Heidi the Pilgrim

WHY? Just WHY WHY WHY? The Sloth is brain dead, who would hire him for a "real" job? I'm so mad I missed this week's episode, but I had a hot date with Cesar Millan - hopefully they'll rerun before the finale...I want to see Sara "It's Not My First Rodeo" go down in flames. Someone please tell me she gets herself impaled on the little devils fork thingy on the way out?

If I could figure out how to attach a photo, I'd add one of the last batch I made with the mostly green lemons - it still didn't come out as 'green' as I'd hoped, but I was lucky enough to find green swing top bottles at a kitchen store so it at least makes it look less like a urine sample. I guess unless we get those miracle italian lemons that go back to being green, we'll have to live with the yellow ones.

I don't know why women would be upset by that - he's not saying that women are incompetent, he's saying that women just plain don't/don't know how to cook. As a child of the 60's and 70's, with a full time working mom who was a good cook when she had time, I was pretty much raised on Hamburger Helper, Rice A Roni and Shake and Bake, and every other convenience food that was touted as a working woman's best friend. When you don't show kids how to cook from scratch, the icky boxed stuff is all they know. When I grew up and learned how to read labels, I vowed never to touch the stuff again and started getting passionate about learning to cook real food. Some women just canna be arsed, I guess. I have to confess, harsh as it is, when I meet other women who say "I can't/don't cook", my immediate thought is "Pah, how USELESS..."

Shame my smiley icon didn't work - that was a joke. In fact, from what I have seen of him on tv he has never once acted inappropriately towards a woman (I said as much above)- for that, I respect him.

Jumping in here - thank you for bringing up the Australia thing, trashing one of their best loved presenters for really no apparent reason, and then when confronted by the man, he booked it out the backdoor like a coward. I despised him for that, and decided he was a jerk with a bit of an integrity problem. Now I wonder if he saw himself on Boiling Point and thought he'd better clean up his act, (certainly his wife was not pleased with his performance) because in subsequent shows he seems to be less pointlessly vicious and more honestly pissed off at incompetence. There's plenty of that in HK to be pissed off at. Good grief, I'm just a home cook but even I know what an egg glaze is - don't know where they found these losers but ain' t none of them fit to work at Denny's, much less a fancy resort. Back to Gordo, after watching HK and Kitchen Nightmares, I have to say I'm almost liking him, he's quite decent to the silly restaurant owners who can't manage their way out of a paper bag, and sincerely seems to want to turn them in the right direction. And I love that even while Virginia is fairly flashing her naughty bits at him, he takes absolutley no notice of her or of any kind of suggestive, lacivoius comment from the girls - for that I could like him a lot. Yeah, I'd go for a beer, but I'd be ready with my knee if he got obnoxious...

I can't always find organic ones, so I buy what I can get and use a fruit and vegetable wash to get the wax and whatever else off. I'm still working on my produce manager to get me some green lemons - fortunately he's Italian, and he knows what I'm after, but is frustrated because he can't seem to get them green. He was going to have his mother send them from Italy!

Well, I've decanted the two batches that I started, and I have to say the color is a little too pee yellow for me. Tastes OK, not great but OK, can't figure out why it seems so 'strong' or a little bitter, I didn't use anything with pith on it. Thinking there was something to what they say about Itialian made limoncello, that it's made from mostly green lemons, I was excited to find some underripe lemons at the grocery store. While I was supposed to be shopping for Easter I instead started another batch with my half green lemons. The difference is night and day, it's now that 'neon' green, instead of just yellow. Methinks I need to make nice with the grocery manager to get those green lemons they're holding in the back of the store till they're ripe enough to sell. We'll see about how it tastes when it's done. I still manage to drink the pee yellow stuff.......any port in a storm.....

I can't seem to find an answer to this specific question, so here goes. Last weekend I bought a chunk of gorgonzola, sweet soft gorgonzola, which was wrapped in gold foil and then plastic wrap. When I unwrapped it at home, there was a pinkish color mold over half of the cheese and it was very 'wet' in there. I seem to recall someone saying a mold of that color is very toxic, so I cut it off and worked around it. Mostly the color heebed me out and I didn't want to take a chance. I expected blue and white cheese, not blue, white and slimy pink cheese, did I get a bad piece, or is this normal for the cheese? Thanks for any enlightenment.

"I would love to hear about your experience with basil schnapps. I'm hoping it would be something one could use when cooking, to give a basil flavor when the fresh stuff isn't available. " I'm trying to imagine how I'd use it. All the schnapps I've ever had has been sweetened, whereas if you sweeten the original they call it a cordial or a liqueur. Must be different in Denmark? The lemon basil (you have to grow it, a variety called Mrs. Burns) might be mild enough to drink, and perhaps even sweeten, but I think it might also be good as a condiment like a vinaigrette, splashed over tomatoes and fresh mozzarella. I'm definitely going to try to make peppermint schnapps this summer from their recipe. The recycling people are going to think I'm a real party girl with all those empty vodka bottles in the bin... Limoncello envy - mine's not ready and my freezer is empty...wah.

I have bought DD for years and years, I buy the beans, grind and brew at home. According to my friend the coffee expert, I like it because it's a mild city roast, not dark roasted and strong like some others. Personally I can't drink black coffee or I would end up with a big hole in my stomach, I drink mine with stevia and half and half (gave up light cream for caloric reasons), and I still like it better than any coffee I've had anywhere. I think the key is to buy the beans and grind your own, I think they use preground coffee in the stores and it's not the same at all.

Hello all, I'm brandy-new to the forums, having found you in a search for limoncello information. I've got my third (this time double) batch infusing right now, but after reading Katie's recipe I ran right to my jars, opened them up and zested in some limes - might help with the depth of flavor. I'm a little confused about recipes, however. The one I used I found online somewhere. It called for 15 lemons, and two 750 ml bottles of 100 proof vodka, but I used a bigger 1.75 ml bottle, because I thought that was equal to two. Clearly, there is a reason I don't do math in my head.... The simple syrup is 4.5 sugar and 5 c water. They seem to be turning out great tastewise, perhaps a teeny bit sweet, but I hate to reduce the syrup because I'm afraid of it not being thick enough. Suggestions? Should I cook the simple syrup and reduce it slightly? BTW, thanks for the info on how to make it 'cloudy', I don't like it clear, and there must be a reason it's all sold in frosted bottles (which of course I cannot find for home bottling). I'm delighted with this little pearl of wisdom! Thanks also to Steve for the info on schnapps recipes. I'm a home gardener with an abundance of herbs and especially lemon basil and there's only so much pesto a girl can eat. My mind is simply swimming with possibilities....