Darienne

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!

My butternuts are now up to 58. It's almost exciting.

Now, that I would say is exactly my situation. Things which I depend upon, which I make my admittedly somewhat dubious reputation upon...suddenly go awry and I am left in a very bad state, indeed.

Thanks so much for all the information, fellow eGer's. Wonderful photos, dcarch.

The rotting pulp sounds revolting...but I'll do it. And are they delicious? And did you just eat them as is? And as for bonking you on the head...think of those poor people living under Osage Orange trees.

I've never tasted one. Yet. Didn't even know we had any Butternut trees. We seem to have at least three. Actually I am risking the dreaded descent of ORCA (Otonabee Regional Conservation Authority) by posting anything about our Butternut trees. They are now an endangered species in my region and subject to a lot of governmental regulations. Fortunately ours are old, not near any buildings, not planted or chopped down or in any way harmed or modified by us...or it's off to Butternut Jail I believe. (Try Googling Ontario Butternut trees if you think I'm kidding.) Neil Young, yes, THE Neil Young owned two properties around the corner from us and although the first one sold quickly, the second one, a piece of land only, was a couple of years in the selling. Apparently it has four Butternut trees on it, and so building a house on it becomes a real problem. Who knew? Come up in the spring and the morels are yours (assuming we have any this coming year...we never had anything like this spring's crop before. But then we have never had such a year for berries...countered by such a year of no apples.)

Has anyone on the forum ever collected and eaten Butternuts?. I now am the proud owner of (currently) 38 Butternuts. They are all falls unfortunately. We can't get up 20 feet to pick them off the tree. Now what to do? I've read up about them online, but as most folks start to dry them in the sunshine...and we've had rain, rain, rain mostly...I am wondering if I could put the nut plus husk in the oven at the lowest temperature in the same way as I dehydrate apple slices, apple leather, etc, to start them off? Would that safely dry out the husks so that I could remove them more easily? This tree is very old and the lower half of it is quite dead and so I am prepared to have collected a number of blanks, but if I understand correctly, you must remove the green husks first before you test the shells in water. (I could add that we had a season of Morels this past spring which was incredible. Gave them all away to a Morel lover friend.)

I'm no expert on this one...but the entire frying process and subsequent eating part for me must be exactly as both your Mother and you have made them. No reheating in the oven. For me they would be ruined. Sorry. I guess that's why I don't make them very often.

Found today on Well Done Why Airplane food tastes bad.

Glad you are well. One of the saddest sentences from your post: "Less sure about some of the doctors. Some were nice, but the guy in charge of my case was an arrogant prick, who misdiagnosed several times". Because of my own physical ailments...what the heck! I'm 76...I've joined 3 major forums in the past two years...two for getting off medications and one for ahem...women's problems. The same thing I read over and over and over and over...you get my drift...is the horrible, arrogant, condescending, uneducated, lacking in ethical standards, lacking in intellectual curiosity...oh I could go on and on and on. Was it always like this? I don't seem to recall the doctors of my youth being like that...but then I was a youth. And we really didn't expect to live forever without pain and discomfort. It is just about the worst part of being ill. I could bore you with my own journey but that's the one thing which keeps on being brought home to me. Oh, and I forget to damn the pharmaceutical industry which has lately been called, with good reason, the equivalent of the mafia. Rant over.

Can you toast them or some further form of cooking? This is why I really don't like making cookies. I think they are little evil pats of dough waiting to humiliate me in one way or another.

OK. I'll play. My DH who is not only a terrific (If somewhat short-tempered) short-order cook, which I don't want to do ever, but also is my faithful sous chef and does my chopping when I need something chopped which is constantly, and also prepares the 'mises' when we make Chinese food. I love my new Breville Toaster Oven and the Black and Decker programmable coffee maker, but my DH is best of all.

We can't get Anaheims in the far frozen north outside of Toronto (if they can get them in Toronto??? I don't know), but I could do this with Poblanos except that I would seed them first. Every now and then, Poblanos are hotter than expected. I can buy Poblanos in my near-by city. In one grocery store only. They are called "Hot Peppers' there. I told them...but they didn't care. They are still hot peppers. Or I could stuff my own version of Picadillo into them. (I call it Picadillo de la Cabana...can't make a tilde. No, don't tell me how. I live in Cavan Township, hence the name. Silly. I know, but I don't care. It's a combination of Elisabeth Lambert Ortiz's "Picadillo" and "Picadillo de la costa". The book, The Complete Book of Mexican Cooking, 1967, is in utter tatters) Then top them with Mozzarella with Hot Peppers. Can't ever find Pepperjack. Or Monterey Jack if I can find it. I don't live in a cosmopolitan area. I'm going to do it. Thanks, TFTC.

The websites turn up on one's FB timeline or in the email list several times a week. Once a week is more than enough for me. I have other online commitments and sometimes end up plowing through endless unwanted stuff trying to find the posts I need to interact with ...a situation I'm dealing with as we speak. I've dropped websites because they just keep on bombarding me with posts or emails.

I would like recipes to be more informative about the size of ingredients...3 onions or 4 eggplants...I'd prefer weights. But then American sources don't do weights. The other reason I have left some websites is the frequency of the downloads...just too often for my taste.

DH came home from shopping today and said "Look what I found". Scotch-Brite Stay Clean Scrub Sponges. Complete with Use and Care instructions. Clean in the dishwasher or by boiling. Not in the microwave. And not for aquarium use. How do they rate for nasty colonies of baddies?

I'm way behind in this one obviously. I have a Canadian Tire Mastercraft Laser gun type thermometer and I'm a happy camper with it. Learned of this one from the indomitable Kerry Beal.

I stand corrected gladly. Any time.