... the wedding season that is! Hector, our talented baker/blogger/designer/photographer/friend, has designed a stunning book plate and gift concept for the bride and groom.
He suggests printing it out as a 5x7 photo to tape in your books as a bookplate! He writes that it is ok to print on other sizes but the edges may chop out a little.
I was asked by Roxanne Webber of chow.com to offer my opinionas to the suitability of beans as pie weights and whether they remain edible after baking. If you are interested in my response click on this link: http://www.chow.com/stories/11054 I can promise you will be pleasantly surprised!
I need a little time to catch up from the past two week marathon of photography for the new book and visit to Gold Medal/General Mills in MN bu I've been following all your postings and look forward to answering and telling about the experience(s) asap! thanks to all of you who have so wisely helped those in need of a response.
You may find it odd that someone who loves scratch baking, weaving, knitting, and other somewhat retro activities so fully embraces new technology. But as far as I’m concerned, anything that improves quality of product, performance, or existence in general is welcome in my life. After all, I wouldn't be here on this blog writing to you if not for the internet!
It took a while before I could have important intimate phone conversations with the use of a headphone but now I find it more immediate than the old-fashioned receiver and besides, it saves my neck! (No more crunching the receiver between ear and shoulder—perish the thought.)
Years ago Elliott told me I should be using voice activation software for which he developed the vocabulary and protocol in radiology. As a 180 word per minute typist I was resistant. Then some years later I had a violent reaction to the powerful antibiotic cipro. It was administered for a minor infection and turned out to be the equivalent of hitting a mosquito with a sledge hammer! It resulted in a thankfully temporary neurological incapacity that made it difficult to type. This served as real motivation to try out the voice activation software that had been sitting on my computer for years.
I will always be grateful to Marc Cohen of www.spokencomputing.com for coming to my aid. Marc lives in San Francisco and is an expert trainer for speech recognition software. He responded to something I wrote about my typing problem on the blog with a kind and invaluable offer to help me get over the hurdle. He told me that his partner had made their wedding cake from The Cake Bible and that in gratitude he wanted to be of help to me.
I cannot sing the praises of voice activation more enthusiastically as it has saved my fingers and given a new voice to my writing. When my mother was still alive I often would read articles I had written over the phone to her. It was a way to give her my time, entertain her, and still get my work done, but the added benefit was that invariably, once I heard my prose out loud, I would change something in the flow of them. I think that the spoken word and the written word need to be in balance and the best way to achieve it is by speaking your writing into the computer and then reading it back!
Often I revert back to my fingers because I type faster than I speak and old habits die hard. BUT, my favorite headphone company (Hello Direct) has come up with a new version of their light-weight and fantastic wireless headphone that can switch back between phone conversations and voice activation on the computer. I’m sure that will make it much more encouraging to use. And somewhere down the line, with Marc’s help, I’ll try out tape recording my notes as I test recipes, plugging it into the computer, and allowing the voice recognition software to transfer my words to the recipe document. That would be the ideal way to test recipes and record all the nuances faithfully.
I am keeping careful notes to share with you. I'm thrilled with the results of today's photo shoot. We are scheduled for 10 solid uninterrupted days of photography (including on my birthday--never will I have had so many birthday cakes!) after which I will be going to Minneapolis to visit General Mills/Gold Medal Flour to plan the DVD.
It looks like it's going to be near impossible to respond to any blog questions until after April 11 but there will be a posting from me every Saturday as usual.
And I'll check in as often as possible just so that I don't miss anything!
Jan Kish is hands down the most talented cake decorator ever to have graduated from Cordon Rose, my former cooking school. Since that time, which is over 20 years ago, she opened Jan Kish - La petite Fleur, and has been producing breathtaking cakes which she ships all over the world. She has also appeared many times in Brides magazine, and on the Good Morning America Show and the Food Network.
For the first time, Jan will be sharing her exceptional skills in two 1-day 6 hour seminars Homespun Wedding Cakes -- at La Cuisine in Alexandria Virginia www.lacuisineus.com on Saturday, April 19, and in Columbus, Ohio www.jankish.com on Sunday, May 4. In this class, Jan will delve into the “anatomy of the wedding cake” Her objective is to transform you from novice to semi-professional in six hours (and perhaps a wee bit more). She will take you from imagination, to design, to creation, while demonstrating how the techniques you learn can then be applied to other celebration cakes.
This is an opportunity not to be missed.
Note: There will also be a second-class on Sunday, April 20 at La Cuisine on “How to Cater Your Own Wedding.”
I'll be skiing in Deer Valley until Tuesday, March 25, then back to New York and photography for the new book every day including the weekend until April 4, then away until April 10th doing DVD planning!
Postings are scheduled for every Saturday but please don't be surprised if other than that you don't hear from me very often during this time. Take good care of yourselves and each other.
Love,
Rose
For Matthew and anyone else who has tried or will try the Seville orange curd I posted a few weeks back: blood orange zest makes a beautiful addition. I was just at Whole Foods in SoHo, looking to see if they had the Seville oranges. They didn't but to my surprise they had another batch of blood oranges. Tip: choose the ones that have purplish peel rather than orange as that is a sure indication of the color of the fruit within. If the oranges are mostly orange in color the interior will be mostly orange with maybe a few tinges of red.
Blood orange zest disappointingly loses its color on heating and becomes just orange but when subjected to minimal heat from the orange curd poured over it, it keeps its vibrant hue. Of course the orange inside is great to eat and blood oranges are exceptionally easy to peel. But don't wait too many days to do so as the inner peel hardens after the outside is zested.
I just received my sample of the final "Scrape-A-Bowl and I need to go on record immediately to state that I did not approve this final product though a quote from me is on the box which says "This new beater is a work of art."
The concept is a good one but in my testing of a prior model before the final I found that the pressure of the blades against the inside of the bowl locked the bowl in place making it necessary to dislodge it with a rubber coated hammer. Also the jiggling of the head of the mixer caused the pin holding it in place to work its way out and the heavy head of the mixer fell onto my marble counter top which would have cracked it had I not caught it just in time.
I see that the new model is slightly shorter which may have solved this problem but until I try it again I can't swear to it!
Also as of yet I haven't seen approval from any of the major manufacturers using this attachment for their machines. I have heard that there is concern as to whether the friction against the bowl will gradually wear the motor.
The concept is excellent but I reserve judgement until I have the chance to test it further.
I've just learned that the Spanish edition of my book will be published Oct/Nov of this year (2008). Of course it will be available all over Spain but if you want to be able to purchase it in the US please post your comments on this blog and I will forward them to the publisher. This will motivate them to find a US distributor!
I will be giving a lecture on flour and an angel food cake demo for the New York University Experimental Cuisine Collective on Thursday, January 17, 4 to 6 p.m. at NYU Washington Square Campus.
You are welcome to come but as space is limited, please RSVP Anne E. McBride and she will e-mail you the address.
aemcbride@gmail.com
Also do let me know as it will be great fun to meet those of you who are in the area and might be able to come!
P.S. There's no admission charge.
Do check out the link on the forums for high altitude baking--it will be very helpful for those of you on high!
well there it is--the babka stayed and i gained a little over 1 pound. i just returned from my early morning swim and ran into one of my favorite neighbors waiting for the elevator. she asked me in a hushed voice what i had been baking the night before last. she said the whole hall smelled like apple pie and permeated all the apartments (she had already queried another neighbor). it was the cinnamon and butter combination of course. incidentally, ann has a luscious sounding chocolate and apricot filling as another great alternative to the cinnamon and sugar.
since i can't seem to get this babka out of my mind, i started thinking that maybe i should use half light brown muscovado sugar in the filling but then decided it was risky as where the babka opens up during baking and the filling carmelizes, the molasses in the brown sugar would make it either burn or become too dark and bitter.
i'm having trouble waiting the 45 minutes for my editor to arrive so we can finish the babka together. i'll distract myself with coffee.
Many of you know from reading my books that I test all the major pieces of equipment used in baking which often leaves me with a warehouse clutter that I tend to hang onto for years. But recently I've been inspired to reorganize, clean up the crawl space and share some of my special pieces with people who would really appreciate it.
For a short time Kenwood was carried under the Rival name and so I have what is actually a Kenwood 7 Quart mixer with Rival brand on it along with two 7 quart mixer bowls and 2 sets of whisk, paddle, and dough hook attachments. I'm willing to ship it to whoever makes the best offer, not including shipping, by the end of the year but it has to be in the U.S. I'd rather see it go to one of my fellow bloggers than to post it on e-bay. and of course you know the respect with which I treat my equipment. This one has not had very much use and is in perfect condition.
I will be a guest on the Martha Stewart Living Radio on Sirius Satellite for the Living Today show tomorrow, December 18, at 4:00 East Coast time until about 4:30. We'll be talking about holiday cookies and cakes. Hope you can tune in!
click on this link and you'll see some advice from me and some of my esteemed colleagues!
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/11/AR2007121100499.html
There’s no time I enjoy living in New York more than December. (By the way, when a New Yorker says New York it means New York City.) Though the city is dramatic and often beautiful in all seasons, it is at its most spectacular when dressed for the holidays.
This week I walked uptown to a fascinating Austrian wine and food pairing from the Burgenland. As it was only two blocks away from Rockefeller Center I paused to enjoy the newly lit tree for 10 full minutes, with the same wide-eyed wonder as all the tourists surrounding me. I think the tree was all of 80 feet high but rose to 84 feet with the placement of the magnificent Swarovski crystal star on top.
The Austrian wine and food pairing was most successful because it demonstrated dramatically how the wine changes with the food that accompanies it. I loved the Heinrich St. Laurent 2005 by itself and with the Viennese fried chicken and especially with the accompanying sauce of lingonberries, but not when I sipped it with the Kobe beef roast where the Weninger Blaufränkisch Reserve 2003 which initially I had found quite closed suddenly blossomed. But the two biggest surprises were the sparkling grüner veltliner that went with all the hors d’oeuvres but was also extremely enjoyable by itself as was the Kracher 2003 TBA (short for trockenbeerenauslese for those who fear pronouncing it or want to boast extreme familiarity). Many people refer to this dessert wine as liquid gold and this particular one deserved the name in full. In fact it was so perfectly balanced between refreshing acidity and honeyed apricot sweetness it needed nothing at all to accompany it other than a willingness to fall to one’s knees in gratitude (difficult to do when seated).
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.....
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!
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.
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