Darienne

Read through the entire thread again and discovered that Tino27 has offered to do a bread workshop. Count me in for that one, please. Also, being a Canadian plus living in the middle of nowhere and near a very small city, I am unable to find those specialty items that I would like to buy. For instance, I have a 9" one piece silicone Trudeau spatula that someone bought for me in the States and would love to buy two more for me and one for my friend. Small kitchen appliances, tools, gadgets...that kind of stuff. I phoned the local Ann Arbor Area Convention Center and they gave me names and phone numbers: Williams-Sonoma, Beehive Kitchenware, and Bed, Bath & Beyond. Now I can call ahead and suss them out. Any other names in Ann Arbor or nearby? (I'd rather not go for Detroit, is that's all the same.)

Welcome Dcarch. Lovely presentation. You are a talented individual!

At least a partial answer to my question about where the dark in dark sticky buns comes from. Chef Zoe says that a dark pan will bake the buns darker than a light pan. I used a pyrex pan. So much for color...but what about taste?

Question: When I was a kid my Mother used to buy Chelsea buns from the corner Loblaws (we are talking almost 60 years ago) and the topping was sweet, but much darker than the ones I made or the photos of the many recipes I have looked at. And the flavor was well, deeper? or something? How does one get that really dark sweet flavor? More cinnamon? Darker brown sugar? Well, that makes sense. Something else?

It's almost mid-May and I find it hard to believe that I never came across this wonderful topic before. Some slip-up on my part. To limit my list to five things...impossible, but here are five off the top of my head: 1. Spun sugar 2. a proper braided Challah - do it till I get it right 3. pumpernickel. dark, heavy, round, cornmeal on the bottom, like my childhood memories of Montreal 4. Black Rum cake. I have the fruit all ready and all the ingredients. I just have to DO it. 5. Ice cream sandwiches will redeem me after last summer's abysmal failures. DL's chocolate cookies and Alton Brown's Serious Vanilla Ice Cream. I want the sandwiches to look pretty so that folks go "oooh". ps. Yesterday I fulfilled two 'to do's', actually three: made pulled pork and made my first ever bread without a machine and made sticky buns from it. It felt very good.

One more from Value Village: Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home

Very nice, Iguana. And one of the things I like about your buns...and will do it next time...is that you made them in a round pan. I made mine according to directions, in a 9x13 pan, and as it obvious in my photo, they don't quite fit onto my largest platter. If made in a smaller pan would they not puff up a bit to make them taller instead of just wider? Next time. Next time, also from a brioche dough...maybe that of RLB.

Thanks for the information. I'll pass it on to my Ottawa friends. And if we ever get to Ottawa again...we'll go there for sure.

Here I come a very late joiner to the bread making set. Just about to turn 69 and today I made my very first bread not in a machine and I made sticky buns using my confectionery partner, Barbara's tried and true recipe. Of course, Barbara has been making bread her whole life and learned at her Mother's knee, Mother being a professional cake decorator. My Mother had no knees. Yesterday I had two semi-disasters making bread machine sticky buns. The first dough was so dry I ended up dumping more and more water into it and then an egg in a non-measuring panic with no idea of how much longer the kneading cycle would last. Decided not to continue the sticky bun recipe, but to make the dough into little rolls instead of just chucking it. The rolls were not perfect, but they were fine. We ate them today with my first ever Pulled Pork. The second disaster was of a different kind. The buns turned out well...but my DH said he didn't like them. Not enough goo, not sweet enough. The dough was all wrong...way too bready. So I began to look through my non-bread machine cookbooks: Corriher, Beranbaum, Joy of Cooking, Bittman...my head was swimming and I had no idea where to start. And not only were buns of any kind a first for me, now the bread machine recipes were not working either and I was going to leave that safe world behind. Then Barbara called and suggested that I simply try her recipe. Scribbled it down and they just are a few minutes out of the oven and pronounced by him who is wont to pronounce as "excellent". And so they are. Gooey as all get out and the dough is just right. So now begins the great foray into real bread making. This learning how to cook is amazing!

Tomorrow's menu is now fixed. Ed will make his cole slaw and we'll have the meat on buns and I'll probably doctor the sauce somewhat, plus print out both of your sauces. AND, of course, beans. I never thought of beans. Ed thought of rice, but red beans are better. Thanks. We'll pass on what looks like grits? or hominy? or something? What are the wilted greens? And for dessert, Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream. Wrong pew, but it will work.

Many thanks. I did drain the meat, and put the sauce into the freezer to let the fat coagulate, removed it, put the meat back into the now beefed-up sauce and all was well. Just ate it with yesterday's failed sticky buns which became rolls (before any sticky was applied. But that is another story.) Next time, cole slaw for sure. Maybe even tomorrow when a guest plus 4-month old Bouvier is arriving for the weekend. For the human, not the dogs. Thanks again.

Thank you. If I might ask another question. The pork butt had a thick layer of fat which was topped by the skin on one side. I left it on the pork because I didn't know what to do and I was at the time overwhelmed by other issues...yadda, yadda. Should I have left it on to cook? Or taken it off? My friend who was here said what are you going to do? (Never cook something new with a friend visiting) and I said...I have no idea. I'll leave it on. And then things got even more complicated which is more than you wanted to know...

Thanks Dale for the information. Haven't seen a copy of Cook's Illustrated in either of our libraries but will check at Chapters. Can't afford most US magazines in Canada. The penalties are often horrendous. And. Doodad, sir, just what is the difference between carnitas and pulled pork. You are instructing someone who has eaten neither. Thanks.

Another learning experience. Actually several yesterday and I feel a tad drained... Started Pulled Pork late yesterday afternoon with the Mustard Sauce in a newer crockpot set on low. The recipe called for 18 hours. Lunch today. Round about 2:30 am, I checked the pork and thought...'oh no, it's on its way to evaporating to dry and hence to burnt.' Dumped in about 12 oz of water...was not up to thinking at that hour. End result. The butt is more than cooked this morning at 8 am and the sauce is boring in the extreme with the addition of the water. I'll rectify the sauce later. This might tie into a discussion elsewhere on eG that the "LOW"setting on the older crockpots is set lower than it is in the newer crockpots. The recipe was posted in 2005...could have been an old recipe by then...could have been designed for the formerly lower "LOW". I have both new and old crockpots and I have been meaning to do a temperature test...which I somehow never got around to doing. Now I will. Glanced at a recipe for Pulled Pork Enchiladas in a 2010 Mexican Cooking magazine this morning which a friend lent me yesterday...same crockpot idea...no, wait...only 10 hours set on low. Interesting. Well, to me.

Could be why I was just given them by the store owner...new in Canada. from Emmalish, a fellow Canuck: "Huh. I've never seen them, but I followed the link to the Callebaut site and they have a big "NEW" tag on them." (I don't know how to multiquote) Now I feel somewhat better... And thanks Lior for the lollipop suggestion. And, of course, I love the ice cream suggestion.

Good one! I like that. Thanks.

Gosh, Kim, just found the reference to my pulled pork event on your post now, about half an hour after finally making up my mind to do the butt in a slow cooker for 18 hours with a eGullet sauce from Mark "South Caroline Mustard Barbecue Sauce". Next time...your recipe. Thanks.

Oops. I thought they were new.

I am not tall and my DH lowered the counters on the non-sink side of our galley kitchen so that I would have a more comfortable surface on which to work. (He also lowered the stove...what a guy ...he likes symmetry and lower is better for me.) And now he is building me a table on casters under the window with a marble slab dropped in and it will be even lower. Three heights to work on. Perfect.

Yesterday the owner of our local bulk food store, who also supplies Belcolade and Callebaut chocolate couverture, gave me two little baggies of Callebaut's new product Chocolate pearls. Little white and dark chocolate balls, with a tiny crunchy wheat center, not a big crunch, just a little crunch. They are tasty little things,to either eat or use as decoration he said. Has anyone else tried them?

Do you ever use coconut milk? I love it and use it all the time. For ice creams too.

A few years ago an allergic-type friend asked me to make her a chocolate dessert called Torta Divina (also in honor of her last name which is Devine). It called for an entire pound of chocolate. I guess she and the others liked it. As I recall it was a certain amount of work...however the main thing is that it called for one whole pound of Belgian dark chocolate. Served it again for a small dinner party at home a few weeks later and the invited husband remarked how good it tasted...just like a Tim Horton's brownie. Never again!! For me chocolate works best when paired with orange or raspberry or something other than more chocolate.

To do the realistic one with contrasting colors/artwork would not be sensible at all. The photo doesn't show the entire effect of the mold...hey! I need a macro lens... Ed said the realistic one looked sort of creepy almost. That was not his word...but it will do. I think the 'cartoony' ones need some refinement in the decor still, but they really do say 'Boston Terrier' to me. It'll be up to our BT friends, of course.

Confectionery partner, Barbara, and I have been given a commission by a friend who rescues Boston Terriers...make lollipops for the rescue society to sell at their next function. Glad to make a contribution. First Barbara made some test dog head forms using aluminum strips that we had cut last year and decorated them with Royal icing. I think they might be decorated a little less heavily and maybe some muzzle lines put in. And then I made a test lollipop tonight using a silicone mold made by our friend's husband who works with Powertex. It's more realistic. He made only the one mold but can make many using the same original. I found that the candy took a LONG time to harden and cool in the silicone form. I also used white coloring for the first time. Not sure if there's a point to white although the dogs are white and black. Can't really decorate this realistic head very easily. So it's up to the rescue folks to decide which one to use...or to go for something else. Might try to make some more dogs' head in the less realistic format for the annual dog weekend in August. ps. a) I really need a camera with a macro lens and b) I like the more cartoony head better.

Boozy Baked French Toast by Smitten Kitchen french toast Leave out the booze part depending upon your state laws. Of course, the cooking burns off the alcoholic content. ...7 tries to get it right later...