RWood

I'm in CA, and I see it in most grocery stores.

From my experience making pineapple upside down cake (my cake batter has pineapple juice) there haven't been any problems.

I grew up on White Lily's Self-rising Corn Meal Mix, being from the South. I wish I could find it here in CA. I just have to get family to send it to me. But, when I've made corn meal muffins from scratch, I just make the batter and refrigerate it. Bake later. Never had a problem. It also makes it easier to scoop being chilled. Not sure how a store bought mix would hold though.

Here is the lemon chiffon recipe I used. It may need more yolks or a couple of whole eggs instead as it didn't set up well. But, I did this recipe X8, so that may have affected it. And it boiled, which it wasn't supposed to do, and still didn't thicken. Lemon Chiffon In saucepan: 1/4 Cup Water Sprinkle with: 1 Each Gelatin, envelope (2 1/4 tsp) Whisk In: 1/2 Cup Water 1/2 Cup Lemon Juice 1 Tsp Lemon Zest 6+ Tbsp Sugar 4 each Egg Yolks Stirring constantly with rubber spatula, heat mixture until it steams and coats a spoon fairly heavily. DO NOT BOIL. Immediately pour into a bowl and cool until thick but not set. In Bowl: 2 Each Egg Whites 1/4 Cup Sugar Beat whites to soft peak stage. Gradually add sugar. Beat until stiff and glossy. Fold into lemon mixture. In Bowl: 1 Cup Whipping Cream, whipped soft Whip cream until soft peaks form. Fold into lemon mixture. Pipe into cups or molds, chill to set

I will dig it out, I did have a problem with it. The curd part didn't set up like curd, so I had to put it back on the heat and add some whole eggs. Still not ideal, but with the gelatin it worked out. It was a recipe the chef gave me, and I don't think it had been tested. The cookie is from Wente Vineyards cookbook, I got it when I worked there. It went well with the rest of the dessert. They bake weird, so don't think it's wrong. Will post recipe soon.

I like something to add texture. I've made a pistachio semifreddo with pistachio cake, as well as lemon with the same cake. And I've done a chocolate one with cocao nibs. It was done in a pyramid mold with a thin layer of chocolate cake on the bottom. Unfortunately, no pictures. It's been a while since I've made it.

I keep laughing about a watermelon my uncle bought while I was visiting in Tennessee. The thing weighed 60 lbs, and I asked how much did it cost and he said "Six dollars, but the guy threw in a cantaloupe too." I couldn't believe that thing, but it was very good.

Lemon Chiffon w/ berries and lemon butter wafers. I did this as part of the dessert table for an event in Pebble Beach for Town & Country magazine. The second picture was taken after it got dark, so it didn't come out very well, but it's of the dessert table with assorted logo chocolates, tiramisu and lemon chiffon.

I've made strawberry ice cream where I cooked the berries with sugar, vanilla bean and a little lemon. Then add to the base. I found that with the berries cooked, they don't get the icy-ness like fresh berries. So Robin, I took your advice and cooked the strawberries first. Wonderful ice cream. DH and young worker loved it. Big time. Thanks. Great, glad that it worked for you!

I've made strawberry ice cream where I cooked the berries with sugar, vanilla bean and a little lemon. Then add to the base. I found that with the berries cooked, they don't get the icy-ness like fresh berries.

So, a few more tries with the software. One is a better version of the Aqua Terra logo (the white background is what it really looks like), the second is the logo of my favorite band, Queensryche, and the photo one is my cat Ginger. It actually came out pretty well using a photo. Gotta get my airbrush to spray a little better so the backgrounds are more solid, but it's getting there.

My mom and one of my best friends have very prolific meyer lemon trees. When they come in, we are overloaded. Like that's a bad thing . It may be unoriginal, but I make big pitchers of lemonade with them. Load it up with mint leaves and fruit, and it's great. Everyone loves it. Good with a little vodka or tequila as well

So, for the first time I've ever tried this, they came out pretty good (pics aren't that great). The small round is my logo, and the rectangle is for my friends new catering company I will be working for. I followed some of the previous advice and added a small amount of cocoa butter to the white chocolate, tempered it (in my Rev Delta) and then raised the temp two degrees. All the chocolates I use are really fluid, so I was worried about it being too thin, but I just let them sit longer before dumping the chocolate out. I just received these sheets from Tomric, and they were back ordered for a couple of weeks. I may have gotten a good batch. My only gripe so far is the software, it could really be a lot better. It needs more options on editing and printing. The small mold does not print right for 28 cavities, it only printed 15. Kind of annoying to fit them in the right places. The rectangle could be edited better if the thing would let me. All in all though, I am happy with how it worked.

When I visited my mom in Brentwood a few weeks ago, they had gone out to pick bing's and brought back the biggest, sweetest cherries I've had in a while. And for only $2.50 a pound. They ended up picking 22 pounds . I know some of the stands in that area and the u-picks have some other varieties, but none were as good as the bing's.

The only time I do a separate bowl is when I have nuts involved. I know several people with nut allergies, so I try to keep the risk of contamination down. I don't think you would have to worry much about flavor transfer. I've never noticed anything happen like that.

I have used a product like this, but I don't remember the company it was from (been a while). I worked in a small patisserie, and made strawberry mousse cakes. It was the same method, and they came out very stable. The owner had me mix a little red currant puree with the strawberry to up the flavor. Only other thing I can remember is having to work quickly when mixing. That may not help much, but I remember it working well.

Thanks for the info on these. I just got the sheets and USB today, so now comes the experimenting. I'll post what experiences I have.

Olive oil ice cream is very good, just be sure to use a fruity oil. Sage ice cream is very good with stone fruits, as is the olive oil. I've never made avocado or green pea, but have heard they are nice.

I don't have the book in front of me, but it was the basic coffee ice cream. Usual milk, cream, yolks, etc.

I've made coffee ice cream forever, but decided to use the recipe from this book for the heck of it. I used Peet's decaf French roast, then added in crushed almond brittle. Awesome stuff

I've had that happen to me before, and I have no idea why. My batch looked like fat had congealed. I reheated it over a bain marie and hit with an immersion blender. It came back together, and was fine after that. I had made the same recipes many times, and nothing like that happened before.

I've made a pear/milk chocolate center that I have had success with. I poach my pears with white wine, vanilla bean, star anise and a few other spices I can't remember right now. I puree that and thin it with a little poaching liquid if need be. I make a butter ganache with the pear puree with a little pear liqueur. I found that I got more pear flavor with the milk chocolate than the dark. I felt it was too delicate of a flavor in dark. Many pear lovers I know really like it.

I would just worry about the added moisture. I would maybe opt for a finer grind. I make a cornmeal cake that I use for individual upside down cakes with caramel roasted peaches. I find that just cornmeal gives enough of the texture, without being too "toothy".

In Michael Recchiutti's book, I think he says he dries the herbs to remove the moisture. I've never done that either. I have made a tarragon ganache that I used with blood oranges for a tart. I just used fresh, and it came out very nice. You could definitely tell it was tarragon. I guess it depends on how much work you want to put into it.

The shells and coral are a 50/50 mix of fondant and gumpaste. There are a few real ones mixed in (that's how they wanted it). I used lustre dust to color them. I think the cake is fine, but if you saw the 30 something emails back and forth, you would understand