Pam R

the first draft of my book was all weights. then they made me add volumes. it makes for a lot of numbers in each recipe. apparently, home cooks do not cook by weight. at least North American home cooks. you're right though - books I have from Europe and Australia go more for weights. I like weights. weights are good.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see. How depressing.

Summer's here people. Let the brain-freeze begin.

I'm pretty sure that I've seen another brand somewhere ... I just can't think of the name now. I'll post it if I can think of it. They retail here for under $4 - I sell them for $3.49. (Of course, I pay wholesale - so it makes it more palatable for me). But - around here that's about the price I pay for a bunch of basil, most of which I end up tossing. Since I end up throwing lots of fresh stuff away, the cost isn't too bad. The garlic is probably the least value for the money - but the convenience is priceless

I agree with pastrymama - I generally multiply without a problem. And I'll do up to 48 egg whites per batch . Bigger question is how large a batch can your mixer handle in one go?

Exactly. The point about freezing extra fresh herbs is good - but if I don't want to bother prepping 1 Tbsp. of fresh parsley, I'm not going to go to the trouble of prepping a whole bunch! The fact that they come in 1 tsp. cubes is good too. They just make them too damn easy - it's hard not to use them.

Sometimes I grate ginger, sometimes I julienne it or slice it - depends on what I'm using it in. They are a product out of Israel - but maybe they haven't hit the US yet. I've seen them in Toronto and they're available at major supermarkets here.

I have to tell you - after cooking and working with food all day, when I get home I want to do as little food prep as possible. Recently I started to bring in Toppits frozen herbs to sell, and took some home to try. They are so convenient. I'm always buying fresh herbs to take home then find that I'm too tired to do much with them and they're dead within a couple of days. My one complaint is that the garlic is mashed a little too much (like when you use a micro-plane versus chopping it yourself). And of the 6 varieties, the garlic is actually my least favorite. The ginger is fantastic (I hate grating ginger) and the dill, basil, parsley and cilantro are all good. I'm not a fan of a lot of convenience foods - but this is one that I'll continue to use. Anybody else using them? Thoughts?

I'm way past 6 - but I'd be happy too! they're adorable.

Apparently Shelagh Rogers didn't have enough meat at Schwartz's this morning - because on tomorrow's Sounds Like Canada she'll be dining at Au Pied de Cochon. How much foie can you eat for breakfast?

I hope the fact that they're airing commercials now means they will be doing more than just sending out newsletters. Christine Cushing as the darling of FTVC - is she really? She's now limited to one 1/2 hour show. I'd say that Micheal Smith is more of a darling. He's our own RR (with a slightly different personality). Need a host for a new show? Call Michael! How about a little diversity? If they're willing to produce shows in Canada (which they seem to be), why not tap into some of the different groups we have in the country? Sugarella- I'd love for us to be able to suggest new ideas - but I'm thinking they don't receive them unsolicited. So now we have to see if they do send us some sort of questionnaires.

excellent. hopefully we'll get the chance to tell them we want better programs. wouldn't it be nice to be able to watch FTV again?

On one of those now-rare occasions when I found myself watching something on FoodTV, I caught a quick commercial telling me to sign up to be a FoodTV (Canada) Insider. Well, OK. Let's give it a shot. Going to http://www.foodnetworkinsider.ca/, I filled out a form and apparently will be receiving surveys in the future concerning what's going on at FTV. Question is - Do you think the powers that be will actually listen to anything I have to say? I hope they do. But here's the dilemma. I used to watch the network and loved it. I learned so much from Sara Moulton - I travelled along with Bourdain to places I doubt I'll get to go and I had fun watching a lot of the programs. Without picking on any specific shows or hosts here, let's just say there isn't much that catches my interest these days. But how many people like me will be signing up? Or will it be the people who watch the shows currently airing - because they're the ones who get to see the commercials. Anybody else signing up? Do you think this will have any influence on the network? Please please give us some good shows.

I was just thinking about this thread! I've been working on filling the showcases at work with dairy items - but need something new for myself at home. I hope somebody has some good ideas out there Actually.. those recipeGullet recipes have some interesting ideas... hmmm...

and air-conditioned makes it easier to cook of course.

hmm.. I like it when it browns.. looks great Chris!

I picked up his book tonight at his reading/signing. I look forward to reading it - but think it may be missing something now that I've heard him read some of it with additional comments and side-rants.

Or you could just buy a muddler like I did this weekend . (if you were shopping in Winnipeg I could help you out)

That's how it worked here - but I've never been to the one in Vancouver. They actually moved their showroom here a couple of years ago and I haven't been to the new place, so I'm not sure if it's the same as it was. Best bet would be to phone them. I was also wondering if the minimum order on the website wasn't referring to the printing and not the actual products...

According to tripadvisor.com the 10 most haunted places in Canada include the the Old Spaghetti Factory in Gastown and a couple of hotels (with restaurants) - Banff Springs Hotel and The Fort Garry in Winnipeg. Who knows who/what may be joining you for brunch. Or there's this CBC story dating back to 1979 about the old Masonic Temple that was turned into Mother Tucker's (restaurant). This one was a fun ghost who seemed to party it up when everybody was gone for the night. (it's a kick to watch the old tv footage) - I've never seen the ghost there. My mother claims that our previous location was haunted. Every once in a while, one of our walk-in freezers would go a little crazy. It would sound like someone was knocking on the door and banging the walls trying to get out. On a couple of occasions the door just flew open on it's own. There were plenty of times when strange noises could be heard. Things dropping in the kitchen or basement when nobody was around. She thinks it was a lady who had owned our building and worked as a caterer decades earlier.

Welcome to eGullet fireflyzephyr! I've bought some nice stuff at Mayers (here). They also have a good selection of food boxes. When I've gone to their showroom they didn't require a minimum order for things - though their website does state minimums. I'd phone first.

If it helps at all, after some pretty crappy weather we're expecting a high of 32 C today - which was what they were having in Alberta last week. Hopefully it will keep moving slowly towards you so that you have some great camping weather for the weekend! Though - as a Canadian I'm sure you feel that there's nothing wrong with camping in 5 C anyway

Dinner: Grilled thick rib-eye steaks, marinated in soy, garlic and mirin. Served with grilled zucchini, sauteed mushrooms (in olive oil with lots of garlic) and oven-roasted potato wedges. Desserts - to kick off summer, a bowl of mixed berries - that actually tasted like berries! Washed down with mojitos. It wasn't the hot-dogs and burgers of years past - but I'm not complaining! Happy Victoria Day! Hope everybody had a good one.

We use paint. Because we follow kosher dietary laws, handles (and the bottoms of pots and pans) get painted with white, red or blue high-temp enamel paint. We also used to cater in a lot of synagogue kitchens, who also painted their stuff - so all of our pans had our company initials painted on the bottoms. We NEVER paint where paint will come into contact with the food. This is fairly standard in the commercial kosher kitchens I've been in. After 20 years of health inspections it's never been a problem (last inspection was this week - no problem) - but you'd want to check with your own health department.

Junior - the farmer's market sounds great. I don't know why Winnipeg can't have a better setup. I was surprised to see Crampton's Market open already. Apparently they've been open for a couple of weeks. They don't have much in terms of produce yet, but if you're planting a garden - get down there. I picked up some edible flowers that I'm going to try to plant in a pot in the house (I don't have a garden). They also had a ton of herbs ready to be planted - it was a little windy and I was getting cold - but I noticed some interesting things like 'ginger mint'. They also have a bakery on site - and there was some bread just out of the oven . I picked up a couple of varieties and tore into the still-warm (can't recall the name of the bread - but it was similar to a ciabatta) one when I got home with some butter. They also had some local (but hot-house) tomatoes. They looked and smelled like tomatoes so I got a couple. I can't wait for more veg and fruit to become available.