Darienne

Now multiply that amount by a gazillion and you have it! We have two large freezers plus two fridge freezers. The second freezer is nominally for the dogs (100 pounds each and they eat real food) and a second fridge because our son lived with us for a few years. And everything is full, full, full. I have threatened dire consequences if Ed brings home on more 'good buy'. Like the huge Christmas turkey which is in there, taking up much room...etc...etc.... (just ranting....)

We are 'blessed"(?) once again with a surfeit of apples on our Mac and more than we expected on the Northern Spy. Both trees are in our designated back yard. We have at least another 20 apple trees on our 100 acres. Some you wouldn't want to eat. Some are delicious. They come from the other farmhouse on the second of what was originally two 50-acre parcels. OK. So we've given away tons of them. Made apple sauce (Arey's Mother's friend's cake to come), apple juice, apple leather, dried apple slices...oh let this be over...but it ain't. Just found a recipe for Apple Chips and that's next. All the problems of Apple Leather and Dried Apple Slices gone in the blink of an eye. Let the making of the chips begin. (No, I don't like making pies. I'm not adept at pastry.)

Just found a recipe for Apple Chips and I think that's my next foray. No work at all. And no checking back and forth either.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to @dcarch, @teonzo and @Toliver. Showed the videos to Ed and he said...sure we can make one of those. And I thought two sticks for the sides and a third one to pull across. Where has my brain been? Back to apple leather...

I suppose what I am searching for is some way to spread the applesauce more evenly. Even spreading abilities have never been my forte.

I can't do quarter turns on my trays, but I do half turns. I suppose really I am just venting. We can't like everything we have to do.

It's apple leather making time again. And I hate making it. I can't seem to get it spread evenly enough that the entire sheet dries evenly. Almost all of it will be dry and one spot will not be dry and rip into removing the finished product nicely from the sheet. Or I'll leave it all too long and get crispy shards in the end. Some is under dried and some is over dried. Has anyone any clever hacks to help me get the sauce more evenly spread in the pan? Oh, I do it in the oven. Apple slices I do in both the oven and the dehydrator. (And we can't make all the apples into slices. They are too wonky and mis-formed to put through the little apple corer/slicer and so they go right into sauce, unpeeled and uncored, and then into my food mill for finishing. ) Thanks for any help.

That's pretty much our routine. Ed loads it at night and runs it (after 7 pm when the rates drop a lot) and then I empty it the next day. I don't think we've ever put dirty dishes into a clean load. (But boy have we done other senseless things!)

This current situation in Canada is quite alarming.

I never got back on this one. The bagels from St-Viateur were not good. I didn't realize that my acquaintance used them only toasted. Well, toasting bagels is not my thing and I wa sorry that I bought them. Montreal bagels must come straight from the bakery and be eaten the same day. Sorry you did not enjoy a proper bagel in your visit.

I am on book five of a series about a French policeman, setting in the fictional town of St. Denis, in the Dordogne region of France. Bruno Courrèges is the character and the author is Martin Walker. There is so much about French food and wines and the making, eating and drinking thereof woven into each book. Quite wonderful.

Add me to that list. Shortbread cookies...now that's my weakness.

It may be early for you Yanks, but it's this weekend for us in Canada. We are not exciting at Thanksgiving and eat the same things every year. Turkey, savory stuffing, gravy, carrots, Brussels Sprouts, mashed potatoes, and for dessert my go-to Lime Cheese pie with a topping of 1/4 dark chocolate ganache and 3/4 milk chocolate. Our traditional guest (with her three... count'em...three Border Collies who seem to hate our two Rotties) from South Africa loves milk chocolate and after Ed and I each have a small piece of pie, she takes home the rest.

Dear PanaCan, just read your entry and my sympathies go out to you, your family and your country. And no, we'd not heard one word of your plight. all best, Darienne

That looks incredible. Any chance of a recipe?

Glad this is over for you @Margaret Pilgrim. But then you have to remember that it might have been something you ate 30 days ago...

It's all getting just a bit repetitious, don't you think? My S-i-L's best friend is just recovering from a dreadful onslaught of e-coli. I mean really scary. She's turned a corner finally. They do eat out a lot. I wonder. I did tell her about all the recent recalls.

And I did continue to prepare them bare-hands. Then a couple of months ago, Ed prepared a bunch for me bare-hands and paid a terrible price for it. And because this topic is all about the dreadful, stupid, careless, etc things we do, I thought I'd take advantage of it just once to say I just prepared a huge batch of Poblanos and Jalapenos and I wore gloves to do it. You see, I can learn.

(No access to the NYT ) Will add that Ed was taking a French course many years ago ...good heavens, about 57 years...in Sherbrooke, Quebec, and his prof gave the class a recipe for Tortière which we have used ever since. And the pastry calls for 7-Up.

My mouth is watering. You, sir, are a genius chef.

You beat me to it, @teonzo

The gianduja I bought was in milk chocolate...Guittard if I remember correctly...but I loved it. And our local dealer (of Belcolade) once gave me a piece of a Barry(?) milk chocolate and it was amazing. My more intense relationship to chocolate and confections in general has somewhat fallen by the way over the last five years...Carpal Tunnel Syndrome amongst the reasons...and so I'm not producing much any more at all. However, I do thank you for the information.

We do have them in Canada...we've just never purchased them. Now that I look up the ingredients I'm not in a hurry to buy them. We don't like milk chocolate and loathe Nutella. Yep, both of us. I did however once purchase a slab of Gianduja while in Utah, which was of course milk chocolate, and loved it...but not the jarred Nutella. I expect it tasted quite different going back a few decades. Still I expect Kerry's would have been quite wonderful.

Truly, I have never had one.

It may well suffice for most, but I have no idea what they are. Can you give me some kind of insight or recipe? They do look delicious.