Lindacakes

Anybody reading this been doing Weight Watchers since before Points Plus and have an opinion on the efficacy of the new program? I've lost 35 pounds, 25 of them on Weight Watchers before Points Plus. I've lost my way with tracking and I've been at a standstill, but I've also noticed that no one is celebrating any victories in WW -- at least, not like they used to. I just got back from a trip to New Orleans and I actually gained five pounds in three days! It was fun while it lasted. Today's my first day back to normal. Ouch.

Petroleum by product? Okay, next February, I'll try the organic version.

I just saw the question -- I use graham crackers, sugar, melted butter, and a little cinnamon. After pressing the crumbs down, I finish it by pressing another pie plate on top, that evens it. Bake it for ten minutes at 350 and cool it. Fill it (key lime) and bake 15 additional minutes. No particularly long baking, not sure what's making it happen, but it's not loose and crumbly, it hold's it's own and has a bit of a crust to it.

Must . . . have . . . jaggery . . . now . . .

I can't taste food coloring. I don't have any kids, so I don't have to worry about them bouncing off the walls. I read the article. I'm not seeing what's so horrible about food coloring. I'm a very clean eater, believe me. It's organic cooperative, farmer's market, mom and pop ethnic specialty shops all the way. The the taste of vinegar, cocoa, buttermilk, cream cheese, and red food coloring turns me on once a year.

I have to admit I'm woozy after reading these stories. When I was a child, I was making popcorn balls with my Dad. He was pouring the hot syrup and I was stirring. We managed to coordinate that so that he poured hot syrup over my finger. For years I had no knuckle, and thought of it as my "monster finger". You can tell if you look hard, and it's very sensitive. Oddly, it was a bonding experience as I got to see my Dad from a different angle and ditto for him. He referred to it recently -- I hadn't realized we never had popcorn balls or candied apples made at home after that. I was a houseguest of a friend who had us over to her in-law's house in the country. She was unfamiliar with their very big stove and when she lit the pilot light, a giant flame whooshed out over her face. Her husband was frozen, and I grabbed her and brought her over to the sink where I pulled her hair out in hunks and held a cool towel on her face. I also held her hand in the hospital while the husband stood there, mute. Our friendship ended for unrelated reasons not long after that incident and I've often wondered what happened to that marriage. A great aunt's clothing caught fire from her stove. She lived alone, and stood at the sink pouring glasses of water down her back. She died later, from the wounds. Now that I've written these incidents in one place, I'm seeing why I'm not thinking kitchen accidents are amusing . . .

I eat very little food with food coloring in it but I'm okay with ingesting some food coloring. More so than I am okay with ingesting radiation and mercury and hormones. The only food coloring I use is red for red velvet cake. Since I eat that once a year, Valentine's Day, I'm not worried about it. You can't get that sexy red from beets. I think childhood would be diminished if brightly colored candy did not exist.

Sugar. Granulated sugar, brown sugar, dark brown sugar, organic brown sugar, confectioner's sugar, burnt sugar, superfine sugar, muscovado sugar, honey, molasses, maple syrup, sorghum, sanding sugar, corn syrup. And I'm on a diet.

I'll play. Keen's Steakhouse. Link. Maybe I think this because when I went I was the guest of a man with an enormous moustache that was much admired by me. This man later died in a plane that hit the World Trade Center. Unlike many of the other entries above, I think truly manly places are places where women feel comfortable too.

Mrs. Freshley's Red Velvet Cakes. Lance peanut block.

The Ecstasy.

Interesting question . . . the implication being that there's a strategy for sampling . . . I always ask for a taste at the cheese counter. I won't buy anything I don't like the taste of. I'm not afraid to ask for several samples and not buy them. I never used to get a sample. I saw the samplers as greedy and considered it beneath my dignity. And then, as part of a general sort of plan to change my life approach I decided to consciously take every sample that is offered to me. Sort of a Zen exercise in openness. Most of these samples are really bad. A vegan cheesecake at Whole Foods stands out briskly in my mind. As I'm writing this, I'm thinking it spiritual practice akin to communion, the little cups are the same. Being one with The People, being open to Serendipity.

A. Tuna, chunks of potato, green beans, capers, black olives, lemon, salt and pepper. B. Tuna, Granny Smith apples, raisins, curry powder, mayo. C. Tuna, pasta in wheel shapes, peas, onions, olive oil, salt and pepper. D. Tuna, celery bits, onion, Miracle Whip. E. Tuna, white beans, onions, olive oil, vinegar.

I am only familiar with using fresh.

I like the idea in theory, but in practice, it hasn't been too good for me. I've sat at communal tables and been ignored, which felt pretty terrible. I'm not sure why other people sit at communal tables if they don't want to commune. Then again, I've sat at communal tables (usually mandatory at dim sum) where I had to hold my hand over my eyes to keep from viewing the horrors of chicken feet disappearing in undainty ways into other people's maws. My experience with communal anything has been better in Europe as was stated upthread.

I'd like to know if a masala dabba translates out of Indian spices . . . I have two kitchens, and in one I have an old ironing board closet (about two inches deep, one foot wide, and tall as a regular closet) that I've converted into a spice rack. This stays dark, and inside I have a large set of spice jars, clear glass, that I keep spices in. For the second kitchen, I had a small spice rack on the counter with glass jars. I found that the exposure to light weakened the spices and I wanted to try a masala dabba, since I can bring it to the stove and change what I have in the box as the seasons change. I put a combination of Indian and non-Indian spices in there, for the most part -- mustard powder, chili powder, turmeric, cumin, basil, oregano, thyme. I realize this is a risk, and because the spices aren't individually covered, may weaken and blend. I am assuming the blending is a good thing for Indian cooking with it's spice mixtures, but maybe a bad thing for the thyme . . . I've just started it, and overall the aroma is intoxicating, but I haven't tried cooking with the individual spices yet to find out if my spaghetti sauce is going to taste like mustard. Can anyone who is using a masala dabba advise? Thank you!

I think more than learning how to cook from my mother, I learned how to taste. My mother was a perfectionist, and when she got married, she wanted to make perfect food. It was ordinary Ohio food, but it was perfect food. I went shopping with her on Friday night at the Pick-N-Pay, and better, on Saturday morning to the Polish butcher and the farmer out in the country for fresh eggs. I learned how to shop, how to select, and then how to let the flavor shine without ruining it. My mother's pies were better than any I've tasted since, except my own. It took me a long time of working hard to get as good as her, and Carole Walter helped me -- I took a class with her and told her what I was trying to do, and bless her heart, she got me there. My parents loved food and food was entertainment for them. Not dining out, no one in Ohio in the sixties dined out. Making food together for fun. With no self-consciousness about it. Root beer, canned tomatoes, pickles, popcorn balls, rose jam, picking blueberries . . . My fondest memories of home are all about food. My mother handed me some of the greatest pleasures of my life, and one of them is baking. She wanted to encourage me to bake early and she bought me Jiffy cake mixes. I cut my teeth on Jiffy cake mixes, learned to measure and mix and know when it's done. After that, she gave me Betty Crocker's Cooky Book, which is still available as a facsimilie edition. She has the original, I have the facsimilie. That's how I learned to follow a recipe on my own, create a mise en place, judge texture. My mother doesn't cook anymore, hasn't for years, which is a great pity. Her food set standards for me. I still think her grilled cheese is the best one I've eaten, ever. Bar the one that has gourmet cheese in it.

Lots of good tips. My main source is Favorite Homemade Cookies and Candies, published by Sedgewood Press in 1982. This has a pictorial step-by-step for candied cherries, which I make nearly every year. I use sour cherries, but I thought I would try sweet this year. The sour cherries have a nice tang but I think they stick out too much in a fruitcake and kind of offset the symphony. Time Life's The Good Cook / Candy is also a good source. I have Fancy Pantry -- this one has a recipe for whole kumquats, but recipes for whole fruit are very hard to come by. I did the cranberries one year. They were not splendid, as I had hoped, but I'm a tough customer. I collect weird old-fashioned candy books in a quest for more information on candying. Most books only have a page or two or a recipe or two and it's relatively hard to get recipes that are for anything besides citrus or ginger. The Complete Wilton Book of Candy has a recipe for Grapefruit Cups (hollowed out whole grapefruits) which I will try sometime, although I can't imagine how you would serve that -- I mean, who would eat an entire candied grapefruit for dessert let alone one stuffed with whatever you stuffed it with? I also grab any good recipes I find, particularly the marvelous step-by-step done here by Andisenji. The starfruit is very interesting, when I read about this, it was recommended as one of the whole fruits you can candy, so I want to try that. I am imagining something very pretty, though, and might even cheat a bit of food coloring in to enhance this. I was in Istanbul in the fall, and I went to a restaurant recommended by Paula Wolfert (Ciya) and I told the waiter just bring me whatever you feel like showing off. For dessert I got a plate of candied everything, including candied olives and green walnuts.

Is it me or do the lampshades appear to be made of spun sugar?

I was a waitress at Friendly's in my youth. The grill cook was so good, when she saw you pull into the parking lot, she'd put your order on. I loved her.

Thank you! I did not parboil them, although I do this with regular candied peel. Since the peel of a clementine is so thin, and there is barely any pith, I didn't think it was necessary. Your idea of piercing the middle is a very good one. If anyone could recommend a book wherein the mysteries of Baume and sugar percentages and corn syrup are revealed I would be grateful. I buy any book that has information on candying and there seems to me to be precious little information. Trial and error is the best teacher so far. After the clementines, I want to try star fruit since I am disappointed with the sweetness quotient of star fruit in general. Apparently they are good candy candidates.

It's a small world. That's the exact recipe I used -- I came to it through David Lebovitz's site.

I'll try that, thank you.

Thank you. I saw my first whole candied orange this weekend, unexpectedly -- it was an orange, not a clementine, and it looked . . . bruised. Discolored. Was not in syrup. If the collapsing is quite normal, then I'd say I got terribly lucky for my first time with 11 pristine fruits.

Does anyone know a source for excellent ripe starfruit, preferably tree ripened? I had a ripe starfruit in Costa Rica that ruined starfruit for me and I need to get some -- but I want it ripe, and flavorful. Any ideas besides Melissa's? Thank you . . .