Darienne

Not exciting and certainly not beautiful...but they'll be scarfed up quickly. Chocolate-dipped candied orange peels.

DH makes a wonderful potato soup and we freeze it. Of course, after thawing, we do add a fresh cooked diced potato. Still, the soup has a litre of half&half in it and I think that makes it freeze quite well. Frozen mashed? Nope. Dreadful.

I could add to Anna N's post. If you live in a very old century farmhouse, there are never enough cupboards, even if you build them into every room. And if you began your passion for cooking only after you actually even made a 'suitable' kitchen in said old farmhouse, your kitchen will not be big enough or have enough cupboards to store all the stuff you now need: ingredients and pots and pans and baking pans of a dozen sizes and bread machines and rice cookers and candy-making utensils and extra plastic containers and who knows what else will spread itself over several rooms in the end. Not to mention that honking big stand mixer. If only...if only...

No problem at all. The phyllo on the Spanakopita can become a bit flakier than before freezing...but is there anyone out there who cares about it? It's so delicious and the freezing makes no difference to the taste or texture (in our books).

This is why I hate making cookies.

This is always a subject near and dear to my heart. I always try to make at least twice what the two of us will eat at one meal. And there's pretty much nothing that I can't freeze...as says kayb. Lasagna, Moussaka, Spanakopita, Bobotie, Meatballs, all kinds of soups, Mafe, Piccadillo, Enchiladas (no, not traditional...a Tex-Mex casserole), Tortiere, many Chinese dishes...I could probably keep on going but that should suffice for now and others will have lots of ideas. Oh, and Tomato Sauce...a kind of generic which can be combined with spices and so on for Mexican, Greek, Italian. DH makes that one.

Haven't started yet, but it's on my 'To Do' list... Lovely work, Kerry. As always.

Where is the "Oh my god" button?

My question would be...if it were frozen at some point as suggested by pastrygirl, or warmed up at some point, as suggested by JAZ, what about my point that when I looked at the cream as I was pouring it and thought...boy, that doesn't pour like whipping cream. Could it have been, let's assume, a batch which was made incorrectly. We will return the container to Costco who are always very good about returns, and maybe someone will tell us...or that was a bad batch and we had lots of returns...or not. Thanks for the help, eGers.

Alex: that is really, really good. Husband loved it too. We lived in Montreal at the height of the last set of troubles and Ed took the train every morning to work...and we always wondered. Still, it's all over for good now. I think. I hope. Jaz: sounds reasonable. I'll return what's left of this one and try it again. lindag: Don't have a charger so I can't tell. (I love Calvin and Hobbes. Have my favorite cartoon above my head on the bulletin board.)

(Ontario, Canada) Bought a 1 Litre carton of whipping cream last week. Expiry date De 24. 35%. (I don't know if I am allowed to post the brand name or not. It has worked fine before. ) Made from Canadian cows in Quebec. More ingredients than I would wish for, but what can I do except switch brands? On the shoulder of the carton it says: "Shake well." Shake well? I don't think I've seen that on a carton of whipping cream before. Oh, it's not super pasteurized or whatever it is that some heavy cream in the States is and we all know it won't whip properly. So last night's Raspberry Shortcake was a bit of a disaster with this cream which didn't whip. I was embarrassed (and not pleased by all the helpful 'advice' I was given.) So this morning, knowing that I would use the cream in ice cream anyway, I poured 1 1/2 cups into a metal bowl and put the bowl and beaters into the freezer. Our house is at 67 degrees Fahrenheit...not hot at all. And the stuff would whip only as far as slightly together and not even soft peaks, same as last night. But then I realized as I poured it out, that the consistency wasn't correct anyway. Whipping cream pours very thickly to begin with and this didn't. No way. So what is my point besides ranting? Not sure. Do any brands of whipping cream tell the user to shake well? And other than returning it (we will), entering a formal complaint (we will), and buying another brand, at least for the time being (we will), I'm not sure what is going on. My normal equilibrium has returned....

Wait up, wait up, I want to go to where it's warm too. Glad to visit with you on the road again.

Good news Heidi. I should think about it also. I just found last year's post and nothing has changed for me. Still making the same cookies...the shorter the better. As for the calamansi...my fifteen year old tree still sits barren in it place, covered with wicked thorns, producing nothing. The parent tree gave itself to wonderful marmalade fifteen years ago. I await the photo of the baklava. What's not to love?

I cannot make a Bundt cake that does not stick in the mold. And no, don't give me any more instructions that 'always' work. I don't even own a Bundt pan anymore.

To date my favorite festive quick bread would be the one I got from e G member, Arey, a couple of years ago when we had such a glut of apples on the farm. He called it "Mother's Applesauce Cake (Poor Man's Fruitcake) and we loved it. The recipe made two loaf pans and so one always went into the freezer...although it didn't often stay there for long. (Not the most appetizing photo...but then I am no photographer.

Fascinating journey. Amazing food and items for purchase. So out of my norm. Hope you are really enjoying it, ChocDoc. A lot of vicarious living is going on through your excellent posts.

Candy corn is more than a century old? It tastes so awful. Who has been demanding this stuff for over 100 years now.?

That's what I thought, Elsie, but then my fair going days in Canada are long over and so I didn't think I dared say anything. We have an outdoor food trailer on the way to our local library and it sells the usual, as you noted, but also a funnel cake. $8 and it's very small. No way I said and went home and had such fun making them.

First thing I am reading Friday morning and my mouth is open and twisted in a sort of an "eww" position, as I go through the list from A to T. Chocolate coated French Fries? With marshmallows too? Deep fried pickles? Why? Or OTOH, why not? Is this solely an American phenomenon? Are these unusual food items available in Canada at fairs also and I just haven't seen them? I do remember with great fondness having a pumpkin funnel cake two years ago in Ohio at a gourd fair. It was delicious. Oh, without the added confectioner's sugar, thank you. But then I am a Canadian.

I don't know if anyone is still keeping some kind of count on the forum, but my contribution is about to go down. So far I've put 64 cookbooks on the dining room table to dispose of in the next few days: first to friends, then to the library, then to a local charity. It was time.

Thank you kayb. You just brought back my memories ( sadly many are fading) of making little bags of popcorn with the kids when we lived in the city many years ago. A happy family memory. Not in the realm of the worst...but I do remember getting the occasional candy apple and knowing that I'd hit the jackpot of Hallowe'en treats. Those wonderful Mothers who took that much time. There were hundreds of us kids at Benny Farm. I do mean hundreds.

We've been on the farm now for 22 years and not once have we ever had a kid at Hallowe'en. It sure has changed. They do it at school. DH and I were kids so long ago...1940s...before razor blades in apples and the need to go through your kid's candy for contraband or to be outside to watch over him or her. I grew up in a huge apartment complex, thrown up in Montreal for servicemen and their families. Hallowe'en was WONDERFUL. But then...life was so different then. We had just stopped living on coupons for sugar and suchlike. Our own children lived in good neighborhoods as kids but I do recall being outside as our youngest went door to door. Candy? Can't recall it at all really. Just delighted to get any. And I've never eaten candy corn although it looks horrible.

Not too exciting for most of you, but definitely for us, we now have 93 Butternuts on tap. A big storm two nights ago led to our latest gathering.

58 nuts. for me. And I was impressed with that. It's a very old and half dead tree which hasn't dropped anything for several years. In face, we didn't even know what it was. 4 5-gallon buckets? OMG!