Kenk

Here is a good article that explores the problem some more. Taken from the Montreal Gazette. Beef disaster follows years of sloppy regulation The diagnosis of mad cow has nothing to do with detecting the specific prion that may cause the disease. There is no way of assuring that animals less than 30 months are mad cow free. They are just less likely to show symptoms and are less likely to have been fed higher risk food. I must reiterate I strongly believe no ruminent animals should be fed any kind of meat. No animal should ever be fed canabalistacly or ever fed manure.

Hello Fat Guy, I am glad to hear you pulled your old machine out to be used again. I am sure you will find that it does help bring your coffee making into another level. I use a Gaggia Espresso that has a single pump. It is a good manual machine. I am able to make very good espresso and cappuccino if I use it correctly and use good coffee. I am still surprising myself how hard it is to get the best results out of my machine. But I can get excellent coffee if I make it correctly. The results can be as good as anywhere. I am now using a Pyrex type measuring cup to foam my milk. Although I know most people use stainless steel. I have used mugs I don't care if they break but the measuring cup pours better and makes less of a mess. My machine came with a foaming attachment for the steaming wand. I noticed the milk foamed really easily but did not heat up. I removed the foaming attachment and steam my milk with the bare wand. It takes a little more technique but the results are better and you get hot milk.

Walk north on St-Laurent St. from Sherbrooke. Get a spicy salami sandwich from the Hungarian Butcher on the east side of the street. You will see a steam table with assorted meats in the window. Get a smoked meat sandwich, fries, pickle, black cherry soft drink, at Schwartz's Montreal Hebrew Delicatessen. Walk across the street to The Main for a rib steak with all the trimmings, get some microbrewery beer at the bar next door. Cross the street for a Rotisserie chicken at Coco Rico's. Take the walk to Fairmont Street make a left get some bagel at the Fairmont Bagel Bakery. Continue in the same direction until you hit Park Avenue, make a right. At St-Viateur Street make a right and go into Arahova's and get a souvlaki in a pita, and Greek salad. Cross the street to the St-Viateur bagel bakery and get more bagel. Walk back to your hotel and discuss which bagel you prefer stop to get a poutine. Return to your room and get ready for Diner. I do not know the best place to get a poutine.

We can use Ben's to put us over the edge. Industrial smoked meat covered with gravey! Ohhh I am dizzy already! Are you bringing the mustard? or is it BYOM!

I used to get it in Montreal when I was a kid. It was one of the drinks I prefered. In Ottawa I think I saw it in Food Basics. I am not sure if it is available all the time. I think it turns your mouth bright red which means you have to go around sticking your tongue out at everyone so they can see your bright red tongue. I think it may be hard to find in Quebec because soft drinks in Quebec usually have more sugar than other places. The drink would have problems pouring out of the can.

Google gluten free pizza dough! Google Results

I often eat a bean when picking coffee beans to buy. I definatly get a caffeine buzz from eating the beans.

I did not use any special lighting and pretty much did not do anything that special. I did feed them and water them. I think the plant likes the cool temperatures it get in the winter. The plant is place in a south facing window. To fertilize the flowers I used a Q-tip to spread the pollen from one flower to another. I got arabica coffee plants from Home Depot. They came in a container and had 8-12 seedlings in it. Even if you do not get any beans they are atractive house plants. I think the plants like humid conditions. when the plants are young they tend to loose leaves. I lost a whole bunch of coffee plants the first time I tried to grow them. I had seperated the plants and one by one they lost their leaves and died. This time I neglected them. I left the plants in a clump, and most of the plants survived and are all but fused together. All three of my my coffee cherries are now turning red. Soon all hopes will turn to next year's crop.

Hi Fat Guy, I strongly disagree with your economic assessment of the beef industry with respect to the feed given to the animals and the regulation in the beef industry. There is no economic argument that allows bad practice. When a food system fails and the public looses faith in the food supply massive economic destruction occurs. In order to maintain faith in the food supply, the whole food supply chain must work to maintain this confidence. Feed made from cattle was removed from cattle feed because it was suspected to propagate BSE. There was no absolute scientific proof but the logic of feeding disease contaminated food to cattle became so overwhelming the cattle industry and feed industry could not ignore it any more. For decease prevention you cannot wait until overwhelming proof is available before you take reasonable action. There is no logic in the world that can make sense of feeding any animal cannibalisticly. This is more than just a cultural bias it is a fundamental principle. Cannibalistic feeding practices will allow for diseases to propagate through the species. As for feeding animals feces, this is completely irresponsible. Almost all decease is passed through the intestinal tract and can be found in feces. There is no justification for feeding any animal feces. I have heard the argument that states protein is just protein, well it is not! The mechanism that is proposed, as the mechanism for BSE is a protein fragment called a prion. Protein is not just protein. Besides the greatest technological advancement that ever occurred in human history was sewage system that removed people from living in sewage. Diseases like cholera almost disappears from view whe you are not living in a cesspool. Why would you invite sewage into your home through the supermarket? It is essential to have balanced government regulation that is there to provide a good guideline for good producers and to penalize the bad producers. This is an easy thing to say and a hard thing to do but it is essential for the confidence in the food system to maintain confidence. The economic argument for bad practice will come back and hurt the food industry in the end.

VivreManger, Sign me up. This is the type of cultural activity I like to participate in. Do you have an itinerary to propose? Is this an all Smoked Meat Crawl?

I have had a coffee plant for the last 4 years. It started off as a bunch of 4 inch plants. They are now a bunch of 4 foot plants. My first 2 coffee beans are ripening. 2 of my coffee cherries are turning red. Maybe next year I might have enough for 1 cup. Not bad for Ottawa Canada.

The question of what part of the animal is safe if that animal has BSE is not a valid argument. The mechanism of how this disease is manifested is not really known or understood. The only way to test for the disease is to take the subject brain and slice it up for inspection. There is no way to diagnose BSE in live subjects. One of the things that is happening in Canada is that animals over a certain age are not being put in the food system. This begs the question of; Are the younger animal disease free or just not developed symptoms. Fooling around in the food supply is a very large gamble. All vegetarian animals should never be fed meat byproducts. No animals should ever be fed manure. No cannibalistic feeding practices should be ever practiced. I am not a granola crunching all things must be organic freak! When you have to try to convince anyone of these principles why would you be surprised major problems might be in the food supply. Do you want to by any animal that is fed manure?????????(Why does this question have to be asked??????)

This is real serious stuff, as most of you know. Basic rules for raising animals have been ignored in our modern world but until the farming industry changes we should demand; Do not feed cows (or vegetarian animals) meat. Do not give a cannibalistic diet to animals. Do not pump animals with drugs for promoting growth. A safe food supply is essential. Bad food production practices can destroy our health and can destroy our economy.

Clementine martinis, use clemetine sections instead of the olives. Cheers

Many years ago I used a standard steel pan from a restaurant supply store and really liked the way it cooked, but I didn't like that it warped so easily. I can easily see how the warped pan on a gas stove not would be critical and in a restaurant would be fine. I had an electric stove at the time so I didn't buy one for myself. I noticed De Buyer's crepe pans sold in quite a few places. These pans where heavy gage and would be warp resistant. I finally found a saute pan that looked exactly like the standard restaurant pan but the steel was very thick and I knew would not warp easily. I bought one. Between my iron pan and the DeBruyer steel pan Who needs teflon pans or All clads that even the most care free of cooks would cry if it has a slight discolouration. The iron and steel pans demand not to be too clean.

I like to use these type of knives for steak. Dont worry they can take a finger off no problem. Serrated Steak Knife 4.5"

Chill

Espana (Madrid, many locations) Fragrant, Luscious, Full Bodied, Creamy.

I don't like the taste of goat cheese. I also always say goat cheese tastes like licking a goat. I also don't like canola oil I find it has a chemical flavour. I now use corn oil as a neuteral oil. Sometimes it has a taste of corn, at least it is not a chemical taste. I like using flax seed. Flax certainly has a fishy taste but it dosn't bug me. Then there is Thrills chewing gum. Gum that tastes like soap. This stuff I like but it is kind of wierd.

In Rome, they deep fry everything in olive oil. Then if you did a good job, and your latkes are oily enough, add a wick and light it up.

For some reason I don't like the traditional style of latkes. But I think I will start trying modified latke versions like a rosti made with Gruyere cheese. I think you should scrap using canola oil and move to using olive oil for taste, health and of course even more historically reaffirming.

....It smells bad! ...Has more than 2 specials with length descriptions the poor waiter has to repeat. My head starts to hurt trying to remember what was said. I would prefer to see it written down on a sheet of paper, or a chalk board or menu on the wall.

I spatchcocked allot of chickens this summer over the BBQ. The definition of "spatchcock" some how was burnt into my mind as the smoke from grilling spatchcock chickens were flowing up, over, and around Nigella Lawson’s breasts as she was explaining how good the succulent juicy spatchcock chickens tasted as she was licking her lips. TV is a very good educational resource.

I love chicken feet! Can you get chicken feet in Vancouver? The last time I was there I didn't see any in the Dim Sum places, or the Chinese/Vietnamese supermarkets. I guess they are sooooo fresh in Vancouver that they just get up and walk away. I plan to be in Vancouver soon, where can I find chicken feet.

It is a hard question to answer what brand is best. It is also hard to answer if you should use bread flour(hard wheat flour) or all-purpose flour. My friend has moved from no name flour to Robin Hood to Five Roses. You can also use all-purpose or bread flour or a mixture of both. This decision very much is a question of preference and experience the recipe or what is on sale. I would stay with Canadian flour. I prefer to use unbleached flour that I buy on sale. Finding the exact flour can be hard. I like shopping for food so I end up visiting many supermarkets and buy when I find it. I do buy from Bulk Barn. They have a good selection of specialty flours and the stores are easy to find. I also bag the flour in pre measured amounts so I can use one bag per recipe. This is an excellent source of baking raw material to start off with when you are still settling on your preferences. I looked at Barb's recomendation and it looked interesting. If I was in the London area I would give it a visit. They deliver. I am going through a dry yeast problem right now and recommend using fresh yeast especially in winter when it is colder. You will find fresh yeast at many Italian Supermarkets. My dry yeast seems to have limited OOMPH. Here are some resources Robin Hood Five Roses BetterBaking.com