Marlene

I'm a huge fan of tawny ports. We buy vintage port to lie down, and occassionally, we'll buy a vintage port that's ready for drinking now, but for day to day port, tawny is awesome!

There is also a new Canadian "Scotch" "Cape Breton", a single malt whiskey.

Crown Royal and Canadian Club are ryes, at least here in Canada. No body calls them whiskey . Yes, yes I know, rye whiskey, but in Canada, whiskey usually means. They are considered premium brands in most bars, with house brand usually being Segram's. We've long been a fan of CC, and occassionally Crown Royal. One of the best things to do with the CR purple velvet bag is to store your son's marbles in them . The 10 year old CC is relatively new, and there's also a nice 12 year old, Canadian Club classic. This year, Crown Royal came in a beautifully finished wooden case for gift giving.

I power lift, and I still can't open jars

Play a lot of golf. You'll develop strength in your wrists and forearms as you play, and as far as I can tell, those are the muscles you use to open up a lid... I play a lot of golf, it doesn't help me . Of course, maybe you have to play golf well to build up those muscles . You can however, use wrist weights (they're sringy things), to develop wrist and finger strength which may help in opening said jar.

I've managed to break several jars this way . To give you an idea of how small my hands are, my ring finger is a size 3 3/4 - 4. I can never get my hand around most jars to get a good grip. If my husband is not home, I make something else now . Although my son is of an age where he always says "Let me try Mom". Sometimes he even gets it open

The weekend of APril 9-11 is also my anniversary, and I will NOT be cooking Aurora and I will have the details up by tomorrow, and we'll get the thread moved etc. In the meantime, I went to Costco today. That place is extremely dangerous! I spent $480.00 and I probably only needed a third of what I bought. However, they had some beautiful bone in centre pork chops that look wonderful. So I bought those too

Yes we are planning to!

Aurora and I are leading this. I've been out of town though, so we haven't had a chance to put our heads together. We should have something for you shortly.

I only go there once a month, but then I really stock up

oh my!!! don't bring your credit card - bring gold bars!!!! There is no way it's going to be more expensive than Delmonico's in Las Vegas. Besides, it's Valentines.

Based on Red Bean's review in part, we'll be dining at Del Frisco's on Valentines night. I'll be the one with the camera, taking notes

What's that ?

Are you now?

There is a long weekend coming up, a possible opportunity to schedule the virtual "club" dinner. This would give folks plenty of time to do their shopping and stuff like brine their chicken. PS: I'm still watching that space and nothing is happening Um, there's a long weekend for Americans. Not the rest of us

Wonderful responses! We've a few details to work out, but keep posting suggestions etc. Watch this space

what if you poke a pin hole in the cranberries? But it still looks great though. I have to agree about the ridged pan, I think this needs a smooth bottom pan.

I'd need to see your recipe to understand this, but for what it's worth, I sometimes add cream cheese to an alfredo sauce which (a)l makes it thicker and creamier) and (b) tends to resist clumping.

NO

I can't get the wrist flipping thing either. Is there a trick to this?

Thanks for the insightful omelette course. I'd always been taught to add milk or cream to my omelettes before making them. Apparently not. Do you know where that tradition came from?

Sandra's Banana Jam added to the archive.

I'm talking about chipping pieces of Parmesan off a big wheel, not the thingies you cook up in a teflon pan or on a silpat. Ah got it.

I knew I could count on you beans! Yes, it's fairly nice. Of course I had to do a side by side martini tasting - one with Belevdere and one with Potocki! They are both from rye so I felt they were close enough - even if Belvedere is 4 times distilled! The Potocki bottle does state that it is small batch, made from a family recipe.

Brooks, don't you know the eGRA has it all!