Amber › Comments

"@ Anonymous - Thanks for asking questions, it is very good to clarify ingredients when trying a new recipe. B & V is a powder used by commercial bakeries - it is a powder flavored with vanilla, lemon & rum. When making bigger batches in production - powders can be useful because they will incorporated more thoroughly while mixing. There are several products for home use that are similar: 1.) Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Powder (a little more expensive @ $17.95 USD) 2.)Authentic Foods Vanilla Powder (less expensive @ $7.95 USD) You can always just use standard liquid vanilla - just be sure that your measurements are all equal to the scaled down amount that you divided from the main formula (i.e 2oz. divided by 4). When following a formula like this - adapting from a commercial formula, getting measurments right is very important so that the end result is tasty :) I have found you can find allot of specialy ingredients for reasonable prices through Amazon Gourmet Grocery, and you can..." - Amber

"Thanks Everyone for comments! @Kilma: LOL! Thanks for understanding... @cakedecorator: Thanks! I did that as one of my plated desserts for special prodjects during school. The milk chocolate column with white chocolate accents has a disc of chocolate sponge on the bottem, spread with chocolate ganache - then filled with raspberry swedish cream, fresh WC & garnished with 3 chocolate curls. The plate is decorated with tempered chocolate petals filled with mango puree & striped w/ raspberry syrup." - Amber

"It’s really sad, to go googling right now looking for updated cross browser examples for menus etc. - most of the sites I came across were linked to site examples that had been removed (out dated) or 404′d. I ended up typing 2008 with my keyword and found this post. Thanks for more current resources! Amber´s last post was… Curb Your Cravings - Not Your Enthusiasm" - Amber

Mine: http://www.last.fm/user... - Ayşe E.

mainly into cowboy junkies but other things as well: http://www.last.fm/user/kouk - Kostantinos Koukopoulos

"@Asian Recipes: Hi, that's not a dumb question. There are several ways to get lemon juice from a lemon - first roll the whole, uncut lemon on a clean work space by pressing firmly on it with the heel of your hand. this will loosen up the juices inside and allow you to get more juice from the cut lemon's flesh. To get the juice by hand: you can cut the lemon in half and hold one half in your hand, squeezing in your fist - over a sieve (this will catch the seeds that fall out with the juice. OR if you have trouble using your hands to squeeze (such as with arthritis or if you are prone to eczema) - use a small spoon pushed into the center of the cut lemon. Hold the cut lemon firmly in once hand, while using the second hand to turn the spoon - which will loosen the juice pretty well - just repeat with the second half of the lemon. You can also use an electric juicer - it'll make obtaining juice much easier!Lol. Hope that helps. Cheers! Amber (of RC)" - Amber

"Thanks for the comments Everyone. @Cheap Posters: Thanks for copying the info from that study. It gives more balance to this discussion. @Wenningstedt auf Sylt: I tend to agree. There have been allot of problems associated with synthetic foods. You should be choosy - it is your body & it is a choice to be educated & weary of what goes into it. @Michael Eliades: You are welcome. I know how overwhelming it can be learning you are diabetic - during my 2nd pregnancy I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I had to monitor my blood sugar with a meter and watch my sugar and carb intake. Luckily once I had my baby, my blood sugar levels came back to normal. There is a lot of information on the web devoted to the diet for diabetics - do a google search for "low-glycemic", the worst things for blood sugar tend to be "bleached flours", white rices etc.Try to use more whole grain flours or search for alternatives to wheat flour - just make sure to ask a Registered Dietitian if what info you..." - Amber

"Wow! These look great. The Pastry Chef in me is excited to find a new recipe to try. Tho I am not vegan, I find Vegan baking really interesting, and I am always looking for new recipes. Kudos to you for creating a new recipe & your photos & tutorial are great!" - Amber

"Hi everyone, thanks for your comments. I saw this interesting blurb on todaysdietandnutrition.com All Sweeteners Not Equal for People With Diabetes: "Researchers from the University of Massachusetts and the University of San Paolo in Brazil have discovered that some sweeteners, such as date sugar and less refined dark brown sugars, may help manage type 2 diabetes and related complications. According to a study published in the Journal of Medicinal Food, the researchers discovered that many such sweeteners are rich in antioxidants that may help control diabetes-related high blood pressure and heart disease. Several even may inhibit the action of alpha-glucosidase, an important enzyme related to type 2 diabetes." This goes right along with my post. The ability to have a natural sweetener with heart & BP preventative side effects is a great bonus." - Amber

"I somehow over looked that facet of blogging when I first started in 2004 - I was a new mom, but at the time I needed an outlet for myself to feel like “me”, not just a frazzled mom persona . My blog is culinary themed. I kept with my blog and it is going strong. In 2007 I started to immerse myself in the “mom’s who blog” culture on the web. I found allot of moms, support and networking opportunities. 2008 was a big year and I was involved in allot of parenting geared reviews. My twitter following exploded and I started to realize the power of social networking and how great content plus PR relates to successful blogging. I had always done private beta / alpha reviews for marketing research - but never made my reviews publically available - but when the opportunity presented itself, I rolled with it. Turns out I love to review! PR is not only great for advertising products to an audience - it empowers moms to have a voice, and to reach out to the world-at-large. This can be very hard..." - Amber

"Hi, I just glanced about in your comments.(I was searching for a Vegan version to add to my recipe catch - google kept bringing me to this link) Anyway I wanted to add a few tips since there were some questions on what pans can be used etc. Most formulas for Dutch Babies can be done in individual portions, in ramekins - just be sure to divide the butter equally between your ramekins - you can use (2) 16 oz ramekins, or even 6 smaller (3-5 oz) ramekins (spaced on a cookie sheet). And the pan is important - mainly the sides - if you use a heavy cast iron pot with deep sides - the dutch baby tends to be overall flatter (thicker) and doesn't have that beautiful petal effect that happens with the sides. Any kind of heavy skillet - whether you use cast iron , or even good triple ply stainless pans, will work. Main thing is that they're oven safe. Just remember to have the pan warm (I like to put mine in the oven while pre-heating) when you apply the batter - this helps the babies get a..." - Amber

"@Eli -- Obrigado pelas amáveis palavras comment.I e agradecemos a sua visita! - Amber" - Amber

"@anonymous Please see this post: Owning a Domestic Kitchen Bakery: Is Your Kitchen Not Right?, I have outlined some information that may help you decide whether a Domestic Bakery is right for you. Thanks for commenting." - Amber

"@Simon Thanks for the kind words. I am still considering taking it on - maybe when my daughter starts school full time and the state of the economy isn't so shaky. It doesn't seem like quite the right time to venture on my own yet." - Amber

"Poeme: Oh, je suis désolé, ce blog est en anglais. Si vous souhaitez la recette en français, essayez d'utiliser un traducteur de Google tels que traducteur, pour traduire le texte de la poste française pour vous, afin que vous comprendre mai." - Amber

"Hi, Thanks for asking for the formula for Dark Hazelnut Scones. You can find the direct page on my blog here: Callebaut Dark Chocolate Hazelnut Scones and Also some other interesting formulas for scones & muffins or other pastries here: Muffins, Scones & Pastries For future reference - if you want to look for other recipes or formulas on Renaissance Culinaire, Look for the section to the left, in the sidebar titled "featured posts", there you will find links to specific recipe lists featured on this blog." - Amber

"@The Fitness Diva: The site wasn't a banned site on SU. We were targeted because we were members of a Banned Site. And this post we commented on was NOT stumbled. SU found the post through other means. It is indeed ridiculous all the same." - Amber

"Great post.You can view my take on this BS,since I was one of the participants who was banned this morning:StumbleUpon Targets BloggersSpread the word!" - Amber

"They are banning NOT only posts referencing entrecard - but people who leave blog comments and reference entrecard! SU found a random blog post and banned all the commenter's of that blog post - IT IS WRONG! They have gone too far." - Amber

Too many people are too quick to vote down measures that involve public transit - toting that they "don't use the services, they cause a hassle in traffic" etc. This article with documented sources , details facts on the stark reality that public transit does have beneficial byproducts which effect non-users. Times are getting harder in the US and more people will be looking to utilize what public transit has to offer, yet there has been cut backs in funding for these services. We must start thinking of our futures and help the public transit flourish. This article may be a start to promote eco-conscience thinking and alerting the ill-informed anti-transit thinkers. - Amber

Mp3tag Audio Indexer is a freeware plugin for Google Desktop Search which indexes metadata of audio files. It supports Unicode for both filenames and tag contents. It indexes metadata like title, artist, album, track length and bitrate of audio files and supports the following audio formats: * Advanced Audio Coding (AAC) * Monkey's Audio (APE) * Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC) * MPEG Audio Layer 3 (MP3) * MPEG-4 (iTunes® compatible MP4 / M4A / M4B) * Musepack (MPC) * Ogg Vorbis (OGG) * OptimFROG/OptimFROG DualStream (OFR/OFS) * Speex (SPX) * True Audio (TTA) * Windows Media Audio (WMA) * WavPack (WV) - Amber

A great person, always ready to share on the web, her stumbles are packed with links that are tasty for both the eyes and the foodie soul. - Amber

Happy Birthday Darren & ProBlogger! - David Ward

Happy B - Day! - Brad Parler

A mixed bag of culinary and tech geekery. Matt's stumbles serve up a good array of technical apps and foodie interests. - Amber

From the page: "Sausagenmuff has created a jaw-dropping Linux desktop featuring a cube, saltwater and fish. Now all of us have seen cool Compiz screenshots/screencasts, but this one takes the cake. He even called his desktop â€oeAtlantis”, how fitting. Sausagenmuff describes how made this Desktop with 7 simple steps:" Rami shares this linux coolness, with a quickness and heightened awareness that this will indeed give desktops everywhere a new sense of geek-sauveur faire. - Amber

From the page: "This dessert was my for my final presentation. It consists of French sponge, brushed with strawberry syrup, filled and finished with banana scented marscapone cheese, then garnished with fresh fruit and a chocolate screen, than drizzled with mango syrup. The plate design was given a stained glass effect , piped on first with tempered chocolate and then filled with honeydew melon -Midori syrup, Strawberry syrup, and mango syrup." - Amber

"Aww, thanks nate n annie, I appreciate your enthusiasm to participate in my project. Hopefully this becomes a really great resource for foodies, bloggers and their followers. So far word is slowly getting out. Hopefully the idea catches on." - Amber

interesting, no? - Amber

"Don, I think it’s great you can step away from huge sites and see the potential in smaller sites and use them to orchestrate your point. Kudos to TechCrunch for showcasing a group that is predominantly moms. As a mom & twitter user, and member of twittermoms - I applaud you. Ning groups are popular, due to their great features, ease of use and add-ons or hacks being developed to customize each individual site. Where similar sites offer “customizable social sites”, their’s are usually are lacking in functionality, design and are 1 dimensional compared to ning. As I have tested & tried many, and have chosen to use ning for several of my social projects, I can honestly say this." - Amber

From the page: "In keeping with my eco-friendly theme lately on Renaissance Culinaire I have reviewed two great bags. These bags are not from your typical company who creates a few pieces for their product line that cater to the Green market. These are in fact created by Act2GreenSmart who's Owners Tom & Debbie, who once marketed products under the company brand Shoreline which started in 1995, decided in 2007 with guidance from Tom's education in Conservation of Natural Resources at U.C. Berkeley and Debbieâ€s green oriented background to convert the company into a viable, brand using eco-friendly materials through a special process." - Amber

From the page: "In keeping with my eco-friendly theme lately on Renaissance Culinaire I have reviewed two great bags. These bags are not from your typical company who creates a few pieces for their product line that cater to the Green market. These are in fact created by Act2GreenSmart who's Owners Tom & Debbie, who once marketed products under the company brand Shoreline which started in 1995, decided in 2007 with guidance from Tom's education in Conservation of Natural Resources at U.C. Berkeley and Debbieâ€s green oriented background to convert the company into a viable, brand using eco-friendly materials through a special process." - Amber