chromedome

I had a woman and her mom come into my kitchen one day to ask whether I could accommodate a seafood allergy, given that my menu was pretty seafood-centric. Hubby had life-threatening allergies to shellfish and fin fish, and had not brought an epi-pen with him (!!??). I showed them my setup, and assured them that I could prepare uncontaminated food for him as long as they advised the server when they sat down that they were *that* table. So what did they order? Wife and mother-in-law both ordered the lobster bisque and seafood appetizers, followed by fish entrees. I couldn't help but wonder if poor hubby had recently bought life insurance...

On a related (but broader) note: https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/10/25/658588158/5-major-crops-in-the-crosshairs-of-climate-change

LOL I consider those to be "just nicely ripened." They gotta go a bit longer to be consigned to baking, in my house.

Got my new batch of kraut put together through the course of the day, to the tune of about 4kg of cabbage. There are just the two of us, so that should get us most of the way through winter depending how often we get the urge for choucroute garnie...

I can't answer for supemarkets in your area, but yeah...as Liuzhou said, usually "retired" laying hens. They'll vary in size depending on breed, but on the infrequent occasions I find them in the store I always buy a few for my freezer. They're like any other critter, the longer they live the more flavorful they'll get. They're too tough to cook conventionally, but I still like to work with them. Aside from stock or broth, they're great for stewing in a slow-cooker. They take a long time to break down, so you can treat 'em as an all-day braise at the lower setting. If I get a large one, I'll also usually cut off the breast and use that separately. I slice them horizontally into 2, 3 or 4 oblongs (depending on size) and give them the schnitzel treatment. That works well, and (given that the birds themselves are usually fairly inexpensive) makes for some cheap meals. Also, you still then have the rest of the carcass for more conventional uses.

My daughter would love that. We spent much of her adolescence watching Chaplin and Buster Keaton together. It's actually pretty cool that he remains so iconic a century after he rose to stardom.

I hesitate to jump in because I've not done chocolate work professionally (ie, never more than a couple of hundred pieces at a time for friends and family) but I can suggest a half-measure that worked very well for me. There are a few brands of disposable plastic forks with wider than usual handles, which I find convenient to wield with my arthritic fingers. When I find them anywhere I grab a pocketful, and set them aside for chocolate-making (almost always at the holidays). When the time comes, I snip out the center tine(s) with a pair of shears, and voila! I have a lightweight dipping fork that's wide enough to hold onto properly. On one occasion, when my hands were feeling especially rough (ie, getting into the 20th dozen) I doubled down by wrapping my fork in tape so it'd be thicker and easier to hold.

Found on Facebook:

https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/10/barley-shortages-from-climate-change-could-mean-less-beer-worldwide/

I planted mine today, too. It's actually a bit later than I'd have liked, but I've got some straw over them as a hedge against the weather. Today's pick included more of the carrots, most of the remaining baby turnips, a few red and gold beets, some peas, most of my yellow onions, and the usual mess o' greens. My brassicas are all making a late but determined surge, now that the cabbage worms have been killed by the cold. I actually got a few small heads of broccoli, my broccoli raab is going gangbusters, the kale is coming along nicely, and my cauliflower and cabbages are all frantically trying to head at the last minute. I've set out row covers over most of what's still productive, and the rest has a layer of straw banked around it. I hope to keep things going into November if I can, and the cabbages and kale might hang on into December. I've brought my patio tomato indoors, where it's thriving in a sunny corner of my kitchen, and I have two box planters started with lettuces and kale in an unheated but enclosed porch. I think they should do okay, there, but I can make space inside my office if necessary so they can get established in warmer surroundings.

It was Anna who'd used the Savoy type cabbage. To the best of my recollection, I've not used one for cabbage rolls. In general its flavor is a bit sweeter and milder, but (again) I doubt it'd matter much in a traditional cabbage rolls recipe.

Both cabbages? I only used one. I doubt there'd be much difference between a boiled, steamed or IP'd cabbage at the end of the day, if you're doing cabbage rolls in tomato sauce anyway (I presume that's what you're asking). Done Japanese-style, as per Anna, might be different.

It's a longtime staple of mine. I don't use it so much any more, because my GF has been losing her taste for chili heat, but I still love it.

A local dealership put up a tongue-in-cheek sign for "Pumpkin spice" ATVs. Underneath, it said "Too soon?"

So, it occurred to me belatedly that I, uh (cough cough) have an IP myself, now. [/sheepish] There were lots of locally grown cabbages at the farmstand this week, so I bought one and gave it a shot. A bit of Googling resulted in a recommendation of cutting out the core and giving the cabbage 5 minutes with quick release (on the trivet, cut-out core facing downwards). In the event I had to cut down the cabbage a bit to make it fit, because it was a 7-pound behemoth, but I reckoned that a) this would create more opportunity for the steam to get in between the leaves, and b) it was a humungous cabbage, so the leaves would still be plenty big. I gave it a half-hour to cool (ie, I went for a nap) and then set about peeling off the leaves. The outer few were pretty thoroughly cooked and a bit fragile, but I was able to coax them off more or less intact. The remainder came away easily. The inner half or so of the cabbage was not visibly cooked at all, but the leaves still separated easily enough. They weren't as pliable as the outer leaves, but were still perfectly usable. I would call the experiment reasonably successful, though perhaps for a cabbage that size the low pressure setting for a few minutes longer would be a better option. It's easier than the traditional "go boil your head" method, if less convenient than @Anna N's "just buy a Savoy and use it as-is."

Found on Facebook: "I ate dinner at a Mary Poppins-themed restaurant last night. Super cauliflower cheese, but lobster was atrocious."

Found on Facebook:

Truthfully I'm not entirely a fan of those big, open-plan kitchen/living areas. I'm well past the age of having to keep an eye on my kids (sure, there are grandkids, but that's only a part-time gig), and entertaining is not really my thing. When we do have a houseful of people, the kitchen is my retreat from the hubbub. All things considered, I'd much rather do my cooking and (especially) cleaning in a space where there's room for no more than one or two people to be around. Apparently the newest thing in some quarters is to have a "mess kitchen" where you do the actual grunt work, and then the "main" kitchen where you reheat things, warm a sauce, and feel like Martha as you mix your cocktails and act blase about it all.

Interesting. The combination never made sense to me, but as a non-Southerner I'd assumed it was Hallowed By Tradition and therefore to be accepted unquestioningly. I guess it's like poutine, which is such a cliched Canadian thing now. I never encountered it myself until the 1990s, and initially assumed it was the latest fad out of the U.S..

LOL Turnip greens would have been my first choice, they're the reason I grow turnips. There's a butcher shop/cured meats place in Halifax that sells through most of the region, but for some reason the only place I can consistently find their smoked hocks (without driving into Halifax, at least) is one particular supermarket near where my daughter lives in the Annapolis Valley. I usually stock up at least once or twice a year while I'm there, because I love their hocks for bean dishes or for choucroute garnie. I'm down to one left in my freezer, so it's about that time again.

Son of a gun. I was looking at that in a neighbour's yard just a week or two ago, thinking it looked like some kind of a brassica. Now I know...

Baby steps...

This bad boy works pretty well, but it's likely to be overkill for your needs. We had one of these at a place I worked several years ago. We referred to it as the "trolling motor" or "thunderstick," and by God it'll blend anything you need blended. A bit large for the home kitchen, though.

It's not as simple as just buying a savoy-type cabbage, but I think a few minutes in an IP would probably serve the same purpose with a lot less mess. Maybe someone who has an IP would take one for the team and give it a shot (or perhaps already has... @Mmmpompslives in cabbage roll country, and is one of the most-active IP users).

In my neck of the woods, a carefully-kept and rinsed Tim Horton's cup is generally reserved for that purpose. You can walk around pretty much anywhere (maybe not a Starbucks, I guess) with a Tim's cup and nobody thinks anything of it.