Darienne

The little worms never had it so good! OK. So they were beyond salvaging!

Just found this thread. I'll get back with my count when we get home in early January, but I have brought with me and bought since arriving in Moab, 18 cookbooks. I go into a second hand store or book store and they just walk out with me somehow. No! I don't lift them. It's just that they need a forever home.

Can I make caramel today using Kerry Beal's recipe for Turtles which are to be made in a few days. I have some thawed whipping cream which never got used in its destined treat and now it's been sitting in the fridge for a few days. I thought I could either make it into caramels, cut them, dip them, etc, or better, if possible, make the caramel and then use it in a couple of days when a friend and I are making turtles. Thanks

Kerry: What did you do with the apricots? I have been apricot candying and after about 30 hours my apricots are pretty dark...not black...yet...and the syrup is pretty dark too, although so tasty. Then I recalled the photos of Andie's apricots and chased down this topic. My apricots were purchased in Krogers originally for some Mexican food and I simply decided to candy the rest without remembering about the sulphur issue. I'm wondering if you can buy unsulphured dried apricots? As to drying fresh apricots...I can't recall the last time I found fresh apricots in Ontario. I'll have to look for them next summer/fall? I think I"ll still dip them in chocolate. Chocolate can cover a lot of errors very nicely. ps. If whole fruits might take roughly 6 days, how long might a dried apricot take?

Just looked up the Rotato peeler online. - can you get one in a store or just online? We don't have enough time left here to order one. - does it really conform to the changing shape of the fruit or vegetable. DH is extremely skeptical about this. And the literature is a tad vague about this point. - does it really peel a pear? Thanks. ← Don't buy one at the regular retail price. If you can find one at a yard sale or similar venue, for cheap, then go for it. Mine was a gift to me by a friend who knows I collect odd stuff. I doubt I would have bought it myself but I have found it is fun to play with. It does NOT peel everything and one needs to be patient (and have a great sense of the ridiculous) to use it but it works after a fashion. It will peel a pear but the fruit has to be quite firm (nowhere near ripe) and it does a better job on the Comice and similar pears that actually do not have the classic pear shape. I have not really used it for actual peeling to get rid of the peel as one would peel a potato, etc. I can peel a potato, using my paring knife, faster and easier than this gadget. Ditto most other fruit. I have one of the hand-cranked "Shaker" apple peeler/slicer/corer thingys that I use when I have to process a bunch of apples and it works as advertised. These things have been around for more than a hundred years simply because they work as designed. I wish the same could be said of the Rotato but eventually someone will get it right. (And I will probably get that version too because I have a lot of friends who seem to delight in finding the oddest things to add to my "collections" and other junk. It's a good thing I have a lot of room ) (I already know that I am getting some "flameless" candles for Christmas as a friend's 10-year-old granddaughter let the cat out of the bag. _ I don't use candles in my home because I am allergic to something in the wick material but my friend apparently thinks I "need" candles.) Over the many years that I have been making the various things that most folks no longer prepare at home, such as the candied peel, ginger, glacé fruits and etc., I have tried almost every process imaginable to get peel off citrus, and so on. The method I use, and photographed, was shown to be by a lovely, elderly lady who was my neighbor some forty years ago. I ran into her at the Italian market we both frequented and complained about the amount of time it was taking me to peel oranges to make the candied peel. She insisted that I report to her home at once so she could show me the "trick." It was like magic! And I have passed the knowledge on to anyone who was interested. ← Thanks once again for all the information. I have really enjoyed learning about candying various bits and bobs. I don't have much manual dexterity anymore and love to find stuff that I can still do without having to look at the beautiful end results of other's truffles, etc, and wish....

It's a great idea. I am doing it as we speak, so to speak. And it is going well. Andie's recipe is available on Melindalee's websiteMelindaLee's recipes (I haven't a clue if I have entered the information above correctly. It's my first attempt)

Just looked up the Rotato peeler online. - can you get one in a store or just online? We don't have enough time left here to order one. - does it really conform to the changing shape of the fruit or vegetable. DH is extremely skeptical about this. And the literature is a tad vague about this point. - does it really peel a pear? Thanks.

Morning test made of my two (separately made, as advised by the Ginger Lady) batches of candied orange peels. The navel orange peels are fine. The tangerine orange peels are still limp and I will put them in the oven for a while. Moab is currently not its usual low humidity self. And thanks, I finally understand the drying/limp/stiff issue. I'm slow, but I'm steady and extremely tenacious. You may have noticed. Next comes day 2 for the apricots. Then everything goes into chocolate.

Hi Ginger Lady I guess what I am saying, and not very clearly, is that IF the peel looks done, translucent and tasting the way it should, then the fact that it is very LIMP for a while is not a consideration. I get edgy that maybe it'll just stay limp and end up both dry and limp. I take it that this is an impossibility. I used tangerine peel this time...almost no pith. Thanks ps. I have a batch of apricots in the crockpot.

A question has been bothering me about candying orange peel. Roughly how long should it take for a draining sliver of orange peel to lose the limpness and become stiff enough to dip into chocolate? I have made Andie's excellent microwave orange peel recipe with varying results...as I learn. The last time, when the peel didn't stiffen after a few hours, I decided to recook it in the syrup two more times. I should have paid stricter attention to the state of the peel slivers and the timing. In the end, they were emanently dippable. But perhaps they didn't really need those final two cookings? But here I am again. Draining the very limp orange slivers and wondering if they have taken in enough sugar? if they will become stiff enough to dip in how many hours? This time, I'll write the answering notes into my recipe. (Actually the first time I made them, unexpected visitors arrived and I lost track of what I was doing, overcooked the peels in the microwave, and ended up with peels which were like tire rubber...then I broke a already damaged tooth biting into one of them and ended up in emergency dental surgery. )

If I might...I came into my marriage almost 50 years ago with a full set of stuff and ferried it around year after year as we moved. Then I got ruthless and disposed of so many things I had never used. Now I am replacing all those items, some of which are hard to come by because the originals were either glass or metal, or really simple designs, and all without those pesky computerized restrictions. Originally I could make all the decisions instead of some set of instructions which are now mandated!! So don't get rid of the stuff. Box it up, put it into your locker, or whatever, and see if you need for the next two years...and then get rid of it.........and then fine you need it again! PS. I'd take that citrus reamer for sure

...a slight side-step from the 'orange' flavor, but not enough to start a new topic... Last night we bought a bottle of Chateau Pomari's Pomegranate liqueur to try in a ganache. My next-door-neighbor/landlady/friend loves pomegranates and we are going to present it to her...and then offer to put some in a ganache for truffles. I have no doubt that we will get to taste it and work with it.

Two excellent ideas for the crushed lollies. I just might go for the bark one...way less work

I am an almost total newbie to the entire world of cooking, having avoided it successfully for most of my life...DH taught me how to cook and is a great short-order cook. Our kitchen, while not too small, and our own to hammer, cut and redo, has now to serve two of us. I really liked the grid on the wall idea (forget eG poster, sorry), the upside down stored pots (Annabel). I gasped when I saw the bottles on Dave's shelves, just...sitting...there. As for suggestions: squarish basins. We can buy them at our local Dollarama (Canada) for $1 each and I live by them. I have all my various types of bottles: Indian cooking, Mexican cooking, Chinese cooking, each in a basin for easy access. Also, our toaster sits inside a basin which makes it very easy to get out and in again. The basins are so good when what you are storing is high up and maybe a bit dangerous to get down. The basin is easy to grab. This is a GREAT topic and I am enjoying it immensely. When we get back home, I am going to put into practice some of the ideas I have seen here. Thanks.

Somewhat different candy problem here. I made a lot of lollipops for a local children's party and some of them were not acceptable to me, although there was nothing amiss with the 'candy' aspect of them. Plus the bits that dropped here and there as I poured the lollies. What can I do with plain hard candy? Grind it up and use it where? It's only sugar and corn syrup and coloring and flavoring (and bit of decor in some cases). Or should I just chuck it? Also last week I chopped up some pecan brittle which was not a great success and used it in a ganache. The 'brittle' part of it pretty much disappeared in the ganache... I made a cream ganache...should have used a butter ganache, right? We bravely struggled along and ate it anyway. Good husband!

Thank you. I could not work with the website very well...I am on dial-up, but I did go to Wikipedia for some quick information. Thanks again.

What exactly is an entrement? I looked it up on Google and I got 'side dish'. Thanks.

Thank you.

OK. No doubt I'll feel silly when I get the answer, but what is 'SCM'. I tried on Google, but got nothing useful.

I'm just now feeling sorry for myself. All the bananas in Moab need at least two days to even be ripe. There IS a great banana conspiracy in the world. I know it. We'll have lemon cheese pie with a chocolate ganache. We'll survive.

Just re-read this topic from the start and I'm drooling pools on the floor like one of our dogs. So yummy...how can I lose? Thanks, all. ...except that now I have to look up mise-en-place....got it. Great idea. ...learn, learn, learn....

Could you do that with the ripe bananas (forgot to say ripe in my post). That would be simpler than pan frying... Thanks. ← I haven't tried it, but I believe it's traditional. And delicious. Would probably roast much faster than pears, since bananas are already soft. I'd try using a very hot oven. ← Shall try it this weekend...if...the big if...I can find any bananas ripe enough to use. This town has only 2 grocery stores...and besides it always seems that all the stores either have rock hard bananas or bananas starting to be too ripe and at the same time. Thanks.

Could you do that with the ripe bananas (forgot to say ripe in my post). That would be simpler than pan frying... Thanks.

Fried bananas (with a few raspberries), topped with chocolate ganache and raspberry sauce (made from raspberry jam, butter and Chambord). A little sour cream on the side for those who wish...or you can put the ganache, the sauce and the sour cream on the side all...or heck, why not add a dish of caramelized cacao nibs. Sorry...I'm getting carried away with my own enthusiasms...not impressive but so delicious.

Dear Edward J That was a wonderful post. I can imagine that many, many readers will thank you for it. Should be required reading!