emmalish

Oh man, it's sick and twisted but this is my favourite thread going. Every time I read it, I wish I had something to add, but unfortunately (fortunately?) I couldn't think of any bad meals I'd been invited to. But something about that clam chowder reminded me of a meal a friend invited me to years ago. I must have suppressed the memory. I don't remember all the details, but I remember she was making some sort of vegetarian dish with mushrooms as the main ingredient. She told me to sit and relax while she did all the cooking. I distinctly remember that she did all the peeling, slicing & dicing with a cleaver (more fun that way!). And when it came time to prepare the mushrooms (main ingredient of the dish, remember), she pulled a plastic bag full of mushrooms out of the fridge, filled the bag with water, shook it up, and let the water drain out. Voila. Perfectly cleaned mushrooms, she proudly proclaimed... I didn't have much of an appetite after that...

I'll second that. You can't beat Solly's bagels. And you just can't go to Solly's without getting cinnamon rolls & babka too.

When I eat too close to bedtime, I wake up in the morning absolutely ravenous.

Send them to me. Mmmmmmmmm.

There really isn't much parking right off Island. The parking lot you refer to might be part of the Honda Bike dealership, or be the gravelly area just up the street. ← There are already transit stops just off the island, so tour buses probably wouldn't be able to stop & park in those areas, but drop-off and pick up might be possible.

LOL! That's my mom's chili recipe! Seriously!

Oh, man, I have such a problem with toast in restaurants. I don't know whether they're just trying to save time, or if it's how most people prefer their toast, because everyone else I know seems fine with it. Toast is supposed to be brown and crunchy. The slightly beige, warm piece of bread I usually end up with? That's not toast. I'm with you, chrisamirault, short of burning it, you can't toast it too much. As for the undercooked vegetables, I've gotten them a few times too. My preference is not for overcooked, mushy vegetables -- I like my vegetables to still have crunch. But when the carrot cannot even be pierced with a fork? That's undercooked.

Ugh. Me too! This is why I can't eat ceviche. It's delicious, yes, but I can't get past the texture.

Thanks Gary! I found that thread, but I wasn't sure that was the recipe that was being discussed. Can't wait to see the pics, even if it's only a pic of one caramel.

This is a potentially stupid question (keep in mind I'm still fairly new here), but the caramel recipe is referred to as if we all know which one it is. Does it exist here somewhere? Does everyone know it except me? Personally, I would go to the trouble of wrapping them in the waxed twisting paper (thanks for the links!), but then again, I think Trishiad's got the right idea.

Add 4 more to the tally (whoops, how'd that happen? )

Ya know, I used to think I had a lot of cookbooks. Compared to most of my friends, I do. But I'm almost ashamed to add my paltry 66 books to this list...

I regularly go to the Market every weekend to pick up the bulk of my groceries, but there's always something that I missed, or something I just didn't think about until I find myself craving it during the week. So I usually find myself stopping to pick up one or two items most evenings. Adjusting their hours even by just an hour at the end of the day would be a big improvement. Officially, I get off work at 5. In reality? I rarely leave the office before 5:30. When I'm working downtown, that means if I need to pick something up that evening, I have to go to IGA or Capers. If the market were open 'til 7, I'd definitely make it a regular stop on my way home.

A friend of mine just emailed me this one

But would a discount card actually get you to go to the market more often? Is it enough of an incentive to drive all the way down there & fight for parking? Don't get me wrong, I'd be first in line for my card, but I'm one of the ones already going there. Would a discount card make you start going there?

Peach yogurt with sprouted grain cereal. But I was at work and I got busy and the cereal ended up getting soggy and mushy and I ended up throwing most of it away. So now I'm nibbling on a bran muffin & coffee. (sigh)

Interesting topic. I live in the neighbourhood and, right now, am also working in the neighbourhood, so it's easy for me to go down any time. I prefer shopping there because of the variety and freshness of foods. Price isn't a huge issue for me. I hear people complain that it's too expensive. IS it more expensive? (can you tell I don't compare prices?) If I didn't live in the area, I think parking would be a big issue. That and the crowd on the weekend. It's really frustrating trying to navigate through the market when entire families with kids & baby carriages are blocking the aisles [/rant]. For that reason, I prefer going during the week when it's slow. (I apologize to those of you with families who shop @ the market. )

the cast iron tea pot i have does have the enamel coating but it was not the coating i was refering to it was that the pot was cast iron and kept the tea SO HOT for SO long.. it seemed like it stewed the tea...therefor changing the flavor of it.....or so it seems to me. ← Ahhh, I thought you meant that it was imparting a metallic taste. Never mind. Carry on...

All the cast iron teapots I've seen have a porcelain enamel coating. Have you used one without a coating? Edited to clarify that the coating is on the inside of the teapot.

One must overvalue at least a few things in life, and spend accordingly, don't cha think? ← Unfortunately, I tend to do this with everything

Lorelei said she felt like she should buy Rory a shot. Since they were in a bakery, the closest they could come to a drink was "rum balls". Edited to say "d'oh!" Fat Guy beat me to it.

I'm partial to the black, myself (all of my counter-top on-display appliances have a black gloss finish), but brushed stainless would be my 2nd choice. Even though I love the green one, I'd be afraid that my taste in colour would change -- black & brushed seem safest. I was looking at them in the store again this weekend. How can I justify replacing my old kettle, which has nothing wrong with it?

I just checked the reviews on amazon (I know, not the most reliable source) and the user reviews seemed to be split between people who absolutely positively love this blender, and people who had problems with it right off the bat, and it sounds like those problems were related to the motor burning out. In other news, I just made my first smoothie with my Waring, and WOW. I'm used to having to keep my KA running for several minutes and still ending up with big chunks of fruit. As soon as I turned the Waring on and saw it make quick work of the orange juice and banana, I knew it wouldn't have a problem. I added frozen berries, let it run a few seconds more, poured it into a glass... and there were no chunks. Just a smoooooothie. Yay!

Well this is interesting. After reading the test kitchen results, the posts above, and getting some more feedback from JAZ, I decided to go with the Waring. I went to one of my local cookware stores, approached a woman there who I trust to be honest, and asked her what she thought of the blenders they carry. Her response: "Well first off, I wouldn't recommend that one" Yup, she was pointing at the Waring. I asked her to explain why, and she said it's the blender they see returned to the store more often than any other blender they carry. It also has the lowest wattage (360-ish?). After talking with her further, it sounds like they either got a bad batch (a lot of the returns were in a short period of time last summer), or, it being summer, people were being stupid and trying to use it to crush large quantities of ice (the problem it was having was the motor burning out). We talked more, and she said that she's done demos in-store with the Waring and she felt it worked great -- the biggest problem she has with it is the fact that so many people had problems with it. On the other hand, she also said it has a three year warranty and they have a great relationship with their rep. So in the end I decided to trust what many of you here have said and go with my gut. Plus it's the prettiest. I'll be posting later on how I like it.

Did she cook the mixture before making the ice cream? In regards to the pips/pits, often it won't matter what's in the mixture since it's usually strained before cooling in the refrigerator (especially if it's egg-based) before the final step. So the seeds wouldn't matter (the pith is another story altogether). ← Nope, there was no straining involved. She added cream (& eggs? I don't remember), whipped it, and refrigerated it.