GTO

The Stilton website has a recipe for a Stilton Cheesecake, it looks good from the little picture provided.

Another easy way to soothe it might be to keep breathing through your mouth, sucking air across your tounge to cool it.

Two great ways with chicken, Bob & Sara. On a complete whim, tonight I attempted some beef dumplings, something I've never thought of trying myself and they turned out really well. Whats more, I had no recipe to work from, just a very crude understanding of how to put together a pastry. They were good enough for me, lol. I "served" them (to myself), with broccoli and a beef/tomato & spring onion sauce.

Jesus, I was thinking "What's that mousse cake doing on top of the eggs?" But it's just the worst bacon I've ever seen. Lol, it looked like a slice of cake since it's underside is reflecting the yellow of the eggs.

For a "technophobe", you've got this posting lark down, insomniac. Well done, everything looks really good.

Smoothness - There's not much thats better, in my opinion, than a drink that goes down like silk. Also, I know it's best for certain beers etc but not being a beer drinker, I think serving drinks "ice cold" spoils them somewhat.

I was given some five-spices sugar for christmas. They come from a French company called Quai Sud. You could perhaps do some simple little frangipane tarts with something like this spiced sugar. If you can't find it online, the ingredients listed on here are simply; Cane sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, cloves & nutmeg. Something like that would be nice, with a little marscapone.

Even if I'm not going to eat it, I sometimes enjoy making cake mixes, just to see if they end up looking anything like they do on the box.

Foodman: Good on you for making your own ricotta, curing pancetta and making your own sausages, it must make it all the more satisfying.

Wow. You know that feeling when you're not even hungry but you just want it anyway...I got that.

Wow, beautiful photographs, Wendy. Most of my pictures have a Dutch angle, much like your first one. It looks really cool.

Hello all. I'm back, having been for a week skiing in Bulgaria. It looks like everyone has just carried on getting better and better, with some amazing photographs. I've been dying to write about the food we had. Bulgaria gave me some of the best meals I have ever eaten. Simple braised meats like beef and chicken. Sauces with mushrooms, garlic and dill. An fantastic range of salads was available at the beginning of each meal, which was closed with super rich walnut pie and Baklava, drenched in syrup.

Seeing as your friend is getting married in the Fall, how about drying some seasonal sliced fruits like pears, plums and orange zest and dipping them into a selection of melted chocolates?

Chufi - Your pasta looks amazing, kind of like pasta oysters, lol.

That's such a useful contact. I was aware that vanilla had a few savoury applications but wow, not as many as I've seen on there.

The pastry section seemed the most appropriate place to share a fantastic site I found, detailing one of the cook's best friends, Vanilla. It has some background on Vanilla, from the bean to grounds, flavourings and essences, along with some recipes. I just thought you might want to have a look, it's always very humbling to explore in detail, an ingredient such as Vanilla, which is so often used but seldom looked at closely.

lucylou - That rouladen scares me slightly. It looks like it's ready to fly, screaming off of the plate at your throat, Alien style. Kill it! Eat it's innards!

I recently bought a small box of dried shitakes too, snowangel. After re-hydrating, the first thing I did with them, was to use them to stuff an omellette. It was alright... Anyway, Epicurious has quite a few good recipes using shitake. Using them to make a sauce sounds good. Also, a bit of a strange clash but how about utilising them as a pizza topping?

I could sit and think of these all day! I'd like to try, maybe... Balsamic & chocolate chunks from Haagen Dazs Then something characteristically crazy from B&J's like those flavoured Kit Kats, made into ice cream... Coffee ice cream with Kit Kat pieces Yoghurt ice cream with Kit Kat pieces & strawberries or Chocolate ice cream with Dark Kit Kat pieces & cherries I'll stop now before I get carried away.

I usually only skim over the pictures in these kinds of demonstrations but I actually read this one right the way through. Little tips like re-warming the bowl with a hot towel, make it all a lot less daunting. Well done, Ruth.

I found this , listings some of the places to eat in Vancouver. You can easily look for somewhere else, this is a link to some of VC's Dessert cafes.

Haha, I can imagine the drama in Hiroyuki's kitchen. "...18...19...20, suck it, Yuzu! You were juiced, always remember that!" *Drinks juice straight, just to spite the fallen fruit*

I've a few ideas for some more christmas-like fillings... 'Brussel sprout & walnut' 'Ham & chestnut' or maybe something sweet, like 'Mincemeat & almonds'

Bruce - Your shortbread looks fantastic. If only all of them could be edge pieces.

Honey Pistachio Mint Cardamom and, since it's christmas, how about Cognac?