Darienne

Why I have been so busy the last week. 5 dozen lollipops for the Moab Valley Humane Society to sell at their Dog Adoption Day. 30 gift 1/2 Christmas boxes of Chocolate Coated Almond Toffee and Nut and Seed Brittle for the Society's volunteers. This is what makes Christmas food gifts really good for me. DH helped package everything.

Thanks all for the replies. It's a good beginning.

I prefer the frozen coconut milk I can get from the asian grocery stores to the canned. Of course, they are 2-3x more expensive than canned so I tend to save them for dishes which really highlight the coconut. I still keep plenty of cans around too. You can also freeze unused quantities of that for later rather than have them go off in the fridge. But I rarely do that... I mix it up with panela or other muscavado/brown sugar, apply a little heat and use as a dessert topping. Thanks natashal1270, I shall look for frozen coconut products next time I am in our local Asian grocery store.

It's only recently that I can buy Poblanos in East Central Ontario and I can also buy dry Anchos and Ancho powder, but at pretty high prices. Now I'm in the Great Southwest, Moab, UT, and can't buy either dried Anchos or Ancho powder. A friend bought me some Anchos, but not Ancho powder, in Grand Junction, CO, at a Mexican mercado. I know I can grind the Anchos into powder. Can I dry Poblanos into Anchos? Can I dry Jalapenos into Chipotles?

Frozen coconut milk. Could you please explain how this is a basic in a freezer? Do you make it?

That's a molinillo and I wish I had the courage to take on doing a blog right now but I don't. What about Kalypso or Theabroma? Hooray for more Mexican/South American cooking!

Back in the land of incredible second hand stores. Got a brand new bread machine for $2 on 50% off Sunday for old guys. Not the best brand, but for $2 who can complain. Also found these two sieves for 50 cents each. I just love 'em.

Yes, I agree with this. I do graphics for a living and all caps are less easy to read than a mix of upper and lower case, especially with stylized lettering. If you're wedded to the font due to business reasons, that doesn't mean everything you print needs to be in that font. Use it for baked good titles, your business name, etc, but something like descriptions or ingredient lists can be set in a simple Times Roman Italic (a little stylish yet easy to read). Good luck with the packaging! Good points, Toliver. Thanks.

Frozen spinach & corn, puff and filo pastry, butter, bacon. That would be first for us. But then we live in the country.

Oh I do like that last one, with the red bottom. As for the typescript, go with what you have already picked for your business. You are correct. It's much different reading it with the tag in your hand. Our business also has a more elaborate script and it's fine from in one's hand.

I know very little about marble and have been lucky to have been gifted with two pieces of marble, the second one DH built into a wonderful rolling kitchen table for me. Both pieces are fairly impervious to wear and tear. Oh yes, chocolate in exchange for both. This past weekend I learned that apparently there is a vast difference in marble from Georgia (good) and Colorado (not good). A friend bought a beautiful marble piece of Colorado marble for a table top and it scratches very easily. I know...I accidentally scratched it myself. She says...make certain if you buy a table top, that it's marble from Georgia. Anyone know anything more about this?

OK. I think that #3, red on red, is more graphically sophisticated...but on the other hand, the red on white is more attention grabbing and more in keeping with an 'in-joke' perhaps. On the other hand, I have always hated the Leafs anyway, being a Canadiens fan through and through.

Will do so. I like the idea of drizzling bittersweet chocolate on their tops. Now both DH and the man who owns the condo we are renting thought that they were great. I'm with you though completely.

Lovely warm weather for you. I can't tell you anywhere to eat in Tucson, but if you have the time, the Desert Museum is one of the best places to visit. You can see a Boojum tree which looks as weird as its name. And the White Dove of the Desert Catholic Mission is not to be missed. Have a great time. Bring back some Epazote if you can so at least one Northerner will have some.

Thanks for the info and the thoughts. Your one in four times might be because your microwave is too hot from the previous batches. This I learned from my confectionery partner back home. She make oodles of microwave peanut brittle every year and says it's two batches on and then wait till the microwave cools. I think I'll just skip the honey. Not a time for experimentation right now. Thanks.

Hi Ruth, Thanks so much for your very practical advice. Besides monitoring this topic now, my friend is planning to join eGullet very soon. Well, probably after Christmas. She, like everyone else is over committed and busy now. You are so correct about the sheet pans. And the ring. We were both having such a learning experience yesterday. And I have no idea how one person could life that kettle with a heavier load. I believe my friend said it weighs #16 empty. And with boiling hot sugar...oh boy!

Gotcha. Thanks.

Will use silicone or parchment next time. They were not incredibly crumbly because I had to work so hard to get them free from the pan and they stayed together pretty much. Peanut butter was "less than 1% salt" on the label and DH always drains off the oil and then adds chopped dry roasted peanuts to the mix. I thought the peanuts by themselves were not very nice and they were salty. Personal taste only. I'll cut down on the sugar very much and top them with chocolate. Sort of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups which I had hoped to do first time. Thanks for the reply.

One huge fairly successful batch of Chocolate coated toffee made today. It's a long and complicated story. And much was learned. My friend works with a huge copper pot on a very old stove. Information on this stove would be appreciated. Made by Savage Bros, Chicago, Economy #20. A dial with no numbers, simply marked in quarters. The butter did NOT separate (thanks to Ruth, Anita, and others for excellent information). However, before I knew it, the cooking process was finished and her electronic thermometer was letting us know with a high-pitched skreel that the top temperature had been reached. Level of heat? Only a smidge past 'on'. Nowhere near even 1/4. Nothing was burning. Why had it taken such a short time? Then my friend poured it out on her buttered marble table. The thick marble top was SO cold that the toffee set up within only a couple of seconds and could not be spread properly. She didn't know and I certainly didn't know. Next time, she'll pour it out with a different spread which will help. I've never seen toffee set up so quickly;. Not in my home kitchen for certain. So some was thin and some was thick...etc. Next problem involved a fear that we would not be able to get the toffee off the table. My friend had had a dreadful experience with a sticking brittle. So we worked at freeing the toffee which broke very unevenly: large pieces, tiny chips...it was a job. Then the chocolate set up so quickly on side #1 that we had to work together like fiends trying to get the finely-chopped nuts on before the chocolate refused to receive them. Of course we were working on pieces of toffee, not a solid slab. Chocolate on side #2 was much slower to set up and so adding the nuts was not so frantic. Folks came in and out of the store as we were working in the front window (now that's a novel experience) and many samples in various states of finished-ness were handed out. I know polite and I know rabid enthusiasm, and this was the second. What's not to love? The finished product, almost 7 pounds, my friend generously donated, to the Christmas gifts which I volunteered to make for the volunteers of the local humane society (this leaves me only 8 pounds of brittle to make). I'll add her logo and address to my logo sticker on the box top. It will be a good introduction locally to my friend's products. This is going to be a winner for my friend. The process needs some tweaking and some new bits and bobs purchased to make it all run more smoothly, and soon toffee will be added to her excellent fudge, brittle and chocolate- and caramel-dipped pretzel rods. I returned to home base loaded with toffee for my project.

Great idea. Fortunately I have been so swamped with other things that I didn't have a chance to separate the pieces and throw the leathery bits out yet. The steaming will wait a while before being tried. In the meantime, they were rolled in sugar and put into an air-tight container. And oh my! the smell and taste of the syrup is just fantastic! Thanks again, Andie

Just made the cookies. The recipes call for ungreased pans and then they were so hard to get off the pan. What did I do wrong? If I make them again, I'll bake the cookies on silicone mats. Also cut down on the sugar (and this was with unsweetened peanut butter.) I was originally intending to dip them or top them with dark chocolate, but just found the cookies so sweet that it didn't seem like a good idea anymore. Anyone else have sticking problems?

The Buddha's Hand event is done. I decided to go with DL's candying of the fruit, Candied Citron[/url and then next I'll use the resulting syrup...luscious...and candied bits in other things. Interesting process. Blanched the tiny pieces, then candied them. They took forever. I kept checking on them over and over and guess what? The last time out of the kitchen, I pretty much forgot about them (it was late and I was tired) and when I suddenly smelled that 'oh, oh' smell, it was too late for perfection. The syrup was still fine. But the pieces with rind on them had that leathery texture. The rind-less pieces are fine. Next step? Haven't decided yet. My only photo. Blanched but not yet overcooked.

OK. Don't despise me for being lazy and taking the easy way out. I have agreed to make Christmas gifts for the local Humane Society staff to hand out to their volunteers. Thirty to be exact. Half-pound boxes of Nut Brittle. Fifteen pounds. By next Friday. Along with the rest of my chaotic life. Like teaching a professional fudge maker how to make Enstrom type toffee at 11 today. (Just finished making several dozen lollipops for their Dog Adoption Day today.) I have a new recipe from a class I took last month: New Delhi Fragrant Indian Brittle which calls for honey and cardamom. And I have an old Microwave Peanut Brittle Recipe and a brand new 1000 watt microwave and some questions. 1. My microwave is BRAND NEW and 1000 watts. This is an old recipe. I think I ought to use Power level 8. My first batch of lollipops I did at top power and they were slightly burned. The rest I did at 9. But I feel I could have gone to 8. 2. My 'fancy' recipe calls for cardamom. I am thinking about when to add it. With the nuts? That is still cooked in, but not risking burning? 53 The 'fancy' recipe calls for 1/4 cup corn syrup & 1/4 cup HONEY. The old recipe calls for 1/2 cup corn syrup only. What do you think? Well, I can try it with the honey and see if it works. Seems like the probable answer. Any advice is welcomed. Thanks.

Thank you. I will be back. One way or t'other.

Got it: blender, juicer, microplane with handle and chopper. And the Homesick Texan purchased in Terre Haute, IN, on the road out west. Not got it: the gas stove. Be realistic, girl. Next spring if you are lucky. Next: a bunch of wanted cookbooks from Amazon.com, a food mill (my non-cooking friend took hers back...rats), tortilla warmer, BlenderBottle (amazing toy). That's it for now.