Terrasanct

I made a batch last night and I'm happy with the results. I melted some butter and added balsamic and honey, with a little corn syrup for light sweetness. I let it bubble for a while until it thickened and poured in the nuts, stirring until well coated. After a little draining in a colander, I spread them on oiled parchment paper on a sheet pan, sprinkled pepper and sesame seeds over the top and baked in a low oven, about 250 until they seemed right--one batch at an hour was a bit too long; 30 to 45 minutes about right. Of the three nuts I tried, hazelnuts worked the best. The glaze is slightly sweet and tastes just a little like the balsamic. It's a fairly light glaze. I'm going to add dried blueberries, dried pears, and maybe pumpkin seeds if they taste right.

See, this is exactly the problem I knew I'd encounter. I like my mixes, but they aren't quite the same. I put sesame seeds into clusters because they stick together that way, but other things are kind of floating around. Although the Sahale ones did have a fair amount of stuff on the bottom of the bag, too. I did use the egg white glaze for the wasabi almonds, and just coated with butter and spices for the pecans. Hey, maybe I'll try heating up some butter with a little honey and balsamic vinegar with spices and coating the nuts, then heating them in a low oven for a while. That might work. The problem is how to get them sticky enough for the fruit to be added after and still adhere to them, but not have a tooth-breaking-sticky-hard-candy mess.

Sounds like I should send you a bottle of the dark, bitter, runny, and clear marmalade I just made.

I was going to pick up a few bags of the Sahale Snacks to get some ideas, but Cost Plus Imports doesn't sell them anymore. I wasn't trying for an exact copy anyway, just kind of the same idea with spicy nuts and fruits. I wonder if the flavors will change any over the next week? I see that one of their flavors includes balsamic vinegar. I'm trying to think of a good way to incorporate that flavor. They use powder, which isn't an option for me. Maybe marinating the nuts for a while before baking them. Time for more experimenting, I guess.

Well, here's what I've made so far: Spiced pecans with Craisins and candied orange peel, with a sprinkle of fresh ground black pepper. Wasabi almonds with candied ginger and sesame clusters and cocoa nibs. The third batch will be hazelnuts (with ancho chili flavor?), pepitas, and dried pears. I just have to finish cracking the hazelnuts first, which takes forever.

I just recently made a starter, not nearly as complicated as yours sounds. I haven't tried making breads without a recipe, though. Some of my favorite sourdough recipes are French bread, oatmeal sourdough, and herb and garlic sourdough. I'm not sure if this answers your question or not. Here's a link to some of the recipes in my family cookbook: http://www.maystar.org/Cookbook/Breads.htm

None of these things are "artisanal" but they are homemade. I'm making my kids and mom gift baskets with a bunch of interesting foods. So far I have hazelnut granola, which will have home-dried organic pears and apples in it. The hazelnuts are from a trip to Oregon this year. Maybe it qualifies for artisan status since I have to crack pounds of hazelnuts. I'm also making Limoncello, candied orange peel to dip in chocolate, orange marmalade with ginger, hot chocolate mix (sugar free and with sugar), marshmallows, homemade vanilla, good crackers, onion confit, pet treats, and a fruit and nut mix I mentioned in another thread that I hope to be something like Sahale Snacks--combinations of pecans, cranberries, orange, and hot pepper, and another one with hazelnuts, ginger, pumpkin seeds, and maybe dried pear or apple. Not sure yet. I'm not sure what else I'll make, but I'm having good messy fun in the kitchen right now.

Thanks; I appreciate the replies. I always like chutneys with cheese; maybe I've entered chutney territory with this now. I added some ginger and a hint of cinnamon and I like the flavor. I think I'm going to call it Evil Marmalade.

I've never tried to make marmalade before. And I'll be honest, I didn't so much use a recipe as make use of all of the leftovers from making a huge batch of candied orange peel. But I've made tons of other kinds of preserves and it looked promising. When I went to bed last night I transferred the marmalade to the slow cooker and put it on low. I got up this morning to check it and it's turned really dark, and has a taste almost like molasses--not that strong, but something like it. It's still a good flavor, but it's not what I was aiming for. If I decide to go ahead and bottle it, should I add anything to it to lighten it up or to flavor it? I'd hate to waste it at this point. The candied peel turned out lovely, at any rate. Thanks to whomever it was that posted the recipes and methods to make it in other threads.

I had a Roomba but it quit working. I got it at a yard sale; not worth the original price. But I loved it! Especially for getting under the bed and other places I couldn't reach. I still had to vacuum every once in a while but it did the daily stuff so I didn't have to. It was also entertaining to watch, but the cat didn't like the competition.

I made a pilgrimage to Costco and bought a bunch of oranges for the candied orange peel, apples and pears to dry (mostly for homemade granola), and some almonds to supplement the pecans and hazelnuts I already have. I was tempted by dried blueberries, but not at more than ten dollars a pound. I figure I'll start processing fruit and just work my way up to the nuts--maybe I'll make a small batch of spiced pecans and go from there. I was glad to see all the varieties of organically grown Washington apples at Costco.

I have a nice hardwood floor in the kitchen--not my idea, but I like it. It's impossible to keep it from getting a bit banged up with a klutz in the kitchen, though. I'd always heard that hardwood is hard to take care of, but I just give it quick, frequent mopping with a microfiber mop, which works fine. My husband, the ex-art curator, likes to do the corners on his hands and knees every once in a while. I tell him to go for it, as long as I don't have to do it.

I looked at that. I guess the main question I have is what method I should use to coat the nuts with spices and things. I think I want to make a couple of different variations--one should definitely have ginger and orange peel in it. I'm also wondering what makes the Sahale snacks different from others I've tried--larger pieces? Organic ingredients? The combination of sweet and spicy? I'd probably buy them all the time if they weren't so expensive. Besides, like any good cook, I'd want to tailor something to my specific likes. Of course now I have to stop at the store and buy a few packages to compare.

I'm sure many of you have tried the addictive and expensive Sahale Snacks, combinations of nuts and other sweet and savory things. I want to try to make something like this for Christmas gifts, and I haven't been able to find any recipes or methods. Any ideas?

I've just started my second batch of vanilla a few weeks ago because all of my kids want some soon. I need to buy more beans for cooking--can anyone tell me what kind is best? Are Bourbon the best for baking?

I'm bringing this thread up so I can ask John a question about his chocolates--I'm wanting to order some for myself; what would you suggest for a good assortment? I didn't have time to stop anywhere when I was in Portland in October, but I'll have to stop by your shop next time. Oh, and my SIL loved the Rechiutti, by the way.

I seem to recall that there's some kind of chemical in dark crusts that isn't found in light ones. Maybe you crave that? Or maybe most people avoid the crust because they were trained that way by their mothers insisting that they eat the crust. The heel of the bread was the piece always left in the bag on storebought bread, but for homemade bread it's the best part. I like crust, even though it produces a lot more crumbs than the other pieces.

I'm always amazed by the amount of knowledge to be found at egullet. No wonder I love this place!

Someone at another forum says that a pie crust recipe calling for boiling water to be poured over the lard turns out really well. I've never made one this way and I have to know if ayone else has. Wouldn't using melted lard make it impossible to have a flaky crust? I guess it would be the same as pie crusts with oil, but I've never seen the point of those, either. Someone enlighten me, please.

My husband and I met online, and it was a while before we met in person. He's not a great food lover, but I didn't know that at the time. When we met I brought him some homemade bread and good chocolates. Turns out that bread is about his favorite food, chocolate is second. That's probably the real reason he fell in love with me.

Lately I've been eating something I thought I'd never like--cornmeal mush. My mom used to make it and it wasn't my favorite. I'm tired of eggs and don't like eating sweet things in the morning. I add sharp cheese, onion and garlic powder, butter or cream, and onion confit if I have it. Sometimes jalapenos or green chili sauce on top. It would probably be really good with bacon, too.

Is it a paste or a powder? I grind my old beans and use the powder for various things, one of which is to put some in the coffee grinder when grinding coffee beans to flavor the coffee.

I saw an article on MSN today about the guy who makes these decals. Pretty cool! Updated link: http://cgi.ebay.com/C21-Flame-Decal-for-Ki...9QQcmdZViewItem

...and I just finished it last night. Wow, it took me a while to read it, but what an interesting book. I was re-reading Fast Food Nation at the same time; a lot of the same points were made but in very different ways. Pollan is such a good writer; now I want to read The Botany of Desire. So now that I'm done with OD, I needed to find something else from my stack to read. I picked up a book about the writings of Escoffier and the Pat Conroy cookbook. Someone here had mentioned it so when I saw a copy I set it aside. When I had the two books next to each other I thought it seemed an odd pair, wondering what Escoffier and Conroy could possibly have in common. Then I started reading the Conroy book and his first story was about how he learned to cook from Escoffier! Found that amusing. Even more amusing, laugh-out-loud funny, in fact, was one of the first stories in the book involving Nathalie Dupree, snails, and a bucket full of testicles. I think I'm going to like this book!

I don't understand why they can't use other sources to make ethanol. I'd hate to see even more acres planted in corn; it's not healthy for the land or for us. In many foods, they wouldn't even need to substitute sugar for the HFCS; they could just eliminate or drastically reduce the amount of sweeteners in most foods. I bought a can of tomato soup the other day and it had HFCS in it. It was way too sweet. What has the corn monoculture done for us? Helped to impoverish small farmers or drive them out of business, require the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers to grow it on the same land every year, and fatten the populace. What possible gains could be worth all of this? Enriching a small number of large agribusinesses? It makes me want to boycott corn altogether. I can't imagine that growing corn for ethanol makes any kind of environmental sense!