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Different types of rice behave differently in pudding. I have some Madagascar Pink Rice ordered from Lotus Foods. It's only available in 11 pound bags but I have used a lot of it. It produces a beautiful pink rice pudding but it works best if it has a prolonged soaking prior to cooking. I soak it overnight in cold water, rinse and soak again for an hour or so before transferring to the rice cooker. I've made pudding with black rice, purple rice and other heirloom rices. I like rice puddings made with short grain rice, sticky rice and with Carnaroli rice, the latter made just like risotto, only with a sweet instead of savory flavoring. It works great with fruits, especially mango, even canned mango puree.

Actually the banana slicer was originally aimed at families with small children. Kids can use it where one would not want to turn a child loose with a knife and unlike anything with a blade (even plastic ones) they are acceptable at schools. One of my neighbors, who has 7 children (two sets of twins) under 12 years, has two or three of these gadgets and for her they are very handy.

Check with Orchard Supply Hardware, Von's Supermarkets to see if your local store carries the Lazzari charcoals. They are real hardwood. The mesquite charcoal I buy is from El Diablo and is made in Mexico, and is only available in the southwest states. He gets it by the truckload and sells to local restaurants and just a few long-time retail customers - he bags it in 50-pound bags for us, delivers it to restaurants in big crates. He wants to eventually phase out the retail customers, he is doing it as a favor now. If you live in the L.A. area and want real wood for cooking or baking and real charcoal, there is California Charcoal & Firewood in Commerce, CA. They sell to the public as well as to companies. I found their website> superior cooking fuel products Friends who have wood-fired bread ovens buy their woods from them.

I would also like to see a movie about Julia's life after the publication of Mastering the Art-- I think it is fascinating how her show went from fairly local interest to a country-wide and the world-wide phenomena. I have all of her books, all of the episodes of "The French Chef" available on DVD and have several of the videos of Julia cooking with other chefs; and an older VHS tape with Graham Kerr is signed by both of them. And I recently pre-ordered "As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto" - it's due out December 1. I loved the movie and just a few minutes into it, totally forgot that was Meryl Streep on the screen. She totally captured the essence of Julia in her early days. I remember watching The French Chef when it was actually being produced and it was her enthusiasm for food that came across every time. This was the persona that Meryl Streep presented, right on the dime.

Thanks for posting the photos. They give me a great appreciation of your efforts in presenting what looks to me to be incredible food.

I hesitated to weigh in on this topic because I may have a slewed appreciation of "authentic" and/or "traditional" recipes, or whatever term people want to use. I've learned to cook a number of traditional Mexican dishes from my neighbor who was born and raised in Mexico, on a ranch near the city of Durango but she and her husband, who still own a ranch down there, have been been here for nearly forty years, are citizens and put all their kids through college. When we chat about "authentic" recipes, and I questioned her about preparing them in the "traditional" manner, she asks, "Are you mad (loco)? Why would I kneel on a dirt floor, using a metate to grind ingredients when I have the use of a meat grinder, a food processor or blender? Life here is more complicated and there is not enough time to devote to preparing food as my mother did. If my mother was alive, she would be delighted with the time-saving instruments I use in my kitchen." I've eaten the same foods she prepares when I was in Mexico and I can't tell the difference in flavor, texture or appearance. Her dishes are authentic in that she uses the same ingredients and cooks them so the end result tastes the same. An earlier post mentioned someone else argued against red posole being authentic. Red posole stewed with pork IS traditional in different parts of Mexico. I spent a week in La Piedad de Cabadas in Michoacán and it was served to me in a private home and in a restaurant during my stay. It was very spicy. I've also had posole verde with turkey in Mexico. As I recall it was in Colima but I could be mistaken on this one. I know that where I had it there were a lot of turkey "ranchos" in the area and driving along the road we saw quite a few running loose. These are not the white ones and they aren't wild but are the domestic bronze turkeys. We saw little boys rounding them up with long sticks because they are apparently mean critters.

I don't think there would be any problem with food-grade plastics that are intended for prolonged use in contact with food. The plastic leaching concern is about water bottles that are intended for single-use sales of water. Some carry a notice that they are not intended for re-use. I have water bottles that I purchased, with a one-way valve, so they don't spill, that have a statement that chemicals will not leach into water or juices such as grape and apple. They recommend not using them for citrus juices.

For a large stockpot full of soup, stock or whatever, I wrap the outside with an "Ice blanket" or two, and in the center of the pot sink a tall narrow container which I have filled with water and frozen ahead of time. I use an asparagus steamer for the really large stockpots. For the smaller ones I have a couple of the pasta storage containers, like these and I have a skinnier one that is made for storing round crackers, such as Ritz. To secure the ice blankets, I use a strap with Velcro closure.

One of my relatives, who now lives in southern Illinois, gives his to a pig farmer, who picks them up and later on will reciprocate with some pork or bacon (home cured). The hogs love pumpkin, any type. Just a thought…

I just scrub carrots but I do peel the parsnips and other roots.

When I visited it, the address was 25308 Crenshaw Boulevard. That was three years ago. Check to see if Hojas Tea House is still in business. They are in Wilmington on PCH at Island Ave. 310-518-9454

I cheat big time with winter or root vegetables. I combine several types with onions, garlic and etc., and roast them in a big roaster, not a shallow sheet pan because I want the roasted but not crusted. (That's a different story.) Tossed with olive oil (no need to use EVOO, plain is fine or any other vegetable oil) salt, pepper, add some thyme or a very little rosemary if you like it, or any other herb or spice of your choice. This is extremely versatile. If using a lot of parsnips or sweet potatoes (the white ones) add some grated nutmeg. This combo is slow roasted at 275° F. for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Less if your oven is hotter. Stir a couple of times during the roasting period. I bag them (after cooling) in sizes adequate for addition to stews, or other dishes, curry, for instance. Vacuum seal and freeze the bags. Thawed in the fridge for 24 hours, these can be added to just about any dish and the flavors will meld with only enough cooking to bring everything to a serving temp. An odd thing happens with these vegetables, although they contain no meat of any kind, when roasted this way they develop a "meaty" flavor. Perhaps it is the combination of vegetables or the way they are cooked, but many people have asked me, when trying the vegetables served as a side dish, what meat did I include. They are always surprised when I tell them, none. The combo pictured includes carrots, parsnips, white sweet potatoes, red bliss potatoes, celeriac, celery, onions. red bell peppers and roasted garlic. (I usually use raw garlic but had a lot of oil-roasted garlic so used it.) The roasting pan is 12 x 16 inches and 3 1/2 inches deep.

I love a pizza with a slightly scorched bottom. That just enhances the other flavors for me. I love having a gooey top layer with lots of flavor and a foundation with a good crunch. I am so envious. Any photos of the outside area, your domicile or ??

Check the listings of tea shops listed at Cat-Tea Corner's Tea Guide I don't see one listed in El Segundo but I have been to one of the tea shops in Culver City, can't recall which one. I've also been to Teforia in Torrance and Elise's in Long Beach. I visited Tudor House in Santa Monica a few years ago and Ye Olde Kings Head a couple of years ago. Great Cornish pasties! Also excellent teas. I've also visited several tea shops in Orange County, when visiting my friend who lives in Yorba Linda. She checked out Fairy Tea Cottage in Seal Beach and wants to take me there the next time I visit. She thinks I will like it.

Thanks for the information. I think I'll get at it immediately. There's a local dairy that produces goat dairy products and I met the owners at the Saturday market. I looked at the Crock Pot that I use when I prepare this size batch of Dulce de Leche and it is a 2-quart. I use the 4-quart for double or triple the recipe.

I use mesquite lump charcoal that certainly burns hot enough for anything I cook. I don't like the smell of the briquettes. In my experience the lump charcoal, mesquite, oak and hickory (I have used them all) do burn hotter than briquettes. A local vendor who sells heating stoves for wood, pellitized wood, charcoal or coal burning, carries the mesquite charcoal in 50 pound bags which is a lot cheaper than buying in the small bags. If I buy two, he delivers for free. The lumps of charcoal are mostly larger than briquettes and the coals last a long time. The temp in the grill/oven section will reach 500° F., with the intake vents half-way open and can get much hotter if I use a bellows to force in more air. I don't buy from Whole Foods because their lump charcoal is not from raw wood. If it is the "Cowboy Charcoal" brand, it is made from scrap lumber. There was an extensive discussion about it on a local forum here in So.Cal. with customers reporting that they had found partially burned pieces of plywood, chunks of plaster and even nails in some of the bags. If it contains plywood, it will also contain unwanted resins and glue and God knows what else. Look in your area for a store that sells fireplace and heating stove supplies as they often will also carry real wood charcoal.

The giant pumpkins are not fit to be cooked in any way. They are too fibrous and the flesh doesn't really cook down so much as turn to a bundle of stringy fibers in a watery soup that tastes bitter. A friend and I tried one on a bet one year and the entire effort was a fruitless waste of my time and a lot of ingredients. We tried oven roasting some of it (worth doing with too mature sugar pumpkins or winter squash), stewing it with syrup and even a few small pieces were deep fried. Nothing we did could produce anything even remotely edible. These pumpkins are essentially a different species from sugar or pie pumpkins and it is their internal structure that allows them to grow to this size. Large sugar pumpkins tend to collapse when ripe if they get too big. It is also not very easy to get a tasty result using a jack-o-lantern pumpkin either. They have a thinner shell, very fibrous and a much lower sugar content. These latter pumpkins and the giants have to be ground up before the flesh can be composted, otherwise it gets leatherlike and simply won't break down. Even the ants do not like it.

Cooks Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen tested a lot of knives and their top choices on different shows were the Victorinox Fibrox 8- inch chef's knife, the 12-inch slicing knife and the serrated bread knife. Inexpensive and took a good edge after extended hard use in their test kitchen. So you don't have to spend a fortune to have good, sharp knives.

I tried several silicone lids, including the Danesco and I have sets of different sized stretchy silicone lids that I use all the time as they will even fit over measurers with a lip on one side. Coverflex is the brand, and another rather expensive set I bought at the kitchen outlet store has UFO on the top but they have no rim and I only use them in the microwave. Orka made some but I haven't seen them recently - I think they were sold by Chefs Catalog or Cooking.com. I didn't like the Danesco and it split on one edge, thus no longer forming a seal, after just a couple of months of use. For stovetop, on pans that are odd sized, for which I have no lids, I use a Progressive 'Universal' lid (the blue one with metal center which makes it rigid. It has a handle that is easy to grab and it really forms enough of a seal to steam stuff, even in a shallow frying pan. Well worth the money. Silicone lids

Downloaded and printed out your recipe for dulce de leche. Great. Thanks. Now the questions start. My crockpot holds 8 cups. This is large enough for your recipe, yes? Can I with impunity halve the recipe and make it in said 8-cup crockpot. There are only two of us and we are not in Moab for all that long. Of course, I could donate the leftover, assuming there is any, to a worthy cause. DH, Ed, LOVES dulce de leche, a new eating experience for us. You do have to leave a little headroom in case the milk decides to foam up a bit. 8 cups is 2 quarts or half a gallon and my recipe is just 3 cups for most of the cooking time, until the last cup is heated (use the microwave) and added to the cooked milk. You can actually cook it all together with good results if you are going to use it right away. If you do cook the entire quart all together it sometimes will separate after being in the fridge for a couple of weeks - not a big problem. This is the way I learned to make it and since it works well, I've stuck to it. I wouldn't halve the recipe. You have to remember that it cooks down to less than half the original volume of liquid when it is finished.

Rice pudding is a great dish for the Crock Pot. In another thread we had a spirited discussion about dulce de leche and I posted the recipe I learned from my neighbor, based on part goat milk - the traditional Mexican confection. Significantly different from the cooked sweetened condensed milk stuff. Many years ago, when I was able to spend vacations in a mountain cabin, I made a batch of lemon curd in the Crock Pot when our propane gas ran out because my husband had forgotten to order a refill. I had an electric skillet and the Crock Pot but no hot plate. The lemon curd turned out quite nicely. The main reason we took it along was to poach whole fish (mostly trout and bass) and it does a dandy job of that too.

I've used mine for melting wax and also for keeping soap melted while getting ready to put the candle wax and soap into molds. I've used a small one to heat salt into which I could dip plastic molding to soften it for shaping so it could be applied to picture frames. Crafters often use Crock pots and slow cookers. I've a friend that uses several for dyeing small batches of her home spun yarns.

A friend had this triple crock pot buffet server. In it she had two main dishes and a hot dessert dish in the third cooker. They also make a double slow cooker server. Hey! I've got a double server but it was made in the 1930s. It looks very similar but has an indirect heat opration - it has a well for hot water into which the serving dishes (one is divided) are held but it does keep hot things hot. I guess it was developed to perform like a steam table.

You have to take into account that there are certain very good reasons for "cooking' soups in the Vita Mix. Delicate cream soups cooked on a burner have to be watched constantly because if they scorch, even a little, the flavor is obnoxious. No one wants to eat something that tastes like it has been vulcanized. Soups containing some vegetables (or fruits or nuts, etc.) that have a high sugar content also tend to scorch and again, there is that unfortunate burnt flavor that permeates the entire mass. I use it to prepare a Carrot, Sorrel, Ginger soup (or substitute sweet potatoes or winter squash for the carrots) that will "cook" to the point that it appears to be boiling (temp tested with my Thermapen shows it at 186 degrees at the hottest) in 4 minutes 48 seconds. I prepare a cream of chestnut soup that scorches if you turn away from the stove for just a moment, but I can toss all the prepared ingredients into the Vita Mix, turn it on, set a timer for 5 minutes and it will be ready to serve when the timer goes off and meanwhile I have been able to do other tasks without having to constantly watch and stir the soup. Another cream soup that has a tendency to easily burn is made with Swiss cheese and almonds. I've been preparing that one for many years and there is both the scorching and the unfortunate texture that Swiss cheese develops if it is cooked too long or the temperature is just a tad too high. How anything could be stringy and grainy at the same time does not make sense, but it has happened to me when I cooked this on a burner. In the Vita Mix, perfect every time! The Vita Mix is not a substitute for a stove top burner but it certainly makes a difference between success and failure when someone is trying to juggle six different things at the same time and is not able to devote all their attention to that one pot or pan. It also frees up a burner for another item.

Of course you can use it. I've got cherry "cordial" that has been steeping the dried cherries I put in it since 2005. It is in one of the bail-lock jars with a thick silicone seal, instead of the regular rubber ring. Still, the level has gone down a bit, other than the amount I used in some recipes. (I mark it with a piece of label tape.)