Darienne

Very late in finding this wonderful blog, Kim. Enjoyed looking at it immensely. I cannot imagine going to such a wonderfully food-laden place and not coming back 10 pounds heavier than when I arrived. Such an array of foods. Amazing. Thanks.

Deep-fried everything. Although I do succumb once a year to a Navajo Fry Bread in New Mexico... :wub:

Hi Lisa et al. Never had a Sonic cherry-limeade (I live in Canada) and we don't have Mexican Sprite here (same thing) so I don't know what it should taste like. However, I did use lime juice, maraschino juice (more than you called for because this stuff isn't thick or very sweet compared to what is in a bottle of Maraschino cherries) and poured it into a club soda. Lovely. And there's still feet of snow outside. Thanks.

Hmmm...sounds like a plan.

PanaCan, I am not familiar with a Margarita Pie recipe that includes a layer of Grenadine. Would you please direct me to said recipe? Thanks.

Thanks for the answers, all. Into the freezer first thing. Then wait for the snow to go...

All I can say is that I'm not telling anyone how long I have kept homemade pesto in the fridge and then eaten it. No one got sick or died...

I'm with Patrick Amory on this one. We have two identical Oxo peelers. As far as I can tell it's an Oxo Good Grips Swivel Peeler, probably the basic style.

Thanks Minas. Went and explored in the Get Suckered website. Good stuff.

Excellent point. I hadn't thought of that. I must try to get some Grand Marnier flavoring. Where do you get yours if I might ask. Found a source within a hundred miles...unfortunately they are out of it and not likely to re-order for a bit. The joys of living in the middle of nowhere, near nothing much.

Popcorn might work. A big bowl freshly made popcorn with a soupçon of olive oil, salted, peppered, Chipotle powder or some B-B-Q-like spices, a packet of Stevia or some other benign no-sugar product or a bit of sugar. Salty, sweet, and hot. What could be better?

Oh wow. :Those lollies are terrific. How much Grand Marnier can you add to a hard tack recipe, please?

A local bulk food store periodically; gives away 1 liter containers of maraschino cherry and confectionery partner, Barbara, gifted me with a container yesterday. It's what is left over when the cherry bin is empty or drained I guess. How should it be stored for a long period? What can I do with it besides thicken it to use on ice cream or mix with soda water? This juice is not as thick as say ginger syrup. (Don't bother with mixed alcoholic drinks please.) Thanks.

It seems that everyone's problem is that their nougat is too soft, too runny. Confectionery partner, Barbara, and I made the Greweling nougat yesterday for the third time. The first two times, going back, were nothing short of stupendous. Not this time. The resulting nougat is hard, almost rock like, impossible to cut unless reheated in the microwave. After heating for about 30-40 seconds, it softened greatly and I managed to cut it into very small pieces to dip into chocolate. As soon as it cooled it was back to crunchy. Not a tooth breaker, but not nougat like at all. So...we followed the recipe and the time periods noted and temperatures exactly. Used my Canadian Tire instant readout thermometer which has been fine so far. (I should check it again.) - it's a new to me stove and I don't know it all that well yet. Oh, it's a second hand stove too...don't know what difference that would make. - we didn't heat up the pot of combined sugar, water, glucose ahead of time and it started on the stove at 28 degrees Celsius to get to 155 C degrees. This I think meant the whipping process went on too long. Next time we'll start the heating ahead of time. - Barbara (yes, I can blame her ) insisted that we put the inclusions straight into the mixture to see what happened. Well, we had to pick a lot of them out of the whip. This would have prolonged the procedure. - it seemed fine on the paper being rolled. - put it into the garage to cool. Ontario garage...quite cold. What thoughts and advice can anyone give me, please. (Oh, I did dip it into chocolate and am giving it all to a "non-foodie" family up the road. The kids will eat it anyway and be thrilled. It tastes delicious...it's just all wrong. )

Talk about learning something new every day! Callus hairs in Fuji apples. Who knew?

Well done, keychris!

I for one look forward to being thus annoyed.

Yes for candy recipes. I make toffees and lollipops in Utah (4000 ft where I am) and if I am using a thermometer test, then I calculate downwards in a simple fashion...no percentages...just subtract a straight number of degrees.

That would be my take on it too. I was going to ask about your humidity level. I know that working with chocolate in the heat in Ontario where the high humidity makes my life unpleasant is so different from working in the heat in Moab UT where the humidity can go down to 5%.

Recently I gave to our local library's book sale 15 cookbooks which I didn't need. Don't be alarmed...none of you would have wanted them either. Still I have slowed W-A-A-Y down in buying cookbooks. There's so much online now that I can't even make the recipes which I download and print.

Wonderful video and thanks for the glove information. I was wondering about them also.

Have to say that most of the chocolate which I 'melt' I do over water using a stainless bowl whose flanges far outreach the edge of the pot. So far, so good. The other melting is putting the chocolate into the heated cream for ganache. Tempering in my Revolation except when away from home and then I use a Pyrex measuring cup in the microwave, once I have figured out the particular microwave I am using. Not exciting, but it's what I do.

Cleaning...and then drying...is a nuisance but I use the silicone pads constantly for confection making, roasting vegetables, making dog cookies, flat freezing all sorts of things before bagging them. I have burnt ones, ruined ones, ruined looking ones, nice and clean ones. And no, they are not actual Silpats.

I would love to go to Ecuador after all the interesting things I have read about it on eGullet, including this thread from lironp. I would contract with PanaCan to be my official (and unofficial) guide to the country and we would wander about, seeing this and that. Mostly I would love to eat from the street vendors which seem to be everywhere. Where we live, there are a couple of chip wagons...that's it for street food in east central Ontario. To visit a chocolate plantation would be heaven.

Thank you Annie. I'm thinking dark chocolate and candied ginger...my latest confection obsession.