Darienne

We had grilled (pan done) cheese sandwiches for lunch and I gave the subject more thought. The bread is not of greatest importance as long as I like it. However, the cheese - Cheddar - must be medium Canadian variety or newly old. No three-year old cheese and especially not 5-year old Supreme...which I love, but not in a sandwich. As it was, we had American medium Cheddar, Tillamook, nice but as nippy as Canadian mild (sorry guys ). Just too mild for me. My friend Tobe (Ontario) comes over for lunch sometimes for grilled cheese. She wants crispy bacon and tomato in hers. Nope. I want just plain cheese. No new-fangled additions. And at home we have an old metal (remember when stuff was made out of metal?) waffle maker/ griller which we bought in Moab two years ago for $5 at a second hand store. I love it. Best of all, Ed makes the sandwiches, not yours truly. Who could ask for anything more?

We have a Village Market (Western Family) and a City Market (Kroger). The next place with a grocery store is two hours away. I'll look in the organic section in the City Market and see what they have.

In Canada, confectionery partner, Barbara, and I have made an Enstrom Copycat toffee many times. Toffee full of almond slivers, coated on both sides with chocolate, sprinkled with finely chopped almonds. Yummm... We always wipe the toffee with a paper towel and sprinkle it with cocoa (thanks Kerry) before pouring on the chocolate. Good job. No problems. Now I am in Moab making toffee again. The first batch I used City Market butter, $2,79, a Kroger product. The pan of toffee was SWIMMING in oil. I actually poured some of it off before finishing the chocolate part. So I thought. Have I done something wrong this time? Unfamiliar stove, 4,000 feet elevation, American cane sugar, etc, etc. Today I made the toffee again, this time using Challenger butter which costs much more, $4.49, with NO problems at all. Almost no oil surface at all. Lovely toffee. So...there is a difference in butters which makes a difference in toffee. Am I correct?

Grilled, grilled and grilled. No explanations. No justification. Just plain greedy childlike love on my part. And, surprisingly enough, exactly what we are having for lunch tomorrow.

Deliciously horrible!!!

Lovely, Marmish.

And so the Cajeta was 'made'. Perhaps it was my crockpot...perhaps it was me. I don't know. After baby-sitting the stuff for about 12 hours I finally gave up and put it in the fridge. Yummy says the DH, but even as it evaporated with the long, long cooking...it never got all that thick. I used half cow's and half goat's milk. My crockpot is an old Rival, 8 cups, two heat settings only:low & high. That's it. Non-removable liner. ????? (After the fridge time, the syrup is much thicker, but still not thick enough to put on ice cream happily. What if I cook it again slightly with some corn starch? ????)

Tangy Quinoa Salad would use your quinoa supply rather quickly and you might find yourself going out to buy more. Cooks quickly; tastes wonderful. We (I) did a massive cleanout a few months ago and currently am in Ingredient Heaven.

Thanks for the information. I think I'll get at it immediately. There's a local dairy that produces goat dairy products and I met the owners at the Saturday market.

Downloaded and printed out your recipe for dulce de leche. Great. Thanks. Now the questions start. My crockpot holds 8 cups. This is large enough for your recipe, yes? Can I with impunity halve the recipe and make it in said 8-cup crockpot. There are only two of us and we are not in Moab for all that long. Of course, I could donate the leftover, assuming there is any, to a worthy cause. DH, Ed, LOVES dulce de leche, a new eating experience for us.

Porthos, Porthos, Porthos , you go straight to your nearest second hand store and buy yourself a wonderful crockpot for $5 max. I kid you not. Well, maybe $10 if you live in an upscale city.

A friend had this triple crock pot buffet server. In it she had two main dishes and a hot dessert dish in the third cooker. They also make a double slow cooker server. Oh my! I just may be in love again. It's out of my snack bracket for stuff I really don't need, but a girl can dream.....

It is lovely, I agree. I have an obsession with things Art Deco. But an Art Deco roaster is definitely over the top.

Dearest Mz Shook, You may be humble about your work, but I say it is excellent and merits great praise especially because of your neverending generosity to your co-workers, family, friends, and fellow eGers. I am proud to say I 'know' you. Darienne

Thanks for the information and further threads, Jaymes. I made the mistake of spelling it only one way when I looked it up to find out if there had been such a thread before. Found lots of threads...but none devoted to the crockpot per se. Shoulda knowed better. Thanks.

In recent topics in this section, there has been some pooh-poohing towards crockpots and it occurred to me that this wondrous kitchen beast deserved a topic of its own. I own four crockpots: 1 ginormous, 1 big and 2 medium. (I brought one medium with me to Moab and since arriving have done a small pulled pork roast.) I candy citrus and ginger and other fruits in my crockpots. I do pulled meats. I keep Chinese and other foods warm at the buffet table. Particularly handy for Hot and Sour Soup. Well, pretty much any hot food for that matter. Not much quantitatively, but oh so important to me. I haven't casserole things in them. I just asked the DH could he think of anything else I made in a crockpot? And he laughed, pointing out how many crockpots are available in 2nd hand stores. Only one of mine was new and it was a gift from our daughter...the huge one. What do you do with your crockpot and why? I love my crockpots ...do you love yours? Show these crockpot skeptics that crockpots are worthy of praise.

Darienne -- try this link and order them. Dried, true, but better'n nothing. http://latinmerchant.com/productlist.asp?cat=Peppers&SubCat=Dried%20Peppers&subCatID=20 We can get some dried peppers thanks. Can't recall if Poblanos are available or not. Right now I am in the land of fresh poblanos and have a couple ready to use tomorrow.

Ditto from me!

Never used tapioca flour for anything. Never even eaten tapioca pudding. And never heard of using tapioca flour for making any confections. So count me in a curious too. ps. What DO you use tapioca flour currentlyl?

This is so cute. The librarian at the local library found this little lollipop tree on which to display the goodies. (She gave me a tree also as a gift. Now that was great!)

Hi JeanneCake All best. Soon you will be a lollipop maker extraordinaire. Hope the information I sent you is useful. Darienne

Absolutely beautifully done and adorable, Genkinaonna.

Not exciting, but still useful. Five dozen butterscotch lollipops for two small local libraries to sell. Gives me an excuse to make them. First time using a heat gun to smooth a couple of late poured items. Worked quite well. Learn something new each time!

I will certainly echo lemoncurd's above post. I have now made 3 batches of butterscotch lollies and found that reading the unstirred surface of the roiling mixture is anywhere from 2 to 10 degrees cooler than the stirred mixture. But still...anything is better than those dreadful glass abominations which clip onto the pan.

I love it! Not a bad article on making lollipops, especially for someone who has never made lollipops before. I don't follow everything exactly as she suggests...but then that's the way it usually is in cooking, as in everything else in life.