Darienne

Exactly.

Almost a song: The Twelve Days of April... I have to say that for the first time in my life, my freezers contain no surprises at all. They are organized at last. Amazing!!!!

Never thought of tipping a butcher, but like many in this topic I do bring boxes of confections to the butcher...and the computer guy and the vet staff and the chiro staff and the dentist and staff and a lot of others I could name. Just like to do it. And it gives me the opportunity to indulge my need to make goodies...and then get them the heck out of the house right away. This weekend I am making a big batch of Deensiebat's chocolate topped coconut goodies. They'll go out as soon as they are done.

Adventurous eating at breakfast? No, thanks. Just sitting with someone eating Huevos Rancheros or even sausages gives me the willies. Give me a couple of hours and then lay pretty much anything on me. (But never jellied meat stuff.)

That is brilliant!!!!

There are so many vegetarian cookbooks out there now that you can't help tripping over them. My current favorite is: Habeeb Salloum. Classic Vegetarian Cooking from the Middle East & North Africa. New York: Interlink Books, 2000 (2009) ISBN 978-1-56656-398-7

Try doing all of this in Metric as we must do in Canada. So it might mean that a package of 556 grams would be reduced to what? 539 grams or something. Right. Try making sense of that? Who can do the math? You just buy it off the shelves and grumble and complain. And get on to the next issue. T'was ever thus in some form or other.

Wonderful, Steve.

I have not had an onion bhaji for years now. Oh, how I remember that delicious treat! Lucky you.

I loved the blog, PT. I loved the song, Peter. But I still don't want to eat crawfish.

One thing: how to make a what used to be called French Vinaigrette salad dressing, although no one called it that then. Otherwise nothing. My Mother hated cooking and went for the first freezer plan ever on the market. That's why I grew up loathing ice cream. Cheap junk it was. My Father was one of those who could barely open a can. My DH, Ed, partly of French-Canadian heritage and with a Mother who made everything from scratch, taught me how to cook. Which I hated until about five years ago. That's my story.

Just love your cake, StephMac. :wub:

Very nice!!!

Looks good online. Is Robert M. already working to get us a tour??? Or something??? Go, Robert M.

Hello Jeffery C. Welcome to the eG gang and thank you for the information and words of inspiration. You put the dessert into a useful context for me and I am likely to try making it again, but in a more useful fashion for our own needs. Interesting about cooking as I learn more and more, how the many bits and pieces come together in larger patterns. As in...you take one set of ingredients, say those in a custard, and cook them in one of several ways, and then whip them or not, and then serve them hot or cool them, and put them into, on top of or under other ingredients or not, or freeze them, churned or not. And what other ingredients you can substitute if you don't have the ones called for...and then how that becomes a useful variation of the original recipe. And if you live in a cooler or wetter or drier climate you would combine them with a different grains. And if you had easy access to cooking fuel that makes a difference in how you cook them. And so on and so on. Absolutely fascinating. Wonderful!!! I'm almost glad I never had any interest in cooking before. Allows me in my quickly approaching dotage to find a new obsession to urge me on. Which is probably more than anyone wanted to know.

Because I am just basically learning to cook with some enthusiasm and don't have any background in cooking in the 60s, 70s, etc, etc, I don't have any real experience in the dishes of those times. (Yes, I cooked, but I also made beds, yadda, yadda.) Bought a 1987 Better Homes & Gardens:Recipes from Prizewinning Cooks the other day for a couple of dollars, thinking that it might be fun. Actually made first dessert listed last night for our weekly 'Dessert as Dinner' because it had all the necessary elements: grain (rice), dairy (cream & milk), eggs (uncooked whites), unflavored gelatin and fruit (3 cups). Plus hardly any sugar...a bonus. Made it with Blood Oranges instead of strawberries. And it was very tasty...but strange. There was only minimal rice in it!!! (Should have read it more carefully ahead of time...one of my major failings.) I realized too late that it was NOT a rice pudding at all with only 1/4 cup of rice for 4 servings. So I made scones and we spooned it on top. Too dryish. So made a quick boozy raspberry sauce to pour on top. Yumm. Looked up other 'fluff' (Fluff? What's a 'Fluff'? ) recipes online and they called for No-sugar jello, Cool Whip (ugh!), marshmallow creme (ugh again!) with some given the designation of 'diet desserts'. Can someone please give me a sense of what I have stumbled into?

A wonderful story and not one you hear every day, for sure. Thanks, Rhonda.

Because I couldn't access any Landies Candies website from Canada today?/for some reason?, I phoned the plant and talked to Larry, the man in charge. I was curious to know what they make and they make chocolate candies. They don't make anything else besides chocolate. Sounds good to me. They have a store front which we means we can buy goodies.

A question: what exactly does 'panning them' mean? Thanks.

Costco usually gives out a plethora of samples in their aisles. I've tried a number of tidbits, mostly depending upon the hour and how hungry I am. Most is processed dreck. Never anything with meat. And we have seldom bought any product based on tasting...with one incredible exception. Mary's Organic Crackers. Yummm...

Will do. Done. Phoned and spoke to the person in charge and no, there is no store front and there is nothing for sale. They have a display of boxes in their lobby, but that is all. As she said, they are a manufacturing plant. However, they will put on a presentation and take groups on guided plant tours which are very interesting...watching cardboard and boxes being made, etc. A sort of "How it is Made" reality tour. I guess I would actually find it fascinating. However, I would not choose to go over touring a candy company. I have the name and number: Tracy Loverde, ModPac, (716) 873-0640.

I looked at the ModPac website. Do they have a storefront sales desk sort of thing and can you buy just one or two of this and that?

Do you think that freezing the gooseberries before you make them into jam changes the the nature of the pectin in any way? Thanks.

Headcheese has been off the table for me for decades now (DH has a very mixed background including French Canadian and his Mother used to make it)...but I had forgotten about Scrapple. Ah yes, Scrapple. It sounded so good when friends said they were bringing it to the Dog Weekend a few years ago. Apples thought I. And crispy stuff. Not. They're from Delaware. Two huge oblong blocks of gray stuff. Fried. You never saw so many happy dogs as the horrible greasy stuff was surreptitiously slipped under the table by all but the folks from Delaware who devoured it. Is there something about Delaware? We haven't seen it since. (Maybe they did notice.)

Sorry. That would be nice. I live in Ontario and am thankful that I even have a doctor. We don't get to 'change' doctors here. Actually, the drug snafus that I have been saved from would curl your hair, and I suspect a lot of Ontarians (I can't speak for the rest of Canada) might well have similar stories. The pharmacist is my best friend here.