andiesenji

That's the name, Pro's Ranch Market! Such an easy name, you would think I should remember it but I was thinking it was a Hispanic name. Silly me. I remember their bakery stuff was first rate. They had a pan dulce stuffed with sweet cheese that was a threat to my diet. My dad loved them.

The Walmart supercenters should carry the Herdez brand of whole green chiles There is one here Walmart Supercenter 2701 Carlisle Blvd Ne, Albuquerque © - (505) 884-6650 You can call ahead to find out if they have them in stock but I bought them at the Walmart supercenter in Deming, NM so I'm pretty sure all the stores in the southwest carry them. They have a whole aisle of Hispanic foods. There is also one just off rt 40, which might be handy for you. Walmart Supercenter, 10224 Coors Bypass NW, Albuquerque, NM There is also a Ranch Market on Central Ave in Albuquerque that sells Mexican groceries and has a great bakery and meat market. I'll have to search my memory for the name as it has been a few years since I was there. I'll look through my notes I made when I visited my dad in '03 and took him to Albuquerque and stayed there a month or so. I may have it in there.

Oh yeah! Nehi grape soda or RC cola in my area. One of my great uncles had a little store in a village of 96 residents. Not a lot of cars went by but there were plenty of mule-drawn wagons. It was right next to a bridge over a creek popular for fishing, so he supplied bait and more than a few people exchanged freshly caught fish for stuff from the store. He taught us kids how to bake fish sealed in soft clay from the creek bank, cook it in a fire and when it was cracked open the skin stuck to the clay so the nicely cooked flesh was exposed and on its own "plate." I think that tasted better than any fish I have ever eaten.

Pecans marry well with many vegetables. I've combined them with Braised Brussels Sprouts, with carrots, and as noted above, sweet potatoes. Pecans and parsnips are wonderful together. I found this recipe for Honey Glazed Parsnips in the BBC Food magazine some time ago and I add half a cup of chopped pecans. I like greens with pecans and other nuts, but pecans are my favorite, especially with Swiss chard. A layered casserole with roasted vegetables, pasta and cheese is very nice topped with a crust of pecans, finished in the oven just long enough for the pecans to toast. I add pecans to dressing for turkey, chicken, duck or meats. I include them in the stuffing for rouladen and I make it with pork as well as beef. Smothered pork chops with pecans and apples is a favorite recipe in the part of Kentucky where I was raised. (There were more than a hundred pecan trees on my grandfather's farm.)

I buy the Golden Flaxseed meal for inclusion in smoothies and in baking, except when I want the whole seeds as on bread, rolls or quick bread crust.

I suggest that you join an Australian forum. This one is based in the UK but the majority of members are in Australia. This forum is oriented toward the Thermomix but if you join and go to the "Chit Chat" sections, you can post a question about anything and especially about food, kitchen equipment and etc. We have had discussions about rice cookers, mixers, blenders and most recently about dehydrators. The people on the forum are unfailingly polite and very helpful. There is a lot of knowledge there. Forum Thermomix I don't think you will be disappointed. They like to help people who like to cook and play in the kitchen. Oh, yeah! There is a current discussion about the Kindle and e-readers.

Too bad you are so far from St. George and won't be there for Thanksgiving. Friends that live there have told me that their church has an enormous rummage sale on the Saturday after T-Day and they always score a lot of new or nearly new stuff that they give to their kids and grandkids for Christmas. (They have nine children!)

I can't say how to do it with a BGE but I have a friend who has a huge Kamodo that is essentially the same type cooker/smoker. He fixed a hook into the top of the lid and hangs a small stainless steel pail 1-quart (bought in a feed store) that he fills with water and hangs by the bail onto the hook - he has to do this when the lid is partially closed - wears a Nomex gauntlet after burning his forearm, but it produces sufficient steam during the first few minutes of baking to allow plenty of oven spring and a crisp crust. The kind of pail is the 4th item down on this page You can probably find one at a pet store.

I've been cooking and baking a long, long time and I love compliments. I am particularly pleased when I am complimented on something that took me a fair amount of time and effort to prepare and I don't denigrate the item either. I think that is an insult to the people for whom I prepared it. I want them to know that I think enough of them to do my very best. I don't think I have ever wasted much time on fishing for compliments. I have asked for constructive criticism when I have prepared something that is new to me, particularly ethnic foods with which I am unfamiliar and I try to get the opinion of people who actually know how the food should taste. But when I produce something that I personally love, I really don't care if other people like it or not and with or without complements, I'm going to keep preparing it. I have had my share of disasters or disappointing results and I do apologize for those because I do want my friends to know that I did try. They know me well enough to NOT offer complements for something I feel is not up to my usual standards.

I'm bumping up this topic because a link to this rather Unusual Version of Meatloaf arrived in my email this morning from Drew Kime/ How To Cook Like Your Grandmother. I happen to love meatloaf, although this is rather a lot of meatloaf to prepare for just me, it looks like it would make a great party thing for a football get together or even a tailgate party. Although I would nail it together with skewers before attempting transport. I have in the past "iced" a loaf-shaped one with potatoes - and also did one with a cream cheese horseradish sauce. Any comments? Any similar ideas.

Darienne, different varieties have slightly different colors. Click here and scroll half-way down the page to where he writes about toasting (in a skillet) and roasting the pine nuts. He also discusses how shelling can vary with the different varieties. The ones I get locally, (from up around Bishop) are fairly hard shelled so I buy them already shelled. More expensive but less trouble. Otherwise I order them online. Life is too short for me to spend a lot of time shelling pine nuts but that is just my opinion. I've bought the ones at Costco or Sam's Club and they are okay but not as flavorful as others I have tried. I have purchased some that were imported from Italy that had a lot more flavor.

As I suggested above, steam the fruits first. They become more like glace fruits. Even more so if you soak them in syrup after steaming. Bring heavy simple syrup to a boil, drop in the steamed fruit, turn it off and leave them to stand for a couple of days. They won't be fully glaceed but close enough for baking. And they will retain their flavor. And save the water from the steaming. It catches drips from the steamed fruit and has a lot of flavor and can be made into syrup with the addition of sugar.

If you are going to store them in the shell, you must make sure they are completely dry. They should be in a porous bag and in an area where they can get plenty of air circulation. They really don't keep all that long, even in the shell. You can further dry them, if there is any question at all, in the shell in a very low oven or in a dehydrator. The best way is to store them in a sealed container in the freezer if you have room. When ready to roast just put them straight into the oven (keep a few out to compare) at a lower temp, 250° F., for 20 minutes and then take a few out to check how they are progressing. If they have begun to toast, have changed color just a bit, (compare to the raw ones) leave them another five minutes and check again, and so on. They tend to get oily if stored in the freezer (uncooked in the shell) for several months. I've bought pine nuts in the shell from roadside stands that I tried to store for a couple of months and they went moldy in brown paper bags. Since then I have hung them in the pantry in a burlap bag (originally held rice).

Wash the nuts well, several changes of water. Preheat your oven to 350° F. Spread nuts on baking sheet in one layer. Roast for ten minutes. Remove from oven. Spread nuts on a terrycloth towel, cover with another terry cloth towel. Using a rolling pin, roll over the nuts firmly - check to see if the shells are breaking, if not use more force. Most of the shells should loosen and stick to the towels. Once the nuts are shelled, store them in the freezer because they rapidly become rancid. In the freezer they will keep for a year.

This one on A Year of Slow Cooking works very well with the adjustments of much less sugar. Read the comments. As she notes, this takes two days but is well worth the time and effort. I used a combination of apples, 3 each Braeburn, Jonagold, 4 small russets (seldom available in my area and in my opinion more flavorful than Granny Smith, and two each golden delicious and pink lady. I used 3/4 cup of brown sugar and 3/4 cup of honey, no white sugar. You can always add more later if it isn't sweet enough for you. Use a little habanero, add it half way through and after it has cooked for awhile, taste it and add more if you think it necessary. I've made applesauce with rocoto or manzano peppers as they have a sort of apple flavor to begin with. - important to remove the seeds because unlike other peppers they are black and better not to have black flakes in your apple sauce or apple butter.

I decided to bump this topic up after receiving an email earlier today with this link from a small foodie email group to which I belong. Thanks NikkiS! I have heard of a lot of weird fruits but have never come across this one which to me is indeed, totally freaky. Even the flowers are freaky. Jabuticaba the Brazilian Grape Tree Has anyone ever seen this fruit? I wonder if anyone in the U.S. has tried growing these trees.

I noticed my neighbor has a smoker going and asked what was in there and was told they are smoking some pumpkins, also the seeds, some jalapeño and poblano peppers and some goat meat for jerky. The pumpkins were the Mexican pumpkins, cut into wedges and hung on a cord to smoke. I asked about fruits and they smoke mango and papaya that goes into a mole sauce. That type of pumpkin is dark red-orange (like one of the dark "yams") and they have promised to give me a wedge to play with. She plans on candying it (Calabaza en Tacha) for a Fiestas de Muertos party on Nov. 1 and 2. P.S. I think that it is funny that this year the Day of the Dead falls on election day!

Try steaming the dried cherries (or any dried fruits) not only does this process "plump" them it seems to deepen the flavor. I now routinely steam all dried fruits before adding them to breads, cakes or pastry. It makes a tremendous difference, in my opinion. It takes some experimentation to determine how long to steam them. If they have been stored for a long time it will take longer. You can resurrect dried fruits that seem too far gone and thus save having to buy more.

I have smoked figs many times, pineapple a couple of times, also peaches. I've made smoked quince jam by adding Lapsang Souchong tea to jam that was too sweet and I see no reason by smoking the fruit itself (after some pre-cooking) would not work. I found this recipe for smoked pears about a year ago and stuck it in my "to try" file. Haven't yet. A local restaurant occasionally offers smoked apple pie. They smoke the entire pie and it is terrific with sharp cheddar.

I recently tried it for a oven-roasted bacon "recipe" that combined Wondra with granulated maple sugar. I've used the maple sugar before but my friend suggested mixing the sugar with Wondra and it made a surprising difference. The bacon crisped up much quicker without overcooking it.

Be very careful with the 600 and stiff doughs. My husband and I bake a lot, and we have had stripped gears on 4 KitchenAid mixers over about 5 years; the last 2 mixers were the 600 model. After the last burnout, we replaced it with an Electrolux Magic Mill DLX (also known as the Electrolux Assistent). After about a month of use, we are very happy with it and it handles large batches of bagel dough with no problem whatsoever. The manual actually instructs you to turn the mixer to high speed while kneading, which is a wonderful change from KitchenAid, who instructs you to never knead above speed 2, a speed so slow it barely kneads. Exactly the reason for which I bought my DLX years ago. It was Peter Reinhart's "Struan" bread dough that did in two KA's for me. And it holds more dough and it is much easier to add ingredients to the bowl while mixing.

You can search for a retailer by using the General Mills Product Locator Page I tried it for my street and zip code and got a page to select the size of the package and then 18 stores within a 20 mile radius.

Here's an interesting idea that arrived in my email today: How to Make Irish Cream Coffee in CrockPot I don't drink alcohol but I'm sure I can figure out a non-alcoholic version. I have got so much from subscribing to this blog, I hope it goes on forever.

I bring liquid nitrogen home to play with. I have a storage cabinet full of specimen bottles too that I use for storage containers. Two other things I realized I have today while at Lee Valley - I had one of the original microplanes that were used in the woodshop before they started marketing them for kitchen use, and I have a really neat japanese varnish brush I use to remove marks from molded chocolate. I also began using a microplane before they were a kitchen tool. I mentioned earlier that I use a coarse rasp quite often. Last used it to grate some dried galangal root. I used to make my own picture frames and had a lot of woodworking tools that, from time to time, found their way into the kitchen. There was a time that I used to eye my Shopsmith, with an eye to using it in the kitchen, but other than turning some smallish rolling pins and little wood bowls on the lathe, I really wasn't using it that much - mostly wasting time with it, so I sold it.

The link for this recipe arrived in my mailbox back in February and I made a batch of it. I used it up within a few weeks and meant to make another batch but it slipped my mind. Carrot Marmalade I'm so glad you brought this up as now I am going to make another batch. I plan on adding a bit of ginger in my next batch, to give it a bit of "kick."