curls

When I add butter to a ganache, I do not melt it. I start with the chocolate and cream, get those in an emulsion and then add the room temperature/softened butter and stir it in. I tend to mix by hand, starting in the center and working my way out (as Ruth described up thread). If the hand mixing is not working, I may bring out the stick blender. Also, if it won't emulsify, I will slowly add a liquid (something that works with the flavor of the ganache) that contains little or no fat (a similar process to fixing a broken mayonnaise). What happens if you try cutting down the cream in your recipe?

Almond cookies... pre-bake and baked

Sounds like a great alternative plan. Looked at Soma's website... very interesting! Hopefully these renovations are taking place between semesters... otherwise, will the chefs and students at Niagara College have somewhere else to cook while these renovations are taking place?

Rob, you are keeping your knives... right? Or do those go with the business?

When I attended Junior high school we made apple cider and wine in Chemstry class and used regular / bread yeast. Tasty experiment and no illness or death due to ingesting yeast. I think you should at least try the wine Thanks for the Crepes.

Last of the peaches I brought home with me became Peach & Earl Grey tea jam. I think this is my last bit of canning for the season. Weather is getting cooler; soon it will be time to make chocolates!

Six jars of tomato jam. Recipe from http://foodinjars.com/2010/09/tomato-jam/... I added 1/2 teaspoon ground chipotle pepper but other than that I followed the recipe and really like it.

Crisp Peach Cobblers (from Smitten Kitchen's blog). Very juicy & tasty peaches. One cobbler went to work and the pie plate came back very clean. :-)

Shelby, thank you so much for your summer blog. It was wonderful reading about a week in your life and you gave me the courage and inspiration to put up some tomatoes.

Traditional Baltimore rainbow cake. Took a great class with Ann Amernick in May and learned how to make two classic Baltimore desserts (rainbow cake & chocolate topped cookies). For anyone in the DC / Maryland /Virginia area interested in baking, I highly recommend scheduling a class with Ann Amernick. Feel free to PM me for more details. The rainbow cake is vanilla cake with raspberry jam between the cake layers and topped with a chocolate fudge icing.

Enjoying peach season with a peach coffeecake.

Yes, the pine nuts could cause a guitar wire to break. You could give it a gentle try and reverse course if you encounter too much resistance. Please let us know what you decide to do.

Themapen for $79 - closeout sale on blue Themapens.

In the Dupont Cirle area I recommend Little Serow For Penn Quarter I recommend: Teaism Jaleo

The Oval Room, that Alex mentioned, is a great recommendation and is near the White House. Do you think that you will be in the Penn Quarter area or the Dupont Circle area... I can make some recommendations for those areas. Hope you enjoy your trip to DC!

The area near the Smithsonian museums does not have any good restaurants that I know of... the cafeteria at the National Museum of the American Indians is supposed to have the best food in the area. Where is your lodging? Perhaps we can recommend some restaurants in that area. Will you have a car? Are you willing to take the Metro (subway)?

What parts of the DC area are you going to be visiting? What sort of food are you interested in? What is your price range? The range of options runs from The Inn at Little Washington to food trucks. The Washington Post and Washingtonian magazine both have websites with lots of local information, events, and reviews. You may also want to peruse DonRockwell.com (a DC area dining site).

Yes, weinoo is right, DC is not a great place for BBQ. Maybe you would like some other recommendations... we do have a lot of good restaurants.

Those meltalways look nice. What flavor are they? Beautiful sunrise! Great looking sandwiches. Thank you for all the photos. Looking for my tart pan yesterday I rediscovered my flan pan. Guess I'm ready to host my own 60's desserts party. :-)

Peach & plum tart with almond cream (based on recipe in the Bouchon Bakery cookbook). Not the most photogenic tart but it was very tasty. :-)

Drat, now I see another mold that I like. Was always wondering about that flower / daisy mold. Is it a 10 - 11 gram mold?

Thanks Shelby. It is a Nordic Ware pan I bought a few years ago.

I was also wondering what that contraption is but was waiting for all to be revealed.

Baked two pound cakes for Father's Day and served them with a sauce made from fresh peaches and vanilla ice cream. Baked some snickerdoodles this weekend from "The All-American Cookie Book" by Nancy Baggett. They turned out really well.

So, what is the verdict... do you like the Lebanon bologna (not sweet!)? I like it quite a bit but I don't care for the sweet version at all. Very nice dinner.