chromedome

...but yours goes to 11.

That would be gluten flour, aka "vital wheat gluten." Turns your AP flour into the equivalent of bread flour.

They're widely used in pastry as a substitute for almond paste, but they're roasted to break down the cyanide. You've probably eaten them in marzipan form, or something of that nature.

When I was teaching my skater son to cook, I explained to him that the curved sides of the pan were "a half-pipe for food." That's when the light came on, and he quickly grasped the technique after that.

Several years ago the Earl's restaurant chain in Western Canada took a similar tack. A series of commercials had an animated pig, bull and rooster bickering, each calling your attention away from its own species and toward the other two. The pig sounded very much like Alfred Hitchcock and had similar features, which I found amusing.

On a similar note...

My GF and I are in much the same boat. She cheerfully describes herself as a "lizard," who'd be happy to perch under a heat lamp all day (and has been known to light the woodstove in August). Unfortunately for her she's a redhead, and has been sharply limited over the years in terms of how much time she can spend on a beach (ie, 15-20 minutes). If you ever want to know what "rhapsodizing" sounds like in real life, start her on the subject of SPF 100 sunblock. This past summer she was able to spend whole days at the beach with her toddler granddaughter, to our shared pleasure.

The Canadian Tire nearest me was the last of the three in the city to sell out, which took until lunchtime today. I was not one of the buyers, as I'm still equivocating. Best Buy Canada has them on for the same price, but is apparently also sold out in my area and online.

I could handle a day or two in a Sunbelt state, 'round about mid-February, but that would be about my limit. Where I live there are few midsummer days that break into the 30s C (say, low-mid 80s F), and I dread them. The idea of voluntarily spending my time getting roasted 24/7 has little appeal.

I'm still undecided about picking one up. As much as y'all are really giving yours a workout, I'm not entirely persuaded that I'll actually use it much. Oddly, it's the yogurt function that might tip the balance. I've often toyed with the notion of buying a yogurt-maker, but just couldn't bring myself to spring for another single-use gizmo. The IP would scratch that itch, and anything else I eventually do with it would be a bonus. Of course aficionados typically describe the Vitamix machine as "life-changing," and I use mine to, uh...crush ice. Occasionally. So I'm still hesitant...

Turns out they're in the Superstore flyer at that price, too, as part of their Black Friday promo.

Hmm. Tempting.

Completely OT, but every time my eye sees this title I read it briefly as "Scotch guacamole" and have a bit of a moment. Of course, I see it for the first time each day while I'm winching my eyelids open with my first mug of strong tea, so there's probably some sort of connection there.

On our side of the border, the current football dynasty - Laval's Rouge et Or - punched their ticket back to the national championship game, where they'll meet the University of Western Ontario Mustangs, who were one of the great dynasties a couple of decades ago. The Mustangs have a truly dominant ground game...in their playoff this weekend against the Atlantic champion Acadia Axemen, their three running backs and QB accounted for over 450 yards on the ground in an 81-3 (!!) victory. Looking forward to the championship game, it should be a doozy. It's next Saturday, 'cause our football season ends before yours. It's cold up here, doncha know.

...but how do you deliver a Mjölnir cake, when only Thor can raise it?

They charge $2 for it at No Frills. Superstore and Sobey's here don't use the coin/return system, but I'm guessing anywhere Superstore *does* use coins they probably sell the keychain thingie.

At my closest supermarket it's a dollar coin (because we *have* that option, I suppose) and there are no cart corrals in the parking lot. They do sell a token you can clip onto your keychain that fits the coin slot, so you never have to root around in your purse or pocket for a loonie.

It's a personal preference thing. For some people, that crunchy top layer of baked noodle is the whole point, like the crisp skin of a perfectly roasted chicken or turkey. For others - including myself - it's something to pick off and discard.

It's always hard to judge from a photo, but I'd say your assessment is probably correct (and yeah, being "ooze-phobic" won't help). The other thing is that it thickens further as it sits, so can be absolutely just-so but then become drier again if you don't plate it immediately.

He wrote comedic fantasy novels, but that's like saying Alain Ducasse might know his way around the kitchen. They started as a loving spoof/tribute to the pulp fantasy tales of the 40s, but quickly grew into something entirely other. He has something of the same off-kilter sensibility as Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), but with more depth and, thankfully, he was much more prolific. Under all the silliness the Discworld series contains some highly intelligent and impassioned writing, and Pratchett has been described as "the best satirist England has produced since Swift." A.S Byatt, a winner herself, lobbied hard but unsuccessfully to have him shortlisted for the Booker Prize. The character Natchbull Smeems crops up in one of the late Discworld books, Unseen Academicals, which is set at Unseen University (the Disc's premier school of wizardry). He's the Candle Knave, responsible both for overseeing the candle-making crew and for seeing that all the sconces and chandeliers are fully fitted with candles.

I go the opposite way and bump up the butter in most recipes, finding it improves the texture.

I have no information to contribute, having never been to Brooklyn, but I have to at least give a warm hello to anyone who chooses a Terry Pratchett character for their username. As it happens, I've been reading "Unseen Academicals" aloud to my GF this past few weeks.

I live in a neighbourhood of old houses and lots of green space, so mice are a year-round thing but spike at this time of year when they begin looking for indoor nesting sites. I don't mind, because they pose endless entertainment for our three resident kitties and the two frequent visitors (my daughter's cat, and my GF's daughter's cat). Our younger two are still just youngsters and I actually got to watch "mouse school" in session when the GF's daughter's cat was here to visit. He came trotting up with a very unhappy mouse in his mouth, spat it out - pah! - on the floor between them, and then sat back and watched. Our two dabbed at it gingerly with their paws, for all the world like adolescent girls facing a plate with offal or tentacles on it, much to my amusement. Periodically the mouse, with laudable determination, would spot a gap in the felinity and make a break for freedom, but Marshmallow, the older cat, would chase it down and bring it back. All the while my elderly Willow kitty, a fearsome hunter in her younger years, was watching them with a hilarious expression of incredulity. Cats can't roll their eyes, but her eyes were the only part of her that wasn't an eye-roll (if you know what I mean). She was for all the world like a pensioner volubly despairing over "kids these days" and their inferiority to the sensible, hard-working cats of her youth.

I'd been making progress, but the No Frills near me had whole pork shoulders at $0.50/lb. If I had more room, I'd have bought the 10 or so remaining in the case.

I LOL'd at "Sidewalk Tart." That probably means I've lived in sketchier neighbourhoods than you have.