Darienne

I will, but only if I get to pay for it all.

Oh yes, this one too. Starting out too late to make something which will take too long. Dumping it partway through. Well, almost right at the beginning. Just closing the book and putting everything back usually. And then eating popcorn and orange shakes instead. Or toast. Or granola.

One of my favorite confections is Halvah, the kind my Bubi gave me as a child. Just made some awful-tasting awful-textured Halvah from a recipe from Bruce Weinstein The Ultimate Candy Book. I can't think it was the recipe: Sesame oil, white flour, tahini and honey. I probably got something terribly wrong. There appear to be dozens of different halvah recipes. Might try an egg white based one next with sugar. Does anyone have a halvah recipe that turns out well?

Now that is a brilliant idea!!! I do belong to a No Name Group...survivors of regular craft guilds...and I'm going to suggest that.

Just broke my cardinal purchase of books rule: never sight unseen, and bought Peter Greweling's new as-yet-unreleased Chocolates and Confections at Home and hope it doesn't end up on this list!! Canadian prices & Canadian shipping and handling too!!!

Just broke my cardinal rule and bought the book!!!!

So many times when replying to an eGullet thread, I have been able to state with joy and pride, that WE in east central Ontario have this wonderful dairy, Reid's recently changed to Qwickerts, where we could buy dairy products which contained...gasp...dairy ingredients! And at reasonable prices. It was a treat to shop there. And we did. At least once a week. And indeed, only last on Monday afternoon. And we don't even live in the city. No more. As of today, all the Qwickert stores have closed on account of bankruptcy and I am writing this short obit because I am very, very sad. Most of all I will miss the whipping/heavy cream. It contained no sugar or other things which don't belong in this dairy product and it came in litres (sort of like quarts).

My thanks for all the labeling advice. My sticky labels just laugh at me when I shut the freezer door and make a break for freedom. I seldom have those bags with the 'write on' space, or enough of them, or the right size of them...plus they cost a fortune. Masking tape sounds like a good idea. Untidy, but good. That is, good quality masking tape. Not the dollarama stuff. A white board? Brilliant, but who would use it or update it? And how long before the writer made a break for its own freedom. I do use the pencil note for small bags of endless stuff which accumulate in my upstairs freezer and cupboards. Now I even write the year on them. I feel that somehow lead pencil is less toxic than marker ink or ballpoint ink. Probably dead wrong. I think I need a wife. Oops. I am the wife.

Yesterday I started on a new, but longstanding unfulfilled, obsession: to make halvah like the stuff I remember from my Montreal childhood. In our nearby city, you can get Camel halvah...not my style. I have not seen Joyva brand locally. I'm sure you can find delicious halvah in Toronto, but I have ceased to find any joy in going there and fighting the traffic jams...and they are horrendous...and the crowds. So I found some recipes. Some have egg whites, some semolina. There is a great variation in the recipes. I made the recipe from Bruce Weinstein's, The Ultimate Candy Book, provided in this thread by chefcyn, July 05 (I don't know how to do those linking things. Sesame oil, white flour, tahini and honey. Well, I must have done something terribly wrong. The consistency is awful and so is the taste. I'll try an egg white one next, and probably with sugar. Honey is great...if you have a great honey. Help!!!!! please !!!!!

Like the Baroness, I rely on the local libraries, and then mostly on Inter-library loan which is free in Ontario. Our biggest and bestest bookstore is a Chapters which says a lot about the area in which I live. Still...no great bookstores means no big cities which is fine with me.

Just finished making some Sweet & Spicy Pecans from the egg & nut thread from Epicurious through Anna N...and some halvah from Bruce Weinstein, The Ultimate Candy Bookand half the Italian gelato I am making with the inclusions that go into Nougat...and the kitchen is a total mess. I made this bargain with myself, that I would surprise Ed with a cleaner kitchen, but alas! it was not to be. I suspect it is never to be. Right. I burnt my tongue tasting the halvah and now I won't be able to taste much of anything. Serves me right.

I see that the company has made a pretty fair deal with Canadian orders. I've seen these baking dishes in our local bulk food/ health food store but the prices are at least 3 times the prices quoted. Don't know if it's the same company and seeing as I've phoned our store twice already today (not the usual), I'll wait until tomorrow to find out. I do like the idea...

Just asked the sous-chef, my DH, what my worst kitchen habit is and he replied...and very quickly too...not cleaning up as I go along. My counters and sinks end up looking like a tornado has been through. He admits his is leaving sharp knives in the sink and also cleaned/uncleaned plastic bags in the sink. That second one really makes me CROSS!

What fun is that? I NEED to know how you are labeling the food? I mean the actual labels and the markers. Nothing I use seems to stay put long enough to satisfy my requirements, that is a freezer which has to accommodate two large dogs who eat meat and the fact that I can't really manage the stairs or pack or unpack the freezer anymore with impunity. It's an old chest freezer and it's at least forever old and it's still running well. DH is not an organized man and stuff gets everywhere. But I can't complain (I do anyway), DH is a wonderful man and a huge help: my dedicated sous-chef.

Just talking to the owner of our local bulk food/health food store about making ice cream/gelato with a cornstarch base. He asked if I used modified cornstarch and I asked what is it? His reply was that it would thicken cold liquids and this is good. (I heat the milk/cream when making ice cream.) Who has used modified cornstarch and what for and why and is it good to use? Or is the 'modified' epithet something to avoid, as in just about modified any food? Thanks.

Update on the tasteless blue grape thread: Just reading DL's Room for Dessert yesterday. Wonderful book. P.84, a recipe for "Concord Grape Pie", DL notes the emergence (1999) of 'seedless Concord-style grapes', suggesting that while some are flavorful, others are definitely not up to par. Mine were not.

Goat cheese never-formed-a-mousse I understand...but English per puree on the walls soup must have a good story behind it?????

Just rereading Lisa's post and it reminded me of last year, taking some wonderful Callebaut 70% chocolate with me to Moab and having two good (non-foodie) friends literally spit it out, saying that it tasted like pure powdered cocoa.

pastrymama's suggestion is really a good one. That's what really works a lot of the time. The cooling gives them time to contract and loosen. Freezing makes them nice and hard, and the propane torch warms the grease to let them just pop out. This is how I release my pineapple upside down cakes. Bake, then refrigerate in the pan, then turn the pan upside down and heat it with the torch. It comes out perfectly. Brilliant! So I will try again.

I googled 'pyrolize vegetables' and got your morning post. Could you please explain a bit what this means. Thanks.

I don't clip much, but a recipe in our local newspaper changed my life. And I do make it often, but with my own tweaks such as added raspberries and booze. "Chocolate-covered Banana Mousse Freeze" and the chocolate cover was a ganache. Ganache? That's a strange word, said I and I looked it up online. And nothing was ever the same again. End of story.

I can't recall precisely what kind of grapes they were, but they were getting beyond eating in the fridge. I put them through the Champion grinder/juicer/? and got the most lovely grape juice ever. They could well have been seeded grapes, but I don't think they would have been a Concord type...DH dislikes Concord grapes. The Champion was an expensive purchase for a then quite poverty-stricken family, but so worth the money. We are on only our second one over I think about 40 years.

And so I made the tahini gianduja again with icing sugar a la Greweling...except that I used only 3/4 of his allotment of sugar. Couldn't really say what it tasted like. Not gianduja. Then DH had some after lunch and said...this tastes very much like chocolate halvah...and so it does. Lacks all texture and no doubt other qualities, but yes, it does taste like chocolate halvah.

Scratch two not-very-useful cookbooks for me. Thank you.

We have a lot of storage at the farm...not in the house, but in the drive shed. A drive shed is called that because you can literally drive two transport trucks into it. So nothing really has to be discarded. DH is very happy. He has every nail, screw & piece of lumber he ever bought. But I try not to be a hoarder. So I gave away, donated, discarded, etc so many kitchen and dining items that belonged to my late Mother after a few years. Right. However, now I have started my life in cooking and suchlike. And now I am buying them all back in second hand stores or for whatever price they now are: Salton hot trays, stand mixer, pyrex bowls and measuring cup sets, serving lidded bowls and utensils, etc.