peppyre

This would be fabulous for kids. My 11 year old stepsister loves mangoes and will eat 2 or 3 a day. I cringe everytime I see her using a knife for one and I just know she's going to slice her finger one day. And since she always sucks the pulp off the seeds absolutely nothing would go to waste with her. I think this is going to be her Christmas present this year.

Homeade Thousand Island is a revelation!! I never touched the stuff until a couple months when I was I at a restaurant with my mom and she really wanted the shrimp salad with Thousand Island dressing. They made their own and it was so damn good. A month or so later for her birthday, she asked me to recreate it for her. After a little hunting to find several recipes, it was nothing like what you find in the commercial product. If I remember what I did, I'll post it in RG. Oh, and on topic, I only ever ate ranch chips, until I realized that they were disgusting. I've always preferred vinaigrettes.

I've been collecting first edition cookbooks for a few years. Actually, it all started when I received Mastering the Art of French Cooking from my mom. She found the first editions at a garage sale and spent almost nothing on them. My two most recent huge huge scores are The Escoffier Cookbook, 1st Edition, mint condition. $.50 Entertaining is Fun , Dorothy Draper, 1st Edition, almost new, $.50. After a little research, the Dorothry Draper is selling for an average of $500 USD and the Escoffier $150 (in rougher condition than the one I found). With all of the books that I have, all of which are first editions, I have about $2000 in my bookcase and I think spent a total of $100 over 3 years. I love garage sales and thrift stores for cookbooks. If it is a 1st edition, I buy it. They're usually fun and you never know what you may have in your hands.

Oh My God that is funny!! There is a commercial running for the Lotto 649 that is a play on odds. This particular one is about the odds of having a succesful restaurant.... named "Sam n' Ella's Chicken"

I agree Lee, it is definitely worth checking out. I used to wander down there for gelato and espresso almost every night when I lived next door to the place. It's a very small family operation and I believe the mother is still making all of the gelato by hand. Must get some for my freezer when I have the room.

Since I am moving in 3 weeks, I decided that this was the perfect time to add 5 more books to my collection. I decided to start packing my bookshelf this week, since I know how long it's going to take. I was hoping that once I weeded out all of the fiction that I don't want to keep, which I thought was going to be most of the shelf, I only had less than a dozen to get rid of and less than a dozen that I wanted to keep. My bookshelf is still overflowing with my cookbooks. I just can't bear to get rid of any of them.

and a quasi stew. That whole site is very very strange, and the spelling errors...yikes!!!! I never liked him from the outset. I found him arrogant and useless. At least I had a great laugh reading his website. I knew Michael was going to win from the first episode. He was the only one with the talent and the attitude. I hope he does well. I wonder when we'll get an update?

Very nice evening Deb. The very first time I met Moosh, she decided to clean up my red wine dribble with white wine. Her husband took pictures. It did work though, although I was a little skeptical but drunk enough not to care.

Well said Arne!! Very well said! I see the Vancouver list as being very boring and the same-old same-old. There is much more to explore here.

OH...so that's what that was. I could see the smoke from the parkade of the hospital last. It's always disconcerting to see smoke coming from the direction of your apartment

Finally I can weigh in on the Fish Taco debate. Thanks to a wonderful friend, I had Taco delivery this afternoon. They are soooo good!!!! The salmon is cooked perfectly, the chipotle mayo is nice and spicy, the jalapeno bite is fantastic. I really enjoyed, even though I missed out on the demonstration from Arne and Joie. Thank you. It was a lunch that was needed.

What the hell did I miss. You've got stripping shrimp, a nimble yet gentle Arne, and Joie's shock and awe? Man...did I pick the wrong day to be swamped.

Honestly, I can't think of ever eating hanger cooked beyond med-rare. Plus, it's not a very thick piece of meat, so the chances of it over-cooking are much higher. Whenever I have a whole hanger, I trim it, then cut it into 3rds. When I'm ready for it, I marinade it in some garlic, red wine, a little olive oil, rosemary, thyme, and pepper. Let it sit for however long I have then it gets grilled. That's it. I can see it being very good braised and I think this winter I will probably use if for a stew of some sort.

Unless of course the non-smoking patio is above the smoking patio. It reminds of the days when you had smoking and non-smoking sections on a plane. Yes, it really made a difference sitting in non-smoking...in the row BEHIND the smoking section

AWWWWW!!! That is so sad! It really is the end of an era. What will tourists laugh at now?

There was a very very quiet change made to the law about a year ago (?). **edited to clarify and make more sense.

Why does it seem like that location is doomed?

I find that directly across the border there is a much broader selection at a much better price. I can't think of anything in particular that I will seek out, but when I was in Portland last, it was more about the price difference. A bottle of Smoking Loon Zin for $7.95 as opposed to the over $20 at home. Thankfully, my grandmother lives in Birch Bay and she will bring anything home for me. No worries about duty for me.

I'm not sure what would be considered "illegal" in the States. Unfortunately, there is a container strike in the city at the moment and even ginger is scarce, so I'm not sure we will have anything different that you can get in CA.

Good to know they actually answered. That's what I'm starting to gather from my mom. After it's been sitting out, it just won't be sold which means that there will be a shortage for quite some time. If the wineries are not shipping into Vancouver right now, that means that stock will not be shipped until the dispute is over, and you are looking at at least 6 weeks before anything will leave the wineries. If Christmas stock is being sent now, for Nov/Dec, if this goes on another month, that stock won't be here until Jan/Feb, which will be a little late. It seems as though we are going to be short of quite a few things, not just booze!

Let us know the results of that phone call Keith. I'm guessing that from the distress of the industry people, these containers are not temp controlled. When I see my mom this weekend, I will get her to post something herself.

As far as I know, it all unloads at the same place and then gets moved to the LDB warehouse. It really doesn't matter where it unloads, it's all sitting outside, in the sun, not moving.

So, after another conversation with my mother this morning, there is more to add to this situation. All of their champagne for the Christmas season is sitting on the docks and has been since this began. All of the stock for Christmas is either on the water right now or about to be shipped and at this time, nothing is being shipped to Vancouver. If it's on the water, they can divert it to Seattle, but nothing is leaving the wineries until this is over. From what I can gather, the Christmas season is going to pretty light. I ran into another situation last night with this dispute. I needed ginger to make a Thai salad. I went to 3 different stores and when I asked my local guys why they were out, I was told that it was all sitting on the docks. It comes from China and it's not going anywhere. Best advice, if you need ginger, buy lots, let it sprout and plant it. There will be a shortage in the coming months!

At work we have a cooler with Canadian Springs and since I work in a hospital that's an old not well made building, I don't trust the pipes that's what I drink. At home I drink tap run through a Pur filtre and Pelligrino or Perrier. Pam, I agree that the water in Winnipeg is horrendous. It gets much much worse up north where everyone is on a well. It actually smells of sulfur. I remember the first time I ever had a glass of water in Rorketon back in the 80's and it came out of the tap looking like milk. It never did clear and I did have one sip and decided that I would rather dehydrate than drink that stuff.

Read through the information from the C Sustainability Lunch. I think it's mentioned or linked too there.