Pam R

I have stuck in the rut of a combo of black tea and herbal peach tea. This is my first experiment with fresh herb leaves. I do need to write down the proportions and results rather than thinking I can remember what I did. I've done that with dishes I threw together and then was never able to recreate them. Sounds delicious. One of my favourites is black tea made with handfuls of nana (close to spearmint).

I love the look of stainless and just bought all stainless appliances -- but the ones I bought have a 'protective coating' of some sort. At the store I tried my best to get a fingerprint on it but nothing took. The magnet issue is annoying, but I think I'll just put some cork-board somewhere in the kitchen.

The tea sounds delicious -- do you have a favourite flavour combo?

Plastic-flavoured bottled water.

I've heard that this is an amazing book but haven't seen it. Do you have it?

Yes. Like Dejah, I woke up to snow on the lawn, and a good few inches of heavy snow to clean off my car. What a treat to see the farmer's market -- it's the thing I'm most envious of you southern dwellers. I don't mind the cool temperatures up here (most of the time) but I hate the shorter growing seasons and the fact that our short farmer's market season rarely has the produce variety we get to see in your pictures.

Should I have posted this one first to make the guessing a little harder?

Beautiful kitchen. Enjoy it. What are the dimensions of the room?

We have another foodblog starting this weekend. Take a look at this picture and see if it gives you any ideas.

Oh . . a judge change. And I think most large cities have tv production going on (even places, like, say, Winnipeg ) -- I guess time will tell.

Thank heavens they didn't share plates during the tasting. I think I like the show, though I'd make a couple of changes. Let's see how the rest of the season goes. (I'd still like to know if future seasons will take place in other cities.)

Thanks for all the lovely comments. I had a great time sharing my Passover cooking with everybody this week. If you'd like to take a turn and share a week in your culinary life with the rest of us, just send me a note. Thanks again!

Do you still put in a lot of hours, or is it more of a 40 hour week? Depends on the week. If we're catering a lot or a holiday is coming up (there are lots of Jewish holidays) the hours get longer, but I try to keep it to 45-50 hours/week. But that's just the day job. I do all the work for my cookbooks in the evenings and weekends (I do all of the testing in my home kitchen). I've also started writing some articles for Jewish newspapers and kosher sites - so I have to find the time to do that.

That brings my week to an end, though I'm happy to answer any questions about kosher or Passover cooking if you have them. I have 2 days off before going back to work to reorganize the store -- and I plan on sleeping a lot! I just want to thank all of you for reading and commenting. It's been a fun week, with lots of good food. To those who celebrate, Happy Passover and Happy Easter. Thanks!

Dinner. My mother always made this with veal slices and was going to do so tonight (before she decided to paint her basement all day). Since I'm not a huge veal lover (though I do like it in this dish), I used some boneless chicken thighs I had in the freezer. Dredge the thighs in cake meal seasoned with salt and pepper. Brown in olive oil. Once they're all browned, take them out of the pan and set aside. Then add a pile of mushrooms, onions and peppers -- season with salt and pepper and saute until they just start to soften and some will start to brown. Return the chicken to the pan, tucking the pieces in, under the vegetables. Add some white wine, cook down for a minute then add some chicken stock. Simmer gently, partially covered, until the chicken is cooked through and the sauce has reduced a bit and thickened slightly. (Can be made with flour instead of cake meal.) This is great served with rice, which I don't eat during Passover. Tonight we had it with roasted sweet potatoes.

Me too! I was supposed to be in back in December. The best thing about this condo and probably why I decided to buy this one is that I bought it as a white box and was able to do whatever I wanted in the kitchen, as long as it fit the space. Can't wait to see it done! They are incredibly comfortable. They were well-priced, the right hight and white. Are they my dream stools? No. But I think I'll be happy with them. Coming up! Happy Easter! What did you have?

For a little road trip planned for tomorrow, I thought I should bake something to take along. Somebody was in the store on Thursday and told me how much her family enjoyed my banana chocolate chip loaf -- sounds good to me! Ingredients: Into the loaf pan. Oh, wait. Can't find the loaf pan. This will work. Cooling. Smells fantastic. The plans for dinner, the last meal for my foodblog have changed slightly. I better go cook it.

Thanks, Jeanne. You're so right. There's much more available now than there was a few years ago -- compared to 20 years ago? It's amazing. One of the reasons I decided to write a Passover cookbook was because of all the questions we get every year from our customers. Most people use recipes that have been passed down for generations -- which are great. I love the traditional recipes. But at the same time, they also want new recipes and don't know what to do with new ingredients (like baking soda! oh my!). When you're baking with cake meal instead of flour, you can't just substitute one for the other in the same quantities. But if you play around, you can find all sorts of new things to make. I love it. I've had a great week, thanks!

Thanks so much! I'm excited too. I was hoping to get into the condo on Thursday so I could take some pictures, but apparently concrete was being poured and I couldn't get in. The last time I thought to take pictures, my kitchen looked like this: Doesn't show you much. From the corner, to the right, we'll have a sink, dishwasher, freezer and fridge. To the left, a range, wall oven/microwave and pantry. Big island in the middle. The picture on the right shows a big window on the other side of the island. I can picture it all in my head! The cabinets are sitting in my parents' garage waiting for the builders to take them. Any day now . . right? The plumbing and electrical is all in, the whole place is drywalled and taped and they're supposed to be painting this week. Stools? These. Simple. But I'm already thinking that I might paint the bars. It's hard to find white stools.

I also took 3 minutes to put a pot of compote on the stove. Assorted dried fruit, a sliced orange (you can use lemon), a little sugar and some cinnamon. I'd rather stick a cinnamon stick in the pot, but didn't have any, so ground it is! It's simmering slowly. More from me once the work is done.

Sorry I haven't posted much today. The thing I like least about self-publishing a cookbook is the accounting! I've been slugging through it and have more to do. But as I'm doing it I'm enjoying my salad. Crisp and cold. Mixed lettuces, strawberries, a very sweet white onion, toasted pecans and balsamic dressing. Oh - and that creamy sheep's feta that I love.

Oh. . stuffing. That would be great. I'll have to play around with them later. Thanks!

My mother has promised to cook dinner tomorrow night - a dish she tries to make once every year. That's as far as I've gotten -- thought I think it might be time to back something. We'll see how things look in the morning! 'night

Looking forward to it!

It is. We just expanded this year and are trying to figure out if we can put a couple of tables and some chairs in so people can grab a quick bite and sit and schmooze.