Darienne

I have lived with freezer problems for 60 years now. And we do have freezers. Two chest freezers...one of which was bought in 1976...in the cellar for people food, and one newer second hand freezer in the garage for dog food and other things on a temporary basis...as in food to be frozen often goes into the dog freezer first... it's newer and colder...and then transferred to the cellar later. Plus the kitchen fridge freezer and the garage fridge freezer. Yes, that many. One son lived with use for a couple of years and so we got him his own second hand fridge. So what am I complaining about? Well, the dog freezer is not a problem. Breakfast is on the right hand side...dinner on the left. The middle is pulped dog vegetables and stock and things for people soup. The cellar freezer is the bane (or was) of my existence. So deep that I could barely manage it and defeating of every idea I ever had with containers and crates and diagrams to be filled out and you name it. Finally Ed came up with a brilliant and it works! idea. Various foods and items get stored in those bags which you now buy from grocery stores with pictures on them or highly colored or distinguishable one from the other easily. And big. And with handles so easily slung around and lifted out. And collapse into nothing when mostly empty. So I made a list which hangs over the freezer which says what's in each bag...as in 1. frozen uncooked meat.....blueberry bag. 2. Frozen fruit....green Dollarama bag....3. pulled pork...brown JoAnne's Place bag. Works like a dream. Who knew? And so late in life...

However, he lived in Peterborough, Ontario where a Jalapeño is considered exotic. There would be no 'pili-pili' available here.

First time I've made this salad in a long time. Ed doesn't like it but can't remember why. I ate it many years ago while sitting on the board of one of the provincial mental health hospitals (they're all closed now) and when the 'fat' times ran out, the board ate lunch with the staff in the staff cafeteria. The CEO's secretary obtained the recipe from the chef and I made it for years. I have no idea of its name or origins. Maybe someone out there knows of it: chickpeas, grape tomatoes, green onions, parsley, lemon and olive oil dressing and chili powder ( kind which has no particular cachet). Sorry about the blurred effect.

A very early memory of Jordan Almonds which I loved. My Cousin Bea (I have no idea why she was a cousin) made them. Montreal, Pine Avenue, an apartment on the third floor. Wonderful memory. Thanks.

Not exactly traditional but we'll have Chile Relleno Casserole with sour cream made following the instructions on Bigger Bolder Baking. And black beans from a can. It will have to suffice. Also the day our female Rottie turns 11...the longest lived Rottie we've ever had...and the 9th celebration since I fell backwards over our male Rottie, Morgan, and split open my head having to spend the entire night at ER waiting to see a doctor. Hoping for a quiet celebrations.

There's always something so wonderful about coming home...mixed with the sadness that the trip is over. Glad you are safe and sound once more.

I was telling Ed about this topic and remembered a friend, a professor Physics at my local university, who hailed from Madagascar originally. He cooked his own meals separately from the rest of his family, French wife, three children, and never put any of his cooked dishes, meat or otherwise, in the fridge. He would have been raised without a fridge and so carried on in that fashion. Other groups...as in non-North American origins...have different habits I would guess. Even Ed and I, both North American origin, have differing standards as to what we will and won't eat according to cleanliness, cooking methods, storage, etc. Glad the potato tasted delicious, @lindag.

I would eat it also. But I wouldn't give it to anyone else to eat. Oh, Ed would eat it for sure.

I can identify with your wife.

I have frozen just about everything which I have ever cooked...or Ed has cooked...no doubt including things which you are not supposed to freeze like mashed potatoes and cream cheese. We live quite far from the nearest grocery shopping, which Ed agrees to go to, so this is how we survive nicely. Plus we have enough freezer space to do it.

Copied @heidihand made cabbage soup for supper. With baking powder biscuits. Soup had no poppyseed or caraway though. Delicious.

I am not by any means knowledgeable about these things, but I do know one thing about chocolate. And you don't say what brand of chocolate you are using. It's unlikely that you are using inexpensive/cheap chocolate but herein lay my problem. For items being given to or made for folks who generally enjoy cheap chocolate, like World's Finest or its equivalent (horreurs!), I was using a really inexpensive chocolate (whereas for others who knew or cared, I would use Belcolade or Lindt...not top brands...but not cheap either). For several years, the ganache was constantly correct for my purposes with no surprises. But then! one day the ganache made with milk chocolate turned out like soup. I was horrified. Soon enough the darker chocolates followed this same soup pattern. I wrote to the forum and naturally Kerry Beal, the Chocolate Doctor, had the answer. The chocolate had changed it formula in the factory. So whereas up to that point I had used...say...1/2 cup cream to 4 ounces chocolate, I now used 1/3 cup cream to get the results I wanted. I talked at length with the sales rep from the chocolate manufacturer. She insisted vociferously that the formula had undergone no change...but Kerry and I knew differently.

As CD says, no pork is not hard to find...but it's not on the menu in most Mexican restaurants And not at all in fast food places like Taco Bell. I had a long talk with a Mexican chef/restaurateur a few years ago and he said Canadians just will not eat pork in this instance. He didn't really know why...just knew that it was so.

They are certainly common in Ontario. Also you can't get Mexican food in Ontario with pork. Ain't gonna happen. Well, maybe in Toronto...but not in the boonies.

I'd say, as not only a gringa, but also from the far frozen north, that a crunchy type taco is something I would eat only under duress. In Moab, for several years of heavy construction, there was this hole in the wall Mexican restaurant where you seldom saw gringos, and where the staff simply did not speak English, but they served up familiar dishes from Oaxaca, Jalisco, Sonora, Chihuahua, Puebla, etc, etc,...wherever the workers hailed from. You did not go there during lunch hours...the line-up of workers who picked up their lunches and left, stretched way out the door and across the parking lot. We went there often and took a native (as in born there) Utah friend, who always ordered the same thing: 3 crunchy type tacos. His light dimmed somewhat in my estimation. When the construction was finished...the restaurant was gone.

Sounds like Ed...who knows that many ingredients count as proteins...but still wants 'meat'. Because only 'meat' contains real(?) proteins? Who knows. You're right...conditioning.

And there is none in the grocery stores in Peterborough, Ontario, our nearby city...nor in the tiny whistle stop town just north of us.

Probably many of us, female types, know about pans and pots and other kitchen pieces that are just too big or too heavy to handle, hot or cold, but especially when hot. Been there, dropped that....made a huge mess...

Normally there'd be visitors and either a roast beef or a turkey dinner, but of course there are none. So I have this hankering for Chile Relleno Casserole from Homesick Texan and so that's what we will have. Oh, of course I am adding pulled pork (à la Roberto Rodriguez recipe for Puerco Pibil) from my frozen supply to the recipe. I'm too lazy to make Chiles Rellenos and besides I have a passel of frozen Rajas in the freezer from a month ago or so. Haven't decided on dessert yet. I'm pretty sure it will involve chocolate.

Here's something I stumbled across early this morning: https://mymodernmet.com/pastry-art-mini-worlds-matteo-stucchi/

Next on my list of things to make. Thanks.

Too hot to get out the Instant Pot. How hot is that? We still have snow. Not a lot...but more than I want...which is any. Today will be the first day walking in shoes...east side only. West side is a veritable swamp. It is every year...but I WANT to walk on bare ground in my runners. End of report. When do you expect to be home?

I have really missed seeing your confections now for a long time @minas6907. Glad to see you are back!

I always have a selection on my reading table in the bathroom...

We have a large counter in our garage and have been leaving whatever groceries and stuff out there which could be left. The dog food order went straight into a cloth bag into the freezer to be dealt with later. Today Ed (80 in June...) is off to the pharmacy, the liquor store and the local small grocery to get some fresh stuff. We eat a lot of fresh stuff and therein lies the problem. We have enough in our freezer for about 6 months I think.