chromedome

My only context for Durkee's is that Frank's hot sauce was originally sold here in the Maritimes under that name. Then it was briefly Durkee's/Franks and now just Frank's.

A topic we've discussed desultorily a few times over the years. It's becoming less hypothetical all the time. https://www.wsj.com/articles/synthetic-meat-will-change-the-ethics-of-eating-11671805446?page=1

There are lots, all pretty similar. I misplaced my notebook full o' recipes this year and baked this version instead, and it turned out to be pretty much the same as the one I'd used in previous years. https://natashaskitchen.com/russian-tea-cakes-recipe/

Not to mock - I know technical difficulties are at the root of your frequent typos - but that sounds very much like me in the mornings. Come to think of it, that's also very much what living with hearing loss is like. When my grandson opened his toy light sabre this morning, I thought he was saying "Life Savers" and thought it was cute that he was so excited.

We had ours yesterday. Growing up I never had turkey for holiday meals because nobody in my family especially cares for it, but in my GF's clan it's the inevitable centerpiece of *every* holiday meal. So turkey with roasted sweet potatoes and parsnips, steamed broccoli and broccolini, braised red cabbage, carrots, scalloped potatoes (my GF's special request rather than the usual mashed) and Brussels sprouts cooked low and slow with onion until everything was caramelized. Oh, and dressing and copious quantities of gravy, of course. Dessert was choice of cookies or an apple strudel I'd made of apples from our excursion to the U-pick a few months ago. On impulse I grabbed a raspberry from the fridge, plopped it on one end of the strudel, and told the grandkids "Look! It's 'Strudolph'!" Dad Jokes 'R' Us.

Grandkids let us sleep in until 8, which was an unanticipated luxury. It was all very fun, mind you, especially the evil cackle from 4-yo grandson when he opened his whoopee cushion. A boy never forgets his first, right? Aside from that the funniest thing was the oversized mastiff bouncing and wiggling like a puppy as the oldest granddaughter opened the dog-toys stocking for her. She spent a solid 30 minutes bouncing back and forth between gnawing diligently at the chewy bone and swanking around, proud as could be, with a squeaky toy in her face. She made a very deliberate point of squeaking it, separately and individually, for each of the humans.

I use my FP for pie crust and biscuits, though I incorporate the liquid by hand. I tend to make those by touch and eyeball, so I rely a lot on my fingers to tell me when I've added as much liquid as I should.

I do that routinely, when it's a large gathering. Roast the bird(s) however you normally do, carve it after a suitable rest, then pack it into multiple flat containers (or even bags) and refrigerate it overnight. In my case, I'll generally put it right into the foil pan I"ll use the next day to reheat it (one for white meat, one for dark). I'm a big fan of crisp skin, so I separate that and heat it separately at the last minute to re-crisp. Then of course the carcass goes into the Instant Pot to become broth and, thereafter, gravy.

I own my grandmother's wartime edition of The American Woman's Cookbook (apparently Canadian women liked it too) with a rather large section of rationing-friendly recipes added. A couple of the desserts were popular enough to stay in the family's regular rotation when I was a kid.

Mine is used primarily for crushing ice (not that we drink a lot, my GF just likes cups of unflavored "sno-cone"). Also I make a couple of big batches of applesauce each year, and leaving the skins on the apples saves me a lot of prep time. The V-mix makes them disappear in seconds. Other than that it's a dust collector, but I have shelf space for it and those two uses justify its existence (that, and the $25 thrift store purchase price).

It's just a couple of big batches of each kind of cookie, and heavily weighted to gingerbread and sugar cookies which are relatively easy to handle and bake in quantity. It's not taxing, really. A couple of afternoons and evenings for the baking, and a couple more for the decorating. I have a whole table's worth of of cooling racks, and lots of plastic tubs to store them in between the baking and the decorating stages, and a small-but-adequate collection of seasonal cutters. I give out boxes or baskets of cookies to many of our friends, relatives and neighbours, and I expect I spend less time on this than most of you do on shopping for gifts, so to me it's basically a holiday-season "cheat code."

Yes, red jelly for the Linzers. I say "jelly," but usually it's raspberry jam with the seeds strained out. I know apricot is equally traditional, and one year (when I actually had some apricot jelly on hand) I made some of each, but raspberry is much easier to find. The vanillekipferl are pretty much the same dough as for the Linzers, but with the dab of cinnamon omitted and with vanilla instead. The "Russian tea cakes" are shortbread-ish, but with nuts added (walnuts or pecans; this year it was walnuts because my pecans had bugs in 'em). They're rolled into 1-inch balls and baked, then rolled in confectioner's sugar while still warm from the oven, and again after they've cooled. The icing sugar melts the first time, of course, but it makes them sticky and helps the second coating of sugar adhere. They're best when the nuts are toasted first, and we usually make them with browned butter (50/50 with plain butter) for that extra bit of nuttiness.

This year's scaled-down Cookie-palooza is pretty much wrapped up (I have a few details to put on snowmen, but that's about it). Sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies in multiple seasonal shapes, something I know as "Russian tea cakes" (aka "Mexican wedding cakes," "pecan meltaways," etc), zimtsternen, Linzer cookies (one granddaughter's special favorite) and vanillekipferln. Decorated cookies with my grandkids on the weekend, and this afternoon - fulfilling a promise I made when I moved - I'm heading back to my old building to decorate another batch with my former neighbour's three sons. I've lost count, but it's somewhere between 300 and 400 cookies total. Down somewhat from previous years, due to time and budget constraints, but enough to bring gift boxes to many friends and family.

I have an 80s-vintage Cuise that I use infrequently but consistently. When my old work bowl broke I was fortunate enough to find an entire backup Cuisinart on a local buy-sell site for the same price as a replacement bowl online. It's a replica "Classic" model rather than an original, but since my original is only 40 years old and still going strong I haven't actually used the backup yet. Unfortunately the work bowl that came with the new machine has the new-style lid/pusher assembly, which is an absolute PITA to disassemble and clean.

Finocchiona brand salami, the Sweet Fennel version, is being recalled for possible salmonella contamination. It was sold from BC to Ontario. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/venetian-meats-brand-finocchiona-salami-sweet-fennel-recalled-due-salmonella?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23&

There's an update on this one (BC is now also included): https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/igor-brand-gorgonzola-dolce-recalled-due-listeria-monocytogenes?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23

Western folks, be aware that Taynton brand pickle-flavored vodka (a phrase I never thought I'd type, but here we are) has been recalled for excessive levels of copper. It's sold in BC and Alberta, and online. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/taynton-bay-spirits-brand-pickle-vodka-recalled-due-elevated-levels-copper?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23

The future of coffee? Maybe? https://arstechnica.com/science/2022/12/your-next-pour-over-may-be-liberica-or-excelsa/

Igor brand gorgonzola is being recalled in Ontario and Quebec due to possible listeria contamination. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/igor-brand-gorgonzola-mild-ripened-blue-veined-cheese-recalled-due-listeria?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23&

They're pretty much always to be found at Sobeys and Superstore, but often they're in the frozen section. I buy them occasionally when I think of it.

I spend a lot of my working day digging information out of badly-constructed websites. If you scroll to the very bottom of the home page you'll see a link for the site map. Site maps are your friend. There's also a "Contact Us" link there, but I passed over that in silence when I posted the above. Another useful play, especially when there's no site map, is to Google the thing you're looking for, and then specify the site in question. So in this case it might be contact us site:lepicerie.com or contact information site:lepicerie.com Instead of specifying "site" you can use "inurl" the same way - ie contact us inurl:lepicerie.com - but I usually go with "site" just because it's one fewer character to type and it keeps you among the most-used letters on the keyboard. When you do this stuff all day, those little details add up.

New York City https://www.lepicerie.com/about-our-company/ Contacts page: https://www.lepicerie.com/contacts/

We all have these days, right? ...right?

The very first episode, in fact.