Badiane

I would start with Urbanspoon Saskatoon and go from there. I think there's a lot of good Ukrainian food to be had, if you like that sort of thing. When I was a young girl, about 10, we visited my sister there and went to dinner at the Bessborough hotel...I think it was a Hy's Restaurant at that time. I can still taste that steak

My office is over a Subway. The smell that comes through the floor vents is disgusting. We have collectively decided that the funk is a combination of the chemicals in the bread, cookies and pastries, the chemicals on the lettuce and the stench of rotting lunchmeat and vegetables. I don't eat there often - there are lots of inexpensive asian noodle options in the area - but once in a while I brave it and get a tuna sandwich. Far too much tuna, IMHO, but a reasonable value for the money. Breakfast for those of us who don't like eggs is kind of a rip-off, especially when down the street I can get a bun with 6 strips of bacon, cheese and hashbrowns piled on it for 3 bucks.

Actually, Swiss Chalet is running a commercial in which an enterprising employee dreams up that particular channel and pitches it to the boss. So I'm guessing it's the real deal. My husband will watch it. He loves chicken

I have a friend that is a duck farmer...he makes more money off the unhatched eggs and the tongues than he does off the actual ducks.

Wow...that's really something I would never do. Okay, I might wait for the fridge to die, because they aren't cheap...but waiting for a ten dollar blender to croak off so I can buy a new one? I think not. Off it would go. I'd just leave it in a box on the curb marked with a $10 sticker. Someone would 'steal' it in about 90 seconds. Same goes for the hand blender. I admire your frugality.

Town in a Lobster Stew just came out yesterday...the first book in the series is called Town in a Blueberry Jam. BB Haywood is the author. I also really like Julia Hyzy's White House Chef series, as well as Laura Childs Cackleberry Club series. I have about 20 different ones on my kindle...you are exactly right when you call them snacks!

I'm a big fan of culinary mysteries...thinks with titles like 'Town in a Lobster Stew' and 'Fatally Flaky'. Light and entertaining. Sure, actual literature is a big part of my reading diet, but you can't beat pure escapism. I have just been trying to read Thomas McNamee's book on Alice Waters (it was a gift, I felt compelled to try). I got a third of the way through. I don't like Alice Waters. I don't care who she is or what she's done, I just don't like her. And I feel sorry for her daughter, having that woman as a mother. As my own mother would say, I do believe I would cross the street to avoid her if I saw her coming, if for no other reason than to stop myself from slapping that smug grin off her face.

*lol* Glad you didn't notice the spelling mistake. Or perhaps you did and were just too polite to point it out.

Oh please do!! I LOVE Lucy Maud! We can talk about raspberry tarts and cordial!

I've seen recipes in top-notch cookbooks by authors everyone here would respect if not adore, calling for "2 octopuses" Octopuses is perfectly correct and is the widely used and accepted plural form of the word octopus, even in scientific circles. While octopode is certainly the technically correct plural, it's considered pedantic and isn't really used. Octopi stems from the mistaken assumptiom that octopus is a latin noun in which -us takes the plural form -i. Octopus is actually ancient greek. Hence octopuses. If it were latin, it would be octopedes. There endeth the annoying grammer lesson

As a Canadian, I highly recommend that you go out and purchase a nice piece of the organic meat of your choice and have that instead. They aren't food. Seriously, don't eat that. You don't know where it's been.

While I don't care much for the Barbie atmosphere with all the pink and perky happening, when you are someone who has to limit carbs, sugar, fat or whatever, her recipes are not the worst by a long shot. And that satay is actually quite tasty, just so you know Is it the real thing? No. But it tastes good to someone who isn't allowed to have the 'real' thing.

Well, thinking back to cooking school, and digging out a few notes, made on the recipe itself - here is what I wrote - I'm thinking they really tried to drill this into us. I'm guessing there was angry french shouting involved somewhere along the way Don't beat the eggs too much - a moderately beaten egg still has definition between white and yolk. Add the salt and pepper before you beat them to avoid overbeating. Beating is done with a wooden spoon. Not a whisk. Not a fork. NOT an egg beater. A wooden spoon and only a wooden spoon. We are not looking for lumps. This is not Denny's. This is to be a smooth homogenous mass. Smooth and creamy. Lumps are to be, above all things, guarded against. Do not use too high a heat. Stir with a wooden spoon. Not a whisk. Not a fork. NOT an egg beater. A wooden spoon and only a wooden spoon. There endeth the lesson My recollection is that this was a fluffy homogenous mass with no real lumps...firm enough to be spooned, not runny like a hollandaise. I guess the only why to know for sure is to find someone that trained under him, but I guess that probably isn't a possibility anymore. Pity.

I'm going to make an educated guess here - one is that you should not puree the mango. Just add it in chunks. Two is that the lime is playing a part and I would leave that out. Three is that it would only need to sit for about a week, two at the most. But mostly I am guessing that the puree and the lime are your big issues. I suspect that the puree and the lime juice pulp are floating a bit and that's where the trouble is starting. Try it with some plain chunks and see what happens. Make sure that everything is submerged well. If you really want the lime flavor in there, use a few strips of zest rather than juice. Good Luck!

I got a teal Le Creuset braiser...3.5 quart size. Very nice, much too expensive. Will be well loved and seldom used, I'm afraid. There's only the two of us. Also Dorie Greenspan's latest, plus a lovely cookie book and 'In the Sweet Kitchen', plus a couple of recipe books on my new Kindle. And a Kitchen Aid pasta attachment, which will come in very handy next month when I have to churn out 900 gum paste violets for a wedding cake. Plus cash to purchase a professional grade waffle maker. It was a very merry Christmas indeed!

Ihave fond memories of Bugles and Hockey Night in Canada...wearing them on the ends of my fingers like claws. Ah the 70's. I live and work close to the border...we can't get Bugles in Canada anymore, but they have a whole shelf of them at the Lynden Safeway They are delicious with that other product that we sneak across the border to buy...spray cheese in a can! Disgusting, isn't it?

Bump... Surely someone has had an experience this year they can share!

I have a full gallon of Jim Beam macerating with a fist full of madagascar beans...that's my batch for next Christmas. This year I am doling out the stuff I made with cognac. In the four years I have been doing this, bourbon is by far my favorite. I find the vodka too acrid. I am excited, however, to break out the vodka for the sumac/grains of paradise as suggested by andiesenji. Any idea how long that might take to infuse?

I'm looking to see if there is a source for good vegan baking and sugar free baking anywhere between Hope and West Vancouver. Vegan need not be sugar free, sugar free need not be vegan. I'm just curious from a prospective bakery owner standpoint. I'm far less interested in wholemeal puck like tofu cookies that take an hour to chew and much more interested in brownies, cake, pie, candy, caramel corn and other tastes really good stuff. Same with the sugar free...can I get a chocolate cake with no sugar? Or caramel corn? Lemon Meringue pie? Like I said, I might buy a small bakery and I'm looking at product expansion, so I thought I would put it out there and see if anyone knows

Anna, I applaude you for not supporting Tim Horton's! For those of you that may wander into Canada and find yourself trying to order coffee down at the T-Ho, you will need to know the lingo... Double Double- means double cream, double sugar. Double Single - means double cream, single sugar. Single Single- means single cream, single sugar. Triple Triple - means triple cream, triple sugar. If you want milk instead of cream, throw in milk at the end, ie: Double Double milk. And if you do not want sugar, don't say the word sugar or they will throw it in. They won't hear the NO part, just the sugar part. So just say double cream... And while you are there, try the rethermalized donuts! Yes, they are just as bad as they sound!

Are you at all interested in being a pastry chef? You would be the exact right person to run one of those allergen free bakeries that are starting to pop up - nut and seed free, often with lots of gluten free products. Maybe something like that would satisfy the itch to cook professionally without endangering your life?

My first encounter with Robuchon was the book Simply French. It's the oldest cookbook in my collection and I save it for one very specific reason - there is a giant hair on the plate in the picture of the pineapple dessert. That picture reminds me that we are all cooking together, and that even Joel Robuchon can still screw it up. I've made nearly every recipe in that book because of that picture. Hey, if he can do it, I can do it. And there won't be any hair on my plates.

I hadn't thought much about fabric. Oh Lord, I'm going to have to go to Fabricland. I HATE that place. Makes me feel like a failure. All those women who can sew a straight line wandering around. I'm going to get my mom to do it. Sure, she's 84, but at least she can cut straight and owns a serger. I find, especially with food and mennonites, that as long as there is lots of it and it tastes better than the lard sandwiches and parsnip soup they survived on during the depression, they will think it's beautiful and perfect. As for the bride and groom, I could cram Ken and Barbie into a stack of donuts and that would be okay for them. They just want to get to the wedding night, they don't care about the food

This is a very bare bones family wedding...the cake will be disassembled and cut up by various aunties. The whole reception will be serve yourself squares and cookies, so no one will be looking for pre-plated perfection. Thank God. Because they aren't going to be getting it. As for the flowers hanging over the edge as they are...I am planning on creating that effect by making a pre-glued floral fringe - most likely in three inch segments, and then gluing the flowers directly to the cake board, or perhaps to a strip of gumpaste that I can then pick up and stick to the cake board. Fortunately, my brother is the pastor of the church it is being held, and I can have the run of the kitchen for the two days prior to the wedding, and a key to lock people out, so I will have plenty of time for things to dry in place and not have to move them very far, if at all. I suffer no delusion that this cake is going to look like the picture, but if I can get the general effect, it's all good. My husband was a master confectioner and baker in Europe for a long time, but gave it up ten years ago to come to Canada. His experience is all with royal icing and fondant, so this is a bit of a new experience for both of us. He assures me that while we may not be using the techniques used in the picture, the effect will be the same. I will settle for not being humilated The cake stand design will be shamelessly stolen from various things I have seen at raisethecake.com and will be make of sturdy mdf or some such and covered with fabric. The first riser, the one under the bottom cake, will be part of the stand. The risers between the tiers will be styrofoam, of course, and I am going to cover them with ribbon instead of icing them. That will just be easier for me. I'm going to buy the ribbon first, then get the styrofoam cut to fit it - I figured that would be less frustrating. I have been practicing with the gum paste. I think the class I have signed up for will be money well spent. It kind of reminds me of my first pottery class, where I created several bowl like blobs and a vase with a hole in it

Oy Vey...I am so glad I started this five months before the wedding because I have gotten some really really helpful information from all of you! I need 150 generous servings of cake - this is a cake and coffee reception. There will be other items served (whatever my sisters and I come up with, apparently) but we are mennonite and the food better be generous. I am thinking that I will do five tiers from 12 inches to 4 inches. That gives me 174 servings, depending on who is doing the cutting. I have perfected the recipe and have worked out how to get the baking done without having batter sitting about waiting to be baked, so that's good. The venue for the wedding has changed, and I now have access to a) space to ice the cake the day before and b) adequete refrigeration. I have abandoned the royal icing, even though it is my personal preference because I like a more free form look to the flowers. I have signed up for a very expensive gum paste class with Jennifer Dontz, and will have a good foundation for making flowers at the end. Right now, I plan to create them in plain white and paint them the week before with a bit of petal dust for effect. As for the bride, she's out of the picture. She's in Moose Jaw, I'm here, and the wedding is in Victoria, so I won't be seeing her beforehand, and if her inability to answer email is any indication, I am on my own. She threw a dart and picked the cake and never looked back. I'm sure if you asked her right now, she would not be able to describe the cake to you other than it has lots of flowers. So really, any pressure I feel will be my own, because this is a very no frills wedding without any extras at all, and I want her to have something very special. Thank God the other niece getting married next year has the means to pay a caterer!