Tri2Cook

Would Galliano Vanilla be a workable substitute for Licor 43 in drinks? Even if not perfect, would it leave the drink in the general ballpark of what it should be? The LCBO used to stock Licor 43 but I didn't grab it and they no longer have it. They still list it so I can hope it will return at some point but for now...

Yeah, I didn't make a ton either. I think I have just under 500 ml. It was just a test run to see if I liked the result. I'm gonna try it in a drink soon and see how it holds up.

Nice! I wonder if it was the rum choice or the ultrasonic buzz or a combo of both that made the difference. "Not too bad" is not what I would have used to describe the initial taste of mine.

I stumbled across a post on the Cocktail Chronicles blog while looking at a drink recipe where somebody said they had very good results with their homemade banana liqueur using dried bananas. I may give that a shot at another time either alone or in combination with fresh bananas. Thought I'd mention it in case it sounds interesting and you aren't already past that point with yours.

Happy accident indeed... that sounds really tasty to me.

You should be considering the tools you like to use when you cook and then search for the least expensive versions of those items you can get if you're just going to leave them behind. You're wanting to buy throwaway tools just so you can cook for a few days while on a trip. I'm thinking someone that dedicated to cooking would have a pretty good idea of the kitchen basics they like to work with.

With absolutely no disrespect towards you or your question, the day I go looking at knives and see one labeled "pie slicing knife" just may be the day I pack it all in and become a full-fledged hermit. The best knife for slicing a pie is the one closest to hand when you want a piece of pie. I've sliced pie with a butter knife with no difficulties.

I've never tried adding chocolate to oatmeal cookies but it sounds good to me. I usually just add walnuts if I'm going to add anything... which I quite often do not.

My "cooking while traveling", which I haven't done in a few years, was limited to what would fit in the back of a whitewater kayak. That was the only traveling I did much of where I had any interest (actually, more a need) in cooking while on the trip. When we traveled to paddle a river, our poorly-appointed kitchen was whatever we managed to fit in the boats (for the uninitiated, were talking about 7' or smaller whitewater boats, so there's not much room in there) and a campfire. So I'm guessing I don't have much to suggest that would be of interest to your travel situation. But we usually wound up with some pretty good meals despite the handicaps.

Probably a good idea. Two things make that easier, I leave for work at around 5:30 am and eating sweet items before I've eaten something else has a habit of making my gut unhappy. So it'll probably be tomorrow evening.

I did the banana theme today too. Not too exciting a picture but it's banana bread baked in a 13x9 because there was a large amount of batter and I didn't want to bother with multiple loaves. I took my usual banana bread recipe (which is of the standard variety) and mucked around with it a bit. I had 4 sliced bananas that had spent several days soaking in rum in order to make a rum liqueur and it seemed a shame to waste them so I mashed them with 4 more non-soaked well ripened bananas and used that for the banana component. I added some almond extract in addition to the usual vanilla because orgeat has taught us that rum and almond are good dance partners. And I added a very small amount of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice and clove. I mean tiny, as in 1/4 tsp of cinnamon and allspice and 1/8 tsp of nutmeg and clove in a large batch of batter. I didn't want the spice forward. Didn't even really want them particularly noticeable, they're just supposed to be a supporting element to enhance the rum and banana a bit. I normally don't add any of those spices to my banana bread. Also, the bananas were already pretty boozy but I tossed in a bit of additional rum just to be safe. It smelled good baking but it'll probably be tomorrow before I taste it so I don't have an interior shot. With 8 bananas, brown sugar instead of white and 1/2 lb of butter, I can't imagine it being dry.

I'd make a nice dent in the taco bar. I don't care if it's more Old El Paso than Mexico... tacos are like pizza, even the lower end of the scale is still pretty good if you let it be.

A surprisingly large amount of improvement with just 1 week of rest. The initial harshness has backed off and the banana has come forward... but not as much as I hoped. I suspect that part isn't going to get much better than where it's at now but time on the shelf costs nothing so we'll see. At this point, it's starting to taste pretty nice but I'm not sure the banana aspect is powerful enough to make it's mark in tiki drinks. I'm going to give it another week or so on the shelf and then mix something with it and see what happens.

I did a quick LCBO search because for some reason I thought I remembered Ramazzotti being listed. Looks like the LCBO has worked it's way up to having 10 different amari listed now... but none of them are Ramazzotti. Silly me, I should have realized you probably checked that before looking elsewhere.

Yeah, I thought I might be getting a bit greedy using the same leftovers twice... but I'm glad I did since it was better the second time.

And to add even more love to the leftovers, I ate the above-mentioned dish again on Monday as leftover leftovers. I cut the sausages and ham into bite size pieces and put them on a plate with some of the sauerkraut, some cheddar cheese and pickles and ate it all cold with horseradish mustard. I actually enjoyed it more cold than I did the night before hot. I thought the textures of everything were better cold. Hot, everything was pretty much the same texture.

Yeah, I've noticed that too. My year old homemade falernum lost it's rough edges and is really nice but unfortunately it lost most of it's lime too. I have a bottle of allspice liqueur I made 5 years ago that has become a thing of beauty. I actually tasted that one today. I'm assuming these things I make are still considered liqueurs, I don't know the rules on that stuff. I generally leave the ABV much higher than most of the recipes say to. Generally somewhere in the 35% or so range. I just use higher ratio sugar syrups so I can get the same sweetness with less added water.

Interested to see how it turns out for you. Like I said, at the time of bottling, I wasn't too impressed with the result I got.

Hasn't snowed yet and it's not looking too threatening but they have a chance of it in the forecast. It is chilly enough for it but the clouds seem to be thinning so I'm hopeful the snow stays away. I'm way up in the northwest corner of Ontario. It remains to be seen how the food will taste but it sure smells good.

A chilly, cloudy Easter Sunday (there's a chance of snow flurries this evening) where I live has inspired me to make use of leftover sausages. I grilled some bratwurst and kielbasa on the nice, sunny Friday we just had and a few of each remained. I also had a small ham in the fridge that I grabbed because they were having an in-store special the day I was there at a price that was too good to pass up. So the ham, some bacon, some shredded onion and apple and lots of sauerkraut are currently in the oven becoming friends while sharing a splash of white wine. In a while, I'll add the sausages and let it all bake for a while longer. Not sure if it qualifies as choucroute garnie but it should be tasty.

Awesome! I'll start watching my mailbox!

The salty lemon aspect sounds nice. I'm not a big martini fan (despite liking gin) but I'd try that one.

So I gave sliced ripe bananas 4 days in some Wray & Nephew. Strained them out, added fresh bananas and gave it another 3 days. Strained them out today, added sugar syrup and put it on the shelf to hopefully improve. If I rated it today, I would call it a waste of rum, bananas and time but I'm hoping the bananas will find their way to the front with a little shelf time. If not, I have 500ml of sweet ~70 proof rum with more banana in the nose than the mouth. On the bright side, I have a nice mass of rummy bananas saved from the two rounds of infusion in the freezer that I'm going to combine with fresh ripe bananas and use in banana bread or cake.

Absolutely... I wasn't suggesting otherwise. The thing I've learned in the short time I've been doing chocolates is, it's always fun. Even when it's frustrating.

While the techniques for doing some of this stuff aren't always as difficult as they seem like they might be when you look at the pictures (on the good days when the chocolate gods favor you... or at least, aren't angry with you), I'm not sure I'd necessarily classify that decorating as basic. From what I can see in the pictures, that looks like some pretty nice work to me.