Darienne

Working through Anna's excellent post. ( I really have to learn how to multi-quote) Those two recipes look excellent and I will try them. Moussaka works well too I think. Just leave off the Bechamel topping. And spaghetti sauce on shredded cabbage. Or lasagna with cabbage leaves...or zucchini...or eggplant (which then becomes a sort of moussaka), etc. Salads: we eat salad for supper every second night and fortunately I never get tired of it. Feta cheese helps a lot. Don't really like carrots all that much anyway. Lunch out between appointments or at the No-Namers? Salmon salad on a bed of shredded greens. Or egg salad. Like your attitude towards expensive cheese. I like smoked salmon with cheese for breakfast. I have to try to get bacon on my mind again. It's very useful. So is Egg Foo Yung, come to think of it. Ditto for the euphoria factor. I've been stalled at my weight for about two months now. Weight=more pain is back in my life and so I am back to being more careful. This has curtailed my exercise factor. Normally we walk the perimeter of the farm with the dogs and that's a big plus. Now I can't walk again. Pity Party!!! Pity Party. OK. The best for last. What ARE your snack ideas? This is a critical one for when you just need to put something into your mouth. Sorry to be so blunt about it, but I have to face it... ps. Just looked up spaghetti squash. At 5 carbs per half cup is it maybe too carb laden to be useful? I admit I am not doing this with careful attention. pps. Hot and Sour Soup is a good meal. Full of low-carb stuff. Actually most Chinese dishes fit right in.

Thanks Ilana, Not too useful for the Revolation machine...

Question #1: In the set of photos from Art Mills, DSC08655-temperering.JPG the chocolate appears to be tempering inside plastic wrapping. This is new to me. Is this a common practice? Why? Etc? Thanks. (no rush obviously)

Do you mean sesame oil + toasted sesame seeds? I think I may be giving this one a go...only problem is I've got no idea about the ratio. From Rarerollingobject"When I want some for Mediterranean style applications, eg. tahini, I just toast sesame seeds and then food processor them with olive oil till it's smooth." I would do the same only with sesame oil. Actually...it might be interesting to try it also with the toasted Asian sesame oil also

I am doing a sort of Primal Blueprint/ Low-carbing/ Mark Bitten Lessmeatarian kind of thing. Sort of. February/March lost 15 pounds. Stabilized at that point. Lost track. Life intervened. Strangely enough, as of early this morning, decided upon a re-commitment to another 10 pound loss. Wish it were for happy reasons. Some would say that for every pound off, whatever pain or disability one is subject to would lessen with each lost pound. I have decided to trust in that. Bread. Oh the wages of sin bread is weight gain. Breakfast was a protein powder shake. Lunch is spaghetti squash with spaghetti sauce. Supper will be salad with olive oil/lemon juice dressing and feta cheese. Back on track. Back recording in my sparkle-covered blue book.

What about using sesame oil...the untoasted clear kind... in the food processor?

That's something worth knowing, Lisa. Thanks. I could add that I now have some quite old...in terms of changes in manufacture...Pyrex dishes which I have bought recently at St. VdP for peanuts. There is a thread on eGullet Pyrex expireswhich covers the changes made in Pyrex ware over the last few years and how it is no longer as safe from cracking and explosion as it formerly was. The manufacturers no longer add the ingredient which guaranteed the safety of the glass. That is another fact worth knowing.

Interesting post, David. Never heard of clear flour before and would be surprised to be able to get it in Peterpatch (as we lovingly call it). Went to your link and it's just too early in the am to take it all in. I'll add an extra egg yolk next making. The machine Challah is good...but it lacks something...??? But then it's adapted for a machine. The extra egg yolk sounds promising. (I did do the braided Challah as promised but it looked so embarrassing that I didn't post my photo.) This bread does so well in the Boozy Oven French Toast recipe by Smitten Kitchen. DH, Ed, wants me to make it savory with bacon and cheese so that it next on my agenda. Well...sort of next.

Using coconut oil makes food taste different also. And then there's lard.

Thanks for starting this report, Kerry. It will allow some of us at least to 'pretend' we are there, sharing in it all. Curious about RobertM's popcorn.

Yes!! We'll also try Cooke's. Less interested in the eating out than buying stuff to take back home. Not too good at eating much on the road. Oh, except for the bagels. But right out of the oven into my mouth. Have this life-long obsession with Montreal bagels. Wait....what supermarket, please?

Thanks mkayahara, It all seemed a bit familiar and then the Chez Piggy connection appeared. I ate at Chez Piggy's so many years ago that I cannot even remember when it was.

Have to go to Kingston a few times in the next couple of months and I don't know the city really at all. But I thought, well, maybe there is something fascinating to look at and maybe buy in Kingston in the realm of food: baking and candy-making supplies, chocolate, kitchen stuff, cheeses, exotic ingredients, whatever. (We live outside Peterborough where there is a dearth of exotic...) Can I buy a Montreal-style bagel there? All suggestions considered.

This thread is very interesting to me because as I noted in my first post, I don't like cold rice salads. Now I am going to try them again, short grain rice and many post cooking rinses. More advice??? tips??? favorite inclusions??? favorite dressings???

Cold rice salads have never been my favorites, but a tabbouleh using bulgar is lovely beyond compare. And you don't even have to cook the bulgar.

Smitten Kitchen has a wonderful Boozy Oven French Toast which I have made twice now...in preparation for our Annual Dog Weekend...and you could try it. I didn't put actual 'booze' into it, but did use a fair dollop of my boozy fruit melange which was meant for a not-yet-made Black Cake. Incredibly delicious dish. Should have added that the dish is assembled the night before, refrigerated over night, and baked 1/2 hour straight from the fridge before eating.

If I'm not too late...don't throw it out...it will chocolate dip quite nicely assuming it is a suitable flavor. A couple of years ago a group of friends were making truffles and one of the group made 'turkish delight' ahead of time for further dipping. We could hardly throw it out and so dipped the less than solid stuff into chocolate and the chocolate held it into shape. On the other hand...

Smitten Kitchen has a wonderful Boozy Oven French Toast which I have made twice now...in preparation for our Annual Dog Weekend...and you could try it. I didn't put actual 'booze' into it, but did use a fair dollop of my boozy fruit melange which was meant for a not-yet-made Black Cake. Incredibly delicious dish.

Thanks Kim. I don't have a vacuum sealer but it's on my list. This toast I did not find too damp. In fact, it called for a 'loaf of Challah' and 3 of eggs, cups of milk, tablespoons of sugar. I looked at it...added a fourth of each. And the top was still too dry after cooking. Turned the top slices over, dumped about a half a cup of milk on them for the last few minutes. How big is a load of bread anyway?????

OK. I'll give it a try. However, I am still waiting for the Wedge of Life to arrive. We are allowed only 2 I.L.L.'s at a time.

Here it is, warts and all. Nuff said. This is THE most incredible French Toast recipe I have ever tasted. Boozy Baked French Toast from Smitten Kitchen. This is the second time I have made it, this time using a bread machine Challah loaf I made yesterday. The dish is assembled the night before, left covered in the fridge, baked 1/2 hour in the am. I left out the 'booze', used orange zest and a bit of vanilla, pecans, boozy fruit from the 'not yet made' Black Rum Cake, etc. This is all preparatory to making it for the Annual Dog Weekend humans in August. Two pans. Maybe I won't slightly burn the bottom then...but no one will care. Question: will this freeze well? I AM intending to try freezing it in portions right now because we are only two and don't really want to eat it for the next four days in a row. Can anyone tell me ahead of time whether it is likely to freeze well or not? It's Challah, milk, eggs, butter plus bits and bobs. Thanks. (Omigawd, it is delicious)

I'll second Shamanjoe's idea. We live in a century farmhouse which was so ill-used by former owners that there was no traditional order left in which to restore it. However, it allowed us to change the rooms around to suit our needs. For instance, the parlor became the master bedroom and the apiary became the kitchen. Ed cut a doorway through a load bearing wall into the new kitchen. The downstairs bathroom was ripped out and moved (of course, originally there were no bathrooms, either down or up.) And I wanted to try the open concept and so we ripped out a number of interior walls. Boarded up the original front door (which was now strangely on the side after the road was built) Added a breezeway and double garage. And so on. My only mistake was going for a quite small galley kitchen having no idea that I would change my life so much after 45 years of marriage. (The other mistake was marrying a man whose dream was to renovate every single house we ever lived in forever and ever. )

If and when I have extra, it is poured into a little flat disc mold and DH loves to eat the small bits, sometimes with PB on them or just about anything else you might find in our fridge.

Hi Sparrowgrass. That is THE coolest of all!! Thanks for sharing.

This topic is one which I will follow with great interest. And I wish you well and with luck there will be more useful comments than my confused contribution. We have a slightly similar situation...the end of a galley kitchen which is now too small for our expanded cooking and baking life and has nowhere to go. At one end, under the window, which is not big enough for a table and chairs even, we have a buckshee affair which is going to be replaced soon...I hope. What I want is a small, not too deep, cabinet backed by a small bookcase. The cabinet door will open and the floor of it and the one shelf (or two) will be only 'one frying pan deep', so to speak, that is not deep enough to put two pans in like regular kitchen cupboards. Two pans means that something is always behind something. And the whole thing will not be as high as a counter-top. The bookcase will be open, 2 or 3 shelves...I don't know. The entire affair will be on wheels with a lock so that it can turn around and be moved easily. The top will be whatever my DH decides it should be with a large rectangular piece (17"x35")of basically white marble dropped in. We are still discussing the size of the top and I am saying cut me a square/rectangle of cardboard/ thin plywood/ whatever so that I can see how it 'feels'. I can't do area in my head...I have to see it and walk around it and see how it fits into my sense of space. Did not mean to hijack your post. Just started writing as usual...