Pam R

Rona, was that at Fresh? I can't wait for your take on the Fort Garry. I used to love the Sunday brunch, but I haven't been in a couple of years, and the last time I went was not great (but again, that was about 2 years ago).

From Anna N: And from the article: Great article - congratulations, Kerry!

I've been hearing great things about Fresh on Corydon -- go for brunch.

You can say that again. Great flavour but after a long, slow moist cooking, still chewy - I'd say bouncy.

I took a picture, though I'm not sure it's at all helpful: Looks like a roast. It's about 3 lbs. We cut one up for a customer the other day (for stew) and it wasn't very fatty, and was rolled like a spiral (one long piece rolled up).

I have a small 'roast' and the label says "Beef Breast Chuck Deckle". Can I treat it like I would a pot roast? It's rolled and netted, and doesn't look all that fatty . .

What about doing something like a smoked-salmon scramble? A swipe of cream cheese across the tortilla, some shaved red onion, a little fresh dill.

Do you mean steaming them in the shell or out? We used to use the steamer at work to steam about 80 dozen eggs at a time. It didn't make them easier to peel. My grandmother always made coffee with hot milk, not water . . but then, she used instant coffee.

Just wanted to join the chorus - I never adjust the leavening when I do larger batches (2X batch gets 2X leavening). But baking time, yes, I adjust that. Having said that, I don't think I've ever baked something for the exact time called for in a recipe. My 350 oven isn't the recipe writer's 350 oven. So if you're baking in a smaller pan, start checking it earlier.

Looks great, Cadbury. What else is in there? Cheese or tofu? Are those sundried tomatoes? Dressing?

In the paper recently, WOW Hospitality is taking over the Tavern in the Park location. I don't know how I feel about that. Wasabi Sabi has opened on Taylor (at Piazza di Nardi). I haven't been in to eat, but I picked something up for lunch a couple of days ago and liked it. Looking forward to going in for a meal.

I think it's very pretty. Your salad looks great. It's summer days here. I roasted some candy-cane beets last night and they were incredibly sweet. Sliced them up today, some butter lettuce, a sprinkling of red onion, some really good, creamy goat cheese, toasted almonds and a citrus vinaigrette (lemon, lime, orange juice, s & p, grainy dijon, honey and canola oil). This was really, really good. The citrus dressing was very light, but complimented the beets beautifully and the goat cheese gave it a good punch. I'll be making this again (maybe even tomorrow with the last 2 roasted beets . . )

Leftovers tonight definitely better than the first go last night.

Farmer's market yesterday had everything I needed. Scorched and peeled the peppers, skinned and seeded the tomatoes. Combined them with zucchini, yellow zucchini, eggplant, red onion, a few mushrooms, fresh garlic, basil, Italian parsley, oregano, salt, pepper, olive oil and some balsamic. After more than 1 1/2 hours cooking, it was watery so I added half a small can of tomato paste (2-3 oz.). It was good. . . but not great. I think I may prefer 'jammy'. What do I do to make it jammy?

I had some rib-eye ends and a trip to the farmer's market this weekend combined with a hot summer evening and it was one of my favorites again. A bed of arugula, ripe cherry tomatoes, fresh snap peas, steamed new potatoes and green/yellow beans, grilled yellow zuccini, green onions, red onion, corn, bell peppers and rib-eye. All dressed in a mustardy-balsamic dressing. I picked up some beautiful beets -- need to come up with a salad for those.

I... I... I don't know. ← That's okay. I'm trying to figure out if I should be sauteeing/simmering or roasting.

Are you looking for jammy or trying to avoid it?

I was reading a bunch of recipes this morning and at Chocolate & Zucchini, she has a side note in her recipe "- 1 eggplant (if you want to make the traditional ratatouille from Nice, hold the eggplant)" -- so you have a whole region agreeing with you. I just got back from the farmer's market and my local vegetable shop and I'll be cookign a batch tomorrow. Does anybody add mushrooms?

Too salty? The smoked duck skin is the best part or the bird! I don't brine, but use kosher ducks, so let's call it even. What else do you do to the duck?

I've never scored the skin when smoking whole ducks. I do it on the Webber and make sure it's got a good pan with water under the duck to catch all that fat. This is one of my favourite ways to cook duck.

And I saw them at either Target or Walmart in Grand Forks this weekend.

Excellent. It was on the smoker for 12 hours or so - it was cold and rainy and a pain. Then I wrapped it up and it went into the oven for a couple of hours. Bad weather and unplanned flu meant cancelled long-weekend plans, so most of it went into the freezer. I hope it thaws well . .

This is one area (among many) where I think vacuum sealers like these are a significant improvement over FoodSaver machines. The vacuum well is both deep and wide. But, more to the point, because the top of the machine is clear, you can see when liquid starts to go into the vacuum chamber and hit the "manual seal" button. ← This model looks quite similar to one that I've been looking at (actually have one on order) from Cabela's. Their site says it's a Cabela's model, but I seem to remember the person at my local store saying it's not. Anybody know anything about the machine?

Does anybody know if these are still available? I tried to order a case last week and my supplier isn't carrying them anymore (the chocolate ones -- they still list all of the other flavours).

Just because customers have a higher income does not mean they are willing to spend it on baked goods. There are a couple of issues here. One is that you have to make sure all of your costs are covered and you've worked in some profit for yourself. Another point is this. If you're using high-quality ingredients and do exceptional work, then people expect to pay more for it. In fact, high prices can be a selling feature in the 'oh, they charge a lot - must be worth it!' way. (of course this can backfire if the products don't live up to the costs.) But if done properly, you set yourself up as a high-end exclusive boutique business where you can sell 10 cakes at $100 instead of 20 cakes at $50.