Darienne

So a friend told me she had found a Mexican cooking show on the Food Network (Canada) and I thought. Oh boy! Just what I need. So I watched it. Marcela Valladolid. And boy was it awful. Meatloaf a la Mexican. This dish and that dish with a dash of "Mexican" spices or ingredients. But then the subtitle was: "A spin on American Classics". I didn't look at that part of the title obviously. Are there any useful Mexican/Hispanic/Latino type cooking shows on television either in the USA (which no doubt we Canucks cannot get) or in Canada? Right. Thanks.

Wonderful Kim...think of how frustrated a baker you would be if you didn't have a workplace to go to????

The salsa verde which you love...is it from Bayless' book? Or is it an old favorite of yours? Your own version of a recipe? Someone else's recipe?

Excellent point, Jaymes. Hey! If RLB can use a bread machine, I can use a crock-pot for sure.

My DH, Ed, did not like the lemon ice cream either. Made with only half & half and not much else except lemon juice & sugar, Ed complained noted that it tasted like sherbet. Ed is not a sherbet kind of guy. I can't see any reason why you can't use golden syrup in this recipe if that's what you are asking. It's only used as a doctor and you use only a little bit. No, if I understand correctly and you are asking about a doctor in this Tiramisu Ice Cream recipe, I would say don't use it. The recipe calls for so much liqueur that you don't need one. Your ice cream could turn out just too soft. Do get back on this. Thanks.

I am very disappointed to discover that The Sunset Cookbookcosts $32.00 on Amazon.ca (the Canadian end of the business). Also, exactly what is so 'western USA' about it? Does it have Tex/SoCal/Mex recipes in it?

Oops. That was the other thing I changed. I used a wing and a prayer and a crock-pot. Sorry.

Well, as usual I forgot the photo until I was part way through eating...not that it would have looked any different from the start. The potatoes are a recipe from one of those Southwestern MOR cookbooks which is neither here nor there, with changes of course. We both love it. I loved the meat and sauce. DH liked it, but at this point is rather more fond of commercial BBQ sauces /aka SUGAR. I might try melting some brown sugar and adding it to the leftover sauce and see if he prefers it. Pas moi. ps. Added a ton of brown sugar and some molasses. He likes it! What can I say? He was raised on sugar pie.

The Puerco Pibil marinated for about 5 hours in the fridge and then cooked in a slow cooker overnight. I just tasted it. OMIGAWD! :wub: I swear I have never tasted anything so enchanting, so good, so delicious. I am in Pibil Heaven. I'll try to get a photo of the lunch plate (although I am neither photographer or plating chef).

The recipe is in post #4, just above.

Lucky you. Well as it happens, I do have the beginnings of a calamondon bush...it's now 22" tall and if I live another 25 years it will probably have some oranges on it. Yes, I do have a second one, not quite so tall. They came from sprouting seeds from a friend's trees. There are just so many recipes for each dish that I find it overwhelming with each new dish. I wish I could find someone to take me in hand and teach me the basics of what I want to know. Thanks for all your help, Jaymes.

Hoo Boy! Some smashingly good Mexican dishes I hope!

Tomorrow is our 51st anniversary...OMG I cannot believe it...and I am making Puerco Pibil for our celebration lunch. First time. Found three recipes and after comparing them in each ingredient and amounts, went with the one from Robert Rodriguez, supposedly the one which is eaten by Johnny Depp's character in "Once Upon a Time in Mexico". I actually followed the recipe very closely except that I used lime juice instead of vinegar, seeing as I used Seville oranges instead of plain undifferentiated orange juice. Oh well, I cannot recall ever following a recipe exactly...mostly I don't have some ingredient. Right. I also used a combination of cinnamon and nutmeg instead of cloves which I didn't have. I'd better stop here. It's marinating in the fridge right now.

Consider it done. Actually it is already done.

Lovely post, JC. I really enjoyed reading it.

Ditto for me. I'll ask our local Asian market.

Thanks chm. First guffaw of the day! ps. I still have trouble eating chicken, unless it's just breast meat. It's all those yucky bits.

That sounds delicious. I have never cooked brisket but you have me thinking that I will soon fix that gap in my cooking! DH, Ed, is the meat buyer in this family. I just asked him and he says he has never seen brisket in a local supermarket. I remember that my Bubi used to cook it. That's a long time ago. Anna, do you have it in your stores?

Thanks so much for this report, Kerry. I don't know how I missed it. I take it you enjoyed the food. And do they still have a market area? And what is 'csvarki'? I googled it and the first response was your eG post. The rest was not in English. Thanks.

As Chris Taylor said above: so many, many things, but the one which stands out in my mind happened only last September 2010...the first time I ever had barbecued pulled pork. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. And we have had pulled pork and now pulled beef and pulled chicken many times since then. Who knew? And why had I never tried Pork on a Bun before and why did this never come up in my already very long life. So little time, so much uneaten pork. (I do also remember quite distinctly the first time I had an avocado and it was made into guacamole. About 1965. What a sheltered life I had led.) Got another. Enstrom's chocolate-coated almond sprinkled toffee which I now make and give away. My own initial response has been mirrored many times over by the recipients. Good topic, Pierogi. Oops, have to add Chiles Rellenos, about 1985.

I have filled one or two less than perfect ones and it worked out fine in the end. But they were not massacred. And Rajas en Crema are one of the new house favorites, not to mention the various salads and hot dishes that the strips can go in. And they also go in Enchiladas very nicely.

Chris, you are an inspiration to us all!!! I think I really must get this book.

In other words, it's not easy to do. I cannot imagine doing this hundreds of time in a restaurant setting. I'm doing pretty much a variant what you two are talking about, depending upon the individual chile to some extent. I just don't like it much. I would take it that you both agree that massacring the chile as was demonstrated in the one video which addressed the seed disposal problem is definitely not an answer at all.

There are instructions and videos on how to char, blister,roast the chiles; how to peel the skin off...but nothing explains how to get all those blankety-blank seeds off that top knobby thing through a simple slit without ripping the entire chile open. The only demonstration which I could find on actually getting out the seeds ripped the chile to shreds almost and the lady chef ended up by saying...and now you can stuff the chile with anything you like. I looked at the remnants of what was a beautiful green Poblano and wondered how on earth you could 'stuff' it with anything. How do YOU get the seeds out of the slit open chile?

Actually, the only thing I seem to be using it for is blistering Poblanos. I have a recipe in which the potatoes are semi-deep fried, but I decided to try roasting them today instead and they turned out equally well. That's it for deep frying chez nous. ps. I am mistaken. Of course. I have deep fried wontons, spring rolls and tortillas. It's just that for years...nay decades...I deep fried nothing.