Darienne

Thanks Snadra. Lots of good ideas. Added to the growing list. This has been a bit of a learning experience for me...with the realization that I don't really feel at home with a lot of basic North American/Aussie dishes. For instance I have still never cooked a pork chop in my life. And I've never roasted a chicken. Much to learn. DH did much of the basic cooking for years as I a) avoided cooking as much as possible and when I cooked b) cooked almost exclusively from non-North American sources. Odd. Oh well, just think of all the challenges left to me to try. At this rate, I'll have to live for half of forever.

On what? She can't eat gluten...and that is completely legit.

Thanks Andie. I found a local store which handles Waring and I shall think on it.

I need a place to rant. November of 2008 I bought through Amazon the Cuisinart 9-speed, so top rated by everyone. I have never mistreated it and it has increasingly made weird noises. Well, just now it quit. Over guacamole. So what did I do? Well, we never discarded our ugly, old...very, very old...antediluvian almost...cracked, 3-speed Sunbeam. Two beaters, no whip. Found it in the back of the cellar. Plugged it in. Works like a charm. I know it's at least 40 years old. DH says the best plan is to buy a Canadian Tire cheapie and just be prepared to throw it away in a couple of years. No rant, no tears, minimal money lost. Any more useful, and less cranky, thoughts on the subject? Thanks.

Shelby. Slow cooker pork? I guess so! Love it! On a bun. With fried onions. And this really neat Tex-Mex potato recipe I found. Or Mexican rice. Cole slaw. Love pulled pork. Am working on a house BBQ sauce, but usually use leftover Puerco Pibil sauce. Perhaps more Canadians have no experience with southwest or Mexican food. I was talking to the owner/chef of a recently opened Mexican restaurant. "Where are the pork dishes?" I asked. "You can't sell pork in Peterborough. They won't touch it". He answered. "Just beef and chicken". No fish either. (Except fish and chips.) Kouign. And conversation. Yes. Lemon with chicken is a good idea. I think I was thrown by having one after another suggestion thrown. And when I said "salmon with lime" and she said she didn't like salmon...I just said. Fine. Steamed chicken and stir fry. The problem was that I was by then really tired and pretty stressed, and what I was looking for is the answer to that problem. I have learned a lot this time around. Thanks.

I love Mexican food (and Indian and Thai and Sichuan and you name it in the hot/spicy/exotic variety). It doesn't have to be either hot or spicy...but much of North American cooking has little interest for us. And although I did as little cooking as possible for most of my life, we never ate a quote/unquote conventional diet. Perhaps this thread was prompted by that strange and not very satisfying dinner arrangement last weekend in which everything I suggested was vetoed for some reason. Our guests kept saying they ate a lot of chicken and vegetables with no spices and so that's what we gave them. But I am not at my best with just chicken and vegetables I fear. Maybe I just need some chicken recipes on hand... Oh well, I learned a lot in this thread thanks to all of you.

No, not tired...old and tired. If I waited until I wasn't tired, I'd have no life at all!

Lots of answers to ponder, Sylvia, Bad Rabbit, Jenni, Genkinaonna, ScoopKW, OliverB, TheNoodleIncident and HungryC. Thanks all. Lots of good pasta ideas. A bit of a problem with the low carbers and gluten-free types. (Hmmm...one sure thing. Dog people seem to eat anything. ) Short order cooking is out I fear and the middle of nowhere is also in the Great Frozen North (Ontario). Probably the pulled chicken is a good idea. We eat mostly pulled beef and even better pork, but I am amazed at the folks who eschew pork big time. Most people will eat chicken (not my favorite) and, in fact, chicken with a stir-fry was the dish we served Friday night to the folks who couldn’t, wouldn’t and didn’t. Not a dish I would pick, but it worked well and that's what they asked for in the end. Best for me to make a solid list of things which I can throw together or thaw from the freezer without problems. …and hope most guests can come for the mid-day meal and will eat spicy/hot.

I don't have employees, but could I stretch this one to include well-meaning friends? Because I work with chocolate, friends invariably will give me gifts of chocolate. Very generous and thoughtful, but DON'T DO IT. I could go on about why, but it would feel rather mean-spirited. Not all chocolate is created equal. There, that should do it.

My DH's recipe for French-Canadian Tourtiere comes from his French teacher in Quebec back in 1960 and uses 7-Up for the pastry liquid.

Thanks to all for a plethora of great ideas. I’m not sure why I get so frozen (easily thawed, good as new) when these occasions arise. I might add something left out of my initial post. Many of our friends are our age, and although we eat just about anything, I am dismayed by the number of proscriptions which go along with serving meals. “We don’t eat this…he doesn’t like that…I am allergic to the other”. Right. That just about leaves us with glasses of water. Perhaps Janeer was right…don’t invite them in the first place. Our Friday night guests (expected) were difficult to feed with the likes, dislikes, and allergies. Gluten is always a problem one. Our Sunday night guests (unexpected) were ostensibly easier. “Oh, we eat anything”. Until they got here and the food was put out. She was diabetic and I didn’t know. Still she was wonderful about it and that was fine. Plus they stopped off at a grocery and brought scads of food with them. Elsie: Ed makes his Mother’s Macaroni and Cheese and I never thought of that. There’s the old…”we don’t do carbs” thing tho… Heidi: Didn’t know you could freeze cooked pasta. Should keep some fresh pasta in the freezer. LindaK: Always have pesto on hand. PtEater: Are you suggesting cooking the chicken or thawing cooked chicken? Janeer: couldn’t fine rolled pizza shell on Google. Also…you can keep rice in the fridge for a week? We usually bag and freeze ours in portions. StuartLS: I like the Indian idea…but then the husband of Friday dinner doesn’t do hot or spicy. I like to do Mexican usually…but it was out. Ellen: Waffles. Right. With fruit. And chopped nuts. And yoghurt, or cream, or whatever. Jenni: lovely Indian ideas. Annachan: right. Puff pastry in the freezer. And canned coconut milk. I need to make a list.

The unhappy fact is that I simply haven’t the energy I used to. And when an opportunity to invite folks to dinner arises, I want to be able to say “Great” without panicking either over having nothing on hand, or being too tired to cook anything. This happened late yesterday. We ran into old friends and said…do come to a quick dinner on your way back home if you can fit it in. “What on earth can I serve?” I ask DH. OK. Toasted cheese sandwiches? Ed says: “pulled pork on a bun with salad”. Right. I have a packet of frozen pulled pork. Ditto buns. BBQ sauces in the garage fridge. Not homemade, but they’ll do. Salad stuff always. Ice cream is fast and no problem. I always have cream. I have frozen homemade lasagna…but thawed stuff is often not as good the second time around. Fine for family, but not for guests. I can always throw together an impossible pie: meat, vegetables, cheese, biscuit topping. But somehow…it's had its day. What dishes freeze and then thaw really well? Preferably one-dish dishes. What recipes you can throw together at the last minute with stuff which you are likely to have on hand in the freezer or pantry? (Please keep in mind that we live in the middle of nowhere and can't run out to pick up a missing ingredient.) Thanks.

Looks good enough to eat. I've never even had a S'more, but yours I would try!

First time DH and I ever ate Taco Bell food was in Balboa Park in San Diego in 1984. We'd never even eaten Mexican food at the time and we had the Taco Salads being on a somewhat restricted eating regime. They were enormous, and little like today's standardized output. We enjoyed them immensely. That was then...and this is now. We still eat at Taco Bell's on the way to Utah each year. Taco salads. Nothing to talk about, but we do get to sit down somewhere else than in the van and we've not been poisoned yet. And they are near the freeway in our mad dash to Moab. I have to ask tho...what on earth are those horrible little pink strips that come with the salads? And if you think Taco Bells are dreadful in the USA, you should try them in Ontario.

Ditto what Kim says. Kim, you never quit. You never sleep. You just bake cupcakes and cakes for others 24/7. I know it. Lovely cake.

Thank you EN for those posted and those to be posted. I have been following Pati's Mexican Table for some time but didn't realize that there had been videos in the past. That soup looked good. Could you tell me please what are the accompaniments in the various dishes? No rush.

Was this restaurant in Toronto? It's not quite clear to me although I may well have missed something. I also have to say that your Value Village is so much better than the one in Peterborough. Haven't found any goodies in it for months and the cookbook section is so poor that I look at it with little hope of ever finding anything more than recipes for the microwave or diet recipes. So sad. Nothing like the joy of finding some treasure in amongst the dross.

Too late to fix my obvious error: I don't speak Spanish.

Dear EN, A small minority of Canadians speak fluent Spanish and I am foremost among them. I would be grateful if you could also post some videos in English language or perhaps with English subtitles. Thanks.

We made a decision not to eat any pre-ground hamburger after all the articles I have read in the last year. So, for a large gathering we had this summer where Saturday night is traditionally corn and hamburgers, I asked my wonderful butcher to grind up a roast...can't recall if it was inside round or sirloin...inside round I think...and the resulting hamburger was not to my taste. What should we have ground up for hamburgers? We are planning to buy a meat grinder...just can't wrap my mind around it yet.

Thank you for setting up this very useful topic, EN. is a favorite in our house. I have never eaten it anywhere but in my own house, cooked by my very inexpert hands, with no on-site mentors, following this video made by Robert Rodriguez director of "Once Upon a Time in Mexico" starring Johnny Depp and countless others.The movie is pretty awful, IMO, and the video contains language early on which might make a maiden lady blush but probably no eGers, but it did it for me as far as the Pibil was concerned. Any comments from the resident experts?

gfweb mentioned corned beef and now I gotta get me some. I forget all about it, thank heavens, for great stretches at a time.

Really interesting posts. Popcorn. DH eats it with butter and salt. I prefer olive oil, salt and pepper. Pure taste preference here. Our regular salad dressing is how my husband likes it. Olive oil and lemon juice 1:1. I would for myself go to 2:1 or even 3:1, but then we don't use very good quality olive oil. Have to pick your snack brackets.

My cookbook allowance must be carefully spent and I've decided not to buy the Jenni Bauer book. I already own DL's The Perfect Scoop and Gail Damerow. Ice Cream: The Whole Scoop. The reviews on Amazon.com state that Bauer uses pretty much the same base for all her ice creams and adds specific ingredients for individual recipes. I downloaded about 8 different recipes from the net and found that to be true. I wanted to find Bauer's chocolate and salty caramel recipes and both are online. For a first ice cream book I would recommend DL's The Perfect Scoop. More importantly, for me at least, I would recommend reading Mark Bittman's posts on making ice cream using cornstarch instead of eggs, and then looking up the eG posts by paulraphael for further tweaking information.

Never seen this program before. Apparently it's on the Canadian Food Channel at 9pm and features Dallas, TX.