Darienne

Thanks, Lior. I'm interested in your serving dishes/containers/etc What do you suggest? Ground baked liver would do it. Too many dogs actually to do it at all. Might start a to-do.

Update of sorts: accidentally found the thermometer in question (minas6907) this morning. Did not get rid of it. Now I remember what happened. I dropped it and the red fluid in the glass scale separated and would not go back together again. Now that it has sat for well over a year, the fluid is back together and I am going to test it in boiling water. If it can be made to work by adding or subtracting numbers, that will give me 4 different thermometers, not by design, but still very handy for all occasions.

No more duct tape for this woman...it's Gorilla Tape now. Like duct tape but much stronger and stickier. Costs more too. Get yourself some; you'll never regret it and you'll never go back to plain old duct tape. And to list what I have done with it...would be easier to list what I haven't done with it. DH hates my way of repairing stuff. Buckshee he says. Done I say. Go for it, Heidi.

Quick answer: no.

My hands can no longer make a regular can opener work and we have now killed two electric can openers (or they just died), the latest one being quite expensive, a Cuisinart. Our daughter gave me this strange little can opener from Lee Valley for Christmas, only $14.50 CDN and it's incredible and I can use it. Oh yes, I'm old. Nogent Super Kim Can Opener. #EV123 Lee Valley catalog It doesn't look like much of anything and I couldn't think that it would work, but believe me, it's amazing and doesn't take much strength at all. ps. Lee Valley Jar Opener. #50K41.01. Amazing. Lee Valley link

I looked for my thermometer which looks like the Amazon one but can't find it...which means I have already tossed it. I found it a pain to use and broke part of it the second time used. I've been using one of those insta-read thermometer guns for over a year now. Mine is a Mastercraft, which is a Canadian brand sold by Canadian Tire, a Canadian institute of long standing. I love it. Would never go back to any other kind. The one thing one has to remember...to stir the mixture being measured just before taking its temperature. The gun takes only the top temperature. So far no problems whatsoever. Obviously no use for internal temperatures of meats. I have a couple of the long metal probe kinds of thermometers. They are a nuisance, always being in the way (for me). I have a couple of the older glass encased thermometers. They still have a function in my life...I just have to remember each time how far out of whack they are by testing them in boiling water keeping in mind at what elevation I happen to be.

I need a running start on this popsicle thingy. Do give me your proportions of this and that please. And I wish you and your pup could come too. And I hope you are both faring well. Our daughter was here over the weekend and fed part of her coconut water pop to our female who loved it.

Never thought about this before, but it does make sense. Nothing like an accident or burn to make one careful from then on. Painful way to learn.

That IS the answer!

Currently I have one mold which makes 8. In August we host a Dog Weekend and Saturday of the weekend (which turns out to be 4 days) we can have up to 25 people and 25 dogs. So I need a ridiculous quantity of popsicles should I go this route this year. I have a lot of plastic confectionery bags which are way to big for lollies and such and should be fine for popsicles. Our daughter says they buy them in Toronto in hand-formed waxed paper packets. I imagine the ones they buy are flat and not cone shaped... Might look for some new molds. Margarita pops on my mind...

Made my first post teenage popsicles. Coconut water. Daughter and her BF from Granada loved them. DH said they were one degree more fascinating than water. My question is: how do you store popsicles??? I simply stuck them in an open plastic container back in the freezer. This is not satisfactory. What do others do?

Hi PanCan, lovely tutorial. In case I just missed it...what kind of oil are you using? Thanks.

Very nice, Weinoo. Dollarama stores for popsicle sticks in the kids' toys section.

Our season in east central Ontario is short and starts nearing the end of August. Then we simply eat it on the cob until the season is gone. But as for corn two favorites. One is like KayB's salad of black beans and corn except that I might add sweet potatoes and definitely Poblano rajas. Poblanos are new to our region's supermarkets and so we are eating them as if they might not appear for sale the next week...which they might not. I am a one woman ambassador for Poblanos, befriending the produce manager, etc. Anything to keep them coming. Secondly a potato dish which encorporates roasted diced waxy potatoes, fried corn niblets, poblano rajas, black beans. Sorry, the niblets are either canned or frozen. Seeing as this dish is new to my repertoire, this year I'll use fresh corn for the first time.

Hello FP, Always glad to read about SD. My parents lived there for about 20 years, on College Avenue (don't remember the district name) during the 70s and 80s, so I got to know the city a bit. Lovely place. Not like the frozen northeast Ontario.

Made Rum and Raisin for our daughter's BF. Definitely an ice cream for adults with lots of rum. Very nice.

Isn't it standard procedure in Montreal to slice and butter a bagel and place it face-down on the griddle to toast? Maybe it is in some families. I don't know. We never did. Funny. When you are a kid, you often think that all families do it the way your family does. We usually just ate them out of the paper bag. Montreal bagels get really stale, really quickly. I don't know why. Then we ran them under the tap and put them in the microwave to restore that particular chewiness. (The microwave being an adult experience. Didn't have them in my childhood, of course.)

OK. I AM a Montrealer. Long displaced in Ontario, but still a Montrealer, raised on proper Jewish bagels...which you would never ever toast. Montreal bagels are not easy to slice horizontally. You would end up slicing your fingers. The photo on the article posted by FG, is not a bagel...to a Montrealer, it is a bread donut shape with a hole in it. I'll find a photo of a proper Montreal bagel and post it. Well, I'll try. Some are proper Montreal bagels...the thin misshapen ones especially. Images of Montreal bagels

Great timing for this thread. I was just 'gifted' with some popsicle molds but haven't quite gotten around to using them. Fany Gerson, author of Paletas (which I am going to buy) and My Sweet Mexico (which I own and LOVE) has wonderful popsicle recipes. ...not to mention all the ice cream recipes which I have already made... OK Let's go for it ...

And do you make your za'atar or make it and if so, how?

That is my thought also... I don't have enough to make a regular cake except I could make a teensy weensy one I guess.

Hi RRO, this sounds very good. I have made things out of yoghurt, including cheese, but never with a firm purpose in mind. I like your descriptions. Thanks. If I live forever, I'll get to try all the ideas I have stored up ahead of me.

Bear of very little brain that I am. The caloric value of the sour cream cheese would be just as high, if not higher, that that of the processed cream cheese, after the liquid is drained out of the sour cream. Thank you all or not pointing out what an idiot I am.

Added information (Ontario prices and measurements): Kraft cream cheese: $3.19 for 250 grams, and 1 TBSP = 45 calories Beatrice sour cream: $1.48 for 500 ml, and 1 TBSP = 25 calories So not only is my sour cream cheese tastier by far than the Kraft, it also has fewer calories and costs far less. I did not weigh the cheese before we used it last night on crackers and this morning on toast but I still have 200 grams left. Next time I'll weigh the sour cream before I start the process and then after the process is over.

Started the 'cheese' on June 28th...it's now July 1st. The cheese is wonderful. It's the best cream cheese I have ever eaten. I mixed the sour cream with thyme, cumin, sesame seeds, salt, pepper, smoked paprika in no particular fashion...until it tasted good to me. Thanks for the help, DLS & Kerry.