LizD518

I am about to make a meringue for a coconut cake and will have 6 egg yolks left over, which I want to use to make ice cream. However, I probably won't get to the ice cream before Sunday. What is the best way to save them? Do I need to freeze them, or will a plastic bag with all the air pushed out be sufficient? Can I expect the texture to be affected?

I generally snack in the car on long trips but try not to eat foods that are two handed (sandwiches) unless I have to. An exception was when I recently stopped at a Panera Bread outside of Richmond, VA, as I was headed back to Delaware. I knew I didn't want to get off the highway if I didn't have to and that stretch of road between Richmond and DC does not have highway rest stops. So I got a panini to go since I figured the cheese would hold everything together pretty well. It did and was pretty tasty too.

Made this mini coconut cake as a trial run for my friend's upcoming baby shower. Used a recipe from Thomas Keller that was really moist, but still sturdy enough that I wasn't too scared to move the laters around - I've only made a couple layer cakes and that freaks me out. The frosting was a simple meringue. Strawberry jam and meringue filling between the layers. The only thing I'll do differently is to make the meringue right before I frost the cake. I made it while the cake was baking and started to stiffen up a bit too much.

This - if there is someone who makes something you like, ask them to show you how to make it, then practice it yourself until you make it like you like it. Observe cooking wherever you see it - restaurants, other people's homes, the hot dog cart, etc. See what people are doing and observe the results - can you duplicate them? I started learning to branch out when I realized that the frozen stir-fry kits I was buying were just chopped vegetables and frozen bottled sauce with the addition of sliced chicken breast. The next step was chopping my own fresh vegetables and buying my own sauce. Then making my own sauce, etc...

For me, baking is similar to cooking in that you still have to use your own judgement with regards to when things are done or if a batter is mixed properly, etc. Just because a recipe says bake something for 25-30 minutes doesn't mean that your oven won't run hot or cool and affect the time. I always start with the least amount of time recommended and then check it and put it in longer if necessary. And pay attention to the things you are eating as well. Find a good example of your perfect chocolate chip cookie - do you like them cakey? chewy? crispy? Then search for recipes that promise these types of results and read up on techniques to achieve the results you want.

The local Greek festival in Wilmington is finishing up today - the Italian festival starts tomorrow, incidentally, at the same church where Beau Biden's funeral service took place today. But anyway, the Greek festival has inspired my diet for the past two weeks; first, with lots of Greek salad in the days leading up to it, then keftedes, spanakopita and souvlaki consumed at the festival. Now I have plans to make dinner for friends next week and have a boneless lamb shank to use up and I'm thinking Souvlaki would be just the thing. How long should I marinate it?

I've been enjoying Greek salad a lot lately. I like it chopped, not greens, so I do halved cherry tomatoes, chunks of cucumber, thinly sliced red onion, halved kalamata olives, crumbled feta and parsley. Add a splash of red wine vinegar and olive oil and I'm in heaven. There is also a salad at my local burrito place that is amazing and not too hard to recreate in concept, for the most part: romaine, black beans, southwest chicken breast, pepper jack cheese, corn salsa, spicy pico de gallo and crunchy tortilla strips. The hardest part is the honey-jalapeño dressing that I'm addicted to. But any slightly sweet, creamy dressing would be good.

Wow - all these potential locations! Obviously I haven't looked close enough! Thanks :-)

I was just at Smileys this weekend - also on Sunday afternoon. Had the coarse chopped plate with hush puppies and slaw. I'm no expert and have decided that I generally prefer ribs over shoulder for my bbq, but it wasn't bad at all. I love hush puppies and it is probably a good thing I can't get them up here in Delaware!

I love the chocolate covered banana bites that are found in the freezer section - Gone Bananas. Dark chocolate over sliced banana coins. The chocolate has a good high cocoa content but isn't bitter and they are just the right size when I want just a bite of something sweet.

I have a Cameron and I agree with Kenneth - after about a half hour-45 minutes it is too much. Plus, the longer you use it the longer it will take to rid your house of it. Unless you are using it outside. I think I am going to try it on my grill this summer.

I wonder if that was why there were three plants int he one pot I bought. I was pleasantly surprised and just figured I had received a bonus. It happened with one of my tomatoes - two seedlings in one container.

I have used them to make a lemon vinaigrette and added them into hummus. I've also added them into a pasta dish of sauteed garlic, artichokes, tomatoes, capers, and olives (with or without shrimp and/or cream). Definitely my new favorite ingredient.

I had problems with BER last year, but not the year before. I am hopefully chalking it up to a bad year in general. This is only my third year growing tomatoes, or anything else for that matter, so we'll see. I did rotate all the soil this year so all the tomato soil got transferred to non-tomato containers and vice versa. The terracotta colored containers with two tomatoes each are Grow Boxes - self-watering planters similar to the ones Crepes described. The instructions tell you how much of whatever plant to put in and where they should be placed, etc. They also have a "nutrient patch" (aka fertilizer bomb) under the surface covering. The tomatoes in those containers will be large, sturdy plants and very prolific. Ones in individual buckets will be less so, but I've still gotten good yield from them.

Did a lot of shopping and planting this Sunday and Monday... Mortgage Lifter and Cherokee Purple Rutgers and San Marzano A cherry variety Basil Peas and tomatillos Mini watermelons and pole beans This doesn't even include most of my herbs, plus cucumbers, lettuce, radishes, chard, beets and carrots!! All grown in containers.

I love this idea! Since I'm only cooking for one most of the time I really don't use much in the way of herbs. What do you do with them after they dry? Make sachets, or just leave them in bowls to perfume the air? I'd have to figure out how to keep my cats away from them...

So glad I'm not the only one who kills mint! I'll try again this year. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm planting a few new things this year that I'm excited about - peas, pole beans, cucumbers, beets, carrots and chard - which are all coming up. I plan on getting a tomatillo when I pick up my tomatoes this week. I did peppers the last two years but I don't think I'll bother - I don't use enough to give them garden space and all my stuff is in containers. Had to replace my rosemary this year, as well as mint - I think I'm the only person in the world that doesn't have luck with mint. I'm also waiting to see if my strawberries actually survived - they put out a few new leaves, then nothing.

Also, the server is likely not ringing in the order on four totally separate bills. S/he is ringing it up as a table but (hopefully) assigning a guest position number to each item. In restaurants where a server / runner system is set up, each guest should have a position number so that when a runner brings out the food they have an idea which person is getting what (ideally). In practice, this is probably only used at fine-dining establishments. Either way, the kitchen won't get separate tickets that go to one table - the check splitting is purely financial and happens at the computer.

The OP referenced two kinds of people at the beginning - those who are "intimates" and those who are not. I would suggest that there two other types of people. Those who feel that sharing forks, etc with anyone, as long as those people are seen as reasonably clean and not sick, is fine, and those who don't. I look at it this way - if I wouldn't be grossed out by kissing you (preferred gender doesn't matter because that isn't really the point here), then I won't have a problem sharing food/ a fork/ beverage/etc...with you. It seems like I may be in the minority, and I certainly wouldn't force anyone who felt differently by imposing myself on them, but it seems like a silly line to me.

I agree, unless it is a small Mom & Pop type place that is presenting hand written checks, if you see any sort of touch screen type of computer system you should have absolutely no problem getting separate checks. Ideally servers will have entered each order and assigned the guest s a number and they will have multiple options to break down the check, which are automatically loaded into the computer - split it evenly any number of ways (2, 3, 4, etc) or by guest. But even if they haven't assigned the items by guest they should be able to break them up pretty easily. The other thing friends and I do in a group is divvy it up ourselves and write at the top of the check how much to go on each card. We especially do this if we say two people shared one dish or something funky like that, or if we are splitting cash and charge.

I am all for sharing and have shared plates with everyone from new acquaintances to family and good friends; however, there are differences in the how I go about it. If you fall towards the acquaintance end of the scale then a general offer to the table of "would anyone like to try this" offering up my dish is what I would go with and I generally don't ask to try someone else's dish but wait to be offered first. All the way up to sticking my hand or fork in my best friend's dish and helping myself - with the full expectation that she would do the same to me. I often go with her and her family to events like outdoor festivals where everything we buy is with the purpose of sharing and don't bother divvying up something like a sandwich - just passing it back and forth, so obviously double-dipping is not a concern for us. I also don't have a problem sharing beverages and when out at happy hour with co-workers we have often commented on each other's beverage choices and shared sips. YMMV.

No idea how to make the coating, but I love those things. You can get them in the HMart in Upper Darby, and I'm sure there must be other Asian markets int he Philly area. Down in Wilmington, DE I get them at the Newark Farmers Market or Yong's grocery in Elsmere.

My experience with this sort of thing has been limited to "taste of..." type events where many restaurants come together and offer tastings of their products and some food festivals that have brought in people from out of town. The locals are usually donating their product, time, etc. and it is purely a promotional thing. I think chef's being invited to participate in a food festival from out of town often get their travel expenses paid (which you are) and probably raw material costs as well, within a certain budget, but are not necessarily paid above that.

Are we only talking about labor, or are you in charge of conceptualizing the dishes and providing the product? Is your name and/or the name of your business being featured in marketing or are you strictly behind-the-scenes labor? If you are just labor than you should be paid for your time - $200 per day? If you provide product and are not being expressly asked for a donation then expenses should be paid. If you are receiving promotional consideration in exchange then I probably wouldn't expect compensation for labor, and maybe/maybe not for product. JMHO