Marlene

I've been away for several weeks, so this is the first meal I've cooked in a while. Ever since Ann T shared how to make these, they've been my husband's favourite ribs. Greek ribs, with crispy smashed potatoes and green beans:

I got the books just before we left for Europe for three weeks, so didn't have a chance to look at them. They are now packed, ready to take to the cottage on Friday. They'll be the first books I read when I get settled, and I'm looking forward to trying some things!

What other parts of Europe are you talking about? Robyn ← Rome, Barcelona, Corfu, Serrento, to name a few. Even Paris.

Our reservation there was for 8 p.m.

I'm having trouble with Per Se telling diners they have to be out at a certain time. When I dined there in January, it was easily 4 hours, and at no time were we rushed or in any way made to feel that they wanted the table back. Similarly, while recently in Paris, we had lunch at Alain Ducasse, and that meal was also 4 hours long, again with no indication that we had to be out of there. On the other hand, in other parts of Europe while we were there, at the "low end or middle end" bar, we found service to be generally indifferent. Definitely worse in most cases, that in North America.

On the way to Niagara just before St. Catherines, is a place called The LakeHouse. You can see it from the highway, on your left. I think you take the Jordan exit, but I'm not positive. Disclaimer, it's owned by a friend of mine, but the food is really really good. And it has a lovely patio overlooking the lake, if the weather is nice. edited to add link: Lake House

I'll put in another vote for the 25 cu ft KA. I had one in my old house and loved it. When we moved here, there was a side by side Fridgidare that was only 5 years old but conked out about 2 months after we moved in, (as did the fridgidare washer and dryer). I bought a new KA and all has been well in my kitchen ever since. I also like the fact that the ice bucket is in the door and is removable. Space is not an issue in it and I can get a lot of stuff in it.

I thought you had said something upthread about soaking them. So, just weird. I don't think I have ever had to add wood chips, even on a 12 - 14 hour smoke. Who knows?

Hmm maybe it was the grill lid. I assume you soaked them first.

I use wood chips all the time. I've never run into that problem before.

You have to leave enough room for the bag to fold into the vacumn seal part, but I can assure you, it doesn't gush liquid into the machine. This does mean you're going to have a little more bag waste, but this is so much better than using ziplocks, that I don't mind. (I make a lot of stock) When I come back from Europe, I can try a photo demo to see if I can show you step by step.

Toronto has, or did have moose. They were everywhere for a while, but I think a lot of them got broken. Just a fabulous blog Peter, thank you. We really want to get down to your part of Canada soon!

I, on the other hand, do not. I leave them on the smoker and baste them with sauce for the last 15 minutes or so.

Rack of lamb tonight with green beans and fingerling potatoes roasted in duck fat. This time, I added a little lime juice and garlic paste to the mustard butter compound, and at the end, I tossed in a little bit of parmesan cheese just before the beans were finished. They were really really good. I forget to mention the butter tart squares I made for dessert:

When I use the wet setting (It says moist on the foodsaver), it doesn't seem to vacumn it as tightly as the dry setting. A kinder, gentler vacumn so to speak. It gets all the air out without squishing the bag, if that makes any sense at all. Sorry, I'm not very technical.

Just so you can see, this is a 2 cup bag of pork stock. There is no air in it,(ok, maybe one tiny air bubble) it lies flat for stacking and freezing. and I can label the side of it to let me know what it is. The bag is also a lot hardier than the ziplock bags I've been using for this. Ziplocks have been known to leak on me while freezing or defrosting. This never does.

My model says V2490 but of course that may be Canadian. It looks more or less like this and seems to have the same features Food Saver Mine also has a cannister feature and a pulse feature which I can't say I've ever used. Edited to add, I found this one at Costco.com which I think is the same one, except mine is black and stainless.

beer burgers I have an old cookbook called The Beer Makes it Better cookbook and there's all kinds of interesting things in there including, beer baked chicken, honeyed spareribs, spicy pork chops, beer glazed ham, and beer braised pork.

I have a food saver that we bought at Costco. We use it all the time, especially when I buy large packs of meat like chicken parts at Costco for example. I can buy more meat when it's on sale, and vacumn seal it and freeze it for later use. I've vacumn sealed leftover stew, chili. lasagna and turkey soup in serving size portions. I used it recently to vacumn seal a bunch of shelled pistachios in one cup increments. Best of all, the one I have has a wet or dry feature, which means I've been able to use it to store and seal fresh stock in one or two cup increments. Finally, I can get all the air out of my stock! Mine lives in a cabinet, but it's pretty light and easy to pull out when needed. And yes, unfortunately, there will always be that extra bag at the top after the seal. I buy the bags at costco as well. The foodsaver itself comes with bags to start, a large size and a small size. Until I started using it for stock, I never used the smaller bags, but I do now.

Yes they are. This is the one I'm looking at: portable dishwasher

This is an interesting topic as I may be in the market shortly for a portable dishwasher. I have a regular one at home, but my cottage does not yet have one, and the kitchen renovation on the cottage is probably a couple of years away. I'm thinking a portable dishwasher may be a great short term solution. I've looked at GE and Whirlpool and both look pretty good so far.

I remember when my mother was in the hospital, there was a resident who used to come around with the doctor. She carried a backpack and in it she always had things like granola bars, ziplock bags of cheese, breadsticks and other assorted easily portable foods that seemed relatively healthy. She never ate in front of the patients, but I got to know her quite well, and she would dart into the nearest staff room to nosh in between rounds.

I've got to say my Dad's recipe box which I found last year, while packing up my mom's apartment. The recipes have notes all over them indicating what worked and what adjustments he'd made.

I only seem to wear an apron during a holiday cooking, like Christmas or Thanksgiving. Usually because by the end of cooking, I'm dressed up and ready for company. I have one apron which I love. Bought it at a craft store years ago. It's definately a girly apron. With ruffles and all. But I love it.

I'm a huge fan of Vermont Castings and consider them some of the best gas grills ever made, but they can be pricey, so I figured they might be out of your price range.