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@RWood Gorgeous! You do fantastic work.

I was crazy taking a wedding cake right before Thanksgiving, but at least it’s done. Big cake is white almond sour cream cake with raspberry filling and vanilla buttercream. Groom’s cake is chocolate cake, dark ganache and white chocolate buttercream.

@ElsieD In the description below the video.

@Pete Fred i just watched the video with an eye to jotting the recipe down but measurements were not given for some of the items e.g. baking powder. Where did you find the actual recipe?

I made a batch of the sweet potato and Chinese sausage fritters from Meyers+Chang at Home by Joanne Chang and Karen Akunowicz and used them as the base for an eggs benny-ish thing with the sriracha mayo dipping sauce playing the role of Hollandaise. The fritters include diced Chinese sausage, scallions and Thai red curry paste. In my hands, the fritters were very wet and difficult to handle but the contrast between the creamy sweet potato and crispy panko crust was nice.

Claire Saffitz's Dirt Bombs (YouTube)... She describes them as a cross between a muffin and a cake donut (hole). They're remarkably light and fluffy, so much so that the first one I dunked in butter disintegrated (hence only five in the bowl). I let the others cool a little more, but they were still fragile. They're nutmeg flavoured, but the cinnamon sugar coating dominates. I could taste the bicarb (baking soda) but that might just be down to the crème fraîche I used (instead of sour cream) not being acidic enough to neutralise. The Dirt Bombs were good. Recommended.

@ElsieD interesting questions if the rice blends ' cook up ' to your satisfaction , by your usual method ( being slightly different ) I they should freeze in the same manner , by the same method you have used for single grain rice. reheating ? if the bag is sealed , shy not heat up in a pan of hot water ? you thermapen the water when its lose to service time , and that's the temp of your rice . add more heat if the water cools dow, Ive microwaved ' refrigerator rice ' successfully , but id open the bag and put the contents in a dish ( covered ) if you want to micro from Fz. so thew bag doesnt explode

I have ordered rice from a company called Floating Leaf and am wondering after cooking, how well the cooked versions would freeze. None of them contain white rice, and with the exception of riceberry, they are all blends. For example, one is a Jasmine Thai blend which contains riceberry (purple jasmine), red jasmine and brown jasmine. Another is a Wild Rice Blend containing red jasmine, brown caltrose, riceberry and long grain brown rice. There are also a few other varieties. I'm thinking that when I want rice for dinner I would cook up a double batch and freeze one of them. The question is: how well would they freeze? I have a chamber vacuum sealer which I would use to seal the bags. If it is okay to freeze, would I just zap them them in the microwave to re-heat?

I got this handy item a few days ago to help me move groceries s from car to kitchen and to aid me in c leaning out a ab couple of big closets. Makes such chores much easier.

Hanna Assarsdotter did this very well, I really adore her rhubarb one. Check this one out: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bh1ZJhxjNwr/ and how-to here: https://www.instagram.com/p/BiJ2NQwjtZ_/?img_index=1

Thanks for that recommendation, @Honkman. I have all the ingredients, have never made red beans and rice from scratch, much less using RG beans. I'll have to remedy that!

I routinely cook rice in the Instant Pot. I always use the pot-in-pot method as I tend to cook just one or two servings which isn’t enough volume for the rice function to work properly in my 6 qt IP. Always equal amounts of rice (rinsed) and water, Time varies from 1 min for jasmine rice, 3 min for basmati, 7 min for sushi rice, to 23 min for medium grain brown rice, all followed by at least 10 min natural release.

I should have added that the e-book showing the stripes design (and others as well) is available at https://www.tinepreferschocolate.dk/item/no-airbrush-needed-beautiful-designs-english-version. It's just US $22.

It is useful info. Several people have asked me about how to start a community fridge, thinking I had something to do with the management. The article has good info about that, as well as the food safety issues. Also, now I know why they don’t want donated raw meat in the fridges, and why the church gives some of the meat to me to cook, instead of putting it in the fridge. Merci beaucoup! Thank you! Amen!

New Orleans Red Beans and Rice from “The Bean Book” by Steve Sando - using his Lila beans, andouille sausage, onions, garlic, celery, green bell peppers, bay leaves, thyme, ancho chili, cayenne pepper, mustard, parsley and scallions. Served over rice - it’s always great to taste how much more flavorful these heirloom beans are compared to “regular” ones and really transform a dish

I believe in a full belly for every child, filled by the village.

@patti that pulled pork meal looks phenomenal! I am in awe of your dedication to such a worthy project!

Oh, I didn’t mean those suggestions for you and your kitchen, which all looks meticulous in your photos! I think they’re more relevant to the nonprofit orgs running the fridge programs but thought people might be interested in the activity that has to go on behind the scenes to make these services as safe as reasonably possible.

I hope it’s along the lines of the words of one of my former speech therapy students, “It’s my wucky day!” Thank you.

Says the woman who raises, grows, hunts, processes, cans, etc. the majority of her own food?!! Haha, I pale in comparison! And would share macaroni and cheese with you, anytime. Thank you! Pun appreciated! For the record, I do think about food safety every time I prepare these meals. I’m aging my hands a thousand times more with all of this hand washing! I start with a clean kitchen, I wipe down and sanitize surfaces, I use a Lysol cloth to clean my phone and iPad before starting each time, knowing I will be repeatedly touching them. I haven’t checked my fridge temps, but I know some items that get placed in the very back of the main shelf will freeze. I really should take a food safety course, and might. My previous job at the local university was in the Continuing Ed dept and we offered the food safety certification courses all the time. Not that I picked up any info by osmosis! But I worked with the woman who taught the class when I offered a south Louisiana cooking program when I coordinated a Road Scholar program. The cooking portion of the program took place in a university teaching kitchen, and it was under the supervision of the food safety instructor (side gig for her, as she was also head of the hospitality program). Anyway, she had rules for our kitchen usage, which I had to follow. Again, it doesn’t mean I know all of the rules, just that I have a basic understanding. Unfortunately, the Continuing Education dept. no longer exists, so no more food safety classes through them, although the community college probably offers it. I definitely need to work on purging outdated foods, but 90% of the ingredients (except spices and seasonings) are purchased the week the meal will be made. Except for that damn coleslaw dressing that I threw out. I appreciate your input and will be following that best practices link. Thank you. Haha, that made me smile. I too, am surprised I have this much energy, but it feeds on itself. I seem to be able to recover and do it all again! So far.

Patti-baby. This food you're throwing down on these neighbors in need? It's *sending* them down memory lane, in the very best way. I keep thinking, what must a person feel when they reach into a community fridge and get a meal like one of these??? I said it before, I like everything about this. It's invigorating and humbling and all the things for the season of thanks.

If I weren't already lying down reading this, I'd definitely have to. I too feel worn out just reading about all that work!!!

@patti, those pulled pork meals look stellar! You and your husband really showed off your teamwork in pulling that one off (pun intended 🙃) I thought the discussion of food safety around community fridges was an interesting tangent for me and I hope it was perceived as another aspect of the situation, not any sort of intentional negativity. That’s actually a national law here in the US, the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Food Donation Act of 1996. It should apply to community fridges and donors like Patti, as long as they are acting in good faith. However, such liability protection does NOT mean the operations comply with local food safety ordinances. There are no federal guidelines for community fridges so they are subject to local rules. Curiosity around that aspect got me looking around for best practices (like these) and there are definitely steps that can be taken to reduce risk, like requiring dating of all foods, the use of recording thermometers in the fridges with remote alarms to alert staff, regular cleaning and sanitizing logs, purging of outdated foods and educating donors. Local authorities may or may not be willing to accept anything except the regulations they already apply to restaurants, caterers, or food banks and that’s fair, though it unfortunately results in more people going without. I certainly commend Patti and everyone who works so hard to help feed the hungry among us!

@blue_dolphin I completely agree . Aldi for me is might fine . very little , if any diffs from Helmans they also have ( for those still leaning about mayo ) they have their brand of Miracle Whip I tried one , way back , for the team .

If you have an Aldi nearby, try their “Burman’s” mayo. I’m a Hellmans/Best Foods habitué and find it entirely acceptable for my purposes which are mostly tuna and egg salad sandwiches and doctoring it up with stuff like sriracha, gochujang , etc. I like Dukes just as well but it’s not widely available here.