your syrups did you reach 240 degrees or just "eyeball" it?

I'm guessing but I believe this is the cat they are referring to: http://www.panda.org/about_wwf/what_we_do/...m?uNewsID=61980 "You eat the chickens that feed my family I gonna eat you!"

me me me, I'll pick it up I love the west Coast

After giving this much thought I would have to say my cousin Joel is the most useless utensil in my kitchen. I believe he was a gift given to me the day I was born. I have tried to return him many times to no avail. I've tried to sell him on ebay but I guess that is against some policy of theirs, can't sell him for parts either. I live in a one bedroom apartment, my kitchen is just above easybake size. While he came with no instruction manual I am convinced his purpose is make you question/defend your every action in the kitchen. He also has multi task functions. One of which is to take up space. Another is to randomly add ingredients to what ever you are cooking. Another would be to store kitchen utensils, equipment, food, etc... in his apartment for you , with out your knowledge. That last function took me years to get used too. But tonight as I'm writing this I know the potato masher I was looking for earlier is safe and sound over at his place.

Bourbon marinade. I have absolutely no basis for this assumption I just like the look on people faces when I recommend it. Seriously though years ago it would drive us nuts trying to figure out how this beef stand made their Italian Beef. After they sold out to condo development there in the Chicago Tribune is the recipe...Bourbon marinade.

If this is truly a 911 situation I can't imagine a confection shop or upscale restaurant not helping you out.

Isn't mole another one that takes two days to do correctly?

well lets see this is what your looking for http://www.internetmesh.net/sieves.html http://www.twpinc.com/twp/jsp/product.jsp?type=12 you want it ss 18-8 meaning food safety stainless steel grade among other things. Those pages will give you many keywords to search for. I would call your hardware stores tell them you need stainless steel mesh. Those sizes start @ 2 microns, I think that is still 2/1000ths of an inch. good luck figuring out what measure you need.

Little googling shows Sysco with 46,000 employees servicing 400,000 locations. I imagine you could email them and ask how much time harvest to delivery would be to your location. Be warned though they are going you to hear that from an account rep so act like you the place.

Man I hear ya 111_bake. Every year coming upto Thanks Giving and on through the rest of the holidays pure frustration. Frustrated because what I could make in the spring never came close in the fall. And I mean I gave up. Recently my cousin pointed out temp and humidity change. House is bone dry in fall unlike spring. Got myself thermometers for the oven and fridge and man do they tell a story. The oven temp is off like 30 degrees and the damn fridge is inconsistent which I kinda already knew. Have a baking stone on my wish list, would I be wasting money getting one of those?

Almost thirty years ago I prepped for a chef that was big on consistency. We weighed allot of stuff. I mean even when making a roux. Even his mother thought he was anal about it. I haven't been back in a long time and he's been dead for 25 years but I'll bet his lasagna tastes the same today.

As far as a I know I can still often get two Tacos for $1 at Burger King around here. How cool is that?

Had a friend that moved from Austin area maybe two years ago. Her and her better half loved these theaters. That's a pretty impressive menu for a kitchen that I remember made pub food. Damn good pub food.

Tough one. My first thought would be some kind of variation of Menudo. Done properly I understand that takes about two days so that's out. Not knowing the cast of that show well I think they are more Caribbean Latin than North, Central and South American Latin. I think I would of shot for a 2.5 ounce of shredded Cuban pork nestled inside or on top of what ever the hell they call South American yams, possibly carmelized with onion and a little sugar. Place that on some kind of lightly seasoned (celery salt & pepper?) Veloute with roasted red pepper and hope it comes out dark red? Probably figured out some bastardization of Cajun peanut slaw using those freaking hard Brazilian nuts. Probably roast them or something and hope they get little softer. Probably add some Jamaican black beans and a little corn and hope they not catch on. As you can see I too am clearly not a chef but I play one on the internet.

More on tomatoes from Mr. Alton Brown: " Now when you get them home, don't keep them in direct sunlight, okay, no matter how pretty they look. Oh, and never put them in the refrigerator, okay? If they drop below 50 degrees a flavor compound called (Z)-3-dexenal is just going to flip itself off like a chemical switch ... permanently."

"taste is close to the best I ate as a kid in the 1950's-1960's." Have to agree, we just don't have the same beef we had then. I'm more from the 70's. You could literally tell where your steak was raised by taste. Now most are born in Argentina and fattened here in the US. They all get the same "scientific diet" so they all pretty much taste the same. I shall have to cosult me butcher and see what he wants to charge for aged chuck. Three weeks seemed to be the magic number and I'll bet it comes to $8 a pound when it's all said and done. Oh look girl friends birthday is in three weeks. I'll let you know how that goes.

"Flavored olive oils and dressings make great gifts but watch out; there are safe and unsafe ways to make flavored olive oil. The unsafe way is to put anything in the oil that contains water. That would include garlic, lemon peel, fresh peppers, fresh herbs and spices. The oil will not support bacterial growth but the water containing herbs will. Botulism bacteria can grow in this type of environment. There are several ways to get around this" Source: http://www.oliveoilsource.com/flavoring_olive_oils.htm Funny you should bring this up. I just saw Alton Browns latest episode of Good Eats. Withering Bites is the title. The show was about dehydrating fruit. Tomatoes are berries when you get right down to it. I've practically all but given up on store bought tomatos in favor of canned. Man once you have had homegrown tomatos you are scared for life. I envy you. If I had more energy I might consider canning them myself. Well energy, canning supplies and of course the tomatoes anyway.

No real experience with this but I wonder if pre made frozen dough from a wholesale bakery is an option? Frozen loaves and buns. Thinking along the lines of cost and time savings until you could develop demand and your own skill set. I've heard the argument here order fresh and frozen. On the day you get swamped you have the frozen to fall back on. I'm thinking ideal if you have excess freezer space. Mind you I'm talking about Chicago. Plenty of competition for wholesale bakeries who operate on razor thin margins. Be interesting to see what you find out there in Seattle.

I've started taking an interest in huge events like this. Pretty cool watching all the work that goes into pulling it off. I worked on a movie set here in Chicago where the caterer had to cook for 1,400. Two meals a day. Two good meals too. One of the production guys told me they shoot for everyone having their food within one hour. And as far as I could tell they did it. Seven days straight. The caterer was out of Vegas, all the equipment was from Vegas. They relied allot on BBQ. I never saw so much charcoal in my life.

LOL are we related? I was warming plates in a cooling oven, thought I had it planned perfectly. Shot for 100 degrees. Should of seen the look on my face when I opened a 350 degree oven someone was preheating for those oh so special dinner rolls they brought. Or I have to feed 15 of you. I have our four top stove and an oven and usually my neighbors too. But sure go right ahead take three of the burners.

I like when guests use my chefs knife for anything but a knife. Saw, prybar etc.. "Hey thanks that only costs $70 so it's not a good one anyway." The bread knife seems to be another favorite victim.

Show up. Show up early. Keep a Journal, start a portfolio and fill it with pictures of what you know how to make. Laminate conversion charts and the like. While the rest of the class is looking for theirs pull yours out of back pocket on your way to the scale, ingredient in hand.

Have been told by a culinary instructor that you could actually put together a menu of entirely premade product from companies like Sysco. Scary.

Living in Chicago there are so many similar priced places it's a blessing really. Still a few friends love the place so we go. My biggest complaint would be the pressure the corporation puts on the servers to upsell. Gets a little annoying. "Your wasting your time trying to sell me that damn jack and coffee, trust me you'll make up for it in beer."

When your paying $145 for a meal for two believe the owner/chef/server of that restaurant want you to ask about your food. I'm sure you would of gotten a new plate of oysters and added attention to the rest of your meal. You're not going to get that oyster shucker in trouble your are going to get that person trained.