Lindacakes

I can't wait to try cinnamon stars . . . I need to get almond flour . . .

If you should decide that you want to do that to your body, I would recommend Biscoff brand cookie butter. I find it superior to Trader Joe's -- I can't eat TJs. There's a light . . . grit to it I don't like and the taste if off. Everyone else goes mad for it, though.

Soup of all kinds, but I like Gypsy Soup from the (much hated by eGulleters) Moosewood cookbook. Featuring sweet potatoes, green beans and chick peas. I also like minestrone. For those who enjoy their seasonal food rituals I recommend photographing them throughout the year and then creating a calendar for yourself or family member. I did this for my partner one year, our favorite desserts throughout the year and it was a huge hit, still on the wall. February was a heart-shaped red velvet cake, July was blueberry pie, May was rhubarb ginger cake, November a pumpkin pie, Christmas was a plate of cookies, our birthday months had our birthday cakes, etc.

Add it to your morning coffee and then your breakfast cereal milk. It's a wonderful way to start the day.

What are the cannisters made of? Plastic? Do they have lids? I kind of really really like the idea of cooking in this cubicle. Reminds me of an elusive book I heard about on the radio and have never been able to track down (maybe it never got written) -- it was about all the ways people cook when there are no cooking facilities. Like in prisons. People make little stoves out of tin cans. I like thinking about this concept

Seconded. I was a vegetarian for several years in my youth and I'm slowly going back there. I've minimized my consumption of animals, eating mostly tofu, cheese, fish. I don't eat meat in restaurants and I only buy it from the farmer's market and only about once a month or so.

I ended up shuffling around my collection and learning that I enjoy reading about food as much as cooking -- a large portion of my collection is intended to be reference. I parted with baking books for the most part -- I try not to eat wheat and that limits what I'm able to bake when I have the time to bake. Knowing that helps me target which books I really want to explore more. I have a collection I moved into the kitchen that are not-serious books, books to help me do quick vegetable dishes mostly. Books I could let go of, but in the end may be books I'd actually cook from more than reference. Those I can let go of. And, I cheated, and moved a bunch of stuff (i.e., not books) off the shelves so I'd have more shelves!

. . . Malaise . . .

We all love to collect cookbooks; we have many threads devoted to our cookbook collections, which cookbooks to buy, best of the year, best of type, etc. What about when you want or need to cull your collection? I just have too many and I need shelf space. I've devoted a lot of time to this activity already, sifting through the books, shifting my existing book collections around, moving things off the shelves to make space. One of the ways I've been able to cull is to pull the many baking books I've received as gifts. My friends mean well, but they don't know what to pick. Then there's the books I've gotten for a couple of bucks. Some I can't bare to part with, but good cookbooks are really easy to find second hand -- most people who inherit them don't know what's good or of value. I realize I have a lot of books that are strictly for reference, even if they aren't reference books. I've got a lot of books that I think are beautiful, particularly candy and cookie books, that I just want to have around and just want to look through. I also have an entire shelf of various shades of Asian cooking, and I don't cook Asian food . . . What to do? How do you cull your collection?

None of these is it, but all good. This article in the Washington Post about Paula Wolfert's memory loss -- http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/paula-wolfert-coping-by-cooking/2013/10/28/84599cf2-3b22-11e3-a94f-b58017bfee6c_story.html mentions Vital Choice -- http://www.vitalchoice.com

Neither one is the one I'm looking for, but both good alternatives.

A few months ago I got a catalogue in the mail from a fishery in the northwest. Maybe Seattle, maybe British Columbia. They canned their own fish and they had many types -- tuna, mackerel, salmon, oysters, etc. I don't know why I threw this catalogue away, maybe you had to buy it by the case. But I'm haunted and I'd like to get my hands on a source for good canned seafood. I found this, but it isn't the one: http://www.thefishery.ca/index.html Does anyone know what company this might be or have a source for excellent canned seafood? Wahoo? I once ordered a case of canned wahoo from an enterprising Hawaiian woman but she's since stopped trading in wahoo . . . My current favorite for sardines is Angelo Parodi.

I'm glad you are satisfied with the candied ginger process. It took me many years to get the results that I liked and could be made with "mature" ginger by steaming it first because fresh stem ginger was so difficult to get back during the late '70s and the '80s before there were so many Asian markets around. Have you tried blanching instead of steaming? Chez Panisse Vegetables calls for blanching. I've always had good results with her recipes for candying. They're simple. Thank you for this recipe, I cannot believe how perfect the ginger came out. The fresh ginger doesn't have the bite I'm looking for, so I want to do another batch. I candied ginger, orange and lemon at the same time. I won't do that again. I actually had to draw up a chart to remember at what stage all the pots were. I used Nick Malgieri for candied peel -- he uses glucose -- and my orange peel is like a jelly candy. Quite nice.

I've got four cakes resting in a cool spot in my closet and two bottles of Liqueur Rouge, which is dynamite. Soak cherries, raspberries and currants in brandy for 40 days and then hold it for a few months. I cannot wait to eat this. The W. W. Weaver cake came out okay, maybe. It smells divine. I cut into them on Thanksgiving just to check progress. If the two new cakes are not acceptable, my backup plan is Craig Claiborne's cake with candied ginger and black walnuts. Doesn't need to age.

I made the W. W. Weaver cake tonight; it's in the oven. I've made a recipe of his before that failed -- I knew using salt in candying peel was a bad idea . . . This time, he asks you to beat 8 eggs and one cup of sugar until light and fluffy, then fold in beaten butter. I think he has this backwards, I thought so as I did it, but I did it anyway. Meaning, I would have beaten the butter and sugar together and then added the eggs one at a time. Of course I had bits of butter floating in the eggs, as I expected and I went ahead and did it anyway . . . Thoughts? (The good news is, currants + lemon peel + orange peel + citron + almonds + amaretto = pretty darn heavenly).

Your fruit mix sounds divine. Candied lime peels, yes, gin and tonic, yes . . . One cake has sweet sherry and Irish whiskey, the other has amaretto . . .

I'm starting the cake . . . I was wrong, the pan is supposed to be a 10-inch springform, which I'm not using because mine is 9-inch. Considering the 10 inch tube pan, last cake I made was cooked on the outside and raw on the inside. They are 7-inch rounds, my favorite shape for giving . . . Would appreciate the name of the sour candied cherry source. I candy sour usually, this year I did sweet and I think I like them better. More cherry-ish.

Ginger, before and after.

Today is my stir-up Sunday. Or rather, the first of two, one today and one next week. I didn't make a fruitcake last year; I was on hiatus. Just didn't feel like it. So, two cakes this year. Jane Grigson's Country Christmas Cake (found in Moira Hodgson's Favorite Fruitcakes and Laurie Colwin's More Home Cooking) and William Woys Weaver's Twelfth Night Cake from his book, The Christmas Cook. I prepared my fruit mix last night, which included applesauce that I made myself from local Honeycrisps, and cherries, lemon peel, orange peel and ginger that I candied myself. (Excellent recipe, Andiesenji, thank you.) I'm beginning to feel like the only way up is to grow my own wheat . . . I'm about to mix and bake the cake (Country Christmas Cake). The recipe calls for one 9-inch springform. Can I bake this in two 7-inch pans? The baking instructions are two hours at 325 and two hours at 300. What would be my internal temperature of done? I'm all skittish about making any changes; I've not made the cake before and we all know the commitment a fruitcake entails. Mistakes are costly. Any advice or pointers or sources on changing pan sizes and baking times very much appreciated.

I would recommend you get in touch with Bonnie Slotnick, a bookseller in New York City.

Pasta Fresca: An Exuberant Collection of Fresh, Vivid and Simple Pasta Recipes by Evan Kleiman and Viana La Place.

I love bringing my own lunch, and when I don't have time I really miss it. I like Built neoprene lunch bags because they go flat when not in use. I like nalgene screw top containers from reuseit.com because they are leak-proof. I travel nowhere without a reuseit drawstring bag filled with snacks. These choices after long searches. I eat with a "real" fork poached from TWA first class a long time ago. I carry my own food to work, on day trips, when travelling. I just went to Italy and brought two snack bags, one for the trip there and one for the trip back. Extremely useful. I HATE being dependent on airlines or airports for food. I LOVE picnics of every stripe. Trader Joe's is the brown bagger's friend. Their frozen vegetables and frozen vegetable mixes are top-notch. Hard boiled eggs and sliced beets. Artichokes and mushrooms. Black bean, corn, tomato, avocado salad, Tuna with potatoes and green beans. Tofu and TJ's balsamic vegetable mix. On and on. I like having a TJ organic low fat string cheese everyday and I have to have three fruits. I have nuts, cheese, dried fruit, olives. I don't eat bread; I don't eat sandwiches. I also often carry my own liquor, but that's another story . . .

I love it each and every week of the year, but I especially enjoy it in the dead of winter. There are no people . . . In New York City, the farmer's market is a tourist attraction, which is festive, but not when you are trying to do your grocery shopping and you want to get out of there and get your other errands done. Once in a while, some hens will be laying, and that's a great surprise. Incredible micro greens grown in a greenhouse. Fresh as spring. I love root vegetables, but most of all: squash. Weird squash of every stripe. Excellent soup market. Maple syrup. Apples. OK, aging apples, but apples. Best of all, the exact Saturday that new stuff starts to show up and the cycle returns again. So exciting.

Since you have the Malgieri book, take a look at the Date Nut Bread -- absolutely delicious. From my thinking what we think of as quick breads are not the same as the icingless cakes we're trying to pin down -- they are denser. I Solo Poppyseed Cake 1/2 pint sour cream 4 eggs, separated 1 cup shortening 1 1/2 cups sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 1/2 cups sifted flour 1 teaspoon soda 1 teaspoon salt 1 twelve ounce can of Solo poppy filling Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cream shortening until light and fluffy. Add sugar gradually and cream well. Add poppy filling and beat well. Add egg yolks one at a time, beating after each addition. Blend in vanilla and sour cream. Sift flour, soda, and salt and gradually add to poppy mixture. Beat well after each addition. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites. Pour into greased tube pan lined with wax paper. Bake for one hour and 15 to 20 minutes.

I would have to spend some time poking through my recipes, but these come to mind instantly: Poppyseed cake from the Solo poppyseed can label. Includes folded-in egg whites. Nice with a dusting of powdered sugar. I know now that I've thought of it, I won't rest until I have it. Nick Malgieri's brown butter hazelnut financier. Ditto the powdered sugar. This may well be my all-time favorite cake. This is from The Modern Baker. Craig Claiborne's mother's black walnut and candied ginger (only one nut and one fruit) fruitcake from Moira Hodgson's Favorite Fruitcakes. I recently had two transcendent meals at a restaurant in Naples, Italy and I intend to send the owner one of these cakes as a thank you. If I was looking for a perfect chocolate cake with no icing, I'd take a look at Maida Heatter. She's pretty good at recognizing perfection. I like the Hershey Black Magic Cake very much, but I consider a mocha frosting a necessity.