curls

@Kerry Beal it has been a while since we have been to the Niagara on the Lake campus -- I'm not sure how their kitchen is currently stocked. So, what sorts of things should we bring to the workshop? I'm guessing that we still need to bring along containers (to bring chocolates home), aprons or chef's coats, IR thermometers, notebook, camera, and base recipes. And of course, some chocolates or confections for the meet & greet. Also, if you are planning to try something that needs some specialty ingredients, you may want to bring them with you -- but maybe not? Will there be chocolate moulds, scrapers, caramel rulers? Yup, I am looking forward to this and starting to put together my packing list!

I too wanted more details on the bone marrow but it is one of the few that I have no more information on -- whenever I walked by their tent they seemed a bit too busy to talk -- they also kept their egg a bit farther back from the table so I wasn't even able to see if they were cooking the bones direct or indirect. Only thing I can tell you is that they put the bones directly on the grill. The Tasty Hot product sounds interesting. I'll make a note about the Toronto eggfest on my calendar but odds are better for 2019. Have you had a pig shot? I hadn't seen those before and they were a nice bite and a crowd pleaser. Plenty of ABTs and moinks (but those I knew about).

Yesterday I attended the Egg Fest at Dizzy Pig - DizzyFest 2018. Found a video that someone posted of the event that captures different parts of the event than I captured with photos. And some of my photos from the event... House Yearwood was my favorite of the day with smoked turkey, carnitas empanadas, stuffed peppers, and maple smoked chocolate chip muffins. Their samples were disappearing too fast for a picture! They did not win the people's choice award but they did come in second place (and this was their first time cooking at DizzyFest). They also provided recipes for all their cooks. This group made three salmon filets on the BGE, very tasty. They encouraged people to take as much as they liked. They also made macaroni & cheese and a fish stew (with sea bass, coconut milk, peppers, onions, and a few more ingredients that I do not recall). Beautiful marrow bones! Sadly the serving size was a 1/4 teaspoon of marrow on a piece of toast. This was a fun event and most of the food was good to very good but I was hoping to find Kerry Beal and Anna N. style participants and sadly there was no one there of their caliber of cook quality and creativity. Maybe I'll have the time to check out the Toronto EggFest some day!

Always interesting to see how colors change depending on lighting. I went back to your glaze selections when you posted tikidoc's bowl and couldn't figure out which dark blue sample was hers. Looking forward to seeing my bowls -- just a few more weeks!

@patris what color # is that pretty blue? Thank you for the photos of the bowls at various stages — fun to see the process!

While picking up this sampler of items for a friend... I happened to see these items for sale and couldn't resist.

Wish I could have gotten a picture of this chicken on the Kamado Joe but it was a bit too dark outside. Last night's dinner, spatchcocked chicken - un-brined, spiced with Dizzy Pig Crossroads, direct heat near the gasket, ~375 F for 50 minutes. This is the first cook where we really got a sense of the advantages of kamado cooking -- such a juicy and tasty bird. I've had good chicken on the Weber but it has never been this moist. It fell apart a bit on the transfer from the grill to the cutting board.

Thanks for the offer but I've got plenty in inventory.

It's a shame that we lost Andres but I'm sure Lisabeth's talk will also be very good. Kerry, thank you for the update. I'm counting down the days till the workshop; looking forward to it!!! :-)

They also might be marbling a bunch of colors together in white chocolate (or extra whitened white chocolate) and then shelling with the marbled chocolate.

If your freeze dryer is accessible, some freeze dried ice cream and fruits would be nice additions to the workshop pantry.

Was hoping for a bar with tahini (or halavah) and one with asian flavors (ginger or green tea or who knows...). Guess that might be something I experiment with during kitchen time. :-)

Is it ok to include Kamado Joe items in this topic or should I create a Kamado cooking topic? Moderators, please feel free to move this post to a better location if you like. So, went ahead and purchased a Kamado Joe at the Costco Kamado Joe event! Thanks to everyone for your advice and comments. I've cooked a few steaks, chicken thighs, and chicken kabobs and they have all turned out great. :-) Cooked some steaks for dinner tonight and decided to make use of the additional cooking time available to make a batch of skillet cornbread. So, my first bake in the Kamado! Have only used one half of the diffuser plate for cooks (until the cornbread) thus the odd used/unused look of the thing.

Beautiful chocolates, what have you filled them with? Good luck at the show!

Looking forward to your texture reports but this sounds very promising! Would be nice to be able to make this without needing the elusive thin boiling starch.

How do the two compare? Can you make good Turkish delight with regular corn starch?

Since they are having a wine & cheese, I would bring flowers. I know you mentioned that you don't care to deal with cut flowers but perhaps this couple does. It also gets them out of any obligation to serve what your hostess gift. Good luck, hope you have a nice time!

Ok, will stay tuned! Looking forward to it. Think he might bring some bread and pastries with him? Loved the meals he made for us when the workshop was in Toronto.

So @Alleguede what are you planning for the second master class...?

I guess it is all a matter of what you are used to. I am much quicker at dealing out paper cups for chocolates than separating a stack of plastic trays. Also, find it super easy to drop chocolates of many different shapes and sizes into those paper cups. I love being able to select from so many moulds — rounds, squares, flowers, windmills, hedgehogs, bunnies, hearts, etc.. Since I don’t airbrush or use a lot of colored cocoa butter, the mould shape is important for determining the chocolate flavor.

Another thought on the packaging front -- it is also an option to not use the plastic trays and to put your chocolates in paper cups. This gives you more options when picking molds and can allow you to make pleasant chocolate arrangements in your boxes based on the customer's selection of chocolates. Have a look at Chocolat's website to see some gorgeous tray-free chocolates in boxes https://chocolot.com/. Disclosure note: I do not use trays in my chocolate boxes and prefer the candy cup route.

I took the corned beef out of the packaging, rinsed it, dried it, cut it into ~1 pound pieces, sprinkled it with the included picking spice (because it was there — not sure it had any impact on the final product), bagged each piece, sealed, and sous vide’d Was worried it might be too salty and wondered if I should have given it an over night soak in water but it was delicious when done. I think the manufacturers are salting the pre-prepared corned beefs less than they used to. If you’re sensitive to salt, I would recommend an overnight pre soaking in water.

Not the best picture but this is the best corn beef I've ever made! @rotuts thank you for all your corn beef posts -- I couldn't resist any longer. So, one ~3 pound Wegmans flat cut corn beef brisket was split into thirds, bagged, and sous vide'd for 57 hours at 60C / 140F. Was going for a 48 hour cook but realized that my schedule would not allow for that. Found this post (https://anovaculinary.com/great-corned-beef-experiment/) and decided that pulling the corn beef after work vs. before work would be just fine. Yum!

A Selmi and no enrober! Still, no need for you to bring it -- we have hand dipped and fork dipped before and we can do it again. But... if a lot of people are going to be making bars... an enrober is a nice thing to have. Hmmm, maybe that is why I hardly ever make bars (I don't have a Selmi or an enrober). Kerry, thank you so much for all you do! I am looking forward to this year's workshop.

Kerry, I was just re-asking the question for Anna but I would encourage you to NOT lug a bunch of equipment to the college for panning. There will be plenty of other things for people to work on and learn about. Hoping you aren’t going to have to bring any equipment at all this year — except for an EZtemper and a Fuji.