Darienne

OK. Basically I am much lazier than you, Heidi. I would simply coat all the vegetables and flowers lightly with olive oil and whatever seasonings you might want, if any, and roast them in the oven in large aluminum cheapo pans if you have a great lot.

This sounds sweet and simple, but I couldn't disagree more. Not everyone can look at themselves objectively, physically or otherwise. I grew up looking in the mirror and hearing my father tell me I was fat. I grew to think I was morbidly obese. I look back at my childhood photos and i was chubby, at worst. This tainted me for life. I look back at photos of me in my 20s and 30s and wish i could tell myself, relax, you look fine. I might add, you won't believe what's coming down the road! Sorry if I'm reacting. It stuck me like saying if you want to lose weight, just don't eat so much. RG, you have every right to 'react. You and my husband. I've seen his kid photos. He was never really fat at all, just chubby, but those words can stick in the mind forever and color whatever happens, good or bad.

You have said it all, Susie Q

Many kudos to you, sir. My DH was a fat kid back when there were no fat kids. 1940s. Now he is a slim adult. He's probably the only person I have ever known who did the path from fat to thin and kept it off for about 30 years now. He's 5'10" or so and weighs 144 or so. He's thin to everyone's thoughts (but his own. Being a fat kid scars you forever) In the 1980s he weighed about 130 for a couple of years and looked like (here's age telling) a Biafran. He looked awful. He didn't think so. I can't imagine many 5'10" folks weighing that little, but he's of French Canadian and Oddawa extraction on his Mother's side and the men are skinny (and the women fat). Why his metabolism changed in that directions no one knows. Mine, like many women's at menopause, went the other way. Rats. I have no idea if this is of any help or interest to you, but there it is.

The first thing which comes to my mind is a sauce made from yoghurt, some fruit liqueur, fruity jam, a bit of sugar if necessary depending upon how sweet you like things... We often use this where whipping cream is called for.

Gosh, I had no idea that the 'free sample' issue was so complex for so many. I figure that first of all, the companies figure the cost of the samples into the end price of the product. It's advertising. Also, because we eat so sparingly in terms of buying prepared foods, many of the samples in Costco are things we have never tried before and I'm interested in trying new bits in case something really good emerges...like Mary's Organic Crackers...which I simply love now. Or their cashews which Ed likes. We don't normally buy pre-made egg rolls or pirogis or hummus or salsa or that sort of thing, but it's nice to know when you can count on a useful product when you run out of time. This way we get to try the product before we commit ourselves to several dollars' worth. The Costco container of cashews costs about $11.00. A fair exchange I think. Or, at least, that's how it works for me.

Good luck Peter and do post a photo and also tell us how much and what kind of coffee powder you used. Should be an interesting taste. Are you putting anything else into the bark or on top of it?

Thanks for the link, kalypso. Found it. Today's production was something simple, but still delicious. Right in tune with my current discovery of the taste of piloncillo. So amazingly complex. Makes brown sugar look like a mere piker. Nogada de Nuez / Piloncillo Candied Pecans from Fany Gerson's My Sweet Mexico. Out they go tomorrow.

Sometimes things just have to percolate for a while. Tried the ice cream for supper tonight and it's truly delicious. I know I will make it again.

On Amazon.ca (Canada), I can get the book for about $34 with S&H. But that doesn't help our daughter at all. This is supposed to be a surprise through my DH and he can tell her that I'd be thrilled with any book by Rick Bayless (except the one I own already). No muss, no fuss. I don't want her having to spend a lot of time and energy on this. And I will be thrilled anyhow. Thanks for the great information!

Oops. Looked up the cookbook on Amazon.com. I will not be asking my daughter for this wonderful book. $$$$$ That leaves me only about 79 other Mexican cookbooks to choose from...

Worth noting for Canadian readers: American Comet and other cleansers do not have the same formula as Canadian products. In Canada, we still have abrasives in our cleansers. I can't speak for ALL American cleansers and ALL Canadian cleansers, do check the label on your cleanser if you are going to use it on enamelware.

Looks delicious, C.Sapidus. Thanks for the heads up on the cookbook. My daughter intends to buy me a cookbook for my birthday and now I have to pick one...

Some might think the Philadelphia style lacking in mouth feel. You don't need anything except cream (heavy, half & half) for that. I have yet to use xanthan or any of the other thickeners/ stabilizers/ etc so can't comment. I'd try EmilyR's idea just to see what happens.

I do have kosher salt...I just didn't see the point of using it in this recipe. And as I review the recipe this morning, I don't think it's one I'll make again. As for the "Chili pepper (from Nahuatl chilli, chilli pepper, chilli, chillie, chili, and chile)" issue: the jury will always be out.

I would be interested in reading those reviews. I do like the book immensely and your point about the work of the editor is well taken.

Right. But we are talking 1/4 of a teaspoon in something which is opaque and pink. And has hot chile powder in it...

Today I made a new ice cream that I found on the Homesick Texan blog. It's called Strawberry ice cream with guajillo chile & lime, but I changed it so much as I made it, that I don't know what to say. It's strawberries and Guajillo chile and Lime but the quantities are altered, and I added Ancho and Chipotle to the mix, upped the lime juice, changed the brown sugar to Panela, and mixed half of the macerated strawberries straight into the base mixture. I also used regular salt...what could be the purpose of using 1/4 teaspoon of kosher salt rather than just regular salt? and also cooked it although it is supposed to be a non-cooked ice cream. I guess that otherwise, it's the same recipe. Oops. Forgot to add that the strawberries were so poor that I added some homemade strawberry jam just to beef up the strawberry flavor. The end result is pretty good.

I do have a couple of quarrels with the book...although I am willing to live with them. Maybe not all books, but MY book is not well constructed and the back is beginning to break. It has that crinkly sort of noise when I open it that makes me think the glue is not holding. Secondly, the instructions are not what you would call excellent for beginners. I still can't figure out how to fill and fold the Huachibolas and am going to ask one of my Mexican mentors for more detailed directions...but then maybe that's just me. Otherwise, I am having a wonderful time with this book and am quite determined to make as many of the recipes as I possibly can.

Quick answer: yes, I did use her dough. Longer answer: I added one more tablespoon of sugar to the dough because the jam was quite tart and it made a nice contrast. I have very little experience baking much of anything and I found the dough excellent for a beginner to work with. Also I don't have a 4 - 5" cutter...my biggest is 3 1/2" so my empanadas are a bit smaller than they might be. But that's OK. You can have more. I froze most of the first batch I made...the Jitomate filled ones...and we ate them slowly. The freezing part was fine. And so I'll freeze these also.

I had never heard of such an ice cream until you mentioned it. The recipes I found online called for discarding the cereal completely after soaking it in the milk, and it called for only 1 cup of milk and 1 cup of cream. What were the amounts of various ingredients you used? Normally my ice cream recipes call for 3 to 3 1/2 cups of liquid. And the inclusions are not necessarily discarded. Could it be that your recipe is not very big to begin with??? Just some thoughts.

Now last week's Tomatillo-Lime Jam is filling for the latest crop of Empanadas for this morning's human (and dog) play date. Turned out very nicely for that purpose. I can guarantee that today's company will never have eaten Empanadas nor Tomatillo-Lime Jam.

From Wikipedia, the font of much knowledge: "The dish [discada] includes a mixture of grilled meats cooked on an agricultural plow disk harrow, hence its name. Who knew? I like Zeemanb's idea better actually.

I seem to recall a huge pecan farm (do they call them farms?) at Hatch and we took home bags and bags of vacuum sealed pecans. My love of pecans knows no bounds and we don't get very good ones here.

Thanks for your kind words, Jaymes. And thanks to you and all the other regulars in the Mexican forum for being such great mentors to me. It has been great fun.