Kitchen Failures, Mishaps and Downright Discouragements

I still haven't conquered working with phyllo - only tried it once and threw the whole thing out..

I just can't seem to manage cooking bacon and eggs and toast all at the same time. perhaps I should attend culinary school and get a chef's hat. I'm also thinking I need to get stainless steel appliances.

key with phyllo is to keep it damp. You have to keep a wet towel over it - the minute it hits the air, you have limited time to work with it.

Popovers are the bane of my existence.

I never had a popover until just before I was married. My mother had a bee-in-her-bonnet about popover's cousin, Yorkshire Pudding. i was curious about it and asked her to make it and she went off on how horrible it was to cook anything in that much grease . . . totally disregarding that she made gravy from pan drippings and that salad dressing was oil-based.

My ex-husband's grandmother was the popover queen. Her's were amazing as were the popovers at Anthony's Pier 4 (went there once).

She insisted they were easy and made them in a standard aluminum muffin pan.

I have tried recipe and after recipe. yes, for a food composed of fewer than five ingredients, there are many recipes, most with changes in technique rather than ingredients, all guaranteed to make popovers fit for Anthony's.

Start with a cold over, begin with a hot oven. Beat the eggs in last, one at a time. Beat the eggs and milk together. Then add the dry ingredients to the wet. Or, add the wet ingredients to the dry. Have ingredients at room temperature. Work with chilled ingredients. Mix ingredients and allow to chill in the frig up to overnight. Mix ingredients and add to pan immediately. Chill pan, add ingredients then place in preheated oven. Put the muffin tin into the oven as it heats, then add room temp ingredients to sizzling pan.

I have tried each of these techniques. I did make one successful batch in a brand new, non-stick popover pan. The non-stick coating immediately peeled off and the pan went the way of the dinosaurs.

I tried a version called small batch popovers today from Allrecipes.com. It appealed to me because it made four and not 6, 9 or 12 little cakes (they're not really breads).

The recipe failed to answer some technique pointers: did the cook beat out the lumps or do the lumps keep the dough tender. Some reviewers warned the recipe was heavy and eggy and that the recipe was better made in six rather than four cups.

Followed the recipe exactly but forgot to flour the cups after greasing them (not a step I usually do). They were more like scrambled eggs than popovers although they did rise.

I have had ups and downs on gravy. Sometimes it comes out fantastic - other times it is not even worth tasting.

Baking is also something I have difficulty with - you have to be precise and like to change things to my tasting - although if I have time and quiet (which I haven't had in over 11 years), I can bake.

I love to bake and make a really good pie crust. I made savory tarts for a party this weekend and one guest told me that she buys crusts as she can not make a crust superior to any she purchases.

I can not stand pre-made crusts and dislike most pies, including famous pies like those by "The Pie Guy," out of Salem, NH. Bought two once and my kids refused to finish their first slices because the crust was made with shortening rather than butter.

King Arthur flour makes a pastry blend that is transcendent. The flavor of the unbaked dough is amazing as is its workability.

I'm up and down with lasagna. Got the taste right, but the texture varies from soupy to too dry. Haven't figured out the right combination yet.

Lasagna is one of those dishes that there are as many versions as there are cooks.

have you tried the noodles that you don't preboil but put right into the pan with the rest of the ingredients?

Yeah, the appliances will make a big difference, dys.

yeah, everyone tells me without stainless steel appliances I'll just never been a decent cook.

I've tried those noodles and I hate them. They taste gross and they disintegrate if you cook them too long (in the lasagne) or reheat.

Here's a great Yorkshire Pudding recipe I found on the internet - these two UK Chefs had a contest for the highest one:

1 1/4 c. flour
some salt (1/2 tsp?)
6 - 8 eggs (this is the one chef's secret, usually they call for 2 or 3 eggs)
2 c. milk

All ingredients at room temperature (this goes for ANY baking) - cakes will rise much higher if eggs and liquid are at room temp.

Put about 1 T of drippings in each muffin tin then into a hot oven for 10 min to get piping hot. This is the secret to the crispiness on the bottom as the batter starts cooking (bubbling) immediately when it hits the drippings. He cooks his at 400 for 30 min, but I've always done 450 for 20, then 350 for 10.

Doesn't matter how you mix the ingredients together - just make sure it's not lumpy. I made these last night in a 9x13 baking pan (no muffin tins) and I should have cooked them a little longer - 5 - 10 min, but they were fantastic.
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I cannot get my meringue to rise those incredibly lofty heights. I don't know if I'm adding sugar too soon or what, but I've just never been able to do that.

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With lasagne, if you follow the recipe on the box exactly, you won't go wrong, really, you won't. But I use Hot Italian Sausage, casing removed, chopped up (not ground) instead of ground beef and I think it's much better. (I also use those in spaghetti and meatballs, less work and tastier). I also don't make lasagne with spinach in camp (guys seem to hate cooked spinach), but I do use ricotta or drained cottage cheese, mixed with egg. Use the ready-made pasta sauce if you're wondering how loose it should be. It shouldn't be loose at all when you're making it - it should be very firm because it will juice up as you cook it. And don't overcook the noodles - they will cook in the sauce.

You'd be in a real quandary here with the bacon, eggs and toast, dys. I have to make toast on a stove-top toaster - first of all, there's not enough room for all four pieces of bread to toast evenly - it's just not wide enough - so some parts of the bread gets toasted, and some not. Then, even at top gas mark, it takes 10 minutes to do both sides. I have to start the toast when or before I start the bacon. Then I put them both on warm in the oven while I do the rest of the toast and then the eggs. Maybe you should try that.

I saw a bacon eggs and toast TV dinner the other day.

have you tried that?

putting it on my grocery list immediately, thanks for the tip. Did you google it?

Get a room you two.

The sexual tension between the 2 of you palpable.

Toast is the most difficult.

You had the experience of the noodles disintegrating? I was wary of them but bought them after the owner of an Italian market encouraged me. He actually stopped carrying traditional noodles. His recommendation was to cook the lasagna a bit longer than the recipe called for and he said his customers are felt the cook-with-the-lasagna noodles tasted like fresh pasta. I feel they do.

I'll try your Yorkshire Pudding recipe. I notice it has a higher egg to flour ratio than most. Do you ever add herbs or do you do it straight?

yeah, whole wheat, sourdough or potato bread is my dilemma and then there's whole timing issue to deal with not to mention light or dark?

I made popovers back in girl scouts' cooking class; they came out great. That was the last time I've made them. I seem to remember something needed to be very hot (the oven, I trust) and maybe something needed to be cold. Now I'm going to have to try them again. With Mrs. Radcliffe teaching us, nothing was a big deal. Too bad I didn't write all that down.