Mochene's Profile

A gadget for the easiest thing to cook. Can you boil water? No? Well, let me sell you something. . . .

Everyone wants a fast and "easy" way to make something.

I love the process of making caramel. I too wonder how everyone else is making it so that it is a hassle and takes lots of pots and pans and is stressful.

I don't even use a recipe anymore. I just make caramel and am so involved in the process I lose myself. I call it small batch caramel (sauce, candies, whatever I'm making) because when I make it that way of course no two sauces are alike, making them quite unique and they have their own "personality" so to speak.

I guess that's how much of cooking is. Once you learn the process, it's not some big project to be endured. It's almost a meditation.

This is funny because recently I've been craving, ahem, Tuna Helper. My dad was not a cook, so when I lived with him, this was his specialty. I was searching online for a homemade version which I haven't found.

Thanks for posting this. I'll make this and use it as a basis to curb my craving!

I had to read this to see if there was an explanation for having so many measuring spoons. I've done the apartment and the kitchen cure and I have 2 sets: one for home to convert recipes, and one in a toolkit for work.

Personally, that would annoy me, having so many. Growing up in a kitchen where my mom's rule was clean as you go, one set is more than enough for me.

Order out.

Really, someone is concerned about this?

White chocolate peppermint bark.
Make toffee and put the chocolate on int to melt, then spread and let cool.
White chocolate hot chocolate.
You can basically substitute it for chocolate chips in most recipes, though I would reduce the amount of sugar in the recipe since the chocolate is so sweet.

I did something similar last year with bone shaped cookies, white chocolate molded in a teeth ice tray with gummy worms. Had "Do Not Cross" tape around the cake with a small shovel for guests to "dig" around with.

Just make less batter?

I'm assuming that this "washing soda" is a carbonate, and not a bicarbonate, so you need more. Baking powder, a bicarbonate, reacts with both moisture (milk, water, etc) AND heat, therefore the single carbonate only reacts to one of the two, I can't remember which. I learned this in pastry school. Since it is single-acting, you would need more of it. Seeing that you need to add it to the ale, that is to assist the leavening.

The only time I'm plagued by this is when I'm exhausted from working all day (pastry chef) and I wish I had someone at home who has made a wonderful, comforting meal, has cleaned the house, and has the laundry done. It's not from loneliness, but just wishing I had someone to take care of it for me because I just want to eat and go to bed. Like a butler or a house-husband or something.

But I am also a social eater, so I do dine out with friends when our schedules permit.