SylviaLovegren

Blackberry jam and blackberry pies. Than which there is no better. You can always can or freeze the berries for later use in baked goods or pies, too.

One of the problems is that the Charentais is a true cantaloupe, as mostly grown in Europe. In North America, the "cantaloupe" is actually not a cantaloupe but a muskmelon (the netted skin pattern is the give away). A few specialty places in N.A. will grow European cantaloupes, including the Charentais, but most don't. But it's confusing when Europeans and North Americans talk about cantaloupes because they don't usually realize two different kinds of melons are being discussed. There are some mighty fine muskmelons that have been developed in North America, although they are mostly hard to find, too, except in farmer's markets. For the same reason the Charentais is tricky -- thin skin and they go bad within a few days of picking. Before the onset of big ag in the mid-20th century, there were numerous local muskmelons that were popular, including the Montreal melon, the Irondequoit, etc., but they mostly disappeared 50 years ago and the market was taken over by the standard "cantaloupe" and honeydew melons that you see in the supermarket. There is definitely a push to revive some of those good but fragile old time melons. Ask your farmer's market to see if anyone is growing these more interesting melons. And make a request at your local Whole Foods or whatever the expensive organic market is in your neck of the woods. Higher demand will sometimes get things moving!

No, I hadn't seen that, thank you! Libretto and Terroni sound the best to me, too, and Libretto isn't terribly far away, so good chance. The thing is, most of the places in the article are "fancy" pizza, which is fine. But when you're watching football or coming in after a hard day's raking, I don't want fancy pizza. I want a traditional NJ/NY style pie with either a thick or thin crust, some nice tomato sauce and some cheese. Don't give me all the dang toppings! OK, half mushroom and they better be canned... A place opened up near us with a wood burning pizza oven but the result is very meh. Expensive and meh. There are LOTS of good restaurants in Toronto. But casual pizza joints, at least in my neighborhood, are pretty bad. Pineapple pizza is common and one chain offers "garlic sauce" (looks like mayo with stuff) to dip the pizza in! The horror.

Oh, man, just wish I had any of them. So far, pizza in Toronto is for bupkis. Great pub food we get. Pizza, not so much. Maybe I'm missing a great place, in which case, tell me awready!

Fascinating and fantastic. Wow.

Good point. We have a friend in the States who keeps trying to send us pickles and relishes she makes -- only about 1/3 get through.

We are in downtown Toronto and get tons of kids. I adore Halloween -- the kids, be they 3 or 15, are just too cute. We try to get a real assortment of candies because I know some kids don't like chocolate (there really are people who don't like chocolate, can you imagine?). So lots of gummies and stuff like that. But this year, we got a number of Hindu and Muslim kids who asked for items with no gelatine (hadn't thought of that) and kids who wanted to make sure their were no peanuts. Very tricky! And, of course, now my niece is shaming me about buying slave produced chocolate. I still love the kids...and chow down on the leftover candy. Although I'm having trouble with the texture on the gummy rats.

We bought some on sale a few months ago not realizing they were glazed. (Not Perdue brand, some Canadian mass brand instead.) They were all right -- would not use them in anything that features the taste and texture of a really good chicken breast. But as inexpensive, quick, easy to use protein food, they were acceptable.

You can omit the egg in the first layer or bake the first layer enough to cook the egg. If you do that, cool before adding the other layers. My American grandmother's recipe for Nanaimo bars from the 50s didn't add the custard powder to the middle layer, instead it was more just plain powdered sugar frosting with flavorings. In Toronto, the middle layer seems always to be the straight vanilla, don't know whether other provinces, especially B.C., are purists still But just across the border from Vancouver in Washington State, Nanaimo bars come in all kinds of flavors -- my favorites are the raspberry ones and the peanut butter, although mocha cream is pretty good, too. When I visit my SIL who lives in a tiny town on the US side of the border and is a big Nanaimo bar fan (other members of the family think they're too sweet!), we always visit the local bakery and pig out on a variety of flavors together. Now, that's a tradition! ETA: And I see from your link, Milos, that some B.C.er's have no problem straying from vanilla, either!

Adding Velveeta or Kraft-style cheese slices to cheese sauce makes the sauce much less likely to curdle -- for mac and cheese I try to use about 1/3 of the processed cheese and the rest can be good stuff. Must be those chemicals in the processed cheese that inhibit the curdling and separating.

Applesauce is good but hot lemon sauce (aka "snot sauce" when we were kids) is better.

Sounds delicious. Don't have the book but am willing to drool along while you cook from it!

Fruit cake is only for Christmas (and left overs for as long as I can stretch them into January). And Lebkuchen, ditto. In fact, all the Christmas cookies. And stuffing -- it's only for Thanksgiving (and maybe Christmas, if I'm forced to make turkey again). Most fruits and veg I try to eat only in season and local, but since we live in a cold northern place, sometimes I break that rule. But it just seems wrong to be eating asparagus in December.

Wow, that basteeya looks beautiful and delicious. Had just been drooling over Claudia Roden's chicken basteeya recipe in Mediterranean Food -- maybe it's a sign!

Heck, in the 1990s a Texan friend married an English guy. After the honeymoon, he came home from work, looked at the empty dining room table unbelievingly and said, "Where's my tea, you stupid cow?" The marriage did not last long.

I haven't seen the Bakers Coconut animal cakes, but the Betty Crocker kid's cookbook from the early 60s had them and I used to lust after them. Never had one but, oh, the fantasies! I really really wanted the lion cake. Sigh.

That is exactly my mom's recipe for stuffing that I love love love. I do add pecans for a little crunch. Best stuffing ever. Been eating it for many decades and have no interest in changing!

Ask over on the liquor forum for advice on strongly flavored bourbons. Those folks seem to know a lot!

Once my mom made angel food cake with pink 7-minute frosting in swirls and my Barbie doll was stuck in the middle, so she looked like she had a fantastic pink skirt. Otherwise it was white butter cake, from scratch, with buttercream frosting, or angel food from a mix with a powdered sugar glaze in pink. ETA: My dad would always complain if the angel food wasn't home made because he didn't like the taste of the aluminum-based leavening agent used in commercial cakes.

Beer-flavored ganache somehow doesn't sound right (so, surprise me!), but for some reason a beer flavored jelly or cream inside a chocolate shell sounds like it could work. Particularly with some of the dark beers/ales/stouts that have a sort of deep rumbly caramel flavor anyway. It would have to be a very dark chocolate, almost not sweet. And maybe a crystal or two of salt on top, or some shards of salted brittle? Sorry for the tangent but it struck me.

Please share!

We just got back from a wedding in the Raleigh area. We were very pleased to discover that the bride and groom had opted for a pig pickin' for their wedding dinner. With vinegar sauce. And collards. Yay! Welcome.

My mom's bread stuffing. The best. (It's from the 1950 Betty Crocker cookook, but reduce the salt a whole bunch.) We could get by without any of the other stuff, or with the other stuff changed, but not that stuffing. We have it once a year and no matter how much I make there are almost no leftovers.

Looking forward to it!

So sorry to hear this. Take care of yourself! But also tell me about those orange creamsicle cookies...