Darienne

This recipe doesn't call for salt. And we, living in the Far Frozen North, and shopping in a small provincial city, get cucumbers, English or not.

Sorry...white.

English cucumber salad: I have the go-to recipe for thinly sliced English cucumbers. It's very simple and the dressing is simply equal parts sugar, vinegar and water. As I began to repeat making it last spring into summer, I noticed that the cucumbers were getting wetter and wetter and soon I was adding only sugar and vinegar. Today I made it for the first time in many months and sure enough, I was back to adding sugar, vinegar and water in equal amounts. I shall watch the cucumbers again to see if they are wetter and wetter like last year.

This doesn't really belong in a 'Daily Sweets' topic, but it follows two posts on freezer inventory. We have finally come up with a system for the freezer which is working very well. The foods, cooked or raw, are kept in separate bags Inexpensive bags are available at all the grocery stores now and we have no duplicates in color and pattern. They are also easy to pick out of the freezer to get at something else. Then I have a printed legend tacked to the wall above the freezer. Yes, it was a bit of work setting it up but it has worked so well. Each line of the legend is printed in aa different color. Then the foods are written in as they come and go. I never said it was beautiful...I said it worked. Ditto to the last sentence. And I admit that not all the stuff in the freezer is in bags. And the kitchen fridge freezer, the garage fridge freezer (Ed's domain) are not organized, but they are much smaller. And the dog freezer is well organized but the dogs have a less varied diet thank heavens.

I'm not likely to make it soon, but I do love a recipe with a story and with explanations.

I simply typed in "Basque Burnt Cheesecake" into the Google subject headline. I didn't examine any of the recipes carefully. It's not something I intend to make at this point.

Fish and chips for me. The closing of the restaurants meant little to me in that I was laid up all fall anyway and couldn't get out. And Ed did all the cooking for at least two and a half months. And he's still doing most of it. My contributions are often frozen ahead of time. Now I am back making the important part of eating, the desserts. The last meal out was fish and chips for our youngest's birthday in September, sitting on a picnic bench between the humble diner and the gas pumps with nothing else open in our area. Ed and Ken, son, were in the shade...I was in the sun and roasting. And we had the two dogs out of the car during the meal. Wot larks! (See Language et etcetera) We live too far from any restaurants to have the take out edible by the time it gets home. So fish and chips. And inside a downtown restaurant. Cod, if available.

Thank you Kerry Beal. Looked it up, its history and recipe. Interesting.

OK. So you mentioned Goldbelly, so I went to see what was what and found a photo of this incredible cake(?). Please, someone tell me what it is. It looks incredible.

She was incredibly generous as others have already mentioned. This fall she sent our local library a box of cookbooks when I mentioned online how poor our cookbook collection was.

Now this I could love. Reminds me of a wonderful vermicelli dessert we had decades ago at an Indian restaurant. I've tried to make it, but it just isn't the same. Thanks, Shai. Perhaps if I could have the recipe, plus the kind of vermicelli you used for it. Thanks. I could try it again....

Update to the blood orange situation. Ed had purchased have a dozen blood oranges, 3 of which were to go into the cake. Quite by accident, apparently, I picked the wrong three. As reported earlier, I could not separate the orange segments, also known as 'supremes', from the peel and made quite a mess. Well, the remaining 3 oranges were easily supremes, with mess, and had they been picked first, we would have had a lovely Blood Orange Olive Oil cake. Today Ed is buying a few regular seedless navel oranges and we'll have the familiar Sunset Whole Orange Cake and I'll make more glaze than is called for which will make Ed happy.

Mine are on a few shelves, ordered as to my concepts of what they are mainly for. Therefore the shelf with cinnamon also holds nutmeg, ginger and cloves. Only four to a shelf you ask? Well the cinnamon is in a much larger container because it's used at a much faster rate. And so on. My spice cabinet is built into a wall by Ed years ago. Very clever.

Many thanks.

Good idea, but I no longer have one and I hesitate to ask Ed to try to find me one in Canadian Tire. But I don't think even that is open for shopping at this point. It will just have to wait. Secondly we live outside a very provincial small Ontario city and only one store is carrying Blood Oranges and I suspect that they will not be there for much longer. They appeared only two weeks ago to start with.

I should be very happy to have a copy of your recipe, Heidi, if you don't mind. And thanks.

Well today's supper cake was finally to be the Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake. To that end, I attempted to supreme (regular or cooking pronunciation) three blood oranges and made quite a mess of it. I ended up with a bowl of raggedy pieces and rather more juice than I had thought would be in them and blood orange juice on the counter and walls and the sweater I was wearing and just gave the thing up as a bad job. Blood orange stains white counters quickly and badly. I'm not sure about the sweater. The 'mess' went into the fridge to join tomorrow's mid-morning fruit drink and I made the quick and easy 'Wacky Cake' which Ed loves with Chocolate Ganache topping and went and lay down and read a book. Well, I'm about to lie down to read a book. So much for Blood Oranges.

When you supreme an orange, why is it pronounced as if the word were spelled 'suprem'? Oh, I just supremed an orange for my mid-morning drink. And later this afternoon, I am going to supreme 3 or 4 blood oranges to make the "Blood Orange Olive Oil Cake'.

Glad to say it's not Ed's brand of sardine. Nor the dogs'.

I'm with MokaPot. Never heard of pinto beans, never ate them until maybe 20 years ago, but prefer them greatly to kidney beans. Still black beans are now my big favorite.

I wonder how many boxes of chocolates purchased on July 2020 are still in existence.

So sorry to read about your accident. We've all done it. Perhaps never again.

That ganache looks like my kind of ganache topping on a cake. And also welcome to eGullet.

I really need to go and live in Shai's home and eat all the amazing things he makes!!!

I think after all this talk about phyllo dough and puff pastry and Spanakopita, I have to put the ingredients on the grocery list. (Ed does all the shopping now.) And as a matter of fact, I'll add the ingredients for Moussaka also.