Ling

Irishgirl gave me six of her beautiful croissants, and I baked them this morning. They were incredibly buttery and flaky, yet the crust was so delicate. Delicious!

That sounds great! We might only be able to drop by briefly at Nu though, since I have to work at 9am Sunday morning...

Oh right--Rocky mentioned Monsoon! I would recommend Monsoon for your Asian meal over Rocking Wok for sure. EGer Klary just got back from a whirlwind three-week eating tour of the PNW and she picked her meal at Monsoon as the highlight.

Yes, that's when my night's just getting started!

I'm interested in checking out George, if possible. If we went before dinner, say around 7pm, would it be less busy? I've walked by George around 11pm-12am many times, and the room is always packed with a line out the door.

Of the three places you've narrowed down for lunch, I like Phnom Penh best. I don't particularly care for the Cambodian-style pho dishes, but I love the rare beef with green peppers and anchovy, the butter beef, the fried squid, and the fried chicken wings. I think these are probably the most popular dishes--you'll probably notice that almost every table in the restaurant will have at least two of these dishes. Dinner at Feenie's is going to be a bit late (8:45pm). Have you considered having a pre-dinner drink somewhere?

I actually won a small contest in naming this restaurant ← Was there a prize - or just a surprise - for winning the contest? ← I have no idea, actually. One of the friends of the owner said there might be a prize (or a discount?) in store for me but I haven't pursued it and he hasn't mentioned anything again.

Grand Marnier cheesecake (and an out-of-season strawberry )

I'm also quite sure you overbeat the batter once you started adding the eggs. There was too much air incorporated, so it souffled in the oven and then fell once it started cooling. Coincidentally, I also made a cheesecake yesterday and it baked up flat with no cracks. I add the eggs one by one with the mixer on low speed, and I actually turn off the mixer and mix by hand for the last egg because I worry about overbeating. I bake at 325 as well, with pans of water in the oven so the cheesecake cooks gently.

You could also consider Rocking Wok for your Asian meal. I do love their thousand-layer pancake! (I love the banh xeo at Green Leaf and would definitely recommend it if you decide to go there!) If you don't have lunch plans already, I'd head to Porcella in Bellevue and get their charcuterie platter. You didn't mention breakfast...but I would head either to Cafe Besalu for their danishes, or to Belle's Buns in Pike Place market for one of their lovely brioche.

whoops, my mistake.

Great idea about the crispy chicken skin! They can taste just like chips, but better. That would be interesting to use in a dessert. ]]Puke[[ oh man that hurt. Though I do like the breakfast sausage idea, maybe not like that though. ← This makes me think of the chocolate salami Italians eat. Basically just chocolate melted and reformed into a salami shape, studded with lots of biscotti pieces and flavourings mixed in. You could try incorporating that idea as well!

Well, I had commented on how the components tasted as I made them. The spice cake was just the sponge cake recipe that I made earlier in the week, with the addition of a bit of molasses and spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, black pepper). Though this pineapple was much sweeter, I do think the spice component made the overall dessert more interesting. The caramel is just my basic caramel that I always do. I eyeball everything, but I wrote down approximate amounts in the recipe (1 cup of sugar, 2 cups of whipping cream, 1/2 cup of butter, bit of vanilla or liqueur, and bit of salt). Then I reduce it on medium heat until it gets really thick. Many recipes use less cream and butter for that amount of sugar, but I think this is the right sweetness level for me...and you can achieve the same consistency of a thick caramel as long as you reduce it. The brown sugar and cherry ice-cream was good the first day I churned it, though I noted in the recipe that I would try using more yolks next time. I do love a really yolk-y ice-cream! The sauteed pineapple was also pretty tasty with the bit of lift from the Grand Marnier. All in all, it was a pretty good dessert. I have different temperatures going on (cold ice-cream, hot pineapple), different texture (crispy brittle, creamy ice-cream), and kept true to the flavours of the original dessert.

^I love how candid your aunt was when admitting she favoured the commercial key lime pie. Today I made extra snappy gingersnaps with leaf lard! Mmm...

!!

I use a mix of Fujis and Granny Smith. The last one I made with Honeycrisp and Granny Smith was also very good.

WOW! Your entire breakfast sounds fabulous, but I would kill for one of those croissants!

That's right--I don't! I think this is shaping up nicely. Lots of good ideas already...I especially think the tamales, the idea to do some sort of chili chutney, and the mole ideas are interesting and feasible. Mincemeat is a great idea too, but might be too easy if you just made a mincemeat pie. Putting it in another form, like Swisskaese suggested (mincemeat ice-cream) is a better idea. I also love the lardo idea! It is mild enough to lend itself to many forms, and would behave differently from plain lard in a dessert.

Thanks for the incredible report! I especially loved seeing Tartine pictures again, and I'm glad you liked the morning bun as much as I did. I also really liked the Incanto pictures. That looks like my kind of place--lots of hearty, rustically-prepared meats!

Wow. Bonus points if gfron1 catches his own insects, frieds them, and eats them!

^Yes, maybe 2 or 3 slices of the jelly roll. No more caramel left. (Caramel is my downfall...I just spoon it straight into my mouth, without thinking about all that heavy cream and butter. ) Some pineapple that did not go into the caramel. And a bit of ice-cream. Brittle got soft b/c of the humidity. I did an impressive job eating more than my fair share of that dessert today. Thanks for all the compliments!

Well, let's just say that cream, butter, and milk are all very obvious and I don't think gfron1 is one to shy away from what's safe. I think he'll be doing some really interesting stuff this week anyway so I guess there's no need for me to impose more limitations.

Oh right, I forgot to exclude eggs as one of the animal ingredients you can use. Quail, duck, ostrich (if you can find some!) and turtle eggs are good. chiantiglace: I've made duck fat pastry before. I just froze it and grated it into the dough. It was for a dinner where one guest was mildly allergic to dairy and I couldn't use too much butter.

Is your butter too soft, and therefore melting in the dough once it's in the oven?

Hi everyone! In our last Iron Baker challenge, I was given the task of coming up with a modern take on the retro classic Pineapple Upside-down Cake. For those who missed it the first time around, a picture of my creation can be found here. Now that the first round is over, it's my pleasure to introduce gfron1 as the next baker who will be presented with the new challenge! gfron1 is a very talented baker who has posted beautiful dessert creations in our Dessert thread. I am a huge fan. Here is a look at what he can do! So, my challenge to gfron1 is this: Make a dessert containing an animal ingredient or product other than lard or bacon by October 10th. I think all of us will be waiting with bated breath for whatever innovative/scary/(and most importantly) tasty combinations you come up with! (Now we just gotta wait around until he notices this thread and accepts... ) P.S. If you're vegetarian, I can change the challenge.