Lindacakes

Thanks for the recipe, Pat, I will try those. Helen, I really like candied pineapple!!! Isn't it funny how people form really strong likes and dislikes where candied fruit is concerned? I can't find enough ways to use angelica -- I like it in sheep's milk ricotta filling for cannoli along with miniature chocolate chips. Very tasty. Here is the first of my favored fruitcake cookie recipes. Not exactly fruitcake, but when you want that flavor and you don't want to spend a lot of money and wait a lot of time to get it, these will do. Very delicious. Maida Heatter’s California Fruit Bars 1 generous cup of dried fruit – apricot, fig, date 4 large eggs 1 pound box brown sugar (2 1/4 cups) 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour 7 ounces (2 cups) walnut halves Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line a jelly roll pan with foil and butter it. Cut dried fruit into small pieces. Steam over simmering water for 15 minutes. Uncover and set aside. In a 3 quart saucepan beat eggs, add sugar and mix. Place over medium heat for 10 to 15 minutes. Stir and scrape until sugar melts. Remove from heat. Add salt, vanilla and flour one cup at a time. Whisk until smooth. Stir in fruit, then nuts. Pour evenly into pan and smooth. Bake 15 minutes until golden brown with a shiny top. Cool, cut and wrap individually.

Very nice! Thank you!

My parents had this funky popcorn popper that had a little line for the oil, and a lid that you flipped upside down to make a popcorn bowl and it even had a butter melting mechanism. I took it to college with me. A mug of cream of tomato soup and a bowl of popcorn was a regular lunch for me and my mom. Very nostalgic thing never replaced by microwave popcorn. I've never owned a microwave and had little access to them and then there were those reports of people dying in the factories that make butter flavor! Some guy caught the same disease from smelling microwaved popcorn bags! We have a Whirley Pop, a present for my partner, who has to have popcorn to live. White Cat is a good brand popcorn. I've tried them all, all sorts of gourmet stuff, but not Rancho Gordo. I'll have to try that, but I don't like small kernels. I have some of the Whirley Pop Amish corn on order for Christmas. I use Crisco, peanut was a failure for me. Add the oil, add the corn all at once (always used to do test kernels when I didn't have a popper), gently turn the crank. Season with chili powder, garlic powder, grated Parmesean, salt. Lately I've been doing butter and salt because of Netflix!!! Get out the nested bowls, everybody gets one, including the bird. The bird doesn't get seasonings, but he likes to stand on the side of the bowl and loves popcorn. Popcorn shows up for a week in the little coconut half that hangs from his ceiling and serves as a treat cup. He gets what I think of as Kmart breath -- remember the popcorn at Kmart?

Lovely! Thank you for the reminder about stir-up Sunday. I'm a week late, since Thanksgiving is a week late, I usually do mine the day after while everyone else is out shopping.

I am partial to port.

Marlene! If you don't mind, tell me more. I actually bought this pan because of a huge gravy study being done in my house . . . never owned a roasting pan of any sort before, just used the Pyrex 9 by 13 or the sheet pan or the tinfoil crap. I own mostly All Clad pans, so I thought, why not, and I was going for their regular roaster -- had already bought it at another store -- and the low sides seemed right as well as the not non-stick rack. I have a bird and I can't have non-stick. I bought large (as opposed to extra large). Spent today trying to read up on roasting pans, found out that the low sides are a good idea, that the rack doesn't matter much really, and the clad is good (regular roaster not clad). What about pouring from it? Easy to pour with the sloped sides? I figure I can at least try that out with water and still return it. I liked the way the handles flare out because of the slope -- for some reason almost all roasting pans follow that weird design where the handles point IN, what's up with that? What else do you use it for? Seems like a boss vegetable roasting pan to me. Thank you for your help -- it's more than I wanted to spend, but I'd rather buy just the one and get buried with it . . .

The dude in the store says the slope is to get you better browning. Albert Ellis was definitely out of his mind -- maybe that's why he thought everybody else was . . . The time I spent in his presence was some of the weirdest time I've ever spent.

I bought an All-Clad roasting pan last night and now I'm trying to figure out if that was a good thing -- it's carried exclusively through Williams Sonoma and has sloped sides . . . Did I do good or bad? I don't know anything about roasting pans -- I'm upgrading from the aluminum buckets they sell at the grocery store . . . All Clad Roaster

I have a new book, Heirloom Baking by the Brass Sisters. They have a web site. Everything I have made from that book is top notch. There is a recipe in there for Lord Have Mercy Sweet Potato Pie. If I was going to make one, I'd vote for that one.

We are fantasizing: Two Fat Ladies

I have sucha vivid visual of above flaming cake that in my household that story has become shorthand for immediate, quiet resignation. As in, I turned the temperature down and walked.

Adore Earl Grey with milk and sugar, please. This is rather low brow, I suppose, but Williams Somoma sells a Taylor's (I think) in cinnamon spice that I really like to have at Christmastime. With milk and sugar, please.

I can speak for some of the New York tea rooms. First, the good news: I would have to agree that Lady Mendel's is one of the great tearooms. In my opinion, it is the only tearoom in New York. The setting, the tea, the food, all good. It's an all you can eat affair, they tell you if you'd like more of anything to simply say so. They bring at least seven courses, and when you think you are going to explode and sully the charming and sultry-dark little room with sugar sick, the waiter comes and sweetly asks, "Are you ready for dessert?" At which point you start all over again, this time sweeter. Just heavenly. When I pressed to find out where the candied ginger came from (candied ginger is one of the delights that is passed, and is now a permanent fixture at my teas) I was given a secret foil packet of same to take home. Next, the indifferent news: I have not had tea at the St. Regis. Will fix. Last, the bad news: I hate Alice's Teacup. They have to be kidding about that entry. The first time I went, I was disgusted. Clumps of tea-stained sugar in the sugar bowl, stained cups. Their primary customer is under ten. The Earl Gray creme brulee was remarkable, though. News that wasn't fit to print: I'm glad they left out Tea and Sympathy. Works in a pinch, but certainly isn't a player.

Helen, if you think a cookie might work, I have two recipes for cookies that taste like fruitcake and are really delicious. I'll send them if you like, PM me. Is that recipe with angelica a fantasy or do you really have one? I'd like it if you do. I've never seen a fruitcake recipe that calls for angelica. I ordered a bunch of fruit and nuts last night for mine, hoping I can make it Thanksgiving weekend, which is when I usually do. I bought five pounds of organic walnuts!!!

Hmmmm . . . Brooks, if you send a piece, maybe I'd be willing to change my vote and all . . .

The only turkey I ever made that I didn't like was brined. Lots of mess for that. Slow cooking instead.

Cut the prettier stalks and submerge them in a Bloody Mary made with horseradish vodka. Dice the less attractive stalks and toss a handful in with your potatoes on the boil. When done, mash said potatoes with the celery. Tasty.

It comes out of a can, but I looooove wasabi peas with me 'tails.

I'm very curious to know how this turns out. I'm thinking it is the consistency that is attractive in the canned version, as well as a certain dry taste -- in general, it is drier (in my opinion) than home made. Denser. Less juicy. My mother always did the can and served it just like that, can lines and all, and we all loved it. I make my own with orange and candied ginger and I love it, can't get enough. But I can understand the attraction for the canned stuff, it is unique in flavor and texture . . .

Do you do that regularly, test for doneness in cakes with a thermometer? I'll try it.

My mind is boggling over this thread. Many years ago I saw a short film of a chicken processing plant and I'll never get the vision out of my head. The baths . . . the horror . . . Do not eat raw chicken unless you've known that chicken personally and caused her death.

One other thing: if you do mean fruitcake, I once took one out undone -- I toasted the slices as I ate them. Worked fine.

Are you talking about a fruitcake? I don't know the answer to your question, I never heard of anyone judging doneness of a cake that way. Have you made one before? I go by the look of the cake itself as well as the toothpick test -- does a toothpick (or cake tester) inserted into the middle come out clean? The top should look done, the cake shouldn't wiggle when you shake it, and the sides should be coming away from the edge of the pan.

On vitamin B6: a friend of mine cured his severe carpal tunnel with it. I take it when mine is acting up, like now. On That Apple Pie: for me, lately, it has been That Coconut Cake. It has coconut slime in between the layers. On Tater Tots: Take a piping bag fitted with a small pointed tip, and pipe a small ball of mashed blue cheese into the tot. You will be glad you did.

In this debate, we all win. Delicious as your coconut cake may be, and it is a current crave of mine, your cake is no pie. Here's the proof my friend: there is no pie mix.