Franci

Thanks, this is all helpful! HBK, I have no idea if there are 2 saffron imports. Prices are so much more reasonable than beanvanilla. Sometimes I'm really dubious that a product being so much more expensive is actually better.

I need to buy vanilla paste. I was wondering if anybody had the change to try both the beanilla paste and the paste from the vanilla saffron import. Big difference in price. Any other recommendation?

I use spelt to make italian cookies and "pasta frolla" for crostate. Maybe use more buckwheat than spelt. Since I don't have a lot of time for bread baking recently, I use these flours more for breads in a pan.

Bite size cakes of my usual production: pistachio, hazelnut, chocolate almond and ciambella dura

Just an inspiration. The "baccala' in dolce forte" is a sweet and savory dish with pine nuts, raisins, chocolate, vinegar. This recipe here with its chestnut polenta is very Tuscan, not a dessert, but maybe you can take it somewhere else.

Hummingbirdkiss, that looks really good! I wish I has something like that tomorrow for breakfast. You, mentioning being without oven, reminded me of fornetto estense or fornetto versilia, sorry, it's a pain to add links with iPad. Is there anything similar in the US?

Interesting, I discovered the Cadco has, besides what was liked by Barrytm, also a heavier duty 120V half sheet size with manual control (or digital) and manual steam injection XAF-113. Here is a video if anybody is interested.

Barrytm, thanks. Now I'm left to decide within Vollrath, Cadco, Waring an NU-VU. I'll see what on ebay :-)

Thank you, John! I wish I had the space/electrical capacity for a full size but for now I have stay with my limited options. Hopefully I'll be lucky :-)

Bringing this up. I need advice. I need to buy a commercial counter top oven. Here things to keep in mind: 1. It need to be 120 V, I am renting and don't want to do any electrical work. 2. It is going to on top of my dryer which has a cabinet on top, so the max height is 21-21 1/2 inches 3. I need something that is more suited for cakes. Gentle convection or I've been reading that an oven where the fan shut off when the door opens is better. I'd like to be able to bake on multiple tiers having a reasonable even cooking. There is what I found: 1. Deluxe oven . A lot of fans out there but unfortunately they went out of business. I found an used one and I was very happy but the seller didn't return my calls and email. The amp is a little high on this. 2. Star CCOH-3 Electric Countertop Half Size Convection Oven 120V. Pros: good price, meets the required electrical limits, fan turns off when door is opened. Cons: height 22", I need a 21" at most. It comes with legs, I wonder if the legs can be shortened or left out. 3.NU-VU XO-1 Half Size Electric Countertop Convection Oven. Meets the required electrical limits (not sure if amps too high), two fans but they don't turn off while opening the door. Cons: higher in price, only 2" inches spaces, so 4 shelves means 2 shelves really. Doubt: height 20" does it include the 4" legs? Are they necessary? otherwise it's too tall 4. Vollrath 40703 Cayenne Half Size Convection Oven / Broiler - 120V. Doesn't look like anything wrong with it, I'm just not sure how good it would be to bake cakes and don't know the spacing between shelves. 5. Waring WCO500X Half Size Convection Oven - 120V, 1700W. Pros: cheap, has both a bake function and bake with convection (but I've always used bake with convection for cooking in multiple shelves). From the reviews a lot of people love it but how really consisted it is I have no idea. Putting this down already helped me a lot in clarifying my mind. But in case you have more inputs they are welcome.

I google it: judiones de la Granja and they might indeed come from Spain since the Italian name, fagioli di Spagna means beans from Spain :-)))) but I guess it's the same bean maybe the Italian name got only more popular. Anyway, my favourite, lucky you to have fresh from the garden.

They stay white once you cook them, also? Because, the fagioli di spagna/corona at least in the dry form, never had the pleasure of eating fresh, are white before cooking and turn beige once cooked.

Then, no more waiting. Brainstorming with my husband and we decide. Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of space and a lot of sun...We'll do more salads. I wish I could have eggplants! We planted some chinese eggplants and only got 2! so far... You don't like them because of texture or flavor? Because, it's it the texture, I'll go two ways: completely charbroil and mush and squeeze the pulp. I love the meatball you can make out of them. Or stuff them with a mix of the meat and the pulp. Or, if you actually do a preserve, under oil, the texture is completely different, because you kind of dehydrate with salt before, nothing to do with a soft eggplant and nice vinegary/oily taste.

Fauxpas, thank you for the sale alert! I'm going to buy some seeds. I found that if you let the trombetta grow too much, the skin becomes tough and the pulp mealy but I'm actually enjoying both, young and more mature, cooked differently! In France or Italy they will pick them just at the right stage. Fagioli bianchi di Spagna? The only beans I actually eat, in salad with good tuna and onions.

I've realized I didn't post about the courgettes and the "pagnottelle" cucumbers. These courgettes invaded the whole space, also the garden next door :-)))) Next year only two plants. The cucumbers are not ready yet, still too hairy and not enough sun in my garden unfortunately. Next year definitely more salads. I've fried so many courgettes' flowers and so many in the freezer that just for that was worth it Trombetta Pagnottella, maybe ready in a week

I also spent some time on King Arthur Baking Circle a couple years before joining egullet, also in 2004! So many people I miss: Chufi from Holland, Hathor living part of her time in Umbria part in NY, Foodman, Pontormo. I also miss a lot RRO and too long of a list.

Yes, indeed! The food was great but talking to Kerry is such a pleasure! I only suspect that if I had the luck of having Anna and Kerry as neighbours I would truly have the best time in their company and likely convert my husband to SV. Anna, too bad we didn't meet this time. I'm positive that soon or later we'll have another chance!

I like the idea of something that is broken by hand and passed along, like in real communion. These sweet crackers are similar in taste to the spanish tarta de aceite (very close to the Ines Rosales), sorry the recipe is in Italian but google translate helps. I've done them many times and I really like them. Otherwise, something in single portions, served cold is the Brazilian bolo gelado. Usually is wrapped in foil because it's easier to handle but many do a double wrap with doiles or other to make it more attractive. Edit to add: if you never tried the bolo gelado, I thing it's very similar in concept to the tres leches but the way is served is different.

And I couldn't resist trying one more time savoiardi (ladyfingers). These are more similar to Sardinian savoiardi, they are soft

Then I made Torta Jolanda (from Queen Jolanda of Savoia), a cake very popular in this area. I have not tried it yet but looks promising: tighter crumb and less crumbly than Torta Paradiso. My mom assured it's very good

And with today's baking, I'm done for a while! I tried for the first time Parrozzo. A cake from Abruzzo made with mix of almond flour and usually whole wheat flour/ or mix of wheat flour and starch or, like in this case, semolina. It was a total failure! It was so dry and crumbly that I couldn't eat it. I never tried the original so if it's this cake that is not for me or my execution or this particular recipe, I'm not sure. So I lifted all the chocolate and a good part of the cake and crumble it, added some apricot jam, a tablespoon of pistachio paste, finely chopped candied orange peel and rum and worked into a dough. Tomorrow I'm going to make bon-bons out of it.

Andie, your cinnamon rolls are wonderful. I wished I had some with my coffee right now Sure! Here is a link. If google translation is not clear, just ask, no problem at all. But I tried the translation myself. Wow, it's getting better and better. They even got "sac a poche" right. Must have entered the italian dictionary, since it's a French word but it's not the way you say pastry bag in French. Pinella is a wonderful Sardian lady with the passion for pastry. You can find many other ladyfingers recipes on her blog if you have the patience to try them all.

Darienne, thanks for your compliments. I wish I could send samples everywhere I have less then a week left and then I go back to normality. Still a couple days of more fun! Today I made savoiardi again. Savoiardi are really an obsession of mine, like amaretti, so difficult to get them right. I had the misfortune of having a roommate from Sardinia at University and I've been introduced to this wonderful thing that Sardinian Savoiardi are. Light, spongy, not gummy, melt in your mouth. I wish I could make those! They are a dream. Today I made these savoiardi, that are more like traditional fresh savoiardi (ladyfingers). I let them dry in the oven again after cooking, in order to get a little drier and slightly crunchy cookie, like the industrial version, and not as soft as the fresh version. Result is that my parents really liked them very much after I let them dry in the oven, they didn't like them as much soft.

Darienne, that malva pudding looks delicious! Smithy, I truly wish I could gift you with some of this production. Last week I went to Milan to Medagliani, that is like the JBPrince of Italy. I got some molds: the classic amorpolenta mold, some fluted brioche molds that are used for torta jolanda in Lombardy and some zuccotto molds for Parrozzo, let's see if I can manage to experiment these recipes this week Today I've tried the Amorpolenta Varese. While I really enjoyed the Amorpolenta Bergamo , I truly disliked this version from pastry chef Pina. It's too sweet, buttery and crumbly for my taste. The difference between the two cakes, besides the mold- the one you see in the following picture for the Varese cake and a zuccotto mold for the Bergamo version (this cake is used as the base for Polenta e osei-polenta and birds- the sweet version of this loved savory dish in Bergamo)- is in the ingredients and technique. Both have finely milled corn flour though.

Brutti ma buoni=ugly but good. Contrary to many recipes on line, in this case I've cooked the meringue, a little bit like nougat. I didn't have any thermometer and was such a small quantity that was very difficult to control, still true to their name.