Ling

My ex liked gnocchi; I made it for him by hand several times a few years ago. I used a fork with the tines dipped in flour--but those gnocchi boards are cool! I've never bought the gnocchi that comes in packages. How does homemade gnocchi compare? What sort of sauces did you all make for the gnocchi?

I do like Lee's donuts, but donuts aren't my favourite things to eat. Then again, how bad can fried, sugared dough be? But I'd much rather choose a pastry than eat a donut.

Cioppino's Enoteca is fully booked for Friday and Saturday night this week.

^Do you use the recipe in Baking with Julia? That's the one I use...baking time is 375 for 25-30 minutes too. I just use the baking times as a guide. Just take them out when they're golden brown. I usually start looking for doneness 10 minutes before a cake is supposed to be ready, and for cookie recipes that are supposed to be done in 12 minutes or so, I don't even leave the kitchen.

What a great blog! I love molten chocolate cakes...they are so easy to do, and so rich. I adore the picture of your cat with the hat.

I really like the idea of cooking recipes from Recipe Gullet!

-beef tendon and noodles, but not the gristly bits you get in pho. I only like the lovely, lusciously soft tendon at Chinese noodle shops. (I get it at No. 9 all the time. One of the few edible things on the menu.) -beef brisket with coconut curry (I like Deer Garden and Mui Garden)

So I decided to hit up a bunch of bakeries today in search for lemon tarts...first up was Patisserie LeBeau. I think they are closed on Mondays--or have they closed their W. 2nd location for good? I scanned the notice on the door--I thought they said that their pastries could be bought from Caper's and Stong's, but I must have misunderstood--I think they only supply their waffles to those grocery stores. Anyway, I could not find Ganache Patisserie, no matter how many times I looped around downtown. Yes, I know I've been there before. I will have to print up a map and try again. So I went to Sen5es and they had lovely lemon tarts in their pastry case. I like the look of these tarts--they are smaller in diameter, and a bit taller than the ones I usually see. The curd is brushed with a glaze, and the tarts are garnished with edible flowers. (I will upload pictures later.) The quality of the lemon tarts at Sen5es reflect the price (just over 6 bucks with tax). The curd is sharp and tangy, and softer than the (imo, less refined) curds that are thickened with too much butter. The crust is not very crisp (something I find common with the tarts at Sen5es), but it had a good flavour and I believe their recipe for pate sucre may contain ground almonds. This tart crust is much sweeter than the one at Caper's, but it matches well with the tangier lemon curd. I also went to La Petite France in search of lemon tarts, but they are closed on Mondays. Last stop was Caper's, since I thought they might have the Patisserie LeBeau lemon tarts. No luck--all of Caper's baked goods are baked in-store. The tart crust here is crisp, and lighter in colour than the tarts at Sen5es. There is, however, much less complexity in flavour, and the curd (though tangy), contains too much egg and whipping cream for me. Price is about $2 with tax.

I had 2 lemon tarts today--one from Sen5es and one from the bakery at Capers (an upscale grocery store). The one from Sen5es was definitely tastier (but it was also three times the price).

^You're right. I just woke up (it's around noon in Vancouver). I'm really dumb in the morning.

^I left a message late at night on Cioppino's machine...they will call back and confirm. *fingers crossed* ETA: I have over 2000 posts! Where's my prize?

err...Nutella straight from the jar.

^My cookies spread out as much as Patricks, but I used half the amount of nuts and also my butter was quite soft.

I buy from Oyama too. I've checked everywhere...Meinhardt, Les Amis, etc. Oyama is the cheapest I've found.

I prefer Italian buttercream over French buttercream. The amount of butter used is rich enough--it needs the egg whites to lighten it. I don't like the heavy feeling of butter coating my tongue. Also, a rich cake with French buttercream seems like overkill to me.

-filet mignon -Fanny Bays with lemon -lamb chops -kalbi -prawns and garganelli in cream sauce -sirloin -chicken skewers -baked salmon -caramel cheesecake -bittersweet chocolate cookies with walnuts -lots of wine

^I could post a pic of my Bittersweet cookies, but they are slightly less regularly shaped and not nearly as pretty. I forgot to add that I scaled down the sugar b/c I only had semi-sweet chocolate left in the cupboard, so I used that. They are fantastic! One of the best chocolate cookie recipes I've ever used!

Cacao Berry makes an orange-flavoured dark chocolate. You could use that for the cake next time, or serve the cake with an orange-flavoured ganache.

Are the muffins served with the main course, or after dinner as a dessert?

chefpeon and nightscotsman--Thanks so much for posting your tweaks. I'll have to try the new version, and I'm sure it's better than the Epicurious recipe b/c everything makes sense on why you switched out/added the ingredients you did.

Our Thanksgivings are a hodge-podge of traditional western dishes, and Chinese dishes. I usually do the western dishes and the desserts, and my mom does the Chinese dishes. My dad is in charge of the turkey and the gravy. This is what I typically cook: -this sourdough, artichoke, and sausage stuffing (the recipe I use is on Epicurious, but I use like three times the amount of sausage it calls for. Plus I dump in a whole bunch of cheese...it bakes up in a gooey, porky mess but it's so delicious. This is always the most popular side dish.) -creamed spinach -some sort of potato dish (gratin or mashed with lots of butter, sour cream, and chives) -cornbread...I confess I like the Yankee cornbread more, so yes, I do the version with the sugar in a cast iron skillet -a selection of desserts, but cheesecake is always something I do on Thanksgiving. I've done the Cappucino Fudge cheesecake on Epicurious before, and sometimes I do a caramel one. -at least 2 more of the following: classics like apple pie, pecan pie, lemon tarts, and I did a chocolate, chestnut, cognac mousse cake a few years back. I've done sticky toffee pudding several times too. -sometimes I do a cookie tray too, with the same stuff that I do at Christmas--gingerbread, shortbread, and a few other new recipes that catch my eye -this year I'm adding some sort of cheese/bacon biscuit, profiteroles (Pichet Ong's recipe) stuffed with smoked salmon and cream cheese We only have one oven so I do everything on the days before Thanksgiving, and reheat the day of the dinner. The cheesecake is done 4 days in advance, and the pies and cakes are baked 1 day in advance. My mom does a bunch of traditional Chinese dishes, like the Buddhist feast, braised shiitake and greens, these little egg crepes filled with minced, seasoned beef/pork, prawns, a bunch of Chinese vegetable dishes that only the adults eat, and some sort of Chinese soup (my favourite is fish maw!) And then after dinner, we usually pig out on chocolate and alcohol. ETA: I forgot, I also do a plain cake (usually chiffon) for the old Chinese people who don't like desserts that contain chocolate, or are too rich.

Wednesday lunch: The Deli at the UBC SUB. Had my first Jamaican beef patty--ugh, meat-flavoured paste encased in pastry. Ate the pastry, scrapped out the filling. I'll stick to the samosas and the date bars from now on. Friday dinner: Gym Crush boy and I were late for our 8:30pm reservation at Nu, but I had called and was happy to see that our table was still available when we arrived 20 minutes late. And what a nice table it was--secluded, with a prime view of False Creek at night. Edwin gave us a few cocktails to start--I believe it was the 1578, which is composed of Cockspur Barbados amber rum, Nu crabapple reduction, crushed allspice, cinnamon, lime and lemon juice, according to the website. Our server, Claire, was attentive and very pleasant. We ate the fried oysters with beer, cheese-filled crackers with bacon, the roasted marrow with apple and mint salad, and the duck confit with foie gras pull-apart, the pork belly with pears. I had also ordered the lamb cheeks, but that dish must have proved especially popular that night, as we received lamb collar with radish instead (after being politely informed of the change). No matter--the lamb was our favourite dish of the evening. We were also given a dish of the dungeness crab gratin. I drank the Joie Gewurtz/Muscat (delicious! One of my favourite whites) and the Blue Mountain Gamay. (My date's allergic to alcohol, so he drank...orange juice I downed both our cocktails earlier too, although he insisted on putting my empty glass in front of him so he wouldn't feel emasculated. ) We were presented with glasses of tawny port, a lemon tart, and a chocolate mousse and finished with coffee and tea. It was a fun evening, and I can't say enough about the service. Pictures will be uploaded in a few days. Saturday The plan was to have my birthday dinner with my family tonight, but I had to rush an assignment so we got take-out coconut beef curry from Deer Garden in Richmond.

Their dark chocolate is good, but I agree that the milk is too sweet and well...milky. ← Yeah...I only enjoy bittersweet chocolate. Today's lunch was a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich. And a banana. (I feel 5 years old.)

I made some homemade caramel for another dessert, so I spooned some caramel over some chocolate cake I have in the freezer. Mmm...that was a tasty lunch. (Well, I had a Nutella and peanut butter sandwich too, just so I could fit in some more chocolate in there.) Ruth--those cookies are sooo good! Yes, very nice and rich, but I could not stop at just one cookie, like you did! ETA: I only had about 1 cup of walnuts, and I scaled the sugar down to 1/3 cup. I think I could scale it down some more next time. But they are good!

Such beautiful pictures, everyone! This is one of the cutest threads ever. MissJane: I hope one day I'll be able to pipe flowers half as well as you do!