Nancy in Pátzcuaro

I just read on the King Arthur Baking blog that using crust dust--a 1:1 mix of flour and sugar--sprinkled evenly on the bottom crust of a fruit pie can prevent the dreaded "soggy bottom." It seems eminently reasonable to me, but I wonder if anyone else does this? Does it work? I trust the King Arthur people but I'm interested in other peoples' experience.

We have a couple of passionfruit vines and it's interesting to watch the bees gather pollen. They have to go pretty far into the flower to collect the pollen, which gets all over their bodies. They then hover in the air, using their front legs to brush the pollen on to their pollen baskets (their rear legs), and then go back for more. I wonder what passionfruit honey tastes like? These probably are wild bees because I doubt there is anyone in our neighborhood with hives, so I'll never know. And I wonder how those gorgeous flowers evolved? Seems like a lot of extra decoration for an admittedly simple process of pollination.

It can be annoying to your dinner companions, though. We had a friend (now deceased) who wouldn't let anyone start eating before he photographed (with 2 or 3 exposures) every plate on the table. With a large group that got very cumbersome--by the time he was finished some of your food would be at a less-than-ideal temperature. Fortunately we all liked him, so we tolerated it (mostly).

Ah, that makes sense. I'll just have to experiment and see what works (or doesn't). The stove won't be delivered by the store (Liverpool) until the 28th--we'll be out of town until just before the 17th, and the next Monday, the 21st, is Independence Day and a federal holiday, so the soonest was the following Monday the 28th. A long time to wait after finally taking the plunge. Wish we'd done it sooner, but this stove is brand new in this market and it probably wouldn't have been available.

In the process of buying a new oven (LG) I find it comes with an air frying feature. I've lived most of my life without deep frying anything, but I suppose I'll try the air fryer feature once or twice to see if it works at all. My hopes are not high for this. Has anyone had any experience with the air fryer feature in a conventional oven? I'm just glad to have convection, digital display, a cleaning feature, and even heating. The old oven required me to turn the pans around at least once to avoid burning one side while leaving the other side semi-raw. I may have to sand blast the oven before I donate it to someone. My husband insisted on self-cleaning because, let's face it, I only cleaned my oven once a year, just before Thanksgiving, and it shows.

A hybrid I'm very fond of is Juliet. A huge producer of small Roma-like tomatoes with marvelous flavor. An heirloom I used to grow but can no longer find, was called Gardener's Delight. There are people who say it's the same as Sweet 100, but I disagree. Gardener's Delight was a "salad" sized tomato with balanced flavor--not too sweet, in other words. It was a very big plant, which gave it room to produce like mad.

Which hybrid is that? The current Early Girl is nothing like the old variety, so apparently it's been "improved." How was yours?

Nope--it's true. All over the world people eat insects, so this hapless wasp is not unusual. It must be a very small wasp, though, to be able to insinuate herself into what is ultimately a fairly small fruit. The incentive to reproduce is very strong indeed. Poor wasp.

I've waited and waited for a response to this query. My reason is that my husband and I have spent some time in Ecuador, in Cuenca in particular, and did not find the food at all good. Lots of white rice and bland, boring accompaniments. Nothing at all like the food of Peru, right next door. Now, our time there was in 2004 and 2008, so things may have changed since then, and perhaps we just didn't find the kind of restaurants that would have inspired us. If the OP would let us know his/her experience it would be nice to know if I'm wrong.

Maybe a better descriptor would be "hard shelled squash" as opposed to "soft skinned squash" AKA summer squash. I used to keep winter squash under the bed in the upstairs unheated guest bedroom, the perfect cool dry location. Kept perfectly all winter. (The only problem was that I tended to forget about them.) Be sure to buy winter squash with a little stem still attached, and with skin too hard to be punctured by a fingernail. For some reason the little inch of stem is important if you intend to keep them all winter. Maybe it protects the squash from rotting from the stem end?

Several years ago we bought (at Costo) a 2-barrel composting system that has provided us with excellent compost, full of worms. By the time one side is full the other side is ready to empty. You rotate the barrels, which must be about 30" or more in diameter, every time you add kitchen waste and dry matter. Kinda like this one, only not as pretty: https://mantis.com/product/compost-twin/ Of course it doesn't freeze here, other than one or 2 days when it might get down to 30 or so. This has greatly reduced our trash volume, which now consists of non-recyclable plastics, paper products other than cardboard, meat, and various things like old toothpaste tubes.

I watch the guys in the trash truck and it looks like a very dirty job. One guy stands in the truck and as the basura builds up he ends up standing on all that garbage. Yuck. Which is why we give them generous tips every time and a Christmas bonus. They deserve it.

Different cities/counties have different policies, I think. For instance, Longmont, Colorado, where my sister and brother-in-law live, has a robust recycling program. Households have 3 trash containers for different items: a small one for normal (non-recyclable) household trash, a bigger one for organic waste (grass clippings, food scraps including meat and bones), and a third large one for glass, plastic and cardboard. The household trash is picked up once a week; the others are collected by a different truck less frequently. I believe the trucks are powered by propane, but I'm not sure of that. Certainly the sound they make is less noisy than a conventional gasoline engine. I grew up in nearby Boulder, when Longmont was considered a cowboy town, with a sugar beet mill and a rather horrifying turkey processing plant. Nobody went there--why would you? But my opinion has completely changed. It's a progressive well-run town with greenways adjacent to major streets, bike paths everywhere, and their own very fast internet service. They kicked out Comcast a long time ago. That being said, I confess that I reuse plastic bags 2 or 3 times before I discard them. We do have recycling here in Pátzcuaro, but it's part of the regular trash program. Big bags hang off the back of the truck for plastics, glass and cardboard. What happens to that stuff afterward is unknown. I do see trucks hauling a small mountain of plastic bottles, but where are they going and what happens when they get there? Nadie sabe.

I think I've seen posts about using fiber pots rather than clay pots on this forum but didn't pay attention to them--until my sister gave me 6 large ones. I don't have room for all 6, so I plan to give away 3 or 4 to friends, with the warning that it will require a lot of soil to fill them. (Possibly this is why my sister isn't using them.) Around here, finding good dirt is difficult, so most of us make up a mix of bagged potting soil from Home Depot, tierra de encino (forest floor sweepings), a little sand, and compost if we have it (I do). These are large enough to accommodate 2 tomato plants, a whole seed packet of bush beans, several peppers, and all the lettuce, spinach, etc., one could want. They have handles but I imagine they're pretty heavy once they're filled, so moving them from place to place seeking the sun seems out of the question. So what advice do those of you who use these pots have for a novice user? I understand that the roots grow to fill the entire vessel, but does that mean they need more water than clay or even plastic? What should I watch out for? Do they finally wear out or develop holes on the bottom? I'm looking forward to starting tomato and pepper/chile seeds in December to plant out in late January, having finally realized that utilizing the dry season--late October through May--is better than watching the plants slowly rot during the rainy season. The coldest time of the year is late December and most of January. The weather warms consistently around the end of January and there's full sun every day. I should have plenty of time to harvest before the serious rain shows up in June. Thanks for your advice. I'm off to start some salad burnet.

No, I think he meant "authentic American." If anyone can properly spell "amerikanish" please feel free to join in. All I know is that it sounded like that.

Actually, my landlord said "echte amerikanish" though I may be spelling that incorrectly.

I personally like "echte," such as expressions like "echte amerkaner." This was said to me by my German landlord when he saw corn tortillas. I could only nod and smile.

I love purslane. In my Colorado garden it grew wild and made a very nice taco filling with onion, chile, etc. My spouse is ambivalent about it but will eat it and sometimes even almost enjoy it. It's grown here and sold in the mercado by the women who sit on the ground to sell their products but I find it doesn't have much of the tart flavor I remember from my "weeds." In an hour of weeding you could harvest a mountain of it. Best before it starts to bloom.

Quesadillas and a quick salad. Another great way to use up the bits and bobs in the fridge, odds and ends of cheese, etc.

Oops--the red one is Kitchen Aid. (I have to learn to not post before I have my morning coffee!) This little Cuisinart looks like a miniature version of the one I have and probably makes the same amount of noise.

I see that Cuisinart has a Little Pro Plus chopper/juicer for 69.95 on their website. Is that the same as what you have? Pretty red color too.

I see that Cuisinart has the Little Pro Plus chopper/juicer for 69.95 on their website. Is that the same as what you have?

Sorry about clogging up this topic, but I just looked at the immersion blender I have. Rival, bought at Wal-Mart many years ago. Works like a charm. Two speeds, one piece (can't be taken apart for washing but easy enough to clean). Never have had a problem with it.

I just looked at the reviews on Amazon and more than one reviewer commented on the noise. As one reviewer said: "I would recommend wearing ear plugs during use because the noise level when grinding or chopping is very very loud and high-pitched. Remove pets and children from the room to protect their hearing." So probably not on my wish list. I'll look for another.

Many years ago I had a Cuisinart mini processor and gave it away because it was incredibly loud and annoying--like a high-pitched chain saw. Our dog would run away and hide when I used it. Is this one quieter? If so I may buy one.