caitmcg
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Posts posted by caitmcg
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2 hours ago, storyskip said:
Santos was too much Jed Bartlett 2.0
I did not mind the Santos campaign storyline, but I always thought it would have been more interesting, story-wise, to have Vinnick win. That might not meet the WW wish-fulfillment brief, but it seeing how all the stalwarts adjusted to that transition might have been more compelling.
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On 8/30/2023 at 2:39 PM, annzeepark914 said:
First time doing this so I hope this link works. It's a recipe for Forgotten Chocolate Cookies (in the Washington Post) and is so much better than what I'm accustomed to (whipped eggwhites & sugar). I used Ghirardelli chocolate powder with the powdered sugar & walnuts. They are so darn delicious! Now I have an easy to make rich & memorable cookie recipe.
I know these as Francois Payard’s flourless chocolate walnut cookies, which I first made years ago (this version is all over the web). I also find your standard meringue cookies (like forgotten cookies) way too sweet.
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https://www.gamesradar.com/sex-education-season-4-finale-feature-length-netflix/
Season 4 drops on September 21.
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When Mimi, who could sell fire to Phoenix in August, doesn’t really try, you know your look is not headed for glory.
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On 7/14/2023 at 11:56 PM, Daisychain said:
So late last year, my friends (who know what a Top Chef crazy head I am) took me to Virtue for my birthday. It is in the Hyde Park area of Chicago, where the original Columbian Exposition of 1893 took place, and the Museum of Science and Industry remains, and the University of Chicago. It's quite hopping now.
Also where the Obamas have their Chicago manse.
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Gotta take advantage of peak summer fruit, so blackberry and apricot shortcake. I macerated the fruit with a sprinkle of sugar and a little peach liqueur while we ate dinner.
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9 hours ago, RoseAllDay said:
Maybe, but that sure is a long time to hold a grudge. Rami did a lot of draping in his designs during his season. (He was on with both Korto and Leeanne, correct?) Uli
Rami was on S4 (with Christian), and Korto and Leanne were on S5. And Leanne didn’t do the “petals” all season, it was just the through-line of her winning final season.
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Fun bit of cast trivia: I listened to the most recent episode of the It’s Not Only Football podcast, with Jesse Plemons (they’re talking about the beginning of Season 2 and the murder, among other things), and he kind of blew Scott Porter and Zach Gilford's minds with the news that the actors who played Devin and the Swede are married. Apparently, they’re both musicians in real life, and met some years ago at a music f3stkval.
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On 7/5/2023 at 10:48 AM, PRgal said:
For someone who has ZERO patience for yeast recipes, this bagel recipe is a dream come true. I have yet to try, but definitely on the baking bucket list.
Bagel-shaped quick breads, maybe. But the baking powder measurement has to be a typo. Four and a half tablespoons is more than a quarter cup. Teaspoons, perhaps? The writing on that whole post is pretty sloppy.
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On 6/30/2023 at 9:17 PM, EtheltoTillie said:
Rose Levy Berenbaum’s Cake Bible is a real masterpiece. Her basic pound cake is delicious. She has amazing techniques for getting a moist, delicious crumb.
She uses the reverse creaming method for all her butter cakes, which produces a fine, soft crumb.
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On 6/19/2023 at 3:54 PM, Ilovepie said:
True, but Anya's aesthetic was basically caftans........I don't know how to sew and I think I could manage that too. She was a one way monkey that the judges gave a pass to every week......
I’m of the opinion that Anya’s aesthetic was basically caftans because she didn’t know how to sew — in contrast to Uli in S3, who had a similar aesthetic, but had the skills to easily step outside when necessary. Anya stated she learned to sew specifically to enter, and she could not set a sleeve without help from her fellow contestants. What Anya had in spades was style, and she was telegraphed as the favorite from the get-go. Her coasting to the win was a big reason I stopped watching until the show returned to Bravo.
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@annzeepark914, thank you!
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And there we have it.
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37 minutes ago, Mondrianyone said:
At first I thought those were chocolate coffee beans on top, but then my brain came up with the idea of chocolate dragées, which I didn't even know were a thing, but Google tells me they are. Now I have to get some.
Yep. Both Callebaut (which calls them “chocolate crispearls”) and Valrhona (“chocolate crispy pearls”) make them, and they’re virtually identical in size, appearance, and consistency. As the descriptions imply, they’re some kind of crispy substance coated in chocolate. They’re also available in milk chocolate.
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55 minutes ago, Bastet said:
Looking at the recipe, I'm sure that lemon cake tastes every bit as delicious as it looks like it would. I'd never fuss with it, but I'd be thrilled if someone made it for me. I'm sure your mom appreciated it.
Thanks, and yes, it’s very tangy and lemony and moist and frankly, everything I want in a lemon cake. It’s definitely a bit of a faff, with all the egg yolks (my freezer is full of egg whites now), but worth it for a party.
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My brother and I threw a party for our mother’s milestone birthday last weekend, and I baked the cakes.
One was a ridiculously tall, three-layer chocolate stout cake with brown butter cream cheese icing between the layers and covered with coffee-brown sugar ermine icing. (I am decidedly not a decorator, especially when pressed for time!)
It was a challenge to cut thin slices (which were then halved horizontally) to serve, but luckily, my dad is good at that kind of thing.
The second (and third) cakes were Rose Levy Beranbaum’s triple lemon velvet bundt cake, made with Meyer lemons from my folks’ backyard tree. I baked and syruped these two days ahead and glazed them the day before serving, and they were moist and thoroughly imbued with lemon flavor.
Both cakes were big hits.
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54 minutes ago, Ellee said:
Think PYKAG is Top Chef’s and not Padma’s. No?
I’m fairly sure it has been used since the first season, when Katy Lee was host.
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4 hours ago, Fukui San said:
Padma is revered now, but for the first let’s say half of her tenure I remember her being considered pretty lightweight and inessential on TWoP. A lot of minimizing her foodie credentials, viewing her as eye candy, and saying that Tom’s opinion was the only one that actually mattered. And stoner jokes, but I think that’s still around. Her reputation has increased as time has gone on, I think.
It certainly didn’t help that production treated her not just as glamorous in the way she was presented, but as eye candy. I distinctly recall the season they had her emerging from the surf in a bikini in slo-mo, and some of the male contestants prompted to react in talking heads. I think things changed when she became (along with Tom) an executive producer. I imagine that as she’s developed more influence and cred, she has also affected how much attention they’ve paid to varied (i.e. non-European) food cultures, something that has really improved in recent seasons.
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5 minutes ago, Yeah No said:
I could also see Marcus Samuelsson as a judge.
He’s certainly been a fine as a guest judge the multiple times he’s been on (based on the previews for the Season 20 finale, he’s reprising that role), and he is engaging. As an aside, I enjoyed his memoir, Yes Chef.
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23 hours ago, buttersister said:
And that judges table must have gone on for awhile, it kept getting darker and darker (stays light until almost 10 pm this time of year). Glad
The season was filmed last autumn, though, so not when it’s light quite that late. Note how relatively bundled up they were in the outdoor scenes. They have said that judges' table can go for hours, especially when they’ve got a tough decision to make.
20 hours ago, violet and green said:I was really excited to see all the Michelin-starred chefs enjoying Gabri's plate so much - especially after hearing that when he was five he wanted to own a restaurant in France! I really hope he takes up that 3-Michelin-stars chef's offer up of taking his number and coming to work for him, after the competition at some point, and one day does own his own restaurant in France.
I really hope the judges told Gabri about his comment at some point!
9 hours ago, Lovecat said:I was thinking about this when they were flailing around in the fancy grocery store. Gabri and Ali already have 2 languages competing for space in their brains--their mother tongue + English--and then they were thrown into a big store full of French. That's enough to give anyone a headache.
However, Gabri was the only one of the four proficient enough in French to be able to effectively communicate his needs to the employees, as the editing contrasting this with the others failing to be understood in English pointedly showed.
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Indeed, there were a litany of issues with the ill-fated Top Chef: Just Desserts, but Gail as host wasn’t one of them. She’s warm and personable, and obviously has a track record as judge.
Whoever takes it on has to be willing to eat as much as Padma has noted she must, tasting every dish of every QF and EC, however.
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6 minutes ago, Mondrianyone said:
I'm definitely staying away from these!!
LOL, edited!
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10 hours ago, EtheltoTillie said:
I have a feeling the shortening is just Crisco or similar. I am intrigued by extra dry butter. There is some sold on a professional baking supply site. https://www.elle-et-vire.com/int/en/pro/butters/products/extra-dry-butter-84-fat/
Still not a real explanation of what it is or why it would be better.
ETA: seems to have less water and therefore somehow better for layered pastries.
Based on fat percentage, at first glance this seems similar to European or American “European-style” butters, which are 82 percent and upwards butterfat (vs. the 80 percent USDA standard for American butter). But the statement, “Its high melting point makes it is extremely heat resistant” leads me to suspect that it is lower in milk solids (which readily burn) as well as water, but it’s impossible to know how that varies proportionately from other high-fat butters.
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S04.E05: Episode 5
in Sex Education
The system us different in the UK; my understanding is sixth form college is the final part of secondary school for those who want to qualify for post-secondary education, basically equivalent to junior and senior year but not mandatory (which is why Adam could opt not to go). For this reason, Brits only refer to undergrad as university, whereas in the US a university is specifically an institution that grants graduate degrees.
Almost everyone acted really obtusely. Jo certainly could have been more considerate, not just by not getting plastered but at the very least by not planting herself between Otis and Maeve, and Jackson knew how much Viv likes Beau.