On 5/15/2016 11:23 AM, rbowman wrote:
On 05/15/2016 05:29 AM, Don Y wrote:
The same is true when we are invited to friends' for a party, meal, etc.
Walking in with something *purchased* is a cop-out -- a few extra minutes
on the weekly shopping trip and a few extra dollars.

In my mother's circle the surest way to become a target of derision was to try
to doll up a purchased item and pass it off as your own. Even a cake that
originated from a box was pushing acceptability.

I used to bake things for SWMBO to share with her fellow coworkers.
One day, she tried to pass off my coffee cake as her own. And, of
course, was asked for the Rx: "I'll have to bring it in to you, tomorrow".

Except, Don wasn't eager to share his secrets. Leaving her to explain
why she 'forgot' to bring it in! :

While my mother was a good cook, there were the inevitable failures. The family
got to eat those while she tried again to produce something for public
consumption.

I leave notes to myself each time I make something to give me an idea of
how it might improve. E.g., my biscotti Rx has changed A LOT over the
years (making a batch every two weeks gives you a lot of opportunities
to tweak it!). Ditto cheesecake and coffeecake, particularly.

[Ice cream is FUN to experiment with! "No such thing as a bad batch of
ice cream!"]

I've noticed that, lately, far more effort is spent on perfecting
the process/technique than the ingredients. E.g., my coffeecake is
really difficult to determine when it's "done". It's about 4+" tall
(ring) so hard to probe the interior for "doneness" (LOTS of
sour cream makes it susceptible to being UNDER cooked; over cooking
makes it dry -- defeating the whole purpose!).

So, my notes involve more detailed observations of times, temperatures
and subjective measures ("how sticky a toothpick inserted into it comes
out")

Cheesecake is 5 hours on your feet. So, the notes for that deal
with ways of reducing that time. Or, breaking it up into two or
more "sessions" (it's hard to set aside a 5 hour block of time
for ONE task -- esp given that I don't like cheesecake! : )