[Brand loyalty and the recession]

Except for a few things like soy sauce and tea , where there is a noticable difference, I haven't had a lot of brand loyalty to begin with, unless you include being loyal to store brands(some are actually very good.)

I think that shopping at Costco-like places, which I never did a lot of, has made people less brand-loyal. They will often stop and start brands according to whim and customers have to deal with it. It used to be that way anyway.

But things change. For example, Medaglio d'Oro used to be the only instant coffee I would consider but now Starbucks has one that isn't bad although they insist on putting it in little packets instead of a jar. Now Trader Joe's is re-introducing instant coffee. I haven't tried it, but since it's Trader Joe's , it's probably pretty good.

When it comes to things like canned tomatoes or paper products, I could never understand why people didn't buy generics.

[Christmas Hampers]

Smoked salmon springs to mind. That's probably because I'm from Seattle.

I also like chocolate-covered dried blueberries and cherries(not cordials--dried cherries)

Super high quality fresh licorice is also good. Trader Joe's is even pretty good.

[Fruitcake -- Bake-Off IX]

I realize that a lot of people don't like fruitcake--this thread isn't for them. I take my fruitcakes pretty seriously and only give them to people that I know like them. I got the recipe I like from Glamour magazine in the late seventies(a magazine like that probably wouldn't print something like that now). I prefer to get them made in November but this year I will make them tomorrow(Dec. 2) The ideal aging time is 4-5 weeks, I've found. I've experimented with many liquor variations--bourbon, brandy, etc. but found my favorite is Southern Comfort(100 proof if I can get it)and gin in the batter and sweet vermouth to pour over. I've decided that it's best to think of fruitcake not as a cake but a little bit of batter binding together a bunch of fruit and nuts.

I've also come to realize that Christmas pudding is basically a steamed fruitcake. For that, I like a recipe called "100 year old pudding" from an Australian recipe site called Food Down Under.

So does anybody here like fruitcake or steamed pudding?

[Best Manhattan variations?]

I like them with Southern Comfort, 100 proof if I can get it.

[What ONE cookbook can you not live without?]

The Settlement Cookbook, but there are many other close contenders.

[The Fresh Pasta Topic]

Rice noodles would be good when you're cooking for people with wheat allergies.

I occasionally make pasta. I've never had a machine. You just need a rolling pin, a sharp knife and a lot of patience. I learned the summer I was 18. My cousin had just gotten the Fannie Farmer cookbook and was bored so decided to make ravioli. Neither of us had made it before. There was left over dough, so she made noodles from it. So that is the recipe I use today, usually with beef stroganoff.

Semolina pasta flour helps a lot. I use Red Mill.

[(Canned) Pumpkin shortage predicted]

I heard this too. I noticed that QFC(Kroger) canned pumpkin was abnormally expensive. Rite-Aid has been advertising it for 99 cents, but so many Rite-Aid stores are either closing up or too small to have a wide array of food, I don't know if that will work. I'm trying Safeway later today. My back-up plan is to make blueberry-plum-blackberry pie since fresh blueberries are back in the stores, though of course they're from the southern hemisphere(so much for being a locavore). I have plums and blackberries frozen from summer. I am one of those people who picks blackberries in the roads and alleys even though they tell you not to. People love the blueberry-plum-blackberry pies, which I usually serve at Labor day.

[Lamb Stew: Cook-Off 50]

I usually end up buying a leg, making several different meals with pieces cut off that have been frozen, then boiling the remainder for soup. I have given up finding little packages of lamb already cut up like you do beef.

In the eighties I got a cookbook called Lamb Around the World that was being given away in supermarkets in Montana by the Lamb Board to promote more mutton-eating among Montanans who may raise it but don't eat it as much as the sheep industry would like. There is a good curry recipe in that.

James Beard also has a good kebab recipe in Barbecuing with Beard. It's marinated, of course.

Couscous stew is always good with lamb, sometimes in combination with another meat.

I'm at the library now so don't have any of these recipes with me.

[Chocolate & confectionary Books]

I like the Hershey's 1934 Cookbook. I got this in the seventies and it is supposedly a reprint of an old Hershey's cookbook. I don't make candy, but there are a couple of good pudding recipes in there--a chocolate bread pudding with meringue that I make a lot and of course cornstarch pudding.

Actually I do make candy, but only Carnation 5-minute fudge. Real candymaking is too intimidating for me.

[Fennel]

It sure is hardy. It's like a weed. I wish my basil would grow like that. It wilts and turns yellow if you look at it cross-eyed.

I can't really find anything on it that looks like a bulb, just stalks and roots.

[Food neuroses that drive you nuts]

Is it asking too much for an adult not to be irrationally picky about food? Apparently so. I don't like seeing a little pile something(onions, peas, etc.) that has been carefully picked out of a salad or whatever on the side of somebody's otherwise clean plate. They probably think that they are being polite because they haven't said anything, and I suppose they are. I have a friend who has several things he will not eat for a variety of reasons--salmon,cheesecake, mushrooms and dishes with eggs as an obvious primary ingredient(such as egg salad--he will eat baked goods, puddings, etc. with eggs) He calls mushrooms "fungi". Not only that whenever that food comes up in conversation, he always reminds people he doesn't like it. For example, I might say I'm going to Fred Meyer to buy a salmon on sale and he will again mention that he doesn't like it, even though he knows I wasn't planning to serve it to him. I was just letting him know I was going to Fred Meyer.

Unbeknownst to me, spinach must have been on his list of hates. Once he was eating salad at my house, and remarked how good the lettuce was. I said, "That lettuce was spinach."

The mushroom thing really bothers me, though. I really like them, and just can't give them up. Often when he comes over, salad mushrooms are in a little bowl on the side, and of course he announces to all present why these mushrooms are being served on the side. Beef Bourgonione and Coq au Vin? He just never gets asked over when I make those. He would probably like them, but I'm too stubborn to make them without mushrooms.

[Fennel]

These are the pictures I promised. I did harvest some seeds. I think I'll put them in the Thanksgiving stuffing instead of the usual celery seed.

[Fennel]

Thanks. I will try to post a picture.

[Fennel]

We have a little garden patch at my building that is mostly flowers and herbs. At some point somebody planted fennel or maybe it volunteered. Anyway, it's like a weed. I don't like to waste it, but don't know how to use it. I've done a little research in cookbooks and they say use it like celery, or use the roots. Some compare it to sorel( I don't like sorel.) For one thing, it seems that they would be pretty tough and woody. They're very hard to dig up. I'm wondering if there are different varieties and this is an ornamental variety or something. I've tried online gardening sites like Ann Lovejoy or Cisco Morris and haven't found much. What can I do with this stuff? (I live in Seattle)