Darienne

Our entire Thanksgiving is new in one sense: celebrating the American Thanksgiving in Ontario. We've had American Thanksgiving in the States before, but never in Canada...where we have already celebrated our Canadian Thanksgiving with the traditional turkey, stuffing, Cranberry Sauce, mashed potatoes, Brussels Sprouts, peas, artisan bread, and I can't recall the dessert. So why another celebration? Well, our Canadian Thanksgiving invitees, South African emigres, never showed up...Annette fell ill...and now they are coming for American Thanksgiving...mostly because Annette works full time and hates cooking and has her 99-year old Father, Carl, living with her which is increasingly more exhausting and difficult. And yes, of course, Carl is coming. He loves to come to the farm and still eats like a farmhand and is as skinny as ever...if not more so. He is amazing. (Might add...so are the two Border Colllies coming who terrorize our huge brutes each time. ) And so the menu is old: the above, nothing unusual, and the dessert is my go-to simple one-egg lemon cheese pie tarted up with a chocolate ganache on top. We were just going to serve a regular meal...lasagna, Moussaka, Bobotie (thanks John) or something...but Annette was so forlorn and insistent about the turkey, that I gave in and said: fine, turkey it is. I think I'll make some more of the wonderful Apple Cider Salted Caramels (Smitten Kitchen) with added walnuts and dipped in chocolate. That will make our guests ecstatic. Us too. ps. I am NOT crazy about turkey and now we have to have it again during the Christmas week when our friends (above) come for their Christmas dinner.

caroled: what's this? All that good stuff and no photos?????

I'm with those above who asked for another salad. Otherwise it sounds wonderful. And ambitious. And yes, I'd love to come. :wub:

Dear RWood...that's amazing. Kudos to you.

Sorry about that. I am no expert in things caramel or otherwise. I seem to recall making the caramel more or less chewy under Kerry's advice for my own purposes. Maybe later today Kerry will see your post and propose an answer. Kerry, or one of the other savants.

Kerry Beal did a whole section on Caramel in 2006 in "Confectionery 101". That's the caramel I use. Plus there are many topics on caramel if you search using that word.

Can you provide a URL to your Flikr page?

Thanks, Kim Shook, for the Apple Cake recipe. Wonderful. Delicious. DH loved it. Took two pieces. It's not even cold yet and he was into it. Small changes: used double walnut instead of pecan and shredded coconut. (The thingy in the center is, of course, the chimney stack from an Angel Food cake pan. Still too warm to completely decant.)

So much for promises made to myself not to purchase any more cookbooks. But then I'll bet that many of us have made the same vow...and subsequently broken it. Borrowed Mark Bittman's Kitchen Express from the library and was so pleased with it, that I bought it. So now I have my own copy. But no more...do you hear me?...no more buying cookbooks.

Timely updating of this thread. Last week made some Apple Cider Salted Caramels...to die for...and began wrapping them in the familiar LorAnn Confectionery Twisting Wax Papers. A couple of dozen wrappings into the job and I decided I could not bear the job. So tempered some chocolate and dipped them all. End of problem. I will never wrap naked caramels again.

HBK could use Canadian pennies. They are no longer in circulation. Hmmm...I might think that one over.

Well, Kim, it's my photo and my name and my avatar graphic so it must be me. Yes, I do remember now. And that apple cake looks incredible and who needs apple recipes more than I do? Sorry about Mr. Kim's finger.

Of course, the first I had to do was to go back and look at your dog. (It's a dog person thing...as all dog persons know.) You and your gang are doing one incredible job and I am so impressed with your hard work and ingenuity. We do have some points in common in our kitchen living: galley kitchen (would never have another kind), diy (Ed built the entire thing from what was an apiary), done on the cheap/inexpensive, big fridge in the garage...however big one in the kitchen too. But then DH has remodeled/renovated the ENTIRE house. Don't ask. I have some extras which you might consider at some point: very shallow cupboard built into the wall interior, perfect for spices. A wood floor...I'd die before I ever had anything else in my kitchen again. But then we have a 'Century' farmhouse and all the floors are original and/or new pine planking. Distressed the natural way...large dogs and careless humans. White ceiling, cupboards, counter and walls with colorful accents. Huge windows. Lots of light. I am obsessed with light...always have been. Again, well done so far and all best in the rest.

Wish it were MY recipe. It's simply a copy-cat recipe and I can't even find the original site anymore. I just have the recipe from somewhere....????

From Kim: Darienne – do you remember these cookies? They are from David Lebovitz’s blog. You made them at some point and I was fascinated with the idea of them. I made mine with those ‘smokehouse’ almonds. The original recipe calls for just using the almonds ground, but I added chopped almonds and this time I added one whole almond on top. They are truly unusual and delicious cookies. I think Jessica ate a half dozen before I could get them in the bag for the freezer! Sorry Kim. I have no memory of making them. But then I have become a bear of very little memory. They do look good though...maybe I should make them.

My DH has this dry cracking hands problem worse in the winter. Might add that he NEVER texts at all. He uses heavy-duty Rubbermaid gloves when he has to get his hands wet in the kitchen. I'm going to look into some of the products mentioned above for him. I've seen Bag Balm in the store but never bought it. I'm pretty old also but have never had this problem although I have dry skin and ironically, he has oily skin.

Oh yes, Shelby...when it's no longer fun...it's really no longer fun!

Made the cake. Of course I had to modify it slightly...a layer of chopped pecans under the sugar topping. DH thinks everything is improved by chopped nuts. Delicious cake. :wub: The lemon zest absolutely makes the cake for me. Thanks Ann_T and of course David Rocco.

May I please join your family, ElaineA.

My confectionery partner, who is so busy that she can hardly take the time to breathe, has lent me her adorable Tomric chocolate mold of little boys and girls ( http://tomric.com/moulds?product_id=3496) and I think I'l make a number of them for little gifts. They look so appealing in pairs backed on gold cardboard, wrapped in cellophane. And I'll probably make chocolate coated, almond filled toffee as usual. Boy, is it popular. (We do give confectionery and cooked and other gifts all year long to quite a number of folks, so that Christmas gifts are not a big item. I love making the stuff and then can't keep it around the house for fear of eating them all. This fall we gave away bushels and bushels of apples and apple butter and apple leather and dried apple rings. )

Going to try for the apple cake today. The few apples left on the tree turned out to be yet another two dozen...will this never end?...and I never got at it. That will be three apple cakes this fall. (Not to mention the long list of other apple items produced. Still have Hard Apple Cider left to make.)

Thanks, HBK. But remember...you can run...but you can't hide. Today for lunch we had one of the original veggie burgers...falafel. Made from a mix, granted, with additional spices suggested by my Middle Eastern standby, Claudia Roden, A Book of Middle Eastern Food, 1968, which even predates my interest in cooking. On flat buns (Costco, One Buns) with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, onions and a sauce made from tahini, lemon juice, etc. Not deep fried, however. Also yesterday found an article on the "best" veggie burger available in the USA and if you couldn't get there...well, here are 16 top recipes you can try. Bookmarked said recipes. Oh, it's all coming together quite nicely.

Cake? Apples? Rustic? Easy? I'm in. We have just a very few apples left from the thousands (and thousands) which our nutsy Macintosh tree produced this year and which we drove ourselves like navvies to process. So, this cake for tonight I think. Thanks. Found the recipe online. AnnT: lovely looking cake. Just what kind of pan is it baked in? Oh, not to mention that crunchy sugary topping which looks devine.

And, we here at home, are waiting to see the photos, Kim. :wub:

So I read the complicated Hoshijo recipe out loud to the DH, who is also a cook (we share the kitchen, although sometimes he drives me a bit batty...) this morning at breaktime and he said...first let's go to the local health food store and the best chain grocery store and see what they have first. OK. He wins. Again.