Normally I can't STAND her.

but I do have to admit that Sandra Lee is sort of awesome.
her cookbooks are really sweet, actually - even though they call themselves 'semi-homemade', i can't understand why you WOULDN'T take some of the 'shortcuts' she uses.
baking shortcuts are another story, but a lot of these easy quick fix meals are really well done - and half the time you're going to spend less money on her way (mind you - don't necessarily pay attention to the brands she recommends... if it's one thing i stand by, it's that most canned goods live up to each other).


in any case, i'm catering a set this week in Pittsburgh, and was in need of five days of food to feed from 15 - 35 people daily.
oh sannnnddraaaaa!
i immediately went to the 'family favorites' cookbook of hers, hoping there would be wrap ideas ad sandwiches that were fabulously easy and delicious.
the problem with going through one of these cookbooks isn't necessarily that i can't find anything to make - i just have to go through the ENTIRE book, because i am such a picture mosquito.
if i see the vibrant glossy pages of finished products, i'm hooked.
i don't do well with cookbooks that are solely text, even though most of my notebooks are just the words and the stains from when i have attempted the recipes.
i think my favorite is my snickers pie recipe, which i spilled an entire pint of heavy cream on, but i just stuck it in a page protector and rewrote the entire thing from memory in pen over the bleeding ink.

cookbooks are really neat things, if the compiler has done their job to test them.
thats what i LOVE about BH&G: Baking because they actually SAY in the first intro that each recipe has been tried and held true if the recipe is truly followed. they expect butter to be used where butter is required, no margarine, and that the ingredients are followed pretty faithfully. while i've gotten around that fact a few times, the truth is that you CAN make your own adjustments, but choose carefully.
there are a few ingredients that you really just can't substitute, also learning the hard way about THAT.


for instance - things that DO work...
egg substitute - i use the real thing. i know, its more cholesterol, usually, but you know what? a cup of eggs is a cup of eggs.
half and half - heavy cream and skim milk, or heavy cream and water. i know, it sounds elementary, but it does work. be careful if you're making custards though - that can get iffy.
white sugar - brown sugar (again, will depend on your final product, but i like the taste of brown sugar more anyway)

things that do NOT work.
anything less than heavy cream when making a decent ganache... that goes for chocolate too. you don't need $15/lb coating wafers or break up, but don't use the candy coaters from your local craft store if you want to make a beautiful alhambra. just don't do it. if you use dairy with a lot less milkfat than heavy cream in conjunction WITH the crappy chocolate, you will get dotty, liquidy grossness. aka NOT ganache, not even close.

current recipe obsession?
triple irish chocolate cake.
anything that involves pouring Guinness into the batter, Irish Mist into the ganache, and Bailey's into the buttercream gets an A+ on my list... i changed it around a bit, but Epicurious has a great recipe for it...
i did the ganache exactly, but halved the cake recipe - makes a BEAUTIFUL half of a 10" (yeah, figure that one out on your own... haha)
and my own buttercream, involving the aforementioned Bailey's.
mmmm, speaking of breakfast.