Darienne

No but I'll PM it to you. He sent it to me PM.

I have joined this Cookbook Club at our local small library, mostly because I owe so much to the librarians who constantly go out of their way to order in for me books they think I might like to read. The object of the club is basically to increase library circulation and for me the problem is that they really want the members to make the dishes from recipes in the library books. While they do have some excellent cookbooks, as you can imagine, a lot of the books are second rate (or worse) cookbooks. We bring our creations to the library and sample each other's dishes and discuss the books involved. To date, half of the dishes presented are not from local library cookbooks. This month is stews and soups. So my next project is to find a recipe in a library cookbook and make it for the 24th. Not really in the mood for a new soup recipe at this point (being currently obsessed with making suitable Scalloped Potatoes for DH). Still if this were the worst thing on my horizon, I'd be doing very well.

Right! No more words needed.

Thanks gfweb. Looked up Bourdain's original recipe also. Garlic to the sky. My Mother-in-Law probably never put garlic or thyme or rosemary in anything. And no Gruyere cheese for sure. We are talking 1950s and a family in which my Father-in-Law never tasted something so foreign as spaghetti. The question for me is: Did she use onion or not? Probably not. And would that matter to Ed now or not? She probably used flour. And does he really remember 'how' they tasted? Oh, and he will help with the slicing. (You see...Ed's Mother was an excellent cook. She made cream puffs even. And my Mother hated cooking...and really didn't. And I couldn't make anything when we got married, except for what my family called French salad dressing...which we now call Italian...and that was it.)

So far I've mentioned the spiral ham for our Christmas dinner as something we've never had before. And now Ed has asked for Scalloped Potatoes which I think I've made only once or twice, and haven't made for decades, and have no idea what recipe I used. Now, Mr. Ed, having been the one who taught me to cook, is quite happy to interfere (my words) in everything I cook if he has ever had it before. Or even worse, if his Mother ever made it. (Which is partly why I specialize in dishes which he's never eaten and has no preconceived idea of how they should taste.) So now begins the Scalloped Potato recipe search. And they must be like his Mother's...which he hasn't had for almost 59 years. It took 5 recipes to get the salted caramel sauce correct to his liking. I wonder how many recipes it will take for the Scalloped Potatoes......?????? And he can't recall if they had onions in them or not.

I will be making one of my favorite quick breads, a recipe from eG's own Arey, "Mother's Applesauce Cake (Poor Man's Fruitcake)". So good with Cheddar cheese, Canadian Cheddar in this case.

I've been very lucky. A friend's son gave me a piece of marble, 17"x35", and my DH set it into a table for me. It's bigger than I need for chocolate or confections, but it's also a kitchen work table. When we used to travel to our home away from home, Moab, Utah, I simply took a 12"x12" tile which I bought somewhere. It's not marble bu it's highly polished and just fine. I don't know if it's a counter or floor tile.

Confused. I was informed on one of eG's ice cream topics that homemade ice cream was basically really good for two weeks only. I made my usual quantity of ice cream for our annual dog weekend but quite a lot was left over. By the time, Ed ate the end of it (I am not an ice cream lover), it was less than perfect and that would have been at most 1 1/2 months.

It's a long time ago and I can't quite remember what I did, but I think I fried halved (longways) bananas in butter and added some liqueur of some kind and then put chocolate sauce over top of all. That won't use up all your chocolate, but it's a start. Yum... I pretty much always top what I make with a chocolate ganache...4 oz melted chocolate and 1/2 cup of cream. I usually use half & half, but whipping cream is even nicer.

We are going to change our Christmas dinner for the first time ever. Ever. It's always turkey and the traditional bits and bobs. This year it will be a spiral ham and that's as far as I have gotten.

Sounds like something I could really use. Ed bought me a Cuisinart 12-cup food processor and while it works very well...it weighs a ton and the pieces that come with it take up a lot of storage room and to date I have not used one of them. I'm afraid that DH has a habit of always buying the biggest he can find no matter what I ask for. Still...I'm not complaining. The weight of the machine base is really a problem. I've had to put it in a container with handles so that I can carry it more easily and it's stored right beside that honking Cuisinart 7-quart stand mixer. Well, maybe I'm complaining just a little bit. Almost 59 years of marriage...what can a girl do? OTOH, as gfweb says: I don't need this...I don't need this....

Good Heavens!!!!!

What? Only seventy?

An interesting post, brucesw. I have a friend, actually an eGer from way back, who would know where the best Chile Rellenos in Huston are available. I could ask and get back to you if you like.

I can believe that one!

Hello George A. Welcome to eGullet. I am even older than you are and have been a member of eG for ten wonderful years now. There are lots of us in Ontario and even a few in the area. I didn't learn how to cook until I was married and didn't like it much until the last decade or so. I'll never be a pro at it. I don't know what Kamado is (I'll Google it) and I have never done sous vide. Don't do steam convection cooking, but I'm a whiz at Mexican, African, Mediterranean, etc, etc....as long as it's not European or North American dishes which mostly my DH (dear husband) does. I also love working with chocolate. I make ice cream in my sleep even. And we do Chinese together. And, moreover, I live not far from Peterborough, ON, so we are almost neighbours. We are newcomers, having lived in the area for only 48 years.

Good heavens, it just goes on and on. Thanks Toliver.

OTOH, I have always thought of BC as being much more adventurous than Ontario. My area of Ontario, except for the foreign students at the colleges and universities, is fairly staid. Less so now, of course, but still pretty Caucasian for the most part. Whereas Toronto, where perhaps Kensington market might carry Anaheims, is incredibly multicultural now. I lived in Toronto as a little child and our family, although neither Roman Catholic or actually French, were severely discriminated against on our street because of a French last name. My Mother used to say they rolled up the streets at sundown every day.

In Ontario, this would be called Bok Choy and the first cabbage pictured would be called Napa Cabbage (as far as I know.) Thanks liuzhou for this thread.

Hi all, Tri@Cook: Good points is simply an expression we use in our family for well, good points. And they were. TFTC: I love Anaheims and Hatch peppers. Never, ever seen either in Ontario. They might have them in Toronto in Kensington market? I have no idea. I don't know the Hispanic population in Ontario. Certainly few live where I live. An very unmixed Caucasian area, with a very heavy senior population. And we love Poblanos, but we were talking about them this morning and realized that we couldn't serve this dish to most of our guests. If you don't like the taste of Poblanos, you won't want to eat this casserole. BruceW: Right. You just ate horrible Chile Rellenos. They are neither greasy nor soggy if made properly. Are you sure your friend ate a Poblano? Traditionally Chile Rellenos are made with Anaheim or Hatch peppers. I use Poblanos because that's the only pepper of that sort that I can buy and it's only been for a very few years now. As for stuffed Bell peppers? Yuck.

Good points. Chile Rellenos don't contain tomato. This recipe does. That's OK with me.

Chile Rellenos. Every Mexican or Mexican type restaurant we've ever been in almost, I've chosen Chile Rellenos. I keep thinking I'll pick something different...and then I don't. I've made them. Once. So much trouble. And deep fat frying. And of course in the Far Frozen North where we live, we've been able to get Poblanos (that's it) for only about five years now. Imagine my delight, the appeal to my very lazy side, to discover the following recipe just a few days ago: https://www.homesicktexan.com/2018/09/chile-relleno-casserole-el-paso-style.html . And yesterday I made them and served them to guests with Mexican rice and black beans. Died and gone to heaven. OK. Truth time. I used Poblanos and I did not roast them to remove the skins. In an electric oven, it's not a nice job. And besides the skins have never bothered me or Ed at all. But I did roast the Poblanos in the oven. And then I used commercial salsa because we had one we liked. (Did I say that I can be lazy sometimes?) And I used Pepper Jack cheese. Jack cheese is not always available in the small Ontario city we live outside of and pepper jack is even less common. Buy it when you see it. I defrosted some frozen guacamole I had in the freezer. But by heavens the casserole was delicious and now it's on our menu permanently. So shoot me. But I thought I'd share my joy anyway.

What about a hand food mill? That's what I use for apple sauce. I don't peel them or core them...just cook them and then into the mill. ps. We have no apples this year. Two years ago the harvest was so heavy that a branch actually broke right off our Macintosh tree.

Ditto here.

Do you suppose there is there a message behind the cake with the sinking ship?