Darienne

Welcome Mark to eGullet. Confectionery is one of my favorite topics and I'm always happy to learn something new from the experts.

The experiment was bold and innovative. Good for you. ps. I hate Twizzlers also. Loved them as a kid...but maybe they tasted different back in the 40s. OTOH, DH still loves them. He bought a package in Moab and ate them at his leisure over a 2-month period.

Went to Snopes, my favorite site for urban legends...and yes, some cheap Mexican vanilla does contain coumarin which is definitely not something you want to put into your system unknowingly. http://www.snopes.com/food/ingredient/vanilla.asp

Another interesting aspect to this question might be the cost of electricity in the various States and Provinces. Our Hydro (what we call it in Ontario) bills are usually between $181 (lowest in 2014) and $272 (highest in 2014). We keep our heating thermostat lower than anyone else we know in winter and don't have central A/C. I would not call myself a prolific cook. We lived in Utah for 6 months in 2008/09 and were stunned by the low cost of electricity there. We paid about $30.00 a month for living and cooking in approximately the same way.

In Ontario, many households, including ours, are on Smart Meters for electricity. This means that between certain hours during winter hours and then somewhat altered hours during summer hours we have three levels of cost for electricity. I could try to use this scheme for cooking and baking...but I don't. I work in the kitchen during peak hours and don't see that I really have a lot of choice. We didn't choose to have Smart Meters either. So when you get down to it...I don't do much if anything to save energy in the kitchen I guess. Which isn't exactly what you asked for, is it?

Sorry, Heidih. I Googled 'self-incompatible' and just can't get the meaning in plain English. Could you please do this in just a couple of sentences for me (and possibly others) if it's possible. ...and why it should matter... Thanks. I've grown tomatillos for the past five years. Not well, as I have the blackest thumb in all captivity. However, I do get enough for our own use and tomatillos are one thing which is NEVER in the local grocery stores or markets. (Probably available in Toronto.) I container plant and my containers are a weird bunch of miss-matched items and so I have to water the plants according to container. You'd think with 100 acres that I'd do better than that. But there you have it. It is what it is.

OMG. I saw chocolates with a Durian filling. Now I really am jealous!

Kim, your cake looked delicious to me. I would have eaten it gladly. In fact, if anybody ever made me a cake, I would swoon from delight.

As hard-shelled gourd artisans...that's what my avatar photo is...my DH and I are very familiar with the 'calabash' and its uses in the world. (I use the word 'calabash' in quotation marks because the actual calabash comes from a calabash tree and although a dried calabash looks like a dried gourd to a great extent, it's not the same thing.) You might be interested to know that this milk substance is often mixed, in the dried and cleaned out gourd, with fresh animal blood for a meal. Don't know the name of this mixture, but it's not something which I am eager to try. Not now; not ever.

Why the proviso: 'not inside the house'?

That eggplant looks divine.

Well, if anyone IS an expert in this case, it is you, good sir. I said only what I had read on Wikipedia. Recado rojo or achiote paste is a popular blend of spices, originally used by the Maya peoples. It is now strongly associated with the Mexican and Belizean cuisine, especially of Yucatán and Oaxaca. The spice mixture usually includes annatto, Mexican oregano, cumin, clove, cinnamon, black pepper, allspice, garlic, and salt.[1][2] The annatto seeds dye the mixture red, and impart a distinctive red-orange color to the food. I know see that some of the names are used hither and yon by different folks...a lot like everything else in life. Still I am glad of the reason to look it all up again. However, I can tell you about canned beans and what they are, being pretty much of an expert in that area. Alas. (And said to the Bean Man...)

Been there, and done that with the bleach. But they still have only a 'life' to live. Particularly if visitors come...

Mine go daily into the microwave and I read that this is enough. Yes? No? Then I cut off their corners after a while and they become floor, door, etc sponges and we don't' mix them up. Then to the cellar for use there...and so to the garbage.

I noticed on our last visit to Utah...we live in Ontario...that I had trouble finding decent sponges and ended up tossing several kinds as useless. Just checked my sponge supply and they are 'no-name' brand, but still good. Could it be an international situation? What we have versus what you have? We also buy our sponges at a local cleaning supply house, Swish. And they are very good. Never had a sponge bleed color. Very strange to me.

We have run through (and given away) several dehydrators in the last umpty-one years. And now we have another one, gifted by our raw vegan daughter. Salton, 5 tray, conventional style. She made some cracker things while she was last here and I take it she uses hers constantly and didn't realize that I already had one (now given away). I've dried a number of things over the decades...and then ignored the dehydrator for months on end. (Sort of like the bread machine, pasta maker, etc...all of which were given away) I just can't seem to work it into our lives. Help.

Thanks Tri2Cook and dcarch for your posts. No, I did not see any paper husky bits on top of the few curled ferns there, just around the bottom. And yes, I might try buying some next time in town and comparing. And I still have the option of finding a local pro to ask. And T2C, thanks for going that extra mile and showing my photo to your local pro. I'll watch that patch carefully. (but not for the next few days...our dog is repairing from 2 ACL injuries and it's just too far to walk there and back each day as of yet)

Interesting issue...cardamom. I am a cardamom nut and always put twice as much as called for in anything desserty I make. And have never tasted anything resembling turpentine. And it's all pre-ground. I have always kept two kinds of cardamom. One I label 'dessert' and the other one 'food'. Are there two kinds of cardamom...or did I make this up?

There aren't a lot of fiddleheads out yet, and those that I saw yesterday are already past that stage. But the ones I did see are growing out of a brown papery husk-like covering and have a deep groove on their interior side. However I still feel really queasy about the entire project. I think I'll fall back to the 'asking an expert to come out to the farm to look' option. Thanks for the help, Tri2Cook. It's a good start.

Roughly speaking...how much money are we talking? In US or Canadian dollars specified please. Oh I mean for the Excalibur.

This is terrific. Congratulations, Kerry. You are one powerhouse of a woman!

Have the camera at the ready for the daily round the farm walk. Will report back. Thanks so much for sharing, Tri2Cook.

Thanks so much for the information, Tri2Cook. I have also now done a bit of Googling, and between that and your information, I should have a better idea. There are a couple of curled fronds which have come up already and tomorrow I'll have a closer look at them. Maybe pick them...take a photo and post it on this thread. Maybe I can find someone locally who will look at them for me. We have this huge patch of ferns, year after year, and I've always been leery of picking them and eating them. ...There's a local naturalist, very knowledgeable, author of books on the local area. He's the man one contacts when something interesting happens locally. I seem to spot unusual things on our farm quite often. Maybe he knows someone near by who might help in this case. That would make me feel much better.

I need to ask a question about fiddle-heads. Every year we have a huge patch of what I would call fiddle-heads on the farm. They grow into huge green ferns later in the season. Are these the ferns which grow from the kind of fiddle-heads that folks eat? Is there such a thing as a non-edible fiddle-head? I'd be afraid to cook and eat them until someone could answer these questions. Thanks.

Cinco de Mayo is here and we had Chiles en Nogada for lunch. The pictures I took were all incredibly fuzzy and so I didn't post one. Sorry. Don't know why. They were delicious and we both enjoyed them muchly. My long-time Picadillo recipe is from Elisabeth Ortiz, The Complete Book of Mexican Cooking. First ppb edition, 1967. It predates my interest in Mexican food...or even cooking for that matter...and I have NO idea of why I bought it way back when. It's absolutely in tatters from age and use. I merge the two Ortiz recipes and I used bananas and apples as the fruit. Oh, and add cocoa just for the heck of it. Two problems remain: - the poblanos were not very strong after blackening under the broiler. Too much heat and ended up partially cooked. Not sure what to do. I have a little propane stove put aside for emergencies. Maybe I could use it in future. Not sure what the objection is to the poblano skin. Doesn't seem all that substantial to me and I ignore it for Chile Verde and Rajas and using Poblanos in salads. - the sauce. I can't do mortar and pestle with these hands and in the food processor the walnuts cannot be ground to a smooth nothing. Little bits remain. Now I don't really care, but it's not satisfactory to serve to guests in this state. What to do. Thanks to all who helped me in this new venture. It really turned out well and I'll do it again.