Terrasanct

These two recipes were my starting point, but I changed a lot: I. Ingredients: 2 tablespoons smooth peanut butter 2 tablespoons butter, melted 1/2 teaspoon liquid artificial sweetener 1/4 cup Splenda 1 scoop Vanilla whey protein powder Melt peanut butter and butter in microwave or double boiler. Mix in the sweeteners thoroughly. Add protein powder and stir until it forms a ball. (You may need to use clean hands to aid in the thorough mixing.) Roll up in ball and knead a bit; then separate into even portions, shaping as desired. Refrigerate until firm. II. Ingredients: 2-1/3 cups vanilla protein powder One ounce square unsweetened chocolate 1/2 cup butter 4 ounces cream cheese 1 ounce chopped walnuts 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 teaspoon peanut butter 1/4 cup Splenda Directions: Melt butter, cream cheese, peanut butter and chocolate in bowl in microwave and mix together very well. Add splenda and vanilla, mix well again. Add walnuts and protein powder and mix. Using your hands, knead it all together, squeezing so that the powder disolves into the mixture. Place in a baking pan, flatten and refrigerate. (Using a rectangular casserole dish works well.) When cooled and hardened, cut into eight bars. Recipe makes eight bars; about 3.2 carbohydrates per bar.

I didn't end up getting any huckleberries on my trip, but I used the ones in my freezer to make a topping for cheesecake. Maybe not as good as pie, but a whole lot easier to make! And it was very good, anyway.

I've been out of town for a bit; I'll have to find the recipe and post it here. It's more of a method than a recipe since I change things every time. What holds it together is usually peanut butter or cream cheese. The bars you buy at the store use things that I can't buy or don't want to use, including sugar alcohols. If they don't taste good I keep working on them. Sometimes a pinch of salt or a bit more vanilla. I usually just melt the peanut butter and/or cream cheese or butter in the microwave, stir in the other stuff with my hands, and press it into the pan. An 8 x 8 pan should work fine. Most of them hold up for at least a few hours at room temp; sometimes they are crumbly but not usually. Since they would be for breakfast they don't have to keep at room temp for that long.

I finally tried durian this week. I was in Seattle and saw one for sale and had to try it. We got a big knife and ate it outside, just in case it would stink up my mom's apartment. None of us liked it but it wasn't as disgusting as we'd hoped. It just tasted like honeydew with an overtone of cheese. My mom and my son and I all tried a few bites but didn't really think too much of it either way. I was vaguely disappointed; I don't feel like I really scored too many macho food points by eating it. Although just handling it without injuring myself should count for something!

I eat right most of the time anyway, but I really enjoy baking this time of year. When I bake I try to make sugar free things, but sometimes you just want to bake--and then I come here and read all of the good recipes. The problem is I don't have anyone to bake for; it's just the two of us. When I have an occasion to bake for other people I jump at the chance. You should see the collection of pristine baking books I've gotten in the past two years. Sigh... Oh, and add to that the fact that I sell books for a living, and I have about five thousand cookbooks. I have to be careful not to look at them when I'm hungry.

The headache is normal. I've been on low carb a few times; I really should get back on it again, but it's hard. I've lost 30 pounds overall, just need to keep going.

I used to have rice for breakfast all the time, just like that. We'd use leftover rice or just make it in the morning. My mom loved all kinds of cooked cereal, including 7-grain rolled or cracked, cracked wheat, farina, malto meal, and cornmeal mush with milk and sugar, or butter and sugar. The fact that she had six kids may have had something to do with always making hot cereal for breakfast (it's cheap) but she still eats it. I liked all of them except for the cornmeal mush.

I didn't know what it was, either, so I Googled it, which brought me back to egullet. Ah, okay. If you do a search here it should come up.

I can barely lift the ones I have, so I wouldn't want that. Why thicker?

I make my own protein bars all the time. They're low carb but probably not low calorie. I don't have a particular recipe, but just kind of add things until I'm happy with how they turn out. The basic ingredients are usually peanut butter, cream cheese, butter (some combination), maybe cocoa powder; Splenda, vanilla, whey protein powder, and then extra ingredients depending on how crunchy or chewy I want them. Like nuts, granola, Kashi cereal, toasted sesame seeds, flax seeds, or flax seed meal. The flax adds healthy fats and lots of fiber. Oast would probably be good, but I haven't tried them. I'll mix it up until it is a consistency that will hold together and then pat it into silicone muffin tins and stick it in the fridge. They're easy to remove from the silicone, too. It's nice to have something to grab if I need breakfast in a hurry, and they're pretty filling.

I have three varieties of the steel cut oats--Trader Joe's McCann's and another, but most mornings I don't have time so I make the old fashioned oats. The quick cooking ones taste like glue to me. I suppose oatmeal has gotten a bad reputation because of people cooking it for too long, but I love oatmeal. Has to be cooked just right so that the individual oats are still distinguishable. I cook in water, then add a bit of cream and the milk into the pan to heat up when the oats are done cooking. Used to use brown sugar, but Splenda now. Cinnamon, a bit of nutmeg, broken pecans or hazelnuts, and a few huckleberries or blueberries to finish it off. When I was a kid, we had cows, so the milk was always creamy. Or we'd have it with butter and brown sugar, yum.

Velcro apron: http://www.maxant.com/products/apparel_det...asp?ProductID=6

I always wanted a kitchen that at the push of a button would seal all of its surfaces and wash everything in the room like the interior of a big dishwasher. All the water goes down the drain and everything is clean. Is it too much to ask?

Some of them are sugar-free. I was tempted to buy some until I thought, duh, I'll just have a vitamin and some free water. No need to put more plastic bottles out there.

I made crabapple jelly a few years ago, and it was a beautiful pink color. All the more reason not to peel them. And I believe the seeds add to the pectin content when they are cooking. A food mill makes short work of the residue. Oh, and I've seen them pickled, too.

My thinking on this has evolved over the years. When I was raising my kids and cooked a lot, all of the cookbooks were messy. I wasn't the only one cooking, though. I remember getting a new copy of a bread book, and my daughter using it to make challah, and getting a huge stain on that page, after I'd tried so hard to keep it clean. She just graduated from culinary school, so I guess the dirty cookbooks and broken bowls were just part of her education. Now that I'm collecting and selling cookbooks, I tend to look at them more as actual books, and take care to keep them in good condition. Of course, I'm doing more reading than baking these days. Our family cookbook is in a binder with clear plastic sheets over the pages--a very practical method. I can still find the best brownie recipe by the cocoa powder on the pages, but I really could wipe it off if I ever felt a need. Edited to mention that when I buy cookbooks, I like to find pristine ones to sell, but I also appreciate the old cookbooks that were obviously loved by a few generations.

I never could find a copy of that New Yorker. I finally picked up The Omnivore's Dilemma, after having bought it a month or so ago. I have a large stack to wade through, but this one looks interesting.

Here is the recipe for my best chocolate buttercream. Kids and adults all love it. DARK CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING Yield: 2 cups 2-2/3 cups confectioners sugar 3/4 cups cocoa powder 6 Tbsp. butter 5 to 6 Tbsp. milk 1 tsp. vanilla Combine confectioners sugar and cocoa in small bowl. Cream butter with 1/2 cup of cocoa mixture in a small bowl. Alternately add remaining cocoa mixture and milk; beat to spreading consistency. Stir in vanilla. For glossier frosting, stir in 1 Tbsp. corn syrup.

I've never used either of those. I've never even heard of cassia buds! I'm assuming they're from the tree that produces cinnamon. Fascinating. And here I thought my cupboards contained every spice known to humankind. I'm editing before someone corrects me--I know cassia and cinnamon aren't the same thing, but cassia bark is used as a substitute for cinnamon.

What do you use black mustard seeds for? I have some because I bought some for a friend, but I really don't know what they're for. I threw some in a curry once and liked their crunch.

My table is old, and my kids grew up doing their homework on it, so I only cover it when guests come over. I figure my things are here to take care of me, not the other way around. I buy nice things from yard sales so I don't have to worry about how much they cost. I bought a very nice looking but inexpensive tablecloth recently. When my husband had some of his students over for dinner, some of them seemed nervous so I told them the tablecloth wasn't expensive; don't worry if you spill. And one of them did spill a glass of red wine and someone else their lasagna. The stains came out, but I was more concerned about people feeling comfortable in my house. And I'm comfortable with a bare table with a multitude of scratches, so it doesn't bother me.

I was thinking about this yesterday as I finished off yet another bottle of ginger, followed by a bottle of cumin. What do you tend to use the most of? And why? Is it because you make a specific type of cuisine, or just because you like the flavor? With cumin, I use a lot because I like salsas and other things that use cumin. Cilantro too, but I can't seem to keep it long enough to use it up. Ginger, on the other hand--I just love the flavor. I always have fresh, candied, and powdered in my kitchen. Yesterday I made a pumpkin cream pie, with a gingersnap type of crust (using nuts instead of flour), pumpkin cream, and candied ginger chopped up on the top. I probably would have made ginger-scented cream for it too, but my husband might have thought that was too much. I'll buy almost anything if it's ginger flavored. I love the little cookies that look like fortune cooking but with a ginger glaze. And ginger preserves, which are great on scones with cream. And just about anything made by The Ginger People. I use a lot of cinnamon, too, but it goes in so many things that it's almost as ubiquitous as vanilla.

Pretty! That's what's great about ganache--it covers up so nicely and has such a good sheen to it.

I found a few interesting articles about the history of bananas in the US. http://www.h-net.msu.edu/reviews/showrev.c...229991096374933 http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa38...i_n9121344/pg_6

But it seems that some sandwiches, if cut on the diagonal, will lose stuff at the corners. Bacon is especially prone to falling out. And I agree that the mustard shouldn't be on the veggie side; it just doesn't work. But no mustard on leftover Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches.