elaine wrote:

> Well, I probably won't cancel but I've been really disappointed lately
> because I used to enjoy watching Christine Cushing - not only have the
> changed the time of her show, but she's all dolled up, has strange eye
> makeup and new hair 'do'. Damn, just not the same.
>
> And every time I turn to watch Food TV, Emeril is on - I'm not crazy about
> him - way too phoney. And I don't like the baking stuff.

I have mixed feelings about Emeril. I hate it when he talks about 40 or 50
cloves of garlic when he is using 5 or 6, and the audience roars in approval,
as if they could stomach anything with that much garlic. He gives the
impression when using some ingredients that if a little is good a lot is
better. I cringe when I see him make a nice dessert and garnishes it with a
sprinkle of icing sugar and then gives 3 or 4 BAMs to overdo it and ruin a nice
presentation.

However...... I have tried a number of his recipes and had wonderful results.
The chocolate chocolate cake with chocolate ganache and chocolate sails was
terrific. Even so, I had a problem with the quantities. The recipe called for
a hell of a lot of chocolate, which is an expensive ingredient. The problem was
that it called for way more than was needed. I used heavy cream and melted
chocolate chips for the ganache, as per the recipe. I had enough left over for
another cake. Then I made the chocolate sails which is mainly a garnish. I had
enough for three cakes. If the recipe had the amounts that were actually
needed it would probably cost about half as much for ingredients. The rest was
waste, and very expensive waste.

The French Canadian Pea Soup was great. The Sauguanie Tortiere was great, The
Tarte au Scre was incredible. I made that one because we happened to have some
maple sugar hanging around the house for years. I went to the local maple farm
to get some more and just about fell off the floor when I saw the price of it.
It would have cost me about $20 for enough of that stuff to make another one. I
did try it again but adjusted it to substitute maple syrup for the maple sugar.