Nancy in Pátzcuaro

One food I forgot to mention about Christmas food traditions--bacalao. Stores are full of it right now, including one store that brings in wood crates of bacalao from Norway. Very fragrant stuff! I love it, so instead of shrimp in the chiles rellenos on Christmas Eve I'll use bacalao. I always have some already soaked in my freezer. After this year's salt cod feast I'll have to restock. One year I bought an entire side of fish and soaked it all to put in the freezer. I realize some people don't care for it. More for me!

Christmas in Mexico has traditions that are not familiar to most of us. There are 9 days of posadas, when the neighbors parade along the street with a small creche, carrying candles and singing (tonelessly--I haven't figured out the tune if there is one) a call-and-response song about Joseph trying to find lodging for his very pregnant wife. He's turned away 3 times by surly innkeepers (the neighbors) before finally being welcomed. This is preceded by a lengthy recitation of the rosary. Then folks bring out the ponche (fruit punch that includes thin strips of sugarcane along with a variety of fruits), hand out the aguinaldos (bags of candy for the kids), and string up a pinata. We're assigned a neighbor to purchase everything for one night. Usually there's someone roaming around with a bottle of mezcal to "sweeten" the ponche. We've tried to incude mandarinas (in season now) or small jicamas, but the neighbors tell us the kids don't like it--too healthy! January 6 is when kids get their main gifts, though they get small ones at Christmas itself. There's a special cake--"rosca"--with small plastic baby Jesuses inside. Whoever gets one of those is supposed to supply tamales on Feb. 2 for Candelario. Most families eat tamales at Christmas with atole, but if there's food especially for Christmas I don't know what it is. I usually make something with fish on Christmas Eve, like chiles rellenos filled with shrimp.

Any ideas about how to separate the panettone from the wrapping?

That Netflix movie is the reason I no longer eat octopus.

When I first saw this topic I immediately thought of Giuseppe Arcimiboldo (1527-1593) who painted portraits composed entirely of fruits and vegetables (among other things).. Something of a gimmick at the time and not taken very seriously by critics, but pretty amazing. Check it out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giuseppe_Arcimboldo and https://duckduckgo.com/?q=arcimboldo&atb=v321-1&iax=images&ia=images1&iax=images&ia=images The paintings "read" normally from a distance but as you get closer you realize that the cheeks of that man are apples.

My deepest sympathy, Smithy. I didn't realize you'd lost your husband. That would definitely put me off cooking, so I understand how your mojo is gone.

Boy, do I sympathize with you, Smithy. I went through something like that earlier this fall. No interest in food (much less cooking), weight loss--the whole deal. I suspect it had something to do with depression, which has never been a problem for me, and after trying some medication that didn't agree with me I decided to just "snap out of it!" Seems to have worked, though the interest in cooking has taken longer to return. I am, however, happy with my new weight. (Gives me a chance to buy new clothes!) My spouse keeps bugging me to eat more because he doesn't want me to lose more weight, but I think that won't be a problem since I'm eating more normally (i.e., meals rather than snacking). I've also become interested in sourdough, both the bread and all the wonderful things you can make from the discard. Tortillas, English muffins, crumpets, crackers, pancakes (the best)--I'm having a grand old time. So there's that, at least. I'm confident the rest will return, eventually.

We're looking at that but for other reasons--we want to use a heat pump for our badly-installed in-floor heat. But getting rid of the CFE bills would be the cherry on top.

My new LG gas stove has a central burner like that. I don't think it's measurably higher than the others, but it has 2 rings for flames. If you turn on both of them it sounds like a jet engine, so I rarely turn it all the way up. I used it for wok cooking and for quickly heating my canning kettle. Supposedly it can be used with a comal but I prefer putting that on 2 burners for more even heating. By the way, all the talk about eliminating gas stoves will work only in the US and other countries with relatively low electrical rates. Electricity is much too expensive in Mexico for anything electric--portable heaters, stoves--so everyone uses gas (or wood) for cooking. It's a 3-rate system: the lowest usage gets the lowest rate, much of which is government subsidized, and at the upper rate it's eye-wateringly high. And if you dip into the highest rate in one month you're stuck with that rate for 12 months regardless of whether your normal usage is lower. We spend a lot of time turning off lights even though we've converted to LEDs.

Found them! Good old King Arthur--https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/golden-raisin-biscuit-cookies-recipe Now, of course, in lieu of buying them I'll have to make them myself.

Reading this topic, I was reminded of an old fave of mine. I think they were called raisin bars or wafers or something like that. Thin, with raisin puree (?) between two thin layers of cookie. I haven't had one in decades but now I want one.

When we bought our house 13 years ago, I was delighted to find 2 tall cabinets (95cm x 32cm) with removable glass shelves on either side of the stove. The shelves are 2 jars deep, which makes it easy to find what I need. (Would someone please give a medal to the person who realized that square jars are better than round ones!) Baking items and larger jars for things like caraway seeds are stored in one cabinet and savory herbs, etc., are in the other. The doors keep out light, but probably it is a little warmer than desirable because of the location near the stove. The only problem was that whoever drilled the holes for the pegs that hold the shelves drilled them just a teensy bit too big. So once I decided on the spacing, we glued them in place. I buy much of my herbs and spices from Penzeys, of course, but locally there's a bulk store in nearby Morelia that has an impressive amount of herbs/spices. Unfortunately they only sell them in 100gr. amounts. So the overflow goes into the freezer. I'm still working my way through the thyme--just hope it doesn't get lost in the freezer. I grow my own basil so that's one I don't have to buy.

Long ago I bought a Kamerstein digital scale (n Costco, I think) on a whim and then discovered just how useful it is. Takes a standard 9-volt battery, is compact (fits in a drawer), has all the right functions, measures to 0.1 grams (pounds, ounces, kilograms and grams), and is of course indispensable when baking. I also use it for a lot of other purposes, such as when a recipe calls for 8 oz. of pasta, but the bag/box contains 16 oz. I never imagined, in those old days making cookies, that I would be annoyed when the recipe is in volume measurements instead of weight. How long will it take before the people who write and publish these recipes finally consider using both volume and weight measurements? More and more do, I admit, but it's not universal.

You would think that all tacos are the same. Well, turns out there are mediocre tacos out there. Kudos to these guys for making a great taco, and how nice it was for them to be recognized. We all have our favorite taquerias. My personal favorite is tacos al pastor (pork).

Thank you all for your kind thoughts. I am grateful that my procedure went smoothly and that I was able to leave the hospital on schedule. Now it remains to me to do the work of rehab, including doing something for my back so that I can resume my normal life. If that's the only thing I have to do to fully recover, I will feel doubly blessed.