Darienne

What about the technique of cooking the eggs in baking soda? It is supposed to work wonders...the same as boiling hazelnuts in baking soda makes the skins just slip off? We feed our two big pups eggs every third breakfast and my DH insists on hardboiling them. And then mutters and curses while peeling the eggs. But he won't even try the baking soda trick. It's a guy thing, I think. No way I'm going to do it. I make them scrambled eggs. BTW, they are supposed to eat them raw but neither of us can stomach it.

Short question of clarification: you mean that the rubbermaid containers are not airtight? Thanks

As far as service is concerned, I have had the best treatment by Chocovision. Although my machine was purchased on Ebay from a dealer...that is not from Chocovision...they honored a warranty that I didn't even know I was entitled to, replacing a defective baffle unit. The little temperature metal piece came loose after just a few usings. I had no idea that it would do so. Then when I purchased a second unit months later, they sent me a baffle with the same unfortunate temperature piece. I phoned in some despair over this problem. Chocovision then told me to keep it, and they sent me yet another unit and with a gift for my trouble... a set of dipping forks, the one that Tomric sells for $35 or something. I was stunned when I unwrapped them. Anyhow, I was truly amazed at the trouble they took on my behalf, especially when I bought the original unit on Ebay for less than half of the regular price.

Hooray for Desiderio! However, I imagine that you acquitted yourself very well also! We just travelled across the continent...well almost ...from Utah to eastern Ontario bringing with us some couverture and bonbons. I put them in a plastic container with a container inside that container filled with ice each day. Not too cold...but not as hot as they would have gotten without the ice. All arrived home fine. (Which is not what happened in January going the other direction when the chocolate was not protected well enough. ) Now tell how you did, Ruth...

I cannot believe it but I have grown accustomed to wearing an apron all the time, often with the bib hanging down. Shades of my dear departed Mother. Do we all turn into our Mothers? One day in Moab, when we had packed almost everything to leave, I was making our last Chinese mini-feast and discovered...no apron! So I fetched my sweater, turned it around and tied it around my waist. I felt much better. I have all sorts of aprons now, mostly from second hand stores. And then I have my special expensive 'Chocolate' apron. And my 'chocolate' t-shirt.

You suggest perhaps going with something like: Great Lakes Confections, but indeed is that the location you would use? Would you use a more specific place name, like somewhere in the Great Lakes, like Bay City or Erie or Niagara Falls. Great Lakes is pretty darned huge for a place name. It might help us to find a second word to go with a chosen first word, if you have one. I can see the problem with a straight marshmallow designation. My confectionery partner and I have called our company...mythical as it is at this point...Cheers & Chocolates although we make much more than chocolates and have the same problem as you do with high humidity and high temperatures, all non-chocolate factors. Good luck to you at any rate.

Thanks. That's a fascinating website.

I found a salamander online...but why would it be called that? It bears no resemblance to a salamander. Curious.

This is the online recipe from Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. The meringue is up in spikey bits on top of the pomegranate curd, but I think it would be the same thing. Swiss Meringue Ingredients 6 large egg whites 1 cup granulated sugar 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract Directions 1. Lightly whisk egg whites and sugar together over simmering water until egg white mixture is hot to touch or a candy thermometer reads 140°F. 2. Pour hot whites into the bowl of a stand mixer or any large bowl if you’re going to mix by hand or use electric beaters. Beat until double in volume and thick and glossy, holding firm peaks that just curl at the tip. Quickly beat in vanilla extract. 3. Spoon evenly or pipe decoratively over tarts. Brown meringue with a kitchen or blow torch or place tarts on a baking sheet in a preheated 375 F oven for about 15 minutes until meringue is browned. Omigod I got the photo up online for you.

If you decide you want to make the hedgehog spikes out of Mexican paste, I have the Nicholas Lodge book out of the library...on ILL... I can send you a photo of his hedgehogs. Mexican Paste is made from icing sugar, gum tragacanth, glucose and water. I can send the recipe. I would warn you that Lodge's hedgehogs are incredibly labor intensive and you're probably better off if you can get your original recipe.

Many thanks to you all for the fascinating information. You could live forever and learn something new every day.

I shall be on the look-out for them. Thanks.

Thanks for the information.

As for the rhubarb, I will report back ...but it will be a good while before that happens. I don't know loquats. Sounds a bit like kumquats. Do they taste anything alike? I don't know which process would be more useful to candy them. If you wanted slices, then the Wybauw process for sure. If not, then one of Andie's processes would be better perhaps. Depends also on the seeds in the fruit...whether you eat them or not...if there are seeds. Do write back about the loquat please.

Thanks. Of course. Fudge! Where was I? And caramel corn. Methinks I slept. Thanks again.

My version looked like this: ← Thank you for the photo. I am speechless.

My DH and I are the Mom and Dad now. Still, the best thing I have come across lately is the chocolate covered toffee from Enstrom's in Grand Junction, CO. I had seen it written up in some book as the best toffee in the USA and as we were going past Junction, thought we should stop in and taste it. Keep in mind that I am not a toffee lover by any means, but I thought I had died and gone to toffee heaven. I know you can get it online from Enstrom's. Truly delicious.

A candied rhubarb tepee. Who knew? Thanks. I'll look up the CT book.

Thank you. Very interesting. I have never tried any fruits in this fashion, but now I will for sure. To me there is something fascinating about the process. Glad you pointed out the error in the formula. What a hoot! (Actually having been a 'non-cook' cook for lo! these many decades, I am finding the entire field of endeavor fascinating. Especially the alchemy of taking basically water and sugar and a touch of something else and creating pure magic.)

Oooooh! Beautiful! I will try that method. Please, each session of syrup of increasing sugared strength: - how cool was it before pouring over the kumquats? - how long did the kumquats sit each time? They are radiant looking! I did mine whole and then had to cut them up to get out the seeds. However they pretty much all ended up in sauces and ice cream. Truthfully, I didn't even know they had such big seeds in them. Learn, learn, learn... Thanks,

Thanks John and Pastry Girl. I did the kumquats the same way...try them in vanilla ice cream. So good. I bet the candied Rhubarb would have much the same effect. I'll just wash the stuff, get the DH to slice them (my manual dexterity is blown), and then into the syrup they go. Friend back home...east central Ontario...has a ring to it, doesn't it?...informs me that green things are just poking up a tiny bit. It's been a cold April and we are up several hundred feet from the environs. Oh, John...you poured the syrup over the kumquat, but you didn't heat them at all? Not even on low in a crock pot? I did mine on low in my crock pot.

Good point. It appears some recipes talk about cutting the rhubarb into 5" long or so thin pieces and then slicing them into ribbons using a mandolin and then simply dipping them into a simple syrup which coats them and then they harden in the drying. I admit I haven't read the recipes very carefully...am getting ready to leave Moab...and was hoping for eG input. Sorry. Lazy and overtired at once. And can't type either...

I like, no I love, making marshmallows. And kids will love the rainbow effect. Good one. Thanks.

If it stands still long enough, I will try to candy it, but never thought of rhubarb. A friend sent me a recipe for Candied Rhubarb this morning which I saved...it turned out a garbled mess...hate computers. Then I googled candied rhubarb and found a few recipes. However, has anyone tried it? We'll be home in Ontario in a week and a half. And we have several hundred year old patches of rhubarb on the farm. (As we speak I am drying a batch of ginger to take me on the long journey home. And using the last of February's candied kumquats in a batch of Alton Brown's Seriously Vanilla ice cream. What did I ever do for fun before Andie came into my life?)

Thanks from one Ontarian to another. BTW, Barbara and I made sponge toffee last summer and laughed so hard as the toffee climbed out of the prepared pan and onto the counter. Oh no! Attack of the toffee monster!!! Perhaps a larger pan would help????