Darienne

I just remembered my Margarita pie. It's an easy one too and talk about pleasing the crowd! Whipping cream and booze...you can't lose.

I have my go-to lemon cheese pie (which also works as my lime cheese pie) and is very much like kayb's Lemon Icebox Pie....or AmyD's cheat key lime pie...or even the Not-Robert-Redford pie. My point is that on top of these pies I then add a dark chocolate ganache. Basically 4 oz chocolate, 1/2 cream (heavy or half & half) with a dollop of butter. Now that IS a crowd pleaser for sure.

Leftover potatoes? No such animal in our house.

Fought with DH for many years to get him to eat any brown rice, no matter how it was cooked or served. Then we bought a rice cooker. Now that's all he will eat. Why? I have really no idea.

Good to read your post, pistolabella. It's been so long since the Mexican section has been active. Good luck with the mole.

Another Ontarian here. (Well, actually a native Quebecoise). What we do have is a freezer still well stocked with apple cider from last fall's harvest: Macintosh and Northern Spy. Lovely flavor. Plus a few imported bananas for DH. And commercially frozen blueberries, mangoes and raspberries.

I'd be grateful for some useful recipes. I've never noticed any head changes after eating the chocolate, but I have a couple of boxes stored and should really use them up. Alas. The stuff is SO gritty.

OMG, my Father used to sing that song to me when I was a little girl.

Lindag, we have four freezers. Two are fridge freezers...we have a second second-hand fridge from when one of our children returned home for a couple of years many years ago...and two big chest freezers. Our cellar freezer just wouldn't hold both our food and the dogs', so we bought a second second-hand freezer. We have 2-100pound beasts and one month of food takes up a lot of room. Plus the dogs' freezer holds the ice cream and the apple cider from each fall's harvest. More than anyone wanted to know.

Gosh, I'm just pleased at the generosity of the Venerable Bede. I could not live without pepper I fear.

Our favorite meatball recipe has a very unsophisticated heritage. Taco Meatballs Recipe by Peggy Trowbridge Filippone on About.com (except that I can't find the recipe online now). And of course I have changed some of the ingredients, added some and left out others. And I triple the recipe and make the meatballs very, very small. What I like best about the recipe is that meatballs are not fried, but rather just baked in the oven on cookie sheets. I loathe standing there for half of forever frying little things and turning them over and over. That's the territory of the DH. The meatballs are frozen separated in the dog food freezer (coldest freezer), dumped into a big bag and into the people freezer for use (not as in the recipe).

And so...tell all...did you slice your hand or fingers? Ouch. Horrors. I try to be so careful of slicing thingies.

Not exactly intellectually challenging, but nonetheless interesting. The series is British, by Ann Cleeves, the heroine/detective is Vera Stanhope, the stories are set in Northumbria. Detective Stanhope is, according to the text, fat and ugly, unloved, but brilliant. The books have been made into a series but I've never seen them (and don't want to). Rather just keep it all in my head. Have to say that the mysteries are rather of the so-called 'cozy' variety. My DH has spoken to me on many occasions about my predilection for reading in the kitchen which is basically a dangerous thing to do. Fortunately last night's adventure did not ruin any library books. I am a voracious reader and cozy mysteries are only one slice of what I read.

And so to add my adventure from last night to the thread. I was reading a riveting passage in my current murder mystery book while in the kitchen, and after adding some sugar to the Orange Julep I was making to accompany our supper of popcorn and Orange Julep, turned on the blender to mix the sugar in... Alas. I had forgotten to put the lid back onto the blender and suddenly I had orange pulp and liquid all over the place. ALL OVER THE PLACE! Took me forever to clean it up. Now that was a first for me and a good example of why I should never read in the kitchen.

Floored me and took away my appetite all in one.

I think I am exhausted from watching all these videos and need a little lie down now.

Not in my world!

Words fail me.

Yes, but what would be the fun of that?

Hey! We need a video!!!

Just checking in. Nothing new or exciting made...but as usual lots of soup for winter suppers. Batches go into the freezer. DH has made his Potato Soup and also a Beef Barley Soup. And I've made Bean Soup and Chicken Soup (mostly thanks to Martha Stewart's recipe). We already have a batch of Harira. So we are set for a few weeks of soup eating.

Serious stove envy here also on two counts: size and gas.

Our stove/oven is connected to the electrical source by a Ovenguard. a wonderful device for mindless types who can forget to turn off burners and ovens. If I turn off the guard, the oven/burner/whatever will stay on until I reopen the ovenguard. The farm is a century plus so we ought to be alright. Plus, we are old and ya gotta go sometime. We have electricity only. Can't get gas out in the deep boonies. And trust me, we do have CO detectors in the house. We lost a beloved dog 22 years ago to a combination of Prednisone and CO and it was a terrible lesson. Ceddie was our first Rottie and he is never forgotten. Thanks for the replies.

As for a straight out 'substitute' for Baileys and one which we much prefer, we buy Panama Jack, a cream liqueur made from fortified wines, We live in Canada and our liquor is heavily...HEAVILY...taxed. Thus, because the Panama Jack is made from wine and not liquor per se, it is taxed far less and costs far less. Look for it in the wine section though...not in the liqueurs. Plus it has a tiny kick to it, unlike the Baileys which we find a tad too sweet. I could add...and this is going back a few years...Baileys USA and Baileys Canada are made from somewhat different formulas, with the American version being sweeter than the Canadian. This information from an LCBO person.

I do leave the oven on all night at the lowest temperature with a doubled over oven glove in the door opening. As to production volume...you could have four oven racks in the oven at one time, each with one or two cookie sheets (depending upon the size of your sheets and the size of the oven opening), which is quite a lot of volume. Mostly this past two years or so what we have dehydrated is apple sauce (with nuts) into apple leather, so the oven is perfect. I spread the sauce onto those cheap red silicone sheets on cookie sheets. I do three trays at once, two on the oven racks and a third one supported on a cooling rack on the upper tray. And Bob's your uncle. Much easier for me than using a dehydrator.