Marlene

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.

The beef rolls are dipped in a soy/brown sugar mixture. I use beef tenderloin, sliced in 1/4 inch strips then pounded. Then I place matchsticks of green, yellow and red peppers and green onions and roll them up. I make this ahead up until this point and refridgerate until I want to serve. 3- 4 minutes on the grill and they're ready. The recipe comes from Martha Stewart's Hor's D'ouvres handbook

No need for rescue. I managed to survive and take pictures. I must admit to it being my idea. Our council meeting is always the first Monday of the month. Traditionally the December meeting is a social for the Council and we usually go to a local pub. I made the mistake of offering to host the social at my house as I do every June for our last council meeting, and for some odd reason, Council thought that was a marvelous plan. I had simply forgotten that we would only be returning the day before. Even at that it would have been ok, since we were supposed to be back here early afternoon. Then they changed our flight so we ended up arriving home at 11 at night, so I had no chance to do any prep. Here's the food from last night. I made quite a bit of it, but Council members did bring some dishes as well. Getting the buffet ready: The centrepiece. It's really hard to see, but all the little houses and things light up. First, the food I made. Garlic Peppercorn Cheesecake: Pastries (ok, I didn't really make these. I got them from Costco and all I had to do was bake them) Cheddar Cheese Tartlets: Oriental Chicken Wings: Three Cheese Cheeseball, rolled in crushed walnuts: Honey Garlic meatballs: Beef Rolls with soy scallion dipping sauce: A selection of chocolates (no, I didn't make these either) Other foods that people brought included: Brie and crackers: Cheese rolls and salsa: Perogies. (someone called this by a Jewish name, but I can't remember what it was) I'm not positive what this is, since I didn't have any, but it looks to be another cheese dish of some sort. Cookies: Monkey bread done in mini bundt pans: And a couple of pies.: Someone made a pinapple cheese cake, but I never did get a picture of it. There was certainly enough food and I'll be spending my morning cleaning up. We are taking people out to dinner at Ruths Chris this weekend, then the following weekend, my MIL and SIL arrive for a few days, so I'll be doing a full blown turkey dinner on the Sunday.

Let me caution you about using the deep fryer basket to do battered fish in. Somewhere around here I have a pictorial of how my lovely halibut stuck to and bled through the little holes in the basket, thus firmly adhering my fish and batter to the basket. A sandblaster wouldn't knock it loose!