Soupcon

As the divorced parent of 2 now grownup children.... the best and wisest thing to do is nothing. You can't control what goes on at the other parent's home ie what the kids eat when they are not with you. Trying will upset the kids and make your forehead flat and give you a permanent headache . Be happy that the kids see their mom/dad and have a hopefully good relationship with them.

I, for years before it was popular, roasted chickens in a hot (F 450*) oven. However the legs on these high temp cooked birds, I find, are dry and good for soup only. I now cook birds with a combination of hot and slow oven temps: F 450* until the thigh ....between the thigh and the breast actually... reaches F 110*- F 120* to sterilize the skin and then I lower the oven temp to F 250* (or lower depending on how much time I have until serving) and continue to roast until the thigh (between the thigh and breast) temp reaches ~ F 150*. The bird sits uncovered for 15 to 20 minutes out of the oven before carving. I find all the meat on these birds is moist.... wet actually... and delicious. I don't mind a little pinkness around the thigh bone where it attaches to the body. I never truss birds as I find the thigh meat does not cook as well as when the legs are akimbo. I never brine birds cooked like this. If however I am cooking whole chickens elsewhere where I am not in control of the time, I always brine these birds and cook them in a very hot oven. These birds are cooked to higher inner thigh temp. as most people think chicken if it is pink around the thigh bone is not cooked properly.

My kids love to use it in chip dip (which they hide from me) and, I confess , I use it as a base in most of my meat loaves if I am short of time. G'awd... reminds me of family... extended family..... gettogethers, many moons ago, where the this ubiquitous chip dip was horded by the kids and the grownups. There were two triple lots made for each for different areas of the house/cottage. Chips were not even necessary as some used to eat it with their fingers if they could get away with it while others howled in protest as to what a hog the offender was.

For those who need to keep medicines or anything else cool in flight...take vac packed frozen vegetables to use instead of ice packs.... the powers that be can see what is inside... so they can't be confiscated.... and they keep frozen just as long as icepacks or jell packs.

PB, very thinly sliced onion rings, lettuce (not iceburg Pllllllllease), toasted h.w. bread. Assemble in usual way except lightly salt the onion rings. YUM. ..... my kids think I'm nuts but so what.

Wow!!!! Nice kitchen!!! I'd give my eye teeth to have a 23 foot square kitchen instead of the 10 by 22 foot kitchen I have now. Not that 20 by 22 is small but....

Does anyone have an opinion about/or has used linoleum. I am at the beginning of a kitchen remodel that will take a few years as it will be done in stages. I presently have a wood floor in my kitchen and I hate it... it looks good admittedly but needs refinishing (sanding, restaining and 3-5 coats of urethane every 5 years or so) as well as daily cleaning. I don't think I want tile because it is hard on the feet but admittedly also looks good and is easy to clean (needs resealing I think periodically). Which leave me linoleum as I refuse to consider vinyl.

Mmmmm anchovies. I hated anchovies until I was introduced to anchovies packed in salt in large tins found in Italian/Greek grocery stores in Toronto. Rinse them under the tap (cold water) and debone. Eat as is. Yummmmmmmmmmmmmm. However anchovies in oil in a small tin.... uck! Nothing good to say about them. I have never had Janssons temptation but will do so now. Great idea. Champs also sounds yummy.

Hi Dave A timely topic for me as I am just about to start replacing 1/2 of my kitchen. I am interested in decisions made involving appliance (sink, stove, oven if built in, fridge, dishwasher) placement: where placed and why there in particular, any problems they needed to solve around appliance placement, and are they happy with their decision(s).

I have been baking sticky buns (cinnamon rolls) for years and have never had a problem. I sprinkle the bottom of the pan with extra brown sugar and cinnamon. The dough is spread with a layer of butter, a layer of brown sugar, sprinkled with cinnamon and raisons (optional to some but not at my house) and rolled up. The rolls are cut approx 1" thick and placed in the pan(s) with the sides not touching. They rise until almost double in bulk by which time all the sides are touching and the rolls resemble snails crammed together in a pan and the baked in a F 350* oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until done. The pans sit for approx 10 minutes or less and then are inverted over a sheet pan so the sticky gooey yummy liquid toffey runs down the sides of the block of buns. YUM YUM!!!!

Alinka Thankyou for the pelmenyi. Seeing them brought back many happy memories of my Russian food experiences with Max, my student. We used to eat them with melted butter I recall.... very low calorie . Some were filled with meat and some with potato and onions I think. The meat filled ones were my favourites.

Based on recommendations in past blogs I have recently been eating oatmeal made with steel cut oats. I will never oatmeal made from any other oats again. Fabulous. My favourite toppings are salt, brown sugar and heavy cream. Yum Yum!! It sounds like I should also try stiring in a nut of butter... next time.

Wonderful blog Alinka. Now I can visit Moscow vicariously through you. I had Russian student from Ekatarinaburg bord with me for a year, so I was introduced a little to Russian food. We would hop in my car and drive to an area near York University in Toronto where there is a large Russian immigrant population and he would go nuts in the Russian grocery/bakery/deli stores buying for all his favourite foods which I would then have to prepare. The deli foods were fabulous....meats I would die to have again but unfortunately I have no idea what he bought. However I do remember in particular pelmenyi. Would you please have some pelmenyi for me?..... pretty please!

Peanut butter, onion and lettuce sandwiches, salt on mashed fresh strawberries, pepper on icecream, french fies and mayonaise

Bottled water is for those living in countries with no or poor water purification systems. Other than that any one who buys bottled water has more money than brains. Desani for example is taken from the local city tap where the coca-cola bottler resides. Any other bottled water depletes the local acquifers (they do not pay any money for the resource unlike mining or lumber companies who pay mineral extraction fees or timber fees) which will bite the local residents in the ass in later years when their local water supplies are no longer available because the acquifer has been depleted.

Seeing this topic has sent me looking for my mother's fab dark fruit cake receipe as it is the time of the year to make these lucious beauties. Thinking of fruit cake reminds me of the time I used Mom's receipe to make three layers for the wedding cake of my brother-in-law. I baked the layers well in advance to allow for ageing and as I am no cake decorator sent the cakes off to an excellent cake making shop for decorating by their prize winning cake decorator. What I did not know is that he had never decorated or used fruit cakes as wedding cakes and he thought the cakes were too hard to use and steamed them before he decorated them. I picked the completed cake up to take to the reception and by the time I had delivered it to the reception in a large Toronto hotel there was a noticeable tilt to the cake layers (he had seperated the layers with columns). I tried to fix the tilt without much success and went to the wedding. By the time the reception took place the cake was extremely lop sided as the columns had sunk into the layer below, the bride was not in tears but certainly no pleased (understatement) and I was mortified. The cake however tasted great.

I second Marcella Hazan's receipe. Only changes I make are more basil... 2 cups tightly packed and lots more garlic Yum Yum!!!!!!

My version of chicken salad : 1 whole chicken chicken stock to cover 2-4 whole ripe mangoes 4 or more stalks celery, sliced in 1/4 in pieces or in small dice 2 to 4 or more to taste green onions, diced seedless green or red grapes, washed and drained toasted pecan nuts Dressing: good quality mayonnaiese (home made perhaps) whole milk or plain yogurt red or green curry paste 1 Poach whole chicken in chicken stock to cover. Let cool in liquid, drain thoroughtly, take meat off bones, discarding skin and bones. Tear meat into shreds or cube into bite sized pieces. 2 Peel and dice ripe mangoes and add to chicken meat. Add green diced onions, grapes, and toasted nuts to taste. 3 To make dressing: thin mayonnaise with yoghurt or whole milk to taste and season with curry paste to taste. 4 Combine dressing with salad ingredients, season to taste and serve.

I have made cuke and cream cheese sandwiches by the gross(e) for ladies lunches. You need 1 slice of sandwich bread thinly spread with unsalted butter, topped by one layer of thinly silced cukes, salt very lightly, and topped lastly with a 2nd slice of sandwich bread thinly spread with cream cheese. Cut off crusts and quarter. Of all the sandwiches I made for lunches, these disappeared the quickest.