Darienne

Once again I find myself back here. This morning I made DL's Buttercrunch Toffee as an inclusion to be put into vanilla ice cream. p.200, The Perfect Scoop. And once again (and again and again) I forgot to put in the soda and the vanilla at the end of the cooking process. I had them RIGHT beside the burner. I have not one, but two, blue stick'ems on the adjacent page with notes in LARGE PRINTING: DO NOT FORGET THE SODA & VANILLA. and once again...well, you know. (It doesn't ruin the outcome...but it doesn't help it either.) So I have come up with yet another aide memoire. I have cut out a section of Staples white mailing labels, leaving on the protective backing, written on each label: Soda & Vanilla, and intend to stick a label on my backing sheet each time I make the toffee. The labels will be kept in the DL book. ...could use a larger label and darker printing. I will be grateful for any additional ideas.... (Mock-up)

Scrapple you say? I will NEVER forget the time that folks from Delaware brought scrapple to the Dog Weekend. The dogs...under the table...ate very well. Never eat anything which is gray and rectangular.

Interesting about the gravy. I've had Poutine twice in my life and both times it was excellent. Wicked to the core, but so tasty. We were eating lunch at a local fish place in Peterpatch where we always go and I decided to go for their Poutine. Mirroring your experience, Anna N, the French fries were their usual and just fine...but the gravy was horrendous. I couldn't believe anyone could serve such wretched gravy, but they do and apparently other folks like it. Curious.

Looked up travertine flooring to make sure I knew what it was and read the pros and cons of the material. Nowhere did it say anything about my first concern...comfort. Last winter we rented a home in Utah with wonderful terra cotta ceramic tiles on the kitchen floor. Within a few days of candy making, my back was aching. We then covered all the surfaces where we stood: the sink, stove and table with cheap grey foam-backed mats which we had brought from house for the dogs in case the floors had no rugs. Relief from pain?...almost immediate. Styling and beauty?...ugly as sin. No tiled floors for me...ever. We have pine planks in our kitchen. And do they look wonderful and distressed.

Shelby, it grows like a weed here (east central Ontario) with NO attention. Our house is over 100 years old and there are about 5 patches of rhubarb on the hill above the house. I'll bet they are also 100 years old. I've never paid any attention to them and cut them every year. Oh yes, and there's snow on the ground today and it's really cold.

Interesting. First time I had ever heard of such an item.

I have a brand new Cuisinart and it's not a commercial one. It's SOO heavy and SOOO complicated with SOOO many extra pieces of this and that and it won't fit into my cupboard as the old one did in just one space. This one takes three spaces. Yeah...I'm just ranting because it seems like a good chance to do to.

...as if it is not already bad enough that so much extra virgin olive oil isn't.

Add me to the above list.

Just a second opinion on boiled peanuts: Cherokee, North Carolina, and we thought they were awful and that probably someone made them taste good...but we never tried again. I'd be happy to try your 'Crack peanuts' sometime.

Just to finish up this thread. We've decided not to buy a blender dedicated to shakes/smoothies at all for the time being. The big blender works very well and now that I know about leaving it on longer, I find that it does a perfectly adequate job. The main reason I would NEED a smaller blender is for travelling and mostly our travelling involves living in a condo at our destination...and our level of condo, while fairly well equipped, does not include a blender...so we'd be bringing the large blender anyway. ...or that's how I've worked it out to date... Thanks so much for all the information. I'll act on it when the time for buying a smaller appliance comes around. (Not to mention the incredible cost of the dental work we are having done right now.... )

Like Tere, I have no advice. Just all best wishes, Darienne

A few questions: - do you have pantry bugs, like ants? - you are in danger of losing your "Canadian" status, calling Kraft Dinnner (KD) mac and cheese. Can you buy KD in Ambato? Is it the same formula if you can? - is your jello drink actually Jello? - are you going to fall into an exhausted heap when your blog is finished?

Cast iron sounds good...I'll try that the next time the Pannukakku is just for us. But I am thinking of the dish as part of a brunch/breakfast for a group. One recipe's worth (as printed) serves 3 and yesterday, we were five. Thus, two metal 9"X13"s. (Have to refigure the amounts obviously. Next...)

The first time I didn't put the blueberries in, TFTC,...I simply forgot to. And was pleased with the results. I see that there are a myriad of recipes online. I'll stick with my one until I really feel it's under my belt. A question from me: I've made it in pyrex and I've made it in metal. The above are in metal of course. (Don't really know what metal it is....?) Is it my imagination or do they rise better in the metal? Not as good a presentation as the glass...but then rise is what I am after. Partly because folks are so surprised when they first see them. And we serve them out of our kitchen. I never learned to serve from the dining table really. Also: what about making the batter and keeping it in the fridge overnight? I am not at my swiftest before breakfast...which I am making. And, as far as I can read, keeping pancake batter overnight in the fridge is a contested issue.

Googled 'cuy'. Guinea pigs. Are there cuy farms? Are they in cages? Are they free roaming? Is the pelt used for anything? Any other facts we might be curious about?

Breakfast this morning for overnight guests. Could not resist taking a photo of the Pannukakku and already they were beginning to fall. A great success and the guests went home with the recipe.

I do have a lot of 9"X13" pans of both pyrex (the discontinued kind, of course) and metal. And several of several sizes of metal pans. And many pyrex ditto. Most of the pyrex bought at our favorite second-had store in Moab. But many of the pans are currently occupied in the freezer...I make more than one of whatever I am making and then store them away for visitors. Or later eating. And still...no 8"X8" square metal pan. Very strange. But it's coming... And yes, I hate the silicone stuff...all mine is given away, mainly to second-hand stores...except for the one.

OMG. I'm back again. I can't believe it. OK. I have no 8"x8" metal pan. I don't know why. I just don't. However, I do have one of those horrible green floppy silicone abominations which is 8"X8". (photo of horrible green pan) And I keep on talking about buying a proper metal pan. In fact, just yesterday I finally put it down on the grocery list. "Buy a proper 8"X8" metal pan". However, today I needed a pan, oh, about 8"X8" to roast a smallish amount of corn in the oven for this dish, Southwest Potatoes, I was serving tonight and right...brought out the silicone pan. Oiled the corn, into the oven it went. Then it was ready to bring out. On went the oven mitts and then Mrs.-Stupid-who-never-learns-it-seems lifts out the pan by its corner...just the way you could lift out a metal pan...its corner...and the corn all falls out on the oven door. Thank heaven for the door or the corn would have been in the compost bin tout de suite. BTW, the Southwest Potatoes are hardly traditional Mexican food, but boy are they delicious!

A question about the carambola. I've eaten them in Ontario and in Utah and found them in both places not really to be worth the eating. Bland. Pretty tasteless. But then I suspect that buying them from your market might be a different experience? Ed wants to know what currency you use and how it compares to any other which you might want to suggest.

I am with Tere. I think I need to go and lie down now after that exhaustive tour. Wonderful! We are definitely coming.

Truer words were ne'er spoken.

PanaCan, you are incredible. Nothing short of that!

It is gorgeous. Absolutely breath-taking.

Thanks to Shel_B, I made my first Jerusalem Kugel tonight. Unusual dessert. DH wanted less crust and more sweetness. We put Salted Caramel Sauce on it and then DH liked it better. I'll have to do more work on this one if we are going to have it again. Make it thicker. Add sliced almonds. Look at other recipes. Visitors are expected for dinner tomorrow night and I think we'll try it with homemade vanilla ice cream. The front edge is ragged because we already started sampling the Kugel.