Darienne

I know this sounds ridiculous. My DH bought me two 350 gram packages of smoked salmon yesterday because it was reduced by 75% for some unknown reason and he knows I love it. He doesn't like it. He does like regular salmon a lot and we eat salmon steaks/filets with lime regularly. What on earth am I to do with the smoked salmon except eat a lot of bagels and cream cheese over the next few weeks? (Sorry. Please do not suggest guests or a party. It is not possible at this point in our lives.) Thanks.

Picture be darned! How about a slice!!!!

Adding a tad of cayenne gives a nice nip to the RC treats!

This is not my bailiwick, but it occurs to me that Mexican spiced almonds are always a big success. So little work...no peeling even...and such a good return. Good luck

NYE I just went to bed early with a hot toddy and tried to live through whatever was attempting to do me in. However...I would really like that recipe for 'those meatballs'. Something is pulling me towards them. And truth be told, I have never used my large cooker except for candying fruits. Thanks. Ms Kim

Many of the dishes that I make and never buy came from my upbringing, what my Mother made and bought and didn't buy. I didn't even know that you could buy salad dressings...I never 'saw' them in the store. Why anyone would buy Thousand Island dressing was beyond me. And I made hummus and tabbouleh before it was available in any store where I lived. I've never tasted either commercially yet. As for biscuits...that's another story. My Mother always made biscuits from Bisquick. Hockey pucks. One day, after being married a year or two, I found myself one day out of Bisquick. That's when I discovered that you COULD make biscuits from scratch yourself. I became a crazy biscuit lady, known far and wide for my wonderful biscuits.

Second Impression: First impression was not strong enough. This is NOT just one more candy making book. Sorry I spoke too soon. It is an incredible book. The explanations are pure Greweling and as I read them and recall the agonies which I went through trying to cope with his professional chocolate book...how I would have loved this book. It's true...it does lack a certain charm perhaps, but if I had only one candy book, I think this might be the one. ps. I still haven't gotten at even one recipe.

Granola. (I still don't know what duck confit is and besides you can't buy duck in Peterborough.)

Haven't gotten far in the book yet...life will intervene...but I can say that I would have killed for this book two years ago. Now I have quite a large library of 'confectionery' books and this is just 'one more'. It's very well written, in a very professional manner. Utmost clarity. I suppose I missed the less formal anecdotes that one finds in most candy books, like Ruth Kendrick's Candymaking and PastryGirl's (Anita Chu) Field Guide to Candy: How to Identify and Mike Virtually Every Candy Imaginable. I love reading the historical and ethnic bits of information. And it's a small shock to read Greweling talking about using compound chocolate. And to read his 'Resources' chapter which included Candylandcrafts, Wilton and others like that. But hey! he is writing the book for those who know little or nothing about the subject. I bought Greweling's Chocolates and Confections long ago and read the entire book out loud to my husband on one of our Moab-Ontario trips, learning, learning, learning, as I went along. That book is a gem in all ways. A tour de force. (I also read Andrew Shott's Making Artisan Chocolates on another trip. It's an excellent way to learn and for unknown reasons my DH loves to listen to me read.) I'm not sorry I bought this book. I haven't really given it a chance yet. These are just my first impressions. But as a first candymaking book, I cannot imagine a better one to own. Edit: typo only

We didn't buy a lot there (Albuquerque) but I found that the pound chocolate was fine for using for not top grade stuff. However, we both disliked the dipped raspberry and orange pieces. Another time I bought some kumquats...no problem. Much prefer Whole Foods but hey! you can't have everything.

This is such an interesting thread. So many of the foods mentioned as those that we ate when we were poverty-stricken students. I haven't eaten a smelt for probably 45 years. Hated them, along with canned tuna, pink salmon, ground lamb patties, pork liver and a lot of other things mentioned over the past few weeks.

Dear Emmalish, you said everything I thought and when I think of how much trouble we actually went to to watch this program and what a major disappointment it was... I can't believe that the producers thought that this was a good production!

It's too late for Christmas, but it just hit me between the eyes. Edible rice paper. You can buy it at a Chinese grocery store. It could have been used to cover the nougat. I want to make the Chinese Milk Candy recipe in Anita Chu's (Pastry Girl) Field Guide to Candy and it calls for edible rice paper. Duh! Problem solved!

Depends upon one's definition of 'rubbish'. Our local county dump...ooops, transfer station...has a large drive shed sort of building where people can simply leave stuff they don't want under the watchful eye of a transfer station employee. One year I picked up almost an entire set of the Time/Life The Good Cook Techniques and Recipes. The best goodies come right after garage sales and also when a couple is getting divorced.

Dear Mr. Shamonjoe, Where is your dessert?

Last year in Moab, I managed to find a new revised Joy of Cooking in great shape. Brought it home...and it sits right beside my old broken spine, ripped, stained, dog-eared wedding gift copy from 50 years ago. Could no more throw out that dear old friend....

O.K. I have just unwrapped my new copy of Greweling's Chocolate and Confections. I WILL be back with my impression very soon.

Add one more: Peter Greweling's latest: Chocolates and Confections.

Would you mind explaining the above sentences a bit? How could 4 small packets be used with multi-dozens of cookies? And how could two packets be enough? Two packets used how and where? Thanks.

In 2010, I will keep better lists of what's in the freezers, both in the cellar and upstairs. We will eat more stuff from the freezers before it is beyond rescue. I will freeze less stuff!!! I will find a decent recipe for okra and eat it, even if I do so alone. And with my DH looking on and making rude remarks. I will learn how to make bread. Finally. I will teach my 'up the road' neighbor how to work with chocolate because she has been begging me for years now. I will grow an indoors herb garden. It's already set up and ready to go.

O.K. Remember that you did ask. Our dogs get to drink it.

No advice to give to you but hope that others can help you. The promise I made to those who had already made Black Cake was not to try to make the burnt sugar syrup but to buy it...which I did. I can now see what can go wrong. My Black Cake never got made...this Christmas did not turn as out we had planned...but I do have the loveliest rum-macerated fruit sitting waiting for me along with commercially purchased burnt syrup and mixed essence. Soon, I hope. All best to you, Phoenikia

Your bread looks wonderful. Truth told, I have never made a loaf of bread from scratch.

John Rosevear said what I was thinking. You can eat locally when you live below a certain agricultural zone. We live on the Canadian shield and are very limited. But then...The Fat Guy reiterated his point and all was once again clear. Thanks, FG

I'd like to add cooked radishes. One year it rained endlessly and we had this bumper crop of huge radishes. Why we always plant radishes I don't know. I don't even like them. Somewhere in the depths of my muddled mind I recalled that some Scandinavian country actually cooked and ate radishes. I simply boiled them like potatoes and poured a cheese sauce on them. I could not believe it! They loose their red color and their sharp bite and they were DELICIOUS! Never had a bumper crop since.