MSRadell

If you make it the day before just refrigerating it is fine. If you make it farther ahead and freeze it put it back into the refrigerator 24 hours in advance so it defrosts fully before cooking. I've made it ahead and both refrigerated and frozen it prior to cooking. In my opinion refrigeration for 24 hours does not affect the flavor or texture in all, freezing seems to make the pastry a little tougher. If you have any concerns just make the test batch ahead to see what results you get.

Of course. Corn and potatoes are vegetables, right? ← Ribs are counted as a vegetable and I think bread is too since it contains grain! (pigs eat vegetables so we also eat vegetables when we eat pig)

Definitely first on the list should be Beer! Additional sides that I like with ribs are: Coleslaw A good hearty bread Baked beans Corn on the cob (if available) Mac and cheese New potatoes (boiled in salt then fried in butter) I definitely wouldn't have greens, especially if it's a group of guys of course that's a personal preference. As for how many ribs, I probably go for a rack per person to be safe, leftovers are always good and you don't want to come up short. As for cooking the ribs I'd remove the membrane put on a dry rub and wrap them up the day before (refrigerate overnight) than I'd smoke them at about 250° for about 3 hours applying a sauce for about the last half hour.

That's how I think she says it too! Of course I'm in agreement that she's going to say that and then the entire name there's no sense in doing both. It's not really a chef trick by the fact that several of the chefs on FN are European and use metric measures is kind of frustrating.

Several ideas come to mind but one of the easiest might be Fondue. Of course you could do a traditional cheese fondue with various fruits, breads are even hard sausage to do. But you can also do an entree fondue using either oil or Bouillon as the cooking medium. With this you can serve various meats, seafoods and vegetables to be cooked by your guests as they desire. And of course you can always do a chocolate fondue (or the and new in chocolate fountain) with any multitude of things to dip. There are many multitudes of other things they can be done in a chafing dish that will hold for extended periods of time such as Swedish meatballs and other things along that line. But in my opinion in order to ensure and the food does not deteriorate in quality as time goes along things like cooked meats and vegetables that are not in some kind of a sauce will tend to dry out or overcook (I hate mushy vegetables) as time goes on.

The blue Hubbard actually is quite similar in taste and texture to a butternut or acorn squash and can be prepared in a similar fashion. You can be split open (this may require an ax since they're very hard), the seeds removed and then baked in an oven. Then it can be scooped out and prepared like you would butternut or acorn squash. The other two types I normally roast or grill depending on what else I'm cooking. The delicitas have a flavor that is fairly mild in my opinion so be careful not to overpower their flavor with a lot of other heavy flavors.

Well at least everyone here makes chili that fits my definition, which is the chili has to be red and it can't contain spaghetti noodles (or pasta of any kind for that matter). I know there are variations from region to region but I believe almost everybody can agree that my definition fits every dish that people normally call chili. I know it sounds strange but when I moved to Louisville Kentucky I found that their chili (actually called Cincinnati chili) contains spaghetti noodles! Now by my definition this may be called spicy spaghetti or something like that but it certainly is not chili. Also what people call white chili is sometimes very good to eat but it certainly is not chili. I personally prefer chili that has beans in it but I know Texas chili and a lot of chili made in competition doesn't contain them and is also very good.

To start with definitely go for the 30" ovens! We used to have this but when we bought our present home it had 27" ovens and we hate them. 3" may not seem like a lot but it especially comes into play when you're trying to put more than one dish on a rack. Other than that the idea of putting the refrigerator and ovens where the pantry is looks OK but the work triangle (sink-cook top-refrigerator) will be pretty spread out. A better solution may be to put the cook top in the island. Also since a pantry is 37" deep you really don't need a counter depth refrigerator, you could take a normal one in just recess it so it looks like a counter depth one and end up with more room. It stated above the width is a little tight in the old pantry for a refrigerator and ovens (36" + 30" + a little clearance) so a little room will have to be stolen from someplace. Another option could be to put the ovens there along with two pull out pantries and leave refrigerator where it is, this also would save some plumbing modifications for the water to the ice maker. Overall, it looks like you've got enough room just be sure to lay it out so it works comfortably for you and others who will be using it.

Omega Engineering makes many kinds of temperature measuring instruments for laboratories and industry. Many of these can be used in the cooking environment with no changes. Most are stainless steel construction and able to withstand a wide temperature range. They also make many probes that are submersible. They are certainly more expensive than any others listed above but they also hold up under extreme conditions! Just google Omega Engineering to find their website.

OK, I've read the Wikipedia definition but what does it mean in reality? How does this value affect the butter I use?

Peter you beat me to it! The only difference was that I was going to recommend a slingshot since I know NYC has a ban on the discharge of firearms!! ChefTeddy, don't be overly enthused about trying squirrel meat. It's really nothing to get overly excited about, there are lots of other exotic meats that are much better. Have you tried rattlesnake? It's one of the ones that I find quite good and it's not heard of that often. Of course I don't know where you can get that either. As far as availability you can always try Possum since they're born dead on the side of the road.

Move into the garage or someplace else undercover! Rain and Turkey fryers do not mix! A friend of mine can tell you all about it can show you the scars to prove it.

John, old sinks like you're speaking of can be drilled but it's very difficult. Ideally they should be drilled from the back side first. If that's not possible you need to take a small hand grinder and grind down to the cast iron were you intended drill. A small Dremel is very good for this. The porcelain coating is very hard at almost impossible to drill through, grinding it away allows you to just drill the cast iron. When you do the grinding mask off the area you don't want to grind with duct tape so that you don't damage those areas. You might be able to get a plumber to do it but they're going to want you to sign something relieving them of all liability for damage.

A little bit of oxidation won't hurt your press (or the food you make with it) a bit. Mias aluminum like yours and has had oxidation for years, to me it just makes it look used and not something I don't use. A friend of mine has a cast iron one that has a coating on it like you describe, in some places the coating has chipped or worn off and the cast iron is rusting which looks much worse than the oxidation on aluminum. I've never seen a stainless steel one, they probably exist but are also probably quite expensive.

I'm still glad I purchased it. I still feel there isn't a whole lot of difference between the three flavors so after I use the three pack I think I'll just buy the hickory flavored since I'd rather add my own pepper as I deem appropriate. I've found several other uses for it but still think it only has limited application in day to day cooking.

This couldn't be done in the United States because then we'd have the European System of "Service Compris" and we all know we can't do the same thing here that's done in Europe!

or maybe there are so many poor servers that have complained enough about not making money (my opinion). I don't believe think that if good tips don't encourage good service you can encourage it by any other means. I also don't believe Disney cares that much about service anymore, they just care about the bottom line. I also wonder if Disney will take a cut (say 3%?) for administering this tip pool. As far as an overall increase in the percentage for a tip is concerned, the amount received for tips increase is proportional to the increased price in menu items and we all know that the prices at Disney have risen faster than the overall market. Based on this, the rate of pay for servers at Disney should have increased more than those serving outside if the level of service had remained the same!

I know that members of these forums come from the three major groups of the restaurant industry, restaurant staff, owners/managers and customers and I'd like to get feedback from all three groups on this subject. Walt Disney World is one of our favorite places to visit, they have a huge variation in culinary experiences as well as many other forms of entertainment. We have recently found out that effective January 1, 2008 they will be imposing a mandatory 18% gratuity out all dinners in sit down restaurants no matter what the party size! Why I agree wait staff needs to receive good compensation for their service I don't think this is appropriate. A gratuity is left to reward good service, in most cases a normal level of service is rewarded with at least 15% and outstanding service is rewarded with 20% and higher. I believe this policy will only help further decline the level of service. This decline has been talked about in a couple of other threads in this forum and giving a good tip of 18% for any level of service will only encourage lower performance by the majority of servers. It will also discourage the top end servers from being so enthusiastic when they see the slackers getting 18% for doing the least they can get away with. I realize that some people on vacation do not tip appropriately and this may be one of the reasons for implementing this policy at WDW but I also feel if a large area like this implements this policy it will continue to spread over a period of time. We might just as well go to the European system of Service Compris if this is the case since at least then you don't see the actual percentage of the gratuity! What's everybody else's opinion of this new policy?

Don, is there a link to the results of the competition you're talking about? I like to see what the Finger Lakes "big" wineries are making these days. I moved from the area many years ago and really haven't kept up with winemaking in that region. I'd like to also see list of the Boutique Wineries that have sprung up in the area. When I left there were very few of them and the ones there were, were shall I say cultish? The most well known of them was Bully Hill which while having a good philosophy was not yet producing any world class wines. The story of Walter Taylor (not associated with or part of that Taylor Wine Company) the owner was a wonderful story and needs to be heard by every one. If you've got a list or a link to the Boutique Wineries in the area would you please post it or send it to me.

If you look in the eCGI section of the forums there's a whole thread dedicated to how to poach eggs. All the techniques that have been discussed in this thread are included as was a couple of others. One of the more interesting ones is to par boil the eggs for about 20 seconds prior to poaching them. Also according to the eCGI thread one of the most critical factors to getting well formed poached eggs is their freshens, the fresher the better. If you're using to cling wrap technique vinegar in the water isn't required since the water never touches the egg. In the other techniques the vinegar helps coagulate the white of the egg.

What I find even more interesting than the kosher birds taking two of the top five spots (since all kosher meat is very good) is that two mass produced, low price birds also made the top five. Who could have guessed that the Butterball and Jennie-O turkeys would have ranked that high! While the article says they both cost $1.49 they can be had for less than $1.00 at many supermarkets. Comparing that to the number two ranked bird from Dean and Deluca at over $8.00 per pound they're really a bargain. I wonder who the testers were and what criteria they used? Does anyone have a link to the entire article so we can see what other turkeys were tested and where they ranked?

If you take a picture off the web site and blow it up using a photo software you'll see that the block in the picture has some cracking around the outside diameter. I'd assume that they'd use one of the best ones for the picture so what their shipping may have even more cracking. I'd be very afraid of cracking over the long term.

This looks like a really neat cooker! I've never really liked a Turkey fryer for safety in flavor reasons but I do like the crisp skin and moist interior, this looks like the perfect answer. I like to look at one before buying but it certainly is on my list. Does any reader of this forum have one or at least has anyone seen one in operation in taste and result?

The Claxton fruitcakes have a very high ratio of fruit and nuts to batter. They're the ones that my wife and I like to eat ourselves was. They are however not as pretty of presentation as some of the others if there been giving as gifts. For gifts I prefer the Harry & David ones since they look much nicer (and are larger).

The way Bio-Fuels are being approached in the United States is plain stupid! We're using corn kernels to make ethanol to fuel our cars, the kernels are only about 5% of the total plant. Using sugarcane like Brazil does makes much more sense since the entire plant is used. Brazil itself used very little sugarcane domestically so utilizing it to make fuel helped prices their domestic economy and raised export prices. Both of these were good for their economy. The United States uses much of its corn for animal feed or other products that are utilized domestically thus diverting corn for another use only hurts prices for their consumers. Soybeans use for Bio-Diesel is much the same especially in regards to only using a small portion of the plant. The fuels being approached like they are being in the United States only hurts our overall economy. Granted it's a benefit to a few small sectors but it's detrimental to the economy as a whole. We need to pursue other sources of energy that we have a large quantities (Coal and potentially Nuclear) as well as other renewable sources such as Solar, Hydro, Wind and Geothermal in order to ensure our economy remains strong.