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This article is from the Dallas Morning News (3-5-2003). They tested different foods: Fried Everything And this website is all about deep frying and has a list of international fried dishes: Joan's Fried Foods Primer Your deep-fried party sounds like a blast. I tried a fried Twinkie at the Texas state fair in the fall of 2002. It was served dusted with powdered sugar and with a (pretty good-especially for a fair) raspberry sauce. It was good. In fact, I thought that a fancy restaurant could get away with serving it with the addition of a scoop of good home-made ice cream. And another name, of course!

Please, what is the name and where is it???

KatieLoeb, Thanks sooo much for the correction!

I should have been more specific, the party is Saturday May 8th. I like the piquillo peppers and will keep in mind for the future, but I was trying to stay away from Spanish cuisine, being that it is (was) Mexican independence day from Spain...I'm sure I'm the only one with such compunctions. Otherwise, I would probably make my standby room-temperature appetizer tortilla espanola, the real one made with potatoes--good at any temperature. That said, the goat cheese idea with the Mexican twist looks good and easy. I'll post after the party.

Great idea! Whoever doesn't want the jalapeno (there are some wusses here in Yankee country) could just eat the shrimp. Actually, everyone has posted great ideas. Thanks so much. I am leaning towards the shrimp escabeche in jalapeno boats--but still open to other ideas. I'll be making the shrimp recipe by NulloModo sometime for dinner. Does it have a name?

Suzanne, If you found oval pans on the King Arthur's Flour catalog, please post the item number--I can't find them there. Comfort me, I made the chocolate challah 2 days before passover (I'm not Jewish) and meant to post after passover, but forgot. I followed the recipe almost exactly (I had a lot of good chocolate chips, and used that instead of chocolate chunks). I've done a fair amount of baking, but this was my first challah. The recipe was perfect and my loaves (no pan) looked very professional. You can write recipes for me anytime. I had never heard of chocolate challah and in my head expected something even more chocolaty, but that's not your fault, just my expectations. I'll report that it was delicious toasted and spread with Nutella. Guilding the lilly for sure. I have the second loaf in the freezer and plan to make french toast with it, but haven't had the chance.

I absolutely agree that dessert balances the rest of the meal, which is why I like to see a dessert menu as I am ordering th rest of the meal. I do not pre-order the dessert, but it helps me make the other decisions. Most of the time I can't eat appetizer, entree and dessert--its just too much food. If a dessert looks really good, I will skip the appetizer, or get 2 appetizers and no entree or some other strategy like that. If the dessert menu is uninspiring, then I go ahead with appetizer and entree. I don't want to be too full at the end and miss out on a fabulous dessert! And on another issue: I do not think its unlady-like to ask for the dessert menu while perusing the main menu. Would you not ask for salt yourself, or alert the staff about an allergy? This is no different. I, a lady, may want dessert and I want to make an informed decision. There can't be anything more ladylike than to want dessert!

Thanks bushey, this is great inside info. The photos are making me want to be there already.

Thanks Tony! Nothing like the real scoop from a local. I think I will go to Anguilla for snorkeling--its been decades since I did snorkeling and this is my chance. I'll post my impressions when I get back. Any extra advice welcome until 5/27.

Fifi, thanks for the link and the recommendation. I couldn't remember the word "escabeche" last night, but that is the Spanish word for this type of dish and what I was really thinking about, because I would want to (really) cook the shrimp. Gifted Gourmet, thanks for your link and I love all those foods) but I'd like to make something more unexpected. I have several Mexican cookbooks, I just can't think of something new, make-ahead and easy to serve.

I have been invited to a Cinco de Mayo party and asked to bring an appetizer for 6. I don't think it has to be Mexican, but I would like to bring something either Mexican or Southwestern in flavor or spirit (or at least South of the border). I don't want to bring salsas or guacamole or anything so predictable. Most of the interesting things I can think of need last minute attention, like fritters or gorditas etc. I like the idea of a shrimp seviche, but it looks messy to eat standing up. Any ideas on presenting a seviche for a cocktail-type party are welcome. I would like something that could be served room temperature and be prepared in advance. It doesn't have to be "authentic," just taste great and suitably impress . Also, I don't have time to experiment. I would like something you have made before. Too much to ask?

I will be visiting St Martin with a friend (2 women-one married and one single) on Memorial Day weekend. As soon as the hotel, flight and car were taken care of my next stop was egullet, of course. We will also be staying at Oyster Bay on an Interval time share (a studio apt). I'm renting a car. I'm printing all the good info on this thread and taking it with me. I mainly want to relax on the beach. The good food is a great bonus. I want to do snorkeling and my friend wants to go horseback riding on the beach. The Perlows didn't like the snorkeling. Has anyone had a good experience snorkeling on the island? Any good dancing places? Any additional and recent information, especially about the food, will be most appreciated!! Also, I would appreciate any practical info that you got through experience on St. Martin, that you wish you had known before you went. Thanks in advance.

May I suggest the oldie but goodie: French Cooking in Ten Minutes, by Edouard de Pomiane. Real food and with no microwave! I remember reading that the author was a physician and, I guess, busy. My emergency meals that have some semblance of cooking (i.e. I'm not including convenience foods such as the frozen mozzarella sticks that are my daughter's latest favorites): Eggs in any guise, such as omelettes and fried. Nachos, including chicken nachos made with leftover cooked chicken meat that I add to sauteed chopped onions. Spaguetti with my own frozen pesto (this is slightly over the 15 minutes but so easy). And with no cooking: Peanut butter and jelly (toasted whole wheat bread, natural peanut butter with just peanuts and salt and some fancy jam, such as guava and skim milk on the side). Cottage cheese with fruit and chopped walnuts p.s. The comment about the broccoli cheese casserole brought back memories of my college days and the awful food served. Believe it or not, the broccoli cheese casserole was one dishes I liked most, and I missed when I left. I'm sure it was made with processed cheese and leftover rice. I had never had it before that. The fried chicken was the best entree.

I made the churros following the recipe posted by ExtraMsg on Recipegullet. They were great!! I made half the recipe for Sunday breakfast--no harder than pancakes, BTW. I followed the recipe exactly, with the heavy cream. I fried in canola oil to which I added just a squirt of olive oil, for some attempt at authenticity. Yum Yum Yum! Thanks a lot!

Just did burgers on my cast iron skillet last night. My skillet is very well seasoned. I usually use med-high gas heat to heat the pan, add grapeseed oil and the meat and then turn the heat down to about medium. I don't get any smoke. Will try the butter next time, thanks for the tip.

ExtraMSG, its 11 am, I am starving (trying to hold out until 11:30 for lunch) and these large pictures of your churros are more than I can stand. They look delicious, and ready for some sugar. Thanks for posting them.

I got Bill Neal's Southern Cooking on the advice of another thread and am almost done reading it. Thanks for the suggestion.

It does appear that the churro dough needs to develop gluten as all the recipes instruct vigorous stirring and a stiff dough. A lot of the home recipes are similiar to a pate choux or add milk, and this only makes me think that it may not be that easy for the home cook to make great churros just from water, flour and salt. Since there are only 3 ingredients, I wondered about the type of flour used in Spain. From La Churreria.com: "La harina de trigo tiene que ser de una extracción al 75% aproximadamente, un tanto por ciento menor, produciría que la masa quede poco densa. La fuerza de la harina es de lo mas importante. " They are recommending flour with at least 75% extraction and that it should be "strong" flour. And that the dough shoud be dense or stiff. I looked up flour extraction on Google and baking911 was the most helpful and comprehensive. Extraction refers to the percent of the wheat that can be milled into flour. American all-purpose flour is about 75%, so that part is OK. Strong strong flour is bread flour (protein 11-12%) You may want to try bread flour. Also, this site specifies sea salt and mild low-acid olive oil for frying. If the olive oil is strong they suggest mixing in sunflower seed oil. I know these two oils are produced in Spain and that olive oil is the traditional frying oil in Spain. But I'm sure they are not frying in olive oil in Mexico. Keep us posted!

Snowangel, thanks for the burnt sugar cake clarification. I am smitten by the flavor of this cake. To my taste it combines caramel, butter and salt in a great way. Thanks again for mentioning it. I will try it again. Also, I loved your recipe for the "frosting." I want to add that I made it too hard on the first try, but just remelted it and added more cream and it was perfect. In other words, it is good and easy to adjust.

Mr Churros has the commercial machines. Cuban Food Market and Vermont Country Store have the home model, which I've seen on the Spanish websites. This has several extruders and one looks like it would make the fat kind of churro. I have been surfing around and it seems there are a lot of variations of the recipe, and each latin country has a slightly different version. A lot of home recipes add milk and eggs. Good luck on this delicious pursuit--my mouth is watering just thinking about churros. If you need help translating from Spanish, just holler.

I am answering my own question. I made another Burnt Sugar cake, following .Joy of Cooking, 1985 version, but with the proportions of the recipe posted on Recipegullet. The cake turned out high, but dry. I think in the future I'm going to take a little batter and bake a cupcake alongside, so I can try it without cutting the main cake. I could have salvaged this cake with a little soaking syrup. Anyway, I loved the taste of the first cake and did find the recipe in Betty Crocker's Picture Cookbook, and with the two mixing methods (the traditional way of creaming the butter and sugar, etc, and the other one adds the butter to the dry ingredients). The traditional method has more egg and sugar and less baking powder than the other method. You can search inside the book on the Amazon site. I liked that the recipes include directions for different-sized cake pans. I found other recipes for this cake on the internet, but these were the clearest. I will report back when I make one I like.

Tha Vermont Country Store has Bazzini's Cashew Butter, in case you just want to order some... Vermont Country Store

I have the utmost respect for Peter Reinhart when it comes to bread. When it comes to pizzas or bagels, though, he is not in a New York state of mind. There may be a handful of exceptions, but typical NY Vulcan Pizza is: 1. A relatively lean if not completely lean dough. 2. Made from high protein bread flour. I'll bet my life on it. You are right, of course, about the recipe used in New York pizzerias (and in Italy), but my point was to say that in a home oven with a stone insert and common ingredients, the recipe from The Baker's Apprentice gave me the closest thing to New York pizza crust I have ever made, and I have tried many, many times,always with lean recipes. I can get bread flour and have "authentic" recipes, but I'm not in New York, with that great New York water (my favorite!), and I don't have a restaurant-type oven, so I have to work with what I have.

I recently made pizza at home using the recipe from The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread (The Bread Baker's Apprentice). I have made many homemade pizzas at home, but this was the first crust that I've made that had that crispy-chewy quality I have been always been aiming for. I don't have the recipe here (I'm at at work) but it is the kind that has an overnight rest after the initial kneading. The other difference this recipe had from most others was a higher amount of olive oil. I followed the recipe almost as written. It calls for unbleached all-purpose flour and I think what I had in the canister was bleached, and it still worked well. I think the extra olive oil and the long rest were the key factors in the good result. I loved that it used regular flour. The impetus for this pizza session was watching the World Pizza Challenge on the Food Network with my 12-year-old daughter. She wanted to throw the dough like we saw on the pizza dough throwing contest (very athletic!). In the show they said that the dough for throwing had to rest overnight, so that's what I searched for in my cookbooks. The Bread Baker's apprentice was the only one that talked about throwing dough, even with a photograph. For the record, I let her play with a portion of the dough, but I made the actual pizzas we ate myself. That's what she wanted to do anyway. I didn't throw the dough, I wanted to eat! My oven goes to (only) 550 F and it took a looong time to heat the HearthKit stone insert--but worth it. I got this book as a freeby when I bought the HearthKit oven insert from The Baker's Catalog. I have used stones in the past with good result. I splurged on this insert specifically for pizza and pies. Edited to add this: I forgot to say that this crust was very thin.

Maizena is cornstarch. It is a brand name for cornstarch used in Latin America, Spain, Portugal and (I just learned) Belgium and France. And probably in other places too. Here is a link I found for and English-French gastronomy glossary. http://www.france-amerique.com/Gastronomie/lexique.html