ruthcooks

How are you using the word "entremets"? I looked it up and it said the word was formerly used for foods between courses (whatever that might be), but that on a menu today it meant desserts.

I've added 10, but got rid of 7 so you can only count 3. I said I'd check in after I'd read the ones in my last additions, but I haven't even looked at some of them yet. I don't know about you, but I've read one too many cutesy Southern belle cookbook. They all jumbled up into one big Red Hat, Big Ass Sweet Potato Queen, Cake Club, Being Dead is No Excuse Book. My Christmas books were: Julie & Julia ( Julie seemed obsessed with her project, but not too passionate about the food) Are You Really Going to Eat That? (More laid back than Bourdain, and with all the nasty bits left out) Take Big Bites (Ellerbee travels; food plays a second role) Les Halles (haven't really looked at that one yet) Also received: Food & Wine Annual 2005 (I really don't like these collections, but am always taken in with a really cheap price) Pie (if it's pie, it's probably in here) Serena, Food and Stories (Disappointing; I was hoping to hear some tales from her celebrity catering) Best American Recipes 2005-2006 (My favorite series of current CB's, but the formula is getting rather cookie cutter) The Bread Baker's Apprentice (haven't looked at this one either but have a new bread machine, so soon) China Moon Cookbook (just picked this one up for $5; a great looking book)

I'm feeling like being entertained, so Vincent Price and Danny Kaye.

The other answer about how to measure lard or Crisco or butter-not-in-a-stick is to fill a 1 cup or 2 cup glass measuring cup with ice water (without the ice) to the point at which the room left equals the amount of fat in the recipe. For example, to measure 1 cup of fat, fill the 2 cup with 1 cup water. It's best if you have at least as much water as you need fat. Then add fat to the ice water until the measurement is a full 2 cups. Then pour out the water. There may be a smudge or two of the fat left on the cup, but it's much less messy than packing the fat. Your kitchen is so beautiful, Darcie. May I ask why you decided to put tile on your island? I've always done almost everything on an island--when I've had one--and would want that surface to be smooth. It is attractive, to be sure. Please tell us more about your job. Are you a private chef to the judge, or is your primary function to cook for the formal dinners? And are you full time or as needed?

A bit more difficult than: Dump, drain. Dump, stir. Dump, heat.

Individual heart-shaped chocolate meringue shells filled with raspberry or strawberry mousse, garnished with fresh berries.

Here is the RecipeGullet link to etalanian's rice pudding recipe: Creamy Stovetop Rice Pudding

Years ago I tried them and only got one or two to puff. I understand you MUST use a mandoline for slicing, and I didn't own one at the time. Probably, I'd never even heard of one.

Here you go... Sara talks about the B. Boys lyrics on her website

I used to make a variation of this one, too, for my ex who would eat almost any kind of casserole. Hamburger, onions, 2 cups celery(!), water, rice, chicken rice and mushroom soups, Worchestershire and soy sauce. The chow mein noodles were added at the end, not mixed in--I remember they were yucky after sitting on the casserole overnight. Come to think of it, the entire thing was pretty yucky. I'm surprised I still have the recipe card. The notation says: 8 servings, 225 calories each, but I wouldn't bet on it. Edited to add: it was called Beef Rice Dinner by the person who gave it to me.

My gingerbread recipe got better when I changed the mixing procedure like this: mix the eggs, molasses and butter; mix all dry ingredients and stir in; add boiling water gradually. The top is a bit sticky, but the cake is so moist. My preferred sauce: mix lemon curd and sour cream approximately half and half. Serve cold with warm cake. Nowadays, I suppose mascarpone could be substituted for sour cream. I also eat it warm with whipped cream, or warm with salted butter for breakfast. (I use unsalted butter for cooking and baking only.)

Which cookbook is this recipe in? I love cooking with grapes. Great blog, Marlena. We don't need no steenking pictures.

On the right side of this recipe is a tip: "For The New Cook Why do cake recipes tell you to butter and flour the pan? The flour dusting simply shows you any areas of the pan that not been properly coated with butter (or shortening). " Is this true? I've never heard this given as a reason before.

I notice an off taste with lemon when it is cooked for a long time. If possible, I cook with the zest but add the juice midway or at the end of the cooking period. Perhaps it's the reaction of lemon and eggs rather than lemon and pan?

Start checking them before they are done by starting to turn the bowl upsidedown: if the egg whites slip toward the edge of the bowl, beat some more. When you can completely turn the bowl upsidedown without the whites moving, they are done. Remember to scrape the sides and beat a few more turns before you test.

If it tastes bad, then the garbage is the proper place for it. I have, however, saved many a disaster dessert by layering pieces or spoonsful with whipped cream in parfait glasses.

I thought about tasting it, but who's going to taste something that's sitting atop a raw chicken? I do know that it was very salty, because I had to add lots of barely salted chicken broth so the sauce/gravy wouldn't be too salty. We could not have one of the seafood stuffed chickens because my SIL is very allergic to bivalves and the inclusion of "seafood base" did not give any clues as to which seafood were used. He often gets ill in restaurants eating seafood soups because of the inclusion of clam broth. My definition of "blazing hot" is anything which is painful to eat. I am very clear on this: eating is for pleasure, not pain. It will be interesting to taste the remaining products to see what my palate says about them. Thanks for the comments, Brooks and Jason.

We had one of Poche's stuffed, boneless chickens for Christmas dinner. The stuffing was not what I would call pork, but rather a blazing hot sausage. Thank the stars I wiped off all that red goop on the outside, which looked like cayenne pepper to me, or no one would have been able to eat it. Now I'm wondering about the rest of the pork sausage I ordered, which I plan to have for New Year's Eve. My son and SIL (son, not sister) can eat about anything, but there will be six of us who don't care for food that's too spicy. Can those of you who have ordered a range of Poche's products please rank them for me in order from mild (if any!) to red hot? I have Boudin, smoked sausage, Andouille and Tasso. I was thinking of serving the Boudin and smoked just plain and putting some Andouille or Tasso in cheese grits. What would you serve with these to cool down the mouth? Purely by accident, I discovered that a berried Jell-O with a whipped cream and cream cheese layer was absolutely the most effective cool down food I've ever tried, but I'm trying to make this an all NOLA meal and there will be those present who don't like Jell-O. Suggestions? Help, help.

I found a good-sounding recipe for Last-Minute Holiday Eggnog Pie in the King Arthur Flour Catalog: sweet crust with almond flour and brown sugar, eggnog flavored pastry cream filling and glazed almond topping. The recipe, however, called for a couple of KA's "fake" ingredients, pastry cream mix and eggnog flavoring, so I set out to find a similar recipe for a rich, eggy pastry cream filling which I would flavor with brandy and nutmeg. Finally I found one which called for 9 egg yolks, and both flour and cornstarch as thickeners. I'm pretty sure I messed up on the translation from grams to cups, as I ended up with eggnog flavored wallpaper paste. It was so thick I don't think it got sufficiently cooked, even though I cooked it a bit longer than directed. Luckily, I had also planned on making a Chocolate Souffle Roll. It's my family's most favorite dessert, so no one minded, or even missed, the second dessert.

You mean you didn't inhale the casserole? For shame! ← What inhale? I flashed a mental picture of the casserole fondling him!

Hi, In case anyone is making this for the holidays, I am making a small change to the recipe: cake flour should be 1 1/4 cups; if you use AP flour, use 1 1/8 cups. In converting it back and forth, I think the two directions got mixed up. After the holidays will find that elusive original.

It's shorthand for "3 X worse than the regular cream of mushroom soup."

Lilija, My ex-MIL pulled that trick with the used napkins, too. She was always hinting to me that I should cover my oak table with placemats or tablecloth, and use linen napkins, that it was more refined. Right, dirty linens, refined. She was always giving my 2 yr old daughter messages meant for me, like: "It's not ladylike to sit like that," and "Ladies always wear girdles." Message received, concept rejected. She hadn't been my MIL for 15 years when she died a couple of weeks ago, but she's on my mind and in my life forever because of her recipes that are sprinkled throughout my recipe box. Not that she didn't cook some dishes that qualified for this thread: my introduction to Yorkshire pudding was a soggy slab of dough, flat as a pancake. "This can't be the way it's supposed to taste," I thought, and looked up recipes for it and learned to cook it so it baked into billows of crunchy brown. Great stories you told. Welcome to eGullet.

OK, now you've gone and done it. I'm going to be outed for having not green bean casserole, but one which may result in even bigger shudders from eG'ers. My family vegetable casserole for Thanksgiving and Christmas is made from canned asparagus and cheese whiz, topped with buttered crumbs. (To me, canned asparagus is a totally different vegetable than fresh asparagus and therefore ineligible for taste comparisons.) I love this stuff. I make it several times a year and put it in individual casseroles. One of those is a complete lunch or dinner for me. My ex MIL made the green bean casserole. It was bad, not for the soup and the canned onions but for her home frozen green beans. She was always saying, "I don't have to blanch, just put them in the freezer." Well, the reason for the blanching is to destroy a particular little enzyme, which if you leave the beans unblanched, will change their texture to permanent leather and their taste to something nasty. Which they were. For over 30 years. My daughter makes hers with sauce mornay and buttered crumbs, but she WILL use those damn canned green beans. The grandchildren have to have it, but unless I make my own with said sauce and crumbs and fresh or frozen (cooked) green beans, I don't eat it. You just might find some Jell-O on the table, too.

May daughter and I make Chocolate Mint Cookies. The only mint is 1/2 of an Andes Mint on the top after removing from oven, and it's plenty of flavoring for each cookies. The mints are cut in half diagonally. I'll bet you could do the same thing, or melt the candies and use as a glaze on top.