Darienne
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Posts posted by Darienne
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I am an almost total newbie to the entire world of cooking, having avoided it successfully for most of my life...DH taught me how to cook and is a great short-order cook. Our kitchen, while not too small, and our own to hammer, cut and redo, has now to serve two of us.
I really liked the grid on the wall idea (forget eG poster, sorry), the upside down stored pots (Annabel).
I gasped when I saw the bottles on Dave's shelves, just...sitting...there.
As for suggestions: squarish basins. We can buy them at our local Dollarama (Canada) for $1 each and I live by them. I have all my various types of bottles: Indian cooking, Mexican cooking, Chinese cooking, each in a basin for easy access. Also, our toaster sits inside a basin which makes it very easy to get out and in again. The basins are so good when what you are storing is high up and maybe a bit dangerous to get down. The basin is easy to grab.
This is a GREAT topic and I am enjoying it immensely. When we get back home, I am going to put into practice some of the ideas I have seen here. Thanks.
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Somewhat different candy problem here. I made a lot of lollipops for a local children's party and some of them were not acceptable to me, although there was nothing amiss with the 'candy' aspect of them. Plus the bits that dropped here and there as I poured the lollies.
What can I do with plain hard candy? Grind it up and use it where? It's only sugar and corn syrup and coloring and flavoring (and bit of decor in some cases). Or should I just chuck it?
Also last week I chopped up some pecan brittle which was not a great success and used it in a ganache. The 'brittle' part of it pretty much disappeared in the ganache... I made a cream ganache...should have used a butter ganache, right? We bravely struggled along and ate it anyway. Good husband!
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Rob – that “entrement” looks incredibly delicious and amazing – how did it taste, you didn’t say? One thing though, the little squinchy thing at the bottom right looks a little like a scorpion to me. Well, considering where you live…
What exactly is an entrement? I looked it up on Google and I got 'side dish'.
Thanks.
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scm = sweetened condensed milk
Thank you.
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We call them Hello Dolly cookies in our house, too.
butter
grahams
coconut
walnuts
SCM
chips
6 layers here, not 7. But really popular.
Eileen
OK. No doubt I'll feel silly when I get the answer, but what is 'SCM'. I tried on Google, but got nothing useful.
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Flacoman beat me to Bananas Foster, so simple, so tasty, and elegant too!
I'm just now feeling sorry for myself.
All the bananas in Moab need at least two days to even be ripe. There IS a great banana conspiracy in the world. I know it.We'll have lemon cheese pie with a chocolate ganache. We'll survive.
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Just re-read this topic from the start and I'm drooling pools on the floor like one of our dogs. So yummy...how can I lose? Thanks, all.
...except that now I have to look up mise-en-place....got it. Great idea. ...learn, learn, learn....
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Roasted fruit.
The simplest and maybe the best thing I ever serve. My favorite is pears, with a butterscotch pan sauce.
Put a bunch of halved pears (peeled and cored) in a roasting pan with chunks of butter and a generous sprinkling of sugar. Roast on medium high heat until soft, and until the drippings and sugar have caramelized on the bottom of the pan.
Put the pan on the stove top, set aside the pears, and crank the heat. Deglaze the drippings with cream. If you like, finish with a bit of cognac or poirre william. strain.
Serve each guest a pear half plated with a small pool of the sauce. So good!
Could you do that with the ripe bananas (forgot to say ripe in my post). That would be simpler than pan frying...
Thanks.
I haven't tried it, but I believe it's traditional. And delicious. Would probably roast much faster than pears, since bananas are already soft. I'd try using a very hot oven.
Shall try it this weekend...if...the big if...I can find any bananas ripe enough to use. This town has only 2 grocery stores...and besides it always seems that all the stores either have rock hard bananas or bananas starting to be too ripe and at the same time. Thanks.
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Roasted fruit.
The simplest and maybe the best thing I ever serve. My favorite is pears, with a butterscotch pan sauce.
Put a bunch of halved pears (peeled and cored) in a roasting pan with chunks of butter and a generous sprinkling of sugar. Roast on medium high heat until soft, and until the drippings and sugar have caramelized on the bottom of the pan.
Put the pan on the stove top, set aside the pears, and crank the heat. Deglaze the drippings with cream. If you like, finish with a bit of cognac or poirre william. strain.
Serve each guest a pear half plated with a small pool of the sauce. So good!
Could you do that with the ripe bananas (forgot to say ripe in my post). That would be simpler than pan frying...
Thanks.
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Fried bananas (with a few raspberries), topped with chocolate ganache and raspberry sauce (made from raspberry jam, butter and Chambord). A little sour cream on the side for those who wish...or you can put the ganache, the sauce and the sour cream on the side all...or heck, why not add a dish of caramelized cacao nibs. Sorry...I'm getting carried away with my own enthusiasms...not impressive but so delicious.
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Take your left hand and pat your right shoulder.
A word about suppliers.....
Small businesses are not neccesarily their cup of tea. They will sit up and beg pretty for the large accounts, but the small ones are "exercised" more often. I've had more expired stuff and returned stuff fobbed off on me than when I was working for large hotels...
Remember the supplier will add his mark-up, which can be as a low as 20% , usually around 35%, and when they're feeling good, as much as 120%. What ever the market can bear. They do provide a service, they purchase in bulk, warehouse, take orders, and distribute it, but you are paying for this service
You can always check with the manufacturer about price increases before accepting the sales rep's schpiel about "they just raised the prices again". Many chocolate companies have factory reps and you can get this information from them. I'm a big Lindt fan, and purchase usually in 100 kg lots, and ALWAYS call the factory rep for factory price increases before plcing an order. THere hasn't been an increase from Lindt since Feb of this year, and won't be one for '09. Armed with this information I can always snort at my supplier, catch him in his lies and negotaite a decent price. They never learn either, I've done this now three times......
The expiry date provides you with a lot of information--use it to your advantage
Dear Edward J
That was a wonderful post. I can imagine that many, many readers will thank you for it. Should be required reading!
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Mari is an artist and approaches chocolate as an artistic person would.
Ne'er was truer statement made...
I tend to take a more scientific approach - especially when things go wrong.
I'm with you on that one.
And she is SO proud of her marble table which you helped her to get!!!
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The biggest thing is to learn about chocolate on this experience! the chocolatier has never met me and if she brings up the topic, of course I will be listing but the main focus is to see the everyday routine and get more practice, and since she is opening her store to me I will try to learn everything that she wants to share.
Each chocolatier would be different, of course, but I don't think it would be out of line to prepare a polite list of techniques and issues that one might want to learn about. You might give a copy to the teacher...or not. Depends upon the personality of said teacher I guess.
In the case of our own Hamilton ON chocolatier, she asked us what we would like to learn and I (spokesperson of sorts
) sent her a prepared list. And then we covered a certain number of the issues listed there in July 07. And then in year two, July 08, I asked her if we could learn about some of the issues on the original list not covered in 07, plus a couple more we had decided we wanted to learn, and again we covered some, but not all, of the revised list. We reviewed the stuff from the first year and built on that.
We were lucky of course. Not only was she a professional, she was also a dear.
There was much laughter. I have dozens of photos capturing our experiences at her place. The joys of a little digital camera....I think I mentioned before that Kerry Beal is her mentor
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I accidentally found this website of a young chocolatier who lives about 3 hours away from my home and asked her if she would teach some classes.
Where is this person? I'm in Ottawa and am wondering if this person is around here as I would love to participate in such a class.
Hamilton.
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If you have a Michael's, they stock it in the Wilton aisle. Perhaps they carry it in Hobby Lobby or other such stores too.
It's a LorAnn product.
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You can buy more - they might ask you to pay duty or they might let you get away with it.
Merci...practicing for the return...
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Hi All,
I have been able to get an internship with a chocolatier in her shop for 2 weeks and I wanted to ask you if you have an input on things that I should be looking for while I am there, what kind of questions I should ask, I am not sure if it is appropriate to start asking about the "books" I mean profit margin and those kind of things. Should I just stick with chocolate questions only?
Also if you want to share how you started with chocolate that would be awesome as well!!!
I accidentally found this website of a young chocolatier who lives about 3 hours away from my home and asked her if she would teach some classes. Then my confectionary partner, Barbara, asked her sister and the three of us went July of 07 and July of 08. We had a wonderful time learning and doing and laughing and eating, of course. We started right at the very beginning and worked from there. There was more doing than talking which was good for us. Not to mention the incredible Italian hot chocolate maker...
Interestingly enough, this young woman is Kerry Beal's protege. She learned at Kerry's feet some years ago.
We'll no doubt go again next summer and add some new lessons to those already learned.
None of us intends to become a professional chocolatier so it was somewhat informal in intent.
Good luck to you.
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Darienne, when you are coming back across the border, stop at the duty free and pick up a couple of bottles of the 95% Everclear. It's about $15/liter.
Thanks Kerry.
Would buying two bottles at the duty free constitute the allotment you can bring back...or can you buy it over the allowed amount. I have never bought at the duty free and we usually bring back some stuff from one of the states along the way.
Still I might convince Ed not to buy vodka along the way, but to restrict our buying to the duty free...if I understand it correctly.
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And so I did. Thanks.
And was astounded at the number of alcoholic beverages which contain orange, raspberry and black raspberry.Alas, I live near a smallish city which does not carry a lot of them. Still, I soldier on and make do with Chambord and Grand Marnier. Oh, the price....
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Thanks for all the interesting information on orange and raspberry liqueurs. I am going to look it all up when I get back to Canada. And then I am going to return to my intention to make some liqueuers of my own. Yes, I am on an orange and raspberry kick. Mixed with chocolate. Of course.
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I've tried a bunch of orange liqueurs, Grand Marnier, Cointreau, Triple Sec, and Curacao, but the one that I really like is Orangecello.
Someone gave me a bottle of Everclear a while back so I think I'm going to try to make my own orangecello by infusing orange zest and maybe a bit of Hawaiian vanilla bean for a few months. I'm trying to get some K'au oranges from the island of Hawaii to use so I can have a "Hawaiianized" version of orangecello. Several friends have tangerine trees and I always end up with loads of tangerine so I may try some "tangerinecello" as well.
Besides using orange-flavored liqueur, try finding the cheapest orange brandy you can get your hands on and use it. I read an article in Cook's Illustrated a while back on how to make the best Cherries Jubilee and they mentioned that using a cheap supermarket orange brandy gave the best flavor. Problem is that most supermarkets I shop at don't carry orange brandy any more. Even specialty liquor stores I tried don't stock it. I do have a couple of very old bottles of Hiram Walker orange brandy somewhere in my pantry. We had our house fumigated and we had to box everything up and leave all of the edibles outside while the house was tented. Now I have to go through the various boxes looking for all of my cooking/baking ingredients. Tha's how a stumble on the Everclear. Should have labeled the outside of each box, but when you're in a rush to pack up...
Thanks for your detailed information. It's all unfamiliar stuff to me and I doubt that Ontario liquor stores carry Orangecello, Everclear, K'au oranges, etc.
But I am going to chase it up when I get back home....
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Neither is listed on the LCBO website so I am guessing NOT in Ontario! No surprise there.
Thanks, Anna N.
We went to the local liquor outlet and found the Grand Gala and it was $14.00 cheaper than the Grand Marnier. Did not buy any...have Grand Marnier already. Found another called Grand Monarch, $6 dollars less than the Grand Gala. Anyone know anything about it?
Then looked at the raspberry list. Chambord, which we have, and another called Chateau Monet. The Chambord is $19.99 for 375 ml and the Monet is $5.99 for 750 ml. Anyone know the Monet? or any other raspberry liqueur?
Thanks. What an extremely delicious topic.
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Wow! So much interesting information...and so little chance of testing it out .
We are currently in a small Utah town with FEW choices in liqueurs...and then we live in Ontario near a small city with not many more. I have never seen either Gran Gala or Luxardo Triplum. Perhaps they are available in a large center like Toronto. But I will soldier on and try....
Not to mention that the cost of alcoholic libations can be up to 4X more in Canada than in the USA...again...
Can This Candy be Saved
in Pastry & Baking
Posted
Two excellent ideas for the crushed lollies. I just might go for the bark one...way less work