Darienne

Ditto for me on the soft boiled eggs and add to that head cheese and almost everything else with jellied meat of any kind.

Question from a pork newbie: What exactly does one use pork stock for which isn't exotic to your average unsophisticated cook? For instance, I've never heard of tonkotsu soup before. Thanks.

My plus two have decided not to come.

Thanks. The produce manager in the most cosmopolitan grocery store in Peterpatch says he can't get them this year. Oh well...

I could find no other incident of "toyomansi" searching eGullet except yours. Could you please tell me where prasantrin wrote of this ingredient and where you were able to find it? A friend has two Calamansi trees and we have made marmalade from the fruit and this toyomansi sounds very interesting. Thanks.

Fifty-one years ago we ate lamb because it was the cheapest meat on the market that I could buy. And chicken wings were given away free. How things have changed!

Thanks Elsie. We have a Farm Boy here and I'll look there on Tuesday. Just fetched the flyer out of the recycling and there's no Seville Oranges in Peterpatch I guess. I'll still check.

Sometimes we get Seville oranges in Peterpatch. Sometimes we don't. Last year there were none. Has anyone seen them yet in Ontario? Where, please?

If you're new to achiote, definitely try the puerco pibil recipe from the movie One Upon a time in Mexico. It's easily found on YouTube and is shown being made by the director whose name escapes me. Absolutely fantastic dish and really opened my eyes to mexican cuisine. Thank you, Crouton, for that tip. Just loved the video. What a hoot! Will try making the achiote past next and using it for the dish. I follow the recipe verbatim except I brown the pork in a Dutch oven first and use that as my cooking vessel... And I don't bother with the banana leaves. Everyone I serve it to has most likely never tasted anything quite like it and raves... The leftovers make great filling for tacos. Right. Forgot to add that I was intending to use lime juice and forgo the banana leaves. No idea of where one would get banana leaves where I live which is in the far frozen north in the middle of nowhere basically.

If you're new to achiote, definitely try the puerco pibil recipe from the movie One Upon a time in Mexico. It's easily found on YouTube and is shown being made by the director whose name escapes me. Absolutely fantastic dish and really opened my eyes to mexican cuisine. Thank you, Crouton, for that tip. Just loved the video. What a hoot! Will try making the achiote past next and using it for the dish.

Yesterday was a first for me, using achiote paste in making Mexican Rice. Not exciting, but new and very nice.

I just might get one on your say so, Elsie.

Yes

Some of the above products are either a lot of work to make or nearly impossible to duplicate, but Ice Magic takes about 4 minutes to make and must be cheaper to make...although I have never purchased it. 100 g or coconut oil melted plus 150 g of melted chocolate, a smidgen of salt and there you have it. I make it all the time. It's a 'kid' sort of thing, but I love it.

I was just getting set to respond to this thread and thought...oh oh, wait, google it first. I could not believe my eyes. Our favorite soup, the one we were both raised on from childhood, the one that spoke volumes of home and hearth to us, the only canned soup we eat, the one we bring to Utah with us every year, was owned by Campbell's. Habitant French Canadian Pea Soup with real smoked ham and lard. No, it's not as good as homemade, but when you are cold, or tired, or can't be bothered, there it is in the familiar yellow can with navy lettering, to be simply heated and eaten. Or as usually happens, DH steps in and adds grated carrot, cooked rice and half a can of chickpeas. Then I add parsley and fresh ground pepper. That's my canned product story.

If I ever move to the sunny south, I am going to move in next door to you, Andie. Your depth and breath of knowledge is mind-blowing!! Your biggest fan!!!

I love this. Did you make it up just now? Also, Andie, as for you having 'a bunch of Corning Ware'...you are the Queen of the Kitchenware in my books. I too have a mishmash of this and that accumulated over 50 years of married life, some from my Mother, some from my Mother-in-Law, a few purchased in a regular store and mostly from second hand stores. I use mostly old Pyrex of different sizes and shapes, and like Katie have special dishes for certain recipes.

Fascinating thread. Always so much to learn.

Loved your Blog. You write with humor. Very enjoyable. ps. The Harbingers of Doom are gone. The question is: who removed them? The thoughtless hunter or some furry four-legged beasties of which we have many, both large and small.

As you might no doubt suspect, I know very little about glutamates: monosodium, disodium, calcium, free, whatever they are. I did google the word and the one article I skimmed through was very interesting and I shall have to find out more about these glutamates. I have never had a reaction like that dramatic one in Chinatown since and I may well be totally mistaken about its source as you pointed out. The list of foods containing glutamates is very lengthy and we do eat corn chips a lot and french fries sometimes. We also eat some sausage meat although not much. I'm making my own chorizo now. We don't eat much pre-prepared food, no soy products except for the fermented ones, no cold cuts, canned soups, etc. And I won't touch Aspartame. I suddenly became epileptic at the ripe old age of 56 after a few years of taking in a LOT of aspartame...but then as you note...it could have been anything and we'll never know. According to some experts...epilepsy can be a result of Aspartame, along with about 96 other ailments, including death. Maybe it was being sprayed repeatedly, including in the face, with DDT as a youngster. Life is, according to my youngest, a crap shoot.

At least I can say in my defense that my deeply flawed logic was post-soup. I didn't know that they put it into soup (and most everything else), so it could not have been any kind of placebo effect at work. I am not about to do any double-blind studies on the subject.

This question has been bothering me lately too. Because I now have considerable hand issues, I have been drinking for the last five years all my beverages, hot and cold, from plastic mugs. These mugs are all quite old, second hand because when this need for a lighter mug first appeared, there was a dearth of plastic on the market. Folks were moving to earthenware, etc, for outdoor eating. A plastic mug weighs about 4 oz; a ceramic or glass at least 10 oz and most often about a pound. Our daughter noticed this at Christmas and began to harangue heavily on the dangers of what I was doing. Answers? Perhaps I am at almost 70, too old for it to make much of a difference? Gagghh. I can't believe I am almost 70. Sorry I mentioned it.

Anecdotal info: I should preface this by saying that I can eat everything pretty much. Hotter than Hades doesn't faze me. All nuts, all grains, whatever are fine. Plus I do not get headaches and never have. Years ago we were dining at our favorite Toronto Chinese Restaurant, starting with the Hot & Sour Soup. Soon it dawned on me that my head was being crushed inwardly as if a circular vise were being tightened. It became so bad that I thought I would go mad. Although it was pouring like mad outside, I ran outside and stood in the pouring rain until I could breathe normally. DH, Ed, was fine. What else could that be except for the MSG? They must have made a mis-measurement that day. Never ate soup there again.

The Fruit Hunters: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce, and Obsession. Adam Leith Gollner Candy Freak: A Journey Through the Chocolate Underbelly of America. Steve Almond. Two fascinating books from the decade. The title, Candy Freak, is one that the publishers must have picked because it is purely sensational and does not reflect on the nature of the book at all. I would recommend this one for a good read. It's the engaging history of the many little regional and family candy manufacturers of the USA and how they have just about all disappeared in the face of the marketing practices of the current biggies. It sent me on a hunt in Moab for all the regional type candies I could find which still are out there.

Them's fightin' words, gal. Our neighbors around the corner (a country type corner, y'hear) make and sell their own maple syrup, as do many in our township, and I'd bet our maple syrup against your American product any day. So there. I took our local maple syrup to a friend in Moab last year and she adored it. What can I say? Syrup snob? Hah! ps. The Harbingers of Doom were still hanging there this morning.