MollyGee's Profile
Potato Rolls?
So, these rolls were really amazing. Very tender and buttery and moist yet flake-y. I found another recipe from the same time I discovered the potato refrigerator rolls and it was 2006. If it was Gourmet mag or Bon Appetit, I would assume it would be findable on Epicurious.com. Maybe I'm just searching under the wrong name.
Potato Rolls?
Thanks! I saw that one and thought it seemed close, but the recipe I used had the rolls in the fridge for two or three days. Great to make the day before Pie Day (day before Thanksgiving).
Potato Rolls?
I made these fabulous dinner rolls for Thanksgiving a couple of years ago and then lost the recipe. I had originally found the recipe in some cooking magazine or another (Gourmet? Sunset? Saveur?), but now I can't find it online.
The rolls involve mashed or riced potato leftovers (*not* sweet potatoes) and the dough stays in the fridge for a couple of days; one punches down the dough every day until the day it is to be used.
Anyone?
Thanks a bunch.
Candy Wrappers?
I get all my candy wrappers at Spun Sugar in Berkeley. But these are just standard wrappers: fancy foils, various small bags, waxed papers cut to size. Nothing high tech or printed-upon or print-on-able, though.
Annual birthday dinner dilemma
I might be remembering incorrectly, but you live in or around Alameda, yes?
My family loves to go to Asena in Alameda. Wonderful salads and appetizers, very suitable for parents of a not too price-y, semi-fussy nature, excellent desserts (and I'm picky there!), reservations and access no problem. Small, cozy and not noisy. Oh, and it's Alameda. Flat with mostly grid streets. Not possible to get lost.
But...please don't curse it.
Cupcakes
I like Cupkates, they use real buttercream and you've gotta love the novelty of buying a cupcake from a truck, but my favorite remains the chocolate/chocolate cupcake from Teacakes in Emeryville. They get the frosting right, the cake usually has a lovely crumb and they're pretty. I can't vouch for their other flavors. The vanilla is meh.
And Cupkates, even purchased the day of, do not transport well. Weird because they're from a vehicle...The frosting is really fragile and the cupcakes themselves are so light. Anytime I've tried to eat them anywhere aside from adjacent to the truck, they're always knocked over and messy. Maybe they've improved their to-go packaging...
Boiled Chocolate Frosting..with Brown Sugar
There's someone picky I want to make a cake for. He described a chocolate frosting his mom used to make. It sounds like it's a boiled frosting, he mentioned dark chocolate ("but I don't like dark chocolate normally") and brown sugar as ingredients. Thoughts?
Thanks!
Mashed Potatoes - an Informal Survey
Offended: yes. Meant it. But only because I was not aware that it's an actual way that real people will actually serve real mashed potatoes and actually enjoy it.
Mashed Potatoes - an Informal Survey
I'm actually offended to be served mashed potatoes with skins on. Are you kidding? It looks like a big mess, it ruins the lovely texture of mashed potatoes and it makes them taste like dirt. I have always assumed that, when served skin-on, it was because of the laziness of the cook. I'll try to be more open-minded now that I realize people actually LIKE them that way!
Bay Area, CA
Peanut Butter Ice Cream
Tucker's in Alameda does a chocolate ice cream with peanut butter stripes in it: it's a yum, BUUUUT that's not why I came here today. Not ice cream, but I had the peanut brittle sorbet from Scream Sorbet today at the Temescal market and it was INCREDIBLE. I can't imagine any peanut butter ice cream being any better than this. It was creamy and rich and so peanutty. It was incredible and I am not at all a sorbet fan (too icy), and am obsessed with ice cream and this is now topping my list of best "ice cream" I've had this year.
PS: nothing "brittle" about it. Ingredients are peanuts, salt, sugar and water and it is a smoooooooth texture.
Vehicle for Cream Cheese Frosting
If it can take frosting, you can frost it with cream cheese frosting. Can't go wrong. Bigger challenge: what *isn't* a good vehicle for cream cheese frosting?
SF Tacquerias who cook with lard
You're funny!
My understanding (as a consumer of non-larded foods) is that almost every taqueria uses lard in their refrieds. It's just the way things are done and then most will have non-lard fats used in their whole beans and will proclaim that publicly for folks who don't consume lard (hence your search results). And then lard in tortillas...Good question. I think corn tortillas are made without added fat. I suppose with flour tortillas the first question would be: do they make them from scratch?
Ammended:
http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/35179
Thinking of Leaving SF for Berkeley or Oakland. Crazy?
Funny. I have always tried before buying fruit and binned goods at both BBs. The ban-for-life thing is either a total myth or it's aimed at people who come in to eat and not buy food. In fact, the produce guys at BB are FANTASTIC when it comes to trying stuff and to recommending things. They are more than happy to slice off a piece of orange or apple, to give an opinion and to go out of their way to answer questions.
And I'm tired of people generalizing about "smugness" (or, many people say, the "entitlement") of an entire group of shoppers. It's ridiculous. I love how friendly many, many people are at BB. But, then, I go out of my way to engage in conversation, to enjoy the experience and to be polite, so I suppose I'm biased.
Where to buy large quantities of cookie decorating supplies?
Spun Sugar is great. Tons and tons of sparkly sugars, luster dust, non-pareils of many colors, jimmies, whatever-you-call-the-crunchy-sugar-bits-that-have shapes (they have teeny tiny candy canes! snow flakes! dinosaurs!). My favorite thing right now is the sugar flakes made with agar agar. I had a class of eight-year-olds gasping at cupcakes made with them (all right, fair enough, an easy group to please with sugar-y stuff).
I also get a lot of candies at Sweet Dreams on College in Berkeley (it's the Sweet Dreams on the corner, not the toy store in the middle of the block). You can get red hots, thin licorice whips, (you know, this stuff doesn't *taste* good on cookies, but you sometimes pretty is more important than instantly edible) mini M & M's (harder to find than you might think and perfect for buttons and eyes on gingerbread folk. Bonus points: tasty!). But I'm sure there's an equivalent or superior candy store closer to your home.
Does good butter matter? If so, what to get in San Francisco?
See, I'd think for a simple brown butter sauce the quality of the butter wouldn't really matter. You're steaming off most of the water and browning the rest.
For baking I get the Kerrygold from Trader Joe's that others have mentioned.
My opinion: baking and eating fresh on a slab o' bread = oh yeah, the butter matters. For cooking = it shouldn't matter. I'd like to hear back after you've tried some other butters, though. I wouldn't mind being wrong.
Which Ice Cream with Banana Cream Pie?
Ice cream and banana cream? Are you skipping a whipped cream topping? I hope, at least, the ice cream is in its own bowl. And then I'm going to be boring and say vanilla. Banana is so overwhelming a flavor and cream pies often so sweet that any ice cream would have to be very strongly-flavored. Cinnamon might work out or cardamon. Or a REALLY rich chocolate.
Casual Food Near the Downtown Berkeley BART Station
Or, better than Naia (if you ask me) and just up the street, Gelato Almare. My kids' favorite ice cream (or ice creamesque) place in town. Not the million flavors that Naia has, but way better texturally and flavor-wise.
Pickling Cukes?
Do the folks from Lucero Farms (of strawberry fame) go to any of the SF markets? Best. Pickling. Cukes. EVER!
Berkeley: A new ice cream maker on 4th Street - Chocolatier Blue Patisserie
Took the kids for ice cream on Saturday and I was a bit disappointed. There was some problem with the temperature regulation for the ice cream and it was half melty and half too frozen. The chocolate that I had was not very chocolate-y and the caramel ice cream that the kids had was way WAY too sweet for my tastes. My son ate all of his, but my daughter took only a few bites and that was it for her. I like the teeny tiny cookie that comes with the ice cream.
I LOVE the chocolates at Chocolatier Blue (and, of course, they have them at the 4th St shop - perhaps a smaller selection), but I'm REALLY hoping the ice cream improves. If they can do with ice cream what they can do with chocolates I'll be a little less sad that Sketch is no longer there. Plus, I'm a seven-year-old when it comes to ice cream: I want it in a cone
(and the kids always feel a little ripped off by the lack of cones and don't EVEN get me started on Lush Gelato with their little-scoops-of-ice-cream-in-a-cone logo and their lack of cones: don't tease me that way and I'm only forgiving Lush because their mint chip was the best mint ice cream/ gelato that I have ever had and I am bordering on obsessed with mint ice cream.)
I wish I'd tried the cremeaux. It really looked lovely. And the fellow serving up the treats was very friendly.
Do you still shop at the Oregon St. Berkeley Bowl? If yes ... why?
None of the above. I prefer The Old Bowl because I think the produce is better and easier to shop for (BBW: those low bins, the separate organic/conventional sections, the having to have your organic produce weighed: sheesh, what a hassle!). The tomatoes are over-chilled, the stone fruits are more likely to be overly ripe, I've yet to buy a decent pineapple at BBW.
Also, I have yet to run into anyone I know at BBWest. It's...weird. I've lived 'round these parts for decades and I don't recognize anyone at the new store. Where is everyone coming from? And shoppers seem less friendly to me. Maybe they're just trying to find where everything is and falling into shopper-trances...I'm not sure. The checkers at BBW are much more fun to chat with than at the Old Bowl, though.
I know where everything is at the Old Bowl. I only occasionally suffer parking frustration and they have a few things that the new store doesn't have.
But, I live 3 blocks closer to the new store and have to cross over only one major street to get there so I stop in a lot to pick up a half gallon of milk or bread between shopping trips. I'm glad the new store exists.
Berkeley Bowl West - The promised land ... west of Eden
Thanks for reporting back on the jams and jam-related and adjacent products. I made a trip to BB West today to check it out and pick up a few things. They do seem to have a pretty decent selection with some less exciting jams (like just apricot and raspberry- but no strawberry unfortunately) for folks like me who go through lots of jam making p b 'n' j's for the kids. I didn't buy any this time around, though.
I was *so* tempted by those Frog Hollow Santa Rosa's and every box I picked up had one or two overly ripe plums and after checking four boxes I gave up. I wish I had them now, though. It was a good deal even with a few rejects included and I'd imagine we're at the tail end of the Santa Rosa's about now.
Great carrot cake, east bay?
I second the Sweet A suggestion. I think the carrot cake is the best thing I've ever gotten from Sweet Adeline. It had a beautiful crumb, the carrots added a wonderful moistness and were very finely grated (so it didn't have a crunch like you sometimes get with carrot cake) and the cream cheese frosting was applied with a light hand that really highlighted the delightfulness of the cake. I should add that I had the carrot cake in the form of an Easter cake ( shaped like an egg), so I don't know if it is their standard recipe or if it was a specialty product. Whatever. I'm obsessed with cake and I occasionally think about that carrot cake...
Costco birthday cakes?
The cake itself is ok and certainly better than Safeway cakes, but the frosting is that overly sweet, semi-gritty hydrogenated oil stuff you can expect from a cake that is something like 16 bucks for half a sheet.
I admit to buying them , though, when I need a cheap cake for lots of people as in institutional-type events. You know, you just want a cake to have a cake. The Costco cakes represent "cake". No one is going to rave about it, but no one will complain, either. Oh, and the cream cheese-based frosting was better than the other option, chocolate is better than vanilla (but I just lean that way regardless.)
Berkeley Bowl West - The promised land ... west of Eden
Ooooh! No. What other jams do they have, do you remember?
Berkeley Bowl West - The promised land ... west of Eden
Another good thing, too, is a much nicer jams and jellies section in the West. Lots and lots of Frog Hollow preserves and jams, for instance.
Berkeley Bowl West - The promised land ... west of Eden
I was wearing penny loafers*, so no. I don't mean a *type* of shoe I mean a kind of shoe. Like Crocs but with an umlaut.
*I wasn't really wearing penny loafers.
