haresfur

I usually shave frozen ginger with a knife. Even with my crappy knives I can get wicked thin bits.

I was just thinking that "dose" is an important point. Many of us are too used to grabbing great gobs of cheese. I think this is a case where less is more. Oh, and Gorgonzola stuffed dates are nice.

Australians don't seem to be big on solstice celebration. The only news item I saw was about people doing yoga in New York. I'm not sure if it is because the continent is at relatively low latitude or that traditional European near-solstice celebrations are out of phase. Some people do the English Christmas dinner for ~summer solstice but it makes more sense to throw something on the barbie. Right now my house could really use warming up with a roasting turkey, though. Maybe I'll just buy a chook and call it good.

Personally, I'd be more worried about whether it was a blue crab or some other species than about where it came from. But I suppose there could be some issues of freshness, contamination, or environmental damage that relate to the where, rather than the what.

You could try watching the scene with Elle MacPherson eating Stilton in Sirens and see if the positive association helps.

Thanks for this, since it's warm-drink season here and I have some limes that need to be used up. I substituted Stones Ginger wine for the syrup and bumped the volume up to an oz. I used 6 oz water and found a splash more brandy didn't hurt. The honey was "Cup gum" but stringy bark eucalyptus might have been a bit stronger. Overall a winner until limes get too expensive. Oh, and my honey came in a plastic koala. ETA: I'm surprised you call this posset, since I thought posset had curdled milk in it.

Bendigo Wholefoods has a small Mexican section that includes canned black beans. They are pretty expensive but so are any canned beans at Coles or Woolies. I saw that they had Masa and dried peppers but yes Mexican ingredients aren't always easy to find. And even the Costco salsa comes in laughably small jars. Good thing though because I'd never be able to fit a gallon in the fridge.

I took a slab of Costco's Kirkland beer to Beer Club at work (Friday have a beer after work) because it was something I knew no one had had before. Attendance has been fairly low so it lasted through 3 weeks. That meant I got to try all but the wheat beer. I wasn't super impressed by the amber but it was good enough. The pale ale was pretty hoppy and I quite liked the IPA. Overall good value for not too much more than a slab of Victoria Bitter (VB = blech). For non-Australians: it cost $50 but Sierra Nevada will run you $75. Too bad a Costco run takes most of a day for me.

The whole roll?

I can second punnet, always used for soft berries (in the UK at least). Its bigger brother is the chip. You can get around 6 punnets in a chip. It is a minefield of units over here, we have sort of gone metric, but still stick with imperial when we can (just in case metric doesn't catch on?). Large quantities of vegetables (particulary root veg) can be purchased by the stone, which is 14lb. Onions are often purchased by the net. Cooked shellfish is often purchased by the pint (or half pint). I still haven't figured out the volume of a punnet - or does it vary?

Gee, working in northern Canada bush camps, no one would think of putting anything but condensed milk in their coffee. I'm sure I'll think of others later but the first thing that comes to mind in Australia is no canned pumpkin. And Aussies love their pumpkin. They don't understand pumpkin pie, but wouldn't canned make decent quick pumpkin soup? I would really like to keep some cans on hand because there is nothing like pumpkin to plug up a runny dog's digestion (or unplug a stopped up one).

Rum collins: 1 lime muddled with raw sugar, Cuban dark rum, shaken, strained over new ice, soda. The pith bitterness seemed to come through more than with lemon, but maybe because the lime was at its use-by date. Still refreshing. I'm trying to figure out the right alcohol level. My initial mix with a bit over 1 1/2 oz rum was refreshing but the rum taste didn't quite come through. But more rum killed the brightness. I'm thinking white rum would be better or maybe (gasp!) no rum at all. Aside: I dispair of my dwarf lime trees ever bearing fruit. I think I need to plant a lemon tree.

Haresfur, the problems you describe may be because your Fagor has not reached full pressure before you turned down the heat - this is a common frustration because their "pressure signal" actually signals the BEGINNING of pressure instead of full pressure. Fagor recommends waiting until it releases lots of steam (goes into over-pressure) before turning down the heat. I recommend an easier way: Just touch the pressure signal (the little dot that pops up). If it falls back down it has not reached pressure. If it's a little springy to the touch it is reaching pressure but not there yet. If it is hard and solid to the touch, it has reached full pressure and you can turn down the heat. The whole procedure could take anywhere from 3-5 minutes. This should make it easier to adjust the heat and expect it to stay there for an hour or more! Ciao, L Thanks for the advice! I think that will help with some of the problems but there is clearly something strange about the lid. Once the pressure is up it is fine but often the button won't even pop up until I fiddle with it. I think I'll have to experiment with my flame diffuser to see if I can adjust the temperature better.

Welcome to the forum! Sounds tasty. Did you go out and buy a bottle of Galliano or were you trying to use up the one that didn't fit on the shelf?

I have trouble adjusting the gas heat for my Fagor pressure cooker. It goes along merrily for a while (more than 15 minutes) then the pressure releases. Very annoying when doing stock. I think it would be a lot easier with induction where the heat-by-number is more reproducible and you should be able to adjust to very low heat. Then again I have a lot of trouble with this particular pressure cooker in getting it to seal properly and come up to pressure. I have to wait for it to boil and fiddle with the latch and the lid and sometimes press down on the top. Higher heat seems to make everything click into place better and once it seals it seems ok and I can lower the heat after a bit. I sent it back but they returned it saying it worked fine.

By request, a collins with Wild Turkey bourbon, demerara sugar, lemon, and soda. Muddled the lemon with the sugar per Gary Regan's suggestion. Very refreshing. This seems to be a forgotten drink it the modern, bitter world, which is a shame. But I do need to restock the gin because that would be even better.

I found one of the vertical channel knives and it makes a big difference. If we are actually taking this seriously, I'd move the twist further up the handle so you could grip it high or low depending on which way you spin. Personally, I like a stirring rod with just a bit of a bead on the end, but I don't do production.

With the change in directions it's ambidexterous

I wikied ocean trout and found out that it is steelhead - an anadromous rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Wild steelhead is even better.

I picked up a piece of ocean trout at Costco and it was really good. Thanks for the recommendation. I marinaded it in soy sauce mixed with chopped up candied ginger and some water, and put it all in the oven at 200 C. The ginger bits were really tasty, too.

Frozen brownies are the best. I like Teddy Bear biscuits out of the fridge.

I find Papa Murphy's too salty. The crust is average but the toppings good enough. Generally what I got for take away. Can you get them cooked if you are on the road, though? I used to do Round Table for lunch with friends. Pizza was decent and the salad bar pretty good. My standard response at Pizza Hut when asked, "How was everything?" was "Up to your usual standards."

Interesting, because it sounds sweet. I was thinking it might be interesting with ginger infused vodka instead of Canton. Not that I have any on hand.

Beautiful pictures. I miss the Shield rocks. Any vegetation coming back to Sudbury these days? Nice to see good looking Thai food in the small towns.

Rum: the drink for anarchists and pirates. My main objection is when manufacturers change their product without any indication that they did so. It would be nice to have more information on the purity and process for a particular rum, but if it tastes good and doesn't kill you...