Icanmakeit

I am currently accepting clients and while happy my love of cooking is possibly going to start paying me back - I'm looking for some advice or maybe 'tricks' to be wary of for the future. One question: I've seen a "Personal Chef Course/Certificate" offered for around $300. While at first glance it kind of seems like BS but I'm not sure if it is or could it actually be helpful? For the last couple of years I have been in and out of employment after losing a job I had for a long time (none of them food-related) and this new-ish venture is something I am really excited about. Thanks you for any help or advice you may have.

I previously cooked for 2 separate clients where i utilized a list more geared to the dietary needs and preferences of folks with health issues. These new clients who are considering my services are a young family and do not consider themselves 'picky'. I've looked for new sources short of creating my own, but I haven't cooked for 'outside family' enough to feel that confident about it. Any help from those in the business? This is quite exciting for me and my hope is that it becomes a full time thing rather than a means to stay afloat while I am unintentionally job-hopping

Thanks so much you guys! I have given them a list of preferences and they are so looking forward to some really classic 'oldies' like Chicken Country Captain and clams Linguine in wine sauce - things I haven't made in a coon's age! I am shopping tomorrow and pretty excited about cooking this for them.

I have been using a pressure cooker for years - I own 3 at present including a mongo 24 qt that doubles as my pressure canner. While my main purpose is to speed up cooking things like pot roasts and 'slow cook' things, I have made pulled pork, fillings for tamales etc where the seasonings get infused. I'm glad the PC is making a comeback and I think 'popular' media makes using them harder than they really are. And for what it's worth, my mom did have one blow up on her, put a dent in the ceiling because that pressure valve didn't 'work'. It still won't stop me from using mine!

Such a fabulous 'rendition' of duck/goose liver treatment in general. I have been absent for quite sometime and your response to this post makes me wonder why as life has taken me to a food 'lifestyle' (ugh, I hate that term) that I am finally making some money doing - aside from that pesky 40 hour job that doesn't involve food unfortunately. Thank you!

I was recently asked to cook several meals a week for some elderly neighbors who have admired my cooking for years and have asked to pay me for my services. They have a lot of experience travelling abroad and I don't expect to encounter too much pickiness or allergy issues. Is there a list of guidelines for myself that I could offer them and base their meals on? Any experienced personal chefs and others experience would be greatly appreciated!

It takes no effort to bake a whole chicken. I never buy those pre cooked chickens.

Sorry, I am old school but this method of boiling food in bags escapes me and doesn't sound appetizing at all.

The outer skin must be removed. Par boil for at least an hour or more, remove the 'skin' and the bony membrane undernearth. It is so tough that even this few hours of cooking will not adversely affect the texture of the tongue especially if it will be cured or pickled further.I would never attempt to skin a raw tongue. Coming from Dutch heritage, pickled tongue is something I would eat, but nobody else would so sadly, I don't make it even though I crave it a lot.

Lots of Asian recipes for pork belly, I have made my own bacon using internet recipes. Anything pork fat is good. Beans, soup etc.

First - I am never crazy about chicken breasts. No fat or flavor I would have brined the breasts rather than cooking them in hot salty water. I boil whole chickens or parts for soups or stews etc, not to empart a flavor note from salt. However, I do add salt even if I don't reuse the boiling water. I really don't think salt saturation would make much of a difference unless there is a lot of it to the point of dehydrating the meat. I'm not quite sure of your goal, but I would focus more on the end product of the food that this chicken is to become, rather that salty water.

Don't use salt in the cooking process - water etc. Once soft, season away. I don't soak my beans and prefer to cook them till soft on the stovetop on medium heat.

I'm not so sure I would jump on this one other than to cook down for the fat. While fantasies of a magazine cover goose might be nice, you probably aren't going to get it with a frozen $1.99 per pound goose. This is a fire sale price and there is probably a reason why the goose is so cheap. Getting old, freezer burned etc I might roast it thawed, save the fat, use the meat in a casserole or soup.

If it were myself, I would not mind cold packing moose meat and using it randomly in stews etc. To give in tandem with other canned items - I think it might be off-putting to someone not familiar with moose meat or canned meat in general. Home canned tuna is great - looks terrible in a glass canning jar, but most people can get past that. Have you considered making something like moose meat chili or mincemeat? Lucky you - I no longer have any hunters in my family and even the boar hunting guy at work won't throw me a 'bone'.

Sadly, my lofty expectations were crushed. Their advertised "jumbo" artichokes for $2 dollars each were small as were the "jumbo" pomegranetes for $1. My local discount grocery stores have a bigger variety and much better pricing than the Sunflower "Farmers" market. The dinky meat counter carried no local brands (I live in a very Ag heavy area surrounded by all kinds of meats and produce etc). Their ad bragged about the frozen shrimp for $3.50 a lb. Very whimpy and it was cooked, frozen shrimp. I was impressed by the choice of cheeses, however again, no local brands. I probably won't make this store a regular stop as I can't afford it.

I have one of those proablematic KA 'Pro' stand mixer. I have paid almost $300 dollars in repairs and am ready to put the piece of junk on ebay for parts only. The plastic gear was replaced with a metal one and it still broke. My husband insists on buying an Electrolux for my next mixer. I had an artisan for almost 20 years and worked it like a beast grinding meat, making bread etc. This newer model is crap.

I was in labor with my daughter and the 'nesting' instinct kicked in and I decided to make sour dough bread with the culture I had been growing for several weeks. I went into big time labor and forgot about the rising dough. My husband went back to our apt after I had our daughter and found a huge gooey mess on the counter top and floor of sour dough gone wild. I still am shocked as to how 3 cups of flour and a little bit of starter could have caused such a mess!

As someone else mentioned, I have only tasted my own risotto I don't have much to compare to other than my own trials and errors. I find the old school way, toasting the rice a bit in some butter and a bit of olive oil and continuing to add stock, a bit of white wine as the rice will soak it up. No added cream, although in the end - after much stirring and a sore wrist - people who eat my risotto will argue with me that there must somehow be cream involved. I think really good stock whether you make it yourself or a decent store brand can make the difference. I last made some nice risotto with some home made pesto added at the end and it was really good.

They look pretty but the taste is very bland. I was at my BIL house a few years ago and their neighbors had a huge avocado tree and I was drooling. He said they don't even taste good at all. It's the bumpy skinned ones that taste good and not the big smooth ones.

Hi have to give you my new KA mixer horror story. I had the basic stand up model for over 15 years and it worked like a dream. A couple of years ago, my husband bought me a new Professional 6000 and let me tell you, It's a piece of junk. The plastic 'worm gear' went out after a year. I spent $300 having it fixed and was told by the repairman (an authorized KA repairman)that I should have kept my old one. When whirlpool bought KA about 5 years ago, they started making their KA appliances very cheaply, using lots of plastic and inferior parts that at one point were metal and now replaced with plastic. A couple weeks ago, I was grinding meat - partially frozen,very pliable per the instructions. After about 10 minutes, I heard the crunch of the gears going out - again. I went on youtube and I think I can fix it myself with some inexpensive all metal parts that can purchased online. I will never again by anything KA. I think my next standing mixer will be a Hobart, but I heard they are made by whirlpool too.

My friend who works for the one in Boulder CO kind of compared it to a Whole Foods on a budget. It just opened a few days ago and the place has of course been a madhouse. I'm letting the craziness die down before I go in the check it out. Their flyers look intriguing and the prices very decent. We have a ton of grocery stores around here to choose from and having a new 'face' in the crowd is nice.

I recently saw an ad in a magazine for the Tattler lids. I have never tried them but they look interesting. http://www.reusablecanninglids.com/ I do a lot of canning and not having to keep buying lids over and over again would be great. I would probably keep using the standard lids for items being given as gifts. A good idea I am going to try.

Pretty cool. Are those lollipops inside the bowl?

The celebrity 'survivor' would be great and I would watch it even though I don't watch the current stupid-sounding show. I love Rick Bayless - But I would love to see a show with traditional Mexican cooks who are Mexican, cooking Mexican food. I would love for people to get out of the 'taco bell' mode and realize that Mexican food is so diverse and be eager to learn more. I do commend the PBS folks for not caving in to food network and now cooks network. They can't wave enough bills in the faces of chefs who they could really cash in on.

I too grew up with a mom who rarely bought things like canned spaghettios or prepackaged foods including cookies. On the rare occasion we would get something like an Oreo, I remember it tasting wonderful. I had one a few weeks ago, it tasted like sugary wax. Recently I had a McDonald’s double cheese burger remembering them as a treat when I was in high school. It was dry - lots of bone chips. I ended up throwing most of it away. I knew better, I knew it would taste gross. (I grind my own hamburger), but some far away memory made me buy one. I think the bun was the best part. There used to be a canned chicken liver pate with a brand name "Dr. Bronners". My mom would serve this to guests and was probably one of the few things she didn't prepare herself. It was pure heaven on water crackers and I am pretty sure it's not made anymore because I have tried to find it in vain.