Darienne

Oh my!!! :wub:

Gorgeous looking loaf, David. Question which occurred to me suddenly. What if I took 1/2 cup of mixed glaceed fruit which has been soaking in booze for lo these many months...started for a Black Cake which never got made...and threw it into your Challah recipe at the raisin beep signal? I assume it would work pretty well? Or would the booziness be a problem? Thanks. Have friends coming for coffee at 10 am and wanted a sort of fruity bread to serve. Not cake or muffins, but more bread like.

This would be my reasoning behind having wood floors. As for the pull-out...which I dearly wanted and didn't get...me thinks I was hornswoggled by my DH.

Nothing too fancy but another first for the novice. Individual Panna Cottas with raspberries and raspberry Chambord sauce.

Now...there you have it in a nutshell!!!! As for floors, I love pine floors in a kitchen and never want tile again. Wood floors are much easier to keep clean and they don't show the dirt as much. BTW, we live on a century farm and have huge dirty dogs.

Spinach, goat's cheese and potato quiche. What's not to love. Looks great!!!!

We've made snacky-desserts using tortillas spread with melted butter, sugar and cinnamon and then chocolate shreds. Roll them up, spreading the underside with melted butter, sugar and cinnamon. Anchor with a toothpick. Into the oven for a few minutes. Yum.

The 'stress' thingy is Ed's response. I have no idea. He does all the renovations so I would take it with a grain of salt. The downside of the single large sink is lack of easy rinse-ability.

For next week's suppers I'm making Sopa de Albondigas this afternoon from my old stand-by Mexican cookbook by Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz. The poor book is basically falling apart from use. Does anyone have a favorite recipe for this? I'm adding celery and carrots to the called for onion, along with 89 tiny albondiguitas (yes, counted them as I tossed them into the cooking broth.) I have no zucchini on hand. What else? I found a recipe that calls for potatoes...but I don't know... Later: DH has taken it upon himself to dash off to the nearest grocery store and buy some zucchini.

Sinks are important. Last year we spent 6 months living with no dishwasher and one big ceramic sink. It was great to be able to wash enormous pieces easily. Never had that before. The ceramic on steel base made me uneasy with breakables. Back at home we have a double stainless sink, simple tap system, no pull out spray. DH says pullout sprays put too much stress on the tap installation. And big items are a pain to wash again. However, having a dishwasher again is wonderful. I'm not very tall and DH lowered one set of counters by a couple of inches for me. Heck, he even cut the stove and oven down. And we are going to replace our Formica counter-tops with laminated wood. We had wood counter-tops in Utah and I just loved them. Warm color. Can repair cuts. Probably not sensible but I just fell in love with them.

Thanks to all for the replies. The answer seems obvious. Take the thing back and go for the squeeze bottle, etc. The eggplant cutlets were dredged in seasoned crumbs so I couldn't use a brush, but a squeeze bottle would work a bit better than my frustrated dripping from my fingers. The cutlets didn't know any better and they were wonderful. Thanks again for the help.

I love that. Actually I just remembered that my friend Tobe always puts Hot Italian sausages or Chorizo and artichoke hearts into her Impossible Pie along with Asiago cheese and numberless other ingredients.

Was just checking around for some pasta salads...hesitating to ask Chef Lisa Shock outright for one of hers...never have found a pasta salad that I liked...and found this one which features both pasta and artichoke hearts from Miz Ducky

I might chop a few up and add them to the evening salad.

Bought an inexpensive oil mister from a local chain kitchen store. Couldn't get it to work after 4,000 pumps. Phoned and they said 'OK. Return it.' Then I got it to work last night after pumping it 6,000 times. Phoned and said...'it's OK. I got it to work.' Now I need it and it won't work. OK. Back it goes. My arm isn't made for this type of pumper mechanism. Who uses what kind of mister? Please. Don't break the bank. Thanks.

If I may be indulged enough to post a 'Husband and Wife Who Lunch'? Yesterday we did a sort of Grand GTA tour while getting our male pup's brace repaired in TO. First to Sweets Galore in Pickering for some cocoa butter bars to try tempering chocolate using Chef Eddy's method. Then over to Kitchen Stuff Plus for an oil mister, two very thin silicone spatulas...one for me and one for my friend...perfect for tall jars... and a couple of party tubs. The huge plastic tubs were only $6 and perfect for dog toys and for feeding our annual Dog Weekend gang. On to Lee Valley for one of their darling little mortar and pestles combos. The pestle completely fills the mortar opening. Meanwhile DH went to CTC for a heat lamp lightbulb for me to experiment with keeping sugar solutions in a liquid state longer. The brace was repaired and refurbished. Lunch was Chinese pastries from the Pacific Mall. One of the outside strips, Brothers Bakery. Oh so good. We did pig out on custard buns, sweet red bean buns and walnut cookies. Often Chinese pastries promise more than they deliver. These were delicious. I found the mall(s) too big to even contemplate, let alone explore, for a short visit. Then, finally, finally, my first visit to Longo's...one of the Markham ones. If only we had such a store near Peterpatch, I would be in 7th heaven. The produce was incredible. We'll go back on a day when we are not trying to do 3 dozen things. Bought 2 huge day old eggplants for only $1.49 for this weekend's Moussaka.

Finally got to Longo's at Kennedy & HWY7 today. Talk about wonderful. The produce fairly sang. Three kinds of mangoes. Sicilian eggplants...I had never seen a Sicilian eggplant. The fruits. Multi varieties of salt. Those wonderful little Longo sausages. The cheeses. And on and on. Didn't have enough time to even scratch the surface but will go back again for sure. If only...if only... but then we would have to live near a Metropolitan area from heck. Living on 98 acres in the middle of nowhere has really changed this girl from the apartments in Montreal.

I'm not sure if anyone suggested something in a slow cooker. I have to admit I have four of them (one gift and 3 second-hand) and have never used them for making anything. They are great for keeping things warm for large groups, especially soup, and also for candying whatever I candy.

But we are really talking about two different issues, in a way. What can you make at home which is cheaper than what you can buy in a supermarket...where the food isn't as tasty or as nutritious or as healthy? You can buy a pizza for just a couple of dollars at the supermarket when they are on sale. Can't beat the 'price'. But what are you getting? Can you tell me where you could find a store-bought pizza with radicchio, artichokes and buffalo mozzarella for a few dollars? You could buy one in an upscale pizzeria...I guess...but then it WOULD cost you a lot more than making it at home.

Lots of good and interesting replies. Add to them chocolate truffles and just about any other confection you could dream of making or eating. And also salad dressings. Never been able to figure out why folks would buy that awful supermarket stuff. Never found one I liked.

I NEED this recipe. Please.

Enstrom Copy-cat chocolate-coated toffee. Delicious. Gift packages to re-cement important relationships: vets, Laser Therapy staff, butcher, etc. Confectionery partner, Barbara, and I had a candy-making day. I also made Spiced Candied Nuts a la Szechwan variant. So good. So hot. The toffee was poured into 'Perfect Brownie' pans which have removable grids which you put down into the brownie batter to make perfectly uniform brownie squares. None of that nasty tiring cutting brownie cake into squares... But it worked well with the toffee.

Reporting back. The pans worked very well. Nothing stuck to them anywhere. The pieces are all the same size and the chocolate all stuck. Off to re-cement friendships tomorrow with gifts of chocolate-covered toffee.

Oh my and also with smoked salmon...

As far as I can see, we didn't mention nuts. Re-found a recipe for Candied Nuts with a Szechwan variant this morning. Found it on line here, near the bottom of the page. If you like hot pepper, Szechwan and Human food, etc, you will love theses.