Ling

Thank-you...I often get PMs about the type of camera I use and I'm always kind of embarrassed because I have a really, really old camera with limited functions. It's a Cyber-shot 3.2 Megapixel from Sony. I don't use a tripod or a strobe. I use natural lighting and just try to hold the camera as still as possible. Yes, I brighten them and sharpen them in Photoshop. Sometimes it makes a difference, like when I'm dining out and the dining room is quite dim. And sometimes it doesn't make much of a discernible difference--the original chocolate cherry pound cake photo looks virtually identical to the one I enhanced.

^hhlodesign and I are in the PNW episode!

Did you eat the ginger cheesecake for dinner? How did you like it? Is must the same as vincotto?

^Yes, but rarely (if ever) does one eat an entire mooncake. Even I can't eat an entire mooncake!

^I don't think they are anything particularly special...I usually buy a bag of chocolate chips and then empty them into a glass canister, so I'm not 100% sure of the brand. It's probably Ghirardelli.

I made the Olivia chocolate chip cookies this afternoon. Delicious!

The sun came out so I got a decent shot of the chocolate cherry pound cake I made yesterday. I ate this for a mid-morning snack. Mmmm... This afternoon, I made the chocolate chip cookies out of the Macrina cookbook. They're really good. I had this as my mid-afternoon snack!

^That was my knee-jerk reaction too, that the recipe would be better if the amount of flour was reduced by 1 cup or so. The rest of the proportions look like it would work with 3 cups of flour instead of 4. Today I made the chocolate cherry pound cake. It was quite tasty. The only changes I made were a modest reduction in sugar, and I soaked the cherries in brandy before adding them to the batter. I would definitely make this again. ETA: I should've paid heed to Leslie's warning that this is a very rich cake...the rather generous slice I ate after dinner is sitting like a brick in my stomach.

Today, I made the chocolate cherry pound cake from the Macrina cookbook. It is tasty, but unfortunately rather unphotogenic by nature as it contains a ton of cocoa and a slice shows up as a rectangular black square on the plate.

Amazing menu, Eden. Could you perhaps tell us more about how you interpreted these dishes for the modern palate...or are you making them as they were written?

This is one of my favourite desserts: Stilton cheesecake I used toasted nuts in the crust.

^I'm glad you liked it. I can't say spice cake is one of my favourite cakes on its own...I definitely think it needs a nice ladle of warm caramel (preferably boozy). Did you make the Jack Daniels/Cream Soda jelly yourself, or is it a commercial product? I think the spice cake would also go nicely with Pierre Herme's lemon cream recipe.

Yes, puff pastry is done with folds and turns, but you allow the dough to relax in the fridge after each fold, so it takes quite a few hours to make from start to finish...even though the "active" time is not nearly that long. In pie dough, you want to keep the fat solid and in pieces. As it melts, the water creates steam which in turn puffs up the dough so it becomes flaky. In puff pastry, the fat is laminated over each sheet of dough (which itself contains very little fat.) As the fat and steam melts, each layer is puffed up uniformly. It is therefore entirely different from pie dough, and refolding pie dough will just lead to the fat becoming increasingly incorporated into the dough (which is NOT what you want), and the dough also gets tougher the more you work it without resting.

How exciting! My exposure to 16th century Italian food is limited to what I read in Peter Elbling's The Food Taster, so I know I will learn a lot this week.

How beautiful and creative! I am really impressed.

^I tried googling a recipe for you, but unfortunately I couldn't find one. *** I just had (leftover) dimsum from some friends who went to the Kirin at Cambie just now, and though I really appreciate the food, it wasn't as good as what I've had at the Kirin in Richmond. Perhaps it is because I'm eating this stuff reheated, but my boyfriend who was at the lunch apparently also felt the same way. It was still pretty good dim sum though, and I don't think anyone would be disappointed at this location. So there's another two votes for the Kirin in Richmond to add to the mix for "best dim sum" in town. I also had an incredible spicy/slightly sour pork dish at Top Shanghai the other day...it is "yu xiang ro si" in Mandarin. I love this dish and Top Shanghai does an incredible job with it.

Fascinating! I've never had mincemeat either, and await your verdict.

Beautiful cake! I love how you did the peanut butter bark. It reminds me of the topping on a Dobos Torte. Yesterday was the last of the cheesecake, some gingersnaps, and at Feenie's--sticky toffee pudding with nutmeg ice-cream, and a trio of ice-cream/sorbets (caramel fleur de sel, poire williams, and cherry.)

Its the first time I've carved anything like that - it was very fun - velveeta is a surprisingly good sculpture media. It took me about 3 hours. I want to carve a hole in the top of his head and put chips in it. ← DO IT!!!

Garden City is in Richmond. I only know of one Floata, and that's in Parker Place, which is in Richmond. ETA: My mistake. Google says there's also a Floata on Keefer St. in Chinatown. I haven't been there.

That's too bad. The tart was probably stored in the fridge (not frozen), and the butter in the sweet pastry probably hardened up. *** I had a great dinner at Rare. We ordered off the City Dine menu, and had a few extra items from the regular menu. I have pictures but posting links are not allowed, so PM me if you want to see them.

Floata is in Richmond, and a bit of a drive from GM. You might want to try the Kirin on Cambie...that seems to be the consensus on what's "best" for dim sum in Vancouver/Richmond, and it is much closer to your hotel.

Hmm...you could do a pork rind chocolate bar. You could flavour the dark chocolate with cinnamon, cayenne, anything to give it a bit of Mexican heat. You could crisp up pieces of pork rind and use it as the "crispies" in the chocolate bar...maybe do some kind of flavoured nougat layer as well. Or you could do a tasting set of three childhood favourite candies/treats. One pork rind chocolate bar, maybe a chicken skin lollipop (seasoned, on a stick, covered in caramelized sugar), and one other...perhaps a fruit-flavoured treat. Maybe a orange/Grand Marnier cream tart with duck fat pastry (duck a l'orange?)

^That's good to hear! How did you find the texture? It has less butter than I would expect in a recipe with 4 cups of AP flour, but other than that, the recipe looks really good. Is there anything you would do next time with the lemon cherry cake that you think may improve it? Another one that caught my eye is the chocolate cherry pound cake, and the steamed chocolate pudding cake that's pictured on the back cover.

Yes, it is. Boo hoo.