Darienne

I have some "super" super magnets that will hold anything to anything steel or iron. I bought them at the feed store and they are called "cow" magnets. The purpose is to be fed to a cow so the magnet will settle into her first stomach and attract and hold any bits of metal that she may ingest, such as nails, pieces of wire fencing, etc., and thus protect the rumen. They are incredibly strong - the one I use on the pantry fridge will hold a thick stack of papers. The only place on the kitchen fridge that will take a magnet is on the side. You should be able to find them at your local feed store - I usually get the "ceramic" ones but do have a couple of the alnico round ones. cow magnets ← I love the concept. Thanks for sharing it. Perhaps the cow magnets are the same as the earth magnets from Lee Valley. I love that they are knobs and so I can handle them. I also use them in the vehicles. Affix a metal disc to the dash somewhere and then I can hang up the 'In Town' list, or the maps and suchlike when we are traveling.

Hi stuartlikesstrudel, The whole field of 'cooking' is quite new to me after a lifetime of avoiding as much of it as possible and so the descriptive part is new too. I like that word 'complex' and I think it does apply to this ice cream. First it tastes like 'this' and then it finishes up like 'that' after passing through another phase of the 'other'. I've wondered just what others have meant when they spoke of say, chocolate, having a complex taste. Thank you. This ice cream is probably one of the most amazing food items I have ever made. But then both the DH and I love Szechwan and eat it constantly...part of my new cooking life. He helps with the mises and I do the cooking. I am intending to try this flavor combination in a ganache soon.

Hi tsquare, I've really only tasted my raspberry-coconut gelato so I can't give you a full report. However, the doggy crowd starts to descend upon us today for the weekend...weekend?...and I'll get back about this ice cream after the weekend.

Why, why, why did you have to post about those? I was hoping to leave Winnipeg without spending my usual fortune at Lee Valley, but now I'm going to have to pick up some of those pourers! And you can always find more to buy there (hence spending a fortune.). Curses on you andiesenji! But thanks! ← That makes two of us about to buy them!!!!!!!

My Lee Valley catalogs are out of date. Barbara, confectionery partner, stops by every time she goes to Toronto and picks up stuff on behalf of herself and friends. (Just phoned, am getting new catalogs, the pourers are in them. I'm gonna get me some.) I've been looking at their mandoline for a long time now...yearning... A couple of really neat things that I do have: super magnets for the fridge. They are knobs so you can pick them up and they hold really well and I often fasten my recipe to my stove hood or somewhere nearby to have it on hand while cooking. Another one that those with arthritis especially might consider buying...I couldn't live without mine... the Lee Valley Jar Opener. Like magic. I have gifted many with this one. Also my knife blade guards. We travel a lot and the knife guards are invaluable. No, I don't work for them or get discounts for touting their wares. Thank you Andie so much for showing me those pourers and getting me back into new catalogs.)

OK. I still don't have a decent pepper mill and I don't have a decent mandoline. I wonder if Unicorn is available in Canada...or is it just online?

Thank you judiu, Learned a few things. HTH means hope this helps. Found a Marzetti's cole slaw copycat recipe...never heard of Marzetti. (live in deepest, coldest Canada). Sounds like a plan.

Just made the most incredible ice cream Found it on line from Cathe Olson. Would love to get her new book: Lick It! Creamy, Dreamy Vegan Ice Creams Your Mouth Will Love. It's her Blackberry Ice Cream but I made it with fresh frozen raspberries instead. The other ingredients are coconut milk and sugar or agave. I used sugar. Of course, I used the usual bits learned at the feet of Paul: pinch of salt, substitution of a quantity of light corn syrup, etc. I think I've died and gone to heaven. (Yes, I am the same person who has never really cared for ice cream at all...but REBORN thanks to homemade ice creams and gelatos.

Hi Jossa, Wow! Sounds like a lovely dessert. a) we live in Ontario and if Limoncello has alcohol in it, you won't get it in a supermarket. Friends in Utah were making Limoncello from lemons and vodka as we were leaving in May. b) the cost of mascapone puts it out of my snack bracket unless I make my own c) wouldn't know where to find creme fraiche in our small nearby city. Again I could make my own and have done so d) ditto for the cake...except that I have never made one e) root canal work yesterday on top of everything else going on precludes making this cake for the weekend. HOWEVER! I will make it one of these days and thank you so much for sending it. A close friend has a birthday at the end of August and this sounds like a wonderful surprise cake for her.

Oh my! I would like . Alas I have no limoncello. Can you suggest a substitute?

(The ice cream sandwiches went to the kids down the road this morning) This morning I finished the Orange-Szechwan Pepper ice cream. Third time I have made it. Love it when I get to redo something and get it right. Except this one has been right from the start. The joys of discovering cooking late in life... While packing it into the container for storage until the weekend, I, of course, took a little taste. Hmmm... where was the pepper? First taste. Orange but no pepper. Lasts about 2 split seconds. Wham! The pepper hits. Love it. I can hardly wait to see the looks on the faces of my guests when they try it and wonder...for about two split seconds...where the Szechwan part is. Next. Redo the vanilla and then some raspberry gelato.

I bought two of those blades in the fall, one for me and one for a friend. But because life took one of those strange turns, I haven't used my Cuisinart in months. I am really looking forward to trying it. Marshmallows...I need to make some marshmallows.

Citrus zests make life worth living. I can think of few recipes which aren't improved by the addition of orange zest. Well, I exaggerate as usual. No doubt you all have one already, but I didn't have a proper stainless-steel rasp and zester holder until recently and I used it for the first time last night making DL's Orange-Szechwan Pepper Ice Cream. It was a dream come true. I was so excited with no one to tell. Never, never again to fight with the box grater. So I thought I would share it with a few thousand of my closest friends. What's your favorite new kitchen toy?

Hummus is a main stay in our family. Also salmon salad. The drawbacks with both is that you can only pack them into a tortilla at the last minute or you get the major sop factor. Although, I pack salmon salad into a sour cream type container and then top it up with shredded lettuce. Love it.

Thank you jgm. It sounds pretty good. You know, it just hit me. All the salads I am planning to make or have made are in a certain mode, vegetable and dressing with vinegar/ lemon juice/ etc. Does anyone have a rice salad that incorporates fruit in some way? Little orange pieces, walnuts, sweeter dressing (but not too sweet)? Thanks.

Had already found your excellent recipe, but wanted something without the 'bean' factor, seeing as I have already made this mammoth bean salad. Thanks for the help.

Sounds like a possibility. Thanks.

Much searching later...it's no longer on her website as far as I can see and it's not on google either. Thanks for trying.

Strange about ginger and its cost and quality. I bought excellent ginger (origins?) in Moab UT at City Market and it was $5 a pound. The other market in town sold it for $2 and it was very poor. Bought Chinese ginger in Peterborough back home (city is 35 mins from farm) at the supermarket at $2 and threw it out. Worse ginger I ever used...but how can you test it in the market? It looked great. Then bought Chinese ginger ($2) in our small Asian market on the assurance from the market owner and it was terrific. You can buy only frozen Thai ginger and galangal. My candying of galangal ended in the trash. My ginger garden comes from his stock...the pieces down at the bottom of the bin with lovely knobbies on them. My garden is for delight, not with any expectations this year. Wonderful plant!

Hi Robyn, Do try the Fleur de Lait. It is quite amazing. And also the Orange-Szechwan Pepper, my personal favorite. ...maybe not for the kids... And if you make sandwiches, heed the advice of Tri2Cook (male ). I think I will remake the sandwiches today. They cannot be properly rescued from their current state. Down the road they go to the young family.

Hi R Wood, Lisa Schock et al, Yes there are specific rules for altering leavening and cooking temps and times for high altitudes and some one else will know them better than I. We lived at 4500' for 6 months last year and I had a chart to help me. There's lots on the web about this. The Smurf effect...I like that...was because I did something stupid. I answered the phone, forgot to put in the milk before the berries and had to remix the batter. The bundt thingy. The cake tastes great but I have decided to give it to the young family down the road. They received all my attempts at cake decorating a couple of years ago and my confectionery output (we had to get it out of the house!) so here comes the raggy bundt. I'll make another cake...maybe even with coffe this time. AND in a 9x13 pan for sure! Thanks for all the help.

This has been one extremely active thread. Who knew? I think all eG garlic lovers should all meet at your house and have a proper tasting test.

The problem is with the questions, not the answers. If you know what the questions are, you can find the answers. Now I am such a novice at this baking life, that I didn't even know there were questions about how to make sure a bundt cake was done or how to make sure it didn't stick in the pan. So I didn't ask. Now I know. Yes, my cake was fully baked and is delicious. I baked it a very long time. The old toothpick trick wasn't all that useful, because the pick had to travel through a layer of interior streusel which would not come clean because of its very nature. However my bundt cake is also in a great number of pieces. It wasn't the cake that stuck. It was the streusel. And stick it did. Despite all my greasing and flouring. Who knew? Well, now I do. No more bundt cakes for me for a while. We'll eat it and they can all laugh at me and I shall remain above the frey, concentrating on loftier thoughts. Thanks to all for the help. What a week. My first springform cheesecake slips and falls through its collar and my first bundt cake is in tatters. At least my blueberry loaves came true on the second try (well, I screwed up the first ones sort of and they turned out more colorful than needed, that sort of gray-purple color). Please do not hire me to cater your next big fancy do!

I don't know if ever I will have anything worthy of photographing and posting. The photos that you all post just blow me away. However, I have been busy. We do have this small horde of people and their dogs descending upon us next weekend (starts on Thursday...) for our Annual Dog Weekend at the farm. Noisy, crowded, chaotic but lots of fun. To that end I have made thus far: two kinds of gelato, vanilla and chocolate with the vanilla being made further into sandwiches in chocolate rectangle cookies (DL's recipe), blueberry loaves (Randi), Orange Cardamom Coffee Cake (RWood), Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cakes (thanks to Merstar), orange muffins. I think that's it for the baking. I have two ice creams left to make: Orange-Szechwan Pepper (DL) and Raspberry Gelato. So many of these were firsts for me and so many were slight disasters, such as when the springform pan clip slipped and so did the batter. My first ice cream sandwiches are not beautiful although Tri2Cook did try to help. I have had a ball and now I am going to lie down.

Thank you again. I should have noted that the Orange Cardamom Coffee Cake recipe came from you. It's finally out of the oven and resting quietly on a cooling rack. I'll decant it later, hoping for the best.