Been experimenting with canned biscuit dough.

[flamin lib]

I rolled it out into 6-7' circles and drape it over empty vegetable cans to make decorative cups.

Cook at 400 degrees about ten minutes. Half way through, when the cup has begun to cook, take it off the can and finish cooking. They need to be pretty brown otherwise they taste a little doughy--the biscuit is overworked pretty severely.

Looks like this:



Last night I made Tuscany soup and used the cups as a garnish like this:



Served soup in the little cup and in the bowl around it.

Remind me never to try photographing food that has greens in it. They always look black and un-appetizing. I had a sadistic photography instructor who assigned a black & white picture of cooked spinach in a white bowl. There's no way to make that look edible . . .

[Warpy]

1. Food photographers all know

that if you're photographing anything green, from celery to spinach, that you photograph it raw or just barely wilted, otherwise it comes out black and slimy looking. They also substitute inedible things like extruded clay for pasta and paint for sauce so that the whole mess will stand up to a long session.

That's how to make it look edible in a cookbook or on a menu, anyway. As for that B&W picture, I'd have barely wilted the spinach and artfully placed raw mushrooms and/or bacon and/or slivered almonds to make it look edible. The only other alternative is doing a chiffonade and deep frying it. Once it's drained, it crisps up and looks like greenish black pasta. That in a bowl would look very attractive in B&W.

On edit: try resting the dough for an hour or so in the fridge after you roll it out. I'll bet the result would be a lot less "doughy."

[flamin lib]

2. Thanks for refrig tip, I'll try it. The photography tips too.

Everything you said is absolutely true. I just hate to make two meals, one to eat and one to photograph. Eventually I will when I get enough recipes together to publish.

You can do all those things for cookbooks but advertising law frobids using fake food. Anything past acrilic "ice cubes" is pretty much a no-no for published advertising, or it was when I was in school. Everything else has been de-regulated, why not food advertising. One trick that was popular before the legislation was putting marbles in soups and stews to force ingredients to the top making them look much thicker. I believe that was the straw that broke the proverbial back.

Everything in a food picture needs a coat of oil to make it look moist. Makes the biscuits taste like cooking oil but they look good. Bottom line is if you plan to eat it, don't photograph it and vice versa.

[TygrBright]

8. Dang, you mean they can't use Elmer's Glue for "milk" anymore?

That one always cracked me up...

amusedly,
Bright

[housewolf]

3. What a fun idea

Looks delicious and lots of fun. I'll bet your dinner partner(s) loved them! Very creative.

[flamin lib]

4. It's part of the make ahead idea for my cookbook. You can make

these the day before and once they cool can be stored in plastic bags. Stews and hearty soups do well in them and I tried a crab-meat dish in them too. Sort of a mini single-serving casserole. The crab-meat didn't turn out well enough to try again--okay, but for that much expense it should be GREAT.

I'm thinking creole dishes would do well served in these--gumbo, etouffee or something like that. Maybe nest them on a bed of lettuce? T'would look good but I'm not sure about eating and mouth feel with the lettuce combination. I'll have to thin' on it.

[hippywife]

5. Very cool!

I think that finished pic with the soup in the bowl looks fantastic!

Looks like we may have the same dishes, BTW. I bought mine from a sale at the Embassy Suites when they were replacing theirs about 15 years ago. Many of them have now broken and I need to get a new set. Wish I could find the same ones again. Might try a restaurant supply.

[flamin lib]

6. I'm a very fortunate man. I have five (5) different sets of dinner ware

to choose from. Wife's china, Mother-in-law's china, Corel white, red depression glass and black octagonal dinner plates. Still, when/if I ever get around to publishing I'll need more diversity so I think I'll make nice with the local Tuesday Morning manager.

Seriously, because almost all of my cooking is for two I'm not shy about buying two of something that might make a nice presentation. After all, she's the only thing between me and living under a bridge since my job went to China on April 1, 2002.

Tuesday morning is nice and there's a restaurant supply nearby as well. For hardware I even use Harbor Freight, a cheap Chinese junk tool store. That's where I got my infrared thermometer and the instant read digital. $20 for the first and $3 for the second.

Since the bankruptcy I'm all about bargain shopping.

[hippywife]

7. You know

I keep forgetting about Tuesday Morning. It's probably for the best, tho. I don't think I could get even another teaspoon in my little kitchen. LOL