chromedome

I've bought a few of their bundles, two that were computer-related and one of SF/fantasy. I think they're excellent value for the dollar, even if you opt for a relatively generous payment. I typically go to the top tier, which on most bundles is $25 or $30, and works out to be just a couple of dollars per book. For those who are curious but haven't clicked through, the organizations you can support though this bundle are Khan Academy, the Jane Goodall Institute, and Doctors Without Borders.

I don't know how many of you are on the mailing list from Humble Bundle, but the basic idea is that each month they offer several bundles of books and games on a pay-what-you-want basis. The more you pay, the bigger the bundle you get, and a portion of the proceeds goes to a worthy organization (you get several to choose from). Right now there's a cookbook bundle on: https://www.humblebundle.com/books/quarto-cook-books?linkID=&mcID=102:5fca873072edab1bc336a0d0:ot:5b5ddec0db76615eab9b646e:1&utm_source=Humble+Bundle+Newsletter

I've had 'em that way, and enjoyed them, but in my neck of the woods ground almonds are easier to find and cost less (and I can usually find them on sale somewhere). I looked at a bunch of linzer cookie recipes and kind of "averaged out" the ratios of ingredients. I have nesting cutters in a number of shapes, so I do equal numbers of each shape (stars, squares, scallop-edged rounds, etc) and then match them up afterwards with the jam in between. When I say "jam," that can be either red currant with the skins sieved out or raspberry with the seeds sieved out. Then I dust them with icing sugar before serving.

My uncle Ken did that, back in the 50s. When he passed away a couple of years ago, he was still waiting.

I have planted them twice without success, but will try again. The vagaries of spring and fall weather here make things interesting, some years.

There are a few brands on Amazon.ca, but they're *all* currently showing as out of stock. I expect it's a COVID-related supply chain thing.

My Christmas baking is underway for the year (belatedly). Turned out 10 dozen cookies this evening after work, divided between sugar cookies (for grandkids and neighbour kids to decorate) and gingerbread cookies. Made a couple of pounds of brown butter for tomorrow's shortbreads and what my GF calls "Russian tea cakes," which are shortbread-y balls with walnuts in them which are rolled in powdered sugar when done. I've seen many recipes with different names, but all very similar (the brown butter version was how a long-ago friend's mother made them, and is her favorite). Linzer cookies and zimtsternen to follow after I re-stock on ground almonds. Mini loaf cakes will have to wait until I've re-organized my freezer to make room.

There are a number of cultivars out there, and I occasionally find "feral" apples (those from long-ago farms, now un-tended in strips of woodland around and between residential neighbourhoods) with anything from a blush of pink to a bright vermilion in their interior. There's a small tree near where I live right now that fits into the latter category. It's pretty tiny and scrubby, maybe 8' tall (picture if Charlie Brown had gotten an apple tree instead of a Christmas tree) and the fruit are small but flavorful. I harvest a few each autumn to give my applesauce a nice rosy hue. If I have the opportunity to acquire the necessary skills before I move away, I might attempt to harvest some scion wood from that one and take it with me.

I'm on Team Applesauce as well, though admittedly my homemade is usually quite tart so the whole sweetness-in-a-savory-dish thing doesn't apply. I'll cheerfully eat sour cream on pretty much any kind of potato, but in this context I like the applesauce better.

I'm sure by now there's an Alexa equivalent to "damn you, autocorrect!" on the Web.

At the risk of shaming myself publicly, it had never occurred to me consciously until this thread that Serious Eats was a site with a front page and regularly updated content (I suppose some corner of my brain recognized this, but...mental blinkers, right?). It was always a site I searched when I had a specific question or piece of information in mind, as opposed to one I would go to and browse.

I'm glad there's beginning to be a glimmer of light on the horizon, health-wise.

I just think of it as an economical adjective to express the thought that a given food is rich or "fatty in a good way." Like ribs or pulled pork, or - I expect, not having had them myself - Robuchon's notorious "pommes purees" that were equal parts potato and butter by weight.

The "true" grains are all seeds of various grasses, while the "pseudo-grains" are grain-like seeds of non-grasses. Buckwheat, for example, is close kin to rhubarb (let your rhubarb run to seed, and you'll see the likeness). Quinoa and Amaranth are related to beets and chard. (ETA: This is the TL;DR version, but that's the gist of it.)

Other products and other producers in jurisdictions around the world are at varying stages of regulatory approval, but this will apparently be the first to actually reach consumers.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/02/no-kill-lab-grown-meat-to-go-on-sale-for-first-time

My cupboard currently contains most of the above, though I don't remember when I last cooked any buckwheat groats (thanks for the reminder!) so I'll probably toss those and buy new. Quinoa's in the regular rotation because it cooks more quickly than whole "real" grains, and I like its delicately herbacious note (though having said that, I'll also often cook it as a pilaf with lots of other flavors). No farro or rye at the moment, but I do have some whole kamut berries. Also millet, two sizes of bulgur wheat, stone-ground and regular cornmeal, wild rice, and the steel-cut oats I eat most mornings for breakfast. Oh, and a really ridiculous quantity of barley...maybe 6 or 8 pounds...because one of my cousins is occasionally gifted with foodservice-sized quantities of random things by a friend who works at a food wholesaler, and she had no idea what she'd do with that much. So it came to me, because I like barley in soups, pilafs and barley risotto (I also buzz a bit occasionally in my spice grinder and add the resulting barley flour to baked goods.

I don't keep nearly the volume and variety on hand that I used to, for a variety of reasons (one being a GF who has been keto-ing or similar for much of the time we've been together). Looking in my cupboard (because now I'm curious) I find some generic white long-grain, the tail end of a bag of Indian basmati (I need to get some more), some arborio, black "forbidden" rice, red Thai rice, brown rice and a mixed rice/multigrain mix from Costco which (IMO) isn't as good as the one they used to carry. Part of the reason I've been eating less rice is that I also eat a lot of other grains, but I'll maintain a tactful silence on that front lest I incur the Wrath of Mitch.

It's always a slog, with any of the three methods. I probably should have mentioned that it helps to have scissors with big handles and small blades (better mechanical advantage) and as far as that goes, my hands are probably bigger than yours (same thing). It's quite possible the dates were not especially fresh, though there's variance between cultivars as well. It's a tradeoff...a drier date is a firmer date and can be harder to cut, but a fresher, moister date is stickier so they're no picnic either. If you suspect they're past their prime and a bit dry you can steam them to soften them up, and then let them cool before chopping. That'll help. If you overdo it, and steam them to the point that they turn to paste when you put them in the Cuise, give them a couple of days and then try again.

My sister has also suggested a number of soups, mostly along the lines of those above. She's also suggesting chia puddings, which are (her words) "smooth, slippery and filling if made with boxed coconut milk." She has also asked whether your neighbour has any troubles tolerating hot or cold? If not, and especially if she finds cold soothing, "nice cream" is a good option and can have protein powder added for more nutritional benefit. ETA her followup advice:

You're miles ahead of me, already. My grains, pulses and pastas are in a random assortment of plastic bags, jars and original packaging, divided between (and piled over, around and between) clear plastic totes in an over-stuffed cupboard. It's 18 months now since we moved into this apartment, so "once we're settled" is starting to wear thin. I should really get that sorted.

LOL At first glance I thought that was marmalade. Pepper jelly makes MUCH more sense...

I'll drop my (vegan) sister a line, and see what she says.

Some of my fellow Canucks might be interested in this...after a hiatus of a few decades, there'll soon be Canadian-made cast iron again. There's a startup in Winnipeg on the verge of launch (they're just waiting on the final tooling, apparently). They're positioning themselves as an environmentally-friendly alternative to non-stick, disposable pans: The metal itself is recycled, the boxes they'll be shipped in will be recycled cardboard, and apparently even the sand used in the casting process will be recycled. https://www.castleironcookware.com/

We usually reserve the Medjool and Deglet Noor dates for eating out of hand, and use the inexpensive supermarket kind for baking. My mother was a fan of date squares (minor national difference in nomenclature...what Americans call bar cookies, Canadians call "squares") so the process of chopping up one of those compressed blocks of dates is a minor exercise in nostalgia for me.