Beth Wilson

YaY! Pictures and food of my home! Manitoulin Island in the Spring is beautiful. Looking forward to this since I have been away to school and have missed the views there.

Sounds good! Will have to try this way. I usually screw up the sunnyside and end up with a mess. Will check out the thread.

I just returned from my first farmer's market of the year with a dozen duck eggs. I have never had a duck egg so I was wondering if there was a preferred way too cook them? Scrambling them seems a waste of a unique egg. Any Suggestions?

The herb box from last summer had some mint in it and I have noticed lots of new shoots are coming up so I will have a supply of fresh mint on hand.. So I figure it will go on my list of things to try!

So, how was it? Is it a do again?

Hubby's lists never get cleared up do they! You are so lucky he is so handy, that machine is looking way better than the first time I saw it, I bet it runs better now than it ever did before.

I would love to come and play in your Lab! I will even help clean up afterwards!!!

I may stay at sisters in Stoney Creek but I might be interested in a room in the residence to avoid traveling back and forth. Then I could enjoy some wine with chocolate on Friday night! Can we decide closer to the conference?

We had a family reunion last month and now I seem to have a collection of booze that I have never had before so I am thinking of doing the cocktail for novices course on egullet! Do you recommend a web site or book that the real beginner should try out? This might be fun!

I should be finished school by then so I hope to make it next year too.. It will be nice to work with chocolate again!

Wow, Wow, Wow! It has been a while since I worked with chocolate and your photos made me want to get out the tools and start up a batch or two. What a lovely display of your class results, they get better and better every year! Thanks for sharing!

I love your set up for making caramel corn....can you share some more details with us? What is the make of the equipment or is it something you made. I have only done small batches of caramel corn but I dreamed of larger equipment so I didn't have to make soooo much in busy season. Looking forward to seeing more of your days, really wishing I could be there too!

I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for the first time in probably 15 years, and it is all your fault! This thread started me thinking of good old snacks that got ya through the craving and there is nothing like a good cookie with chocolate to do it. I got a brownie recipe with my small toaster oven sized Pampered Chef stone pan and it cooks up in less than 20 minutes from start to finish...It is small and toaster oven sized but it was the Perfect size for my 11pm sweet cravings. Now, I must check to see if I have any Custard Powder in the house! Once again, Thanks for being great enablers!

Get a space heater. I know a few people who have had to do things like this with their ovens and it quickly burns out the element if it is electric. An oven that is heated up and doesn't have a fantastic casserole in it or lasagna in it is just a sad thing If you are just heating the room get the right appliance for that job, if you want to warm the kitchen and make an early dinner, through a big pot of something in there to cook while it heats. I even cooked a turkey in January (unstuffed)to heat up the kitchen and bonus! had some friends over to help me eat it

I think you guys might have to go back and try a little butter chicken poutine...I have been debating on ordering the butter chicken Pizza at our local pizza joint. Pizza is not my favourite but butter chicken is so I am torn Is butter chicken the new salsa?

The best quality that I can afford...I have gone back to school so the budget is tight, but never will I compromise and get the stuff that is dirt cheap and tastes like cardboard.....so I get the small size of decent olive oil and balsamic vinegar....I can survive. Butter was the one thing my mother would never compromise and I guess she taught me well.

I gave Dorie Greenspans "Around my French Table" to two sisters last year. I had purchased the book and knowing what they like to cook I knew they would love it. I figured we could recommend and talk about the recipes throughout the year...One sister has taken to it and the other keeps telling me she plans to try it (a year later). Years ago our family did a "Consumable only" Christmas...we are trying to stop collecting "stuff" I gave gift certificates from my favourite butcher and wine to my sisters and one of my sisters gave a new casserole dish filled with a frozen roast, some of the necessary ingredients and the recipe to her families favourite pot roast dish. It was a successful holiday and we have basically tried to follow these guidelines ever since. No More stuff that will collect dust. Cookbooks are a subjective gift (as I learned) and I think I would like the idea of the Amazon gift certificates.

I took a brownie recipe and used oat flour in it as a substitute with great success. The recipe called for one cup of all purpose so I used 3/4 cup oat flour and the brownies were fantastic. I did try a 1:1 substitute but it was too oaty tasting and dry.... Just try substituting in your brownie recipe.

Welcome Patti H! Enthusiasm is a common trait in Confectioners! It must be the kid coming out it all of us

Ok, I admit to being a little light in the knowledge on cocktails so I am even more of a novice than you Kerry, but what the heck is a flaming orange? Does it make a big difference in the taste? I just had my first attempt at flambe desserts so now I may need a new challenge!

A few years ago I went to visit my sister in Northern Scotland to tour around before she and her family returned home to Canada. They treated me to a fantastic restaurant of Indian Curry that was fantastic! We ordered quite a few dishes and we had a bit left of quite a few of the dishes. Apparently no one was paying attention when I just put a few of the dishes aside and when the waiter came I asked if he could put these couple of dished in something "to go"...The waiter gave me a look of horror! Sis says she would have warned me if she had noticed what I was doing. My sister explained to me that around there and throughout Scotland they don't do doggy bags (but take aways thrive there, go figure). Sis explained that when her kids were younger they started traveling with a large purse with ziploc bags and cold packs to take away whatever food the kids didn't eat. The food we got from the Indian Curry Restaurant was just as delicious the next day and I did not regret embarrassing the family to get it. I often order a meal at my favourite Manitoulin restaurant and separate a lunch portion off to the side. If I am not too hungry the lunch portion gets put in a to go container for lunch the next day.. The waiter/owner tells me that they always consider it a high compliment that the food was so good that you can't leave a morsel behind. I agree with Kerry on the fried food though, I would never get that to eat the next day since it will never taste the same and the texture is usually too soft and greasy the next day.

I live on an island in Northern Ontario and for years you would see the fishing boats come in brimming with whitefish and it was loaded onto trucks and taken to markets off the island...same with the farmed fisheries around here for things like Rainbow trout.. One entrepreneur a few years ago established her own distribution business and now we can find the fish in the grocer and at farmer's markets they have in the summer. For quality local meats I had to start asking around and finally hit upon a local farmer that has gotten himself the government approval to sell his products in his shop. It isn't easy to do that around here. You have to make friends with the local chefs and start asking the locals where stuff is...it usually is out there but not easily found. My sister lived in Scotland years ago and for her local fish, they hired a local fishing boat that would take their name and when he had about 8 or 10 people on the list he would arrange a fishing day. They would fish for hours and freeze what they came home with. I went with them when I visited and met some great people and we ate fresh cod and mackerel for that week. Best fish I ever had and it was one of the things I enjoyed most on my visit there. Not much help for your request for stuff now, but I have felt your pain and it took years to figure some stuff out where I live, but when I did, I found some great stuff.

Around Northern Ontario you can have frequent power outages. It has gotten better in the last few years on the Island I live on since they have been fixing the infrastructure but still happens a few times a year. In September they usually have scheduled outages that last from 7am til 3 or 4pm. Makes for a good day to take a long hike or read on the beach. We have been told by Health Officials that if the power has been out for more than four hours to toss things like mayo, eggs and milk.. I usually make that decision after 6 hours if it is really warm or not...for some reason these outages never seem to happen in the winter when you have the walk out freezer option like the back yard. We have had power out for up to four days. I discovered it is important to make friends with those that have a generator. The freezer was closed for 2 days and was still fairly frozen. We ran the generator on it for an hour and half and voila it was frozen again. You plan when you open the freezer to grab what is close and make it a surprise for menu planning. I gotta make friends with a person who gets a case of red for outages, I kinda like that plan and would totally contribute to a pot luck of fridge rescue meals. I think I should talk to the emergency preparedness committee about this idea :biggrin:

I have a MIL that has suffered with various symptoms over the years and has finally been diagnosed gluten intolerant. It has taken her years of a gluten free diet to finally get her health back...she does indulge in the odd bite of a dessert or yorkshire pudding over the holidays. She accepts it will make her feel bad for a few days afterward. Her friend is in a nursing home and has a gluten allergy that seems to put her in the hospital frequently and is seriously affecting her life. The kitchen staff are aware of her allergy but continually contaminate her dinners with flour traces. I feel for her as it is just as serious for her as a nut allergy which the kitchen staff have to treat seriously but the wheat and gluten allergy is not taken nearly as seriously. I have found that many of the items that have never had gluten in them (like spice blends) are now being labeled "Gluten Free" which does seem to me that they have jumped on the "marketing bandwagon" but my MIL has been pleasantly surprised with this development. Now she doesn't need to spend hours reading labels to buy things in the grocery store. I find gluten free cooking a challenge, and I for one am happy to see more things on the market for it, I need all the "brownie points" with my MIL.

What kind of BarBQ place doesn't do Ribs? I thought is was the must have menu item? Next time I am in Hamilton I will have to check it out.