LTHForum.com

Looked great, tasted...not so great. The Cheez Whiz was tough to take. I could not, however, imagine a better execution.

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“We all have to stand before the kitchen gods.” Chef Jacob Sahaya Kumar Aruni

How could it be gauche to praise sazerac's recipe? Although I'm sure the execution in your skilled hands was as good as it could be. It was a great dish.

Looking back at sazerac's pronunciation, I can see one of the things that might have attracted you to the recipe.

Was it difficult to make? And would you ever use a dish like that as part of your catering repertoire?

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LAZ
Dining Chicago
Index to LTHForum Recipes, 2004-2008

It was actually very easy to make and I will definitely make it again for home and possibly catering. I didn't love the presentation and would probably cook the fish seperately so it didn't fall apart as much (for catering; at home I don't care as much about presentation). sazerac mentions an alternative version where the turmeric is sprinkled on the fish which is fried and added to the sauce. I may try that. I will also add a little more heat next time...I made it after the dip and I didn't want to be known as the Hot Queen so I kept it tame.

Aaaah, the dip. I tripled GWiv's recipe and started with 25 whole steamed jalapenos and 1 steamed habanero. I steamed the peppers and garlic in aluminum foil in a 325 oven (lower than I would go for roasting) until they were soft but not browned. I cut the stems off of the peppers, but didn't remove the seeds. It doesn't give any indication in the recipe that this should be done, but my dip was super spicy even with only one habanero (and no fresh). I did add about a teaspoon of fresh garlic and a few extra soda crackers and olive oil to try to tame the heat (if I had more feta I would have doubled the other ingredients without adding more peppers). I really loved the flavor and it actually tamed with chilling and the fresh veggies - still I could only eat a small amount. Just made guacamole yesterday and didn't have fresh jalapenos so he added a touch of the dip and it spiced it up nicely.

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FIG Catering, For Intimate Gatherings
Our website
Our blog
molly@FIGcatering.com

It was fun making Trixie Pea's Mac N Cheese for the potluck. I had tasted this recipe before and had actually watched her make it once at my house. I had been looking for a chance to put my own spin on the dish, and this turned out to be the perfect opportunity. I didn't really change the basic recipe all that much because it's pretty dammed good as it is, but I've never followed a recipe to the letter in my life, so I had to change up something. I doubled the recipe that she posted on LTH. In addition, I added some ground mustard, halved serranos and tomato paste to the roux before making the bechamel sauce. I later removed the serranos before adding the cheese to the finished bechamel. I ended up using 5 different cheeses; Fontina, Aged Reserve Gruyere, 5 year aged English cheddar, a mild bleu and some Parmigiano Reggiano mixed in with the panko on top. This was by far the richest (and most expensive) mac N cheese I have ever made. About the only things I would do differently next time is to maybe use a little more tomato paste than I did to give the cheese sauce a richer color (or use an orange cheddar) and I'd probably mix the panko with a bit of melted butter or truffle oil before topping the dish for better browning. I hope everyone enjoyed the dish. There wasn't much left at the end, so that's a good sign.

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Steve Z.
Photographer/Pseudojournalist

"The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook." - Julia Child

Sunday was just great. Due to WBBM's traffic lies and my precautions, I arrived awfully early and found very little to set up. I have to start by thanking Molly and Justin for being excellent hosts. They got everything organized and remained helpful from start to finish - providing a utensil or pointing people to supplies they needed with patience, graciousness and aplomb. I think they got a kick out of everyone coming to their place for a change.

This was my second LTH event, but I found everyone as friendly and delightful to talk to as I've read. Conversation ranged from proper internal use of drain cleaner, to lost cities in distant lands to the social skeleton key that is the 40 Year Old Virgin.

That said, there was much memorable food. My eating was divided unintentionally to three courses. Salads, appetizers and meats from around the world.

Two memorable tastes from each one: As others have said, Ramon's goi ga (a la jygach) was a refreshing blend of of flavors and textures. Despite her claims, I don't think a culinary mishap got anywhere near that dish. I also very much enjoyed the Terrasinis' spicy pickle. I heard that Mrs. Terrasini dialed back the spice for the masses. Well, let loose the hounds! I would certainly like to taste the uncensored version.

Wustlmike's olive oil flatbreads and the Giles's sardine dip married nicely. I returned for 2nds on the eatchicago-inspired pissaladiere tarts as prepared by KennyZ. And if he truly made the puff pastry as he intended, my awe in addition to my kudos.

Meats of the world yielded, among other fine contenders, Cathy2's preparation of extramsg's brined pastrami. As I showed pictures in this thread to my foodie Boston friend Abby, she immediately eyed the pastrami. "That looks great!" she wrote. It was, Abby. It was. And the piquant bites I had of JoelF's nuea naam tok as turned out by thaiobessed were a great pleasure indeed.

I realize that I forgot to add a starch plate. Or a Nubian plate. Sadly, there were many dishes I lacked the capacity (fortitude?) to try.

And for the desserts, I find myself echoing others' - Kennyz's herby fire-mint-chip ice cream made the mint chocolate chip I enjoyed as a youngster seem like a silly childish thing. Although I cannot remember if it was ultimately sorrel or another herb that finally made it in. Also, I greatly enjoyed Cookie Monster's prep of Bruce's butter cookie dough cobbler. Then again, I'm liable to go Manchurian Candidate for some stewed fruit and a crumble topping.

More than anything else, I loved being a part of such a large-scale, cooking-focused endeavor. With so many people excited to cook and serve others, dozens of hands darting this way and that to stir a pot or plate a dish, my foodie-predilections felt right at home rather than the fringes they normally occupy. It was just enriching to be in the mix with other like-minded cooks and eaters. And that was what I'll remember best.

Of course, many thanks to all the people who made this possible - especially the organizers and the hosts.

I look forward to the picnic with great anticipation.

Now the recipes.

I have to admit that I was not as fond of the radish dish as some other LTH'ers. I kept playing with it to evoke either the intense freshness and spicy undertones of raw radishes or a more flavorful cooked variety. I tried adding sauteed shallots and some fresh thyme, but do not think this greatly changed the taste all that much. The addition of the radish greens were a riff on the suggested variation of watercress in the posted recipe. I had so many lovely greens that it seemed a shame to go out and buy watercress. In retrospect, I might have added more. Some of you may have been wondering about the bread I served underneath it. I was trying to evoke the open-faced sandwich that I believe many of us have enjoyed. I intended to toast the rye bread into croutons, which I think might have been better than the sop the fresh bread became. But those are some deliciously 'enriched' slices of bread that I brought home with me, buttery with some radishy-notes.

One technical note. In order to avoid overcooking them, I cooked the radishes in three different groups based on size and stopped the cooking when each was done. This might be impractical in smaller batches, but I think it helped to preserve some texture.

I found the Derby Day salad straightforward to prepare. I think that the largest possible platter to avoid too much mounding of the lettuce is ideal for service. Or perhaps I put out a bit too much lettuce. I found that most of the flavorful toppings disappeared faster than the greens themselves. Maybe I should have upped the ratios there. As LAZ mentioned, I found the pecans a little vexing. I have never candied anything before, but I am pretty sure that even this dialed-down version could have turned out better. Not much of the sugar and butter really clung to the pecans. I think that perhaps melting the butter in a smaller pan and whisking to incorporate the sugars and white pepper before pouring over the pecans might work better in the future.

Of course, the star of this dish was the dressing itself. I chose this recipe to showcase in-season strawberries and was somewhat uneasy with the choice of bourbon as a flavoring agent. I have had it in some sweets but seldom in other applications. Well, the worries were gone with first taste. What a wonderful dressing this was. I did dial back on the lemons and increased the booze a bit as LAZ pondered doing in the original thread. It was probably closer to 3/4 of a cup of lemon juice and 1/3 or more of a cup of bourbon. I also did not measure the olive oil very carefully, but I think it was less than 2 cups. I just started whisking the non-oil ingredients and adding the light olive oil slowly until a rich emulsion had formed. Maybe call it 1 2/3 cups. Because of the addition of the mustard and honey, I found that this kept emulsified in the fridge very well. It was still integrated by the time I had poured it at the party despite being made some hours in advance.

So that's my cook's take on this little experiment. I really enjoy reading people's account so how the cooking went so do post about your experience!

Perhaps you started with bigger heads of lettuce than I used for the original salad. I probably should have given the measurement in cupfuls of greens for more accuracy -- but since I didn't measure them, this would have been difficult! The bibb lettuce I used was about 4 inches in diameter.


Ah, I thought your version had a bit more bite -- I imagine that was the reduced proportion of oil rather than the higher level of bourbon. I typically use a standard 1 part acid to 2 parts oil for vinaigrettes, and I don't bother with whisking but just pour everything into a jar and shake it up.

Thanks so much for trying my recipe. It's so fascinating how different cooks can start with the same recipe and end up with varied results because of different methods and equipment, variations in ingredients and so on, not to mention different tastes, even in a simple dish like this one. We touched on that in this thread.

You have to wonder how large restaurants manage to come up with consistent results when they have so many different cooks.

Perhaps it would be fun sometime to do an experiment in which a group of us all make the same recipe and then we compare the final dishes.

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LAZ
Dining Chicago
Index to LTHForum Recipes, 2004-2008

Sounds like a great idea to me. When/Where?

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Chicago Craft Beer Week!

Maybe it would be better to figure out the recipe, first?

One criterion I can see is that it should be a dish any competent cook can make, rather than something that requires a lot of practice to get right (e.g. barbecue). Ideally it should be something that can be served cold or at room temperature, so the venue needn't have a kitchen.

And perhaps it ought to be part of another event, so that the prospect of a large quantity of something all the same doesn't seem so boring!

My original, inadvertent experiment of this nature was with cookies.

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LAZ
Dining Chicago
Index to LTHForum Recipes, 2004-2008

Maybe start with a cold salad that everyone would make, basically following a recipe, but adding the option that each person could bring their own kind of protein, to top off the salads if desired? (I promise I won't bring kangaroo.)

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Chicago Craft Beer Week!

I enjoyed making Bridgestone's Christmas Meatballs, as I have been somewhat obsessed with charcuterie over the past few years. This was an interesting project for me because even though my wife is of Swedish descent, not very many family recipes from the 'old country' seem to have made it the present.

The wife enjoyed the meatballs (they reminded her of stuff her grandmother used to make for her when she was little) and I received several positive comments about them, including 'exemplary' and 'textbook.' I personally prefer a spicier, more aggressively seasoned rendition but that's just not the nature of the Swedish meatball. These were subtle and aromatic, with faint but distinctive notes of freshly-ground clove and allspice. Because I knew I'd be re-heating this batch, I felt like they needed a sauce, so I created one with the pan drippings that were rendered after I fried the meatballs, by creating a roux in the pan and adding beef stock to it. I also re-emphasized the clove and allspice in the sauce and then ran it all through a chinoise. Thinking about it now, some thinly sliced, sauteed mushrooms would have been a nice addition to the sauce, too.

The very best thing about the meatballs was that they were remarkably tender. This was mainly a function of triple-grinding the meat, something that the sagacious Bridgestone advised in his recipe. It had a huge impact on the final product's texture, which was soft and delicate, and I definitely plan to apply the technique to future projects. The one downside of this tenderness was that, before cooking, the meatballs were difficult to keep spherical. As we rolled them and aggregated them for frying, they tended to develop some flat edges. This might have been exacerbated by my adding too much stock to the breadcrumbs that went into the balls. I'm not 100% sure.

In any event, based on the results, the feedback I received and the fact that the entire pan of meatballs was all but polished off, I'd pretty much call the endeavor a rousing success.

=R=

_________________
I just wanna live until I gotta die. I know I ain't perfect but God knows I try. --Todd Snider

Twitter: ronniesuburban

will someone be posting pictures of the food soon? the only consolation to missing the potluck was knowing i'd at least be able to enjoy the photos of the dishes. thanks, justjoan

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"the only things money can't buy are true love and homegrown tomatoes" (guy clark)

It was great meeting everyone at the potluck.
There were many outstanding dishes. I have been obsessing about YourPalWill's Cochinitia Pibil (made by aschie) since I put the first bite of it in my mouth. So...today I found myself at Tony's buying habanero chiles, banana leaves, achiote and five pounds of pork shoulder. I post on the results after Sat.
I also made Ramon's chicken salad (made by jygach) the night after the potluck.
I think next up will be KennyZ's mint ice cream.
JoelF's Thai Beef Salad (Neua nom tok) was a cinch to make. I grilled the skirt steak to medium rare (I'd probably go rarer next time--it "cooked" a bit in the dressing. I stay pretty true to the recipe (tho I added a handful of mint). I'll definitely be making this again over the summer (Thanks for the recipe JoelF if you're out there).

A number of people asked me to post on my rendition of the Goi Ga . I pretty much followed Ramon’s directions with a few minor changes. I poached the chicken in water which was flavored with ginger, garlic and lemon grass. For the herbs, I used a combination of Thai basil, mint, and cilantro. The minor changes I made were:
• Instead of using white sugar, I decided to use palm sugar which, I thought, would give the dressing more depth of flavor. However, my package of palm sugar appeared to have found an undiscoverable hiding spot in my cabinet. As a substitute, I used a combination of white sugar and turbinado sugar.
• Instead of all Napa, I used a combination of Napa cabbage and red cabbage for a crunchier texture.

Others asked me to share my culinary mishaps with the Red Velvet Cake. So, in the spirit of bringing it all to the table for my LTH friends, here are my mishaps and misfortunes with dessert.

The LTH recipe for Red Velvet Cake linked to two recipes. The first used a bottle of red dye. The second used pureed red beets. I elected to go with the beet version as I had no desire to ingest dyes. Since this was a Southern cake I felt it warranted dipping into my store of White Lily flour milled in the South. This recipe not only used beets, but also had melted chocolate in addition to the cocoa. The cake batter had no hint of red but, as they say, the proof is in the baking. Sadly, 35 minutes of baking did nothing to enhance the color. It looked like a basic chocolate cake. At this point it was 1:00 am and my bed was calling.

The next morning all that remained for me to do was to whip up a cream cheese frosting and slap it onto my nine-inch cake layers. I turned to the internet and picked a cream cheese frosting recipe under the mistaken impression that they were all pretty much the same. This recipe used three ingredients – cream cheese, butter, and confectioners’ sugar. Three ingredients that, despite my efforts at stirring, whipping, begging, and praying, refused to come together to form a frosting. “Perhaps it will firm up once it’s on the cake,” I hoped, as I attempted to spread this mixture on the cake. It did not, and just kept slithering down the sides of the cake and pooling onto the parchment strips I was using to keep my serving platter pristine. After ten minutes of spreading and then watching the slip sliding I accepted this cake as a lost cause and skimmed through the recipes to find a different dessert.

Wait, the mishaps continue …

Staying with the chocolate theme, I selected Super Chocolate Brownies as per the recipe posted by tcdup.

I quickly mixed together two batches and heaved a sigh of relief when they emerged looking dark and shiny. After they cooled, I cut them into squares and placed each batch on a plate. As I was wrapping the plates with foil, one plate slid out of my hands and I watched in horror as one batch of brownies lay on the floor in tiny pieces! It looked like we would have only one batch of brownies instead of two - not the end of the world.

At 3:00 p.m. I packed the food, took it to the car and drove off to pick up Cynthia. I was sharing my kitchen disasters with her when, to my utter dismay and horror, I saw the second plate of brownies slide from their safely ensconced position and land upside down onto the floor of the car in, you guessed it, small pieces. Cynthia helped me salvage a few pieces but clearly this was not an appealing pile of brownies!

You decide – just culinary mishaps or evil spirits.
BTW the brownies were indeed super!

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Jyoti
A meal, with bread and wine, shared with friends and family is among the most essential and important of all human rituals.
Ruhlman

Apparently, several of us had our tribulations.


Was this recipe as much work as it looked like? It was wonderful, but it looked like it took loads of chopping.

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LAZ
Dining Chicago
Index to LTHForum Recipes, 2004-2008

I do hope so. I was there, and I'm still eager to see the photos. Perhaps all the photographers are just taking extra care with their processing.

I've posted a not-very-good photo of the ham, along with my notes on making it here. (I also posted on the search for the ham and the reason for the search.)

And here's the menu-related portion of the playlist of food tunes. I tried to have a song for every dish, but a few of the latecomers aren't represented.

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LAZ
Dining Chicago
Index to LTHForum Recipes, 2004-2008

I wish I'd done a better job of photographing the food but between the setting-up, the food prep and the eating, some stuff slipped through the cracks. I'm sorry that there are gaps in the coverage (including the dishes I made ) but I think this is a fair representation of the spread. Again, I'm sorry if I left anyone's dishes out . . .



eatchicago-inspired pissaladiere by Kennyz



Keri's hog-apple baked beans by Giovanna



Molly Stevens' butter-glazed radishes by gastro gnome



JeffB's chilaquiles en cazuela by Terrasini



LAZ's Derby Day salad by gastro gnome



9-year-old cheddar and Barb Kelly's deviled eggs by Giles



Garlic-scape pesto by Cathy2



Ramon's goi ga by jygach



Gravlax by David Hammond



City ham with Cathy2's glaze by LAZ & RheS



waderoberts' hominy casserole by LAZ & RheS



Crown roast of kangaroo by nr706



Bridgestone's laxpudding by G Wiv



Millionaire chicken by Ann Fisher



sazerac's meen moilee by figjustin & figmolly



Erzsi's haluska by jazzfood



Nubian okra casserole by Cynthia



extramsg's brine method for homemade pastrami by Cathy2



Triple-cooked pork belly with preserved mustard ("five flower pork belly") by Helen



ToniG's Marinated Salmon by Octarine



JoelF's nuea naam tok by thaiobsessed



JoelF's wasabi deviled eggs by jazzfood



Beverages by tarte tatin and others



EvA's hazelnut torte by justjoan, brownies by jygach, Panela and molasses ice cream with candied bacon and strawberry-balsamic gelato by wustlmike and Bruce's butter cookie dough cobbler (blueberry peach) by Cookie Monster




Panna cotta by EaterLover, Peppermint-Red Fire chip ice cream by Kennyz (left)



Mignardise by figmolly & figjustin

=R=

_________________
I just wanna live until I gotta die. I know I ain't perfect but God knows I try. --Todd Snider

Twitter: ronniesuburban

Lovely, Ron, thanks. Gorgeous photos of great-looking food!

Perhaps some of the other photographers got your dishes and other items you missed and this will inspire them to post. (G Wiv?)

If we ever do this again, we should have a photography station.

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LAZ
Dining Chicago
Index to LTHForum Recipes, 2004-2008

WOW. what an amazing array of food.

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"the only things money can't buy are true love and homegrown tomatoes" (guy clark)

Nice pictures Ronnie! I'm impressed that you were able to get as many of the dishes as you did. There was so much going on, my camera sat in its case for the entire event.

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Steve Z.
Photographer/Pseudojournalist

"The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook." - Julia Child

That is simply an incredible amount of outstanding dishes! It really gives me respect for the variety and complexity of the recipies in the recipe index as well as the talents of this board. How I wish I could have been there...

And, on a slightly egocentric note, it looks like Gary nailed his batch of "laxpudding", too! I positively couldn't have done better myself.

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My flickr food photos

He indeed did nail it, and it was sensational.

=R=

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I just wanna live until I gotta die. I know I ain't perfect but God knows I try. --Todd Snider

Twitter: ronniesuburban

Well, he doesn't seem alone in nailing the Swedish recipies the other day, ronnie...

And I'm embarrassed to admit that I'd missed your informative and generous review of your meatball making experiences, ronnie. Thank you very much!

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My flickr food photos

Great photos, Ronnie! Made my mouth water all over again. And Bridgestone, you may be interested to know that my mother, in Marquette, Michigan--on the shores of Lake Superior--served your laxpudding to guests tonight. She happened to ask me whether I happened to have any good salmon recipes, and since I'd so recently verified for myself that your laxpudding was as good as it looked.......

Don't know if I missed it, but did figmolly post a recipe for those wonderful chocolate truffles she served as a mignardize? I went through all the pages of this thread, plus LAZ's amazing recipe index, and I couldn't find anything. Of course, being as she's in catering, it might be a trade secret, and I'd understand. But I didn't want to miss out on it if it was simply an oversight.

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"Nothing important is easy." Patrick White (Australian Nobel laureate)

http://waltzingaustralia.wordpress.com

Bridgestone,

High praise indeed, though it is mainly due to your delicious recipe and recipe writing skill. On a slightly egocentric note of my own, I'd like to point out that Ron's terrific picture, among many, is a pre decorated Laxpudding, I went total Martha Stewart on its a**.

This was a wonderful event, thanks again to LAZ, Cathy2, The Figs, LTHers who came to the event, delicious dishes in hand, and all who have contributed to the recipe index.

Hammond may have the prize for best and worst item, gravlax spectacular, Raicilla vulgar.

Enjoy,
Gary

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Sauce on the side, always, implied, axiomatic..........never a doubt, BBQ sauce without.

Low & Slow

I didn't post as the truffles were merely an afterthought - some extras I had around that I didn't want to eat myself, but figured the LTHers would enjoy. Here's the recipe:

Fennel Chocolate Truffles

8-10 oz. semi sweet chocolate, chopped
1 oz. unsweetened chocolate, chopped
5 Tbsp. whipping cream
1/2 cup unsalted butter
2 tsps. anise flavored liqueur (in this case, Sambuca)
Sugar coated fennel seeds

Melt 5 oz. of semi sweet chocolate, unsweetened chocolate, butter and whipping cream over low in a heavy bottomed saucepan and mix until chocolate is melted (it's not neccesary to do this in a double boiler because of the butter and cream, but you do need to watch it carefully). Remove from heat and add liqueur, mix well. Pour into a dish about 1" deep (I use a 9x13 casserole).

Chill in the fridge until hard (I usually do this overnight). In the morning remove from fridge and let sit out about 5 minutes (will vary depending on temperature - you just want the chocolate scoopable). With a melon baller and cup of cold water, make chocolate balls dipping in water between every other one (I usually find dipping it between every one makes it too wet). Place on a sheet pan back in the fridge or freezer.

Temper the remaining semi-sweet chocolate (there are some instructions here). Dip each truffle in chocolate and place on a clean sheet pan. Decorate with a candied fennel seed.

Chocolate note: I used Callebaut chocolate pistils for the semi-sweet and Sharffenberger unsweetened.

_________________
FIG Catering, For Intimate Gatherings
Our website
Our blog
molly@FIGcatering.com

Thanks, Molly. That Sambuca made a good truffle quite remarkable.

_________________
"Nothing important is easy." Patrick White (Australian Nobel laureate)

http://waltzingaustralia.wordpress.com

I was sorry to miss the potluck (was out of town), but I learned from Cathy2 at the Sun Wah pig roast that my recipe put in an appearance for me. I’m pleased that my hazelnut torte was baked by justjoan. (Too bad you couldn’t be there, jj.) Looking at Ronnie S’s picture of it, I’m curious what changes you made in it. It looks way jazzier than my version, which I usually serve rather haphazardly coated with whipped cream.

EvA

hi eva, if you scroll upward in this thread, i posted my childhood recipe for chocolate whipped cream frosting. other than that, all i did was divide 1 recipe into 2-9" square pans and i toasted the nuts at 300 degrees for about 10 minutes. i thought a square cake would be easier to divide into small portions. i used loose bottom pans and also lined them with a sling of parchment paper. between the 2 precautions i almost never have trouble removing cakes from pans. i'm very disappointed that i never got to taste your cake! i'll definitely have to make it again. any history to the recipe? justjoan

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"the only things money can't buy are true love and homegrown tomatoes" (guy clark)