Ling

I think 4x the recipe would be fine, since each cake serves about 12 quite generously. I'm not sure the filling would make a good plate squiggle, because it's quite lumpy with the nuts...I don't think it would look too attractive on the plate. I'm not sure about the crowd you're baking for...caramel sauce would be nice for kids, and roasted carrot jam would be a cool idea for the grown-ups.

I had a piece of the cake I made yesterday night. Picture to come!

Change of location: I'll be at HSG at 7:15pm tonight handing out cake to my taste-testers.

That sounds like my idea of heaven. Pie is so comforting; pie is love! Is "Japanese fruit pie" popular in Japan? I've never heard of it. Are the raisins, pecans, and coconut mixed in some sort of brown sugar/butter/corn syrup filling like a pecan pie?

I love giving food gifts. I give my best friend's parents cake and stuff all the time, for no special reason. I give cookies and brownies most often, because they are easy to transport. For the holidays, I do fancier plates with several different types of baked goods...I usually gave those to my then-bf's parents. I also give pies, biscotti, and cheesecakes. This year I plan on adding jars of lemon curd!

^Don't worry. Sometimes all 3 of my meals are desserts. My snacks, too. And I'm still alive.

I probably can't afford the airfare or the tuition at Duke, especially if your idea of education involves Jean-Georges. I have my hands full paying for my own education, car, clothing, living expenses, etc. Furthermore, I'm not sure we share the same philosophy on food and friends. Besides, I'm a horrible driver. You shouldn't let a simpleton like me within 10 ft. of your super expensive car. I mentioned in my earlier post that I do take joy when a friend can tell the difference between my cakes and a Safeway cake, but I don't judge a friend who doesn't appreciate food the way I do. Is a friend to be looked down upon simply because he likes Kraft dinner? Should he look down on me simply because I don't understand hockey? I should hope true friendship is not based on something superficial. It's lamentable that cooking has somewhat of an oppressive connotation for women. Not every woman feels that way, though. I think being in the kitchen is one of the most liberating places to be, both creatively and artistically.

^No...here's a link to the current Prix Fixe menu. It's available before 6 pm. prix fixe

^Only Valrhona bars. They also have Cacao Berry couverture chocolate if you do truffles, and Callebaut feves. ETA: Here is the finished cake. I've already did my taste test, and finished the leftover ganache and buttercream. I am sooooo full. There were 2 that I liked about the same, but I did in fact prefer one over the other. I'm excited to see what my brave taste-testers think tomorrow! (Sorry about the messy kitchen and the foil around the bottom of the cake...it was just a quick picture.) cake

I've pudged out quite a bit....haha.

Today is the levelled tops of 2 more chocolate cakes--one made with Valrhona cocoa, and one made with an organic cocoa. I'm eating them with the fleur de sel caramel buttercream and taste-testing the caramel ganache. Also had a red bean ice-cream thing. ETA: here's the finished cake. Sorry about the messy kitchen and the foil around the bottom of the cake... caaaaaaaaake

Just this afternoon, I spent over $100 on chocolate at Gourmet Warehouse. Oh well. This is officially the most expensive cake I've ever done. I picked up another box of Valrhona cocoa, as I've been out for awhile, and a box of an organic cocoa. There was no Callebaut cocoa there--there was a package of Callebaut mousse mix or something, but no cocoa. So the 4 cocoas will be Bensdorp, Valrhona, the organic one, and Bernard Callebaut. I also stocked up on Manjari, unsweetened Valrhona (I haven't seen this anywhere in Vancouver), 64% E. Guittard, and Scharffen Berger unsweetened. I mentioned in an earlier post that the SB is now $25, but it's only $16 at Gourmet Warehouse! (I left behind one bar in the fridge...so grab it quick if you want it!) And I've decided to add fleur de sel to the caramel buttercream too.

I render my own schmaltz. I use them mainly for roast potatoes--they are definitely 10x better than roast potatoes coated with olive oil, imo.

Ling! Where are you? ← Here I am...didn't see this thread until now. I'm a college-aged woman and I love cooking! I am actually one of the earlier active members in the Vancouver forum. I've been baking from scratch since I was in grade 6, and I haven't looked back since. I bake almost everyday. One of the items I'm putting together this week is a 4 layer chocolate cake, with each layer made from a different premium cocoa (I am running a taste-test to see how they stack up against one another.) The cake will contain an Italian caramel buttercream, and be enrobed in Pierre Herme's caramel chocolate ganache. I love perusing the gourmet markets for different chocolates, Granville Island, Les Amis for cheeses, and going to different bakeries for breads. Quality ingredients are very important to me, so I buy the very best that I can afford. My friends love that I can cook, because I feed them all the time. Sadly, I don't know anyone else my age who cooks, or loves food half as much as I do (one of the reasons why I spend so much time on Egullet), but my friends are slowly learning. They can tell the difference between a baked good made from a quality chocolate like Valrhona, and a decent chocolate like Baker's now. My friends who have moved out are living on Subway, McDonald's and instant noodles. They are always asking me how to do the simplest things, like how to boil an egg. I don't dismiss them as being inferior in any way, merely because they don't have the same cooking skills that I do, or even chide them for eating McCain's frozen pizza (and enjoying it), because I understand that food is less important to them. However, it is a bit disheartening when I see many people my age unable to appreciate the joy that making a meal--from sourcing the best ingredients, to cooking, to plating the dish artistically--can bring to the cook. Nothing makes me happier than seeing the revelation on someone's face when they taste a quality version of a dish they've had for the first time. There are a lot of factors why I think many of the people my age don't cook, and can't cook. A very common reason, unfortunately, is laziness. Food is cheap in Vancouver, and there isn't much motivation to learn how to cook when you can get something decent for $6. Also, many of my friends don't know where to start--they were not taught how to cook when they were younger, and aren't interested in reading cookbooks or even watching FoodTV (I know, I know...but everyone has to start somewhere!) And lastly, they are all busy people...there's school, work, friends, bfs and gfs, the gym, sports...the list goes on. Learning to cook isn't a priority because they know they can get run to McDonald's if they're hungry, and since eating is often just to fill a void, it doesn't matter what is going in their stomach (and this is true for both guys and girls). I don't think agree with Ramsey's views as they seem to pertain solely to women, and are therefore sexist. Perhaps it is debatable whether the direct quote (which is used loosely in the title of the article) is sexist, but certainly his general tone comes across as being quite offensive to me.

$1000 is too steep for my student budget. That'd wipe out my clothing budget for the next six weeks!! Seriously though, if I made more money, I would probably buy a ticket for this event and consider it an early Christmas gift to myself. Everyone has a different opinion on what's "outrageous" and what's worth its price.

Chicken schnitzel with spaetzel, a really good chocolate souffle, shared a lemon tart, and a bite of cheesecake. The souffle was the best part.

I had a really good chocolate souffle today, and split a lemon meringue tart. Also had a taste of cheesecake. After dinner, I had chocolate cake.

^I forgot to mention that during the last 10 minutes of baking, I like to pour a thick river of caramel sauce on top of the cake, then return it to the oven. The cake isn't completely soaked through with sauce when it comes out of the oven, but it does get moist and sticky. Then top your slice with another ladle of caramel sauce and you're set.

Thanks for bringing up this thread. I'm going to have to try Sherry Yard's caramel sauce. Sticky toffee pudding is one of my favourite fall/winter treats.

I can put together a good breakfast too (with scones made from scratch, natch.) I guess I should add that at Joe's, I've never strayed from the omelettes, so I don't know how the rest of the breakfast food fares. Grilled waffles sound good to me, though.

I had the chicken schnitzel with spaetzel and the chocolate souffle today. I agree with some of the other posters who commented that some sauce would be nice with the schnitzel. (Not that the chicken was dry, but sauce is comforting, and diner food should illicit memories of your mom's hearty home-cooking ) The spaetzel was nice--chewy, peppery. I liked Mooshmouse's meatloaf better though. The souffle was indeed excellent--nice crust, very moist and airy on the inside. I also tried the lemon meringue tart. The curd is a bit too sweet and rich for me, and the meringue was also quite sweet. The meringue is crisp--think burnished meringue cookies. I concur with canucklehead's comment about the waiting period for the food. Lunch today for 6 ppl took much longer than I anticipated, although I didn't mind so much because the company was good.

Welcome, ElizR! I had dinner at The Hermitage 2 years ago for Dine Out. http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...ndpost&p=503796 (It was an OK experience, but I haven't been back for their regular dinner. I'm interested in going there again though, if you say it's consistently good. )

^You know, I've always wanted to try the Aurora brunch menu, but too bad I have to work on Sundays. Damn...I've read a lot of good things about it. No smoked sablefish hash for me. But if you're looking for a more casual experience, I would suggest Joe's Grill on W. 4th too.

I was a pretty mean kid too! I remember there was like, a month, when my parent kept buying Chinese napa cabbage. We ate as a side dish every night at dinner. Naturally, I got sick of it, and I was really annoyed that my little brother enjoyed it so much (that was probably one of the reasons why my parents kept buying it!) Anyway, napa cabbage is pronounced "siew choy" in Cantonese. One day, my brother and I were alone in the kitchen, eating instant noodles with Chinese sausage and napa cabbage. My brother asked me, "Why does siew choy look yellowish?" And I responded, "Well, 'siew choy' is not the real name of the vegetable. The secret is that it's really called 'liew choy' ('liew' in Cantonese means 'urine'! ) but farmers had to change the name because no one would want to buy it if they knew how it was grown!" And then I made up some story about how farmers...err...fertilize this vegetable everyday in the field, hence the yellowish colour. My brother spat out the vegetable and I got in trouble when he repeated the story to my parents at the dinner table.

^That apple crumble sounds particularly good. I baked off 2 cakes today, using my standard chocolate cake recipe. One was made with Bensdorp cocoa, and the other was made with Bernard Callebaut cocoa. (I have 2 more to make this week--one with Valrhona cocoa, and the other...perhaps the Callebaut cocoa, which is different from the Bernard Callebaut.) So I split the 2 cakes when they came out of the oven, and reserved the nicer halves for the chocolate layer cake I'm making this week--4 layers, each made with a different cocoa. I have my taste-testers lined up. They will be filled with an Italian caramel buttercream, and glazed with Pierre Herme's caramel chocolate ganache. The less beautiful halves (the tops of the cakes) are for me to eat...hee hee! The others are wrapped and in the freezer.