Darienne

We have always bought roadside pastries in the Southwest and Mexico. The best ever churros were made in an old cement mixer on the path to the Bufadora in Baja Mexico filled with boiling oil tended by an old man who had seen cleaner days. Probably the mixer and oil had also. Although I must admit to getting food poisoning once from some chicherones. In the bottom of the bag I subsequently discovered dead flies.

Hi Robyn, Which of DL's coffee ice creams did you make? The 'Coffee Ice Cream' on p.34? I have not tried this one yet. How could you not win with the almond brittle inclusion?

Just found this topic. Aarrgghhhh! We have two full size fridges. TWO! One in the kitchen and one in the attached garage. (I also have my kitchen 'stuff' in the garage, the breezeway, the kitchen and my studio. Oh, and the cellar.)(And the stairs down to the cellar. But that's a different whine. ) We also have two roughly 100 pound dogs who eat (house and garage) raw meat and crushed veggies and refrigerated supplements and from late April until the end of September stored several filled hummingbird feeders and/or containers of made hummingbird food. (No, you would not believe the number of hummers we get in a essentially gardenless farm homestead.) And like many of you out there in eG land, we also cook from many different cultures so we have opened bottles of(house) cheeses, meats, dairy items, fresh vegetables and fruits, 2 or 3 dozen eggs, Asian, Middle Eastern and African condiments, and (garage)Indian condiments, Caribbean (garage) ingredients, North American condiments, soda water, beer, and no doubt on and on. Not to mention storage of the leftovers. What can I do? This morning was a tiny crisis. We have begun to eat more varied cheeses and now the cheese container had to be changed for a bigger one. Which necessitated moving a lot of other things around. Minor, but telling. I need an efficiency expert to help me. Help! I can't cope. I have stuff gathered together in containers, but I still can't get a handle on it. Plus, the DH, the light of my life, the rocks beneath my feet (and the pebbles in my shoes ) has no order to his life. If there's room, he'll put it anywhere...assuming he puts it back at all. OK. There probably is no answer. While not an engineer, I am the daughter of one and as such an obsessive/compulsive order maker. All suggestions gratefully received.

Perhaps some kind knowledgeable person might reply to my question about making the pumpkin bread with sweet potatoes of which I have an overabundance. Perhaps just cutting down on the sugar slightly might be an idea???? Or maybe finding a sweet potato quick bread is another...

Thanks for the interesting post, JFLinLA. I looked up the recipe online and have saved it to look at it further. However, given the fact that I live and work at home, I cannot see myself following your procedures for making the bread. They obviously work well for you and that's all that's needed. Thanks again.

I think I shall try the Moroccan Vegetable and Chickpea dish and also the Pumpkin bread but with sweet potatoes. We accidentally bought two loads of them and now I have all this cooked sweet potato which was headed for the freezer. My dish for the year so far is Boozy Baked French Toast from Smitten Kitchen. So good. So easy. So convenient. Did I mention that it was so good? A breakfast dish to serve the bunch at the Annual Dog Weekend at the farm in August. Wow them!!

Sounds great! Done and it is GREAT! :wub: Looks a bit like a dog's dinner, but the taste is incredible. Nothing like fruit which has been 7 months soaking in rum and wine to lend flavor to an already delicious bread!!! We ate it right while it was still quite warm with cold butter. Should be great with cheddar cheese too. However, I missed the 'raisin' beeps and had to remove the dough from the pan and hand knead in the fruit which was a bit wet. It did look quite mangled. It also amazed me by rising to the very top of the pan when it baked. And the outside crust looks burnt because of the fruit I guess. It's not actually burnt.

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.