eminthekitchen's Profile

Swiss Meringue Buttercream is a slightly more temperature stable buttercream frosting. The egg whites help it set. The only difficulty is that it can be a big challenge to make in a warm kitchen, because the butter gets too soft. So leave yourself plenty of extra prep time in case you need to refrigerate things in between steps.
This is a great step-by-step recipe: http://sweetapolita.com/2011/04/swiss-meringue-buttercream-demystified/

I've found that it's really important to plan on having at least an hour of pre-dinner schmoozing time built into your schedule as a host. This way as people slowly trickle in, you don't have to stress about someone being late. So, say the event starts at 6:00, plan on serving dinner at 7:30, and have plenty of drinks and snacks around for the people on time to hang out and enjoy.
Other benefit is this is a nice time for people to mingle with everyone before being seated at a table where they'll probably only be able to speak with the 2 people sitting next to them.

Do you think this would work with cabbage instead of brussels sprouts? It seems like it might be a lot quicker to shred a chunk of cabbage than so many little brussels sprouts.

I have used mine to cook baked mac 'n cheese in. It adds a little pumpkin flavor to things, and makes for a playful, fun presentation. I pre-roasted the whole pumpkin a little bit first, since it needed longer than the mac 'n cheese to cook.

I just made a big pot of white bean chicken chili, and tossed in a pound of chopped okra at the end. Excellent combination!

this recipe came at the perfect time! I got 2 pounds of squash, a pound of tomatoes, and basil in my CSA last night and was just thinking about what to cook with it.

It's really difficult to accurately count calories, and there's a tendency to round down and easy to miss snacking and beverage calories. So, rounding down on the recommendation makes sense.
It would be great to be able to say "just eat when you're hungry and stop when you're full." The body is meant to regulate itself. Trouble is, there are so many foods we eat that trick our hunger cues - artificial sweeteners, highly processed carbs, liquid calories... And a lot of things sold as diet foods are the worst culprits on hunger trickery. Vicious cycle of more and more complexity.

I love pistachio desserts, so wonderful. I found a pistachio cake with apricot filling recipe that I adapted for my sister's wedding cake. The recipe it's based on is here: http://leitesculinaria.com/3170/recipes-pistachio-petit-four-cake.html
and here's a picture of the wedding cake I made for her! http://www.arimorales.com/Other/Laura-and-Aarons-Wedding/17305594_txFzV8#1313917901_tVNDWBR-A-LB.

you can make a breakfast porridge, just like cream of wheat.

You can also use it for Horchada -- Mexican hot chocolate thickened just a bit with masa and served as a breakfast drink. Hot milk, cocoa, sugar, cinnamon, a dash of cayenne, and masa harina (or ground almond meal, or another grain), simmered over the stove. Is it cold and rainy where you live like it is here? If so, MAKE THIS, it will make your breakfast lovely.

How about frosted glasses? If you're serving out of shot glasses, maybe stick them in the freezer the day before. Although, glassware for 60 people is a lot...