Darienne

I'm no expert on the subject. I've had my Oster Immersion blender for so long now that I can't even recall when I got it. Model # 2611-33. Probably isn't around any more. But it's a workhorse and has never let me down. It's white, two speed and comes apart sort of mid-section. I remember thinking it was more than I would usually spend on a small item, but obviously it's more than paid its way.

And I'm back already... Now I am not a novice in life...nearing the prescribed fourscore years...and I suppose now I am entering my second childhood. I even wonder if I should post this and render you all certain of what you were beginning to suspect... This morning I was making DH's new favorite, caramel sauce using a new recipe by Epicurious. The sugar syrup was turning too dark an amber too quickly and I wondered if it were actually burning. So what did I do? Oh no!... Yes, I did. I dipped a spoon into the boiling syrup to taste it and see if it were too burnt to use. Well, instantly my mouth was. Upper and lower lips and tongue. I can't believe I did that! I simply can't believe I did that. And yet I did. Right...and by that time, the syrup really was too burnt to use. So now, I've made the sauce again and all is well. With the sauce. With me? Not so much. ps. Yes, I do know it's fourscore and seven.

In our home that would be called a Ploughman's Lunch and we often serve it to friends who have allergies or intolerances or dislikes of certain things. We would add vegetables and fruits to the mix, more breads,...whatever we can call up. (Or, I guess, a Plowman's Lunch if you are American.)

Good heavens. What a haul...as kids would say, Liuzhou.

You're welcome to the recipe...however...I don't have a sister or a brother. Tobe is a friend and it's her Mother's recipe.

I'm delighted to say that our apple production is long over and we are using up the results at an alarming rate. The most popular item preserved, so to speak, turned out to be the Apple Cider Salted Caramels (much enhanced by DH's insistence of added toasted nuts and a dipping in chocolate). Never got around to the Hard Cider. The apple cider is used in every breakfast and to make caramels and the apple sauce is being made into apple leather (with nuts) as we eat the last batch. I don't think...no, I know...I have never eaten so many apples in my life. Oh and another hit for the apple sauce is the cake from Arey's Mother's friend. Made several and into the freezer they went. Delicious sliced with cold butter or cheddar cheese (5-year cheddar, but then we are Canadians! ) We've set up with a local tree person to have the two backyard trees properly pruned. And two trees which gave only ho-hum apples in the past are now producing tasty apples so we'll watch those two for next fall. They are out on the property far from the house so we are not having them attended to. It's been a wonderful, if exhausting, experience.

Not too much forcing to get me to try anything you suggest, PanaCan. I'll always remember your first blog and I so wanted to try all those street foods which you posted about.

Ooops. Forgot the small slurp of vanilla. And no, it doesn't curdle. Try it. I tried an Orange Julius from Dairy Queen last year and thought it was horrible. A sort of metallic taste...

Well here's my personal recipe... Per person: - one whole orange, peel removed, large if you have them...or 3 medium for 2 persons - 1/4 cup orange juice - 1/4 cup milk - a modicum of orange zest...this too will depend upon the orange - 4 ice cubes - sweetener if you like or if the oranges are sourish It all goes into a blender and fits into a 12 oz mug, preferably the dark blue glass ones which our son gave us years ago. To accompany a large bowl of popcorn. For DH: salt and melted butter. For me: salt, pepper, olive oil, ground chipotle and packet of Stevia.

In other words...it's a pig in a poke. Oh well...

However, my Julep has the entire orange thrown into the blender so I don't want a 'juice' orange. I do appreciate the posts, but they don't address the problem: it's not that the orange isn't ripe...it's that it is tasteless or even unpleasant tasting.

We live in the far frozen north and all the oranges which we buy are imported. (Well, as far as I know.) Usually once a week I make an orange Julep for our supper of popcorn. Yup, I know it sounds strange but we like it. DH does most of the shopping and on the list is Navel oranges. Sometimes they are sweet and tasty...often they are dull, tasteless...almost horrid on occasion. However, they all look good. They look great! Does anyone have a set of criteria which he/she uses to pick only the 'good' oranges. Or just how does one figure out this one? signed: tired of flavorless oranges....

Now you've gone and done it, Tri2Cook. We all want to know where to get cocoa harvested from a rare plant that only grows in elephant footprints that are watered by rain water dripping off of vanilla vines.

Wonderful topic. Smiled broadly as soon as I read your post. And yes, I do this terrible thing. If folks don't know the difference between good dark chocolate and Merkens compound...yes, I do have some friends who think that World's Best Chocolate...milk chocolate only...is the best, then I am not going to use the best chocolate in their goodies. I suppose I am shameful, well, so be it. I am. I've never had complaints yet.

Not posting any additional photos of the confection...just reporting that I am into copycat Enstrom toffee making for all the folks in our private and commercial life. My signature confection is a copycat. How shameful can one get.

Not better...just more OCD I suspect. Plus, as mentioned a number of times before, I am a dreadful cookie maker. Still I do have a new-to-me stove with an oven which keeps the proper temperature and it is time to make my friend's late Mother's incredible Shortbread recipe...which my friend has turned over to me and refuses to make anymore.

Answer: I do.

Hello there, PanaCan, Strange...I was just thinking about you today...missing your posts and wondering what you were up to...and here you are with wonderful goodies as usual. I would love to visit you and your family in Ecuador and redo that trail of outdoor food trucks you did the last time. And taste some of your wonderful goodies which you bake every day. That cake for the 90-year old lady is wonderful.

I am the world's worst (or second worst at best) cookie maker, but I just might gear up to making some. My all time favorites are shortbread cookies of all kinds, including Fanny Farmer's Viennese Crescents made with pecans and then chocolate drizzled or dipped. And my friend, Tobe, who refuses to make cookies any more gave me her Mother's famous and delicious shortbread cookies which I might go for again. And why? A new-to-me stove whose oven does not go wonky and burn stuff... :wub: Hooray!

I know this is very, very early for such a topic, but what the heck? The box is under the tree. My old food processor, limping along with a broken switch for 4 years now, gave up the ghost this morning shredding potatoes for Potato Kugel. I haven't made a Potato Kugel in 20 years. Why? I don't know. But Smitten Kitchen posted a recipe this week and there I was shredding the potatoes by hand. Rats. DH went into town this afternoon and bought me a brand new 12-cup Cuisinart Elite Food Processor with more bells and whistles, and now I have to watch a video before I use it. And so it starts... Oh, the Kugel was delicious. I'll make it again soon.

Thanks for the dishwater site, Barrytm. I was so surprised reading about all the smell problems folks had. Asked DH, who installed the Bosch himself, whether he had used the "High Loop" technique which seemed to help some of the smell problems in the posts you sent us to. Yes, it's in the installation instructions to use this high loop technique, which he did, and therefore...no smell ever. Really. Who knew? Good luck Chris_S.

We have a Bosch Ascenta. Three years old I think. No problems. Very quiet. No smell ever (so far anyway). I clean the trap regularly but seldom find anything.

Maybe there should be a topic on "I will never again....but I know I will..." (And I see that I started this topic years ago.) A couple of weeks ago I made Mr. Kim's (Kim Shook) wonderful Apple Cake. It is a winner. We began to eat half...and I went to freeze the other half for the visitors this weekend. My first American Thanksgiving celebrated in Canada with South African expats. So I looked for it a few days ago. The cellar freezer. Nope. OK. The kitchen fridge freezer. Nope. I wouldn't put it into the dog freezer, would I? Check it out. Nope. There's not enough room left in the garage fridge freezer...I know there isn't. OK. Check it out. Nope. No cake anywhere to be seen. Gave up. Started a new dessert. Then this morning I went into the covered bin where I keep dates and coconut and cried cranberries and nuts and so on and so forth and there...sitting in it's wrappers was the cake. None the worse for wear as far as I can see. But still. I wish I could say that I will never do this again, but as I keep on getting older I fear that I will. Next time it might be meat...which would be toast after a week and a half at room temperature. Now I feel better.

There is truly nothing better than a good croissant. Never to be found where I live. And no, I have never made one and am unlikely ever to do so. Yours, RichardJones, look scrumptious.

Not that we are feeding the down and out, but I do always send home the leftovers with these folks. And strangely enough, a friend told me just yesterday about the turkey breasts from Costco. And the best part of the turkey to me is the dark meat...and I don't know about our friends. So thanks for the idea...but it ain't gonna fly.