Smithy

No no, don't spoil the fun yet! I have more teaser photos, when I get back to a computer...

One of my sister's friends makes decorative wine stoppers, and gave one as a gift to my sister. My sister put the stopper into a partly-empty bottle of blackberry-infused balsamic vinegar, and left it in place for some weeks. There was no contact between the stopper and the vinegar, based on the level of the vinegar in the bottle and the fact that the stopper wasn't wet when my sister removed the stopper next. When she removed the stopper, she saw a layer of crystals growing on the stopper. There didn't appear to be any corrosion. I don't have photos of its appearance then, but she packed it along on a road trip in a bag, and this is its appearance now: Questions: What is that corroded layer made of? Assuming that the atmosphere in the bottle caused that corrosion, is the vinegar still safe?

Get ready for a week of Easter preparations! An ambitious foodblogger is taking us on a tour. The blog is set to start this Sunday, March 20, and take us through Easter Sunday. Here, to whet your appetite and curiosity, is a teaser photo: Let the guessing begin!

What Jaymes said.

So far, the ribs at Butcher's look the best, most succulent to me...and I'd kill for some of that brisket.

Tere, I admire your ambition. If that garden takes off it will take over your life! Still, there should be some mighty fine food coming your way from the effort.

Getting back to the 'aging' part of the question: why would one bother to age golden syrup, and how would one go about it? I have visions of leaving the can or jar out in the sunlight, and that probably isn't what's meant. Edited to add: I've found part of the answer in this blog post: In Search Of Perfection: Heston's Perfect Treacle Tart Recipe.

Be still, my heart. The ribs are obvious. Is that white chopped stuff pork loin? And I echo Shelby's question about the bowl's contents. Looks like some sort of relish to me. Tomatillos? Pickles?

Deryn, I'm sorry you're in such a discouraging situation. While we wait to see whether there are other eGer's still active in your province, let's keep brainstorming. I really like Lisa's food club idea and helenjp's expansion on it. Does Canso have a library? If so, and if it's as moribund as the libraries in many small U.S. towns, the librarian(s) might welcome some sort of culinary explorations idea. Pick a country or culture, feature a book or three about said area, bring some relevant food. Does Canso have a school? If so, teacher(s) might appreciate the opportunity to liven up geography or social studies classes with some culinary examples of other cultures. This is hardly your original vision of throwing big dinner parties, then clearing the floor for a ceilidh (I have friends who grew up on that tradition, but they aren't in your area) but maybe, just maybe you'll find a few other outliers in your population. If you can hook up with younger folks you'll all get that intergenerational boost as well.

Not this time (I am still far to the west) but we DO pass through Joplin sometimes. I'll keep it in mind. Thanks!

Since I can't be there in person, I am so looking forward to the report!

Yes, please do let us know what you do and how it goes.

Wellcome to eGullet, @logicalidentity! Please tell more about how you made your crab apple paste and your smoked chutney. Crab apples grow in wild abundance near my house, and i've been looking for ways to use the ones with good flavor. This linked post is about one of my attempts to work with them. It was a huge amount of work. Others in that topic suggested chutney, but I'm always up for more versions and smoking sounds good. Incidentally, you may enjoy this related topic: eG Cook-Off #67: Apples, which was mainly about cooking or baking with domesticated apples but also made room for crab apples.

Hey! Glad to see a new Aussie show up. You lot Down Under seem to have a flair for the boozy arts; I'm sure you'll fit right in.

Why not get another Magic Bullet? Has the quality declined?

Trying to help Kerry out here, a bit. Here are the posts I think you need most to determine the timeline and the schedule (first event Thursday, May 12, but it may be full already):

@Tere, you may also find these topics about scrapple enlightening: Scrapple and its culinary cousins and scrapple: wherein i sacrifice my health (to find the best scrapple).

Were you happy with the results? What (approximately) did you do? It looks delicious.

@Kim Shook,that's a ringing endorsement of the Ghirardelli mix! I grew up making brownies from scratch, and rarely get the opportunity to make sweets now, but will keep an eye out for this mix.

Coming up soon at our home: dinner salad with smoked tuna, or maybe smoked tuna salad sandwiches. Thanks, shain. I've seen this trick before but had forgotten about it.

Print, you may find it useful, for background, to check out the Sous Vide Index (follow the link, or look at the top of the Cooking Forum topic listing). Specifically, you are likely to find an answer to your questions in this Index post on sous vide equipment. Another topic that may inspire you to take the plunge is here: Sous vide for a newbie?

Welcome!

@HST, please do let us know what you reported and how it was received. A number of us are very interested in the outcome - as much detail as you care to report - and remember, some of us were pulling for an 'A'.

I spotted rhubarb in a Yuma (Arizona) grocery store - mainstream chain, not specialty - last week.

I second this question and want to reinforce it. As of this moment there have been 660 views of this topic* and 48 responses, many of them from (as gfron1 notes) only a handful of people. It would be good to hear from the lurkers. I expressed my skepticism early on: whether I would go back would depend on how well I liked the result the first time. However, I'm probably not the target market: I am much more likely, if I like something, to try to learn to make it myself unless it's incredibly complicated and time-consuming. If it's that complicated and time-consuming it will probably not be practical for this business model, for all the reasons expressed above by folks in the business. (I am not in the business.) If I had a sudden urge for a particular food I'd probably want to go THAT DAY and get it, or get its closest facsimile. I wouldn't dream of asking a restaurant, no matter how good they were, to try to reproduce my grandmother's green beans or my mother's fried chicken. I do like the idea of having a 'meet the chefs' section so prospective customers can see whether there's a possible fit for their prospective menu. I think this strengthens the idea, although from where I sit it still looks like a fantasy proposal. @HST, I've seen a bit of conflicting information in your fantasy proposal. One of the conflicts was that initially you said the prospective customer would give the proposed menu to the restaurant and get it priced, and later you suggested a price point of $20-$30. Did you mean 'get it priced' in the sense of getting an exact price instead of the $20-$30 range? I interpreted 'getting it priced' as finding out whether this was, say, a $10 proposal or a $50 proposal. I suggest that, if you are refining your idea, you restate it here and see whether that draws responses from some of the lurkers. *No idea how many are new viewers instead of repeat viewers.