Darienne

Very interesting job. Tell me, do you have more than the usual number of taste buds (?) on your tongue for this kind of job. I seem to recall Chloe Doutre-Roussel saying that she had more of whatever it is that does the tasting than the normal person. I wonder if my DH and I have the same number of tasters on our tongues. He likes more salt and more spice on things that I do. I like to taste what the vegetable or whatever tastes like. But then years of smoking changes something in the taste buds...or does it?

What on earth did we do before Google? Tulsi was a new one for me. Very interesting. My ginger is indoors. Are all your plants either indoors or out? Or both? How wonderful to pick your own fruits. I have started a few Calamansi/Kalamondin/etc plants but I suspect that I shall be a very old lady before they can bear any fruit. This fall I am going to plant my first indoor herb garden. You are never too old...

To round out the last section: Received a post from the Ginger Lady who informed me that she usually cuts the stems at 18" so that most of the plant's energy goes into the rhizomes. Of course. Thanks Ginger Lady (aka Andie) After the haircut. Tasted both the stems and the leaves. No hint of gingeriness at all.

Corn. According to an article we read recently in one of the 'organic, green' periodicals...sorry, the name is gone...what's mostly in our food is corn. According to the author, we eat more corn than the Mexican peoples who actually "eat" corn. There is corn in some fashion in and on pretty much everything we eat. They can now trace the amount of corn we eat through our blood. Corn has a very special chemical composition...one extra whatever...I think some kind of carbon molecule...and it stays in the blood in some fashion. Sorry, the above is so lacking in precision, but the mind tends not to hold as much information as it used to. My days of the steel trap mind are long gone. The gist remained.

I can echo enthusiastically what RobertM says. I joined this forum just over a year ago and have asked a lot of questions in my quest to learn how to cook and make confections. During this time, many folks have answered my questions and given generously of their time, but none to equal Kerry Beal. Thank you, Chocolate Doctor.

Yummmm...meatloaf. I have been thinking about meatloaf lately. Or even little meatballs (Albondiguitas) for Albondigas soup. The original recipe calls for pork, veal and lamb, but I can't recall the last time I saw veal for sale locally and lamb is too costly for our budget, and therefore it's beef and pork with the usual bread, milk, egg, onion, spices and chipotle peppers.

Meals of roasted root vegetables with olive oil and thyme. Yummm...

Wonderful friend gave me three cookbooks last night. Two Asian and one potato.

Our current favorite sauce is Thai Pantai's 'sweetened chili sauce for spring roll'. Maybe this is your chili paste?

Mine is also a 1 1/2 quart Cuisinart ice cream processor and it was not at all put out by the chocolate. We should both try it again. Maybe I was just lucky ...and maybe you were not. I have to learn to stop getting covered in chocolate when I work with it.

WOW! That new photo upload is incredible. OK. My point. My ginger is long, reaching towards the ceiling and now leaning precariously to the left or the right. Should I stake it or something? Thanks.

Using a tweaking of a chocolate gelato ice cream...don't have the names at hand...I made the MOST INCREDIBLE chocolate ice cream. It has a cornstarch base. Some one on eG tried the recipe and then added her own touch a couple of years ago and then I added the Paulraphael hints and the results were stupendous. The most chocolatey ice cream I have ever tasted and soft enough also. If anyone wants this recipe, I'll pm it to him/her and meanwhile I'll look for the proper attribution. Found my post on another thread concerning constarch based ice creams & gelatos:

One thing I do know. Not all ginger is created equal. I have actually thrown a batch of ginger in the trash because it tasted so awful after candying...and it's not as if you can really get much of a sense of how it tastes by biting directly into it when it's raw. I would imagine that you could get a batch of more or less pungent ginger.

I don't like mint extract. That was the whole point of using mint leaves. And now I know how to use them properly.

I knew that and I forgot that. Where was my brain? Here's the salient detail that I was mulling over...with no eGullet to write to. The Jenni Bitten recipe called for 1 cup of minced mint leaves...the DL recipe called for 2 cups of mint WHOLE, UNMINCED, etc. So...now I know. Thank you, Ice Cream Mentor Man.

Candying fruits of all kinds. Takes days, but wonderful days.

The more I think of the graininess, the more I think it was simply using previously frozen thawed heavy cream. However, that does not explain the 'oogy' mint taste.

from Scout 21: Made Jeni's mint ice cream over the long weekend. It was not a great success. Did not like the mouth feel...sort of grainy...and did not like the mint flavor either. OK. I used thawed heavy cream and that may be the mouth feel problem. Or the cream cheese (fresh) or something I just did incorrectly. Strained it twice in a fine strainer. Made no difference. I'd have to try it again with fresh heavy cream to give it another chance. Thawed cream works for baking and ganaches...but maybe not for ice cream. As for the mint...it make me feel sort of 'oogy'. And repeated on me later. I don't know why. It was fresh mint...but from a grocery store. I've now had a batch of bad ginger...can you have a bad batch of mint? ...or maybe it was just that thawed heavy cream...

Those second hand stores can become an addiction. DH is searching for a couple of specific items and naturally I go into the store with him...and find cookbook treasures. Well, these may not be exactly treasures. A small manual on making homemade liqueurs and one for fun and nostalgia: Land O Lakes Simply Delicious Cookies, Brownies, Desserts, Cakes, Pies, purchased in memory of our 6 months in Utah last year. Canadian butter does not come in sticks, but rather in a block and using a stick butter, like Land O Lakes was a treat for baking. (I have a section dedicated to 'pop' cookbooks, like Hershey's, Nestle's and suchlike.

My weekend ice cream was not DL's, however the mix-in was: stracciatella. Very easy, very nice...except that I managed to drip it on my fingers and hence the rest of my person. It made a wonderful addition to my mint ice cream...which was not all that great...and now I must figure out why...but on a different thread.

Have you tried cinderblock? ← OK. I googled 'cinderblock food' and got nothing food oriented. Is this a joke or just another term for some food which I have never heard of.

This is such a wonderful thread. Thanks for starting it, Fat Guy. I really like the idea of freezing the fruit ahead of time or the coconut milk. Could make and use almond milk also. Might add the ground flax for some fiber. Try whey protein again...but this time unflavored. Good stuff. Heck, I might even go back to making my own yogurt. Going to download the entire thread and keep all the combinations together until I can assimilate this new idea.

I'm with Katie Meadows. I don't like bananas all that much, even though they are a very useful fruit. I like them in fruit pancakes and I love fried bananas, but then what's not to like in fried bananas? butter, booze, chocolate poured over...you could almost start with turnips. Is there another fruit which could take the banana's place?

I suppose that my recipe for an Orange Julep might qualify as a smoothie. We had it for supper last night with a bowl of popcorn. Orange juleps go back to my childhood in Montreal in the 40s (yes, I am THAT old) and taking the streetcar to Decarie Blvd to the Orange Julep orange. The building was in the shape of an orange, something unheard of back then. The julep was amazing. Found a copycat recipe online and I of course tweak it. Per person: 1/4 c orange juice; 1/4 c milk, dash of vanilla, dollop of sugar (your taste) and a whole peeled orange. Four ice cubes per. All in the blender. Great! Oops. Almost forgot...a big pinch of orange zest per.

I usually think of myself as a kindly person, but I have to admit, that one left me laughing...my DH too. Mine is similar but not so yucky tasting. My husband poured old lawn mower oil into a discarded dishwashing soap bottle in the garage and left it there. I, of course, thought...just like him, leaving stuff lying around...and took it into the kitchen where I used the liquid to wash some cooking bowls. Arrgghhh. Guess what? It's still sitting out in the garage.