Marlene

That's a neat idea! Could you elaborate on the tart shells? How many layers etc?

And an egg poacher. A 9 quart saucepan? I don't think I've seen too many of those!

I entertained on my own tonight, since my husband is travelling. It's a lot harder to do this without someone to help you! Fortunately, (especially given the way at least one dish turned out) they are all friends and love to experiment with me when I try new stuff. Most of the stuff I did tonight I've done before, with the exception of the roasted green beans (we'll get to them later). I had intended to do brie bites with cranberry in phyllo purses, but I ran out of time. No problem, I'll just fall back on the brie in puff pastry. Great. Oops. The puff pastry was frozen. I hadn't taken it out, not realizing I'd need it. Ok, into the microwave for 30 seconds and then place on warm counter. The edges were still a bit frozen when I wrapped the brie, but it seemed to turn out well: I'd also made Tortilla Crisps which are highly addictive: Mains were Roast Pork, Mashed Potatoes and gravy and um, roasted green beans. Well, we were supposed to have roasted green beans. Unforunately, they turned into desicated green beans. I did not serve these, but I'll show them for your amusement: However, the rest of the meal turned out splendidly. (sorry, I'm still learning how to use this new camera, so some of these are worse than my usual picture taking.) Roast Pork: Mashed and Gravy I made a small loaf of bread in my Just for Dinner mini bread maker: And dinner was capped off by creme brulee. When my guests saw me torching the first one, they all wanted to torch their own, so I let them. All in all a fun night although I had to juggle the timing more since I was doing it on my own. Tomorrow night, Ruth's Chris.

You can still get veal and beef shanks here, but they aren't cheap like they used to be. I always have pork stock on hand, and it is wonderful to have around. I'm making a pork roast tonight and the pork stock will be used for gravy. I always roast beef bones and the pork hocks first. The beef bones I paint with tomato sauce, the pork I do not.

That's it Anna. Thanks! THey serve these at the pub on Third line by the QEW if you ever happen to drop in there. I'm going to wait to make these until I have the raspberry stuff. But oh, they are good!

They're bite size pieces of brie rolled in something or other and deep fried. I love them but I've never made them But GG, you've given me an idea. Maybe instead of going to all the trouble of deep frying, i'll cut up individual brie cubes, add some cranberry and put into phyllo pocket.

This is exactly what we have too.

I'm having a few people over for dinner tonight, all of whom are my willing guinea pigs when it comes to me trying new things. One of my favourite appetizers is baked brie in puff pastry, but I've done that several times. Since we all love Brie, I thought I might try to make Brie fritters. I've had these served with a raspberry sauce in the past at restaurants and I adore them. Of course I adore anything fried. So how does one actually make these things? And since I have no raspberries or raspberry sauce, so what would I serve with them? Suggestions?!

Ling, do you heat the whipping cream/sugar first?

If you do lots of pasta, perhaps a pasta pot, and for stir frys, a good wok.

I love stainless steel for cooking, and if you buy a roasting pan, please, please, make it stainless steel. I just bought this set from Linens and Things for my sister in law. It arrived today, and of course I had to open the box to look and test the weight. If I couldn't have my All Clad, this set would be a close runner up. Of course I say that without having been able to test its performance, but the price was right and the pieces seem heavy and solid enough. As a bonus you get a reasonably decent knife set altough certainly not in the Wustoff type category, but for starting out, I think it's great. (I'm keeping the knife set for our RV ) Oh, and you definately want Le Creuset or Staub for braising.

I've got beef stock simmering now. For beef stock I tend to use, beef shanks, ox tails and short ribs. Pork stock tend to be tails and fresh hocks Chicken is the whole chicken or wings and thighs, necks and gibbets

The Porter short rib recipe was ok, but now I make short ribs no other way but this.. This one is truly amazing.

Definately eggnog. I usually try to make my own killer eggnog, but I've been known to buy it from the store too! Chocolate covered cherries are only to be seen here for some reason during this season, Yule logs I still can't make these! Gingerbread houses mincemeat tarts Mulled wine. Yes I know, but we only seem to make it during the holiday season Second Cup coffee chain also has eggnog coffee at this time of year, which I love!

I got This for Don's stocking. I just thought it was cute and he likes to make cocktails.

Welcome! It does sort of seem that way doesn't it? This is a heavy time of year for me for entertaining, although I do entertain frequently throughout the year. As the owner of a business I have clients to entertain and I'm also a corporate wife and my husband has partners and clients to entertain. When we aren't in the festive season I probably entertain at home every other weekend and we take people out once or twice a month. By the time New Year's Day comes, I'm pretty much ready to stop cooking for a while!

This is one of the books on my Christmas list so I dare not buy it yet. I've looked through it and it looks wonderful though.

Well there are several on eBay Canada. Cast iron Tortilla Presses

This one at Golda's is cast aluminum not cast iron. But it might serve your needs.

I don't know exactly where you were yesterday, but it couldn't have been a Price Club, as they succumbed to Costco 10 years ago. But you're in good company: Shelagh Rogers makes the same mistake on CBC-1 The Staub features an indented lid, to force steam droplets back down on the food, evenly. There are Chinese knock-offs of LC at much lower prices, at the Bay and elsewhere and the ones I have (La Campagne) are pretty good. But I would expect to pay more for the French product, and there is a certain mystique about them. ← I still call them Price Club's to this day, partially out of habit as well as I like that name a lot better than Costco ← I do too. We bought a dining tent from Costco to use with our RV, and someone asked me where I got it. Price Club popped out of my mouth before I could even stop to think about it. No wonder the guy looked at me strangely. I'm just resistant to name changes. It took forever for me to stop calling our local Sobeys IGA, after Sobeys took it over.

I have searched and searched for these with no success so I will be watching to see if anyone else has found them in the GTA. ← I could swear I saw these at Brunos. I have to go there tomorrow so I'll check it out while I'm there.

I've ordered these from Golda's Kitchen most often. They are in Mississauga and delivery is usually next day.

These are what I use currently. You can stack them on top of each other to save space if you want. They reside in one of my lower cupboards. Nice and dark for potatoes. I still really like that bin though. Oh well. (yes Megan, I'd spring for the 5 bucks to get it finished )

I don't store mine together, but I do store them in the same cupboard in separate bins and I've never had a problem. I have to admit that bin looks really cool.

I was glancing through the book this evening, thinking that it's rapidly getting colder outside and I want more braises! I came across the grillades and grits (although sorry, there will be no grits in this house) and I think that's on my list of braises to try soon. To be followed very quickly by the Farsumagu on page 238.