Tri2Cook

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.

As it turns out, I got an email the day after asking this question informing me that the Canadian online cocktail supply place I usually use finally restocked the BG Reynolds syrups after a long draught so my little flurry of "I'll make my own everything" enthusiasm has rode off into the sunset. With apologies for my lack of embracing the true craft spirit, my homemade stuff comes from necessity. I'm just not that dedicated when I don't have to be.

I'll see what I can do. I went to the LCBO site to search for it in case you said something along that line and, of course, it's not part of their online ordering program. They made ordering online and having things shipped either to your local store or your home a thing but now they pick and choose what they want to make available to that ordering system. I'm not sure how they decide what can and can't be ordered... but this one apparently can't. I did a store search and it's not a low quantity item so I'm not sure why it can't be ordered. My local store was never good about special ordering and they're even more reluctant since the start of the online ordering thing but I'll give that a try.

Nothing actually makes me say that, that's just what others had to say about it when I searched it here on eGullet. That it had none of the grassiness usually associated with agricoles and had a pronounced rubbery note among other complaints. I know nothing about agricoles so the reviews of others are really all I have to go by. If I was mislead by the reviews and comments I found, I would be happy to be corrected.

The LCBO just refuses to get it right. They finally get an agricole, I get excited, then, through a bit of searching and reading, I find out that it's not remotely similar to what people have in mind when they talk about an agricole. So that empty slot in the cabinet continues to be empty. Just for the record, the one they brought in is Saint James Royal Ambre.

I think I won't risk the freezing then. If I can get even a couple months out of a batch, I'll be happy. Thanks!

I read as far back through the 15 pages in this thread as I was willing to without finding what I was looking for, so I'll risk a repeat question and ask. Can I make a large batch of orgeat and freeze it in smaller portions (probably 8 oz) to pull out as needed without any major reduction in quality?

I make a soup similar to this one but with rice instead of the potatoes and carrots. Cabbage roll soup. I don't use boullion cubes, I use broth, but the cubes would work. I use crushed tomatoes and diced tomatoes but like the cubes, the paste would work just fine if I needed it too. Of course replacing the spuds and carrots with rice is kinda the reverse of cutting the starch and upping the fresh veggies so I'm not quite sure why I mentioned it.

I made caramel with milk once a few years ago. My wife wanted caramel (she liked me to make soft caramel, put it in a squeeze bottle and she'd just squeeze it onto a spoon and eat it), there was no cream in the house and it was after grocery store hours. So I tried it with milk. It was long enough ago that I don't remember specifically what the problem was but we were both not at all happy with the result. There were some textural issues and I know there was something else but can't think of what it was. I want to say there was some curdling but I could easily be mistaken or thinking of a different project. This isn't to say it can't work, just that it didn't work for me using the recipe I usually use with cream.

Yeah, I'll be adding sugar after the infusion. I agree that a straight banana flavored rum would probably be more versatile in the big picture but the entire purpose for this particular batch is for use in recipes from Beachbum Berry Remixed. I fought it for a long time but I've come to accept that my drinking habits tend to lean more towards Mr. Howell than Mr. Bond. So I'm going to see if I can knock the dust off of some of those bottles in my cabinet by making this the summer of tiki.