Darienne

Picadillo as dip sounds great. I would just have to make sure that the pieces of fruit were cut smaller. I am not a 'small' cutter by nature...just as Ed is not a 'large' cutter by nature. You can always tell who made the food in our house. I think it's a splendid idea. Just have to find a source of stout tortilla chips...or make them myself. Perhaps it is time.

One of my favorite things to do with extra eggplant is to make up Eggplant Cutlets and then freeze them for later use in a number of dishes. The recipe is on eG from Rachel Perlow as part of her recipe for Moussaka. Right now I am making pickled eggplant with my extra eggplants from a recipe that I downloaded from who knows where. Made them before and they were delicious.

YES!!

Sorry Cathy. No poblanos in the great frozen north. I wish we could. What would you use instead? About the closest I can come...and miles from home to buy one...assuming they even have one...is a Cubanelle. Rats.

Oddly enough, we ate Picadillo for lunch today with rice and pinto beans, salsa, sour cream and tortilla chips. The Picadillo was thawed from June's making. Yes, we are doing renovations. I've been making Picadillo for a couple of decades now from the recipes in Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz, The Complete Book of Mexican Cooking, the only 'real' Mexican cookbook I owned from when I cooked under some duress. Ortiz gives two recipes: Picadillo and Picadillo de la costa with no hints about serving. Besides, I have no idea where we would get 'sturdy' tortilla chips in this neck of the great frozen north woods, short of making them. Yes, some day... Over the years I tweaked the recipe to suit us and call it Picadillo de la cabana (can't do a tilde on my machine) which means to us Picadillo in the manner of Cavan (which is where we live. I know, silly, but then I didn't get this old by not being silly sometimes). Basically it just sticks together all the ingredients from both Picadillos, plus whatever else I have on hand and want to use, and uses shredded beef. I do this with North American and European recipes...I do it with Mexican too.

Sorry, Chris, I'm not in for the doing, but I sure am in for the reading of your wonderful achievements. I don't have the book, and I don't have the time, energy, expertise, available consumers, ingredients, etc, etc.

A Head's-Up for the Young at Heart: Tuesday, July 20th, is National Lollipop Day (right in the middle of National Ice Cream month). What are you doing to celebrate?

Question: did you use the recipe in Chocolates & Confections in Greweling's at Home book or from the original larger Chocolates and Confections ? How did you find it worked out? Any problems at all?

Very nice, Tarko!

Just found this article on making home made ice cream softer by David Lebovitz. DudeI'mHungry might find this useful.

I'll try the cacao nibs next time. Sounds good. To keep the ice cream from hardening too much you can add some alcohol of your choice or substitute a dollop of corn syrup for some of the sugar .

I tend to scribble in the page margins, especially things which I have done wrong or left out. As in "DON'T FORGET THE VANILLA"!

I'm with Jaymes. Make it yourself. It's not hard.

What about offering to arrange the catering with some larger professional catering firm. That is still an enormous amount of work.

And I you. So near...and yet so far...

Fruit salad. Like my fruits at room temperature. Unlike my DH who likes fruit cold.

Kerry, I don't know how you do it, how you have the energy and the drive to accomplish so many wonderful things in a day. I do stand in awe of you...I'll wager I have a lot of company in this one. Your Halvah looks divine.

I may be misunderstanding you, but you appear to be saying that you are having concrete floors in the kitchen. Wouldn't that be awfully hard on the legs and feet?

Sorry to say that the McAuleys, Darienne + 1, will not be able to come to the Heartland Gathering after all. Our family life is rather complicated and once more has constrained our choices. Thanks to all of you who answered my endless questions and were so encouraging. Have a wonderful gathering.

I have taken to carrying a little timer with me almost no matter what I am cooking...we can buy them for $1 at the Dollarama stores and I have several. It's the only way to bring my mind back to what I am doing. A number of times I have been surprised by a timer going off...and suddenly remembering that I actually was toasting nuts...my favorite to burn...or something else. And you are still so young...

Canadian butter has more salt in it than American butter...IMHO

Thank you for that one. What a good idea. And when one is dismayed and unhinged...it seems that all good ideas flee.

I'm going to go back and read everything I can about unmolding a bundt cake, but in the meantime, I am throwing out my current bundt pan. It's second hand, scratched Teflon inner surface and I've ruined yet another cake. The first one...OK...it had a streusel topping and this is asking for trouble. But this one was untopped with extras...simply the Lemon Bliss cake. Ruined. However, after passing the night it came to me...don't toss the cake and don't give it to your neighbors who get your disasters (happily too). Put a chocolate ganache over the top. Voila, a presentable cake which will go to this morning's ladies event. So all's well which ends well. :smile: And I am buying a brand new bundt pan. SO there.

That's strange. Evap milk is just milk that has 60% of the water removed and can vary in caloric value depending on whether it's from whole milk, low fat, skim, etc. The can I have in the fridge right now is 20 calories/T. Half and half is half milk, half cream; it can vary a little in butterfat content but every brand of half and half I've checked also shows 20 calories/T. Maybe Canada has different definitions of the products? (these are taken from the Epicurious online dictionary). Doing a recheck. Half&half: Neilson,10% cream, 2Tbsp = 35 calories. (the other brand we use is 40 calories although I don't know why) Evaporated milk (am checking 3 brands, 2 Canadian, 1 American) Kroger: 2 Tbsp = 40 calories Compliments: 1 Tbsp = 20 calories (or 2 = 40) No Name: 1 Tbsp = 30 calories (or 2 = 60 calories) OK. Very strange. My first time around, I simply grabbed a can...No Name...and didn't look at the others. The ingredient list is the same, in the same order, and the Nutrition Facts label is identical except for the caloric values. Nope, almost... The No Name has 1/3 less sodium than the Complimentsand also 4 X the carbohydrates. Wait...that's for the two Canadian cans. The Kroger can has a different Nutrition Facts label and also a different list of ingredients. Very strange....The Kroger can contains twice the fat, and twice the cholesterol, and twice the protein, three times the sugars and yet... Perhaps a taste test is in order. Perhaps not. I don't like the taste of evaporated milk. I think I'll go do something completely different...

You may get to be my new 'best friend'. Sounds wonderful.