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CompassRose

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Everything posted by CompassRose

  1. I really want Alice Medrich's Bittersweet. Also, anything by Alton Brown (he's a bit too fluffy for me to spend my own money on him, therefore perfect gift material -- also, for some inexplicable reason, my library doesn't have any on the shelf). Alford and Duguid -- either Hot Sour Salty Sweet or Home Baking, I don't care. These are too expensive -- but SO gorgeous, plus the recipes I've tried (my library does have these) have been quite successful. And no one seems to want to sell any used copies. I wouldn't say no to The King Arthur Flour Baking Companion, either, but since the only place I've seen it so far in Canada is one obscure kitchen specialty store, the likes of which, out of my acquaintance, no one but me is likely to patronise, I'll have to buy this myself if I long for it. Unfortunately, our laptop is dead, so A. is unlikely to see this little list o' mine.
  2. If it were me, Nullo, I'd forego the "no refrigeration" part. Answer: preservatives. Even the best-quality energy bars (such as Trioplex, which despite labelling problems, still remains one of the few using genuine food ingredients) need to be kept in the fridge so's not to go fuzzy. The nut butter/protein powder mixes aren't always bad, but they really depend on the flavour of the protein powder you use.
  3. I hope you warn people, nightscotsman! Sugar alcohols are the devil... I hate them. I'm always soooo disappointed when I find some lovely new low-sugar low-calorie product, and see that as far as I'm concerned, it might as well be a colonic. If you need a sugar syrup, I know that Da Vinci, for one, now makes a Splenda "simple syrup". I've had good luck (at home, anyway) with using their flavoured syrups in many kinds of baked things and sauces.
  4. Until it gets to me. And I eat it. All. I adore fruitcake. I usually make a fruity cake out of Alice Medrich's Chocolate and the Art of Low-Fat Desserts; it's called California Date and Walnut Cake, and is, essentially, dates and walnuts glued together by a veil of batter. All those Philistines in my family who say "blech! fruitcake!" all seem to like it. The other thing I made last year were some "fruitcake cookies" made with mincemeat and a Royal Icing with almond paste; they tasted oh! so fruitcakey, but, perhaps because of their small size and blobby cuteness, again, went unrecognised by the anti-fruitcakers and got eaten and praised. Suvir... ...if you are really willing to share your recipe, I would much love to have it. I, and probably my father, would be terrifically grateful!
  5. Okay, so maybe a little butter never hurt anyone -- but what we're talking here is quite a lot of butter, in several things per restaurant plate. And it becomes a concern when paired with those other statistics, you know, the ones about how restaurant eating is now the norm for many meals of many families, rather than a special occasion. Even if you are cutting your entrees in half, if each half-entree is still twice what you should be eating, that's gonna add up, if you eat out the average three to four times a week and have the leftovers for lunch. Yeah. I remember being so afraid of eating in restaurants I'd be in tears at the thought of ordering. And then I'd get my "plain" grilled chicken breast, and it would still be glistening with oil, and to me at the time, inedible. It's tiring, having to explain, over and over, how your food needs to be. It turns restaurant eating from a special occasion (which it still is, for me) into a nasty obstacle course -- and, as the kind folks round here have pointed out again and again in many threads, the staff of most restaurants aren't in fact panting to help the diet-conscious stick to their ways. All those special-request, sauce-on-the-side people are no more than a big pain in the buttocks for everyone from the chef to the pearldivers, and are just as likely to have their steamed veggies drizzled with a giant chunk of lard while everyone in the back room cackles. Still, I don't see any reason why "heart healthy" has to taste like All-Bran. I don't see why I can take a chicken breast and salad and make it reasonably interesting, while most restaurants think "no oil or fat" means "no seasoning of any kind" and still charge me fifteen to twenty dollars to choke it down. Not to mention me getting my sad little meal ten minutes after everyone else, usually... Granted, I am not eating in top-flight restaurants, but it's my impression that top-flight chefs are even more likely to pitch a tantrum if you try to destroy the Integrity of their Art with special requests.
  6. Hey, waitaminnit... if I remember right, Fisher was not looking back from anything like the peak of her venerable four-score when she told most of her stories (for the first time at any rate)...
  7. Oh, yes! I have a real thing for Jewish cookbooks and cooking. I s'pose that's probably because though not Jewish, I am mostly of Eastern European descent, so all the traditional foods of Eastern European Jews "taste like home" to me. (I remember when I had nothing but variations on egg matzoh for breakfast for, oh, at least a month. And kugels! Oo, kugels are SO yummy!) I love, too, that Jewish cookbooks, much more so than other cookbooks, are as much about the people, and the whys and wherefores, as the food. There are lots of good cultural and historical reasons for this, of course... Since cookbooks are for readin' in my house, that's an extra added bonus.
  8. Thanks for the review, Cucina! I just took this out of the library, and ripped through it in a day -- I didn't think it was so bad. Yes, she's opinionated, and has very firm ideas about the "right" way to do things -- but then again, so does my mother, and my mother isn't nearly so nice about it. (Then again, so do I, in my secret heart.) I did wonder about some of the recipes, but was not moved to try them. She reminds me a bit of MFK Fisher, really -- no, really. Mary Frances is just as firm about the "right" way to do food, and has just the same curl of the lip for people who aren't "her" kind of people -- I've very often thought MFK would be a right bitch to meet. Maybe time will mellow Hesser's opinions a bit. She is, after all, very young. As for elaborate meals on the plane -- that was the chapter that really had me nodding -- yeah, yeah, exactly. I too make very careful and exact things to pack in my cooler for long drives to Ottawa -- think it's a reflection of insecurity really. Doesn't she say she's afraid of airplanes? Me, I am a little afraid of my mother; most of my visits are simply long struggles for dominance on her part, survival on mine -- so for both of us, coming prepared with at least just the right thing we want to eat is a sort of armour of the spirit.
  9. A different take on it is the Middle Eastern or East Indian dessert pastas. I've had a Middle Eastern thing that was like a fried "cake" of thin noodles, all sticky with honey syrup. It was good, sticky, sweet, oily, served at room temperature. I've also made Indian ones, which are more like vermicelli "puddings," usually flavoured with rosewater and cardamom, sprinkled with pistachios. And of course kugel is yummy! My mother used to make plum and apple dumplings, from German potato-dumpling dough, which is pretty much like gnocchi dough -- served warm, with cinnamony sauce.
  10. I'm not a pro, and I haven't tried Schokinag (they have it, at the Fancy Deli, and just looking at the price tag makes me hyperventilate a little bit. It is more expensive than either Callebaut OR Valrhona, same place.) However, one thing about the Callebaut-- which may not be the case, of course, for pros, who may get a different product-- their white block chocolate, while disastrously delicious straight off the chunk, behaves very oddly. I thought I was repeatedly screwing up, then performed a few small-scale side-by-side experiments with that, Lindt and Valrhona -- Callebaut white ganaches and things never seem to set, the ratios are all crazy.
  11. Departure? Moosewood's had fish recipes in their cookbooks since practically forever. I hope they didn't come up with the word, though.
  12. As a person who was once vegetarian, and is now an unabashed omnivore (though I do still find large and obviously meaty bits of meat slightly disturbing) who is married to a person who is still a lacto-ovo vegetarian who eats no meat at all, this annoys me for two major reasons. First, the stupid language trick, yes. Not quite as bad as most examples of corporate neologisms, but bad. Second, because these fools, these vegetarians who eat fish on days with an S in them and chicken breast on days with a Y, make it so damn difficult for the real vegetarians. I can't count how many times A. has been given "vegetarian" food with chicken broth in it, or hunks of fish, by well-meaning friends or relatives, and even by professionals. I am so tired of going through careful explanations with waitstaff, reiterating that even though the vegetarians who ate there last week loved the grilled chicken yakitori skewers, we would not care for those, and no, the fowl broth in the minestrone was not OK. That's the big problem: when stupid people use words to mean what they don't mean, other stupid people follow their lead.
  13. One other thing about urban and suburban, which I think is common no matter how you slice "hipness" -- in the urb, you are much less likely to be catering to families. I see it time and time again; even those who love their renovated townhouse or funky loft in the heart of the city will leave, sooner or later, once the first offspring come along, if they have the resources. It still isn't practical or pleasant to raise children in the city. Schools are worse, there are safety issues, yada yada. Which I think may be the root cause of what a lot of you are pointing out as the difference in menu. If you're likely to be feeding families with kids, you've got to provide the "safe" stuff for children who refuse to try anything new or weird or funny-coloured.
  14. The best meal I ever had in my life was probably not the "best" meal I ever had, but it stands out in my memory nonetheless. Once upon a time, me and the Evil Ex were heading up to Algonquin Park, camping gear strapped to the top of the Honda. There we were, on a remote northwards-facing highway, and we were hungry. We stopped at a gas station, and asked about the nearest food (expecting Joe's Hamburgs or suchlike). The gas-station guy says, "there's a really good restaurant just up the road a ways." Just up the road aways was a motel and campground, with a restaurant attached. This was years ago... I don't remember all the details, but the owner was a retired chef, and this was his piece of paradise. But he still cooked. I remember a gazpacho, exciting with new-to-me spices, perfect on the tongue, and decorated with fresh edible flowers. What else? Some kind of chicken, I think, with a lively sauce, and beautifully-roasted young summer squash with garlic and fresh herbs. All very simple (I don't remember if there was anything more exciting on the menu, but I was young and timid and probably wouldn't have ordered it) but all prepared with such gentleness and respect that I tasted everything with the lingering care of a person eating for the first time. And, of course, it was a beautiful day, slanting into early evening, and Ontario's north was at its crisp, pine-scented summer best. That was the best meal of my life so far.
  15. I've got a notepad with a magnet back stuck to the fridge, and every time A. or I get near the bottom of, or finish, some staple, we write it down. Then that's the list, and things like "whatever's perky in produce" is the frills.
  16. Mozartkugeln. And I recently tried another one from I think the same company, the Sissi (named after Empress Elizabeth of Austria) which also involved marzipan, and something fruity.
  17. I like odd centres. There's a chocolate shop here which does "gourmet" (wince) truffles, and I have tried, among other things, a chile truffle and a basil truffle, both of which were good. I'm open to finding new things to like, but this is what I don't like: Anything really stick-to-the-teeth-y -- I hate those hard/chewy British-style toffees covered in chocolate. Any way you bite them, they don't work; the chocolate peels off, and doesn't remain integral to the candy, then the candy gloms to your dentition in that annoying way. Anything liquid that drips out of the candy. I don't put the whole thing in my mouth; I like to nibble. No liqueur centres, please, or drooly fondants or thin caramels. Crunchy things and nuts aren't top on my list, but are occasionally good, so I won't exclude them. I do, however, find whole nuts of any kind annoying -- I think for the same reason as the drippy centres. If the heart of the candy is an entire hazelnut or almond or something, then it's that much harder to nibble your way round it and get a "fair" bite of everything each time. Also, as with the toffees, often if you try the chocolate will crack off randomly and flake down your cleavage to melt.
  18. I don't think the trouble is so much an overindulgence in one meal, so much as indulging in one meal -- without visible consequences -- tends to make a lot of dieters slack off in general. Plenty of people use the entire Christmas season as an excuse to eat a little of this, a little of that, and a lot of the other thing -- and yeah, that's going to add up. And for people who are restricting calories, or have lost weight, it is apparently very common to become more sugar/carb sensitive, which means that physical reactions occur which make one carby lapse that much more likely to drop you into a subsequent quicksand of junk-carb eating. If, however, one really can relax enough to enjoy one treat/cheat meal and get back on track immediately thereafter, I don't believe it will bust your efforts. And I certainly agree that people who never relax their regimens, even for a celebration, are a sad lot (and I have been one of them). It has been part of human nature since before we were human to celebrate with feasting -- occasionally. It's all very well to snort and say, "celebrate the people and the love, not the food," but you are arguing against millennia. The trouble is that every day is a feast day, these days; there is no corresponding fast.
  19. In point of fact, here (where the only kind of creamy anything, from half and half to whipping cream, is from Sealtest/Parmalat) ALL of the non-milk-or-cream ingredients listed on the nonfat half and half are listed on ALL of the other aforementioned "creamy products" as well. I don't know how they can even call that "whipping cream". I haven't been able to find unmeddled with cream anywhere, though I've looked. That said, the fat-free half and half is, indeed, a boon to the counter of calories. Makes a nice low-fat "ice cream", too.
  20. Slack Ma Girdle! Dorset Blue Vinyl! Stinkin' Bishop! All ver' fiiiine cheese! I'm very fond of Quark. Wouldn't it be fun if it was like TV margarine... open the lid of a morning, and "quarkquarkquarkquark!" No, I'm not having ducks for breakfast.
  21. Oh yeah! I had to give up the Thermapro though, now that ephedra is forbidden in Canadian athletic competition... "well, I haven't used it for dieting per se, but there was a night drive to Ottawa..." Too bad, for that combination would keep me twitchingly alert for what felt like days.
  22. Diet Coke. A lot of it. "Ice" gum, if I am feeling virtuous. If I am not, large bags of sweets. Swedish Berries, Clodhoppers, licorice allsorts, Goodies and Maltesers are my usual choices. Sometimes those gooey butter tarts of uncertain age mummified in plastic (I think they're usually Vachon brand, round here). Sadly, most of my trips are down the 401 straightaway, which has been boringly regulated to have rest stops every whatever kilometres. They alternate between the all-McDonalds all the time ones, and a Tim Hortons/Wendy's/Mr. Sub combination. I have been known to drift over a hundred kilometres on fumes because I won't stop at the McDonald's ones -- Tim Hortons' coffee sucks less. (It would be hard to suck more than McDonald's "coffee".) My order at such stops has a dreary sameness, and is from Wendy's: grilled chicken breast and a salad, plus a baked potato with salsa if I'm "doing" carbs. It's much more exciting to drive the back highways, especially in summer -- there are some Northern Ontario stops where you'll run into thrills like home-made blueberry pies in season and suchlike.
  23. It depended on the quality of the sickness. After a dentist visit (I had a lot of those; my mouth probably receives interstellar communications) it was always cream of mushroom soup. "Stomach flu" or food poisoning got flat gingerale, then later toast and soft-boiled eggs. Colds were just regular food (sometimes canned chicken-noodle soup) but it was special because it was on the Tray and you ate it on the chesterfield, while reading. I don't remember what I had during my frequent fevers. I was one of those kids who got regular fevers that soared into the stratosphere. Both measles and chicken pox went through my other three sibs with the customary symptoms; I just got a hallucinatory fever well over 105°F and no spots. And we'd also get herbal tea. I remember chamomile, and coltsfoot, at least. I don't think of any of the foods as being notably healing, though I still "do" medicinal tisanes of various sorts. And I don't particularly crave those foods now, either (though I remember when I had my wisdom teeth out, I did wander off and buy a can of cream of mushroom soup. It wasn't what I remembered.) As for what I give people when they're getting over being sick -- well, whatever they ask for. The important part is to nurture the fragile being as he or she struggles back from microbial assault. And a few nasty little teas or tinctures don't hurt either, just to remind the sufferer that there are some drawbacks to all this trays-and-books-and-rented-movies-in-bed thing.
  24. Not exactly culinary, but possibly as a fix for particularly grave culinary disasters; burnt toast is recommended in several old-fashioned home remedy books in my collection for poisoning. (Make-your-own charcoal tablets.)
  25. You're lucky, then. Or I'm unlucky. Every single time I've not checked, I come home with a box in which at least two eggs are cracked on the bottom, and have had a slow leak which glues them to the box. Which I discover when I try to pull the afflicted ovoid from its nest, the top breaks off and egg gets everywhere. I'm an Egg Nazi and proud of it. Besides, in Europe they store eggs at room temperature I believe. If an egg is properly sealed in its eggy shell, it's not going to go bad in the minute it takes me to check its neighbours.
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