weinoo

Hides the blood? I like Shelby's (oyster knife). I have the same one, and it has served me well. Long Island oysters are notorious for their thin shells and being a pain in the ass to shuck.

Cute story: On my pastry and baking final, I had to make a layer cake with genoise and buttercream. Nick Malgieri was my teacher and graded my cake. I ended up with an 80-ish grade, because I had too much buttercream in between the layers; and though I still finished with a blue ribbon diploma, that has always bugged me. Cutting a 12x18 genoise into 2 or 3 layers isn't the easiest thing either!

Yep, plenty of ciders here now. Upstate NY, particularly the Hudson River Valley, is providing lots of fun drinking.

He is well-known, amongst people who have had the pleasure of having food prepared by him, for his beautifully illustrated menus.

One of the things I would do when catering large events (much larger than 40, for example) would be to make a small cake for the couple or person being celebrated, and then cupcakes or a sheet cake for the masses. You need to make sure you can transport your finished product without fucking it up. As well as keeping it properly chilled if made the day before.

I would make a genoise in a sheet pan and a lemon buttercream. Go to the library and see if you can get Beranbaum's Cake Bible or a Nick Malgieri baking book like this one...Perfect Cakes. Now, since my guess is that you don't want to have to go to the library, they also have web sites: http://www.realbakingwithrose.com/ http://www.nickmalgieri.com/

I just find that with stainless, it's easier to follow the color of the nuts as they toast. And then when they reach the color you're looking for, dump 'em.

Does toasting in a stainless interior pan make it any easier? That's what I've "read."

Also, you may want to accomplish some of this:

Let us know, huiray, when you've cooked and made a career of it for 60-some years, including multiple cooking shows as well as seminal cookbooks.

They look like something I would get at Katz's - and, as Martha would say, that's a good thing!

That steak looks pretty perfect, basquecook.

Tennis ball sized beets?! Those are huge and probably woodier than, say, the beets Sam is cooking above (more like golf ball, I'd guess).

Why not just accept the fact that baking, making doughs, etc. is a little messy. As is most cooking. Take a look at a professional bakery or in a pizzeria - there's flour everywhere.

How big are beets that you braise in the oven for 3 hours? I think you'll have better luck steaming them - it certainly will take a lot less time.

Interesting that this was posted back in February: Shel_B, on 25 Feb 2014 - 2:48 PM, said:

Jamba Juice?

They might be able to get whatever organs you're looking for at Stachowski's. I find the seafood looks very good at the P Street Whole Foods. And there is a seafood vendor and a butcher in the Union Market. Excuse me - artisans.

So you're going for, what we would call in the Jewish deli world, full sours? Then do you refrigerate to slow the fermentation?

Shelby - how long does the fermentation last, or do you just leave them in the crock and they get more sour as time goes by?

The microwave oven seems almost to be a ubiquitous item in the kitchen of every friend I know who cooks. Everyone I know, even those who care very little for cooking, has and uses one. I don't own one, so, my questions are, if you don't use one, why, and what do you use in its stead?

Left to right: Dilly string beans Spicy dill cucumbers Turnips and beets Test batch fridge pickles.

There is nothing that can be used "in its stead." since it grates in a specific way. If I want something grated very fine and fluffy, I use one of my 3 microplanes. If not, I use a box grater, which my grandmother used to make potato latkes. When grating nutmeg, I use a nutmeg grater. When grating ginger, I use a ginger grater. Also, what lindag said.

Don't tell anyone I mentioned this, but I hear a favorite guzzle lately is a nice glass of cider invaded by a shot of Campari.

I like the organic poison.