Darienne

I can't say that I am any kind of success story in this area at all. The pounds are slowly climbing on over the long haul, but I haven't done badly, all in all. And I have enjoyed reading this thread. Lots of good advice. One idea which works for us: Have dessert for dinner once a week. Eating dessert after a meal always means that you eat too much and have to watch how much dessert you eat. BUT if you eat dessert for dinner, then the sky's the limit. Tonight we are having Caramelized Banana Bread Pudding from Instant Gratification (well named cookbook). With toppings of say, whipped cream, sour cream, yogurt, whatever. And also cherries in the pudding because we didn't have enough bananas. Of course, dessert can't be just chocolate cake unless you want to have a migraine or sugar blues attack. A kind of a 'balanced' dessert . Other dessert dinners are cheese blintzes, fruit pancakes, semi-freddos, souffles, puddings with a base of rice, noodles, bread, etc. You'll have more ideas than I do... Also we have an excellent french fry truck near our local library. My DH drops me at the library, goes back and orders a large french fry, picks me up again and we drive home eating french fries. We have salt and vinegar (we are Canadians) in the car and the dogs share our sinful lunch.

A bit of a slow reply from me...I didn't know that. Thanks. I'll toss that one at my skeptical DH and see his reaction. Today's newspaper announces that Tim Horton's is about to open 12 outlets in NYC. It also notes that Tim's already has 527 locations in the USA: OH, MI, VA, KY, ME & CT. And just when Starbucks is downsizing...

While the 'gadget' is not unusual or unknown, its circumstances certainly are. Yesterday at our local 'transfer station', while the DH was unloading our detritus, I found a two-handled, round-bottomed carbon steel wok in the station shed. This shed holds things that folks no longer want but are willing to leave for others and the finds can be wondrous. So I found this wok, never used, in its original plastic bag...a kind of plastic you never see anymore...with much Chinese writing on it and in English: "Hand-made Steel Caldron (sic) Made in People's Republic of China". Much of the plastic is melted/fused/? to the metal and it's going to be work to get it off. I am curious as to how old it might be with that on wording on it.

Add one more for me. My own personal copy of David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop has finally arrived. Huzzah! Ordering from Amazon Canadian is NOT the same as ordering from Amazon USA.

Aaarrrggghhhh!!!

Thanks Andie, The collecting of odds and sods of facts over a lifetime is fascinating. My friend with the calamansi tree has generous allowed me to take one or two of her seedlings and for that I am overjoyed. Plus I am taking her a generous supply of chocolate-dipped candied ginger.

Finally. In our small city of 60,000 or so I have found two sources of matcha tea. One, the bulk food/specialty store carries it at $12.99 for 50 grams and the second, the Asian market carries one by King Ping Best Tea, and if I can figure it out...that's about the only English on the entire package...it's 60 grams for $4.99. Does that mean that the less expensive one is not good quality or that the expensive one is overpriced? Next: matcha ice cream and matcha ganache. David Lebovitz has the ice cream recipe and Dede Wilson the ganache...except that I am going to use mixed milk chocolate and 72% chocolate seeing as that's about all I have at this point.

Two things: One! My book has FINALLY arrived. I ordered it on June 17th. Ooops! This is Canada. And I found two sources of Matcha tea so that's my next plan to make.

I got information about this site. from my friend who used to live near Hamilton. She also suggested trying the university sites but didn't say which ones have horticulture departments. ← Thank you muchly. I'll give it a try. ← Starting with your post, I found Calamansi trees for sale in Ottawa. Unfortunately they, Richmond Nurseries, won't ship. Period. I begged. They said, No. Now I have to find someone in Ottawa to get me one or two...or look further in Toronto. But thanks again for the leads....is there anything which you and Kerry do not know?

I got information about this site. from my friend who used to live near Hamilton. She also suggested trying the university sites but didn't say which ones have horticulture departments. ← Thank you muchly. I'll give it a try.

I WANT to buy a Calamansi/Calamondin tree, but my source must be in Canada, preferably in Ontario. So far my searches have turned up nothing. Any help out there? Please

Many thanks.

Can't find a matcha ganache recipe anywhere. Approximately how much matcha powder to say, 9 oz of chocolate?

Didn't know whether to ask in this thread or the 'matcha' thread. I can't seem to find a recipe for matcha flavored ganache. I know I read about one somewhere.... Roughly how much matcha powder would you use for say 9 oz of chocolate? Thanks.

All other ice cream plans went out the window and I followed jayhay's lead. Made DL's Vanilla Frozen Yogurt. Loved it. Big time. My first. It's just the beginning.

Had to add a note: Candyfreak is a poorly chosen title for this book and I would encourage anyone who is interested in the history of the small family-owned candy businesses in the USA going back a few decades to read it. If you ever loved certain candies as a child and these candies no longer exist...read this book. Yes, the writer is a self-admitted 'candyfreak', but the book is well-researched and fascinating. I stumbled across it in a Utah library and read it from cover to cover.

I finally decided that I should find out what Matcha tea/powder was. When I was in Grade 9, back in 1954, before most of you were even thought of, my teacher, Miss Rorke, had just come back from Japan...a most unusual thing to do in the early 50s, and we did a special unit on Japan that year. This experience included making tea with a bright green powder. I do remember that it was lovely. And now I know that it was matcha. Thanks for bringing back that memory. Perhaps I can buy some at our local Asian market and try it again...and in ganache and ice cream.

Congratulations. I must admit that I pretty much always make my ice creams, whatever flavor, using the Philadelphia base. It's not as rich, satisfies me and the DH pretty well, and doesn't leave me with dozens of frozen egg whites in little dated containers in my freezer. I guess it works because my inclusions and flavorings are usually pretty punchy.

This is why no one candies galangal. The structure of the plant shows up so well after it is candied and dried. Why they call it Thai ginger and there is also real ginger from Thailand called, of course, Thai ginger, I could not say. It was an interesting experiment and now I'll throw it out.

Thank you, O Ginger Lady , as usual. All good stuff. I could indeed have taken them out after a couple of days, when the syrup was pungent and delicious ...and not tasting burntish...and done well. Didn't know that. They are currently drying in the dehydrator. Cut off a piece...delicious. They will do nicely in ice cream for weeks on end, just as the candied kumquats did. Probably think up some other use for them too...like in Lauren Chattman's Banana-Caramel Bread Pudding (Instant Gratification which is as it sounds) which I felt needing something punchy.

I must admit I tossed it. a) the galangal after steaming was so much less in taste as noted and b) I had used orange flavored sugar in the sugar syrup...long story that there was no point in keeping it. As I think about it...it was really the lack of 'galangal' taste that was the sticking point. The orange flavoring would not have been a large factor. I have enough ginger syrup to start a small business. The sad part there is that my DH hates ginger unless it's in Chinese food. I use it liberally in the dishes so I don't know where the disconnect is. And as noted in the Mandarin oranges thread, I threw out that syrup also. I have no idea of why this pungent yummy syrup ended up tasting almost burnt. No doubt someone will tell me. Wish I had siphoned more off after one or two days of candying. Next project is to candy some tiny hot red peppers from the Asian market. I am almost afraid to taste one...they are SO tiny and SO cute. They'll probably sear my mouth for days. But my friend Melanie will love them. She is, as Andie noted in an earlier post, a "tin-throat-chile-head".

Next the Clementines. After three days...out of the 14 prescribed days...the Clementines are almost black and taste very good but the syrup tastes almost burnt. I have taken them out and am going to dry them. They can be chopped up and used in ice cream and suchlike. I tossed the syrup. Yesterday I used it on ice cream and it was very strong and very good. Some wouldn't have like it, but I did. I obviously did something really wrong.

Report on candying galangal...to date: After steaming the properly sliced pieces for 2 1/2 hours I decided that they were about as soft as they were going to get and began candying them. Some pieces were quite palatable...some were simply fibrous and I ended up spitting out a little mess of fibers after chewing them for a while. Galangal is definitely NOT ginger. Also the hot peppery taste was much subdued...rather like the change in radishes when you cook them. Three days of candying the pieces and I just gave up and now they are in the dehydrator...our humidity is a constant 92-100%. Summer in Ontario. Nothing has changed and I suspect that they'll end up in the garbage. Well, it was a valiant try... (unless I just goofed up somewhere). My Chinese ginger is doing well in the dehydrator. And also I have two healthy sprouts up in my indoor ginger window box.

That sounds good. I made a big pot of raspberry yesterday with raspberry vodka and freeze dried raspberries with milk/whipping cream 50- 50. It is great, really creamy and soft scope straight out of the freezer. ← What more needs to be said? Mascarpone, tiramisu, mocha (chocolate & coffee) fudge, raspberries, vodka, whipping cream...

Oh, how lovely. I think my snack bracket will not support one of these for now. The bamboo steamer is much less expensive, given the CDN$ and the S&H and the potential border parcel costs which can descend at any moment.. But one day...