Jensen

Oh, I don't know about that... I'd be up for a parallel cook-off to the cassoulet one. Why not a cholent cook-off to run concurrent with it? In all honesty, after looking at some articles on cholent, it interests me more than the cassoulet does.

Does that point of view accurately reflect the spirit of the cassoulet though? What is "cassoulet"? How did the dish originate? Is it specific ingredients prepared in a certain manner or is it a type of ingredient prepared in a certain manner? I don't have the reference materials around that others here most undoubtedly do however I do have a rather wonderful cookbook called "The Old World Kitchen: The Rich Tradition of European Peasant Cooking". In the introduction to the recipe for cassoulet, the author writes: It really shouldn't matter whether one includes pork or not. What is important to maintain authenticity is to honour the spirit of the dish. (That's what I think, at any rate. )

The sauerkraut friends brought for Christmas dinner. Cooked for 12 hours with bay leaves, juniper berries, cloves, and vegetable broth. Even today, my first thought upon waking was "Oh, I can have more sauerkraut!"

Why not set a two- or three-week period during which to make the cassoulet, at least for this first cook-off? This is a busy time of year and I'm guessing a number of folks have a bunch of dinner plans already made for next week. Adding cassoulet into the mix might just be too much to ask this late in the day.

I'd always heard that it was the day that they opened the alms boxes and distributed money to the poor. No wonder it didn't catch on here! I've really been enjoying your blog, Marlene!

And would avoid all those nasty copyright discussions...

I'd be up for this. Brilliant idea, chrisamirault ... (and a Happy Festivus to you )

← I'd just like to point out that those are Canadian statistics. I can tell you that the food in the US is noticably sweeter than food in Canada. According to the USDA, American sweetener consumption was 158 pounds per capita in 1999 (Reference). I think that works out to around 32 teaspoons per person per day (although I found another reference that said it was 40 teaspoons). I've lived here for almost 6 years now and I'm on my second five-pound bag of sugar. I gave up eating a lot of foods when I moved here (bread-until the artisanal breads became available out here in the sticks, yogurt-until I started making my own, bacon, sausages, and more). All of them were given up because I couldn't stand the amount of sugar in them. One good thing about the exposure the low-carb way of eating has gotten is that it's made people read the labels looking for sugar. I bet that, even if people don't keep eating low-carb, they might have dulled their sweet tooth and, in doing so, reduced their sugar intake.

Didn't there used to be a Canadian brand of golden syrup? I had some when I moved down here but I had to replace it with Lyle's, since that's what the import shop carried. No, no! You can say it to me too! (and I think Maggiethecat is another ex-pat)

I put ketchup on my French toast, as did my entire family. The Spouse and the Spawn put peanut butter on theirs.

I made butter tarts yesterday for the Spawn to take to her dojo's Christmas party. Apparently, they were a huge hit. Marlene, as for pie crust, get thee to your local grocery store and buy a box of good old Canadian Tenderflake lard. For a single crust pie: 1/3 cup lard 1 cup flour 1/2 tsp salt 3-5 T. cold water Mix the flour and salt together and then cut in the lard. Use a pastry cutter to mix the lard in well. (The usual comparisons to meal apply here.) Then add the water, one tablespoon at a time and mixing with a fork after each addition. Once most of the "meal" starts to follow the fork around the bowl (this is not to say that you have a dough or a batter or anything, it will follow for a few centimeters and then stop), you've added enough water. Then get in there with your hands and work it a bit until it holds together as a cohesive ball. You can then wrap it in plastic wrap and pop it in the fridge. That will make it a little easier to roll out. Also, a word on grits..."be not afraid to invite grits into your kitchen, for some thereby have entertained Cream of Wheat unawares". Grits taste pretty much the same as Cream of Wheat. At risk of having my passport revoked, I will tell you that I prefer grits with a little butter and S&P over Cream of Wheat with anything added to it.

My favourite is the Orange Dream Machine. Mmmmmmmm My niece visited from Victoria last year and we got her hooked on them. This year, when the nice weather came around, I sent her a text message when we stopped in for our first Jamba Juice of the season. She called me unnaturally cruel... Alas, when I joined Weight Watchers, I gave up my Jamba Juices. When spending my "flex points" allowance, I reckoned I had to choose between Jamba Juice or alcohol. Alcohol won out, hands down...

From your lips to God's ear...

I'll try a weight somewhere in that vicinity and see how it goes... Thank you!

Was there a weight on the packets? I've only got bulk dry milk and it is no longer in its original container. I have no idea how much water to add to what amount of powder.

Oy! I think I know what I'm doing tomorrow...

The Spawn would eat damn near anything as a toddler...sauerkraut, any fish, any Japanese food, anything pickled. As a teenager, she's a little more "discriminating". I cling to the hope that her tastebuds will re-awaken and am heartened by the fact that, as far as she's concerned, brussel sprouts are the perfect vegetable. That's my girl!

Here's a strange Yorkshire pudding question for y'all... We had a standing rib roast for dinner tonight and I had planned on serving Yorkshire puds with it. However, the oven temp was off a wee bit and the roast was delayed in cooking by about 30 minutes. Since the puds take about 20 minutes to cook and we were already half an hour behind, I decided to nix the whole pudding idea. I put the batter in the fridge and, when the roast came out of the oven, I saved quite a bit of the drippings. My thinking was that I could bring the batter up to room temp tomorrow and make the puds then. Will this work?

My favourite macaroni and cheese is elbow macaroni (cooked, of course) mixed with a white sauce. I dunno...maybe 3 T. butter, 3 T. flour and appropriate amounts of milk? At any rate, once the white sauce is made, stir in whacks of grated cheddar cheese and stir until it's melted. Then add the cooked elbow macaroni and pop the whole mess in a baking dish. When it's in the dish, I like to stir in some tinned whole tomatoes (without any packing juices) and a little bit of rosemary. Bake it for a while (30 minutes?) and then serve. Yum.

Hispania, naturally. Bzzzzzzt. Wrong! Hispaniola! Have you forgotten your Grade 9 Social Studies???? As for Hispanic v. Asian (assuming that all Asian cuisines are being lumped in), I would always go for Asian. Always. Last night, we had ramen for dinner. Not the packaged noodle crap but the real deal (well, as real as I could make it so far from Ezogiku). Asian cuisine, cooked as it should be, has clean and pure flavours. When we lived in Vancouver, we would join friends for a breakfast of homemade wonton soup on Christmas morning. We've already made plans to have our wonton breakfast this year. There's nothing like it. Yeah, I'm a sucker for carnitas. It is the most incredible incarnation of pork that ever occurred on this earth. But, it's not something you could eat every day (without suffering a coronary). Maybe I don't see the *real* Hispanic cooking; maybe I only see those foods tarted up for American consumption. Based on that though, I'd have to always pick the Asian food that I know...

And why do that when someone from the centre of the universe will declare us "offensive"? The trends in my kitchen will likely all focus around creating great meals with economy of cost and with health in mind. I think these will be more of an adaptation on "comfort food" rather than comfort food itself. We'll be revisiting traditional recipes and maybe updating them for the modern kitchen but not making any inherent changes to them. At risk of further offending the TO PTB, my kitchen trends will include pea shoots (they taste good and are inexpensive from the Asian market) and Meyer lemons (since my tree has a rather large crop again this year).

According to the Jan. edition of Bon Appetit, the "hot" Top 10 ingredients for 2005 are: * pomegranate * Kurobuta pork * pea tendrils (I think I'm ahead of the curve on this one, since I've began eating them early in 2004) * baby beets * Meyer lemon (oh man, am I ever ahead of the curve on that one!) * Wagyu beef * heirloom potatoes * organic chicken * Burrata cheese * black cod The 5 most overexposed ingredients listed are: * foie gras * portobello mushrooms * ahi tuna * white truffle oil * lavendar The next Top 10 ingredients are: * kumquats * American caviar * Greek yogurt * smoked paprika * microgreens * kaffir lime * white anchovies * pink peppercorns * guanciale * Old World grains and beans

My favourite meatloaf recipe is from Epicurious. Click here for meatloaf heaven.

I made the mushroom moussaka from the Moosewood Cookbook earlier this year and I really enjoyed it. I've used that recipe's method of treating the eggplant (purging and then baking before being used in a dish) to make an eggplant casserole (kind of like lasagne only using eggplant instead of noodles). It's pretty tasty and even the kid likes it. (Quite an achievement, I might add ) Edited for typo

A new use for onion confit...I made acorn squash the other night for dinner, following the microwave/broiling instructions in a recent Cook's Illustrated. However, instead of filling the hollow with a butter-brown sugar combo before broiling, I filled it with onion confit.