lemniscate

I did my riff on King Arthur Flour Caribbean Rum Cake. I don't follow the recipe exactly. I use way less sugar in the batter. I also soak freeze dried pineapple, mango and coconut in the rum to infuse the fruit and the rum. I make a paste out of the fruit and add it into the batter as the rum portion. Really nice tropical flavor. Then I use the infused rum for the soaking syrup. This is a really forgiving recipe. I am making these in waves and the second go at it I accidentally added twice the amount of butter to the batter. Didn't seem to hurt it in the least. I like the small loaf pans because it makes gift portioning the easiest. Also, I agree with King Arthur's kitchen that the cake needs the instant vanilla pudding. It just doesn't turn out right without it IMHO.

@Shelby I froze then vac packed the extra boiled peanuts I had. They were fine after thawed in hot water later.

My first impression of boiled peanuts (just salty, no spicy) was remarkably like boiled potato-ish. I dislike peanuts normally, in candy, peanut butter, roasted, toasted, brittled, just don't like them. Until boiled peanuts. Having Hawaiian friends and SW Georgia relatives gives an insight to boiled peanuts. The ones the Hawaiian's made were from dried uncooked peanuts, the Georgia ones were fresh "green" peanuts right from the field. I think the "green" peanuts were preferable, but there was not a big difference between the two versions that I could remember off-hand. I say potato-ish, I think others would describe them more cooked bean-ish. I split the (very soft) shells and suck the peanut out, discarding the shell. Very good with cold beer.

Egg Drop Soup.

I add vinegar to certain soups, like borscht, in the bowl when serving. Would that be a possible use for this type of vinegar? I like an acid hit to my chicken soup also, the Mexican way, with a squeeze of lime. ,

I'm no help with current recommendations but I was lucky enough to attend the Taste of Tasmania in Hobart once upon a time and everything offered was wonderful. If he drinks whisky, I hear that Tasmanian whisky is considered either the best or among the best in the world.

There have been a couple exploding meteors reported in the last 2 days in the SW/SoCal region. I wonder if you saw one of those. You can read about them (and report your sighting if you like) here. I've been lucky to see/hear/feel a couple of big disintegrations in the past. It is truly an awe inspiring thing once you figure out what's going on.

I like boiled peanuts too. I learned to like them from Hawaiians. I recently saw you can use the Instant Pot to make them, which saves a lot of time. Google it for lots of hits. I haven't tried it, so I don't know which one to link to.

Ah, ok, now I understand.

@Anna N I'm not sure what's available in Canada, but "Zep" Instant Spill Absorber; "Spill Magic" LIquid Spill Absorber; and "Odorgon" Powder are used for oil spills and are carried on Amazon US.

@btbyrd We like the mini wini's for quick appetizer dinner or camping, right out of the jar with Maille mustard. World Market has the french made Maille Ancienne mustard I love. Which I forgot to order on this coupon, oh well. Since there was a nice coupon, I am trying the other Meica jarred sausage for the first time. Hope we like them.

I did 12 ortiz tuna, and 6 anchovies and a few jars of Meica sausages and sundry other things. cha-ching.

I did cinnamon nutmeg palmiers with some TJ's puff pastry I found in the freezer. These are going to be a Christmas cookie gift plate addition. (I like the darker, more caramelized ones).

I remember hoop cheese or we called it "store cheese" as a round orange cheddar-like cheese that was sliced for sandwiches. It had small irregular holes. I think it was 5-6" in diameter because one slice covered the bread and then some. The entire cheese was maybe 18" long? Longhorn or colby is closest to taste to what I remember from Walt's Five Points Market back in the day. I think it was called hoop because of the form that was used to make it possibly?

I love Cahill's Porter Cheddar from County Limerick, but can't find it anymore. Costco had it for a while, then Whole Foods carried it, but now that's gone out of their case also. TJ's carries a inferior knock-off once in a while. It's not good. I think its mosaic look is one of the prettiest cheeses also.

I will never again: assume the top rack in my french door Oster is correctly in the tracks without VERIFICATION and RECHECK. Somehow I think I am smarter than I am and more diligent than I am. I have lost 1 batch of lemon shortbread a week ago, and this morning THREE of my Caribbean Rum Cakes mini-loaves to pulling out the rack to take a look-see and having it pitch forward and launch the baked goods onto the concrete patio floor. I picked up the last idiot failures and the Grackles are loving them on the lawn. I popped opened a large Rogue Dead Guy and contemplated Life, the Universe and Everything for a while. I will carry on and re-do the Rum Cakes. I am not blaming the oven, it is what it is.

I have! I forgot about that. I liked it, but I never quite could figure out how to use it.

I made a topic for the pomegranate juicing here with pics.

Since I didn't want to derail @Smithy's travel thread with more juicer and citrus talk, I decided a new thread might be a better idea. My neighbor just so happened to gift me a bag of pomegranates off his bush. He doesn't seem to use them. My bush did not fruit this year, probably because I pruned it heavily since it was out of control. Here are the pomegranates being cleaned. Maybe 30ish? I did the smallest ones first. Some years the pips are very light colored, other times deep red, these are in-between. They are probably not completely ripe since there are none that are starting to crack. Heh, I'll take them anyway. Ready for battle. About 10 of the smallest ones (3" diameter) got me this much juice. Here's what is left from the press. It does not get all the pips, but a large percentage. These pomegranates are ignored backyard fruit, variety unknown, not the beauteous commercial types. About 2.5 quarts was the result. Does it taste just like store bought POM juice? No. It's a bit thinner in viscosity and less sweet. It also picks up a slight tannin flavor from the pith. I like it. The household likes it. So it's worth doing. The detritus gets put out for the fruit eating birds too. They like it. P.S. Since I do grapefruit and lemons with this juicer, here are some of the jars of the juices I canned mentioned in the previous thread. Grapefruit in the quart on the right. Left is a light colored lemon syrup, center is a lemon syrup that caramelized as a happy accident. All are good.

Re: Pom juicing. Just cut them in half and squish them. Most videos on YT are of Istanbul Grand Bazaar fresh pom juice stalls, like this. I only do this once a year at pom harvest, so I don't have the effortless technique. Poms are pretty strong fruit.

Gladly. this technique was saved on my computer, so I believe this is the one I followed. Ball also has a process. I do not add sugar to my juice. I also use this juicer since it is big enough for the grapefruit and the pomegranates I normally juice. It's a great arm workout though for tens of dozens of fruit. I think the canning does dull the grapefruit juice flavor just a bit, maybe that is why some techniques say to add sugar and/or citric acid. I use the juice for cocktails mostly, but I've sipped it ice cold and been very happy with it. Also, any solids settle to the bottom of the jar and if it's not disturbed, you get a nice, clear juice for presentation. I also canned lemon syrup in pints, some sweetened with sugar and some with honey, for easy lemonade all year. I've used the syrup to make my lemon shortbread and it works great too. Early 2018 was my first time ever canning anything, so I am a novice. I figured the high acid of the citrus can cover any sins I committed in the eyes of more experienced canners. I used to freeze the juices in blocks and cubes, but it just got out of control with space. I don't have ample freezer space. So canning was an experiment that seems to have worked so far.

Why oh Why couldn't it have been Kale? No one would miss it.................

I had no idea until just now that the official name for the "Chinese Take-Out Box" is an Oyster Pail. Learn something new everyday. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oyster_pail

Maybe the most non-technical solution? An inked custom stamp?

Word. I have a neighbor with what I think is an Oro Blanco grapefruit tree. It is a beautiful tree and I suspect it is at least 30 years old. It is consistently loaded with fruit. He hates it and has threatened to chop it down several times because he doesn't use the fruit and doesn't like picking up the fallen fruit. For the past few years, I've pulled hundreds of pounds of fruit off that tree for my use, for food banks and senior centers and general distribution. I hated grapefruit juice until I tasted the fruit off this tree. I did my first canning project ever and canned a few dozen quarts of the juice so I could have my Greyhounds and Salty Dogs during the long hot summer. A citrus tree like that used to be a point of pride, now people just see them as work since citrus is available all year round in some form. I have my own lemon tree that I try to use every last lemon off it in someway. I wish people would appreciate what's in front of them. Gifts abound. I negotiate with my neighbor every year to give the grapefruit tree "one more season".