Pam R

When I freeze it I always pull it out the night before I want to bake it and stash it in the fridge. I've never left it in the fridge for more than a couple of days. I always freeze it in 1 lt. containters, thaw, then fill the muffin tins. Freezing it in the muffin cups would allow it to thaw much quicker, but I would still thaw it. But that way you could bake yourself a couple at a time and always have fresh muffins. You can purchase muffin mix in pails from suppliers - which is meant to last for far longer in the fridge than a couple of days. But they are most likely adding all sorts of things to it that allows it to last that you or I would never add.

holy hannah! where does one start? how many meals can I have in a day? all this AND samples from kosherfest Todah!

I'll be in NY for KosherFest in a couple of weeks and will be staying on in the Highland Park area for a few days. As this is a 'business trip' I'd really love to try to hit as many kosher places as I can - both restaurants and food stores. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

We don't actually drink water from the Red, which is good.. by the time it flows through Winnipeg it's not exactly sparkling clean .. Winnipeg actually means 'muddy waters' ... our water comes from Shoal Lake (part of Lake of the Woods) near the provincial border. this site goes into some of Winnipeg's water issues. here are a couple of quotes from the site (winnipeg.ca) I've filtered my tap water - it still tastes pretty terrible to me. Though many people are probably fine with it - I want my water taste clean, and it doesn't taste clean to me. edited to add that they seem to be building a new water treatment plant - I'll let you know in about 2 years if the water tastes any better.

there's always soy sour cream... use it in place of reg. sour cream and just mix in some flavourful components. and the soy cream cheese is pretty good too

I was thinking more along the lines of my hometown...

depends on your tap water... some water doesn't taste better with filtering. Never mind that there are whole towns in Canada that have to get their water trucked in for everything. I was just listening to a program on the radio about a town in my province that has NO running water. Now, I doubt they're selling a lot of high-$$ water in places like this - but the point is that there are places where the local water source just isn't drinkable.

Of course. Anybody I see in person or speak with on the phone. As the writer said, it's really inoffensive. Add to that the fact that everybody needs to eat... and everybody is knowledgeable on a certain area of food (whether it's home cooking, fast food restaurants or high dining) often. Depends on the person I'm speaking to. I work in a Jewish/Kosher food company. Most of the people who come in to my store read my kosher cooking columns, so it can evoke many nostalgic memories... especially if my column's topic has a nostalgic theme.

I wouldn't mind a box of apples from upstate New York...

do you need to cut them the night before? I ran the food-service at a community campus with a school in it - we went through a lot of fries. I had a commercial peeler and cutter ( thick-cut), so we'd peel about 300-400 lbs. of potatoes at a time, into buckets and covered with water. Into the cooler until the next day. Then we'd cut them and blanch them. Freeze them on trays then bag them. They worked beautifully. I *think* they'd work well cut, as long as you could remove as much moisture as possible before frying. no need to add vinegar to the water. As long as they're submerged, they shouldn't brown.

I love so many of these ideas. I think there are some very lucky people receiving wonderful things from you lot. I hope it's reciprocated! I love the idea of making these items youself and giving them as gifts - can I ask how you do the drying? Do you need to buy one of those special drying machines or is there another trick? I've never even thought of making my own dried herbs, candied fruit, etc. but I'm intrigued! When I was a child my father used to make fruit liqueurs and share them with friends - they will definately be happy to see you - though I'd guess they'd be happy with the vinegars and jams too.

Chris, you obviously have to become better friends with the other people posting here... they give fantastic gifts.

It says to add 4 tbsp. of flakes to 4 cups fruit juice or stock, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes or until dissolved. Now the original recipe calls for 1 oz. of gelatin - should I be using less agar? 1 oz. of agar needs much more than 1/2-3/4 of a cup of water to simmer for 5 minutes and dissolve.

Generally, I find there isn't that much fat on the turkey's I'm using...

Shelora - I, like many others, couldn't leave Victoria without a few bags of Murchees tea for people back home.

That's one of the best things about gifts - they are often things you don't buy for yourself. BarbaraY, how could I have left cookies off the list? Something homemade is a great gift.

Food, in many different forms, makes a great gift. A couple of weeks ago a basket of fruits, cheeses, crackers and a large assortment of sweets was delivered to my house. It was a gift from a very generous and wonderful customer for the Jewish New Year. When we moved our business this year, another basket arrived full of interesting coffees and flavourings, chocolates and cookies. A couple of birthday gifts that I have received and love included a cookbook stand, a mortar and pestle and a cute measuring spoon set for a dash a pinch and a smidge. Friends who go on vacation bring little treats - macadamia nuts from Australia and Hawaii, chocolates from Israel, dates from California. Gift certificates to hoity toity restaurants or cookware stores are common gifts in these parts. I reciprocate in kind. I've been thinking of putting togther some 'food giftware' to sell in my shop lately. Dry cookie ingredients with a recipe in a cute jar, ditto for soups. Maybe a kosher Japanese starter kit. Of course the standard baskets. What are some of your favorite food gifts to give and receive?

Oh, do it! While I'm sure the potato kugel is amazing, I'm thinking my favorite kugel wouldn't hurt from a hit of shmaltz. Cook down a couple of onions, until they've started to caramelize. Through in a bunch of thinly sliced mushrooms, salt and black pepper. Cook until the liquid from the mushrooms has been released and started to evaporate. Toss with egg noodles and eggs (also good is a little leftover brisket juice),into a greased casserole and bake until golden and toasty.

They might - or a good deli. I can't tell you how much shmaltz we get rid of around here. We make large batches of chicken soup .. and can't use much ourselves. We give some away to customers, but unfortunately, there's more supply than demand.

I did.. and it sucked the water up instantly. So when I placed it on the stove, it started to stick to the pot, so I immediately added the extra water. I'm not giving up, I'm just not sure which way to go.

thanks - i did try another batch yesterday that seemed to work a little better. But 1 oz. of agar needs a lot more than 1/2 cup of water to boil. So I probably added another cup of water, and watched the agar grow and grow. Then I was concerned that it was too much extra water (and agar) to add to the marshmallow mix - so I held some of it back. It never got 'stiff'. So now I don't know how much agar to use, and how much water I can add.

Oh my, yes. Found that thread by Rachel, btw: clickety. ← Well, as kids we always ate them as is... as a forshpeiz. Whoever got to Baba's house first on a Friday night got first dips on them. Haven't had them more than a few times since she passed away.. but oh! what memories! As Rachel said, some use them for garnish on things like chopped liver, and I suppose they could be used as the kosher version of ... bacon bits?

Gehakteh (chopped) liver Really, schmaltz could be used in any good old Jewish (or Eatern European) recipe. The best thing to do is fry onions in it and then add those onions to other things. The flavour combo of shmaltz and onions is amazing. We rarely use it at work anymore. Other than the already stated chopped liver - I mean, if you're eating livers, what's a little shmaltz? But for the most part people want their foods to be 'healthy'. I know people who would spread it on bread instead of butter. That's what my father's family did when he was growing up on the farm. In those days, there was no margarine and if you're eating a meat meal, there is no butter. Do we discuss grebens as well in this thread?

When I was in college I cooked and so did my friends. In fact I remember some of my friends cooking when I was in high-school. But some of my best memories from my university days involved dinner parties my roommate and I had. A group of friends (mostly female, but a few males) would come over and we'd all cook together. Yes some people had more skills than others, but everybody pulled their own weight. I'm well past my university days but my friends are still cooking. Sure we go out for a lot of meals, but they all have cooking abilities. I can think of only a couple of people I know who can't cook.

True. Like with all reality shows, who knows what goes on behind the camera. But is seems like it's one of those surprise shows. They let them see it after demo - but then they bring them in at the end.