phlawless

This isn't my deal, just some friends who I'm helping out. The groom's parents live in Jersey and are pretty old school italian, so the couple wanted to incorporate an aspect of his/their family in the week end. I think they have chose to go with La Caterina. I'll report back after the wedding...

I need some recommendations for a friend's wedding rehearsal dinner in June. The wedding is in Black Mountain, and they would prefer to have everything there, but are willing to travel to Asheville. Requirements: -preferably italian -accomodate 25-30 -wheelchair accesible -not a crazy price Anyone have any suggestions?

it's for a wedding cake: praline dacquoise dark caramel buttercream to sandwich in between layers of dark devil's food cake and then a vanilla bean buttercream to finish I have to say, the salty/caramely/nutty ness of the filling is really fantastic with the devil's food cake...I'm tasting now as I assemble. Hmm, interesting. I am from North Carolina at that. Anyone have a recipe to observe? me too...I am in durham

I did, but I also replaced the almonds with pecans

so I made a batch, and it came out great. It did need extra drying time, I just left it in the oven turned off over night. I ended up using dark brown sugar and it has incredible flavor.

I already tried him, he doesn't do it. Plus because of the article he is totally swamped.

anyone know a good source?

I want to do a southern style pecan dacqoise and was wondering if anyone has ever used brown sugar instead of white to have more of a praline flavor. Will this work? I have made brown sugar angel food cakes and marshmallows, but never anything that needed to dry out. Any tips or advice?

so I watched the julia video, and it turned out to be george and johanne's recipe. Here's the thing...he didn't season the meat before putting it on the coals. WTF? I remember the meat being very well seasoned, not tasting flat at all...

A few years ago I worked an event in Hawai'i that George Germon and Johanne Killeen from Al Forno attended. They had this method of roasting a beef steak in the embers of the fire. I don't know what cut, or the details of how they did this (I was working for another restaurant, only tasted the result) but I really want to try this out. It was incredible! Anybody familiar with this?

you could do a small summer pudding: -toss berries with sugar to taste, wait till they secrete their juices, season with lemon or cordial of choice if needed/desired -line your mold with plastic wrap with a couple of inches hanging over the edge -cut white bread in pieces so that it completely lines the inside (don't use the crusts), then saturate with berry liquid -fill with berries -top with a 'cap' of bread -wrap and refrigerate for at least 3 hours -serve with anglaise or whipped cream yummy!

I have, Chops. However, the DFM requires all vendors selling prepared foods to be working out of health department inspected kitchens. And, pssst...I am not!

Is it a 'if you build it they will come' kinda thing? Will cases of REAL buttercream frosted homey cakes and truely seasonal, golden fruit pies and tarts (unlike the insipid apricot puree-glazed, whatever-Ford's-produce-has-on-special-this-week-from-Argentina fare we've all seen around) incite the masses to abandon their low carb/all-in-one-place spending and return them to a single vendor style of food shopping? Am I dreaming?

dammit.....

Does anyone know how one would go about getting on Molto Mario? Are those 3 seats exclusively for his friends/associates/celebs? Someone tell me how to make a fantasy come true....

I have been involved in the triangle restaurant/food community for well over a decade now, and I still see significant gaps in what the area offers in terms of bakeries, pastries, etc. I 'd like to know what the rest of you think...am I just expecting too much? I currently do custom baking from my home, and have always toyed with the idea of opening a bake shop, but are there no really great ones because this area couldn't support it? Does it always have to be attached to a cafe/prepared food establishment in order to be profitable? What do you guys do for birthday cakes???

hello all! I just saw this post and damn it makes me really lonely! I've only realized what an incredibly amazing friend smoking was for me!!! I quit cold turkey a year and a half ago... not one slip, but I still crave them constantly. I was up to almost a pack a day until I found out I was pregnant and I allowed myself to finish the pack before giving them up. My mom died of lung cancer 12 years ago; you think I would have done it then, but i was just starting a cooking career and smoker/line cook is a fantastic combo. What has really made it stick for me is not wanting my daughter to grow up in a smoker's home, like I did. That and nursing...really gross. Hold tight, and don't worry... you never stop loving them! (by the way, I never noticed a difference in my taste buds, or how I felt. I did seriously chow on sweets, however)

I think they are easier as well to shell/devein after cooking...you get better flavor as well...(they were pickled after being poached)

So after poaching, shelling, and deveining 6 pounds of shrimp, I need to know what exactly the 'vein' is: reproductive stuff...poop shoot...or truely a vein...or all of the above? And what about the variance in texture of the goop? Sometimes it's nice and contained in some sort of tube, other times it's sandy and the flesh around the shoot is mealy... shrimp experts...please respond!!!

funny, i just got back from a trip there...I haven't bought any meat, just fish, and it's been pretty good.

I have one of the newer kitchen aids. It's almost as quiet as the bosch, but it's bigger and very easy to load and does a fab job on cleaning.

I ended up not blind baking the crust...it tasted great, though it was a bit crumbly around the edge; i could have taken them a bit too far, however. Thanks to all!

I was flipping through RLB Pie and Pastry Bible and her recommendation is to NOT blind bake a choco cookie crust; she says it will lose it's chocolatey flavor. I don't make a lot of these kinds of crusts, and I was wondering what others' experiences are. I have always blind baked, but when I do I am usually disappointed with how lacking in flavor the choco crumbs are. Could this be the answer?

whole foods makes a fantastic italian grapefruit soda, as well as lemon, cranberry, tangerine and orange. It's in a one liter bottle with a '365' label...yummy! It's a wonderful mixer for gin too!

I hope this doesn't rehash what other threads have already covered, but I'd love to know what sweets others have had gracing their Thanksgiving and Christmas tables that are a bit out of the ordinary. Although I did grow up in the south, I had yankee parents who unabashedly forbade ANY southern food in our home. I also think all too often the south has been identified with really trashy sweets as well, i.e. lots of corn syrup and marshmallow fluff...what about desserts with less processed ingredients...provincial variations on traditional fare...