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Nov 03, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in New Products
It has taken several years, but such is the superiority of silicone in many applications of baking and cooking, the consumers have reached a real comfort level in near record time it usually takes to accept new technology. I would bet that there is at least one silicone product in every kitchen in America. I don't think anyone still uses rubber spatulas rather than silicone spatulas that are heatproof to over 500˚F.
Through using silicone bakeware and cookware, and learning its properties and how it functions, manufacturers and designers are coming up with all manner of incredibly inventive gadgets that show silicone to its best advantage and that serve as indisputable replacements for old technology.
Continue reading "A Few of My Favorite Silicone Things" »
Nov 04, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Cake Questions
It has been pointed out that Cake Questions has become so long a thread it takes forever to load so i have closed the postings option for just cake questions along.
Please use one of the 4 categories under Cake Questions:
Equipment
General
Ingredients
Wedding
Nov 06, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Photos
I had to share with you...
From: Cathy Waller
Subject: Happy Halloween!
To: Rose
I just wanted to share with you a little of what I've been up to. I brought this to a Halloween party last night, and it was a hit! It was 4 layers of Perfect All-American Chocolate Cake with Orange flavored Mousseline Buttercream filling and icing. One of the best compliments, besides its spectacular taste, was that most people thought it was a centerpiece, not a cake.
Next is a 3-tiered anniversary cake and another sculpted cake to feed 100. Thanks, friends, for all your encouragement, help and support!
Nov 06, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Announcements
For those of you around the world who do not have access to the wonderful bleached flour available in the US (such as Gold Medal) necessary for the best texture and flavor in butter layer cakes, Kate has been doing some astonishing work using the microwave to 'heat treat' the flour, enabling it to gelatinize in much the same way that bleaching accomplishes.
Kate deserves a medal for this incredibly earth shaking to the baking world technique. Appropriately enough she calls it "kate flour"!
http://amerrierworld.wordpress.com/2007/11/06/water-water-everywhere/
Nov 13, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Announcements
I’ve always imagined (and secretly envied) novelists who have the possibility of experiencing the pleasure of their stories come to life in the form of a movie or miniseries. I never thought there would be anything comparable for a cookbook writer but I was wrong and it has happened in a way I never could have dreamed!
Dear friend and esteemed Canadian colleague Marcy Goldman of www.betterbaking.com e-mailed me the following:
“you've been immortalized...in case you don't know - I am reading The Florist's Daughter by Patricia Hampl - a memoir - and there you are mentioned for several pages 203-217 - It is a lovely tribute - just the mention!”
Intrigued, I ordered the book immediately and it arrived 2 days later. For starters, I was struck by the quote on the cover written by my favorite novelist and much admired friend, Pat Conroy: “Patricia Hampl writes the best memoirs of any writer in the English language.”
I turned to page 203 and instantly was caught up in a spellbinding web of some of the most exquisitely poetic prose I’ve ever encountered—and it was describing my book and my cake—“the White Lilac Nostalgia” from The Cake Bible! Here’s a sample:
The Lilac Nostalgia stood at attention, its lavender medallions fastened like so many medals for valor on its soldier chest. A cake in dress uniform, in service to a sweetness worth fighting for.
Interestingly, never once did she mention my name—I’m always referred to as author. But what could be better? The word author derives from authority. And I see that the author of The Florist’s Daughter chooses each word with wise and loving care.
Life doesn’t get much sweeter than this tribute. I wonder what I could do to get her to write all the head notes for my upcoming book! Just kidding—but I must write to her care of her publisher--a note of undying gratitude for this blessing. I am now reading the book from the beginning and plan to read all of her other books—both poetry and prose.
Here's The Florist's Daughter on Amazon, and here's a list of Hampl's books.
Nov 14, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Rose's Products
There have been many requests regarding where my products can be found.
U.S. Orders:
If you purchase from Amazon, a small amount of the purchase prices goes directly to me:
Rose's Heavenly Cake Strips
Rose's Perfect Pie Plate
Rose's Sweetheart Crème Brûlée Set
These also will be permanent links on the main page of the blog under equipment.
International Orders:
If Amazon carries an item, they will ship out of the U.S., but if Amazon is temporarily out of stock, and routes you to another purveyor, it is unlikely that they are set up to ship abroad at the present time.
Nov 15, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Announcements
Dear Fellow Bloggers of Real Baking with Rose,
This month our baking community blog is celebrating its second anniversary. i started keeping track of my replies as of december last year and there are over 10,000!
You’ve all been so terrific, asking illuminating questions, helping each other to become better bakers, and sharing touching personal stories, we are expanding the site to include -- A Forum.
This wonderful new addition to the blog will make it easier to communicate directly with each other, to start your own topics, and even to post your own photos! Let's give a big thanks for this great gift from our sponsor Gold Medal Flour, and our blog masters Travis Smith and Susie Gardner of Hop Studios.
If you're new to using a forum -- that's OK, I am as well. I think we'll figure it out together, and while I don't want to lose the great comments on the blog, I hope the forums will be the place for even better conversation.
Happy Forum-ing, and as always, Happy Baking!
Nov 17, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Travel Adventures
It seems these days, especially in Fall, that when I go away for 10 days it takes at least 30 to catch up! I took so many wonderful photos of our trip to Tuscany in October that I couldn't decide which to post so I posted nothing! But luckily Ruth (of the magnificent white faced ibis photo a few postings back) make this montage of photos which captures the spirit and mood of our stay. three bottle men (i always thought it should be three bottle boys but it was an allusion to something in literature) is the name of our wine group.
The sunset photo was taken the day (or should I say twilight) of our arrival and Elliott proclaimed it to be the most spectacular he had ever seen.
The group photo with the chef was taken at Arnolfo, in nearby Colle Val d'Elsa Alto, where we had an exquisite lunch.
The man with the white beard is Elliott if you haven't already guessed.
Continue reading "Tuscany" »
Nov 19, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Announcements
You guys! You're so inventive. I've been very busy over the past few days hosting my dad and his caretaker and nursing a bruised toe (oh you're going to laugh when you hear what I told the dr.!) but now I've checked in to see what's happening and I want to stay and read every posting. I can't wipe the smile off my face. I had no idea just how fun the new forums were going to be!
OK here's the toe story: I woke up Friday morning with my fourth toe red, swollen, and hurting in a way unbelievable for so small an appendage. I wanted to ignore it but I was beginning to have trouble walking. I didn't remember having stubbed in on a chair a few days before so it seemed to come out of the blue and I feared gangrene. So I rolled out the porcini pasta planned for dinner and then took it's (my toe's) temperature with my infra-red thermometer and sure enough, while all other toes were 91 degrees, the toe causing the commotion was 94 degrees.
When I reported this to the Dr. who was kind enough to see me at a moment's notice, he laughed and said that he would now have to write a paper on toe temperature! (Remember my editor at Food Art's saying I weigh everything, even air? Well now he can add I take the temperature of everything as well!)
After just one anti-inflammatory pill the swelling went down and I was able to make chicken paprikash for dinner, cherry pie for Sat. night dinner, along with rib roast on the grill and yorkshire popovers, plus blueberry pancakes and bacon for Sunday brunch.
Dad's caretaker, Shelly Tilly, insisted on cleaning the house while I did all this cooking (wood burning fireplaces are great but the fallout from them makes dusting more necessary than weekend visits allow). But the greatest gift was that Shelly harvested the hornet's nest--the huge amazing one featured on a posting earlier this summer. We had given up hope a few weeks ago as it was dangerously beyond our reach but Shelly is a miracle worker. Photos of her up on the ladder with the nest to come.....
Nov 19, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Photos
It was beginning to snow as Shelly climbed up to the top of the tall ladder and refusing my help managed to find a way to sever it together with the branch in a way that kept it from dropping to the ground. That left me free to run for the camera!
The grey and brown paper strips and swirls of the nest were amazingly beautiful up close and through one of the holes in the side one can see the pockets of the hive.
It's the largest one I've ever seen and astounding to contemplate that it is made from the hornets' saliva. Fortunately there were none still dwelling inside. Once the first frost comes they are said to leave the nest and the following year they rebuild from scratch. If left to the elements the next gradually disintegrates. I hope to hang this one from the porch ceiling in a place where the rain doesn't come slanting in to harm it. It's a treasure.
Nov 24, 2007 | From the kitchen of Rose
in Travel Adventures
It was six months since I met my little great nephew and niece in Germany for the first time. Marly Jane at 8 months is already walking and Haydn is talking a blue streak but he does have his calm and quite moments!
Departure to Tuscany: What was projected to be a short hop from Frankfurt, turned out to be a day and night-long adventure due to a ground workers strike in Florence. We were rerouted to Bologna where a bus was supposed to take us to Florence but no one at the airport knew anything about any bus. There were 20 of us in the same predicament and by the time we got to Florence the airport was closed and our car rental Sixt didn’t wait for us.
Digging deep into my high school Italian, opera, art history (as in pieta) and phrases from the God Father part 1, 2 and 3, I managed to persuade the police to call a nearby hotel and find us a reservation. When he told me there would be collazione I thought this meant that the hotel would ‘collect’ us by taxi ma non, it means breakfast is included! (see what I mean about my Italian.) But nowhere more than Italy will people sympathize with a stranger who is struggling to communicate in tormented fragmented phrases.
Next morning we collected our car and managed to wind up almost in Rome due to a combination of construction and Elliott’s disbelief in my navigation. (We now own a GPS!)
Continue reading "Germany-Tuscany Part 2" »
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