Kerry Beal

But not really for baking! Chocolate I'd be happy to help out. Welcome richichi! I was a lab tech in a previous life as well - ART micro, bacti and haem.

Aluminum bars can be cut for you by the Metal Supermarket if you happen to be in north america. Slabbed ganache recipes - I'd consult Greweling and use his proportions for the basic slab but up the flavours. How's your dipping?

Welcome Tanya - sounds like you are learning a whole lot very quickly. I'd use a different airbrush for water based stuff than cocoa butter based stuff. I'd be concerned if you did both with the same brush that you might get moisture in your cocoa butter and cause it to seize making it very hard to clean later. That being said I've taken airbrushes that were used for liquid food safe colours and repurposed them for cocoa butter after I made good and sure that all moisture was out of them - but wouldn't use for both. Colours for spraying in molds are fat based - generally colours for icing are water based. You can also dilute chocolate in more cocoa butter and spray that in a mold along with the cocoa butter based colours. Cocoa butter based colours are not that difficult to make yourself - though I've never managed to mix a green I'm happy with. When trying to make an intensely flavoured filling I often try to get 3 sources of the flavour in there - so I'll use fruit puree, with the addition of freeze dried fruit powder and perhaps a bit of compound flavouring (a commercial product of intense flavour) to try and get something that can overwhelm the chocolate and cream components in the ganache. Powdered stuff needs to be ground quite finely so it doesn't add a grainy feel. Although ganaches can become grainy through poor mixing techniques as well.

Lovely collection Pat. Now if I could just get rid of the ear worm - "I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK - I sleep all night and I work all day"

I've got a triple scale hygrometer here.

Their texture was not too far off a regular muffin - perhaps a tiny bit denser. 1 cup oats1 cup buttermilk or yogurt1 cup flour1 tsp baking powder½ tsp baking soda½ tsp salt¾ cup brown sugar1 egg beaten¼ cup melted butter1 cup frozen blueberries Combine oats with yogurt and let stand. Add egg and melted butter. Stir in dry ingredients just until moist. Add berries. Bake at 400 F for 15-22 minutes.

Failed to mention - when I was at work the other day - a few phone calls found someone who has a grinder and a couple of presses and lives about 15 minutes down the road. I will take my apples over there on the weekend and get them run through. Think I have a couple of containers of sufficient size to bring the cider back for fermentation. Next issue will be the Uhaul to get all that fermenting juice back home!

Lunch - bacon, cheese and tomato - non vegetarian version.

Took these out of the oven this morning - thought to myself - they don't smell quite right. Smell like they have no sugar! Yup - no sugar. To make silk purse out of sow's ear - Bread pudding in the oven now.

Only one other thought - if you make your own rice crackers here you could make them bowl shaped. That of course presumes that they retain the crispiness that the commercial ones do. Far as I can see online there is no such thing as bowl shaped rice crackers.

Thanks Andie - lots of good info there.

Yup - that's the guy!

I don't think it can be done with your 3 different molds. I would instead get 3 of the same mold (something very basic) - bang them out 3 molds at a time with some sort of feature that tells you one ganache from another. There is a chocolatier (that got money from the folks on Dragon's den) in my area that seems to have it figured out. Essentially all his moulded chocolates were made in the same mold. He then added two dots of colour to the top of each to indicate which filling it had.

Thanks for the heads up on the laxation effect.

Not much of anything actually - they were missing that essential sproutiness that I don't really care for.

They tasted nothing like Brussel's sprouts - hence I ate them.

Anna and I were at the gas station the other day - we got talking to the wife of the fellow who owns the station about the market and how we'd just been there and found it pretty sad. She mentioned she had been there last week and most of the vendors said it would be their last week. She also mentioned that one of the vendors had given her the last of her citron melons. This of course got me excited. Apparently she had been given 6 - she had made 3 into jam and the dog had mistaken two for his balls and eaten them (I realize how that sounds - so I just had to post it anyway cause I couldn't stop the tears from rolling down my face). She offered us the remaining one. I went to pick it up from her husband Jim today - also included was a bottle of the jam she had made with them. I want to candy this one and will start doing some research into it tonight.

Dinner

When I'm up here I buy Farquhar's dairy butter - but saw this on special at Giant Tiger for $3.79. Had to buy cause I like the Sterling too - especially on sale!

Tonight - a Pisco Sour.

This many apples in my cider fund so far.

Didn't stay crunchy! I did add a bit of extra moisture.

dbinokc - no sign of oil outside of my pump yet - unless I spill. I tend to drain an ounce or two of watery oil off the pump each run and top up with fresh oil to the middle of the sight glass. Over on the Falling Back on Island Time thread - I've started playing with some of the freeze dried foods I brought up north with me.

Rounds this morning - then off to the clinic. First use of the freeze dried cheese - rather interesting to have crunchy bits in a biscuit! There was a bowl of plums on the counter when we arrived - seemed a good opportunity to make the 'proper' version of the summer torte.

Nah - that's not how I work. Just show people what something can do - they gotta want it themselves!