Darienne

I'd be interested in a set of those trays if you can find them in Ontario.

Amongst the things that I am not, I am not a gardener. In my studio window I now have a large thriving container of ginger (thanks to Andie) and another pot of calamansi seedlings. This is a first. I have had an outdoor garden in the past...the far past. How do I go about starting an indoor winter garden for herbs? I'd like, if possible, mint, parsley, thyme...I don't even know what else you can grow inside. Do I need special lights? I live in Zone 5, in east central Ontario (that sounds SO boring, east central Ontario) but I do have large windows on the east and the south. Please start me off...

The Jade Blend was very tasty. Alas! The pretty green color was no more.

Dear Edward J. Could you please fill out the above? 1" PVC tube? How thick is this tube? Do you have a photo? Do you cut right through the tube? Somehow decant the buttercream before cutting? I am lacking in this kind of experience and don't quite get it. Thanks.

There are several rice,lentil, etc, blends for sale at our local Bulk Barn...a Canadian chain...Don't know whether it's a USA chain or not. The DH has taken to dropping me off at the Bulk Barn while he goes to the ReStore...a 'guy' kind of store...and I wander around looking at all the stuff. I am amazed at what they actually carry that I did not know about. I usually run in to get whatever it is that I am specifically looking for... Yesterday I bought a couple of cups of this mix, Jade Blend, simply because it looked so pretty in the bin, a blend of soft greens, ochers, and tan. But there were several other ones. The Jade Blend contains: bamboo rice, wheat berries, basmati rice, green lentils, split baby garbanzo beans, Daikon radish seeds. A single set of directions. It's for lunch today with Scalloped Tomatoes (accidentally bought tomatoes twice), and the rest of the roasted fall vegetables.

I am curious about the sugar solution. Never heard of this before. What is the theory behind it? Thanks.

If I can stand and walk, I'm in. However, I can help with computer-oriented tasks.

Here is a rather nice recipe from Alton Brown which I have made: Alton Brown's Mooless Pie

One more for me: Classic Vegetarian Cooking from the Middle East & North Africa. Habeeb Salloum.

I have just finished reading the entire thread. Wow! Wonderful! If only...if only... I just found the posting by Lindacakes on the current Artisanal Gift thread last night and thought to myself...I've had Black Cake once at Christmas at a Bajan Christmas dinner and loved it. (We brought a French Canadian Tortiere made by my DH, his Christmas specialty.) I could make a Black Cake. Our daughter's boyfriend is from Grenada and is an incredible cook. I thought what a wonderful surprise for him. So I bought the fruit, ground it up, and it's macerating in rum and wine and NOW I find out that I am too late to make it for this year. I told my daughter last night that I was making it for Derek. What do I do now? Give him a promissory note? Where are the other Black Cake persons?

This is so exciting pour moi. Thanks to Lindacakes and the internet, I am now starting my first ever Caribbean Black Cake for Christmas. It's basically for our daughter's boyfriend who came to Canada from Grenada. He will be so surprised. Now can he cook!!! Cuts everything in his hand the way his Grandmother taught him! Pounds and pounds of candied this and that macerating in bottles of booze for a month or two. What could be more enticing?

Would that I had had that recipe at the time. I did follow the instructions given. It said nothing about sunscreen . It was a wonderful tasting cake, with cardamom...my favorite in the world...well, I have lots of favorites . Perhaps I'll try it again. Today.

My first, and only, attempt to use a Bundt type pan ended up with my giving the cake to my neighbor who has young and uncomplaining kids, who are the recipients of everything I do which cannot be served to a grown-up audience. The cake had a sugary streuseley topping...all of which stuck to the pan...forever almost. Who knew? Not me.

OMIGAWD. I bet they taste incredible!!! Brilliant, Ruth!

Thank you for your kind welcome. (I am much intrigued by your avatar) Wonderful looking Chinese food. The plates are so clean and fine looking. My DH adores Szechwan...my own preferred spelling ...food and all my many peccadilloes are tolerated and forgiven because I make him Szechwan a couple of times a week.

This may be quite embarrassing. My candied ginger, about 1 1/2 month old, kept in an airtight plastic container, has fluffy type mold on some pieces. I tossed it all out. Why did it mold?

Can I answer this one with a story about my DH? The very first time he did salmon on the B-B-Q with lime, it was so tender and sublime I was in heaven. With the most delicious crispy, burnt just so, skin. I did not share with the pups. Since then, it's always be good...but never again sublime. He has no idea why.

Wow!. You and my DH. Roasting garbage in the oven. Now that is worth of praise. I am NOT telling Ed about that one. I, like your DH, wonder about the end result. My DH cleans, opens and flattens every can we use. He cleans EVERY plastic bag and dries it in the garage and adds it to our recycling...even the gucky ones. (Of course, he usually leaves them in the sink for you-know-who. His heart is in the right place...the rest of him is elsewhere. ) He puts the coffee grounds in the compost...I put them down the toilet or in the garbage. He is good: I am bad. But I make Szechwan Chinese food and that makes up for just about everything in life.

I agree with Dave Hatfield on Amazon.com. Live in Canada and see what you are missing. I am only sorry that I did not order more last year when we were in Moab. We have Amazon.ca in Canada and everything is probably twice the price and the postage is way up and the deals are way down...assuming that you can even get the title on the Canadian site. As for Nakji's comments on Looney Spoons etc, I am mortified to claim the same citizenship as the authors of those books. I got them out of the library to check on some aspect of the recipes...forgotten now...and gagged over the 'cutesiness' of page after page, recipe after recipe, line after line... The contents were lost to me forever. No. I am not anti-Canadian. We just touched on two items which irritate me.

I USED to use my kitchen shears for all sorts of things and then last weekend my daughter tried to cut the woody stems of a considerable number of decorative woody stems in one fell blow and now my kitchen shears are no more. PLUS I cannot even find my studio shears...which makes me wonder...very much...

My very first posting on this thread. My friend gave me this wonderful cookbook on potatoes and the pictures are the bait every time. I know, I know. Not very sophisticated. So I made this dish, Potatoes baked with Tomatoes, a recipe from the South of Italy, and my finished supper looked as good as the photo in the book...my photograph does not look as good as the one in the book and I thought I would post it.

We once had black cake at a Christmas dinner and I thought it was wonderful. Could I please have a recipe for your black cake? Perhaps I could make them for my artisanal gifts this year. Attribution included, of course.

The joys of cookbooks from the UK. Today while passing the time in a long and boring medical procedure, I looked at my new potato cookbook, published in the UK. Wonderful photos, great recipes. However, although the staff helped me with gammon and lardons, and I already knew aubergine and courgette, asafoetida and pilchard had to wait until I got home and online.

Just discussing with the DH the fact that our newly acquired second-hand coffee maker...we run through them pretty quickly...has the most inconvenient carafe lid. You have to stick your finger into the pouring area to get it off. On the other hand, it is still functioning perfectly. It was made in Korea. That goes back. (Someone can no doubt supply dates.) That postdates manufacture in Japan and predates being made in China. And now some of the 'better' stuff seems to be coming from India. My new wonderful nested set of stainless steel mixing bowls with silicone bottoms are from India, purchased last year in Utah. And amazingly, my new Beater Blades are manufactured in the USA. The catalog for the Paderno wear says 'Prince Edward Island made', but it does seem a tad vague... OK. Just phoned Paderno and while the Fusion 5 pots are still made in PEI, other pieces are made in Indonesia and China. The staff person said that if your pots are old enough, they were all made in PEI years ago. Mine aren't and they aren't Fusion 5 either. What else is new? Interesting...to me, at least.

Our house has this special library section in the bathroom. Just looking at the verso of my new potato book, a gift from a friend, Potato: a celebration of the world's most versatile vegetable. Alex Barker & Sally Mansfield, Hermes House. London. There's a note stating that all recipes use medium eggs unless otherwise stated.