Darienne

Will do. All my disposals predate my eGullet life by years. It's my new eGullet life which has contributed to my secondhand/brand new/ acquisitions! Not to mention a zillion or so cookbooks. You are never too old to learn how to cook!

Thanks, Andie. I just looked up your photo demo on search and got...the above message only. Can you please give me the information to find it?

Excellent point. We were very lucky this past year to be living in Moab, UT, which has THE MOST INCREDIBLE thrift shops in the world, I am convinced. Not only was I able to pick up some of the stuff I needed which I hadn't brought with me, I was able to buy those 'waste of money' things which I had disposed of: an ice cream maker, a waffle/grill, a bread machine, a Chinese cap, a couple of slow cookers, etc, etc, and all for minimum prices. I mean...like $5. The irony was the many of the appliances were old, made of ...gasp....metal and will last me forever. They were 'a waste of space and money' to their owners. (As noted above somewhere, the slow cookers are perfect for candying ginger, etc.)

That's a lovely memory.

Last night I made the most delicious ganache using as a basis Michael Recchuiti's 'Force Noire' from his Chocolate Obsession and with the flavorings from David Lebovitz's 'Orange-Szechwan Pepper Ice Cream' from The Perfect Scoop. I don't have a very good knowledge yet of ganache bases and I knew that the 'Force Noire' is easily slabbed and cut and dipped for me. I prefer to slab and cut the ganache, rather than to roll it into balls at this point. Just don't have good hand dexterity any more. Add the mixture of orange and pepper to my obsessions.

Once again, my thanks to all. I just might have to make that Orange Souffle today...it's the old girl's birthday today. And I'll look up the Citrus Cookbook on the Canadian Amazon. It was such a treat ordering books on the American Amazon. You have no idea of how much more it costs in Canada, both the cost of the book and the S&H. And I'll try the onions...but not today. Thanks again. I also have a recipe for a filling/frosting for a Chocolate-Orange Dessert in an old chocolate book Chocolate Sensations, bought in an earlier life. Full of cream cheese and whipping cream and liqueur and all. It might just make a sinful dessert on its own, without the little cake part.

The above quote says quite a lot. I have disposed of things which I had owned for years, even decades, because they were useless to me, a complete waste of money, etc....then my cooking style changed and where were these so-called useless things? Gone. And I had to go out and buy a new one. Fortunately, having a Drive Shed on our farm property, a number of things were never quite thrown out and now have been retrieved. Suddenly these discarded waste-of--money items were VERY were very valuable and useful.

I did like the one show I saw with Anna Olson's Fresh Last night on the news, Gordon Ramsay, who never knew a curse word he couldn't use apparently, has now apologized in Australia for called a female chef some choice epithets. I did watch him the other night. I didn't catch the name of the program. This being the summer, I don't turn on the TV very often. I'll no doubt learn the lineup slowly as I go. I thought Ramsay was on Restaurant Makeover, but last night the word Hell was involved. Like Chef from Hell, or something. Amazing how they can take such a wonderful topic, like cooking, etc, and turn it into the silliest, most appalling shows. Like the rest of the TV lineup....

Thanks Merstar and Ruthcooks for the ideas. Downloaded the Lawson cake and might try it. I like the fruit salad idea. Not sure about oranges and onions.

I always love looking at your desserts...I would love eating them better I think. This one is a winner!!

I gotta tell you, I actually like this show. Americans know how to do down and dirty diner food real good, y'all! Too bad we can't get more stuff like that in Canada (can't believe I'm saying that..) I loathe Restaurant Makeover, which always seems to be on as I settle into bed.... ← Strangely enough I just watched 15 minutes of Diners, Drive-ins, etc and found it rather interesting and the host was just fine. I was surprised. Nicely.

I seem to collect a lot of naked oranges, oranges without the outside of the peel (zest) or the entire peel (candied). I know I could juice them... I have poked around in the recipes...did find an Orange Orange Muffin... and the former threads; what I am looking for is lovely recipes that use the orange flesh...not just the juice. So many 'orange' recipes call for only the juice. I do make Orange Juleps, my own version, throwing one orange per person into the blender, but what other favorites are out there that use the entire orange? Is there an orange mousse which uses the orange flesh? Or a curd? Or ? A desserty thing. Thanks.

Thanks again for additional information. I'll just look to purchase some presealed desiccants when I can find what I need at a price that I can work with. Thanks so much.

Two annoying chef/hosts. You could add to that Rachel Ray who is perky beyond endurance and Alton Brown, whose information and recipes are wonderful, but that show...with the lady in the fridge and all the corny costumes. And yesterday I watched some bloke who was trying to improve someone's restaurant in England. Could be Restaurant Makeover...I didn't catch the title. Every sentence had a word bleeped out. Very strange. I've downloaded Sunday and Monday. This week I'll look for Top Chef. Thanks.

Thank heavens for Wikipedia! I had never even heard of Tyvek before. I looked up both sites and may contact the second one on Monday for Canadian prices and S&H. There is also asking the local pharmacist if he uses the packets. And what about those little terra cotta clay thingies which you put into brown sugar. Would they help? What about stacking the pops in rice...we put rice in the salt to keep it going. I see in the Lee Valley catalog that you can buy 2 kilos of Silica Gel crystals to dry flowers, but I don't suppose it could be packaged and used? Not safe enough. Thanks for all the information, Lisa. Added: Dipped all the pops into fine sugar yesterday, bagged them all and put them in an airtight container in the cellar. They seem fine today.

I'll give it a try although, not being a true cherry lover, I don't think I have ever noticed fresh sour cherries for sale here. I have purchased bottled sour cherries. I'll look for them this year. Did not get around to candying rhubarb this year...but I did get my ginger planted this morning!!! And, of course, I have another batch of candying ginger under way. A woman cannot make too much candied ginger I have discovered. Thanks, as always, for your help.

We just reconfigured our TV subscription and now get Foodnetwork CANADA. I watched it in Utah for several months, but the shows seem quite different. Alton Brown, if you could ignore the 'cuteness' was very interesting. Please someone help me figure out if there is anything worth looking out for and watching. I have Pam R's list of shows from Dec 07 But it seems that most of them are not listed now, except Chef at Home which I don't like. It's not his recipes...it's the constant weird camera shots and his lecturing the kindergarten kid tone of voice. What is good on Food Network these days? Thanks.

Is there such a thing as food-safe desiccant? Or somewhere I could purchase a quantity of desiccant? It's so humid in eastern Ontario the whole year around, it might be useful. Thanks.

Made D Lobovitz's Candied Cherries to try out the recipe. DH loved them...I did not. They were OK, but then I don't have DH's sweet tooth. I hate Maraschino cherries...and come to think of it, cherries are far from my favorite fruit. Added them to the 'Cheesecake Ice Cream' which was a mistake in my estimation. It was all too sweet for me. I added some extra lemon zest, some lemon juice, and some very toasted almond slivers. The almonds helped. Gotta try it all... But I think I'll pass on candying cherries. Candying works best for me on substances which are not sweet in their natural form. I think...

Made the Cheesecake Ice cream. Very nice, but never going to be my favorite. DH loved it, but then he likes more sugar in things than I do. As it was cooling, I added more lemon zest and even some lemon juice, but it was still too sweet for me. Added some deeply toasted (aka almost burnt) slivered almonds and that helped a lot. But still... The Orange-Szechwan Pepper is my favorite to date. Made the Candied Cherries. Didn't really care for them. Maybe I did something wrong. But maybe I just don't like candied cherries. I loathe Maraschino cherries. The DH loved the cherries and he likes Maraschinos also. Perhaps it has a lot to do with childhood eating patterns. Ed's Mom was French Canadian and only the French Canadians could love Sugar Pie. My Mother didn't bake and I had very little sugar as a child and can't even eat a Butter tart. Ed ate sugar or syrup on his French toast...and I had salt. Curious. So onto the next. I am very curious about the Rice Gelato. I wonder if the sweetness content in the recipes is aimed primarily at the American taste bud? Any thoughts on this?

All good information. I loved the bit about the desiccant packages. I have never saved one, but now I will. In the end, I simply sifted a couple of cups of fruit sugar into a bowl and dipped each pop into it and then immediately popped them into their little bags and tied them off. Then into an airtight container and into the cellar for storage. I'll poke around and see if I can fine a desiccant package....oh, vitamin bottles also have them. Thanks again.

My kitchen is a galley type so we can't have a eating table in it, but we eat at the table in the sun room. It has on it: salt, pepper, soy sauce, napkins, one hot pad...and every thing my DH leaves on it on his way by either to or from his workshop. We also eat on the living room coffee table which has a small fake Navajo rug ...who can afford real?... and a fascinating collection of rocks, arrowheads, fossils, baskets, ceramic bits and bobs, magnets...which our dog hates... I just went to look at it and it would take too long to tell all. Suffice it to say, it is the repository for my other obsessions in life.

In defense of slow cookers: I have never actually 'cooked' something in one, but are they just the things for candying fruits and peels. Also when you have a huge gang, they are good for keeping things warm...like hot and sour soup in the Chinese feast. What IS useless is having 39 speed settings on blenders and hand mixers. My best blender which lasted for years had two speeds: ON and OFF. Worked for me.

I currently have a container of very sticky unwrapped hard tack lollipops in my life. Story: Confectionery partner, Barb, and I made some lollipops a week ago for an upcoming charity event. We made them in the microwave, using the LorAnn recipe which calls for 1 part sugar and ½ part corn syrup. Now I see that this is a VERY high proportion of corn syrup, no doubt to accommodate the microwave method. I never got around to wrapping them…simply stuck them in a plastic container and last night I unveiled them. Oops. Sticky lollies. Some stuck to each other. Some just tacky. Quite tacky. This is my first experience making lollipops in the Ontario summer. I will not use the LorAnn recipe again. Kerry’s Class 101 now gives me the answer as to why these lollipops are sticky: - too high a proportion of doctor to sugar - too humid a temperature (summer in Ontario) - not wrapped immediately in cello and/or airtight container Questions: - would the lollipops have remained viable if I had wrapped them immediately? or would they be sticky in their bags anyway? - can you put hard tack in the fridge? (I seem to think no, but then what do I know?) Perhaps storing them in the cellar would have helped…cooler, dehumidifier going, etc. I keep my couverture in the cellar for those reason. We do not have A/C in our old farmhouse. LorAnn’s recipe suggests dusting the pops in powdered sugar to keep them from sticking. I tried powdered sugar this morning on one…disastrous and unappealing results. Then I tried colored dusting sugars…a bit coarse in texture. Well, this was much better, except that the color in the sugar seems to have disappeared one hour later, although the sugar is still not dissolved. I also tried finely ground sugar…fruit sugar. Results also fine. I will sugar them and wrap them all this morning. 90% humidity today. More questions(sorry): - which would be better in an experienced maker’s estimation…colored sugar? colored sugar ground more finely? finely ground white sugar? ?? - in the winter or in low humidity (Moab, UT), you can make the lollipops way ahead of time. In our Ontario summer, should we have made them only days ahead of time instead? All advice gratefully received.

As always, thanks.