baroness

If it was a baked product it sounds like the fruitcake I had from Alice Medrich's new cookbook. If it wasn't baked it sounds like a "birdseed bar". Googling for that recipe name will give many many recipes. ← This reminds me of a product called "Aussie Bites", which are shaped like mini muffins and contain rolled oats, butter, whole grain flour, sugar, honey, dried cranberries, raisins, sunflower seeds, coconut, soda, and salt. These are definitely baked, a tiny bit on the dry side, and positively addictive. I would love to find the recipe, but perhaps it's better that I have to buy them.....

Rona, Cut all the way through so the butter can penetrate.

Nice chart; worth a bookmark! Generally, I find that a recipe making one 'normal' size loaf will make 3 or 4 minis, depending on mini pan size. If the normal loaf bakes for an hour, start checking the minis at about 35 minutes.

Not finding pure ancho powder in my area, I bought a bag of whole dried (leathery, not brittle) ancho chilies. Can I just take the stems off and grind them in my electric coffee grinder? Should I toast them first -- and if so, can I do this dry (not in oil)? I need the powder for a cookie recipe , and am too impatient to wait for a trip to Penzey's or Kalustyan's. Thanks!

I got a recipe for pumpkin bread pudding in my e-mail today: Click here!

It's pear season, and my seasonal favorite is a butter kuchen scented with vanilla, anise, and lemon, topped with sliced pears and then lemon juice, sugar, and anise seeds before baking.

There are 24-inch, and even 18-inch models on the Bosch website: Look Here! Their customer service line is very responsive; call them to find a dealer near you.

Last time I had Church's (which seems to have left the area ), the sides were particularly good--chunky cole slaw and drop-style biscuits with a honeyed glaze. Give me good sides and less chicken. Popeyes might do, but I'd get nothing other than the thick-cut potatoes at kfc.

Make jelly, or pickle them with lots of cinnamon.

Bamboo tongs work much better for handling leaf than anything metal. I'm a glassblower, and use a fair amount of the precious metal leafs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheese_curds

I'm reading 'The Language of Baklava' by Diana Abu-Jaber now; this woman can really *write* about food and growing up Middle Eastern-American. There's a delicious-sounding recipe or two per chapter. As well as Diane Mott Davisdon, there are also culinary mystery series by Amy Wittig Albert and Johanna Fluke. Animal, Vegetable, Miracle was a good, if not spectacular, read...I prefer her fiction.

For a 'lemony punch', use some finely grated lemon zest along wth fresh lemon juice. Lemon oil is great, too. I think lemon extract is horrid, but YMMV. My favorite lemon cake is a poundcake style, which is pierced and doused with a fresh lemon juice-based syrup after baking...very moist and fruity but not terribly light!

If you do decide to put pineapple in the cake, be aware that fresh pineapple loses flavor and aroma when baked. I was surprised when I made a (tried-and-true, cake style) cookie recipe with gorgeous fresh rather than the usual canned crushed pineapple...the cookies were not nearly as pineapply as before the 'upgrade'!

What about charcoal gray (less contrast to show flour) or bittersweet chocolate brown (a luscious food color) rather than plain old black? Another idea is to spatter-paint the dark color with a lighter one...

On a really small order, that may be true. Shipping is far less percentage-wise on a larger order. The grocery stores here are carrying more and more King Arthur brand flours...why don't you ask a local store to sell some?

The Kosher/Kosher-style "butter"/party cookies and (in looks only) gooey dark chocolate 'Black-out Cake'.

I just found this fresh tomato-based salad dressing at Farmgirl Fare's site: Creamy Tomato Dressing Her recipes, photographs, and general musings are a delight!

Extra crunchy peanut butter and thinly sliced dill pickles on whole wheat bread I read about these in Sue Grafton's mystery series 'starring' Kinsey Milhone, who eats them. Really rather good!

Havarti is a Danish cheese, somewhat similar to Muenster -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havarti http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monterey_Jack_Cheese http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muenster_cheese The recipe you are working on sounds wonderful, but fancier than most classic American recipes--which would only involve Cheddar or the like. I hope you share the final formula with us!

Gouda for Cheddar; Havarti for Monterey Jack; emmental or Jarlsberg (or other large-holed mild pale cheese) for Swiss.

I agree that stacking the boxes is a problem. Before you close the shipping carton, be SURE there is no wiggle room *whatsoever*--slightly overstuff the carton with padding materials before you seal it up, as things settle along the way.

Try these: Iced Almonds 1 c whole almonds, blanched if desired 1/2 c sugar 2 T butter 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract 3/4 tsp salt Heat almonds, sugar, and butter in a heavy skillet. Stir until almonds are toasted and sugar turns golden brown, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Spread nuts on foil and sprinkle with salt. Let cool, then break apart.

There is a group on yahoo.com called "rice cooker recipes," whose members use their cookers for many things other than rice. Here is a bread recipe from their collection that may help you: Bread From Wicki How To 188 grams flour (1.5 cups) 50 grams yeast (about 1.25 teaspoon) 21 grams sugar (about 1.5 tbsp) 6.5 grams salt (about 1.5 tsp) 21 grams butter (about 1.5 tsp) 30 ml milk (1 oz.) 180 ml water (6 oz.) Steps Put 5g yeast into a bowl or cup and add a pinch of sugar and about 1/4 cup warm water. Allow it stand for approximately ten minutes. In the meantime, pour the flour, along with salt and sugar directly into the rice cooker. Pour the milk into the flour that is now in the rice cooker. Pour the yeast mixture from the first step directly into the dry ingredients. Form the dough into a ball after kneading for 8-10 minutes, adding a little more flour if it seems too wet. If the dough feels very sticky, then dip your hands into some flour so that the dough will not stick as you roll it. Add butter to the dough ball. It might be easier to cut the butter into small pieces. Also the butter should be soft and at room temperature. The butter will also help to grease the rice cooker bowl, so that the bread will not stick to the sides. Knead the butter into the ball until the butter is completely absorbed into the dough and has no lumps. Allow to sit for an hour in the rice cooker bowl in a warm area or on a warm setting. This is the first dough rise. Notice that the dough, as it sits undisturbed doubles in size. This is because the yeast in there is eating up the starch and sugars in the flour and breathing out carbon dioxide. The carbon dioxide dissolves into the dough, and either escapes, or expands the air bubbles in the dough that were there from mixing causes dough to get bigger! Lift the dough from the bowl and with some force, toss it back. Do this a few times, until the dough returns to its original size. Once again allow it to sit in a warm area. This is now the second and final rise. Note that the second rise will be the same as the first. Just leave it alone for one hour, and it will puff back up to double its size. Yeast works this way. Bake for an hour in the rice cooker, but check after a half hour to see if it is done. Make sure it does not burn on the bottom. Temperatures differ with each rice cooker, so you will have to learn what is best for you. Write down the times and steps, so you will remember it for the next bake. Flip your bread out and turn it upside down. This is the second baking period. It is also supposed to be 1 hour, but may not need that long. The cooker you use probably makes all the difference here. Flip it and bake it one more time, for the same length of time as the first two bakes. Tips *Once you have baked the bread a few times, you can easily adjust the ingredients to taste. *This is a very flexible bread, its taste is not very strong, so it could easily take on other flavors. *A saltier or yeastier bread goes very well with chili. *Let the bread cool a little before eating it. *Bread is done when it sounds hollow if you tap it. Warnings *Take care not to burn yourself.

One item I cannot fathom buying ($20 or so), nor using, is a 'pineapple corer and slicer'. Not only is it bulky, but it makes a poor innocent fresh pineapple look like canned pineapple rings!