Pam R

Why not try substituting corn syrup or fancy molasses in your recipe? I don't have a favorite recipe to point you to at the moment, but anytime I've made gingerbread I've used molasses.

Nope! Too much pressure for me -- I'm a nervous wreck when I'm cooking my own, practiced recipes on TV or in front of an audience. Don't know if I could take the pressure of thinking on my feet. Allura -- that's what I assume, that it's filmed in TO and it would make sense if most of the contestants are from there.

Elsie, I'll check it out too. Of course, Winnipeg (or Manitoba) isn't exactly represented in the contestant pool. But this is just the first batch, right? Assuming it continues, perhaps they'll get more participants from outside TO. Who knows, maybe they had few applicants from other areas? Maybe it's a FTVC thing -- like having all seasons of Top Chef film there. Maybe you should apply.

Chopped Canada starts in a couple of weeks. From the blurb on the website, I'm assuming it will follow the American version pretty closely. Looks like they have some good hosts lined up. Will you watch? Will you try to compete?

What kind of shortening do you have? The recipe on the back of the Crisco can makes a darn good crust. For the filling .. I don't follow a recipe, just peel and slice a pile of apples and toss with LOTS of cinnamon, sugar, some flour, lemon juice, splash of vanilla and cubed butter if it's dairy -- leave it out for parve.

You can try whipping it. I don't know what the fat content would be in homemade coconut cream but I had to come up with a bunch of non-dairy (parve) desserts last year and I layered whopped coconut cream with chocolate mousse for one of them. It was much lighter than dairy whipped cream and the flavour what great combined with the chocolate.

What are chicken knuckles? Looks like chicken karaage?

I second Heidi's recommendation. I always use egg white and water and most of the seeds stay on. Beautiful breads.

The potato ricer trick is great. I've done it in the past -- but only with small batches. I once tried to use it when I made a batch with 50# of potatoes and my arms were screaming at me by the time I was done!

A couple of nights left this year. . anybody try anything new this year? Though Chanuka isn't a huge deal in my family, it's getting busier and busier at work for us every year. . . so by the time I finished with the latkes and cookies at work, I was done. Well, not true, I did make a small batch of regular potato latkes for brunch yesterday. At work I made potato latkes, wild rice and mushroom latkes and zucchini leek latkes. I wanted to make more varieties but ran out of time and energy. Cookies are just a sugar dough that I decorate -- decorating would have been more elaborate but by the end of the week I'd had done about 80 dozen and had to streamline things a bit. We had a small family dinner at my parents for Shabbat/Chanukah and my cousins hosted a larger family gathering on Saturday night. Latkes and sufganiot were had and enjoyed by all. By the way, there's still time to make your own sufganiyot!

I agree with the green bell peppers! That's exactly the thing I was curious about -- if you could ask not to have something and it's nice that the sub something you do like. I'll have to look into it a little more closely in my area. Thanks.

Can you tell us a little bit about how your CSA works? Do you have any choice in what you get or do you just take whatever they give you? I've never been involved with one, but it's always intrigued me.

I like Out of Milk. I'm not sure if it lets you share lists between devices (sorry), though I wouldn't be surprised if it does. I use it on my Android phone, but imagine it works just as well on iProducts. The basic app is free, and that's all I use. But you can set up an account (which is where I think sharing between devices may come in . .) and there may be a charge. It lets you create different shopping lists for different stores -- so I keep one going for my weekly shopping trips, and another going for shopping trips to the US which happen every few months. It also lets you have a to do list and a pantry list, neither of which I've used.

Slabs of Macintosh are bendable when fresh . . a little on the hard side, but not brittle. . . At least not the ones I've had. Once you start chewing on them, they are very close to hard rubber. . . chewy yet delicious. It's been a couple of years since I've had any, but they sound like what you're looking for (to me).

We have a couple of fried chicken topics and I searched through one to find a technique another member shared years ago that made outstanding fried chicken. Click HERE for the post. Basically, you season the chicken, dip it in a flour and water batter and then into plain flour before frying immediately. When I've done it, I also season the flour/water slurry. The breading was crisp but didn't fall off the chicken when eaten,

From Wild Man Ricing, " yes we can ship to the USA preferably a little more than a pound at a time or freight will be expensive" You can contact them for shipping info if you're interested.

OK. . I heard back from the local companies. The question is whether you can get your hands on it. . the links will take you to contact info and/or where to buy info if you'd like to see if it's available near you or if they'll ship. Shoal Lake Wild Rice sells wild rice under a few names and the Oh Canada and Floating Leaf brands are not cultivated. And Wild Man Ricing sent me a brochure which says this about their wild rice: "is harvested exclusively in natural bodies of water as opposed to being cultivated or paddy-grown" ( I sent a follow-up email to this one, asking if the rice is available in the US or if Americans can order it - will let you know what I find out.)

We have several wild rice producers in this area -- I just sent off a couple of emails to ask if they are cultivated or . .'wild'. For those of you who have tried both, do they taste that different from each other? What's the difference - flavour? texture?

Pam, I used to make an appetizer with sauteed mushrooms and roasted garlic in pastry shells topped with a little piece of Brie. The combination of mushrooms and Brie is excellent. I have some brie on order - I just might have to try it. Thanks! I think mushrooms work well with lots of different cheeses. Might have to try a few of them.

For Thanksgiving this year, we served a Montreal smoked turkey that we shipped in from Montreal whole. For reheating we sliced it and heated it gently in a foil wrapped pan with a little chicken/turkey stock added to the pan to keep it moist. It worked perfectly, was delicious and moist.

One of my favorite, simple, simple stuffed mushrooms uses the mushroom itself as part of the stuffing. For crimini or button, remove the stems and finely chop them. Saute in butter or olive oil with salt, pepper, garlic and any herbs you like. You can also throw in some finely diced onion or shallot. Once soft, stir in enough bread crumbs to soak up any of the garlicky/mushroomy liquids - probably close to equal parts mushroom mixture to breadcrumbs. Season the mushroom caps (you can brush them with olive oil or butter if you like), then stuff and bake at 375 until the mushrooms are cooked through. I don't precook them. I've never done it, but seems like adding some cheese (maybe chevre) to the mix wouldn't be so bad.

Take a look at the link I posted in post #7 above. My knish dough is a strudel (pictures included in that link).

Do you have to discard the leftover dough? When I make knishes, the scraps get balled up and if allowed to rest for awhile, can be re-stretched. Have you tried? Nice pictorial.

Snada -- just mix a little baking soda and water and scrub? I've actually had very little time to try different solutions since I've posted (or rather, less time to run around to find some of the products, but I'm keeping a list and will work my way through the suggestions). I've tried the magic eraser because I had one. . to mixed results. No harm to the counter, but a couple of marks are gone, another one is still there.

I don't have any answers for you, but I'm hoping somebody pipes in to help. I've tried this myself a couple of times, wanting to make small, individual portions for big catering events. The only thing I could think of to bake them in was foil cups, but that wasn't high-end enough. I'd love to be able to make it on the stove top, pour/spoon into a 2 oz. plastic container and top with a piece of burnt sugar. Your second attempt tasted too eggy yet was still runny? What other ingredients and what proportions of each?