Darienne

A brand new one for me. A friend gave me two large pieces of pork belly and I just couldn't eat the stuff. So much fat. It can't be avoided. Is this a normal reaction? And I don't think I should give it to the dog who is living with advanced cancer for fear it could precipitate pancreatitis. We've already lived through one bout of pancreatitis with a dog about 25 years ago.

Seems to me that enoki mushrooms are recalled quite often... I've never used them.

The year we lived in Moab, 16 years ago, we rented a two-bedroom house from my dear Moab friend. It was totally empty. I mean EMPTY !! Ed went to the second hand stores and garage sales day after day and we furnished the entire house completely. He had fun and I did not go. Not until the end of the searches...because I have this tendency to see something, no doubt completely useless, ugly as all get out...and remark...who on earth would want that ugly thing?...and the answer would be "ME"!!! When we left, we had the garage sale to end all garage sales ... but we came home with our full size van packed to the brim with what became our treasured purchases and you can still see them all around the house. The poor dogs had about 2 square feet to be in for four days travelling home.

I think you may well be correct on this one, TS. I did have some significant tempters but going way back now. Yesterday for the first time in I can't remember how long, I went out to lunch with a friend and then we went to a Dollarama...oh, the big time...because I needed some Dollarama type item which Ed still hadn't bought...and I ended up going up and down every aisle, looking at all the stuff which is out there. And wondering, where on earth I had been for the last decade or so? And Ed does ALL the shopping.

I'm thinking about it, I really am. Other than a weakness for potato chips and French Fries, I'm not sure what's worth mentioning. And I don't even like ice cream. I make it continuously for Ed but I never eat it. Oh, I found my post from a few years back. I still like my hot dogs burnt and in cheap buns with cheap yellow mustard and sweet pickle relish. And with potato chips. But we haven't had hot dogs for a few years now...although I did have Ed buy them just this very week. And we'll have them tomorrow. Added: Well, here's one. While we are in the Southwest, we eat Mexican food all the time and each time I say to myself, this time I'm going to try something else...and each time I order Chile Rellenos again. Alas, we can't get them in our nearby city and they are just too much trouble to make. I do make a Chile Relleno Casserole. Which I think I'll make right now. I have the Poblanos...

You start.....

About fruit cracking. Our Macintosh apple tree in our back yard is something we watch carefully each year. For almost 20 years, the apples were too poor, too few, too tasteless, to misshapen, and so on to bother with. Then a few years ago, suddenly the tree started to produce these amazing wonderful huge crops. We gave away so many apples to others...just got tired of processing them. Then last year, the tree had about 6 apples on it all told. And now, it looks as if it's back in production...but the apples are all small, cracked, misshapen again. So disheartening. Oh well, there's always next year. By the way, the Northern Spy, right beside the Macintosh, has not put forth one apple now.

Thanks for your concern, @Madon2234, but my email predated finding out that my friend had two upright freezers, one of which was no longer needed, and so we are now the proud owners of yet another freezer, and at a very reasonable cost...not to mention that her two strapping young sons ferried it over and set it up for us. Doesn't get much better than that.

I would just automatically use the golden syrup. I seldom have the light variety on hand.

"Panama Jack LCBO" (Liquor Control Board of Ontario). Now called PJs to keep up with the times. A fortified wine...look in the wine section in some stores...the liqueur section in others... It's a cream liqueur, like Bailey's, only to us more interesting because it's got a tiny bite to it. To me Bailey's is too sweet and goes down like cough syrup in comparison. And it's cheaper in Canada to boot. OK. The Road's End Frothy Coffee. First of all Road's End because we are Road's End Farm, situated as you might guess, at the end of the road just before it becomes impassible bush and now belongs to the Buddhist Temple which is to the west-south-west of us. You can see the temple (still under construction 10 years later) from a high point in our land. The recipe: about 10 ounces of decaf coffee...a bedtime drink traditionally for us... 1 3/4 oz Panama Jack, 1 3/4 oz vodka (all Canadian vodka is triple distilled, inexpensive American vodka can curdle a cream liquor sometimes) and 2 tablespoons chocolate milk mix. Into the blender and buzzed. And then into my favorite huge blue glass mugs. Yumm.

Such wonderful memories of Allan who brought the stale bagels each time until we encouraged him to bring us a bottle of Panama Jack instead and we all enjoyed Ed making Road's End Frothy Coffees for us. It's now 2023 and Allan passed away over a year ago now. And we miss his crazy visits to the farm and we now buy our own PJ (change of name to keep with the times??). And Ed's sister and husband arrived from Ottawa a couple of days ago...we hadn't been able to see them for 4 years now...and brought Montreal bagels (fresh) and I thought I'd died and gone to bagel heaven. Don't talk to me about New York Bagels. The Fat Guy, much missed, knew his bagels.

Thanks, CD. We do have much practice from pollinating hardshelled gourds going way back. Never thought about it. OK. I'll probably look for cabbage or broccoli. Thanks again.

I posted a photo of my dirt bag garden recently and noted that my Eggplants were not producing anything...a couple of little flowers followed by nothing. My question: Many garden centers still have vegetable plants for sale for planting even though it's half way through July. Could anyone suggest what would be the most useful seedlings to buy to get some kind of crop in Central Ontario...zone 5a.

And I, for one, am glad you did. (It's also nice to know that I am not the oldest on eG, although no doubt the crabbiest.)

It's now July 2023 and I am still that crabby old lady who started this thread and this is my second time restarting. What do I hate now? I hate the 'new to us' fridge in the kitchen. It was such a good deal and so clean and shiny bright new with wonderful sliding glass shelves and cute side door plastic compartments. We bought it for the garage, when that old garage fridge gave up the ghost and I was so impressed with it that I had Ed move it into the kitchen and put our old workhorse in the garage. So what's the problem you ask? Well it doesn't hold half of what our old fridge holds. Those cute door compartments are so limiting and the interior of the entire unit holds not all that much. We are forced to use the old fridge to hold so much of our food and it's in the garage which means that I don't like going out there in the winter to access the fridge. And I am constantly repackaging foods into smaller containers in the fridge so that enough items will fit in. Yes, it has a HUGE freezer and I realized too late that the new fridges are for those folks who don't cook from scratch and eat so much frozen food. We don't, although I cook and freeze regularly. For that we have a 'new to us' upright freezer which I can access so easily. And of course, we still have that old cellar chest freezer which goes back to the stone age and as of today, it is still working just fine. And I'm still too short to use it with comfort. So that's it for this morning. No doubt I'll be back. I do seem to become crabbier with each passing year...

We really do need a Wow!

First laugh of the morning. Thanks.

We all have firsts in cooking...first time making cookies, first time cooking asparagus, first time stuffing a chicken. The first thing I ever cooked was Kraft Dinner and that was back in the 40s. Yep, the 40s. But then there are those firsts...things we've always put off, things we were so hesitant to try, things we didn't even know we could do. Two this week for me. First time I ever poached chicken and I was stunned at how easy it was, how quickly it happened, and how wonderful the results were. And today I made my first ever mayonnaise. Oh, so good. Loved it. I, the decades-long averse cook, made her first mayonnaise. I've still never made bread from scratch. And I don't know how to use my air fryer yet. My son makes Chicken Pot Pies...I've never made one. What are your recent significant firsts?

I love this salad, but don't make it often. It's so rich...like a dessert almost. Yummm. No cheese here either...

At this point in my life, I think it's out of the question. But thanks for the information. Mostly I just wanted to know what it was and what it might cost. I still have to incorporate other kitchen pieces into my life...like my air fryer. I've had it for over 6 months now and the only one to use it was our son when he visited.

I have just learned about the existence of this APO this morning...yes, I do live in a closet... and thought I'd look up the cost of one from Amazon.ca. No luck. They aren't available and Amazon doesn't know when or if they will be again. So that is just Amazon. ca. Then I turned to Amazon.com. Is it true? Are these ovens over $1,000.00 in the US? Thanks.

Wow! We really need a wow emoji. Really, really, really. I am so impressed by your garden, cd. As for the pumpkin pepos...or at least that's what we always called the little emerging plants on the female hardshelled gourd flowers...which we also hand pollinated back when. What made it really special is that we grew a variety of different shaped gourds, and there, under the flower, was this darling (sorry) teeny weeny kettle gourd, or a cannonball, or a canteen gourd, or whatever it was. Then after a few years we gave up. Growing hardshelled gourds in East Central Ontario is not really a good idea....

So here's the "master non-gardener's" garden. Once upon a time we had a huge garden...no more. But I was determined to grow tomatoes this year for my Sunday Bacon and Tomato Sandwich and so this poor embarrassing table of dirt bags is the result. I had to put it inside the back yard and off the ground so that any resident male dogs would not pee on it and I could manage it easily. So pathetic as it is, the tomatoes are coming along nicely and we counted many small tomatoes on the plants this morning. The eggplant on the left is a bust and the right side with Poblanos and other bits is still up for grabs. .

However...for those of us taking in your mail and watering your plants and watching your house and property, this is a good thing. We get to eat your tomatoes which you are gone.

What is Prime Day please?