Darienne

Good heavens...the Ninja injuries. But then, to me the Hamilton Beach had very serious injury possibilities. The blades could be engaged without the blender bottle on them, thus leaving them completely open. Would never have had one with children in the house. Or old folks...which come to think of it...we are both swiftly becoming. I think the Vitamix is simply out of our snack bracket. But thanks.

Well, my Magic Bullet died last fall after many years, and while in the States in October I bought a Hamilton Beach which turned out to be a piece of total junk. The gears...some kind of rubber or acrylic...sorry I am not a CSI type...just came off last week. That's not very many uses. They just fell off. So now I am going to buy a 'good' smoothie maker. Don't really want to spend more than $100.00. Or is that unrealistic? The question is for making smoothies and other small one person beverages, what is the best brand to buy: Ninja? Nutribullet? Black & Decker? Oster? Does anything out there have gears made out of a material that will last? Thanks for any help.

I'm with you Deryn on the 'use' issue. Mine is a Cuisinart, the BIGGEST home unit you can buy, bought by my DH for who knows why, and I use it at least once a year. Fortunately DH is a fixer type guy and with luck it won't need fixing anyhow...

So now, if you want to change careers, you know you have an 'in' in fixing stand mixers. I'll keep your name in mind.

We bought a Keurig for entertaining a large number of folks every summer and it seems to work quite well. Personally for us it was not useful because we drink our coffee very strong compared to most people and you simply cannot make strong coffee in a Keurig.

Canadian Hawthorn is apparently ours in Ontario. You can eat the berries...see the article...and indeed our own Kerry Beal has attended the Hawberry Festival on the Manitoulin Islands where one can partake of hawberry flavored ice cream and jam. (Locals have been called Haweaters and I don't know if this is an insult or not.) This tree, which is considered a weed tree and is PROLIFIC to the max, has the most wicked thorns I've been scratched by.

First thing to pop into my mind is coffee cake. Arey posted this most wonderful apple fruit cake: Mother's Applesauce Cake (Poor Man's Fruitcake) which his Mother got from a friend many years ago. It's the sort of loaf cake you eat with a slice of strong cheddar or just butter along with coffee. I don't know if I can print here on eGullet but I can certainly send it to you in a message. I made a triple recipe and have cut the cakes in halves and frozen them for sudden mid-day visitors.

Tere, if you lived nearer...a LOT nearer...I could certainly supply you with Hawthorn berries. I know you can eat them...but to date, we haven't tried. It's probably not in the near future either.

Here's our current favorite meatballs recipe: Taco Meatballs Recipe (Pinterest is NOT where I originally found it but can't seem to locate the original source at this point). I add a package of Goya Sazon Cilantro & Achiote and double the cumin and go heavy on the ground pepper. And use hotter chiles than the mild called for. Etc...as cooks do. I like the fact that there is no frying...just bake in the oven. And I use a small scale to get them approximately the same size...and I make them very small. I usually make a triple recipe so all that work lasts quite a while. They can be added to just about anything which takes ground beef.

For Elsie: here's where to buy it in Ottawa: Canada in a Basket 55 Byward Market Square Ottawa (613) 241-2088 Alas, the Canoe Museum does not have birch syrup in stock and Whetung's (where we sell our decorated gourds) no longer carries it. And it's not carried in the Cambridge area. I think we'll stick with Maple Syrup until our next unavoidable trip to Toronto. Thanks to you both.

Thanks so much Kerry. Not sure how I missed this. I'll try them both tomorrow.

Thanks Elsie. I imagine you could also find it in Sudbury. We went there to teach a workshop about 10 years ago and I couldn't breathe from 100 miles out until we got back to that point...birch pollen. I know I can get it online...I wanted to see if I could pick it up somewhere. I've phoned a lot of local places which you might think might carry it...but they don't. My friend who lives in Cambridge spent a year in Finland in high school and is looking forward to having Pannukakku when she next comes to visit. So I thought I'd try for the birch syrup. Online would be a last resort at this point. Might not even like the stuff...

Terrific gfron1. I envy you.

Pannukakku has become a new favorite in the McAuley household. (LCBO Food & Wine, winter season 2016). We've been using Maple Syrup...made with DH's help in a local sugar shack...but the recipe actually calls for birch syrup. Does anyone know where to buy it in Ontario? Any grocery stores carry it? Specialty stores? Toronto? What about in the Cambridge/Kitchener/Waterloo area? Thanks.

I watched as far as the lip on the cylinder and gave up. Fascinating stuff...but definitely not for me. (And it is Saturday which means laundry, meds, next week's breakfast assembly, soup making, pulled pork making, bed remaking, dog hair vacuuming, etc, etc...not time to sit and watch extended cookie making videos... ) But thanks for bringing this wonderful cookie maker to our attention.

And here am I (and others) a War Baby. No sugar in our cereals. My favorite was always Grape Nuts. Haven't had it in decades. (American and Canadian Grape Nuts have different formulas...the American ones are not quite so hard as the Canadian and are sweeter.) I should have said...no sugar coating on our cereals...

Dear Andrea, My heart goes out to you in your loss. We have lived through 2 terrible house fires in our city home (we live in the country now and heaven help us if we ever have a fire because it all has to be trucked in) and it was years before we drove up our road without my heart being in my mouth. Our insurance company was so good to us that I could scarcely believe it. I don't have a chocolate room or special counter tops anywhere, but perhaps you can ask the Chocolate Doctor, Kerry Beal, for photos of her chocolate room. It is wonderful and I loved working in it when friends and I took a chocolate course. (If Kerry gives the OK, I can post you all the photos I took from that day.) All best in the future rebuilding.

The photos of the market are absolutely glorious! We certainly don't have anything like that in East Central Ontario, Canada!

Many replies spring immediately to mind and in the interest of peace and good tidings, I'll leave all of them untold.

Our early morning coffee is partly set out the night before in our elegant Hamilton Beach coffee maker. DH puts in 6 'cups' of cold water. Sets out a filter and the caff coff cannister. In the morning, I put in the filter, add the coffee grounds and hit the on button. Done. So what could possible go wrong...go wrong...go wrong...??? I forgot to check for the evidence of water and turned on the machine. After a few minutes I notice that no coffee was coming out. So I did my usual: turn off the machine, take the carafe and partly fill it with cold water, pour the water into the machine...etc. It's always worked before... This time I guess the machine was hotter than usual...or the water colder...or something... As I added the water, the entire filter full of coffee simply blew up into my face, the walls, the counters, everything sitting on the counter, the floor..you name it. Scared the daylights out of me. Left the water compartment of the maker full of grounds. Took me a long and unhappy time to clean it all up. And then I still had to make the coffee... Meanwhile, his Lordship slept on through it all. Note to self writ large: Always check the water compartment in the coffee maker...

In Peterborough, I found banana leaves frozen in our local Asian store. That would be the only place. Good luck in NS.

I googled the name of the recipe and came up with a notation in a book called Santhal Worldview which may or may not have anything to do with the recipe as posted. Haven't gone further than that and am hoping to hear from the OP.

This is a tribal food from what country and what tribe please. It sounds very interesting.

Lasagna and other such dishes, eg, Moussaka, Bobotie, Impossible Pie, are our favored ones. Ploughman's meal would be another...all laid out ahead of time. Roast turkey is a familiar one for visitors at Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter. Never make last minute stuff...can't do it with grace.

Thank you Lisa Shock. That post is a saver for sure. I'll have the ice water at hand from now on. And I like the clingfilm idea. My candy pots are mine only and no one will ever/has ever/ used them except for me.