melissafitz

But wouldn't that make hot tea, not iced? Oh, you're right! It does make it a LOT more trouble to pour that strong hot tea over ice. Now I get it. ahhh --- not a southern, i presume! miso soup is one i would add. kombu + bonito flakes + miso = best miso soup ever.

i'm glad you posted this -- esp after the reference to confit! i've made it, i love it, but -- if i want a confit salad, i'll buy it. that being said, i do get obsessed with making certain things and do sort of feel like i'll never buy marshmallows again. and i have very strong feelings about not buying chocolate chip cookies. well... except for tate's.

i'm having a lovely rose scented harney and sons black tea that takes me right back to a fabulous and recent visit to the inn at little washington.

thank you, kerry -- i will see if my pudding tin fits in the slow cooker! otherwise, i think i'm going to try it your way -- no submersion of the tin, just steaming. meanwhile, the gingerbread orange marmalade pudding, while being very wonky, was quite good.

this makes sense -- the recipe i've used this time calls for the water to go 1/2 way up the mold...

i've never made a steamed pudding before, and i had a request for christmas, so i thought i'd do a test run today. thankfully. my pudding mold floats and bobs in the water. how on earth do i prevent this from happening? double the recipe? as it is, the batter only fills the mold a bit over 1/4. i also don't have a steamer insert, but i don't know how that effects the process. i put the mold on top of a ceramic dish placed at the bottom of the pot. anyway, any experts out there on steaming puddings? (btw, the pudding cooked on the side that it bobbed toward and is delicious. the other side is more than a tad undercooked...)

i've never made pizzelle, but i have made baked goods with an abundance of baking powder, and i would highly recommend finding non-aluminum powder. i find that when using a lot of baking powder, there can be a funny, well -- tinny -- taste. whole foods carries it and there are other brands as well. some folks in the south make their own, and i'm happy to post a homemade recipe (with baking soda and cream of tartar i believe...)

so, i checked out hansen caviar, whose american paddlefish roe i have ordered and enjoyed in the past. but i think it's gotten a good bit more expensive lately. does anyone have any caviar suggestions? obviously, i don't have to have the real thing (so to speak), but i do like it to taste as close to the real thing as possible...

not being a chef or involved in the restaurant world (but for weekly visits to the other side...) this is how i had always imagined it being too. or calling the police chief "sarge". (that's what they do on law and order, right?)

our house was GF for a few months (we couldn't sustain it!) but during that time i discovered www.authenticfoods.com which has the most finely ground brown rice flour -- virtually eliminating the gritty texture that often comes with rice flour. it's really amazing stuff. i made chocolate chip cookies with it that *everyone* adored.

david -- thanks! that was just the reply i was looking for -- absolution from leaving the stuff out! and thanks also, oliver -- i do think it's funny that my pharmacy won't sell one ounce of the stuff b/c of it's relation to gun powder yet you can buy it by the pound on line. and with a wick cannon fuse, at that!

well -- i've left it out. we'll have to see how it goes from here. i don't have pink salt, so i'm unable to even stir that in last minute. i'm hoping the short(ish) sitting time will prevent discoloration. i plan on it being eaten by tuesday at the latest... thanks kerry & leslie!

for the life of me, i can't find saltpeter. the chopped meat (pork and pork liver) will sit for 24 hrs in the fridge and then will cook and then sit again for 2 days. it's la regalade's terrine -- from an oldish saveur issue. advice? experience? much thanks!

today's my daughter's last day of school before the holidays, so teacher gifts are going in! i made -- divinity (a traditional southern cloud-like candy) and chocolate biscotti hmmm... tried to upload pics but am having trouble. maybe will try again later.

another bump on this to add that king arthur's cookie companion has wonderful "traditional italian" and "american" style biscotti. i've made 3 batches -- all wonderful the italian ones are very crunchy (no butter) and the american ones are adored by my kids. and the most interesting addition to the batter is nut flour (not as a substitute, but as an addition). it really improves the crumb and flavor of the american (i.e., butter added) biscotti -- turning it into almost a "sandie" type of cookie, but with more heft. and i like sneaking in nuts b/c if my kids see a whole nut, they'll shriek -- "no nuts!"

i'm sure others have discussed this here, but i've altered the recipe a bit for taste and have come up with a delicious orange/cranberry/nut bread -- for the water, replace juice of 1 orange, zest of said orange and water mixture to equal 1 5/8 cup add heaping handful of cranberries add tbsp of anise seed when doing the quick knead, add heaping handful of toasted walnuts or pecans bake as directed. amazing sliced thin w/ creamy goats milk cheese

my favorite restaurant is around there -- soba nippon. great japanese food, particularly the soba. it's on 53rd (i think) btw 5th and 6th. eta -- oh, and my experience is that they love kids and my daughter (adventurous eater of my brood) loves it. she loves japanese food though.

my current favorite japanese cookbook is washoku, which i use practically every week. it is an amazing book for "homestyle" japanese cooking (per what i've read and what my japanese friends have said). the ingredient list can be a bit daunting, but otherwise, it's amazing. for chinese, i love my betty crocker new chinese cookbook -- it's from the 80s and is definitely americanized, but good. i also got the seventh daughter, but don't use it much. for thai, i have real thai and love it. very thorough, excellent recipes, no assumption of methods, but does come with the assumption that you're willing to try the methods necessary to create authentic thai food...

on the savory front, there's always cheese straws (or crackers), which are basically butter, cheddar and flour w/ a pinch of cayenne. amazing.

i'm making hot cocoa mix/marshmallows for the kids' teachers, but one of them keeps kosher, and -- since i don't -- i don't think that will work for her. do you guys have any suggestions or should i just avoid homemade food items altogether?

for my kids' teachers, i'm making hot chocolate mix (in jars w/ a ribbon & instructions) and homemade marshmallows. i just made biscotti today and am thinking of finding people who might like those as a gift also...

this morning i made biscotti -- king arthur's italian recipe, with anise and almond. i bought some vin santo to test them out tonight!

about 5 years ago, i lucked out and stumbled upon almondine's stollen -- it was heavenly. sadly, the next year they reported to me that the baker who had that recipe left. so, my search began... i've tried bleu gans, in tribeca, and very much liked theirs. also tried, since it was around the corner, bouley's. also very nice. i will go back to bleu gans for sure. is there any place else i should try? i would like to stay true to the heritage although it was a french baker who first turned me on to stollen, so i'm not really that picky! best, melissa

hmmm... i'm thinking that the type of person i am means that i should look more towards an upright. i guess i'll go to lowes and check out what's what.

the brittle looks great! i'm making marshmallows for teachers' gifts -- hot cocoa and marshmallows. i'm also going to make some torrone, which i've made once with tremendous success and once going down in flames. i'm planning on making divinity for my family back home in GA. oh, and fruitcake. alton brown's is my go to version, and i find that making it 2 weeks in advance is fine...