hummingbirdkiss

I have made this recipe for HUGE crowds and even used self rising flour instead of mixing the salt and baking powder into the mix with great success..also you can use part buttermilk instead of the water and you can increase this to any proportions you are able to handle 9 cups flour 3 tsp salt 3 tbl baking powder sift those together well then cut in 1/3 cup of chilled butter or lard then add 4 1/2 cups of water with 1 tbl of sugar and 1 tble of yeast dissolved in it stir in until mixed well to form dough ball but do not knead it (if you have a giant food processor you can do this in there I have done smaller batches in mine and just pulsed it until it was a dough ball) when you have a nice ball of dough cover it with a towel and let it rest for about 1 hour break off into golf ball sized pieces (or larger depending on how big you want them) and pat or gently roll out into a 1/3 inch thick disks .....deep fry (I use a big skillet) until puffy and slightly golden ... you can eat these piled with cooked pinto beans cheese ..salsa or whatever or sweet with butter and honey or butter and cinnamon sugar my family loves them with lamb and roasted green chiles ... my extra nontraditional tip is to add the yeast to the dough ..it makes it so much puffier hope this helps

so does it have to be fries ? or can you use fry shaped fruits with the gravy/chocolate, caramel or whatever ..sauces to pour over the fruits? for the cheese you could just put cubes of cream cheese..or marshmallowa in there I guess?

one trip to SE Florida and one bite of a stone crab claw and you know the whole story .... getting blue crabs and stone crabs mixed up??? I can not believe it!!!! that would be like me getting King and dungeness mixed up!!! maybe I need to watch her show again someday nah maybe not

uh uh ...I love chocolate with an unreasonable passion.....but kissing wins even over chocolate ...any second of any day for me!!!

buttermilk biscuits of any type made with enough buttermilk to make a drop dough...I also add some curry to my chicken inside ... people love this dish!!! what a great idea for a party ...it is true comfort food

those are so beautiful!!!! I have been waiting and waiting to see your resolve and I am astounded you could just make those!!! congratulations!!!

I know casual and inexpensive but really good places line Robson and I have never spent $100 for my husband and I to eat unless we want high end meals..for the fun meals that we grab amidst our shopping adventures ..we spend more like $60 /2 and about $30/2 lunch to eat and drink quite well on our very frequent trips (tip included) Simba's is just off Robson .(I am sorry I can not remember the street but it is listed) ....very reasonable and good West African food ... I have eaten at Zin twice and was disapointed in the price and quality of the food and service there ... also White Tower for really reasonable Greek food is on Robson as well .. there are so many places to eat I can not imagine you will go too wrong .. I have tried several of the Korean places and they were all really reasonable and good food

I agree with Sparrowgrass I have been canning for 30 years and honestly every year I contact the local Cooperative Extension for the lastest issued publications by the USDA for the few bucks if anything at all ...I spend each year... safety is worth it they also have some really good recipes!

100% ...now I just need to go to all those places and test my skill!

What size is a cheesecake pan? 12 inch And is a cake mold one of those pudding-type bucket molds? I have a couple of old small English pudding molds I use and I have steamed these cakes as well but it was easier and it did not make much of a dif I baked it so that is what I do most times Can I use bundt pans? Yes if you grease it well and can line the bottom with parchment ...any cake pan will do actually..you can even use a loaf cake pan ..I have also made mini black cakes as gifts by making them in large muffin tins then wrapped them well and gave them away like that as part of a gift basket I am not sure if it was mentioned before but I have also served black cake with hard sauce and that was very good ..but alone with coffee or topped with heavy whipped cream are my favorite ways of serving it ...I had some with coffee yesterday morning and did mot get much done after that

it is nice reading through this thread and seeing what I never really realized ..I always thought we ate what we wanted when we saw it ..but really we do have a set pattern of seaonal eating that is such a strong part of who we are that we make our vacations follow our food loves!!! Spring I tend to make a lot of Persian food during the spring because of lamb prices, all the herbs and rhubarb available.....we eat a lot of rhubarb because I grow a hillside of it!... make sweet and savory rhubarb dishes..and particularly love it layered with stuffed grape leaves...and even just eat it raw out of the garden! Chives go in and on everything I never really eat them any other time of the year so I take full advantage now... home made Green Goddess salad dressing ..fresh every day and it goes on almost everything!!!! black cake of course local strawberries and spring salmon I make a fantasitc Copper River Ceviche every year that my coworkers fight over and talk about months later! as part of my spring tradition... go out and pick spring mushrooms and eat them with fresh local double yolk eggs harvest nettles and make cream of nettle soup... I love spring!!! Summer A lot of grilled food ...mainly Caribbean or the Southern Italian dishes of my childhood....fresh pastas, fresh chutney...roti bread made on the grill Berries are big here ..really BIG! I have all types of berries growing in my yard..every morning during the summer I go out with a bowl and pick my breakfast off the vines..then come back in and eat them with heavy cream or Greek yogurt....I never get tired of it and do it until the last berry falls into my hand! ..I also put fruit and berries into every dish I can possible think of we eat a lot of pork and duck in the summer it is such a natural with all the fruits! everything we eat during the summer is harvested locally Fall Green chiles and family in New Mexico are the center of everything ...we gather outside Santa Fe in the most amazing place...visit the roasters get bushels of green chile roasted then come home sit on the porch look a the view while peeling and hanging chile to dry...we also make huge pans of enchiladas ..cinamon rolls and fruit crisps .....salsa chips drink tons of beer and wine ..... peel dry and freeze the green chile so we are squared away for the rest of the year fresh sage the smell of sage in the fall is like magic to me Garlic harvest and time to use all the fresh garlic I want in anything I want to apples and pears Winter Hearty Southern Italian dishes and lots of New Mexican style dishes are the center for us during the winter We make salt cod dishes as well Red and Green "Christmas" chile enchiladas (I make pan after pan of enchiladas in the winter) tomales sweet and savory... home made donuts black cake winter squash chocolate anything citrus fruits lots of lemon and lime in everything ...

I think it is equal if you just remove the meat from the seeds that is tamarind paste as far as I know... I use both the same way depending on what is easier to get my hands on

this is it and it is not exact you can mix and match to make your cake unique mine changes every year!!! 6 lbs of dried mixed unsweetened fruit (more or less) 1 cup of lemon/lime/orange rinds (you can add these along the way when you eat a fruit just grate the rind first and toss it in your fruit mix) 1 3 inch piece of fresh ginger sliced 1 bottle of dark rum 1 pint of brandy (fruit brandies are good for this like apricot or cherry) 1 bottle of port wine you want enough fruits and booze to fill a gallon jar you can mix and match any fruits you like my usual from Trader joes or similar is to use dried pineapple, peaches, cherries, raisins, apricots soak fruits for 3-6 months (If you plan to make this cake again and you will I hope it is really best to double this and make 2 huge jars then you can use one jar to make the cakes and split the second jar to make two more ..the older the "mother fruit" gets the better your cakes get ...it is heritage food!) when ready to make the cake take out and grind the fruits in a food processor until they are coarsely chopped the amount came out to a gallon of chopped fruit since the fruit was chopped with the liquid and was already soaked up ..the volume of the chopped vs whole fruit did not change much at all Browning 2 cups of brown sugar in a heavy bottom skillet carefully blacken the brown sugar until just before burned when the sugar is black remove it from the heat and add 1/2 cup hot water slowly stirring until mixed well set aside cake prep ingredients dry sift together 6 cups of flour (half and half cake flour and AP flour) 5 tsp of baking powder 1 tbl salt 1 tbl fresh ground ginger 1 tble fresh ground cinnamon 1 tsp fresh ground cardamom 1/2 tsp fresh ground cloves 1 tsp nutmeg 2 tsp all spice cream together well 1 lb of unsalted butter softened 4 cups brown sugar 2 tble good vanilla 2 tble rosewater 1 dozen large eggs the browning in a giant bowl mix the wet and the dry then add the fruits ..in the end I dive in with my hands and mix it all together well you should have a nice thick mix of cake batter that can be poured into pans that are greased and lined with parchment on the bottoms I prep four cheese cake pans and one cake mold bake in a 250F oven for about 3 hours until a toothpick comes out clean ...let cool in the pan wrapped in for at least a day wrapped then remove the cakes wrap them in rum soaked cheese cloth then plastic wrap then foil then put in a ziploc bag and leave for a 3 weeks enjoy!

I never use nuts I did one year and they did not add anything to the complexity of the flavors in this cake and the texture was not right either ..it was disapointing ..one year I soaked my fruits with some coconut rum I had on hand ..that was kind of nice but not traditional at all ..not for me anyway ...Ok I have to think this out and write it down now my cake right now is at its peak of flavor I made it 3 weeks ago for Easter but last night a taste of the last cake and for sure 3 weeks age is the best!!!! for me anyway ...

I love all types of chips I imagine although rarely eat them ..until I found my favorite chips TIM's cascade Alder bbq ...dipped in whole fat cottage cheese ..a dear friend taught me that and I have been cursing him for my new addiction ever since!!!

I found a huge tub of Marscapone at Kash and Karry for very cheap ..Trader Joe's has the small containers that are not too badly priced but Kash and Karry has the best buy I have found

I am so excited in the interest in this cake ..I love talking about it!!...where I live there is only one other friend of mine that makes it !

I used unsweetened mangos, peaches, apricots, cherries, raisens, pineapples, 3 kinds of dried cherries...any fruits are fine that you like ..figs come out kind of gross texturally but ground up are fine I have used those and dates in past mixes ... I have not seen dried papaya that was not sweetened I did not weigh the fruits but I could since I always use the same amt ..I keep two gallong jars going as I mentioned and then spilt the one remaining and refill both jars ..so the mother jar keeps going .....I used that entire gallon jar I had shown you above then ground them out in the juice my homemade browning came out perfectly fine and it was very easy to do ...I have made pumpernickle bread ages ago and it is the same kind of browning these are always very popular for weddings as well ... another thing I do is grind all my own spices ...you can not beat that ... half cake flour and half AP ok this weekend I will sit down and write it out ... it is as I said ..kind of like the family meatloaf recipe!

I will absolutey post my recipe for you but I have to sit and think about it first so I can make it as accurate as possible ...I am in the midst of a heavy work week so early next week I will ...(hold me to it please I am exhausted!) I do use rosewater in mine and have not seen that in any published recipe ..it is absolutely a must for me other than that other things should be simple to find ...

that is funny to hear since I grew up in Providence RI and was taught how to make clam sauce with wine by women from Sicily..who always said that a nice white wine brightened the flavor of clams...go figure

Not a chance no one is quite as capable of cooking as well as I do in my kitchen

I am surprised no one loves David Arora!!! the books are so good ..clear pictures ..easy to read ...easy to carry... maybe he is regional ...

about once a year I go out with a bunch from work for a really lovely dinner ..one of these women is just horrible to the servers and we tend to just whisper to them to please humor her and we will leave the best tip on the planet if they can hold it together ..this past week she began calling to tell us she is ready for our dinner..this lady is a great nurse and we respect her ...but not in a restaurant .. one of the most miserable things she does is when she needs a warm up of her coffee she holds her cup up (one btw she has not touched because she can not shut up long enough to drink it while it is hot) tells the passing server "my coffee is cold please bring me a fresh cup and I mean fresh cup I do not want the one this cold coffee is sitting in!" she will do this 3-4 times in a row making them run for her after she lets the coffee get cold ...her voice is grating when she does this ..sometimes I want to dump the freaking coffee on her head!!! I may be "sick" this dinner gathering

OH do I ever agree with that about the grit! and really wash that parsley!!! I never add extra juice to mine and I actually just leave the clams in the shells anymore and just scrub them and add them to my sauce letting them open in there so the juice dumps right into it and I dont miss a drop!...I love the flavor, it is less work and more fun to eat with my fingers anyway I never measure but my list for clam sauce is as follows LOTS of good olive oil Italian parsley good pino grigio lots of garlic cream just a splash kosher salt (just a touch) cracked pepper instead of crushed red pepper in mine I add one minced habanero (family secret) and of course clams ..I have mostly used well cleaned Manilla clams living here on the West coast ...back east I used little necks heat the oil ...toss the garlic ..parsley ..habanero and pepper in and sizzle for a minute ...then add the wine about a cup ...bring to a hard boil then add the clams cover for a min ...when they pop open add the cream toss gently and if needed the salt ..go lite that is it ..this takes no time at all

Abra that looks perfect!!! just keep adding to it ..I usually make two of those jars and keep adding fruits and booze until they are crammed packed! the fruits taste good over ice cream later as well I think I mentioned?