Darienne

Omigawd. I think I have fallen in love with the Williams-Sonoma Chopper

Well put. Exactly

Thanks all for all the posts. Thanks Karen, your post was particularly helpful. I've made a list of the useful items for us from your list and all the other suggestions given and will check it in our local Costco when I go in. As for the Amex card...if it is free, and if I pay it off each month as we always pay off our cards, then I can't see any problem...at this point. Stuff, however, has been known to arise from 'no problem' situations before and smack me up the side of the head. I'll report back anything worth noting from my end. Thanks again.

Something desserty?

Thank you.

Was just reading the new thread ' Breakfasts around the World' and discussing same with DH and suddenly remember what could be my contribution to this thread: French toast fingers at Big Boy. OMG Never get to have them because we normally travel westward and they are mostly east and southward. But I remember...

Aha. Peterpatch just got its first Superstore less than a year ago and we don't actually shop there except on rare occasions. Find their prices higher than the others, like Price Chopper and No Frills, although they do carry a few more exotic bits and bobs.

Merci beaucoup.

PH? Pierre Hermes? 10?

Hello Edward J, * I was told they accept American Express which I can get free of charge at the store. No problem there. * What is the "Stoopid" store, please, which has dairy prices on-par with Costco? Thanks

Dear Agray,, Thanks so much for your detailed reply. Very helpful to me. Ah yes, the small city syndrome. We live, of course, near Peterpatch (as we lovingly call it) near the Big Smoke as they now appear to call Toronto. We can't get all sorts of stuff and whenever a friend or we are going thataway, we call around to see what someone wants. A friend phoned me from Pickering yesterday on the way home from Toronto, and I asked her to buy X...etc. What we can't get is frustrating. What we can't get in Omemee our nearest town is enormous, starting with eggplant. However, for reasons, unknown, Omemee does carry white corn syrup which my DH couldn't find in the larger food stores in Peterborough. Who knows why? So tomorrow, I am off to Costco. Just phoned them. $55 + tax is current yearly membership and it's good in the USA. OK. DH is going to Indiana in April and I'll ask him to get stuff. If Costco USA is like Walmart Canada/vs/USA it should be fun. Thanks again.

Exquisite, Richard. I think I've got to find more talented friends, friends like you, who might 'owe' my little goodies.

Oh my!!! How wonderful.

However, YOU YANKEE TYPES CAN get pecans at Krogers and the ones in Moab were always fresh. Not as good as the ones flown in from Florida...I have written to my Moab friend to find out where they came from...but still better than most in our small city. The health food stores here with coolers have better ones tho...and way more $$$. I should do a concerted study.

The last entry on this thread was May 2004. We are now edging into February 2010 - six years later. The Foodsaver unit: is it still worth buying a Costco membership - $70?/year to buy one? What else do folks buy there now? Obviously the thread from 2004 says no fresh produce except for a couple of things are worth buying there. And don't go on the weekend. And do your homework. Etc. I am a Costco virgin...never even stepped into one yet. We have a new one in Peterborough, our closest city, and I am thinking of a short free visitor's tour tomorrow. All replies gratefully received.

Should make this list more complete by adding a classic on fudge: Lee Edwards Benning, Oh, Fudge 1990. Add: Peter Greweling Chocolates and Confections at Home, 2010.

"Any idea where she got them? I live in Miami and right now I get my pecans at Costco...wouldn't mind having another source for them" I'll email her and find out. "Do you think there is any added value to buying this book after buying the original Chocolates and Confections?" OK. If you own some good candy making books also, I might say no, especially if your budget's a bit tight. I have amassed all the best candy books as far as I can see, so perhaps it was a bit over the top. But I'm not really sorry. It's still an excellent book. I was shocked at first to read Greweling talking about using compound chocolate after the tone of the bigger book, but what the hey! PS. Check this topic under cookbooks for candy books you might own: Chocolate & confectionary Books . . . which are the best

Looked up all those recipes. Boy, if there is one thing I miss from Moab UT, it's the availability of decent pecans. They obviously don't grow them in Moab, but they can get them. We really can't get decent pecans where I live. My next-door neighbor/landlady/friend in Moab got her pecans from Florida, huge tasty pecans, and I bought bags and bags of them. I'm going to try the pecan buttercrunch. Thanks ps. As for the wiping the surface of the crunch to help the chocolate to adhere...Kerry Beal gave me the excellent advice to dust the surface lightly with cocoa. That really helps.

Thanks for the explanation, Kerry

Sounds wonderful. Any photos? Recipe sources? Free samples sent to my house?

Made the 'Coffee Truffle' (p.72) ganache yesterday, using Expresso coffee granules for the instant coffee granules and 70% Belcolade dark. DH loves it. It'll never make it to truffles.... No, I lie. I didn't use his method which calls for refrigerating the ganache for an hour and then beating it for 30 seconds. I don't know what this would accomplish. Perhaps someone could be kind enough to enlighten me.

We do have a Restore...Ed lives there I think. And we have a Costco but don't belong. I'll take a look. I've never been in one. Thanks.

Kerry is indeed a font of great ideas. Andie and Anna N also. So, where in Ontario can you buy a Foodsaver unit, please.

Thank you, Richard. What a display. Amazing. I particularly liked the chocolate terra cotta warriors.

O.K. Back in business. I hope. Haven't been able to make much for quite a while now. Made a few dozen Christmas lollipops and sent them down to Moab to the kids from the Multicultural Center where I was known as the Candy Lady last year. Then last week I managed to dip everything in the house and package it up to give to folks to whom I was in debt in some way or other: vets, computer tech guy, chiro, etc. Just made a few dozen butterscotch heart lollipops for our local library to sell and make a few dollars. Learned two things: butterscotch will stick like crazy to marble...I guess I had not oiled it enough although then there's that oily lolly back to deal with. But, much better this time, put the lollipop molds on a sheet of silpat (a woman cannot have too many silpats I have found) and they didn't stick at all, of course. Duh. I like to make lollipops for the kids, etc,...the part I could do without is the packaging. Next week it's chocolate coated toffee...and Enstrom alike recipe. And it's so good you can't believe it.