Darienne
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Posts posted by Darienne
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I finally got this book. I haven't made ice cream in months, and now that's all I want to do
. I do have some family birthdays coming up, and should probably have ice cream for the birthday cake. That should give me a reason now.Hi Robyn,
Do try the Fleur de Lait. It is quite amazing. And also the Orange-Szechwan Pepper, my personal favorite. ...maybe not for the kids...
And if you make sandwiches, heed the advice of Tri2Cook (male
). I think I will remake the sandwiches today. They cannot be properly rescued from their current state. Down the road they go to the young family. -
Hi R Wood, Lisa Schock et al,
Yes there are specific rules for altering leavening and cooking temps and times for high altitudes and some one else will know them better than I. We lived at 4500' for 6 months last year and I had a chart to help me. There's lots on the web about this.
The Smurf effect...I like that...was because I did something stupid. I answered the phone, forgot to put in the milk before the berries and had to remix the batter.
The bundt thingy. The cake tastes great but I have decided to give it to the young family down the road. They received all my attempts at cake decorating a couple of years ago and my confectionery output (we had to get it out of the house!) so here comes the raggy bundt. I'll make another cake...maybe even with coffe this time.
AND in a 9x13 pan for sure!Thanks for all the help.
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Tonight, thanks to an abundance of zucchini from a friend's neighbor's garden, I prepared two batches of sauteed zucchini with garlic. For one batch I used Christopher Ranch pre-peeled garlic that has been in my refrigerator for a week, but from a new mini-pack within. For the other I used a few cloves of garlic off a head I bought in Chinatown about two weeks ago. As if on cue, the Chinatown garlic was some of the most stubborn-peeling garlic I've ever encountered. It was hard to judge strength and flavor raw but I ate a very small slice of each raw and the strength seemed comparable while the pre-peeled garlic was sweeter or at least less bitter/acrid. Cooked, I couldn't tell the difference at all. I'll need to repeat this on a much larger scale with multiple samples. This mini test doesn't really establish anything.
This has been one extremely active thread. Who knew?
I think all eG garlic lovers should all meet at your house and have a proper tasting test.
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The problem is with the questions, not the answers. If you know what the questions are, you can find the answers. Now I am such a novice at this baking life, that I didn't even know there were questions about how to make sure a bundt cake was done or how to make sure it didn't stick in the pan. So I didn't ask.
Now I know. Yes, my cake was fully baked and is delicious. I baked it a very long time. The old toothpick trick wasn't all that useful, because the pick had to travel through a layer of interior streusel which would not come clean because of its very nature.
However my bundt cake is also in a great number of pieces. It wasn't the cake that stuck. It was the streusel. And stick it did. Despite all my greasing and flouring. Who knew?
Well, now I do. No more bundt cakes for me for a while. We'll eat it and they can all laugh at me and I shall remain above the frey, concentrating on loftier thoughts.
Thanks to all for the help. What a week. My first springform cheesecake slips and falls through its collar and my first bundt cake is in tatters. At least my blueberry loaves came true on the second try (well, I screwed up the first ones sort of and they turned out more colorful than needed, that sort of gray-purple color).
Please do not hire me to cater your next big fancy do!
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I don't know if ever I will have anything worthy of photographing and posting. The photos that you all post just blow me away.
However, I have been busy. We do have this small horde of people and their dogs descending upon us next weekend (starts on Thursday...) for our Annual Dog Weekend at the farm. Noisy, crowded, chaotic but lots of fun.
To that end I have made thus far: two kinds of gelato, vanilla and chocolate with the vanilla being made further into sandwiches in chocolate rectangle cookies (DL's recipe), blueberry loaves (Randi), Orange Cardamom Coffee Cake (RWood), Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cakes (thanks to Merstar), orange muffins. I think that's it for the baking. I have two ice creams left to make: Orange-Szechwan Pepper (DL) and Raspberry Gelato.
So many of these were firsts for me and so many were slight disasters, such as when the springform pan clip slipped and so did the batter. My first ice cream sandwiches are not beautiful although Tri2Cook did try to help.
I have had a ball and now I am going to lie down.
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I found the recipe for the mexican chocolate. It's probably more of a bundt cake than coffee cake, but it can be whatever you want.
I will divide the recipe down. The original makes 5, and I don't think you want to deal with that
. I'll put it in recipegullet.Thank you again. I should have noted that the Orange Cardamom Coffee Cake recipe came from you.
It's finally out of the oven and resting quietly on a cooling rack.
I'll decant it later, hoping for the best. -
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The plastic wrap I use is pretty hefty, not the "user friendly" stuff that's so flimsy and lacking in cling that it's almost completely useless. The idea was that you could dump it over onto a board or the back of another pan, peel off the plastic or parchment, cut and toss the whole thing back in the freezer to firm up again. Then you can just take them from the freezer a couple at a time, assemble and pop them back in the freezer before moving on to the next couple. That way they never spend more than a couple minutes out of the freezer. But I didn't actually say all of that... which I should have done. Sorry about that.
Now she tells me!!! Never assume I know anything. I shall make them again and this time, they will be a snap! Thanks.
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As noted elsewhere under disasters in the kitchen, the clip on my springform pan slipped open...it was my very first use of a springform pan...and the cake was not a delight to view. By the time it was fully baked, the messy angle of the topping was not nearly as visible as it was before baking and after being clumsily repacked into the pan. Another learning experience.
I am still waiting for RWoods' recipes for Mexican chocolate with cinnamon and a caramel pecan goo.
I am about to attempt the Orange Cardamom cake next. Perhaps it will not fall...or should I say, I won't drop it. Or create some other kind of disaster. My t-shirt is already wet from hurriedly leaning off it after trying to fill the ice cream cookie sandwiches. Busy, busy, busy.
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I'm bumping up this topic because the fruit I candied over the past couple of days is not a citrus.
I was given a sack of kiwi fruits and since they were just short of ripe, and I doubted I would be able to use them within the next week or so, I decided to try candying them.
First I sliced and dried them in the dehydrator - took photos but when I uploaded the pics from my camera to computer, I managed to discard the first set of pics.
However, I did save the later photos.
After they were dried, I steamed them for about 30 minutes to make it easier for the pieces to absorb the syrup.
I prepared the syrup and did all of the processing in the microwave in a large Pyrex bowl.
Here is a shot of the kiwi in the bowl of syrup after a total processing time of 3 hours over a period of 36 hours. Each session of heating lasted 20 minutes with cool down intervals that varied from two hours to overnight.
Another closeup that shows how the center part remains opaque and an end slice that is completely translucent.
Brava!
Now, what will you do with them? And how did you get those nasty little peels off them? -
I promise that I will never become a professional chef.
I filled the cookies and in the process got ice cream all over myself, the counter, clean dishes...you name it. Nope, not on the floor, but the dogs loved licking off the leftover cookie sheets and such. If I'd had a friend over, we would have been laughing hysterically
as I struggled to fill the cookies before the ice cream melted beyond use.OK. All my own fault. Two people would have worked faster. I am not renown for my manual dexterity. The humidity is high and so is the temperature. A few warm days until we return to the summer which isn't. The kitchen is a hotbox, but I could hardly work in the cellar. Not our cellar.
Even with the laughable results, I count it as a sort of success. I'll wrap the bars after they get cold again. And next time, I'll be better prepared for the rhythm of the filling process.
Tri2Cook's clever idea DID work except: that I would not use plastic wrap again...too flimsy and wiggly for me, I would work faster, the kitchen would be cooler, I'd have my confectionery partner Barbara to help me, etc, etc.
I'll get back about the change in the cookies. They were hard before filling, like commercial wafers are before use.
Great fun!!!
DL, you are the hero of my summer. -
Lettuce in Your Kitchen by Chris Schlesinger and John Willoughby is mostly "main dish" salads, but many of them can be altered to work as side dishes as well. I've made several of their recipes, but mostly use the book for ideas for ingredient combinations and dressings. I highly recommend it.
This sounds like the cookbook for me. Two reviews said that the writer had borrowed the book first from the library and then just had to have it. My modus operandi. Keeps me from making hasty choices and then finding out that my purchase was ill advised. Thanks. JAZ
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OK. I searched under +rice +salad, posts, topics found 42 pages. Help!
Does anyone have a rice salad that they like? With not too many esoteric ingredients and for vegetarians. DH made a huge pot of rice for lunch. He likes roasted Ratatouille on rice. I just love roasted Ratatouille.
So now I have about 8 cups of cooked Jasmine rice and I could really use a delicious recipe. It will be added to the coming Dog Weekend's fare.
(Sorry, I don't really like rice salads, but then I had never tasted a bean salad like Randi's bean salad, so perhaps somewhere out there there may be an equally scrumptious rice salad.)
Thanks.
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To Randi and her M-i-L,
That bean salad, eaten only two hours after being made even, was the BEST bean salad I have ever eaten.
Now, I have to admit that I used only two instead of three cups of sugar in the dressing, but the result was incredible and we ended up eating a great whack of it for supper instead of just tasting it as was our first intention. Now it is time to add more beans, onions, dressing, et al.
Thank you, thank you.
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I have a lot of cookbooks with salad chapters, but none that are dedicated solely to salads. I'm sure they exist.
Please recommend your favorite!
I have no salad cookbooks. Once I found a lovely salad cookbook at Value Village but the photos in it were SO beautiful that I gave it to an artist friend who fell in love with it.
This is a vital topic to me as we eat salad, and salad only, every second night.
* keep weight down
* eat enough raw
* eat lightly at dinner time (heavy at breakfast, medium at lunch, light at dinner)
I loathe pasta salads (so far). Our salads are mostly greens...but they are a tad repetitive.
So I'll watch this thread with interest!!! Thank you fooey for starting it.
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I will never again strain the soup stock through a colander that's just sitting in the sink. Because that's not the part I want to save...
I think I feel better already.
Thanks, Blether. -
Ginger needs a LOOONG growing season, like 6-8 months, to make an appreciable sized rhizome. 2 months under the light levels you have is not going to be enough. You can still take the containers out until nights get below 55F, which may be just a fortnight away in Ontario now!!!
Fluence levels, the light intensity useful for plants, is about 100 micromoles of photons per square meter per second [say 1 inch from source] from ordianary fluorescent lamps mounted in a shoplight frame 2x. NEVER use Grolux. There are high intensity fluorescent lamps that give out twice this level, i.e. 200 micromoles, but cost 2x to buy 7 run. Your electric rates and appetite for experimentation will determine how much you want to invest.
Whil ginger will not need a high fluence rate of 300-400 micromoles, something in the 250-300 would help generate not just a satisfactory yied but also a sisfctory level of oleoresin, the pungent flavors. BTW, the spectral quality, with more UV than the fuorescent amp ca provide, will be necessary to develop a good andfull flavor. Metal halide light sources, e.g. sodium, are relatively monochromatic, e.g. 589 nanometers, and lead to a number of physiological/developmental abnormalities.
These cool fluorescent lamps need no special precautions to run in a household. That is NOT the case for metal halide lamps, which can be fire hazards, and have ballasts and certain safety features built into them. The cool fluorescent lamps also have heavy duty ballasts built into them in a shop-light system, and those are never as heavy duty as that neeeded for the metal halide types.
There are electrodeless lamps as well, but these are highly specialized and not easily available for household use.
We all have heard about the $10 home-grown tomato, which has some truth to it. Don't let this prevent this from enjoying your project, but just become better informed about the biology & needs of the plant you are trying to cultivate. [it also does not thrive in low-humidity, lower temperature environment].
Well. Thanks for that lesson in ginger growing.
55degrees Fahrenheit is 13 Celcius and so yes, nights have already been that cold. This is the summer which wasn't.
Except right now which it really is for a few days.As for the low humidity fears. Low humidity never happens in Ontario. Never. That's why I love Moab UT.
As for the rest of it. I was an English major and I think I'll print out your post and hand it to my very erudite scientifically oriented gardening friend and just ask her to tell me what to do. It's like carburetors. I don't really want to know how they work. Sorry. I know. My Father, an aeronautics engineer was disappointed in me too.
Thanks again.
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I just did it. Ten minutes ago. The first ever time I have used a spring-form pan and I am making a wonderful Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake, a recipe given to me this morning by a generous eGulleter on another thread.
I am taking my time. Reading carefully. No mistakes made.
AND I go to put the cake in the oven and NOOOOOOO!!!!!! the clip on the spring-form pan...which I had carefully checked...suddenly slips and the cake falls through the collar and I am undone!
I managed to save much of it and it's in the oven baking right now but gone are my dreams of finally having a photo of my very own to post.
Pride 'wenteth' before my fall. -
Or you could freeze it in the same pan you baked the cookies on (I'd line it with plastic wrap or parchment first) and cut it into rectangles the same size as the cookies, in which case you would freeze it until solid first. The second method would be cleaner, the first method faster... both will work equally well.
That is one of those...'Rats, why didn't I think of that?'
Brilliant. Thanks very much
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Peeled garlic seems to be a standard supermarket item wherever I go. It's also available at Costco.
When you take a whole head of garlic, break it apart and peel every clove, you're left with quite a bit of material on the cutting board: the skins, the core of the bulb (whatever the term for that is), the end pieces of some of the cloves, etc.. That's the waste.
We have a brand new Costco in the city ( 35 mins) but I haven't been in it yet. Still HOW does the garlic come? In a bag? bottle? in oil? I really haven't seen it.
As for the waste. We don't eat the skins or hard parts...oh I misunderstood what you meant. You meant...cost per pound is higher because of the waste. Duh!
Forgive me. Today DH was sent to local grocery store to buy some bottled eggplant in oil amongst other things. They don't carry it, this straight from Clint, the owner. The pros and cons of living in the middle of nowhere and shopping locally. They don't carry eggplant either. But they do know your name. And butcher Dave...yes, a real butcher...will cut you the nicest piece of meat if he likes you. (Yeah, I make him candy.)
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Hmmmm....
For those of you who have made ice cream sandwiches:
DL says simply:
"Once cool, sandwich ice cream between 2 cookies"At what point in the making of said ice cream would experience tell to be the most useful point for sandwiching.
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Of late, I've been experimenting with a different product: peeled garlic. I've had much better results. I certainly can't tell the difference in cooked dishes. It may be that the peeled garlic I'm getting is actually better-tasting than the raw sold at the same market. And the convenience is terrific: you skip a whole step in terms of processing and cleanup. When you consider the waste when you peel your own garlic, the per-pound cost of usable product isn't all that different. It also encourages me to use more garlic, because it's so convenient. And I can chop it coarse or fine, slice it, use whole cloves, crush it, etc. -- whatever I want.
What are you all doing for garlic?
Never heard of peeled garlic. How is it sold? Or maybe it's just the small city thing.
Also what waste is there when you peel your own garlic? I don't follow this.
Thanks.
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You're on. Tomorrow.
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It's been a busy day. The highlight I just had to share...and who else can you tell?
I just finished making DL's Chocolate Ice Cream Sandwich Cookies, but instead of rolling and cutting into rounds, I made them into rectangles.
Covered my cookie sheet with a silicone and used another to roll the batter into the entire 11x17 pan. Precut the cookies 2.2"x4.25" to make 20 equal rectangles or ten sandwiches when they are finished. When I make Fleur de Lait again tomorrow to fill them. Easy to wrap and store.
Anyhow, it was a big thrill for me and thanks for reading.
Growing Ginger for Fun & Profit
in Food Traditions & Culture
Posted
Strange about ginger and its cost and quality.
I bought excellent ginger (origins?) in Moab UT at City Market and it was $5 a pound. The other market in town sold it for $2 and it was very poor.
Bought Chinese ginger in Peterborough back home (city is 35 mins from farm) at the supermarket at $2 and threw it out. Worse ginger I ever used...but how can you test it in the market? It looked great.
Then bought Chinese ginger ($2) in our small Asian market on the assurance from the market owner and it was terrific. You can buy only frozen Thai ginger and galangal. My candying of galangal ended in the trash.
My ginger garden comes from his stock...the pieces down at the bottom of the bin with lovely knobbies on them. My garden is for delight, not with any expectations this year.
Wonderful plant!