Marlene

Sounds like it's getting closer Rachel.

With the lid off, and it's just bubbling, I'd start checking it every half hour or so now. Mine is still quite liquidy this morning. I turned the crockpot down to low overnight, and will turn it back up to high this morning. If you've still got three quarts of volume, you've got a while to go yet.

I like the idea of using some lemon slices in this. It sounds like it would work very well. Next batch!

It shouldn't burn. Confit takes a long time to make. Mine takes 18 - 20 hours in my crockpot. At 2 hours, you're not going to notice a lot of difference. I'd say leave the lid on overnight. Heat on lowest setting. If it's still liquidy in the morning, then take the lid off. Yours is doing fine so far.

Rachel, I also add about a T of brown sugar to my confit, (which I have just started in my crockpot). There will be lots of liquid at first. It takes a long time for it to reduce down.

There's no reason you can't use your stockpot I think. Fifi and I did not like the taste it gave when we used bacon, so I've at least stopped using it. I always use at least some of my confit for onion soup so you're going in the right direction I think. Don't brown the onions first, you don't need to. put it on very low on the stove or in the oven even overnight. Lid on. A little beef demi glace a little butter and EVOO and you're all set, although I do add a little sherry or port to mine as well. Othere people have used thyme lately when making this, but I'd think that if you want to use this for onion soup, you might not want to use the thyme. In fact I said to Don today that I needed to make some confit for soup this week.

Beef barley! Yes. I'll have to watch from the sidelines when you do soups with mushrooms, but I could be all over this one. Lead on Dark Lady.

I am now the owner of a 24 quart stock pot. Yes, it's All Clad It was on sale. Tomorrow, I'm off to visit my butcher to get bones and then I'm going to try my first beef stock. In the meantime, I'll go re-read Fat Guy's stock class.

Very nicely done! And isn't brie in puff pastry a wonderful thing?

I do have a WalMart here, although I generally do my best to avoid it . I'll check it out as well. Are vented lids a good thing when making stock?

No you're not If you're going to make French Onion Soup, make onion confit first Love that spine Miss M. This sounds like a great idea. Have fun!

It was a great night. As much fun as this was though, it was a lot of work coming on top of two weeks of non stop cooking. Next year, we're going to New York. Setting up the buffets. The dessert table. Mygirlfriend brought two more desserts but they hadn't arrived when I took this picture: The main buffet: The wings and meatballs were a huge hit. I ordered three trays from Bruno's and they did a lovely job with them. Shrimp tray Roasted Meats tray (beef, pork and turkey) Cheese tray Cheeseball That's it. I'm done. I may never cook again. In fact, we're going out for dinner tonight. It's been a wonderful holiday season though. Good thing I have a treadmill Don and I Wish you all a Happy New Year and a year full of wonderful food with friends and family.

Ok, I've merged the threads. I don't have a target here, but I can look and see if I can get Chefmate in Canada.

You're so good to me Rachel . I know I don' t need All Clad, but it's so pretty. I await your links.

Yes, that's what i need, more pancake molds. In fact I have an order coming from WS soon. By next Christmas I'm sure I'll have new friends to give them away to. Come to think of it, we're heading into Toronto tomorrow afternoon, and there happens to be a WS in the Eaton Centre. Now normally, nothing is open New Year's Day, except the Eaton Centre is classified a "tourist area" so it will be going strong. hmmmmmm

Ok, ok, another pot question. So now that I have learned the wonders of stock making, it's time I invested in at least one stock pot. The question is, which one? As much as I like All Clad, somehow I don't think I need an All Clad pot for making stock, but then again, I don' twant a cheap flimsy pot either. Is there a best brand for stock pots? I'm thinking a 16 inch and a 20 inch pot would serve me nicely.

Here you go. Dave's Molten Mashers

grrr... easy for you to say. pastry queen.

We donated tonight through the Canadian Red Cross. Canadian Red Cross. You can donate online and specify your donation go to the earthquake disaster.

So today was prep day for tomorrow's open house. I made honey garlic meatballs Making the sauce ready for baking After baking There's three dishes of these, totalling about 84 meatballs. Now all I need to do with these is reheat them gently at 200 degrees, covered for about 45 minutes, then into the chafing dish. I marinated Dean's chicken wings: I'll bake these first thing in the morning, then reheat and put them in the second chafing dish. Next I made 4 dozen chocolate chip cookies Then build the base for the nacho dip made the cheeseball and finally, made butter tarts: I really tried to make these using my own pastry. Really I did. But I kept having trouble with the dough, I don't have proper tartlet pans and the dough kept tearing on me when I tried to use muffin pans. Realizing I had about sixty of the damn things to make, and I still had 40 or so wine glasses to wash, I gave up, and used frozen tart shells. I've begun to set up the buffet table. I have the chafing dishes out, the serving plates I'm going to use, the plates, napkins, forks etc and my coffee urn. Tomorrow, I'll bake the wings, start the mulled wine in the slow cooker, finish building the nacho dip. I can't make the blue cheese pop overs until I'm ready to serve them, and I'll be doing a brie in puff pastry as well. I've kept this to simple stuff that I know how to make, so I could do it all ahead of time. Which is a good thing, since Don got called to Washington tonight, and will be walking in the door here as the party is about to start. Ryan will arrive around 5 and begin to set up the downstairs as he is "hosting" the kids party. Oh, and I still need to go buy more white wine tomorrow and a few other assorted things and pick up the trays I've ordered.

Wull sure they will - do you have any cake decorating tips - the little round ones y'know??? Wull a star one with the like teeth - put it on your finger and letting it point straight down & press around the top edges of your pie crust with the teeth - it not only makes a pretty flute it scallops it. The motion you are making is like the donger in a bell - hitting the top edge of the crust but hitting it all around one next to the other with the decorating tip stuck on the end of your finger. Now I've only done this with cream cheese dough that I recall. Works to perfection on pecan sassies y'know??? But but but your pie crust might puffy up too much & loose the distincitons but maybe it would work - but I just used my regular muffin pans the other day & made quiches. Totally works no problem-o. Or or or just use the tines of a fork. And I have only used grocery store lard. Notice yours is called 'Tenderflake' - oh yeah, well named!!! ← yes I have decorating tips. Ok, you've all convinced me to try this in my muffin tins. I'll let you know how it turns out. As soon as I get my husband on his plane to Washington.

I'm really not that good with pastry yet. Can you imagine what they'd look like?

Rats. I just had a look at some tartlet pans. I don't think my muffin tins are going to work. I guess frozen shells it is.

No tart pan. I have to use muffin tins. Who knew there were special tart pans? I suppose if I made these often enough I would know, but I used to use the tart shells to make these and just make the filling, but I'm feeling brave today. Tart pans will go on my list of things to buy, but in the mean time, muffin tins it is.

Ok, I'm trusting you on this. Now an even more inportant question. How does one flute the darn edges of pie or in this case, tart crust? I'm a makin butter tarts.