Darienne

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.

After using a Salton dehydrator on and off for years, one day I just began using the oven when I had run out of room in the dehydrator. Now I use only the oven. Much easier I think.

My first response may be already covered and I just haven't quite understood what you are asking: Baileys for her and a non-alcoholic sauce for him. What about making David Lebovitz's Vietnamese Coffee Ice Cream? No alcohol here but it is very tasty and we have friends who order it each time they come. It might taste very good with Bailey's on it. And perhaps a chocolate sauce...or even Magic Chocolate sauce for him? ....if he has a 'fun' side...

DH and I are both retired and we both cook. He does the short order stuff and I do the other stuff. We do used canned beans (oh, I know, I know - I used to cook beans), tomatoes and canned sockeye salmon. DH will eat canned sardines. Oh and we buy crackers and corn chips. We buy frozen pizzas to have on hand for unexpected folks who don't like our normal food, much of which is not typically North American or European. And what we call 'guest' bread for guests, naturally. And One Buns from Costco, a weakness of mine, and Kirkland Vegetable burgers, which I love. And almost all condiments. That's about it. Some frozen vegetables because we live so far from the city. I used to make yoghurt...now we buy it. We don't eat a lot of meat. We either cook every lunch, our big meal, or we defrost something which I've already made and frozen. Supper is either a big salad or soup, again frozen by me. We eat out every now and then. Fish and chips, which I adore, and on the road we usually eat at Subway for lunch. Mostly we make huge batches of whatever it is that we are making and freeze what we don't eat on Day One: tourtiere at Christmas, spaghetti sauce, umpti-one kinds of soups, shredded meats, especially pork, casseroles like Moussaka, Spanakopita, Lasagna, Bobotie (thanks John T), Ed's Mom's Macaroni and Cheese which Ed makes, Ratatouille. I could go on. Oh and we make Chinese food together. He does the 'mises' and I do the cooking part. My hands are shot so Ed does almost all the chopping and cutting. Dinner once every few weeks is 'Dessert as Dinner'. The year we lived in Moab, I made a difference Dessert as Dinner once every week for 6 months and we had guests over to share. That was challenging and fun. And you can't eat chocolate cake for dinner. The meal has to have fruits, and dairy and grains or some combination which won't send you into a sugar fit. I might add that Ed taught me how to cook when we got married 57 years ago and I hated it mostly until I found eGullet and discovered cooking was actually an incredible thing to do. I still can't do North American very well. I love cooking with chocolate and citrus. If vegetables live long enough to wilt, then they get roasted and go into combination dishes or enchiladas. Life is different when you are old, retired, with the children long gone from home, no grandkids and two big dogs for company. (Oh, they eat raw.) I keep thinking about going back to cooking raw beans. Have enjoyed being on this incredible forum for almost 10 years now. Thanks to you all.

No doubt I should know why...but I don't. Please enlighten me.

First laugh of the day. Wonderful. Thanks.

And what kind of pine trees were they, please?

Pine needles. Pine cones. What kind of pine tree? We have red and white pines on the farm. And spruce trees by the hundreds where the eastern boundary of the farm was replanted in three sessions. (Don't know anything of the spruce history...must try to find out.) But still. What variety of pine tree is recommended?

Thanks lindag for getting back. I was just thinking about you and your new toy this morning. Alas, if I have to cut the vegetables into correct portions before the final dicing...then it's not a good fit for us. But thanks for the report.

Watched the video again with DH, chief slicer and dicer, and noticed more clearly this time that the pieces going into the hopper for dicing were already cut into strips...which I can't do...which leaves me wondering...etc...etc... DH, Ed to name him, is a terrific slicer and dicer, and maybe for the time being, we'll just leave it at that. No, we don't have a mandoline...fear for fingers. We are both accident prone in our old age...me because I am naturally badly co-ordinated and now ill-handed, and Ed because he flies by the seat of his pants which could lead to chopped fingers (if I might mangle my metaphors).

Answer: How about arthritis and carpal tunnel syndrome and just old age for that matter, all of which I have in spades? Found another electric mandoline in my search today. GForce GF-P1158-572 On Amazon.com and Amazon.ca (Canada). Right. Same model. The American one is regular $89.99, special at $49.99. And the Canadian one is...wait for it...$233.95. Yes, it is the SAME model. Canada USA Going to lie down quietly for a bit now....

I have read a few pages of the reviews and you would swear that the posters were talking about two completely different machines. I await your report, lindag. Thanks.

Yes, I would kill for one of those ...if it works...if it works for more than 2 1/4 weeks. My hands are gone and I press my DH, who is willing I must say, into chopping everything for the cooking. Please report back. Oh my, I am actually excited about this appliance. And...even if this one is not a complete winner...it's on track I hope. A Godsend for the handicapped among us. Thanks.

Maybe there should be a button for 'Wow'. So much work and dedication.

I'd like the Italian Wedding soup recipe also.

Another Canadian (who does eat eggs now), living in Ontario. Plus DH. We used to order Over Easy, both in Ontario and across the USA on our way to Moab, Utah. However, over the years Over Easy got less and less well cooked and now we order Over Medium. Sad story. We sent too many back Elsie before giving up.