LizD518

Sounds almost like a few of your items are leaning towards a large-scale blintz - which isn't a bad idea! You could also look to traditional french crepes for your combos. The difference being that you make both in a flour tortilla that doesn't have to be eaten with a knife and fork. I would also have a couple of "traditional" options for the folks that come in looking for the egg/meat/cheese combo.

This is a subject near and dear to me. I lost over 60 pounds five years ago on weight watchers. Unfortunately, in the last five years I have put half of it back on - mostly in the last year,and mostly because of not exercising. Now I am trying to work my way back to my goal weight. My methods (and everyone has different motivators): 1. Track everything: Basically the same principle as WW. There are tons of different programs out there that make this a convenient thing to do on the computer, especially since many of us spend a significant portionof our day planted in front of one. I use Sparkpeople.com. 2. Move: I hate exercise. But, If I exercise I can eat more. Hence, I exercise. And by exercise, I mean more than just going for a stroll. You need to increase your heart rate, and you need to do at least some light weights. It makes a world of difference. My target calories w/o exercise: 1200 per day, with exercise: 1500-1600 per day 3. Plan ahead (if at all possible): I look at it like a game. I plan as much of my eating day as possible, and then have an idea of where I can be spontaneous. After a little while, you get a feel for how many calories something will be. 4. Eat what you want: I make my own ice cream. I don't cook low-fat. But I also will eat a dinner of popcorn & frozen grapes if that is what I am craving. For me, I like routine for breakfast, but everything else depends upon my mood. 5. Don't feel too guilty when you do over-indulge: This is the one I have a hard time with. Not because I do feel guilty, but because I don't! I over-indulge a lot more than I should and it slows down my progress - but I recognize it and just try to keep it in mind - which is more important to me today, the indulgence or the progress. 6. Have a goal: Mine is to run a marathon next October. At the moment I can barely run a 5k. I will get there though. Like I said, this is what works for me. For my best friend, journalling everything she eats is a pain in the butt. I also don't have a family / sig other that is expecting me to provide meals for them which makes doing what I feel like even easier. But, it is essentially about paying attention to what you eat.

Sounds like a great mix...now I'm hungry! <wanders off in search of a snack...>

Wow! Those individual ratatouilles are beautiful! This wan never a dish I was fond of growing up - too heavy on onions, which I love now, but they have to be cooked soft & sweet. I made the Byaldi from "The French Laundry" last night. I have been catching up on "The French Laundry At Home" so I got the book from the library and I am determined to try a few things before ihave to take it back. This seemed like the perfect place to start. It was easy to do, and the result was fab-u-lous. If I hadn't already eatern a big dinner before it was done cooking, I would have sat down and eaten the whole plate! I'm having some mixed with pasta for lunch today. Alas, no pictures though.

I have done a lot of these events as a catering manager and definitely agree that you want to hit all the flavor profiles, but I think six selections are better than four. Also considerif some of the items, like the vacherins maybe considered "lighter" or more popular than others and thus get hit harder. Another consideration is the size of the serving plates. People will fill up the size plate that you give them, so if you have control of that, smaller is better. Or even just cocktail napkins, if the items aren't too messy or crumbly. Have you also considered something that can be served in bulk? We used to do a shallow, but large dish of creme brulee or a cream cheese custard with raspberry sauce, both of which could be scooped and served in a small bowl. People who took that also tended to take less of the other things. One more thing, allow plenty of room for items on the buffet as the more items, the more people will take thier time to pick and choose what they want and will slow the buffet area down. If beverages can beserved at a nother table that is even better.

It airs Sundays at 12:30pm.

I just ran across the second episode of this new show on FN. It was already half-way through, but it looks as if the host receives a query of the week from viewers and then produces a menu based on the subject. The twist is that she has a "tech guru" who is in the kitchen with her taking "live" questions from viewers via the internet and relaying them to her to answer throughout the show. Surprisingly, she had a really smooth, natural delivery that conveyed a lot of information without speed-talking. Also, there was a promo towards the end that instructed the viewer to text a request for the recipe to the FN rather than going on the website. Looks like the FN is trying to aggressively join the 21st century. Has anyone else seen this?

I've made strawberry sorbet with pineapple mint that was fabulous - but not very unusual in terms of using a herb. I had a dessert in a local restaurant that paired rosemary & pineapple that I thought was a good combination - but the execution needed to be improved apon. The rosemary pound cake was very dense & dry, and unfortunately, it was served very cold. If the cake had been allowed to come to room temp before serving it might have been much better. If I recall correctly, there was a pineapple rosemary simple syrup and a pineapple chutney that went with it - or something like that!

I made French Vanilla two weeks ago, which I mentioned in the "Perfect Scoop" thread. Last night I made the cinnamon ice cream. It came out okay - not as strong a cinnamon flavor as I thought it would have. But the recipe called for steeping 10 3" cinnamon sticks and I had 4 5" softstick sticks instead. I added a little ground cinnamon to the mix as well to bump up the flavor. I also did not let the custard develop quite as much as I should have and the cannister was just barely in the freezer for 24 hours before I churned it. Still good, just not transcendant!

I made the French Vanilla this weekend with a couple of very small tweaks...used 2% instead of whole milk and only 4 egg yolks, 'cuz that's how many I had. It came out superb. The texture is absolutely perfect and the flavor is rich and almost buttery. I used a tahitian vanilla bean and homemade extract from the same beans as well.

Just wanted to mention that I picked this up at my local Borders for $7.99 this weekend. I had given it to a friend for Christmas when it forst came out, but didn't biy myself a copy. I don't know if this was a local discount or national ( I am in Wilmington, DE), but it might be worth stopping in to your local Borders to see if you can score a copy - great for gifts!

I'm going to be in NY on Saturday for a Yankees / Red Sox game at 4pm, and planon going to the Brooklyn Botanical garden in the morning. Does anyone know what the lunch crowds will be like on a Saturday? I figure we'll want to leave for the stadium by 2:30 at the latest (by train), but can we expect to wait for a lunch table as well? OT: Also, anyone have any idea how long it will take by train to get to the Stadium?

I did a great pickle a few months ago, but not with cukes. I did some celery, radish, carrot pickles a while ago - added shredded candied ginger, whole coriander seeds and a pinch of red pepper flakes, along with a touch of sugar and a lot of cider vinegar (maybe a tbsp sugar to a cup of vinegar?) The pickles were awesome! Sweet & sour with a bit of a spicy kick.

Although you have to combat the people who "don't want to buy all that stuff". Yeah, it is a little bit of an investment at first to buy the a bunch of spices (for Indian), or fish sauce / oyster sauce / soy sauce / rice vinegar / etc... for Asian cooking, but a little generally goes a long way. Plus, if people learn to go to the ethnic markets, they may lear that there are other, far less expensive sources for all sorts of ingredients.

There are three Five Guys in Wilmington, DE - two of which I have eaten at. I personally love them. They aren't like a grilled burger you could make in your backyard, but they are made fresh, and are juicy and beefy and yummy! Sometimes the fries I have gotten have been soggy, buy usually they are crispy, and they are definitely a cut above your fast food burger, or what you get from a place that doesn't specialize in burgers. I could go to any number of places that are more expensive and pay $3-$10 more (on average) and get something about the same. Or I could pay less and get something definitely not as good. Why would I do that?

I went home and read my Julie Sahni and tried soaking the rice for a half an hour. It helped! I think an hour would help even more.

I learned about this from Julie Sahni in her book Classic Indian Vegetarian Cooking; reviewing what she said you are correct, as Texmati is a cross of basmati rice and Carolina long grain. She describes it as closer to basmati than regular long grain but with grains that don't expand as much lengthwise, and little to none of basmati's famous aroma. (Sahni 59) Also of interest is the Calmati, basmati rice grown in California produced from the original basmati plants of the Punjab region of India. There it is cultivated under "ideal (Indian-like) climactic conditions and earthy red soil". Apparently it is sold unmilled as brown basmati and thus resembles normal milled basmati little, but is special in its own right. (Sahni 59) ← Bumping up this topic to ask a question about basmati rice & cooking technique. I just finished a 10# bag of basmati rice that I bought in an Indian grocery store - Himalayan brand, I think. Then, this morning I opened a new bag of Goya brand, also labeled Basmati. Neither of them cooked up looking anything like the basmati rice I get in Indian restaurant - with the long grains and that great flavor & texture. Am I being ripped off, or does it take a special cooking technique to achieve that texture as well? BTW, I usually cook it using the boil and drain method, although I have also used the absorption method quite often as well.

It'll never happen: the extra drama the current rules provide by allowing an underdog to make the finals, or an accomplished chef to be eliminated any time, makes for good television. I have to keep reminding myself that this is a TV show, not a real competition. The aim is to entertain, not to choose the best chef. ← I have to disagree on this. It was true that the first two seasons were more about the entertainment aspect, and the show would not be on the air if it did not actually entertain and therefore, achieve ratings. But the fact that, after Season Two, they made an effort (supposedly at Chef Colicchio's urging) to seek out better-qualified contestant's leads me to believe that there is a serious intent to find the best chef. this is not Hell's Kitchen where the object is to watch Chef Ramsey explode at some peon who's normal job is as short-order cook or deli worker (no offense to short-order cooks or delis!). The cheftestants have some serious work experience and I think the producers and all involved want very much to avoid the embarassing possibility of a clearly-inferior cheftestant winning the whole thing. I think a running tally - as a smaller aspect of the total decision (counting as 25% of the total decision?) and / or a more formal scoring system than just talking it out, may be worthy of consideration.

Last season used to be available from Itunes but Bravo pulled all of its content from ITunes some time ago. A quick google search reveals that Season 4 can be purchased individually or entirely from Amazon Unbox. ← Thanks!

Tri2Cook, does "DL'd" mean you downloaded the episodes, and if so, from where? My tv died last Tuesday and I have been trying to find a way to download TC episodes. I can only find up to the "Common Threads" on the Bravo website, so any sources would be greatly appreciated.

Made the zesty sorbet a few days ago. I substituted lime juice & zest for half of the lemon. Really good, but it froze really hard any icy, probably because I used the minimum mount of sugar. However, it is fabulous with a splash of blueberry (or other) vodka poured over it. Yum!

Lisa - that looks awesome! One question, does it freeze well, using the fresh pasta? I haven't made lasagna in ages - live alone so I'll end up with ton's of leftovers - but I'd love to make one and put some aside.

My Mom has fairly recently admitted that she has lost interest in food as a hobby - and she was never a gourmet cook. But she is a good, solid cook of home-style favorites and the fact that she cooked everything from scratch, had a garden and canned her own vegetables, and raised chickens, pigs and lambs while I was growing up let me learn that there was more to food than the styrofoam packages of meat and canned vegetables that a lot of my contemporaries grew up with. And I envy the fact that she can make a perfect pie crust and biscuits from scratch without any glance at a recipe or cookbook.

I second this. I've done pretty much the same thing - added slivered almonds at the recommendation of a recipie once, but I wasn't impressed with the result. But cinnamon & chili = yum yum yum!

I wonder about the $10 limit. They didn't mention two things that may have stretched thier budgets a lot further - using standard pantry items such as oil, sugar, salt, flour and seasonings - and counting only what they used vs what they bought. Sometimes vegetables like asparagus are packaged in standard amounts, but you are using what you buy for more than one meal, and obviously, this is so with dry goods. If this was part of the rules, the editors should have shown them getting those instructions. If it wasn't then I definitely call bulls**t on the $10 limit.