Darienne

Have to try the Day Lily shoots. If there is one thing which we have around the farmhouse in great profusion, it's Day Lilies. Never heard of this before. Thanks.

Firstly my Trudeau spatulas. Solid silicone. Love 'em. Secondly my Paderno pots. Solely for my use for making confections, ice cream, etc. I have 5 different sizes with lids, all bought over 5 years when they came on sale.

Something curry-related could be homemade curried popcorn.

Hello Cinamon, You say you are FROM Japan. Does that mean that you are in the USA now? And I imagine you cook Japanese dishes? Welcome to eGullet.

So I said I'd try every recipe in the book and eventually I will but now that I've found a delicious one for daily breakfasts, it's become less of an imperative to keep trying new ones right now. Basically I'm working on perfecting making a double batch of the Citrus-Seed-Fruit Bars. My food processor is not up to the job as described by the author, particularly not for a double batch, and so I've worked around the directions. First of all I quit roasting the seeds. Inherent laziness and honestly I could not tell the difference between roasted and unroasted. I dump all the seedy things into the processor and chop them really lightly. I like the pieces as big as the mixture can manage. Then I heat the apricots in the microwave to soften them and chop them. Then heat the dates in the microwave to soften them and chop them into a paste. Each processing gets dumped into a large bowl. This is all mixed by hand and then I add the wet/citrus stuff (eliminating the salt) and mix well by hand. Into a 9"x11" pan, lined with an inexpensive silicone mat cut to size. Smoothed with a silicone spatula and into the oven it goes. Done. Oh, and I cut them into 16 instead of 20. They are the lowest calorie of the power bars at 105 each for 10 in a single recipe. Two bars is 210 at 10/recipe and that's not enough for breakfast. Not elegant. But done quickly and with two of us eating them for breakfast they don't last long. Not to mention the occasional mid-day snack. Just love 'em.

We eat 'salad' for supper every second night. That is, the entire meal is salad. We eat our dinner at noonish time. The way farmers did. We're old guys and feel that we sleep better without a full stomach. Sometimes our salad is basically a tossed type salad with a lemon vinaigrette with inclusions of just about anything I choose. Wouldn't ever call it a 'kitchen sink' salad though... Other times, it's a bed of green with cut tomato on top and the choice of a few made salads from my repertoire (which has been aided and abetted by eGullet folks over the years with recipes to feed our large gang during our Annual Dog Weekend), for instance: bean salad, broccoli and cauliflower salad, quinoa salad, tabbouleh (without tomatoes always), etc; or chunks of cheddar or slices of cold meats or canned corned beef when I'm feeling like it. Nothing fancy or worth photographing, but very satisfying. Oh, the other night is usually home made soup.

Just to add to janeer's suggestion of the cold poached salmon...we once went to a wedding reception and they served a cold poached salmon on a mirror platter surrounded by I can't remember what. Oh, cucumber standup thingies...but my main point is that the salmon was covered in thin slices of cucumber laid to represent its scales...one of the most beautiful platters I've ever seen. But then maybe that's not uncommon. We don't go to a lot of upscale weddings.

Have a choice as to where to post this dessert: Capirotada, the traditional Mexican bread pudding, the Lenten variety without milk or eggs. Love it. (The big spoon is hiding the hole where we 'tested' the pudding.)

I really like the chocolate coating idea. Would the chocolate work as a wetness barrier even if it were not in temper, but merely melted?

And there would never be puff pastry in mine, nor phyllo, without commercially available brands. And who could live without having Spanakopita?

What Smithy said: a bulk food store for sure.

Probably too late, but I would have roasted them and frozen them.

I would like Kerry's quick bread recipe also, please.

The last time you had people over for dinner, who were the guests (friends/family/other) and what did you serve? Yesterday. Moussaka, Spanakopita with Butterscotch pieces in ice cream for dessert. Guests were neighbors How would you describe the dinner (casual or formal)? Casual How did you serve the food to your guests (for example: already plated, in a dish/bowl, in a pot/pan)? From the kitchen, in casserole pans. What kitchen utensils did you use to transfer the food (to the plate)? And did you do this in the kitchen or on the dining table? Served with dining room serving utensils, done in the kitchen. Refilled in the kitchen later. Dessert served in the dining room from the buffet with an ice cream scoop. Do you use these utensils purely serving or do you also use them for other purposes (for example the cooking itself)? Use the utensils for serving only Does these utensils fit with the rest of your tableware? Does it help the mood you want to create? Do you find them aesthetically pleasing? Our mood is always casual...often even more casual than yesterday, as with the summer dog crowd. That's a serve yourself group where ever we can find room to put all the food. Some of the serving utensils came with our cutlery...some didn't. They don't create any mood. Aesthetically they are a mishmash, but they are large and that's all we care about. Good luck with your project.

My little favorite measuring cup is a 2Tablespoon/1/8 cup stainless cup which I found in a dollarama store. ONCE. I bought them all and gave them to friends. And never saw them again. It must be 5 or 6 years now. The handiest little measuring device I own.

Gotcha. Thanks Plantes Vertes.

We have spent much time in Utah over the past 30 years and have NEVER seen anyone eating jello in any form. Maybe it's a northern Utah thing.

I've always made yogurt by simply adding a couple of tablespoons of the old yogurt to the new mixture. It's always worked. I wonder if this might work with coconut milk yogurt also. Has anyone tried it? Could this 'milk protein' to which Plantes Vertes? Marj Drewitt uses a full cream canned coconut. Plantes Vertes speaks of coconut milk. Lora says she follows Marj Drewitt. What about the cream vs milk situation ? Thanks.

I have regular measuring cups in plastic, stainless and Pyrex and large ones in Pyrex. Can't put Pyrex on the stove...can't put metal in the microwave. And 2 sets of each kind. But then I am a very messy cook and I do have a lot of room to store things.

This question piques my curiosity. Didn't know you could even make yogurt out of coconut milk.

Friends who love Chocolate and Peanut Butter pies of all kinds came to lunch this week and in their honor I made DL's Chocolate-Peanut Butter Ice Cream. DH and the guests loved it. Me, not so much. I think I don't like flavors quite so mixed together and would have liked it better as...Peanut Butter Ice cream (for which I have found a recipe) and Chocolate sauce of some kind. Maybe homemade Magic Shell. But hthis is all a matter of taste... I just looked up the Peanut butter ice cream recipe to see if it had a provenance and it was on eGullet. amccomb 2005.

Forgot to add that I should really make my own invert sugar and use it instead of commercial corn syrup. I've just been too 'lazy' in the past. And it's such an easy thing to do. No accounting for what we will and won't do...

I've sent you the recipe by PM as I've posted it online before in another thread.

Hi Teapot, Wish I could be of some help with your Butterscotch problems. I've made this recipe and my penciled in notation was to cut down on the sugar. I had no problem with the ice cream...but then I didn't make the recipe in its given form. I never use heavy cream and eggs and sub instead half&half and cornstarch...so basically it's of no use for comparison purposes. Oh, just went to the Buttered Pecans recipe and found notes: too much salt and also the butter is not absorbed. Also I wrote chop nuts first? with a question mark. Sorry, that's all I wrote.

DH just arrived home for lunch and I was telling him about the shot glass cookies and milk . His first response was 'Panama Jack'.