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punkin712

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Everything posted by punkin712

  1. Why not just make marshmallow and spread it into round molds? Would be a LOT cheaper and they will keep, if wrapped properly, for weeks. And - you can make them in many flavors, all natural. Eileen ← Slightly OT but since you brought it up... Do you have a vegetarian-friendly marshmallow recipe? I made a batch substituting agar-agar for the gelatin and they didn't set up properly. Kosher gelatin won't work either because (I'm told) it's made from fish bones. My next experiment was going to be pectin, but I thought I'd ask an expert.
  2. hmmm...I don't think so...seems mildly dangerous. Not to mention the smoke and fumes it might generate.
  3. I recently got a sample pack of all 4 MASH flavors. So far, I think grapefruit is my favorite, blood orange is a close second and blueberry/pom is third. I haven't tried the lemon/ginger root yet though so I reserve the right to change my rankings. I'm definitely planning to order these for the bakeshop - I think they'll do very well and I haven't seen anything like them (except for GUS) around town.
  4. I'm really surprised that these places have turned down the opportunity to have free labor in their kitchens. Maybe they got burned (no pun intended) before or are concerned about the liability. When I was at ICE, we were encouraged to call restaurants and ask if we could trail or stage and there were quite a few in my class who did. I'm not sure where you are, but maybe NYC is more open to this type of labor pool. I agree with K8memphis and Grovite - just apply for a job so you get the experience and get paid for your efforts. Good luck!
  5. Have you ever been to Coffee Fest? We went in 2006 and are going again this year. I highly recommend it if you are interested in all things coffee. www.coffeefest.com
  6. No mention of AYDS? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayds
  7. I loves me some Bugles. Haven't had them in years and I don't know if I trust myself with a bag now.
  8. True. I guess I would consider Per Se and Daniel to be more in the category of "special occasion" or "expense account" rather than just upscale.
  9. While you may feel that Per Se and Daniel are two of the best "vegetarian restaurants" in NY (they may serve fantastic vegetarian-friendly fare, given their pedigrees, but I would never classify them as "vegetarian restaurants"), I just couldn't justify paying $250 at Per Se or upwards of $165 at Daniel for vegetarian tasting menus. Based on past experience, Gramercy Tavern does not permit only one person at the table to order a tasting menu. So, unless they have since changed their policy that may not work for the non-vegetarians. As I recall, vegetarian entree options from the standard menus were virtually nonexistent. Again, that may have changed since the last time I was there.
  10. I definitely second the vote for Becco. I'm a vegetarian and have always been very happy with the selection. Here are a few tips: --I always get the pasta prix fixe menu ($16.95 at lunch and $21.95 at dinner) - it includes salad or antipasto with all you care to eat of the 3 featured pastas. The salad is a caesar salad (with anchovies) but you can opt for the mixed salad (add'l $2) or you can get the antipasto and give the non-vegetarian items to someone else at the table. The fish portions of the antipasto come in separate dishes so you don't have to worry about cross contamination. --I never had to tell the waiters I was a vegetarian. If I declined one of the pastas that had meat, they always came back with a vegetarian-friendly version. --On Saturdays, the restaurant offers their house-made burrata cheese. It's made with rennet, so depending on how strongly you feel about slaughter-by-products, you may want to pass on it. --The chocolate mousse cake is made with gelatin. Same thing applies here.
  11. Becco. You can't beat their pasta prix fixe menu ($16.95 at lunch and $21.95 at dinner) which includes caesar salad or antipasto and all you care to eat of their 3 featured pastas. I've never had a bad meal there. And the staff is very attentive. I'm a vegetarian, but never had to mention it to the waiter. If I wave off a pasta with meat, they have always come back with a vegetarian-friendly version of the dish.
  12. We visit a Disney World at least once a year and hadn't heard about this new policy. I personally hate the idea. I agree with everything you said, MSRadell. Over the years, we have seen a steady decline in "pixie dust" at Disney and this could be the straw that broke the mouse's back. What will be the policy if the dining experience doesn't warrant the 18% gratuity? Will the policy be clearly communicated to ensure diners don't double tip? It will be interesting to see how this affects service quality in an environment where "sit down dining" can run the gamut of shorts/t-shirts to jackets/ties. Perhaps they would have been better off putting this policy in place at their top-tier restaurants (California Grill, Victoria and Albert's, etc.) first and then filtering it down to the lower price point locations if it proved to be a no-impact change.
  13. How about one of the Wagamama noodle bars? http://www.wagamama.com/index.php
  14. We went to the East Windsor, NJ location a few times before we finally learned our lesson. Our first visit was shortly after that location opened for business. The food was fine, the salad bar was well-stocked and the servers were generally competent and pleasant. Every visit after that went downhill fast, culminating in the last and final time we subjected ourselves to the horror that is Charley Brown's. On that occasion, my husband and I took my mom there for dinner and we all ordered the same entree - beef tips. Halfway through our meal, my mom says, "What do you think this is?" I look over and she is holding up a large staple, like one you would find on a wooden crate of produce. She said it was sticking out of a piece of meat and, at first, she though it was a bent toothpick. We asked a busboy to call the manager over. When we showed him the staple, he snatched it up and said, "Hehe. These things happen. Can I get you a piece of prime rib instead?" As my husband and I looked at our meals - the same as what my mom had - we pushed our plates away and told her to get the slice of prime rib. The manager came back and presented her with the smallest, most well done end piece of prime rib any of us had ever seen. He made such a show of it, you would have thought he was the mayor giving her the key to the city. Although he took her meal off the bill, he did nothing else to make up for the fact that the two other diners at the table were unable to continue with their meals out of fear there might be another staple somewhere in the mix.
  15. The chocolate cake recipe I use calls for 1 cup of boiling water and I've often substituted the water with strong hot coffee. You could probably do the same with black tea. I've also made a pound cake recipe that calls for whole milk and substituted a combination of whole milk and Tazo chai tea latte concentrate.
  16. I appreciate your feedback. I agree with you on the insurance - I would rather be covered for something that may never happen than not be covered and go under as the result of a fluke. Never dealing with workers' comp before (as a business owner) I just wasn't sure if there was somehting else I should consider or research before biting the bullet.
  17. Thanks! I just PMed you. ← I emailed your contact info to Frank, also asked him to give your info to Bonnie at Heartland. ← Thanks so much!
  18. Those look amazing! Definitely ones to add to the recipe file. I was trying to make a variation of rustic apple tarts using bananas instead of apples so the bananas are baked on top. I thought they might be turning color because of their exposure to the air, but I'm not sure why it would happen during cooking and not when they are raw. I was sprinkling the banana slices with a generous helping of brown sugar - could that be the cause of their discoloration? Maybe I need to completely cover them with brown sugar so it almost creates a shell.
  19. I plan to do some things myself, at least in the beginning, but I want to outsource stuff like sales taxes, W-2s, etc. That's the kind of thing I don't want to have come back and bite me. Now...a question about insurance. I got a quote for Business Insurance that seemed pretty fair, but the Workers' Comp was definitely a shocker. I got the agent to provide rates separately for kitchen and counter employees and it's still unbelievable. Since we will be baking all our products in house, he told me that we would need to classify the kitchen employees as "Bakery". Sounds reasonable, right? Well, that "Bakery" classification also includes wholesale bakeries and other much bigger operations. It seems odd that my little 2 to 3-person kitchen should be charged the same rates as a much larger wholesale bakery operation. He also told me that since I wasn't going to have table service, the workers in the front of house couldn't be rated as "Restaurant", but would fall into the "Retail" category, which of course is higher than "Restaurant". I'm not trying to cut corners on the insurance aspect, but I definitely don't want to overpay. Any thoughts?
  20. I'll check out their website and give Frank a call this week. Thanks!
  21. I'm in Central NJ, very close to Princeton. I'd be willing to work with someone who is located 20-25 miles away, as long as they are reliable, good at what they do and trustworthy. ← I can help you. I own The Frog and The Peach in New Brunswick. Call me at 732-846-3216 x 19. Another resource is the NJ Restaurant Association 800-848-6368. ← Thank you so much! When would be a good time for me to call you? ← Late morning on Monday would be ideal.... and if I am not at my desk just leave a message with your contact info and I will call you back. Cheers, Betsy ← Thanks Betsy! I'll call you then.
  22. I've been experimenting with some baked banana desserts. I recently made a Banana Foster-style tart which had sliced bananas on top that were sprinkled with brown sugar. When I took the tart out of the oven, the bananas looked cooked but had a strange grayish hue to them. I assumed they oxidized but I'm not sure how that happened during baking. Should I have dipped the banana slices in acidulated water before adding them to the tart? I don't want the tart to be too...well...tart, but I don't think this would be very visually appealling to most people. I was hoping to get a shiny yellowish hue somehow. Would brushing them with a glaze either before or after baking help?
  23. Give these guys a serious look. Actually have one of their reps come out and try and "sell" you. Don't think it will be a waste of your time. ← Thanks! I'll give them a call on Monday. I contacted Heartland Payment Systems over a week ago to talk to someone about credit card processing and was told a salesman would get back to me within 48 hours. Never heard back from them. Any recommendations for that?
  24. I'm in Central NJ, very close to Princeton. I'd be willing to work with someone who is located 20-25 miles away, as long as they are reliable, good at what they do and trustworthy. ← I can help you. I own The Frog and The Peach in New Brunswick. Call me at 732-846-3216 x 19. Another resource is the NJ Restaurant Association 800-848-6368. ← Thank you so much! When would be a good time for me to call you?
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