ElsieD

And here is my haul....thanks for all your suggestions. Not shown are Korean Kalbi Chicken Sausages, Chili Lime Chicken Burgers, Turkey Corn Dogs and some heavy whipping cream. I don't know if I got the right apricots but either way, they will get eaten. I don't eat a lot of ginger but I bought it to put in cookies. The majority of things I got were on the list I made from reading this thread back to page 12 and your suggestions. Some of the items were impulse buys like the dark chocolate speculoos cookie butter cups. There were a few items that I wanted that they did not have. I did not find the store in Syracuse to be all that big but since it is the first one I have ever been in, maybe that is the size they are. Also, before any of you tsk tsk my choices, you should know that I am not solely responsible for what ended up in the shopping cart. Anyway, it was fun and I saw a number of items we don't have in Canada or at least not in my city.

That's brilliant. I have never been able to buy it here unless I want to buy it in commercial quantities which doesn't make sense for my needs so I never thought of that. I have written to my niece to see if she knows where we can buy some. We are going to Trader Joe's in Syracuse, NY and it is a 3 to 3 1/2 hour trip home.

A few people have mentioned this so it is on my list. Thanks!

I am hoping that the border guards allow us to bring some wine back. For a stay of less than 48 hours, you are not allowed to bring back any adult beverages. That will be us, come Monday. The border guards have always allowed us our couple of bottles maybe because we are upfront and voluntarily declare it before they even ask us. If they do charge you duty and taxes it is about 60% of the retail price (near as I can tell). After 48 hours, you can bring back 2 bottles of 750 ml (that's a quart to you) without having to pay any duty or taxes. It makes more sense to bring back the more expensive wines as the savings are greater. One of the wines we like which is for us a special occasion wine is Pouilly-Fuisse so we look for that. A good quaffing wine that we buy for consuming in the States is Yellow Tail Pinot Grigio. It costs twice as much in Canada as it does in the States.

Actually, your plane food doesn't look that bad on it's own, but it doesn't compare to what you have been eating. Nice to see they served d'isigny butter - I used to be able to buy it at a shop in Ottawa until the Feds clamped down on the poor guy. Supply management and all that. I greatly enjoyed reading about your trip and also enjoyed all the lovely photos.

Thanks for your suggestions. I have been going backwards through this thread and although I am only at page 12 I have come across a few things I have never seen in Canada, such as cold brew coffee concentrate, Uncured Sweet Sriracha Bacon Jerky, pumpkin croissants and Sriracha &Roasted Garlic BBQ sauce, among a few other things mentioned above. I see they also sell Frozen Kouign Amman and it's a bummer I can't bring that back. Or maybe I will if it is sold frozen but unbaked as I can bake them when I get home and re freeze them. Butter is another thing I would like to get as the choice is much greater and the prices are much more reasonable. My butter of choice in Canada is now $6.49 a pound and I can't really justify spending that much for a pound of butter. Other than that, I am mainly interested in the things I have never seen here. It really is a shame I can't bring frozen stuff back. We only drink wine and so will likely just get a couple of bottles of the more expensive wines which are way more expensive here. If anyone has more suggestions, I would love to get them.

Tour of the test kitchens.

I'm lucky enough to be able to shop at a Trader Joe's this weekend. I have never been to one of their stores and am looking forward to it. I have started reading this thread and have been making notes as I go along but it is a very looooong thread and I don't know if I will be able to get through it all. So I am looking for suggestions - what should I absolutely buy? It will be about a three hour drive home from there and while I have a cooler with me, I'm thinking frozen items won't be practical but some refrigerated items are fine. I am particularly interested in items unique to Trader Joe's or of a particularly high quality that you won't find in your average grocery store. Thanks!

The 157.92 ( Canadian dollars) price is what Amazon Canada is charging compared to the 74.99( American dollars) Amazon USA is charging. I don't think I was very clear. As Darienne points out, we Canadians are quite accustomed to being asked to pay a lot more for the same goods when compared to American prices. That should not be the case if items are produced in the U.S. as per NAFTA, but it does become a different kettle of fish if the item has been made offshore. So, if All Clad products are made outside NAFTA, that could be a reason for the price differential on any given item.

I did a rough estimate above. Today the Canadian dollar closed at $1.2093 against the US$ so $74.99 US = $90.69. How did you come up with $130?

I too got $74.99 with Prime. Edited to add in case anyone cares: Amazon.ca has this item for the princely sum of $157.92. Strictly on a currency exchange rate basis, it should be priced at about $92.00.

Does it say how long it takes to temper a given quantity of chocolate?

Love the cowgoyle.

Looks good. Too bad you can't get it in Canada.

Usually once a week I blanch a bunch, wrap it in ham, cheese and puff pastry and bake it. To go with we do an egg and maybe some hollandaise sauce. Shelby, this sounds good. Do you add anything for to this, such as mustard or is it that it? What kind of cheese do you use? I'm thinking Gruyere might be nice but I don't see it "wrapping" that easily.

I want some of those tomatoes! They look amazing.

I like to coat asparagus with olive oil, salt and pepper and roast it in a hot oven. I may give it a sprinkle of balsamic, sometimes a bit of Parmesan. Nothing more. When we had our house, I would give them the same treatment except I would cook them on the BBQ.

Gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous!

Wow! That's a nice set-up you have. Looking forward to seeing the complete results.

Thank you for taking us on your trip. I really enjoyed it. Sure were some good looking eats.

I just checked my Thermomix but the the closest temperature I can hold the mixture at is 70 C which is a tad too low. I should be able to hold it at the right temperature when I get the Paragon Induction Cooktop later this year. I do have an induction stove top so may try it out on that. It sure sounds like a lovely ice cream.

Can the mixture be held in a water bath for the 25 minutes rather than on the stove? It seems to me that it could be tricky to hold the temperature at exactly 72 on a stove top.

I used to have an indoor bay plant. It was great just being able to clip off a leaf or two when needed. I had it for maybe 5 years and then became so spindly I had to get rid of it. I took off all of the leaves and just let them dry naturally here there and everywhere. I had enough to fill two 1 quart mason jars and that too lasted quite a while.

Pardon me for asking what is probably a stupid question. It's about the tomato bread. Is it a toasted bread that has been rubbed with fresh tomatoes (are tomatoes even is season there?) or some other preparation?

I had a Maytag that had a downdraft and it was pretty much useless.