Darienne

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.

Made another batch of Palanquetas (Mexico)/ Chikki (Indian) / Nut brittle yesterday, only this time in the more Indian style with cardamom and pistachios added to the mixture of nuts and seeds. What puts this brittle apart from the regular North American variety is the sugar; jaggery (Indian) or piloncillo or panela (Mexican). (But then most of you probably already knew that: it's new to me.) Incredible and wicked. And best of all, Monday I found Panela in my very own area, Peterpatch. First time ever. We have a 'new' chain in town, FreshCo and they are suddenly carrying more stuff than I have ever seen in this small provincial city. No more hoarding of Panela from far-away places!!!

I think part of the answer is to do whatever will work for you. And if it's unconventional...well, go for it. The accepted ways of eating are just the ones which are accepted today. Who knows about tomorrow? I remember years ago seeing a nutritionist who could not work organic peanut butter or nuts into a diet plan...this was not for weight, but for sugar intolerance. Gave up on "nutritionists" that day. Oh, and we were at the time long time vegetarians and she didn't approve of that either. As for cabbage being yummy as a substitute for pasta. Well. No. It's acceptable. Different but OK. Chinese foods are a good way in this family. (I don't really know Thai at all, I'm sorry to say.) Speaking of Hot and Sour Soup...I made a humongous batch of it yesterday...it sort of 'grew' as I went along. Delicious. And now I have 11 2-portion containers of it in the freezer. It's a perfect supper for us. And if I eat more than I need...well what does it matter? I'll start the hot water routine today. To me, almost all herbal teas taste like hot water anyway, so why bother? I'll just add lemon or lime juice to the glass and all will be well. I agree with Mjx...low carb substitutions are depressing, but there are so many delicious low-carb dishes out there in which you are not subbing anything. There is nothing worse than low-carb bread. Now that to me is an abomination. Many years ago I did make a sprouted grain bread which I think was called Essene bread. Can't even remember why. Think I'll Google it.

Following this thread with interest... One trick a friend showed me was using cabbage: shredded for spaghetti and in leaves for lasagna. Believe it or not, it worked quite well. Good luck with your diet, Dejah. I'll look up your link. ps. Thanks for the tip about drinking hot water. I hate drinking cold water, but hot or warm water I could manage! Never thought of that.

Perhaps you could try flour tortillas. They are authentic in the areas of Mexico where they grow flour, mainly in the state of Sonora. Then you could get on to the main dishes, etc.