lexy

I'd just like to second this request. I know next to nothing about fry bread (although I'm pretty sure I'd like it, since it seems to hit two of my favourite food groups, namely 'fried things' and 'bread'), but I'd love to learn more. Is it sort of like bannock?

Thanks for the photos of the goat farm - it looks like your kids had a great time, and now I've got a powerful craving for some goat cheese! Great blog!

Yes, this reminds me that Rose Levy Beranbaum swears by a touch of alcohol in home made ice cream to make a smoother, less icy product (you can use vodka if you don't want additional flavourings)

Oh ugh, those were so foul! Every year I'd leave them until last (nobody would trade for them obviously), and when there was no other candy left I'd try to eat a few, hoping they were better than I remembered - they somehow were always worse actually.

I hate to admit that amongst all this tasty-looking Italian food, it's the rhubarb cake I'm itching to make I'm curious about what the screpelle ‘mbusse were like. I would think soggy crepes in broth would sort of disintegrate, and not be very appealing - am I wrong?

Oh god, I'd forgotten about Caribou. That's something the rest of the world does not need to experience.

Wow, I had no idea some of these things were not available outside of Canada - and so many good things too! (mmm, beaver tails). I've never heard of Clamato juice outside of Canada (I always get funny looks if I try to explain - "Clam juice? You want clam juice?"). Also, la tire, Nanaimo bars (well, I'm guessing - they're named for a Canadian city after all), a sort of pickle/relish called chow-chow that only seems popular with Nova Scotians of my grandmother's generation. Red River cereal is a mix of grains (mostly cracked wheat and flax seeds I think). I mix some with steel cut oats to make porridge, some people make a porridge just using Red River cereal.

Actually, that sounds kind of good to me … sort of like fried chicken and waffles.

That's my kind of camping! No real plans that I know of, but probably a barbeque (because it's too darn hot to even contemplate cooking on the stove), and hopefully lots and lots of fresh strawberries if we go strawberry picking Thursday.

Do you have to line the egg cartons with anything? It seems like hot cheese would stick to cardboard.

You're not alone! I have the same problem, also with asian-style noodlle dishes: unless there's a fair bit of sauce/soup/liquid involved, I can never get long pasta to mix properly. I've tried adding more butter or oil, but it doesn't seem to help a whole lot unless I add a lot (and then the dish is overwhelmed by it).

I haven't got any suggestions, but don't give up - I'm dying to see how this turns out (partly because I'm picturing eating giant slices of hardboiled egg the same one eats a slice of watermelon). What about balloons? The dollar stores ones have that nasty plastic smell about them, and I wouldn't want to eat anything that came out of them, but you might be able to find something a little more food-friendly (it would be expensive, but I think they make latex 'balloons' that are inflated inside of patients for some surgeries).

ooh, that sounds good. For gilding the lily, I like dark molasses (or golden syrup) with butter on my pancakes. And a snack I've gotten hooked on at work: slice a cinnamon biscuit in half, and give it a quick fry in butter on the grill - tasty!

I agree - meat is generally much more expensive than vegetables, grains, etc. I ate vegetarian my first year at university, and I spent waaay less money on groceries than most people I knew. Granted this was because I cooked just about everything from scratch (eating vegetarian Weight Watchers frozen dinners for a year, for example, would probably be rather expensive), but all the same, my major expenses were nuts and cheese, and this was really only because I love nuts, and eat a lot of them, and I love cheese, and tend to splurge on nice ones rather than bricks of supermarket cheddar. I could buy a week's worth of tofu for 1,35$ (Canadian) - I don't think you'd be able to find a week's worth of meat at that price (at least, I hope not!)

Hey, another Canadian! Do you get a lot of cheap beef out where you are (especially with the closing of the U.S. border)? What's the food scene like in Edmonton - are there are lot of immigrants starting up restaurants? (Vancouver and Toronto get all the press for multiculturality - is that a word? - but some immigrants must head out to the prairies)

argh, and it's still about a month until raspberry season here … why must you tempt me?

Mine are all of 6" high! ← Bah, mine are still pretty runty at 3" This is my first year taking a stab at tomatoes, and I'm really, really hoping that they don't produce fruit in early August, since I'll be away then, and all my neurotic mothering of them will have gone to waste. In other news, the rhubarb is almost ready to harvest, and I predict I'll be enjoying a gooseberry pie in the not-too-distant future. Oh, and next Halloween, remind me not to throw all the pumpkin guts (including seeds) from the jack o' lanterns into the compost because come spring, when I spread the compost onto the beds, those seeds will sprout everywhere, grrrr.

Hmm, the same-beer-different-label theory explains a lot - I thought I just didn't have a very discerning palate My vote for worst goes to Colt 45. Even in high school, when we'd drink nearly anything, Colt 45 was seen as a real last choice.

Well, maybe I'm weird, but I like my toast slightly cooled (not stone cold though). I like the crunch and flavour of toast, but unless I'm spreading butter onto it, I find that toast straight out of the toaster is too hot to really taste properly. My parents are British, and we all eat toast this way, but I'd never thought it odd before.

I can't answer any of your questions myself, but there's a whole thread on macaroons that goes into a pretty detailed examination of all the elements involved in making them. One thing a lot of people mention as helping is to leave the egg whites out at room temperature for a few days.

Coconut Cream Pie with Chocolate Cookie Crust Serves 8 as Dessert. This recipe is from the R.S.V.P. section of the February 2004 Bon Appetit, as requested by a reader in Portland, Oregon who liked the pie at Mother's Bistro & Bar (also in Portland Oregon). I find this pie to be pretty coconutty - the chocolate crust complements the flavour, but doesn't cut the intensity of the filling much. So if you're not a coconut fan, this may not be for you. The whipped cream is a nice touch, but the pie is fine without it. Finally, the recipe calls for whole milk, but I've made it with 2% in a pinch, and it turned out fine. Crust 10 T unsalted butter, divided and at room temperature 1-1/2 c chocolate wafer cookies, finely ground Filling 1-1/2 c whole milk 1/2 c whipping cream 1 vanilla bean, split 1-1/2 c plus 2 tablespoons sweetened flaked coconut, toasted 6 large egg yolks 1/2 c sugar 2 T cornstarch pinch of salt 3 T coconut or dark rum Topping sweetened whipped cream Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. In a small saucepan, melt 6 tablespoons of the butter. Pour the butter into a mixing bowl and mix in the cookie crumbs. Press into a 9-inch pie dish and bake for about 10 minutes, or until the crust has set. Cool. In a saucepan, combine the milk and cream, scrape in the seeds from the vanilla bean and then add the pod. Heat the mixture until it's just at a simmer, then remove from the heat, cover, and leave to steep for 15 minutes. Remove and discard the vanilla bean. [Actually, the bean's still usuable - use it to infuse another liquid, or, once dried, stick it into a jar of sugar and make vanilla sugar.] Mix in 1 1/2 cups of the coconut and bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat, then remove from heat. In a large bowl, whisk the yolks, sugar, cornstarch, and salt until blended together. Slowly whisk in the coconut mixture. Pour this mix back into the saucepan and bring it to a boil, stirring continuously. Keep stirring over medium-high heat until it has thickened - about 30 seconds. Add the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter and keep stirring until the butter has melted. Stir in the rum, and then allow the filling to cool until it's lukewarm. Pour the filling into the cooled crust, cover with plastic wrap, and chill until cold. (At least 4 hours. The pie can be made in advance and chilled for up to one day.) Top with the the whipped cream, and sprinkle the remaining coconut overtop. Keywords: Dessert, Chocolate, Pie ( RG1287 )

Coconut Cream Pie with Chocolate Cookie Crust Serves 8 as Dessert. This recipe is from the R.S.V.P. section of the February 2004 Bon Appetit, as requested by a reader in Portland, Oregon who liked the pie at Mother's Bistro & Bar (also in Portland Oregon). I find this pie to be pretty coconutty - the chocolate crust complements the flavour, but doesn't cut the intensity of the filling much. So if you're not a coconut fan, this may not be for you. The whipped cream is a nice touch, but the pie is fine without it. Finally, the recipe calls for whole milk, but I've made it with 2% in a pinch, and it turned out fine. Crust 10 T unsalted butter, divided and at room temperature 1-1/2 c chocolate wafer cookies, finely ground Filling 1-1/2 c whole milk 1/2 c whipping cream 1 vanilla bean, split 1-1/2 c plus 2 tablespoons sweetened flaked coconut, toasted 6 large egg yolks 1/2 c sugar 2 T cornstarch pinch of salt 3 T coconut or dark rum Topping sweetened whipped cream Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. In a small saucepan, melt 6 tablespoons of the butter. Pour the butter into a mixing bowl and mix in the cookie crumbs. Press into a 9-inch pie dish and bake for about 10 minutes, or until the crust has set. Cool. In a saucepan, combine the milk and cream, scrape in the seeds from the vanilla bean and then add the pod. Heat the mixture until it's just at a simmer, then remove from the heat, cover, and leave to steep for 15 minutes. Remove and discard the vanilla bean. [Actually, the bean's still usuable - use it to infuse another liquid, or, once dried, stick it into a jar of sugar and make vanilla sugar.] Mix in 1 1/2 cups of the coconut and bring the mixture to a simmer over medium heat, then remove from heat. In a large bowl, whisk the yolks, sugar, cornstarch, and salt until blended together. Slowly whisk in the coconut mixture. Pour this mix back into the saucepan and bring it to a boil, stirring continuously. Keep stirring over medium-high heat until it has thickened - about 30 seconds. Add the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter and keep stirring until the butter has melted. Stir in the rum, and then allow the filling to cool until it's lukewarm. Pour the filling into the cooled crust, cover with plastic wrap, and chill until cold. (At least 4 hours. The pie can be made in advance and chilled for up to one day.) Top with the the whipped cream, and sprinkle the remaining coconut overtop. Keywords: Dessert, Chocolate, Pie ( RG1287 )

Good call, I love that stuff It's especially great in front of a fire on cold winter evenings.

Amen! I can't say that I'd given it much serious thought before, but now I can say that this is definitely a job best left to the professionals. Amazing job, I can't believe your family expected you to cook them meals at the same time - I would have probably just snarled and tossed a take-out menu at them

Oh, just laziness I suppose And I've been looking to use the dried chiles up somehow. The recipe is the tangerine-glazed grilled chicken from the most recent Bon Appetit. It's such a small amount of adobo used (2 tsps I think), that I don't think it's of vital importance what exactly I use, as long as it more or less fits the "spicy and smoky" bill.