Darienne

Yep. But you may not really like it. Do a traditional Thanksgiving and make them happy. This will avoid all discussions of your dietary changes, all misunderstandings, all tension, all bad things. Just give it up for this one meal. Period. (At least that's what I would do. And go back to your diet the next meal.)

Had a guest this weekend and had a blow-out weekend for the diet. And what was best of all? Excellent bread with cold butter. Better than the wine, the homemade apple pie, the pulled pork, etc. Yep. The bread and butter. Yummm. Tomorrow...back to the salt mines.

Chocolate Molasses Chews. Made them. Forgot to take a photo until they were all packed up. Lovely and easy to make. Easy to dip. Topped each one with a single almond sliver and they looked very elegant. Wondering about putting some heat into them...

Two years ago at a gourd festival in Darke County Ohio. A pulled pork sandwich to die for. The beginning of a whole new life for us. I'd never had pulled pork before. Yes, you can live to an advanced age and never eat pulled pork. My Mother never cooked pork and neither did I.

Please do keep in mind that many doctors are currently subscribing to a desired cholesterol level which is not necessarily correct. They are now even Rxing statins for young children.

Thanks for the experiential information. Always a huge help.

Ah, too late to edit. Just reread my three different recipes again and found in the engineer's recipe a good tip I never heard before. Heat the pan (with silpat sheet) to 200 degrees to help spread the mixture thinly and evenly enough. Trust the engineer's mind. (I am an Engineer's daughter. )

Congratulations are definitely in order for such dedication and will power.

Have just downloaded three different recipes for chile flavored brittle and they add the chile/cayenne/paprika/whatever at three different times: beginning, middle and end. So either we are lucky and someone who has done it successfully answers this question...or we get to work and find out for ourselves.

Still reading and still loving every photo and every piece of information. The food looks divine. We don't eat much Indian food anymore for some unknown reason and I really miss it. Must start in again and learn some new recipes. Thanks Percyn.

You, as always, are a sweetie...along with several dozen other eG sweeties, of course. Salt & pepper and biting spice. Could be ground ancho chiles...a bit of a bite, but not too much...or ground chipotles...more bite...or a dozen others things. I think I'll try one with ground chiles. My newest obsession, in a long line of obsessions. So thrilled to be able to buy piloncillo locally!!! :wub:

Thanks all. I was not thinking about pieces of fruit, but more about lemon, lime or orange zest...should have said so. I'll just try it in small batches and see how it works. Might try ground espresso coffee. Or 'not ground but crushed' beans.

I have been making nut brittles lately using piloncillo /panela / palm sugar and having a good time. PanaCan gave me a lovely recipe from Ecuador which calls for 1 cup shredded ginger to 4 cups of sugar. I loved it. Dawn, who is helping with the renovations, thought it needed more ginger. Ed, the DH, said...way too much ginger. OK. So I thought...what about orange flavor? lemon or lime flavor? high contrast to sweet sugar flavors? Found some fairly anemic recipes online and thought I would turn to eG for advice. Who has some lovely tasty answers for me, please?

Major problem here. Quickly. Package it all up and tie ribbons around the boxes!!! How do you manage not to eat any/all/some of your gorgeous production?

Very crafty, eGulleters are. Well done, lights19. I tried to read the boards but don't have good enough photo equipment (or eyes these days).

Busy afternoon. Everything I could lay my hands on got dipped in bittersweet chocolate: Indian brittle, Ecuadorian brittle and a bunch of peanut butter balls which had to be double-dipped. Left the ginger for another day...running out of dipping energy. Lovely. Lots of goodies to give away now. Some of the production:

Made the palanquetas a second time, but this time made them with an 'Indian' touch, using pistachios in the mix and ground cardamom. I adore cardamom in desserts. My Indian dentist loved them. Today I went a step further. PanaCan who lives in Ecuador and just finished her wonderful blog, sent me a recipe for an Ecuadorian candy made with panela called Dulce de Mani. As usual, making something for the first time, I screwed it up. Cooked it too long, thinking I was making a brittle...which I wasn't...and then after forming them into the called for balls, realized you could break your teeth almost chomping through the thickness of said balls. So put the balls into the microwave and flattened them all into patties which is fine for brittle. I think what I'll do in future is use a brittle recipe, with the Ecuadorian additions: roasted peanuts, lime juice and lots of finely shredded ginger. The ginger is amazing! Thanks PanaCan.

I would think that having young children would make this sort of eating life very difficult. However, kids who love broccoli. They are keepers for sure. Broccoli is one of my favorites. We have a favorite broccoli and cauliflower salad which uses the florets. Then I use the stalks to make soup. Yumm. Fifteen pounds off is a goodly amount. Good for you.

Ditto for me. I've only seen the holder types.

Congrats on the warrior wound! How was the Cochinita versus your prior attempts? I have to admit I liked mine better. Mine was the Robert Rodriguez recipe. I don't know where hers came from. (Not suggesting that his is authentic or that he is a chef or anything.) Mine was nippier. And lime. She used vinegar. Mine had more ingredients and was slow cooked. Hers was not. But then I always tend to like my own food better. What the hey! I like what I like. Thanks for the information about the flour tortillas.

This is a very old lady talking: buy one of those "guillotine bagel cutters available, but I just can't bring myself to use one" things.

Thought I must have misspelled the word and then looked both up and found not only is it rapadura and raspadur, but also 'raspada' and'rasgadura'. And, no doubt, a dozen other things. Thanks, PanaCan.

As for low carb baked goods...fuggadaboutit. (don't know how to spell that one.) As for when the relatives visit...it simply doesn't count. Eat whatever you need to eat to make the visit flow nicely...and then go back to your diet as soon as they leave. Oh, that's my mantra. lol.

Found the Chocolate Molasses Chews and they seem just the thing to make this weekend when a young friend comes to visit. (Not THAT young...in her 40s) The fact that they keep for a month is a telling point. Also just recalled that the jaggery/panela sugar is called Rapadura in Brazil and the peanut brittle is Pé-de-moleque. Fascinating.

Note for Canadians in Ontario at least. Piloncillo is now being carried in FreshCo (was Price Chopper and several things before that). Keep in mind that there are both Mexican and separate Latin American sections.