Darienne

Thanks for putting it into a useful perspective.

The Lebanese Milk Ice Cream is made...well, sort of, but it is delicious. Instead of milk and heavy cream, I used full-fat and half-fat coconut milk. I had rose water, but no orange blossom water, so I used orange zest. And instead of sprinkling the pistachios on top, I mixed them in. Of course, I always add PaulRaphael's additions: corn syrup and a dash of salt. Very good. Brought to mind using this coconut milk base for the ricotta ice cream recipe that I found...oops...photocopied the one page out of a now unknown Italian cookbook. The inclusions are basically those of nougat and it is SOOO good and so colorful. Oh, nougat and then some. I made it at Thanksgiving and Christmas and it was well received in the extreme.

Well, actually I really was being 'silly', as in the emoticon for 'braz' Oddly enough, the white non-tempered parts of the marbling are still shiny...it the dark brown which looks a bit tatty. Very curious.

I am hanging my head in embarrassed shame...

I did check them once, several days ago, and they looked fine. That was the only time they were disturbed. The dark chocolate was tempered in the Revolation I...but it embarrasses me, now that I have asked for advice...to remember that we only melted the white and did not temper it. Ooops. That might be the answer. Still you are suggesting that properly tempered and stored, they should still look glossy quite a long while. Oh well, I'll chop them up and Ed can eat them as time goes by with his peanut butter or something.

Now I know that this topic has been dealt with before, but after going through 19...count'em...19 pages of topics with 'chocolate' in the title, I could find no reference to simply how long a chocolate might last before it begins to look like the ones I was about to bestow on our butcher today. And now am not going to. Barbara, confectionery partner, and I made simple marbled dark and white chocolates on February 4th. The leftover lot has been sitting in a dark, cool, airtight container since that day. It is now the 13th. They are not moldy or with bloom...they just look really old and tired and the gloss is gone! I need some storage info, please.

Can anyone tell me about Club Soda? I have a can in front of me, 355 ml(12 oz. USA), says Ingredients: carbonated water. And the Nutrition Fact say 0% of this and that, HOWEVER, 1% sodium. It's not President's Choice, but Compliments, another Canadian in-house brand, about the equal in terms of cost and quality. Can I make my own somehow? Buy some gadget and do it? Is it cost-effective? get rid of the sodium? ???? How bad for you is the commercial product? Thanks

I have a box of pure creamed coconut. It was left at the farm last summer by a Grenadian-born cook who cooked for us for a weekend (yumm!). I put it into the freezer and just took it out yesterday to put in the fridge. It has no expiration date on it and no nutritional chart. It is 'manufactured' in the UK by KTC (Edibles). It's in one 200gm block. Do you think it's still good? Has anyone heard of this brand?

I use citric acid when making hard tack lollipops to give them a sour/tart flavor.

Oh yes. The center of my right palm actually hurt by evening the day of the massive chopping spree.

It was just a trial run and I realize that I could have chopped the almonds smaller. It won't be perfect, but they were straight out of the freezer and that's not too bad. Also the pieces look larger in the photo than they actually are. Mommy wants a new camera with a macro lens.

It would take me a while to duplicate your 'pans I use all the time' list, but I found it very interesting. I make confections, ganaches, etc, and couldn't do without my 1/2, 1 and 2 litre sauce pans.

Is there something which I could offer to do? Night-times are probably still pretty much out for me and I can't guarantee to attend any evening events. Never mind. I'm still over the moon. What can I do? I can wash dishes, etc during the day and NOT get in the way. What can I bring? I have lots of chocolate tools. I have a small Revolation 1. Lots of confectionery books. My sole specialty would be ice cream I think. Not too practical. And candied stuff. I'll think on it.

Decided yesterday to buy a few different brands of what is called 'coconut milk' on all three brands that I ended up with. OK. Past that there is much difference in them, the first noticeable difference is the caloric information. Globe: 1/2 cup = 40 calories; cheapest, 1st ingred. water, then coconut milk (24%); fat 3.5 g. Rooster: 1/2 cup = 100 calories; a few more cents; 1st ingred. coconut milk (no % given; fat 5 gm Aroy-D: 1/2 cup = 160 calories; most expensive; 1st ingred. coconut milk (55%); fat 17 gm Strangely, Rooster has 25 iron, the others 0%. The cheapest has 1 gm sugar, the more expensive ones 0 gm sugar Now some recipes call for full-fat coconut milk. QUESTION: what percentage fat is full fat coconut milk. Most recipes just call for coconut milk. Period. Etc. Am I looking at the equivalent of skim, 2%, 5% milk? Last year I made coconut milk ice cream without paying any attention to the %s. Didn't realize how significant they were. I'm going to make ice cream in the next day or so and will use the Aroy-D brand, the fullest fat milk. Any comments are gratefully received. Do keep in mind that I live outside a small, provincial (literally and figuratively) town in which you can never get Kumquats. Ever. Thanks.

Hooray for us. I am so looking forward to this. And I am over the moon that once again I can stand and walk and actually attend an event. :wub:

Of course. First big smile of the day. I mean to photograph my breakfast...but oops! I ate it first. Smoked salmon with two scrambled eggs, scrambled by me for me. Not by DH, who is a great cook, but I like my own scrambled eggs exclusively.

And just who is going to complain about the nicks and smudges and refuse to eat them?

And I am also a fan of second-hand and yard sales too. Not a great selection often, but it's amazing what we have found over the years...including yesterday. (However, I did buy a set of special pots just for my use with chocolate and confections. NO ONE else gets to use them. )

I see that Google has you listed as an olive oil geek. Interesting. And what kind(s)/brand(s) of olive oil do you use, please?

I know very little about this topic, but one thing I do know from traumatic experience: when you forget take the dill out of the chicken soup, which your Aunt has told you to do, the soup will taste overwhelmingly of dill the next day, which your husband will remark rather carelessly to you the next lunch, and if you are then 8 months pregnant with your third child, you might throw the much-dilled bowl of soup at his head. Which I did. About 44 years ago. And neither of us ever forgot.

I know, I know, it's a bit early to be thinking of ice cream, but I found this wondrous recipe for Lebanese Milk Ice Cream which includes both rose and orange water. I really need to make it and soon. It was on 'Always Order Dessert' a blog. I found a few interesting ice cream blogs the other day: The Ice Cream Fellow, Scoopalicious, Japanese Ice Cream, Ice Cream Geek Blog (well, haven't been there yet), and The Ice Cream Forum. No doubt there are dozens of others.

We're in the city again tomorrow. I'll look. Thanks. p.s. The 'city' being Peterborough. p.p.s. No they don't have one, and I read the reviews of the nut chopper and so many of them were downright scary that I think I'll pass on this one.

Canadian Tire was originally just an auto store. Then they added more and more and more, including kitchen wares of all kinds. Now believe it or not, they are going to add groceries. It was announced in the newspaper a few days ago. So, this morning in the city, we went to Value Village and there it was, a mini-processor for $4.99. I bought it. I'll still keep an eye out for something more suitable at yard sales which in this frozen north don't start until late spring I think. Thanks.

Thanks Andie. Needless to say these are not available on Amazon.ca (Canada). Invariably, the prices for the same items on Amazon.ca are much higher than the prices on Amazon.com (USA). T'was ever thus, as others have already pointed out. It's the second-hand store for me...well, for Ed. He frequents them while I'm at various appointments in the city.

Thanks Kerry. Did not find that topic because it was in 'Pastry and Baking' and of course I looked in 'Kitchen Consumer'. Now to look in the second-hand stores for either an old fashioned nut chopper or a little food processor.