TASK DEFINITION: Given the background description of some cooking related query, summarize the question into a title
PROBLEM: Because of the contest, I read up about tofu. It's something I'm not familiar with at all, I've only eaten it twice. I came across the term 'silken tofu'. I only know this by name.I've found that silken tofu is in short tofu that's not well pressed. It's consistency is custard-like. My question is if this is correct. Are there any other differences, apart from the moisture content?Another question is how to handle this. You can't fry custard AFAIK (although I'm willing to try ;-) ). So do you always use it raw? Or do you bake it in the oven? Do you use it as a 'sauce' with fried veggies? Or should/can you drain/press it yourself? If you would drain/press it yourself, would you have the same result as store-bought regular tofu?

SOLUTION: What is silken tofu compared to regular tofu and how do you use it?

PROBLEM: Today I bought a 2 oz (56.7 grams) bottle of Bay Leaves. The "best use by" date is 01/2015. I've read that spices and herbs go "off" after a year or so, depending. Can I believe the 2015 date on these bay leaves?

SOLUTION: "Best by date" true for bay leaves?

PROBLEM: I plan to make a sizable quantity of chicken stock this weekend. Since I can't actually eat that much chicken, I just bought several pounds of bones, figuring I'd save the effort and expense of cleaning and butchering entire chickens.But now I'm wondering: Can I roast the bones by themselves?Most resources seem to agree that stock made from roasted bones is richer than stock made from bones that were boiled raw. However, every "recipe" I've looked at assumes that whole chickens are being used. I've never been taught or seen instructions on how to roast just the bones.So I have a few questions related to roasting the bones:First, is it actually practical? Is there any reason I shouldn't consider this?What would be the recommended oven temperature and cooking time for about 5 pounds of bones?Assuming I use butter as the base, how much would I likely need?Does it make any sense to brine the bones, or to season them at all before roasting?Should I bother including vegetables or other flavours in the roast, knowing that it's just going into a stock afterward that will have its own separate flavours?My intuition is that any special preparation, seasoning or additives would be pointless, but I'd prefer to go by facts rather than intuition. And even if I'm correct I'd still like to get some rough guidelines as to the oven settings, because if I accidentally burn them then the whole endeavour is a bust.

SOLUTION:
How can I roast chicken bones (without meat)?