ElsieD

I use 4 ounces/125 grams of dried pasta for the two of us. When we have fresh pasta, which we make from time to time, I don't weigh it and inevitably, I cook waaaay too much.

I just had a quick look at both the White Oaks site and the Hilton. The White Oaks actually looks to be a bit cheaper, or am I missing something? Anyway, I'm fine with either.

We have 4 major food chains represented in this city. I went to the third one yesterday looking for the elusive Hunts ketchup. They had none either. I have one more chain store to visit. If I can't find it, I will hit some independents. Seems that we have Heinz in the house because my spouse couldn't find Hunt's. I now know why. I'm not giving up, though, as I want to do this test.

So on my way to the deli for my smoked meat platter I stopped at a large grocery store, one of the major chains. No Hunt's. Went to the deli anyway but it was closed. Went to the other end of town for a burg & fries and stopped at another grocery store, part of a different chain, no Hunts. So, I have to put this project on hold til next weekend as I can't get back to the deli until then. Meanwhile, I have the week to hunt down some Hunt's. I also like ketchup with mac & cheese so if I find Hunt's before then, I may try it with that instead.

Hi Darienne: I haven't actually seen any but Farm Boy advertised them in their flyer this week, although they did not give a price. Want me to keep an eye out? Elsie

Kerry, is there anything new to report on this topic? I just read that Chris has his plane ticket.

We need the extra calories because it's colder up here. I plan on doing my test with fries at a place where they make really good ones - made from REAL potatoes, crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside and a beautiful golden colour. (We spell funny, too.) Will report back when the assignment is complete.

I'm embarrased to admit this as I had previously stated that I am a Hunt's fan but I thought, I'll look and see if the ingredients in HUNTs is different in Canada than it is in the USA. So, what do I find? A bottle of Heinz tucked away in the pantry. All I can say is that it was not I who purchased this and a bottle of Hunts will find it's way into my shopping basket tomorrow. Meantime, here is what the Canadian version of Heinz contains: TOMATO PASTE (MADE FROM FRESH, RIPE TOMATOES), LIQUID SUGAR, WHITE VINEGAR, SALT, ONION POWDER, SPICES. The ingredient list is in caps. Interesting to see the ingredients are a bit different. Oh, and there are 20 calories per 1 tbsp.

I always buy Hunt's. It's way better than Heinz.

I also have a Foodsaver but I found the bags often lost their seal in the freezer. So far, I prefer these vacuum bags. Plus the ones I have state they are re-usable which is a good thing as they are not inexpensive. To you Canadians - where do you buy the Reynolds bags? I checked Canadian Tire & Home Hardware & neither listed them on their web sites. I see the Home Shopping Channel has Debbie Meyer bags that the Reynolds system uses and they are about 1/3 the cost of the bags I have. Course, they don't ship to Canada but there are ways around that............... (Corrected for spelling)

While searching the internet for something, I can across this. Does anyone use it, and if so, for what? The Ultra Gel can be used to thicken hot and cold items without cooking while the Thick Gel can only be used with foods that need to be cooked. It is derived from waxy maize corn, whatever that is. Thanks!

http://www.homehardware.ca/en/rec/index.htm/_/N-67lZ2pqf/Ne-67n/Ntk-All_EN/R-I4434545?Ntt=vac+n+store I have one of these systems except I'm in Canada and it's called Vac N Store. (I don't know if the link above will work or not.) I'm quite taken with it. I bought a box of frozen croissants at Costco and packaged them in these bags. The bag in the upstairs freezer gets batted about and I've removed croissants from that bag and re-sealed it a number of times. That little pump manages to pump all the air out giving you a very tight seal Also, the bags are re-usable. Hope this helps.

My original purchase was also a Bron which I only ever used, and rarely at that, when I first bought it. I found it cumbersome. I then bought an OXO V slicer and it works perfectly.

I bought a Kitchenaid toaster. It sucks. Then a bought a Krups convection oven/toaster. On the toast setting, it's even worse than the Kitchenaid in that it toasts very unevenly. Does okay toasting bread on the broil setting as long as you watch it like a hawk. Love the convection part, though. Sad thing is, many years ago a friend gave me a cheap Black & Decker toaster that he didn't need any more. The thing worked like a charm. I decided I wanted a new Kitchenaid toaster, so I gave my B & D one back to him. The worst toaster move I ever made. See the second line in this posting.

The only thing I have to add to this is to say that I am very interested in this topic. I used to love broiled grapefuit but have also been told not to eat it due to the statins I take. So, I haven'touched grapefruit at all since I started taking this drug. Yesterday I was at a large Asian supermarket and they had something called orange grapefruit. I had never seen one before and bought one. So now it's sitting on the counter looking at me and I'm wondering: Can it really hurt to eat this thing?.

I've never used salt cod but looking at those beautiful soaked filets, I'm wondering - can this be treated as fresh cod and pan-fried? Or is it still too salty and needing something to act as foil for the salt remaining in the fish? I'm also wondering what the texture is like.

Kerry, it stalled for 5 hours? That seems like an awfully long time. Sure does look good. I wish I had known a week ago it was going to be this warm here today. I would have cured some pork belly and smoked it today. But alas........

Yeah, after all, the Maytag man has lots of time. Having had 2 Maytag/Jenn-Aire stoves, (one lasted 15 years, the other 9)and (still have) a Maytag fridge, I can tell you that the Maytag man was a busy little beaver around our place. In fact, he could pay us a visit right now to fix the ice maker in the fridge but I'm just hoping that this fridge will suddenly stop working. Having just purchased an induction range, my husband won't let me buy a new fridge, but if I could, I would do that in a heart beat. Sorry, off topic.

Tupac, what a beautiful picture you painted with your words!

I detest cleaning the fridge and chopping onions.

Thanks for the info, Doodad and Calipoutine. I'm in Canada so I'm not sure about The Spice House but we have lots of brew=your=own places around so I will check there first.

Where does one buy grains of paradise?

Whew!!!

That is amazing work. "We won't be expectred to create this tyoe of masterpiece in May, will we" she asked with trepidation?

I don't know anything about the Bunn but we have the Technivorm and love it. We have the thermal carafe and it keeps the coffee hot. We had gone through a few coffeemakers before this one and none performed as well as this one does.