Terrasanct

I do have On Food and Cooking, both editions. I'll check that out, thanks. I also wondered--what about cutting the sugar down to half and replacing the rest with Splenda? (The granular kind.) Would the smaller amount of sugar be enough to do whatever it does chemically?

I do have Stevia, which I often combine with Splenda for a better sweetening effect. But it's a powder, not in a base. I haven't had any problem making ice cream sweet--it tastes perfect--but it freezes too hard. I have a few other artificial sweeteners in my cupboard, too. Also, I have been making vanilla with vodka and vanilla beans. I'm not sure how good of a vanilla it will make but I'm curious how adding some of it would affect the texture of an ice cream. I've never made an ice cream with alcohol but I've heard it has some effect.

I'm trying to find a way to make a decent sugar-free ice cream or gelato but I'm not sure it's possible. Splenda makes a good ice cream if eaten right away but gets impossibly hard in the freezer. Honey is pretty much as sweet as sugar, so not the best for my purposes, but can anyone tell me how making ice cream with honey affects the texture? Then there are the other artificial sweeteners like erythritol, xylitol, whatever. How do they change the texture?

And the best part is, it might stop a few people from eating at McDonalds!

I like this translation: Breast marshmallow The candy where God of the breast resides

I can't help but think that eating foods that we weren't meant to will start to cause us to react to them. What did humans eat when they were just evolving into humans? Not what we eat now, for sure. It makes me wonder how we'll evolve from now on? Maybe allergies are just nature's way of telling us to cut it out.

I seem to remember that cheese was good--just plain cheddar, not anything stinky. Let someone else do any cooking of meat. Potatoes, crackers, broth, clear sodas like Sprite--much of what you'd eat if you had the flu. I had five kids but it's been a long time. You have my sympathies--morning sickness is the worst! My ex-husband told me it was all in my head. I wanted to kick him in the crotch and tell him THAT was all in his head!

Thanks for the info. I think her plan is to go to culinary school, get restaurant experience, and eventually open her own place. She's 25 and has been cooking since she was a kid--she is working for a catering company right now and does some catering privately, too. She even helped me out when I was catering years ago. She has enough experience to know that it's not going to be easy. She's a tough chick--she can handle a lot. Seattle Central sounds good--I think that would interest her.

I just made a batch of lard the other day. I read through the lard-related threads here first, which was helpful. It was good to know that I should spoon off the lard as it rendered out and not wait until the end--doing it this way produced about three grades of lard, the purest of which I can use for pastry. I ended up with about six pints in all. The only downside--my husband complained about the scent for days, even though I had the windows open. I thought it smelled good!

My daughter is planning to attend a culinary school in the area soon. Does anyone have information about the alternatives?

When I'm at a farmers market or the fair I'm attracted to things that smell good, things I can eat while walking, and things that won't make me sick later on. If you will be selling to other vendors, you might consider what would work for them. I lived in NJ years ago and couldn't get over the wide availability of good foods. What about hoagies made with great fresh breads and lots of good ingredients? I know it's not fancy but it's something that is easy to assemble and people will buy. Everyone likes a good sammich. They don't have to be the huge hoagies that take all day to eat, but something on a smaller bun, maybe. A one-handed hoagie. And with an interesting side--like the sweet potato fries that someone mentioned. Sweet potatoes are cheap and there's a great markup there. Someone else mentioned pickles--also a good thing to have on the side of a hoagie. I didn't quite figure out if you're from Hawaii, but incorporating that idea into your business would attract people and if your food is good they'll come back.

I just bought some of this last week--on clearance. I may be one of the 77% that buys the wine, but I only drink about 1% of it and my husband drinks the rest. I want to like wine, but my body doesn't care for it too much.

Ling, that was the recipe I used. I wonder why the cake didn't work out? I'll have to try it again. I did add more wasabi--I knew I wasn't going to add more than I would like. There really wasn't enough in the recipe. As far as the black sesame seeds, they really added a nice contrast and tasted good, too.

My daughter told me once that I'm like vanilla. If she really understood vanilla, she wouldn't think it was an insult.

I'm an adventurous eater, as I'm sure most people here are. It's hard to love food and not love all its variety. But I know people who want their food, like their travel, to be safe. They want to know just what to expect, they want things to be like "home." I had an uncle who traveled all over the country with his wife and only wanted to eat at McDonalds everywhere they went because he knew exactly what to expect. Drove my aunt crazy. My husband is a McDonald's eater. Fortunately, he's open to other ideas, too. But that's the appeal of Olive Garden and other chains. Some people are afraid of food--maybe they've had an experience with food poisoning or slow service or dirty bathrooms that left them less than open to new culinary ideas. Who knows? Lots of people travel not for adventure but because they have to.

I'm definitely not a toaster collector! I would say that I didn't know there was such a thing, but I know an artist here in Montana who has a wonderful toaster collection. And a jukebox collection, and an old car collection--he even has an old railroad bridge. But some people like stuff more than others. I couldn't find a photo of his toasters, but this will give you an idea: http://www.charlesringer.com/Studio/studio6.html Okay, for those people who are paying over $100 for toasters to toast with, what special things do they do to justify the price?

If I lived in New York, I never would have gone to Olive Garden, either. But I live in Montana. I've been to OG a few times when I had kids at home. I didn't go there expecting it to be wonderful, I took it for what it was. I've never been to another location, so I can't judge the others--but the salad here was made with Romaine, the dressing was good, and the garlic shrimp was also really good. I don't get why people like the breadsticks, since they're just boring white bread. I've never tried the wine there. The soups seemed very salty. It's not someplace I ever think about eating again. But I don't get the "class" thing because that's just stupid. Okay, I'm not a New Yorker. I'd probably be one of those people who walks too slowly and wonders why people aren't nicer. I'm from Seattle; what do I know? But I think you should eat where and what you like--who cares what other people think?

Snowangel, thanks for bringing up that thread. I had done a search but it didn't turn up. Toliver, the food bank here is really picky about what they accept, otherwise I would. I don't even know if they take fresh produce at all. It's a shame, because I get a lot at a time every once in a while. The problems I'm having are that it's only the two of us at home and I can't eat more than one banana a day (too sweet) and so I'm trying to find something I can freeze or can. Of course, the nice thing about freezing them is that I can make something another day when I'm more inspired. I still have dried banana chips from last time, and frankly, we don't eat them. Thanks for all the suggestions.

Maybe some of you could get together and split an order.

The last toaster I bought, about five years ago, was around $20. Never had a single problem with it. I have a lot of cool things in my kitchen, but I never really thought of making toast as something that required too much complexity. Or money, for that matter.

Yummm... Now I just need to make ten batches of it.

Thanks for the suggestions--does anyone have a recipe for banana sauce? I fried up one sliced banana this morning into chips. They tasted not bad, salted. The slices did an amusing thing in the pan--they made circles and zigazags around the pan while frying. I've never seen anything else do that. And if I get a monkey, I'll remember about the monkey chow.

I was given a big box of bananas and I'm trying to figure out what to do with them. I'm going to mash up a bunch in banana-bread sized portions and freeze, but other than that I'm out of ideas. I'd like to find a way to preserve them. I've made banana preserves before, which are good, but I still have a lot left from last time. I've frozen them in chunks for making smoothies, in halves for chocolate-dipped bananas, and mashed for banana bread. What I'd really like is recipes for banana hot sauce, banana chips, or unusual things to do with them. Thanks.

Wow, all that chocolate! And none for me? It's nice to see all the photos. I tried to show my husband but he got grumpy and walked away. He's a big chocoholic. I made the Black Pearl cake and didn't like it at all. The idea was great, but the recipe for the cake was terrible. I don't remember where I got the recipe from; somewhere online. Maybe I got a link here. The cake itself was dry and crumbly. I'm not a beginning baker by any means, so I'm not sure what the problem was. I thought I'd try it again but with a different cake recipe--I liked the black sesame seeds and the wasabi flavor. No one was able to guess what it was. Everyone else liked the cake, but I'm picky about stuff like that...

What about phoenix? If you wait long enough, it cooks itself!