LizD518

I think I'm interested in both, but things that look like one thing and taste like another are probably more technically challenging to pull off. We don't have a lot of experience doing highly precise, fiddly individual dishes, so its probably an area to not delve into too deeply. I like the idea of the sweet and savory "bruschetta". That definitely fits with where I am going. I also like the idea of a faux egg and I think the pastry chef could certainly do something like that. Maybe that could be something composed on a small 2"x2" dish or Chinese soup spoon that they pick up and could look like a salad with a quail egg on it...

I'm the exclusive in-house caterer for a small art museum and am preparing for our next opening, an exhibit that deals with perception and illusion. We've developed a good formulas for our members openings - an hors d'oeuvres station the retails for about $15 per person (+ staffing charges). I have a good chef who is willing to do a lot, but he isn't a guy who pushes boundaries on his own, I have to bring the ideas to him; so, I'm looking for assistance creating a menu that fits within the existing structure, but also marries with the concept of the exhibition. Popular offerings in the past have been a Mediterranean Station (hummus, baba, chopped Greek salad, lentil salad, roasted veggies), a seasonal salad station (all sorts of leafy and non-leafy salads along with soup-sips and bread), a taster of individual crudites, country pate and baked brie. We don't do much with protein since the budget doesn't really allow for it. Other parameters are that we cannot do any action stations that involve actual cooking in front of the guest. We do have a finishing kitchen with convection and steam ovens and hot boxes to keep food warm. My chef is based at another facility and does all initial prep and cooking there and finishes it on-site. We use all electric sterno to present hot food - no open flame in the museum. We expect around 125-150 guests and the total time of the reception is two hours. Any suggestions are welcome! Thanks!

A few years ago I saw someone on tv do a neat trick to peel a bunch of garlic cloves. He took 4-5 cloves of garlic and put them into two small metal bowls that were put together rim-to-rim (so they made a hollow sphere). Then he shook the bowls so that the garlic was bounced around and the peel loosened. When the bowls were opened the garlic was totally peeled, but still suitable for slicing rather than crushed garlic. This could be a great job for kids in the kitchen who want to help prepare dinner. A cocktail shaker would also work well. Maybe even a plastic container with a lid, if the material was strong and not flexible.

Got my kitchen wound at 13. I was opening a can of soup and left the lid attached by a tiny bit. The lid was sticking straight up and I went to twist it off and instead my left thumb slid right across the edge somehow. If it weren't for my nail, I'd have sliced the whole thing off about a half inch from the tip. I grew up in a rural area and it was a half hour drive to the hospital and I've never seen my Dad that freaked out. The most recent one was also because of barefoot cooking and sharp edges. I was using my food processor and had put the blade on the counter while I cleaned out the bowl. I knocked it off the counter and did jump back, but it ricocheted and hit the top of my big toe. I could see white underneath all the blood, so I knew the cut was pretty deep so I wrapped it up as best as I could, shoved my feet into my most forgiving shoes and went off to the hospital.

I've seen chef use parchment then foil for wrapping lasagna or gratins (or other casserole-type dishes)in parchment then foil for re-heating after being chilled. Plastic wrap would just melt into the dish and you don't always want the foil touching the food.

I've had a few Taza products and really liked them. This was ok to eat, but I think I'll pick up some milk and make hot chocolate - although isn't water traditional?

I just returned from a vacation in Mexico and discovered the big (200g) bar of chocolate I had bought in the duty free shop while waiting at the airport. It is labeled Maria Tepozteca and is 70% chocolate with chiles. The texture is rough, and it doesn't have that glossy sheen and snap of nicely tempered chocolate but I'm kind of intrigued by it. I'm thinking brownies, with the addition of cinnamon might be a good way to use it. Alas, I am out of cinnamon ( ) and in the middle of moving this week, so I'm not sure if that will happen, at least no for a few weeks. Has anyone had this chocolate, and what have you done with it?

The roasted tomatillo and jalapeño salsa is a standard for me. I also like the one with guajillo peppers and tomatoes. I've made several of the recipes for dishes in the book as well. Don't have it in front of me, but one I do remember is the shrimp with red rice (something like that), which was really good. Its a great little book.

I love Five Guys. Yes, I would prefer crispy fries, but crispy fries that are out of a bag of frozen vs limp ones from fresh-cut potatoes: give me the fresh-cut ones please! The buns I have no problem with either. If I were sitting down and getting table service then I may be more inclined to want a toasted bun and less well-done burger, but for what is essentially an assembly line, they do a great job and offer lots of customization of the toppings.

I came here to post Mochi (spelling?) and I think that is what you are referring too. I've tried liking Asian sweets - I had my Korean SIL help me pick out "good" ones and they weren't horrible, or nasty, just...pointless and one-dimensional.

While I was watching this episode, I imagined that I'd find this very post. But I enjoyed this challenge very much. IIRC, Hubert Keller won a Top Chef: Masters challenge cooking in a dormroom bathtub. At the time, he probably would've killed for an entire Target store to work with. A good measure of a cook is to limit them to what's in a house at a given time. An entire Target store should produce some good stuff. I was a bit disappointed by what they came up with as a whole. But it was a fair test. Regarding the product placement/Target commercial, I'd say get used to it. Thanks to my DVR, I watch Top Chef prectically sans commercials. And of course in Indy we have a traditional automobile race that Target (and formerly K Mart) is a big part of. Target will sponsor a couple of cars but will pay for much of it by their 'associate sponsors' (Energizer Batteries for instance) But interestingly, no one really played up any of the products. And in fact, it could be argued that one of those products sent someone home. [EDIT]And henceforth muppets should narrate all quickfires. Totally agree with all of this. For me, it annoys me more when a show says "you will go to a large department store" or some other generic statement when it is obvious they are in a Target or Walmart or whatever. The whole point of the challenge - just like the dorm room challenge in Top Chef Masters - was ingenuity. I wonder if people would have less of a problem with the "ridiculousness" of the challenges if the goal of the challenge or the skill being tested was labeled as such, which is what The Next Iron Chef does, I believe, with all of their challenges. Lets face it, just "cooking the best dish" with all of the equipment they could want and all the time in the world - that would get pretty boring pretty fast, IMHO. And I loved the muppets. It was silly, but a good tension break this far into the competition. By taking away immunity, I think it allows the competitors to relax a bit with the Quick Fires and if they need to just space out a bit on a challenge to keep their sanity, that is the place to do it.

I love Stonyfield's whole milk, cream on top yogurt. Just plain, straight out of the container is so good.

I've gotten frozen fish at my Trader Joes and been happy with the tilapia and some of the salmon - I had one pkg of salmon that was very mushy after it was thawed. I got some frozen fish from Wegman's - Mahi and Cod I think - and was very impressed with the quality of both of those.

I don't know who it is, but I'm fascinated already!

Darienne, I did make some salted caramels last year and used kosher salt, which didn't have enough presence so the coarse stuff would probably be perfect. Hathor, the shrimp sounds great - I'll have to look for some nice jumbo shrimp to use for that.

I have about a pound of Extra Coarse Sea Salt that I purchased from Penzey's to be used in my salt grinder. However, I cook primarily for myself and so I rarely add salt at the table, and when I do, I am likely to grab a tiny pinch of kosher salt instead. I know the salt won't go bad, but it seems like a waste to just leave it sitting in the cupboard. Am I missing a great opportunity where it would be more suitable than kosher?

We do an Irish Cheddar fondue at work and serve the following: IRISH CHEDDAR AND STOUT FONDUE baby red potatoes, brussel spouts, grilled apple chips, cauliflower florets, caramelized leeks, roasted carrots and turnips, grilled lamb, toasted soda bread

Dale is on a roll. I predict him, Blais and Carla (or Angelo) for the finale, and that suits me just fine. I also was impressed with Angelo as well and don't fault him for somewhat keeping his head down. Marcel was a strong-willed, but ineffective leader in that he wasn't going to relinquish the leadership role (title) quietly even though it wasn't working. In that situation, it is better to go along and then let him take the heat for it. If he was ineffective because he didn't step up at all, then it would have been easier for someone else to step in and take over the lead.

Watched about 30 seconds - she made pesto - and while she is annoying, at least she was using real ingredients and not dumbing it down. The kitchen set is incredibly atrocious though and her accent is grating - couldn't tell if it was real or all an act, although I lean towards act. It just seemed like a show built around a gimic. Not surprising from Food Network, although I do love the show Aarti Party, I think she was the last winner of the Next Food Network star. She is absolutely delightful, and is also showing a cuisine that is very under-represented in the food tv world.

At least Fabio didn't get eliminated for having done the scut work. I understand why he wouldn't get equal credit for conceptualizing the dish, but it isn't like his contribution wasn't necessary/important. I disagree that it looked like all the front runner's could have potentially gone home. For me, the current frontunners are Angelo, Blais, Carla and then either Dale or Antonia. Angelo hasn't really put a foot wrong yet, Carla has two wins under her belt, and Antoni and Dale have been very strong. Blais is the only frontrunner who seems to be under-performing to me. And Marcel talks a good game, but I don't see him as final four material. Of course, it could just be because he annoys the heck out of me!

I made a sausage, pepper and spinach strata for my family on a whim while home over Christmas. My brother, who was skeptical at first, ended up eating a huge amount and pouncing on the leftovers for breakfast the next morning, so I'd say it was a hit. So at the moment, that is my favorite!

Paul, I'm not a professional baker, or even an accomplished amateur, but I have thought a lot about this question, and I agree with your points. Baking is all about predictability - if you are making the same cake over and over again you want a good recipe that will come out the same way each time. To get that, you have to follow the recipe the same exact way every time. But, one of my favorite Good Eats episodes is where AB shows what will happen when you make certain alterations to a chocolate chip cookie recipe: use melted butter instead of creaming the butter, use brown sugar instead of white, less or more eggs. It was really fascinating and I keep his tips in mind if I feel like altering a recipe.

I've never heard of sparkling pear juice - but it sounds delicious and unusual. Is it very sweet, or on the drier side?

For some reason, the following meal from this past year popped into my head this morning. I had tried to forget about it, with good reason... A good friend of mine and I had been out running after work one day and chatting about food - we both like to cook and are "Asian food buddies" since her boyfriend does not east Asian food in any form. She asked if I wanted to stay for dinner, but warned me they weren't having anything special. I didn't have anything planned so I said sure. I should say that I'd eaten at her house a few times before and while I wouldn't call her cooking gourmet, everything was fairly presentable. I blame a lot of the fault on this meal on her boyfriend's tastes, which are bizarre. He doesn't like anything salty, although he loves spicy and vinegary flavors - so she doesn't cook with salt, just adds it after the fact. He also eats very few vegetables and spices. We went back to her place and she took out three boneless, skinless chicken breasts and put them in a pyrex baking dish and sprinkled them with a salt-free seasoning blend, cajun, I think, and baked them until the biggest one was about 170*. The largest one went to the boyfriend and I ended up with the smallest piece - also the most well-done piece. No juice left in that sucker at all. To accompany it we had iceberg lettuce salad (the kind with peapods, carrots and radishes) out of a bag. Fine, and there were plenty of dressings to choose from. Finally, she had a bag of snow peas and I asked her how she was going to cook them, and if she wanted me to do anything. She said that they just eat them raw. So that was it - dry, bland chicken, iceberg salad and raw peapods. And I got to see the boyfriend's special salad dressing: cottage cheese and yellow mustard - also known as "The Best Thing Ever". I know I don't want to cook elaborate meals every night of the week, but I always try and make even the simplest meals delicious and I don't think I ever would invite someone to stay if this is what I planned on serving! Next time, I'm learing what is on the menu before I decide to stay...

I'm not a pro, so my knifes live in a drawer but one of my knife guards is cardboard - could you fashion one out of heavy card stock?