ElsieD

Welcome to the forum and I'm looking forward to learning about Madagascar.

@JoNorvelleWalker It was when I was straining the custard that I noticed this. The mesh on the strainer that I use is quite fine but these little grains went right through it. I looked for Ruben's method and read that it has to do with evapourating some water from the mixture using heat but I could find nothing more specific.

I made a batch of vanilla ice cream using one teaspoon of the stabilizer and it had a "granular" texture. Not icy, but as though there were tiny bits of cooked custard throughout it. It didn't affect the taste but I'm wondering if I let the temperature get too high when I made the custard. What temperature do you cook yours to? I prefer taking the temperature as I find the direction to "cook it until it costs the back of a spoon" to be useless.

@CanadianHomeChef These are great charts, thanks for posting them. If you are looking for inspiration, try a custard based ice cream.

@shain Thank you!

Costco.ca is selling them for $218.99.

I have a question about refrigerating bigas and poolish. I am making focaccia tomorrow and prepared my poolish tonight and it is in the fridge overnight . I have also made bread using biga which stayed on the counter overnight, not in the fridge. Why are they sometimes refrigerated and sometimes not?

Just did the same thing with some raisins for pumpkin spice muffins. Amazing.

Thanks for this. Today I made date muffins for my MIL who likes one whole date in the middle of her muffins. I did as you suggested and had nice moist plumped up dates for the muffins.

@shain I haven't had those in years. Yours look delicious and prompted me to look for my recipe. Which naturally, I no longer seem to have! ☹️

That's a fine looking kitchen!

Congratulations to Michael Smith. I used to watch and enjoy his cooking shows.

Looking forward to reading about your trip.

That's a great deal you got. $600 in air fare in Canada doesn't get you very far. That is one veeeeery long flight. The longest I've been one was 13 hours direct from Toronto to Honolulu. Thought we'd never get there.

@KennethT I daresay you weren't sitting in "the back of the bus". Looks good.

A dumb question. I am interested in buying a new ice cream maker, especially if they have one at a good price on the upcoming Prime Days. I have heard people say they have put items on a "watch" list but I can't figure out how to do this. Can someone tell me?

Hi Dave and welcome to the forum.

No, but then Costco US doesn't always carry the same stuff as Costco CA. especially since dairy imports are controlled thanks our protected dairy industry. It's also why it is rare to see imported butter and wht we can.pay over $6.00 a pound for butter. Can you tell I'm a bit.bitter about that?

@teonzo A question on the rice - assuming you only have a regular freezer, and can't/don't want to spend the money on a blast freezer, could you not spread the rice on a cookie sheet and freeze it quickly that way?

No, you hear a slit in the top of the package and the package goes into the microwave.

As far as rice goes, I have tried Uncle Ben's, the kind where you microwave the package for 90 seconds and it is done. However, I don't like the texture as I find it mushy. However, given that it is widely available, a lot of people must like it so you could give that a try. It comes in different flavors.

I do what @lindag does.

That's the one.

@Ann_T has a really good recipe for butter tarts that includes maple syrup as an ingredient. Maybe she will post it here?

I'd be there in a New York Minute. I love butter tarts, but if there are raisins in them, no more than 3 raisins per tart. I prefer them with nuts. I have found a very good brand called Rachel's which are sold in the Metro stores. Not only is the filling good, but so is the pastry - tender and flakey.