Darienne

Our Christmas festivities are as of now pretty much unplanned. We are 2500 miles from home in Utah in my favorite place in the entire world...not that I've seen much of the world...Moab where the rocks are red and the skies are blue and the sun is almost always shining. Ed WILL make his tortieres and I WILL make shortbread cookies from my dear friend's Mother's recipe. Where or with whom or for that matter with anybody? we will share a meal is not known. I am mid-Humane Society Volunteers Christmas boxes (25) of Enstrom KopyKat toffee but after this...who knows?

Ah! Making the bows...my least favorite part of the entire procedure. Packaging is not my thing. I've started on 25 boxes for the Moab Humane Society volunteers, Chocolate coated, almond sprinkled, toffee. 1/2 pound boxes for each. That's 4 batches. 6 boxes packed, stickered, awaiting ribbons. Batch #2 awaiting its reverse side to be coated and sprinkled. DH cut the waxed paper for me. To be finished by this Saturday. I like the feeling of doing it. Well, all except the ribbon part...

Made the toffee for the local chums and it was well received. Well, duh...And now we are 2500 miles away in Utah and I have just finished batch #1 for the local Humane Society volunteers Christmas gifts. Three more batches to go. Not to mention the less enjoyable boxing and ribboning.

Words fail me...

DH Ed makes his own traditional tortiere each year. He favors allspice. Half lean ground and half lean pork ground. He used to make the pie crust...using 7up but now settles for premade frozen stuff. My specialty is short bread cookies...the best I've ever eaten. The recipe was given to me by a friend who no longer wants to make them and she got it from her Mother and so on and so on. Contains brown sugar. Otherwise we are just plain North American types.

I do go through periods of obsessive cooking of this and that. Recently it has been Mexican food. However, for decades now, I would have to say that chickpeas remain a constant and endless favorite. Just made a pot of Harira this morning which of course contains chickpeas. And there is always a container of hummus in the fridge.

Beating a couple of eggs for scrambling or making Egg Foo Yung.

Hi Daymia, True, it is expensive...but then you or your friends or neighbors can eat it all, mistakes or best pieces. And such a lot of friends you will have!

Our dining room table is very large and I don't think I could afford to buy a tablecloth to cover it and so I have made my own. And they are solid color only, a lighter color if you scaled terra cotta back. And something like this color range. Thus the napkins are from the same material and are solid. Mostly we don't use them except for special occasions, but use the dinner type commercial paper napkins. Not much help I fear.

Welcome to eGullet and to this family of food enthusiasts who, as you say, help each other so much. I have certainly been the recipient of much help over the years and trust that you will be too. I'd like to know more about herbs in desserts...

We absolutely love food from the Indian subcontinent and cook a few dishes at home. We have only two restaurants in our city with Indian food, both owned by the same man, quite expensive. We were devastated when the inexpensive restaurant closed down. We did come across in our travels, a truck-stop on the eastern edge of New Mexico on I 40 which carries Indian food ingredients and snack foods. Talk about in the middle of nowhere but we were glad. I should ask the family where in Indian they come from. There we were, eating samosas at 9:30 am.

We are just two old 'crocks' with our kids totally grown up, but I am very keen on watching this site. Food which can sit for a few hours without spoiling sounds interesting. What do YOU serve?

Love the reindeer. Is it milk chocolate? From a two piece mold?

Mantis shrimp? They're enormous. How do you eat them? Just Wikipedia'd them: " In captivity, some larger species are capable of breaking through aquarium glass with a single strike."

Cardamom. Love it!

This is simply a raspberry ganache which I have used for raspberry truffles for a long time now. Certainly not fancy, but we like it. I guess more cream could be added for a softer ganache. Sorry, it isn't tested for long time storage at all. Good luck. 9 ounces bittersweet chocolate 3/4 cup seedless raspberry jam 1/3 cup heavy cream 1 teaspoon vanilla

Ditto for me and I expect all the rest of us. (Well, I''m still not sure about fish heads, although you did a good job explaining them.)

Raspberry and orange.

Fish heads question: how much of this 'thing' do you eat? The entire, entire head? Eyes too? I guess I'm not ready for this dining experience. Ya got me at tripe... ps. I admit it. I'm a plebe.

Add my thanks to the others for this fascinating journey of yours through Chinese food. We live near a small provincial Ontario city and the Chinese food there is so bad..."all you can eat buffets" and nothing else. DH and I make our own Chinese dishes at home. No doubt, nothing authentic, but we like them. I still can't imagine eating some of the things you enjoy...

And if I could be embarrassed, I would be. Thanks so much, pbear, for your post. And now we've been married 54 1/2 years and I am even older than then. And evidently losing my steel-trap memory quite rapidly. Thanks again. And ditto here about eGullet being very important in making me the cook I have become as noted by scubadoo97.

The cookbook which greatly contributed to making me the cook I am today still sits in my bookcase devoted to cookbooks. It has no covers...but I seem to recall a darkish green cloth cover. It's missing the first 63 pages and I have no idea of how many pages at the back are gone, but the index is missing. My copy ends at p.724. It's been used and abused for over 50 years. It contains photos, but only a few in color. It's an ugly mess, stained and ripped, with burn marks, but I still make things out of it. I have no idea of its title, of who published it, of where I got it. I think at the time most, if not all, of it was available in chapter paperback series. I would never give it up.

I am not one of the 'so knowledgeable' persons, but here's my experience. Previously frozen heavy whipping cream can be used as an ingredient in cooking. I've used it in making ganaches. Previously frozen cream cheese can end up having its texture changed into a grainy sort of thing and I wouldn't use it in making a cheesecake at all.

Homemade seem cheap? Oh no. On the contrary, I find that our recipients are so touched that I would go to all that trouble on their behalf. If you made me some homemade zucchini bread, I would be over the moon.

What about adding a packet of fancy napkins. Or a Christmas plate (not too expensive.)