Darienne

Completely forgot about the mixing of coconut butter with coconut milk. Will try it soon. However, today I made coconut milk using fresh coconut meat. It may be my imagination, but I think it has a fresher taste than any canned stuff I have ever tasted. We are on a very deep well on the farm and the cold water is completely untouched by any chemicals. Lovely stuff.

I am having this love affair with freshly ground pepper ever since I got my battery-operated pepper mill. A few years ago I would never had thought of putting freshly ground pepper in many of the places I now use it liberally: chocolate ganache, popcorn, potato chips, and ice cream (Orange-Szechwan Pepper thanks to DL). Others have added in recent posts in another thread: strawberries, watermelon and cantaloupe. These I have yet to try. Where else do folks use pepper that you might not expect it? Cake? Biscuits? Cookies? Or in/on a dish in a way that you might not expect it to be used?

Dare I even mention the following: a friend on a low-carb diet made both 'spaghetti' and 'lasagna'...in quotation marks to signify some distance from the real thing...using cabbage in place of pasta. It's not all that bad...if you don't think pasta while you are eating it. Well, it's not that good either. Today I am making a 'lasagna' using cabbage leaves, a tomato and meat sauce and cheeses: ricotta, mozzarella and Parmesan. Don't hate me because I am undeserving of being called a paesana. We've had company for the last few days and I have eaten myself into a weight I thought I had left behind. Time for a short low-carb path.

I'm old and I have trouble cutting things...usually get the DH to do it. A few more words on this issue would be very welcome. Never heard of the idea before.

Well put.

Weight for all items. Also like the three-ringer binder concept.

A new thing is on the market and NOT well publicized at all. It's called a Stove Guardand it sits in between your stove plug and the wall plug. It is both a motion sensor and a timer and has a number of options on it. The one trick is to remember to turn it back on after you have turned it back off. However, it has already saved our bacon...well, house and lives, not actually bacon...a number of times. DH will leave the stove on high and forget to turn it off...speaking of seniors.

OK. Just HOW OLD are these OLD people? I am an old person too . And I would like to learn to make mirror glazes and striped hard candy.

OK. Today was Candy Day. Yesterday I made the Nightscotsman's marshmallows (tinted a lovely St. Paddy's green) and today confectionery partner, Barbara, and I cut the pops, dipped them into white chocolate and decorated with green thingies. First white chocolate we used was Lindt's and it was very liquid. Had to double dip the pops. The second we used was Callebaut. Too thick. Added some Lindt and it worked out beautifully. Single-dipped only and a whiter coating. The kids will love them! Next time, we'll do the striped hard candy.

Not exciting, but a favorite dessert: Poppy Seed Coffee Cake with Lemon Curd filling and topping. And I remembered to photograph it before we tore into it. I've got to get a new camera with a macro lens!!!

Steal away. I'll tell the Laughing Ladies.

Very careless of you, m'dear. All best in quick recovery.

Two more for me: one on chocolate...a woman can never own too many chocolate cookbooks, top notch or otherwise...and my first all cookie cookbook ever. Both at a "Gently -Used Books" store.

If you need a title for the lunching group...I used to belong to the "Laughing Ladies who Love to Lunch"/ aka "LaLaLoLu". And my late Mother, when she lived in San Diego, belonged to the "Ranch Branch Lunch Bunch" which I thought was fine. What I really like are arranged / unarranged Pot Lucks. DH and I were doing a presentation a couple of years ago at a horticultural society in a small town north of Peterborough and most of the attendees (about 100) there were even older than we are. A Pot Luck preceded our event. I felt as if I had stepped back into a previous existence...the food was incredible and not current to say the least. Pineapple upside down cake, brownies, meatballs a la 60s, chicken pot pie. But what made me laugh the most is that there were only two salads and they both had tiny marshmallows in them.

All the best wishes in the world to you. Our fiftieth wedding anniversary was yesterday. Should have noted that our anniversary luncheon was dessert: homemade scones, raspberries, freshly whipped cream and my special raspberry sauce. That's after 50 years of cooking and eating together.

TimS...you are an angel in human dress.

Over the years, Ed and I have devised menus to suit our needs for eating and the fact that we live at least 1/2 hour from any store. Also our 'city' does not carry unusual or exotic foods. I've seen kumquats once in several years. I have made a computer generated columnized list of foods and stores which carry only certain foods (like the health food store or the liquor store...in Ontario we have separate liquor stores, asian store) and I generate copies of this list which are then fastened with an earth magnet to the fridge wall with a hanging red pen to circle items which we need, are out of, want to buy, need to write in, etc. When we lived in Moab last year, where different foods were available/not available and different stores were there, I simply used the home list to edit into the 'Moab' list and generated that list. If anyone would like a copy of the list to use, they can PM me for it. Once a week after breakfast, we discuss the week's menus and try to make sure we can make the dishes. Then there are the whim meals, like grilled cheese sandwiches or popcorn and orange juleps. There are always on hand cheese, bread, popcorn, oranges, milk, oj, etc. And canned items like chickpeas and tomatoes. We eat much more simply than most folks on this list and tend to eat the same things in a month probably. And a LOT of Chinese food which means mostly egetables and bottled stuff, like Oyster sauce, Hoisin, etc with bits of meat. I make a number of basic things like yogurt, granola, etc. We have just joined Costco and this week we'll see exactly where it can fit into our shopping list.

OK. You are on. I'll get it with I.L.L. and then get back. Safe driving.

Reading this fascinating book: The Fruit Hunter: A Story of Nature, Adventure, Commerce and Passion, Adam Leith Gollner, 2008. Lots of information about wondrous exotic fruits and Gollner's adventures finding them around the world...but also information about the incredible and sickening corruption in the commercial fruit industry.

Cannot believe where my mind has been...or not been. It's all there in PGreweling, Big Book. Page 200. Striped hard candy to make candy canes and striped hard candy lollipops. The lollipops are exactly what I wanted to make in the first place. Has anyone made them? Any tips I should know before setting out? Thanks.

Candy canes and striped hard candy lollipops on p.200 in PG. Has anyone made them and if so, what extra tips would you extend to a novice in making striped hard candy? Thanks.

It looks so good I immediately went online and got the recipe.

What can I say? I went to the Lord of the Peeps, of course. I shall be on the lookout for this candy. Thanks, Andie.

Hi Andie, Thanks for all the ideas. Have never heard of Peeps before, but will see if we have them in the frozen North Country. My confectionery partner, Barbara, was a grade school teacher and she'll know if they are in Canada. I like the green bits for St. Patrick's Day. I look into my cache of bitsies and see if I have any green stuff...or go to Michael's next trip to town. Thanks again.

No wherewithal to spray chocolate. And my normal end product is usually a chocolately mess, both on the confection and me. My adroit hands belong to my confectionery partner, Barb. I am the brains behind the enterprise. Right.