Darienne

I would have to be starving before I'd cook/eat anything with cream of whatever soup in it. It was the basis for much of the cooking in my family home. Yech. Asked the DH for his input and his first thought was Bisquick and pancake and other baking mixes. We were not long married(52 years this March) and one weekend I had run out of Bisquick to make biscuits. Then a light dawned. Maybe there was a recipe in my one cookbook to make biscuits. Made them from scratch that very day. Oh...is that how they taste? Yum. Still I blame the advent of McDonald's for most of the North American world's culinary ills.

Just reread the last few pages of this topic. Re-inspired me and more importantly, REMINDED me of what I was doing right and wrong. I had forgotten about Hot & Sour Soup, one of our mainstays. So delicious and so low calorie. Perfect for supper. Must make a batch. Heidi's ideas of salads which keep in the fridge for a few days brought back thoughts of summer. It's so cold in East Central Ontario in the winter, and the days are so short, and I get chilled by suppertime now that salads won't work for me. They do in the summer. I also like the thought of cooking vegetables ahead of time at their peak and then doing whatever with them. Haven't done that. Tend to roast them when they are past their prime. However, she says, congratulating herself, at least I've not thrown out a vegetable in two years at least now. We've just returned from a couple of months away, and the drive there is four to five days each way - 2400 miles. This time was the first time that an eating strategy has worked out well. Breakfast and lunch were shakes using the 'meal replacement plan' noted in an earlier post. Not yummy, but doable. Put the lunch portion in a plastic snak bag and made it in the car using what I think is the simplest, most incredible invention I've seen in a long time: Blender Bottle . We each have one now and they work so well. Snacks were small dark chocolate tablets (50 cals each) mixed with pecans. And we made it to Moab with NO WEIGHT GAIN!!! Supper was from grocery produce with added cheese. Salad dressing came from home. The trip home did not work as well. The weather was terrible and the driving exhausting. I had a recurrent bout of Spinal Stenosis. We ate out far more. But we made it home alive, unharmed, and only a couple of pounds up. So basically I've kept off 15 pounds since November. A new high, if you would, for me.

Googled 'lead in crockpots' and got a lot of websites with differing information. Any engineering or chemical types out there with some useful information on the subject? I have three older Rival crockpots and one fairly recent Franklin Chef. I don't want to toss them all but will do so if the more worrisome websites are correct. Thanks.

Your questions are way beyond my ken, but I did catch the 'lead contamination' bit. Three of my crockpots are old and I'd like to know where they stand in this issue. Please. Don't leave us all hanging. Thanks.

Green lentils in our very favorite lentil soup from Bon Appetit Made the last batch just two days ago. I use more spinach and don't add the crushed red pepper. Love that lentil soup.

You two eat so well. I am so jealous of the huge range of excellent restaurants from which you can pick.

It's cold and frozen in the cold frozen far north and we've just returned from the Southwest where I gave in and bought Jeni's book. Finally started to look at it last night. Now I've reread this thread, and will finish reading DL's thread plus all 93 comments AND then start in on the recipes. There's not a lot of ice cream posting at this date but I shall begin. Two days ago I did make DL's Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream...so simple to throw together and everyone loves it. We're demolishing a foundation wall in our century farmhouse and we need a dust annihilator. Two days ago, DH misread the grocery list and bought a double container of cream cheese when all we needed was cream. Could this have been a prophetic move on his part?

The mole looks great...but that kitchen. O, that kitchen. I could kill for that kitchen!!!!

Wonderful as always. It's pretty fail-proof. I added a dollop of Kahlua for an extra zip.

Here's another good website for sensible eating. I have used quite a number of these recipes. What Would Cathy Eat?

I have this vague memory from a couple of years ago when confectionery partner Barbara and I made green marshmallow lollipops for St. Patrick's and after the main slab had been cut out and assembled, Barbara took the slightly raggy cut-off ends and wrapped them around the sticks. It worked quite well. (That was in my marshmallow craze period. )

Is that one HUGE rounding error! Thanks for the input.

Almost one year later and again questions about condensed milk arise. Again, making DL's Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream and starting with two cans of milk because one can is not enough. OK. So DL calls for 1 1/2 cups or 600 grams. So I weighed the milk as I poured it and found that a very generous 1 1/2 cups (up over the rim a bit) weighed only 516 grams. Do you suppose that different brands of condensed milk weigh different amounts, as in Brand A is actually heavier than Brand B? Hardly important for ice cream, but still puzzling...

Thanks for the roo explanation. Didn't mean to send you off to do research...not in the middle of also writing and cooking a week's worth of blog. Thanks. (I do understand about gun permits. We are Canadians.)

Questions for when you have time. How does the average kangaroo make its way from hopping around into the meat counter? Are they farmed? How old are they when killed? Do you eat the liver, kidneys, etc? Shot wild? Who dispatches them? Etc.

Very interesting post. I can't recall ever seeing any silicone lids in a kitchen store, but will look for them. My one simple use for such an item is when making quick lollipops in the microwave. Instead of the on again - off again plastic wrap, I started to use a sort of knobby silicone square trivety thing. Just looks like a blue silicone square with knobs up and down. Works perfectly and so much less trouble.

If you are able to keep records of what is in your freezer, then you will not forget what it is the bottom of it. Granted this takes a certain amount of self-discipline, but for us it is worth it in the end. We have not had to throw anything out for years now. But then our freezer is well organized with interior squared buckets which hold items according to some rationale, e.g., Mexican ingredients, nuts & dried fruits, vegetables, raw meats, cooked meats, etc. Just throwing it into the ring...

I never gave any thought to box graters. Just got mine out to have a look. All it says is that it's stainless steel and made in Sweden. I think I've had it forever.

You all have such fancy dishes for your lunch that I hesitate ever to post. Lunch today was stuff which has to be eaten before we head back home. Egg roll wrappers, filled with roasted leftover poblanos and Tex-Mex shredded cheese, deep fried in leftover canola. Worked very well. Would have been better is the poblanos had been more carefully drained but I was in such a hurry to get the beast, aka DH, fed that I plain forgot.

Our experience, unheated, partially insulated garage. A few miles north of Toronto's latitude. Two items in the garage. A second hand full size refrigerator with small freezer. When it gets really really cold, we have put a low wattage light bulb into the fridge and that has worked quite well. Second hand medium size chest freezer. No problems whatsoever ever. Both these items were far from new. And their costs were far from high. If you have a Habitat for Humanity /Restore near you, I'd start there. (We also have a very large chest freezer in our cellar and a full size fridge with small freezer in our kitchen.)

I've made our own chorizo back home and we liked it. I have no idea of what it is supposed to taste like so I have nothing to compare it against. Can't provide the source because the recipe and cookbook title is at home. I use it in recipes as instructed. That's about it. I'll learn more as I go along.

Brilliant idea about using frozen French Fries. I love it. Loved your Queso Fundido recipe. Makes me think about Poutine.

That sounds like a great idea and thanks for directing my attention to it. Still, my favorite apple cake recipe is basically more like a biscuit dough with apple slices slotted in on top. Hence you get the apple flavor contrasted with the coffee cake flavor. You can add ice cream or aged cheddar cheese for a finishing touch. Ditto for an apple pie or Mark Bittman's Free Form Apple Tart. The cake in question could have been altered no doubt by caramelizing the apples first...then they would have stood our against the cake background, but it would not be to my particular taste. We can keep in mind that I don't like butter tarts at all. I was raised with very little sugar...war baby...and nothing has changed. It seems clear that American recipes call for more sugar than your average European or Canadian (or Australian?)would like. And bittersweet chocolate is generally more acceptable in those countries than in the USA. On the other hand, Canadians do like more salt in their foods than Americans do. It's what you are raised on. I could add that I liked my Mother's rhubarb pie better than my French-Canadian Mother-in-Law's. I felt that the rhubarb taste was lost in my M-i-L's pie and it might have well been apple. She also sprinkled sugar on her crusts which I didn't like at all. Mind you, she was a much better cook than was my Mother. Interesting ...

No I don't cook vegetables ahead of time. However we don't have young children in our lives and we do eat salad for supper every second night. That's salad FOR our supper. And soup every other night. Then once a week we have "Dessert as Dinner". I do roast a lot of vegetables, both deliberately for meals and also when I realize that something needs to be roasted and frozen instead of being thrown out. Later it can used for enchilada fillings or soups or whatevers. When my DH did most of the cooking we did have menus for the week. Now that I do all the cooking, we don't anymore. But wait...supper is preset and so is my breakfast, although not Ed's. Hmmmm...what can I tell you? So often set plans have to be or just are jettisoned that I'm not sure my answer is of any use. Still it helps me to try to sort things out. You are not alone. My sensible holiday plans were not well followed. If it's there and it tastes good, I'll eat it. End of story.

Back again searching for Mexican ingredients and again I've left it to the last minute. With luck we'll be in Albuquerque again next week on the way home. This year I'm looking for only two ingredients: ground ancho powder and real Mexican vanilla. My intended destination is Pros Ranch Market on Central at Atrisco. (I'll be glad to devour some calorie laden rich pastries while there.) As for the ancho powder...I already have whole dried anchos and that can work. They were found in Grand Junction, but no ground powder and only imitation vanilla. Can anyone point me specifically to a place which carries pure Mexican vanilla? Promised to bring back some for friends in the Frozen North. Thanks.