halloweencat

ah! thank the gods (and natho) that after decades of wondering, i at least have part of the answer. thank you! cheers --

quick question.... what is the difference between jam, preserves, marmelade, and compote? always wondered. thanks in advance. cheers --

fwiw, i just got a vegan baking book (which was highly recommended), "vegan cupcakes take over the world" it's one of the few cookbooks that i've actually enjoyed reading. the style is quirky. the recipes call for soy milk, rice milk, yoghurt, a variety of things. i have only made one recipe thus far (just got it), and served them at a party (rosewater pistachio cupcakes). everyone +loved+ them, including my very foodie friend who really liked the crumb and the light texture. no one knew they were vegan until i told them. fwiw. cheers --

hallo -- can anyone recommend any good california (or french) viogniers? thanks and cheers --

just to add quickly... vitamin A is found in many plant sources. re C0Q10 (which is a coenzyme)... i found numerous references to plant sources, including "rice bran, soya beans, nuts (hazel, pistachio), sesame seeds, vegetables (cabbage, spinach, potato, onion, carrot)." peanuts were also listed. didn't go through all the prevantatives listed in the post, but just wanted to add the above. cheers --

a while back a friend served me a beet greens recipie from deborah madison. it was +so+ good i wanted to lick the plate (but refrained, out of guest-ish sensibilities, 'tho i told her of my impulse...she laughed ). 'tho i didn't lick the plate, i +certainly+ had seconds. unfortunately, i cannot remember in which one of her cookbooks the recipie was...i'll ask (or perhaps someone on this thread might know). cheers --

cocoa-lulu, keep us posted! i really like that one from bed, bath and beyond. different look, and i'd use it for different presentations. what i love about the one from stonewall kitchen is that it's elegant, clean, minimal without being cold or clunky. i look at it and imagine my home turning into a vienna coffeehouse. cheers --

here's another thought... chocolate-lovers often have decided preferences for milk or dark (meaning, no milk). for example, i'm in the dark chocolate camp. when some well-meaning person gives me milk chocolate i don't eat it, no matter how cute the rabbit or how beguilingly packaged the confection. i'd adivise having a good selection of both, seeing how things sell, and then tinkering with the amounts sold, where needed. cheers --

hmmm...i actually don't think this is an example of misleading labelling. oakhurst's label said that it did not use milk from cows treated with bgh, and the pledge is not misleading either, just a statement that they will never use milk from bhg cows. it seems monsanto was angling for the removal of all references of that nature, but found the additional fda/gbh reference enough to settle the lawsuit. cheers --

here's one....i'm pretty sure there have been others. i remember this being a bit of a tummult a few years ago... http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0708-10.htm oakhurst was not saying the bgh was bad, but it was prominently stating that it's product was (and would always be) free from artificially introduced hormones. monsanto went after oakhurst for essentially stating that its product was free of something (like the "contains no msg" labelling, and similar), but which did not explicitly disparage monsanto's product. in another article related to this, the lawsuit was apparently settled when oakhurst agreed to add a line to its packaging that stated that the fda had found that there was no difference between milk from cows treated with bgh and cows that were not. i think there might have been others, but that's the one i remember. cheers --

re dishwashers... we've had two boschs. love them. they do a great job and they're very quiet, and that quiet is +well+ worth the money, especially if you live in a home that has a lot of open space or community space. in our old (small), 2-level townhouse, the entire home was open space. only two rooms (and a bathroom) were enclosed with their own doors. whatever anyone was doing in the house anywhere, you could hear it, from kitchen activity to the television. when our old dishwasher went on the fritz we knew we wanted the quietest, most reliable that we could get. we got a bosch, a mid-range one. we +loved+ it and never regretted spending the money because it cleaned things well and added no needless noise. in our second (slightly larger) townhouse, the dishwasher also needed to be replaced. we wanted another bosch, but my SO was convinced that there probably wasn't much difference (re noise) between the middle-level one and the lower-end one. so we bought the less expensive model. it wasn't a mistake, because it does clean well and it is quiet, but it's definitely not as quiet as the first one. if we were to have the chance to do it over again, i would definitely push for the bosch that was more akin to what we had before. quiet (especially in this new house, with our noisy neighbors), is an important commodity for us. (p.s., your new kitchen seems wonderful. ) cheers --

milk producers who use bgh already have sued to prevent non-gbh milk producers from labelling their products as such. i'm not up on the status of the suits or any resolutions, but the arguement from the bgh users was that labelling a product non-bgh was essentially the same thing as a warning label, since it implied that something was worrisome or dangerous about bgh. the corporate dairy industry has been fighting this particular fight for a while. i wonder if this bill will help them in their cause (which i do not support). cheers --

yes, i've been waiting for two years for the price to come down, but no luck so far! i also know two years is a relatively long time for a vendor to offer a product (like this). there's no telling how long the contract with the supplier will last, or for how long the supplier will be making them. i, too, thought of having a glazier cut the glass. i wouldn't want plexiglass for the supports, so i'm not sure what i'd do for them. i'm still thinking about it. cheers --

oh, and to add... little chocolate menus would be novel and neat. sure, you can read what's on the board and see what's in the cases, but it would be a neat experience to sit down at a table and peruse all the wonderful delicacies. cheers --

one of my greatest comestible pleasures is chocolate + tea (earl grey tea is a suburb combination). re the ambient aroma -- the smell of coffee is fine, but if that's the primary thing i smell when i go into a chocolate shop, i'm going to think the place might highlight coffee over chocolate. i wonder if something can be done so that the coffee aroma doesn't overshadow everything else. consider chocolate events -- a chocolate "cocktail" hour once a week when new, exclusive or special treats are offered (free samples wouldn't hurt). chocolate tastings -- like wine tastings but with chocolate. chocolate pastries would be nice, as well as (during an event, perhaps), showing how choclate can be incorporated in unusual dishes (like savories). it would be neat if you could have a temperature-controlled showcase or window in which you could display high chocolate art (e.g., a life-size chocolate dress, a city in chocolate -- you could do the town itself, complete with well-known buildings). i love the idea of being able to see how the chocolate is made. pre-assembled gift baskets is another great idea. you might also think of getting personalized dishware with little, wonderful sayings or quotes related to chocolate (cups, bowls, etc.). that would be a hard gift for a chocolate-lover to turn down. i wish you every success cheers --