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Happy Birthday @Steve Irby. Your dinner at home looked delicious. Monday's dinner was seared tuna with soy sipping sauce, rice, and a salad of lettuce and peppers, which were the only vegetables n the fridge. Last night, miso broiled salmon in a coconut sauce with spinach and summer squash, and more rice

I can be happy with sweet or savory as mood dictates, or availability allows. French toast, certainly. Leftover pizza, why not. Wontons in broth or out, if only. But there's a major caveat: someone has to put iit in front of me. I can barely push down my own toast in the morning.

Happy Birthday, @Steve Irby. I'm 77. My last few birthdays have been similar. I think about going out, but often end up staying home. There's a local bakery that has a chocolate cake I really like. My husband often buys a couple of slices and that's my party. The last time I actually celebrated was for my 70th. We had a party at the family beach house. Of note was great October weather, a lovely apple pie my SIL baked that had a "77" formed in crust. People stayed overnight and breakfast was leftover oysters and key lime pie. My nephew had never had oysters and he was over the moon, which was hilarious. But the real moment of awe came when a red fox was spotted across the street during breakfast. We're talking about a funky little beach town and a funky beach house with a view of the ocean. In all my nearly fifty years of marrying into this beach house this fox was a one-time only event. Deer always. Wild turkeys wandering about the streets, especially the day after Thanksgiving, just to prove they are still alive. But a fox? I'm guessing never again. This year my birthday will be singularly weird. I will be on the tail end of chemo. All bets are off whether or not a slice of chocolate cake will look good.

I don't ever let them get that black before I use them. They are still quite firm when they are good and sweet. These are some that I bought Saturday and they are nice and sweet for eating but I would probably give them two more days before I use them in banana bread. They will still be quite firm but I put them in his zip-top bag and squash them and they are completely ready to use. I showed two bananas with the peel. Sorry I couldn't show you the other banana because I ate it.

Re: Global knives : ive had a few , and used to hand sharpen using wet stones back then , getting fine edges on all my on all my knives Global's were difficult for me to sharpen this way . a knife forum suggested the steel was ' sticky ' so I invested in an EdgePro system . edgePro is simply a jig system , that holds the edge angle via the jug not the operators hand. Globals were now razor sharp . I think they are fantastic knives when kept razor sharp . but that's a bit of work .

One quick thought ... if I'm spending any real money on a pairing knife, I want one that doesn't have a bolster, and that has its heel separated from the handle. Like those Geshins Btbyrd shows. Otherwise sharpening is too hard. You want to be able to reach the whole length of the blade with your stones.

They're also among the most difficult knives to sharpen or to thin. And not because the steel is so hard, which is what their marketers will tell you; it's a bug, not a feature. The steel has a gummy consistency on sharpening stones; it makes a huge burr that's especially hard to get rid of. Dave Martell at Japanese Knife Sharpening had a notice on his site that all Globals would be sharpened on a belt sander, not stones, because he didn't have the patience otherwise.

Yesterday was my birthday (#71) and we had reservations for dinner at a nice restaurant. As the day progressed, and the energy levels dropped, we decided to hang at the house and have a light supper. I ended up preparing a simple salad with hoikkado scallops piccata. Dessert was a flourless chocolate tart from Publix that was very good. We also had a scoop (or two) of B&J Pistachio Pistachio ice cream since we were celebrating.

local meat packer has 2/pk pork tenderloins on sale for $5.00. The package I cooked last night was 36 oz: supper last night and lunches today. A friend has a cottage in northern Manitoba and they just picked up a container of new harvest of wild rice. So supper was rosemary marinated and grilled pork tenderloin, cranberry, wild rice, and barley pilaf, and a pile of mixed veg. Eaten with my cranberry apple orange chutney

They are progressing well and all appears to be normal.

Let me second Kerry's welcome. As you have no doubt discovered already, this time in history is a particularly difficult one to begin making chocolates, but I think all of us here have experienced that urge that will not go away and continue to make chocolates, regardless of the cost of the base product. Particularly at the beginning, I would stick with recipes from trusted sources, Peter Greweling being one of the most trusted. When you start to experiment (such as using a cider reduction instead of purée), you are dealing with water activity (and eventually shelf life). Ideally you would purchase a water activity meter, but the expense of that instrument means putting that in the future and, in the meantime, using trusted recipes. I recommend looking into Kalle Jungstedt's online courses. He is obsessive about detail and quite confident about his own methods, but he clearly knows what he is talking about. He provides recipes with water activity stated. Other recipes can be found in Ewald Notter's book and in the giant volume from Jean-Pierre Wybauw with hundreds of recipes. I also recommend the Danish chocolatier Tine Forst, whose ebooks contain lots of basic information and recipes. Recipes that I particularly like can be found on Mats Rajala's Instagram page; he provides water activity readings. And, about the apple caramel: I make one using apple cider jelly, which has a bit less water than juice. Another apple recipe uses apple pâte de fruit with ground dried apples to decrease the water activity dramatically. You will also find many chocolatiers (Tine Forst, Mats Rajala, and Melissa Coppel being some) who use sorbitol, a sugar alcohol that has marked influence on water content. If I seem overly concerned about water activity, it's simply because I have had an experience with mold in a chocolate and have not forgotten that episode. Forgive me if I am providing information you already know from the course you completed.

This is what they look like today. The one on the bottom, second from the right is completely black so I assume that one is ready for baking and the rest should look like that before I use them? I've tried two along the way to this point. The first was starchy, not very sweet. The second, half black, was really sweet at the ends but hard and still starchy in the middle. The ripe ends, however, we're amazing. Also, the peel is quite thin. Is that normal?

@Honkman I first added hot rice to top some spinach that was not cooked tasted good and had interesting textural differences . then tried the same thing w cooked ravioli on top of the rice , which was on top of the spinach. the textural difference between the rice and the ravioli was also interesting . but its probably more the difference between the texture of the rice and the creamy sauce

Sausages, I think. I asked the lady behind the counter. "Yes, my love! Fried bread is deep fried. We can do you toast if you'd like?" I sent for the healthy option today: a hash brown!

Well not my experience and I did live in the east end and south of the river.

As did I, and any caff in the east end or south of the river will know exactly what you mean, but you'll have to go a tube zone or two away to get Heinz ketchup

Vietnamese Chicken Salad from Dinner by Recipetin - mix of poached chicken breast, napa cabbage, red onion, red bell pepper, cucumber, carrot, Fresno chili, mint, cilantro and peanuts. Vinaigrette made with fish sauce, avocado oil, lime juice, rice vinegar, sugar and garlic

Just curious - why do you add rice to your filled pastas ? - normally both carbs are foundations for separate dished but you rarely see them together

I lived in London for many years. My family still live there. Never heard of sausages being called 'soss'. If you ask for bacon and eggs with 'soss' in London you'll be directed to Mr. Heinz's tomato ketchup already on the table.

Sausage (imagine "baykn egg an' soss please luv" in a cockney accent and it makes sense)

What is soss?

I've always made a fried slice using the pan the bacon, mushrooms and soss (and therefore their fat+flavour) were cooked in. I've never seen it deep fried, nor do I want to 😁 but there's bound to be some greasy spoons out there doing it

Welcome @Sweet-Tempered - @Chocolot is the one to answer caramel questions. Actually also the one to answer fondant questions. You want real fondant - I buy it - in huge pails - but you can make it following instructions in @Chocolot's book Candymaking.

Hello, @Sweet-Tempered. I'm not a chocolatière, I just like reading about all those great confections. EGullet members get together every year to make bonbons . . . Welcome!

Hello all, This is my first post. I have always had an affinity for chocolate, the darker the better. About 20 years ago, I became interested in learning to create bonbons, but didn't know where to start. About 12-15 years ago, I discovered that chocolate courses could be taken online. I still chose to be practical and keep doing my 9-5 office job. That job went away and I have a new job that gives me a lot more flexibility in my schedule. This spring I earned my chocolatier certificate from Ecole Chocolate. Now, I am a home baker who is specializing in chocolate and candy...or at least I am aspiring to be that person. I have so much to learn. It's why I'm here. If my current job goes away, I'd like to be stable enough in my home business to make it my full-time gig. I have Peter Greweling's book, Chocolates & Confections. This is my introductory post, but I thought I'd go ahead and ask my pressing questions here. 1. Mr Greweling has 3 recipes for soft caramels. I have decided the one that uses evaporated milk might result in product with the longest shelf life. (I have zero facts to back up my theory, but maybe someone here knows) I would like to incorporate reduced apple cider and eliminate the vanilla bean. Has anyone had success doing something similar? I wonder which variation to model. I am thinking his raspberry variation, using the cider reduction in place of the puree. Thoughts? 2. In his fudge recipes, Mr Greweling calls for premade fondant. I have "dry fondant sugar" on hand. Could that be used in place of or to make Premade Fondant? Thank you in advance for your suggestions. I am trying to get together a Fall menu.