Genkinaonna

My apricot jam, I make it every year, and every year it's gone about 3 months too early...I did some spiced peach last year that was pretty tasty too. For store bought, I like the Bonne Maman Peach preserves, but I think I would say jam in general would be my preference, preserves' large chunks don't appeal to me, I've never been a giant fan of citrus peel so marmalade is out, and jelly is just too fiddly to make. I do however make an exception for grape jelly on wonder bread with extra crunchy jiff peanut butter several times a year as a majorly guilty pleasure...

The only way I've ever had good ones has been when I've made them at home...I think it's just too easy in a restaurant kitchen to prefill and store them in the freezer, which pretty much assures that the ice cream will be too hard and the pate a choux will be soggy.

The phrase, "like an Almond Joy, but better," sounds like crack to me! Those look great, as does that cheesecake. My little people and I made chocolate pudding tonight, which was a little too rich for them (scharffenberger cocoa and 68% chocolate) but I thought it was just dandy...oh well, no accounting for taste...

What are your plans for the nigella seed? I use it on turkish-type pastries, it cuts right through the richness of all the cheese... So you didn't come home decked out in 23 k jewelry? Or perhaps fancy schmancy new collars for your little furry companions?

Any time I see "served with au jus" I cringe...how do you make "with" juice? Is there a "with" plant or animal available for juicing? Maybe it's just me...

Really enjoying the peek into your food/life... Short ribs looked amazing! That's on our dinner menu for tonight. And I have serious bread envy, FYI... I love love love pierogies, there's a food cart in downtown Portland that makes amazing potato and cheese pierogies that I try to grab at least once every couple of weeks. At some point my goal is to make some myself, thanks for the step-by-step.

Founding Fathers on Bones.

Well? How did it go? What did you make and where are the pictures?!?

I use it as the base for the sauce for my white enchilada casserole, with the addition of a large (large enough that I can't tell my diet-concious husband how large) amount of sour cream. Good stuff. Heavy, like middle of winter just went out to chop wood for the homestead heavy, but good.

There's a Chinese restaurant (Jin Wah) that we go to every Sunday morning for Dim Sum, no fail. The waitstaff is extremely accommodating of our children (three, four, and 8 mos) to the point of actually spoon feeding them soup...I also get dumplings that aren't on the regular dim sum carts, without having to order them, they just come about halfway through the meal. We missed the Sunday before last, and when we went in on Sunday, the first thing the host said was, "we missed you last week... where were you?" My daughter jumped in with "mommy and daddy left us at home and went out without us!" I had to explain that we had not in fact left them home unsupervised, but we had a coupon and were trying a different (non-dim sum) restaurant. I did assure them that it wouldn't happen again, and they could expect to see us this weekend as well. I think they find it amusing that my 4 year old can put away as many shrimp har gao (sp?) as that guy from Man vs. Food can...

Turkey and stuffing...in fact, any "complete meal" that doesn't need to go in the fridge is kind of disturbing in my book...

I make my pesto in a vitamix, non traditional I know, but it always turns out really well.

Thanks so much for sharing your week with us! My husband and I talked about going to NZ last summer, we opted to have a baby instead! But we'll get there eventually...appreciate the preview! And if you've got any more of that chicken laying around... : )

Take out all of the cabinets and put in a combo of open shelving and drawers, knock out the wall between the kitchen and the downstairs bathroom,pull out the toilet and sink and make said bathroom into a walk in pantry. Pull out the tile counter and put in slab granite, add a griddle to the stove (which I guess would mean pulling out the counters to accomodate a bigger stove) and hire someone to clean up when I'm done cooking!

Very nice...I think the world would be a better place if more things were packed with mousse...

Wow now I want to go bake! Everything looks so good! How do you stuff a meringue with chocolate mousse? And Dystopiandreamgirl, your cake is amazing as usual! Off to the kitchen I go...

Cocoa nibs, definitely. I've had them in both savory and sweet applications where they were highly successful.

Thanks so much for all the great pictures and food! I'm off to dim sum, I've been thinking about it since I started reading this!

Thanks guys! Luckily my dad is not a tea snob, so Lipton decaf it was...

So I was at a tea shop at the mall today and looking for a nice decaf black tea for my father, who is trying to cut down on his caffeine intake. The woman at the shop said that if I steeped the (caffeinated) tea in hot water for 30 seconds, then took it out and steeped in a different cup of hot water for the correct brewing time, the resulting cup of tea would have no caffeine, but I'm not buying it...has anyone heard this? Have I just missed out on some well-known fact by spending most of my time drinking coffee? Or was she just trying to make a sale?

I made a really good tangerine and habanero marmalade that was killer on grilled pork...

Hah! Success! My Aunt is apparently waaay better at keeping track of little pieces of paper than I am! Mahogany Chocolate Cake Ingredients~ 3 sqs unsweetened chocolate ½ cups water 1 cup sour cream 2 cups sifted cake flour 1 tsp soda 1 tsp salt 1 ½ tsp bkg powder 2/3 cups butter 2/3 cups brown sugar 1 cup sugar 3 eggs Melt chocolate and water over low heat. Cool. Stir in sour cream. Meanwhile sift soda, salt, flour and baking powder. Cream butter and sugars. Add eggs one at a time. Mix in well. Beat in vanilla. Alternately add flour mixture and chocolate mixture. Mix well after each addition. Pour into 2 greased 9” pans lined with wax paper. Bake 35 mins @ 350 degrees. Cool and frost

Thanks for letting us have a peek at your life, guys! I appreciate all your effort!

My mom has been looking for a pineapple cupcake recipe called "gems of paradise" that her mother used to make but lost the recipe for. She thinks it might have been off of a pineapple can, but so far no luck tracking it down, and she's a reference librarian. I keep hoping I'll come across it one day and I'll be set for the next gift-giving holiday!

Baking, there's a recipe in one of the nigella cookbooks for an apple cake that calls for toasted walnut oil. Dorie talks about using pistachio oil as a condiment on avocado as a simple but amazingly good appetizer in Around My French Table. You could use some as a sub for olive oil or grapeseed oil in mayonnaise, or in pesto, either in addition to or in place of some of the olive oil, matching the nut oil with the nut you use (my kids usually get to my pine nuts before they make it into pesto, so I use walnuts, pistachios, or almonds, depending on what's in the house) to reinforce the nutty component. Maybe a walnut-arugula pesto with pecorino? Sounds like dinner to me!