SylviaLovegren

I have a couple of cocktail books from mid-30s. Some of the selections include Singapore Gin Sling, Manhattan, Whiskey Sour, Orange Blossom, Gin Fizz, Gin Rickey.

When we were in the US, we used to get the Trappist's preserves and I remember the apricot one being very good. I grew up on homemade preserves of every type and it took me a long time to get used to the oversweet dead taste of most commercial products. Trappist always tasted to me closest to fresh.

I would also recommend Richard Olney's French Menu CB and Simple French Food. His directions (and taste) are impeccable and it's very much home cooking.

What Kerry said. The lake effect usually protects the Niagara area. This year the polar vortex prevented the lake effect at times and the vineyards were frozen more than normal. The vineyards will have to wait until spring to see how severe the damage is, if much at all. They don't really know.

We just came back from Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, which is also wine country. We picked up a number of different wines but our favorite so far is the Trius Cabernet Franc, 2012. Lots of tannin but rich berry flavor. Delicious.

Canadian bacon doesn't exist in Canada, I don't think, or at least not in Ontario where they have "peameal bacon" instead. Per wiki: "Peameal bacon is made from boneless pork loins, short cut from the leaner portions of the loin, to ensure a more uniform product. External fat is generally trimmed to within 1/8 inch (3 mm). Smokeless and tender, this product is sweet pickle-cured and rolled in a traditional golden cornmeal coating." Peameal must be cooked, then it looks like "Canadian bacon" but is tender and succulent. A very delicious thing.

When we lived in NJ we had 4 different supermarkets within easy reach -- A&P, WholeFoods,Kings and Stop&Shop. They all carried rotisserie chicken and we tried all four stores, assuming that WholeFoods would be best, followed by Kings (an expensive chain). What we found was that the A&P roti chicken was delicious, with succulent meat and a clean chicken flavor. Barely acceptable was the WholeFoods chicken, which was bland and sometimes dry. The expensive Kings chicken was meh, tended to be dry and was the highest price. The Stop&Shop chicken was mushy with an off-taste and not worth buying -- we'd change our dinner plans if that was all that was available. But I was surprised at the marked difference in the 4 stores' results. I almost never buy bagged "pre-washed" lettuce and if I do, I wash it. But with tearing a few handfuls of lettuce and popping them in the salad spinner, what's the hassle with buying whole lettuce? Make lots of fresh beans but always have canned varieties on hand -- chick peas, especially. Always have chicken stock or bouillon in the pantry. Where do people buy friend chicken?

Wow, a lot of folks here seem to want to punish the waiters by docking their tips. This is why I hate the whole tipping system. I would hate having to be a waiter and having to deal with rude folks, clueless folks, nutty folks, self-important jerks, the whole panoply of not-so-pleasant humanity and have my wages depend on whether or not I'm able to live up to the bars set by each of these characters. Of course, waiters should do their best to be courteous and efficient. And better waiters will learn the "right" way to do things and also develop those eyes in the back of the head. The best waiters will make you want to come back to the restaurant because they have helped create a successful ambiance that you want to re-experience. But punishing some poor schlub who's probably in a miserable job situation by withholding a few dollars from his pay packet just seems so petty. If the service is really bad then the management should be consulted. Otherwise, tip reasonably.

I'm wondering if the gelatin in the cream layer inhibits the absorption of the cream into the cake layers. Surely the gelatin wouldn't have been traditional. Just a thought.

Martha Stewart says "herb" with an "haitch" and it drives me crazy. In America, it's "erb". Adding the "h" back -- especially when the person doing it is from Jersey City, New Jersey, for cornssake -- seems pretentious. She probably says "at hospital" and "at table," too. And "carmel" is a regional thing, as annabelle says. I grew up in the PacNW of the US hearing "carmel" and was surprised to get to NY/NJ and hear "car-a-mel".

An old fashioned whisk -- the only type my mom had -- but perfect for smoothing gravies and things like lemon curd without incorporating air. The action is up and down rather than round and round. http://www.kitchenandcompany.com/kitchen-tools/cooking-utensils/whisks/_/Whip-It-Whipper/?= I've got my mom's and I found another at a garage sale. I glom on to them because they're scarce, so always on the lookout for this type.

Seems like if you don't like the taste of fresh garlic, don't use it. You could substitute shallots for a milder flavor. What kind of things are you hesitating to use fresh garlic in?

Just taste to make sure it hasn't turned to vinegar or developed some weird off flavors. Most likely it's fine and it will taste fine in the sauce.

Me, too. Had NO idea what to expect when I opened this thread....

Choucroute garnie, with beer as the sauerkraut braising liquid instead of white wine, is good. I use a pale ale or lager, nothing too dark or heavy. Their must be some Irish recipes using stout. But I don't know them.

I posted this originally in pastry because my question was for fruits as dessert not in savory salads. What are your favorite syrups, herbs, sweeteners, spices for different fruits? grapefruit with a star anise syrup as an example. A Saudi fruit salad I had once used a boiled honey syrup with cardamom that was cooled then mixed with melons and orange sections. Delicious. My dad used to make a zabaglione with pineapple juice instead of the marsala, then use that to dress a pineapple based fruit salad. That was once very common in the US but it has pretty much disappeared. Due for a comeback!

Jarred kimchee, most salted fish, andouillete. But blue cheeses just smell delicious to me.

As you can tell, we are all pretty clueless on this board without your input. I went for bold & direct last night with David A. Embury's Toronto. 2 oz Bulleit rye, 3/4 oz Fernet-Branca, 1/4 simple syrup. This is much heavier on the Fernet than what Chris posted upthread. Lemon peel because that's all I had, but would have preferred orange. On the first few sips, the Fernet is not as forward as I had imagined, but rather meshes well with the rye and augments its flavor instead of fighting with it. It's surprisingly tame, at least initially. As someone else wrote earlier, it is rather intriguing; as the flavor evolves you want to take another sip to find out where it is leading you. The Fernet does not become completely obvious until the end when it finally takes over. Nice cocktail. I made a batch of these (first time) for Super Bowl and, wow, strong buggers. All of us who tried it liked it, but opted for diluting it with seltzer or tonic. Buncha wimps, I guess.

A bit of sugar or honey if the fruit needs it and then some citrus -- lemon, lime or orange, depending on the fruits involved, what's available and my mood. A recent happy combination was fresh pineapple with pomegranate seeds. Grapefruit sections with pomegranate with some honey was also a happy combo. (Can you tell that CostCo had pomegranate arils on sale?) Kiwi and banana with some lime juice is good. An old trick is to marinate some of the fruits in champagne (or ginger ale) before mixing them into the salad.

Doesn't seem like it, does it? But it's a big pasta brand on the east coast. Canada has a Dr. Oetker's brand pizza. Just can't handle it.

Stoned Wheat Thins originated in Canada. They are available in some places in the States also. We have bought them in Utah for years but haven't been back since the Canadian formula changed. So I can't say about the current state of the cracker in the USA. Not "Stoned Wheat Thins" which taste the same on both sides of the border, but the Nabisco (Canada Christie) Wheat Thins.

Love the original Wheat Thins but the formula in Canada is different (!!!) so don't buy them here. We get a thin crisp rice cracker that we like a lot but no one else seems to, judging from the leftovers at our soirees. The very thinnest Finn Crisp rye crackers are lovely but hard to find. Ditto Ak Mak. Thinking about it, I don't like most of the cracker offerings available to us, at least the ones I know of. Most seem to have too strong a character of their own, overwhelming the cheese/paste/meat things that go atop them, or have an unpleasant cardboard texture -- except the commercial ones loaded with weird fats. I will read others' favorite suggestions hopefully!

Can't say I agree--I use soured milk all the time as a buttermilk substitute with good results. Pancakes/waffles, muffins, cupcakes, biscuits..... That's interesting. I've tried using sweet milk with vinegar numerous times and the baked goods just DON'T come out as tender as those I make with buttermilk or thinned yoghurt. Maybe I give off bad electro-magnetic joojoo or something.

Adding vinegar to milk to substitute for buttermilk just doesn't work. I don't know why, but it doesn't, even though all the cookbooks say it does. If I don't have buttermilk on hand (which I almost never do), I use yoghurt thinned with a little milk. Then you get the tender crumb you're looking for. Agree that if you're going to use applesauce instead of oil, use unsweetened.

Tossing the orzo with lots of oil, butter and/or lamb fat helps keep it from sticking to forks and plates. The pot the orzo's cooked in is just the cook's reminder that life's joys need to be paid for.