Mottmott

Just stop them: not yet thanks will do it. I certainly do.. But I am not always on gaurd. Plus I am a smoker in Manhattan, so there is some time when i am not there. And yet another way we pay for our "habits."

Just stop them: not yet thanks will do it. edited for afterthought: I think some people may feel intimidated or made uncomfortable by restaurant staff. Keep in mind, you're the customer/patron and have every right to accept or reject what is offered just as they have every right to offer and try to get you to "buy" more. That's their job: they're there to sell stuff to you, try to get you to return, and, hopefully, give them a generous tip. That said, I think the customer has some obligations, too, especially on a human level. Restaurant staff are working for a living. Absent some provocation, they are entitled to our respect. It's a job I'd never want to do. I appreciate it when it's done well. And when tipping, in addition to the server's competence, I do keep in mind how demanding my party has been, whether we've stayed overlong, or when I dine solo that I've halved the bill.

Think kugel. There must be a hundred, maybe a thousand versions of this noodle dish. Some savory, some dessert.

Curmudgeons and grumps, all of us! Personally, I always add 5% if the restaurant is good enough to keep going back to or if I've dined solo, but never for stupid pet tricks.

Thanks. My son & his family are staying with me now, so the basement fridge has to be kept cold enough to keep the freezer operative for the time being. When they finish renovating their house and move to it, I'll either reset (or replace) the basement fridge for wine.

Thank you so much for all that info. One more question, slightly OT for Tea: if a recipe for, say a panna cotta. custard, etc., calls for a couple teabags of lemon verbena, which is dried, how much fresh would you substitue to infuse the milk? And I assume you use only the leaves.

As a home cook, I can say that's a very bad chicken/egg notion. First many home cooks do have scales. Second, those who don't have scales don't have them because most cookbooks don't use weight measures. I bake much more since I've had a scale. It gives me much more confidence and eliminates the need to try to figure out how the writer measures flour.

You're right! Steamed shrimp are soooo great. The first time I did it, I intended to use the shrimp in another dish, but when I peeled one to test it, it was so good I wound up having steamed shrimp that night. I've pretty much giving up boiling them.

And if you have a pet who needs pills, nothing's better than a mortar for crushing them to add to food. Add the powder to a little baby food meat and even the most canny cat will melt.

I use foil (or parchment paper) on the stone all the time and see no difference other than not having a lot of gunk on my stone or cindered nubbins of cornmeal. You might find transferring the pizza easier if you put the foil on the peel and then slid it onto the stone. Actually, though I have a peel, I usually just use a cookie sheet. After all, it's not as though I'm putting it into a deep wood oven. I also like using the stone for at least part of the time I bake pie crusts. especially the rustic ones that aren't baked in a pan.

Lemon verbena and mint are rampaging my garden. I've made mint tea for years, even drying some to use over the winter. But so far, I've not used the lemon verbena. Do you use it fresh, dried, both? When in the midwest I used to make sassafras tea, but haven't seen sassafras in Phila. What other sorts of tissanes do you make. Do you use fresh or dried ingredients, grow them, purchase them? Mention was made of hibiscus (purchased). Can that be made from organic plants at home? Just the petals? Inquiring minds need to know.

I think it may depend upon what you make coffee in. I make drip coffee in a chemex (filter) coffeemaker. Note that I tend not to like very strong coffee, definitely not bitter coffee. So everyone has to adjust the measure to their taste. I grind the beans very fine and use about a heaping tsp per cup (probably measures at about 2/3 Tbs). I think the filter captures any bitterness from very fine grinding. I routinely use filtered water heated to 195-200. If I am making a single cup in the press, I dont grind it as fine as it will steep longer than in the chemex and not be filtered.

I use the bodum french press for a single cup of coffee, but when I want to make a larger amount I love using the chemex. The grounds stay up in the paper filter which can be easily tossed. If anything needs reheating, it can easily be done in a waterbath. I think there's some little contraption that you can order to use to keep it warm, but I've never bothered. (Or am I thinking of the Jena teapot contraption which I also don't use?)

Several people speak of keeping wine in a fridge. Isn't the 35-40f temp too low for storing wines, particularly reds?

I used the recipe with the cornstarch and it turned out fine, though a bit less firm than when I've made it with flour. In this case it worked for me as I made individual tarts and used the leftovers as a sauce. It would have been too runny in a single large tart.

The sequel: WF gave me a credit without even checking anything other than their weight/price tag.

I bought it late in the day on the 17th, meaning to but didn't get to cook it the next day. I went to do cook it on the 19th (last night) and am returning it today. When I've bought chicken (which I never let hang over), I had the gap from packing to expiration go longer than that! As for cooking it up, I intended to cook part and freeze the rest. The only reason I discovered its poor condition is that I had scissored off the web-like sleeve the deboned roast was in so as to cut it in half. (Even if roasting the whole thing, I always take off that awful web and retie with twine. BTW: Who invented that web? Yuck. Edited to add: the reason I took a big wiff was that the meat felt oddly slimy as I was cutting it. This isn't the first time I've bought a large roast and cut it up myself, but it's the first time it hasn't seemed fresh.

You're right about keeping the fridge cold. I think lots of them aren't cold enough. I keep a thermometer in mine so I know it's not that. I was going to take it back anyway, but I wanted some moral support. It's not stinking and slimy, just not quite seeming fresh.

How long should you be able to keep pork shoulder in the fridge before using it? I have a 2 day old pork shoulder that strikes me as a bit off. (It was wrapped in butchers wrap, not prepackaged in plastic on one of those trays.) I will take it back to the store tomorrow, but am I being overly cautious? Or was it hanging out at Whole Foods too long?

A mouthful.

I want some! What else is in them? pistachio? little red bits?

I suggest as a trial run, take a floor plan (to scale) with your current layout and get a price on the new cabinets & counter for a general idea of what you're heading towards. Take a sedative with you to deal with the sticker shock.

WOW. That's thoroughness at work. It's interesting the variation in answers from chef to chef. The one that floored me was the distance between almond pastry cream and 8 days and Hermes unequivocal 2 days. The dicey element of eggs is in both. Do almonds have preservative qualities? For those of us who live alone, or even coupled, it would be nice to be able to freshly make some of the more complex confections in just one or two servings. Now I'm not about to make just one - or even two blackberry tartlets or two eclairs, etc., from raw ingredients whenever I want one. But I can make a batch of pate brisee, roll it out, cut it into rounds to fit my tart pan, freeze them flat separated for individual baking. It would be nice to have little ziplock bags of pastry cream, frangipane, etc., just enough to fill one of these tarts. In a single session, one could have on hand the basic elements for a quick fruit tart that is freshly baked, and simply assemble and bake them when desired. I do this with scones. I'll make up a batch of a couple dozen at the same time, bake and take some to my kids and freeze the rest. Baking up a couple for breakfast to have with some homemade preserves and a good cup of coffee is a delightful treat. Professional chefs learn how to stage their production so that each serving only needs final assembly. I think whether one is a busy mother trying to feed a large family or one is doing solo cooking, this practice gives you a little more range. The problem for me in pastry making is to learn what this can be done with and what must be done at the very last minute. Hmmm. Is there a cookbook concept there? Or an eGCI class?

Life in the real lane. Many people don't understand that many bakeries use mixes and frozen goods, baking them up and implying "made here." Maybe you should do a little leaflet about your place, your philosophy, your personal history as a pc, the sources for your food supplies, emphasizing that you do not use ANY premixes or frozen stuff that you just bake off, etc. You could even give some suggestions about how to incorporate your pastries into more complex desserts, plating and garnishing suggestions, etc.