ElainaA

For multiple perspectives on this topic (as well as recipes) read Alone in the Kitchen With an Eggplant: Confessions of Cooking for One and Dining Alone edited by Jenni Ferrari-Adler. It is a collection of essays by a wide variety of individuals - including M.F.K. Fisher, Marcella Hazan, Paula Wolfert and many who are not involved in the food industry - Nora Ephron and Haruki Murakami, for two - about what they cook when they cook only for themselves. Recipes included. I normally cook for two but I truly enjoy nights when I am home alone and can cook what ever I want. It may be as simple as a small steak and a baked potato or, more often, a salad with marinated veggies and maybe some shrimp. Or an omelet and and a glass of wine.

Curls: Thank you! I have no real excuse to make candy at any other time so I go all out at the holidays. Elaina

I finally have time to post some pictures of the candy I made for my holiday gift bags. The ones that look chrome plated are Greweling's Black Pearls. Given the name I thought some pearl luster dust would be a good idea but I think I over did it.

Because I love food and cooking, people frequently give me cookbooks. This year for Christmas I received one of the most bizarre I have seen - Fifty Shades of Chicken by FL Fowler. (I do not for a minute believe in that name.) Each recipe has a lengthy introduction written from the point of view of the chicken herself (free range, of course) and features bondage and s&m and a very dominating chef. I think I am flattered, at my age, that my niece was sure I would find it funny rather than offensive. Some of the recipes look good....

I got the one thing I asked for - saffron! I always want it but can't bring myself to pay the price. And it came with a bonus gift of vanilla beans! I hear a risotto calling me.........

Something I learned from Notter's Art of the Chocolatier and have found very helpful is to use a small triangular spatula to clean around the edges of the cavities. I got mine at J.B Prince.

Nibor: My daughter agrees with you so when she is home my cinnamon bread has no raisins. Blue cheese- but that is not really a dislike but an allergy - I rather like the taste but then I always vomit. Kidneys - but that may be that I have never had them presented really well. I really dislike anchovies - in my opinion one anchovy on a pizza swims across the whole pie.

We had duck for Thanksgiving, since none of my family really likes turkey. I use Julia Child's method from The Way to Cook (also in Julia Child and Company) for roast duck with cracklings ( although I omit the cracklings). You roast the whole duck for 30 minutes at 350. Then dismantle it - removing the breast meat ( taking off skin and fat) and the thighs and legs, separating them. The breast meat is sliced and poached in wine. The legs and thighs are coated in mustard, rolled in fresh bread crumbs and roasted at 400 for about 25 -30 minutes. She tells you to slice the skin and fat that you have removed and roast it as well for cracklings. Even I found that too fatty the first time I made this so I have omitted that step since, but the rest is wonderful.

There are great ideas here.I wish I could be organized enough to have made multi-serving meals for too busy times. I'm considering Charcterer's pork steak tomorrow. (My sweet husband is cooking tonight - salmon risotto, roasted broccoli and green salad. I'm de-stressing here before I go back to the paperwork while he stirs the risotto.)

Right now work is taking over my life - as in 2:00 am wakeful list making. And it is still very important to have something satisfying for dinner to bring a stressful day to an end. Tonight I found some Italian sausage in the fridge, sauteed it with onions and garlic, added some (home canned) diced tomatoes and poured it all over pasta. A very basic salad and a glass of wine made things feel better - even though I admit to grading two term papers while the pasta water came to a boil. So - what do you do when life comes down like a ton of bricks but you still want something satisfying for dinner? (I can use some ideas for tomorrow.) Elaina

I love Laurie Colwin!! Both Home Cooking and Home Cooking 2. Her novels are also wonderful - it is so sad that she died so young. Two others I would add Alone in the Kitchen With An Eggplant edited by Jenni Ferrair-Adler - a collection of essay about eating and dining alone with contributions from everyone from food people such as Marcella Hazan and Laurie Cowing (who wrote the title essay) to Nora Ephron and Ben Karlin )co-creator of the Colbert Report). Amanda Hesser's The Cook and the Gardener - the story of a year cooking in a chateau in France and her relationship with the eldrely gardener. Perhaps I love this because I am as much a gardener as I am a cook. It must be obvious that I love to read as much as I love to cook. Elaina

I seem to remember a thread on this topic but I can't find it. So forgive me if I repeat. is there a place to discuss books about cooking that do not include recipes? I just finished Laura Shapiro's Something From the Oven: Reinventing Dinner in 1950's America. She expleores the ways in which the food industry, with the help of the media, pushed the use of pre-prepared foods in the 1940's and 1950's - and chronicles the not always positive response. The disconnect between the marketers in the food industry and the real people cooking dinner in America is truly amazing - and the power of the industry to influence eating habits is , to me, truly frightening. This is a follow up to Shapiro's earlier book Perfection Salad:Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century,which focuses on the rise of home economists and the push for "scientific and hygienic" methods in the kitchen. Both are well written - both readable and thoroughly researched. And they certainly help me better understand both my mother and grandmother. Elaina

Interesting. I just bought 11 lbs of Callebaut 815 NV callets from Gygi for 49.98 which = 4.54 per lb. My whole order (including milk chocolate (5 lbs) and white chocolate (5.5 lbs) callets ) came to 109.95 plus 26.84 shipping - total= 136.79. I thought this was very reasonable.

Thanks for the replies. What I have is 56.8% - labelled as Belgian bittersweet callets. The Gygi website says they are Callebaut 815NV which is 3 drops on the Callebaut site. What unsettled me was their appearance - much more chocolate chip-esque than I expected. So I opened the bag and melted a handful of the little suckers - they melted beautifully. So I believe that I have my couverture for holiday candy making - and a plate of mendiants for immediate consumption. I am especially relieved because the price and service at Gygi were both very good so I really wanted everything to be as advertised so I can buy there again.

Although I have made chocolates for years as holiday gifts, this is the first year that I have purchased Callebaut callets rather than a 5 kg block. On various web sites I have seen various labels: Callebaut "chips", Callebaut callets, Callebaut baking callets (or "chips") and Callebaut "chips/callets. Chips is always in quotation marks. Are these all the same thing? On Callebaut's own site I see no mention of chocolate chips. The milk chocolate callets I purchased look like smooth discs. The bittersweet callets (that is what they are labelled) are smaller and do look more like flattened chips. I want to use this for both molded and dipped chocolates. So, I guess my second question is, will this chocolate work for my intended purpose? This seems the obvious place to turn for advice...............

As a follow up - My shipment from Gygi arrived today - in spite of UPS making my address as "affected by hurricane delays" (I'm in upstate NY). So - efficient, helpful and about the lowest prices I found.

I've recently spent hours researching this since my local source for Callebaut closed last year. (I think the very low prices they were charging may have had something to do with their closing.) I was not looking for large quantities so there may be cheaper sites if you are buying more. I ended up purchasing from Gygi: Belgian Bittersweet callets, 5.5lbs for 25.99, Belgian Milk chocolate callets, 2.5 lbs for 13.99, Belgian white callets, 5.5 lbs for 31.99. They also stock Guittard not E. Guittard) which was cheaper but I prefer Callebaut. They also had "non-Belgian" Callebaut, produced, I believe, in Canada, also cheaper. The people at Gygi's that I spoke to on the phone were extremely helpful. My order should come this week so I'll see if they are also efficient.

Thanks Edward - I'm going to try this. I'm hoping to include them with other candied fruit in my holiday candy boxes. Elaina

This is the problem that moved me from 'guest' to participant. I need some advice. This summer and fall, for the first time, I have been candying fruit using the method from Peter Greweling's Chocolates and Confections. The pears, cherries and orange slices were all successful. The plums - maybe not so much. I started with small red plums cut in half. When they got to about 65 brix I noticed that the center were still very opaque so I cut them in half again. I got the syrup to 75 brix and let them sit a few days while I was away. I checked them yesterday and they still have white, opaque center areas. So I brought everything to a boil and covered them up again. Will some additional soaking time take care of this? My understanding is that they should be translucent throughout or there will be a risk of spoilage. Should I throw them out? Any suggestions would be deeply appreciated.... Elaina