BarbaraY

My usual car snack is a Snickers bar or Payday after shopping. Only problem with the Payday is the peanuts fall down your shirt. My other snack is those nasty cheese crackers filled with peanut butter. Sometimes I will just buy a small packet of peanuts and dump them into the cup holder and nibble at them. Do we have a pattern here? Almost forgot. If I buy a Jumbo Jack in the drive through the fries last me just till I get home to eat the burger. Don't think I've ever made it home with my fries.

My daughter had gastric bypass 2 years ago and lost over 100 lbs. Her life has changed drastically in that she has much more energy and has become more out going. She was clinically depressed and is now much better. I was against the operation but it was a good choice for her. I know several people who have had very bad results.

This is what the chef (Sue Torres) used when I saw the demo of atole being made at the Chocolate Show! I'm not a big fan of Mexican chocolate - I don't love cinnamon with chocolate - but it was good for what it was! ← Abuelita has sugar and cinnamon flavors and cocoa butter. Blend with hot milk. It is nothing like any of the packaged American hot chocolates. My youngest absolutely adored it as a child. Not as good as what you get in Mexico but good non-the-less.

I have only once cooked a goose. I was barely twenty at the time. My husband and I went to a farm that had advertised geese for sale. We bought one, brought it home and killed it. My mother-in-law assisted with dressing the goose or maybe she killed. She was very good at processing birds. I cooked the goose according to a recipe I found in my one cook book. It was barely edible. I have never prepared another and if I mention one the whole family cringes. I do want to make those chestnut spaetzle, though.

Do you remember reading the Little House books? The girls were thrilled to get an orange in their stockings. Getting an orange in the middle west until recent years was probably as rare as getting a durian now. Perhaps the pear is because of the partridge in the pear tree.

Drying parsley, cilantro, epazote, or chervil should be considered a crime, in my opinion. Some Mexican dishes just don't work with fresh oregano. Dry is the traditional ingredient. I heartily dislike dry rosemary. To me it tastes like soap but it will live through the winter here so I have a bush that I have to keep cutting back. I have thyme growing year round and sage and flat leaf parsley, too. I don't buy those little packages from the grocery. I tried the basil several times and found it tasteless. Slugs got my basil this year. I did get some good basil from the Farmer's Market.

My mom used to make potato pancakes with onion. For some reason they had an offish taste and texture that I couldn't stand but then my mom isn't the best cook around. I have made several versions since then and found several that I liked. I have read recipes that call for draining the squeezed out water to get the potato starch that has settled and then adding the starch back into the potato. Does anyone here do that?

I fixed cardoons one time many years ago. As I recall, I had to string them, blanch in boiling water, and then fried them with some kind of coating. I think we liked them but not enough to go through all those steps again. I'll probably be going through your area some time next month. My youngest daughter lives in Santa Cruz so I'll go if there is no fog in the Valley.

When I cook brown rice, I like to roast it before cooking. I put it in a saute pan and toss it over a medium flame until it darkens just a little and smells toasty. I cook it in my little Aroama rice cooker with about 1/4 cup more water than plain white rice. The toasting gives it a nice flavor that I like. I learned this from a man who was on a macrobiotic diet.

I have the regular Chinese chives in my herb bed. I put theminto mashed potato and they are very tasty this way, too. Here is another site that offers seeds of Chinese chives or leeks including the mention of covering the broad leaf chives to make light color. Chinese leek

I would love to have been there to observe. I have two fish sauces in my pantry. One is Orchid brand Patis, not my favorite. I prefer Tiparos but my store was sold out when I got this. I'm not especially fond of Orchid Brand or Dynasty products but that is just about all I can get here. The other sauce is one I picked up in PA last fall. The only English on it is the ingredient list but it smells and tastes just right. I've never seen the Squid brand but will check next time I make a food product expedition.

You did a good job. Congratulations!

Unless one has a medical condition like diabetes or high blood pressure, I don't see anything wrong with feasting on Christmas and Thanksgiving. Of course if one rich meal sets a person off on an endless binge it's another story. I'm sick of the Food Police trying to make us fear our food. OK! I'm off my soapbox now. Sorry about the rant. I have to have creamy mashed potatoes with lots of turkey gravy and pumpkin pie with gobs of real whipped cream. The rest of it, too, but those are essential.

Since I decided to make sweet potato gratin instead of the usual candied sweets, I had a lot left over. I sweated a leek in a bit of butter, then added some chicken stock and a couple of sprigs of thyme and let it simmer a bit. Then I added a good portion of the sweet potato and simmered a bit longer. It looked rather curdled but when I blended it with the immersion blender it smoothed right out. I added a splash more cream and served it with bacon crumbles and minced chives as a topping. Made a very nice supper with a crusty roll.

I break up the carcass and cover it with water in a stainless steel pot. This year I got side tracked and didn't add any aromatics but the stock is golden and tastes of pure essence of turkey. It is in the freezer for next time I want turkey gravy. I've never made any stock in cast iron. Are you using uncoated cast iron pot? That could be the problem.

Yes! Yes! Lard in tamales and plenty of it! I had some this season that were made with Crisco.................booooring!

Diana Kennedy has a recipe in her first book, "The Cuisines of Mexico''. It calls for peel of 1/2 a pineapple, 1/4 cup brown sugar, and a quart of water. Everything is placed in a glass jar and kept in a warm place. As it begins to ferment some of the peel is removed. She says it should take 2 to 3 weeks,

That looks delicious. I love scallops and snow peas.

A beautiful table and lovely food. Congratulations! I would like to know what the difference is.

As others have said, keep the bowl in the freezer if you do things on impulse. I keep mine in the freezer most of the time but took it out this week to have more room for Thanksgiving leftovers, etc. It makes lovely small amounts of ice cream and no watery mess.

How often can we get away with eating pie for breakfast, shrimp puffs for second breakfast, cranberry cheesecake for elevenses and so on throughout the day? Pies are now gone but there is still a bit of cheesecake that's calling to me. Rachel, I too would like to hear more about the eggs and gravy.

What I would give to be able to browse through the market. The cheeses have me drooling. Even the best cheeses found here are wrapped in plastic, as are the worst.

I was going to suggest the driving over them method, too. I've never tried it myself. The brick and hammer are my usual choice of weapons. I don't like cracking them but I like them well enough to do a small amount. There is a cracking device that can be purchased. As I recall it was about $70 so unless you're planning to stay in the house for a long time probably not worth it.

I find it terribly arrogant that she should try to force her issues on others with no forewarning. I doubt that she gets many second invitations. 'Fraid I would have yelled at her if she had screwed up my pumpkin pie.

I HATE TURKEY SOUP! Now that that's off my chest, I'm thinking about what to do with what is left. I've been thinking about Turkey Tettrazini. I used to make it when my kids were little but I don't even remember how it tasted. And my tastes have changed. Some of the things we ate then, now taste horrid to me. Think I'll go get a bit of Cranberry Cheesecake to tide me over.