SylviaLovegren

Those seem very cool -- but why would they do one in a color that makes it look like ground beef hanging on your faucet?

Can't help you on making but it sounds wonderful -- but you're doing it tonight? Not giving yourself much room for error! I've never had spherical Sauternes, but the wine is delicious with creamy blue cheeses and with foie gras and with ham -- especially with crispy ham fat attached. You could make little mouth poppers of a couple of those with some round wine balls to go with. Or a salad sort of thing with a couple of those elements? For some reason I'm thinking of little American/southern style biscuits with crispy fat ham and Sauternes balls. Maybe someone else will come along!

Lovely trip and a pleasant surprise to find here! Do international flights still have food? Or do you have to fly business or first class to get food? Am curious why that gorgeous plate of hummous didn't look good to you? I'd like to dive right into the middle of it!

Is that a 50s coffee server repurposed as a wine carafe? Very yummy inviting looking spread. I'll be over directly.

I'm here and unscathed. But I'm not sure I'm going to be eating lablabs any time in the near future. My only worry is what to tell the hubster, who loved them and is eager to buy more. He is a super hypochondriac, so if I tell him they are poisonous he'll drive me mad trying to find symptoms ("you don't think that burp means I'm dying, do you?"). Hmmm. Strategies, strategies.

If it IS lablab, we're poisoned! We cooked it "like spinach" in oil with some salt, just a few sprinkles of water to help the pods soften. Wiki says lablab needs to be boiled with water changed a couple of times to get rid of toxins. The fruit and beans are edible if boiled well with several changes of the water.[9] Otherwise, they are toxic due to the presence of cyanogenic glycosides, glycosides that are converted to hydrogen cyanide when consumed. Signs of poisoning include weakness, vomiting, dyspnea, twitching, stupor, and convulsions.[9 The pods did have some purple on the "string" section, so maybe they were lablab. Great.

Got these in a Pakistani market the other day. The owner didn't know what the name was but just said to cook them "like spinach" in oil and then eat the whole thing. Which I did. Had to string them first and then wished I'd stringed them more, but the cooked flesh was tender and the inner seeds/peas were soft, the taste was very beany. Only cooked them a few minutes in some oil with a little salt. Anyone have any idea what they are? Couldn't find them on google but I'm probably not looking in the right place. Each pod is about 6 inches long. Thanks!

And how about a recipe for that soup? Sounds really good.

Would love to get that lamb chop recipe.

If it's roasted too long sometimes the garlic can get a rank smell. (This from the experience of many years of done-to-death garlic-studded leg of lamb at MILs for Christmas and Easter.) Since then, I prefer garlic on the outside, mashed with salt and herbs.

Wow. My response to such a situation is to have on hand crackers, breads, cold cuts, cheeses, a pot of soup or beans and/or a big ol' stew, maybe a ham. A heck of a lot less work than yours but nowhere near the variety or sophistication.

What level of difficulty and complexity are you looking for? Simple desserts can be made with fresh or preserved fruit, sugar/honey/maple syrup/brown sugar, with yoghurt/whipping cream/sour cream, etc. Served with a crisp cookie, this can be a very satisfying dessert. Crepes are simple and fast, particularly if you have the batter ready or even have crepes premade. Fillings are limited only by your imagination. Fruits sauteed in butter with sugar and then flamed with liquor if you like that are good, tasty. Topped with some sort of cream thing, extra tasty. I especially like bananas with brown sugar, lemon juice, flamed with rum, then served with creme fraiche, although a caramel ice cream would be good, too. A recipe I recently tried was a flour tortilla stuffed with sliced banana, chocolate and marshmallow, sauteed in butter until everything inside was melty. Good. At a restaurant the other day we had nutella panini -- French bread sliced and stuffed with nutella, cooked/flattened in butter, served with powdered sugar over all. Also good.

Mold some pink ice cream and show us!

Wow, that's fantastic! I want to look for her cookbook. Thanks for sharing. The cookbook was made for and distributed to the family. We got a few extra for our kids and future grandchildren Dang! No chance of a limited reprint?

Break out of my rut, a bit. Try new things! Especially cocktails!

Wow, you guys are fancy! Our football snacks extend to Doritos and sour cream. If we're having cumpny, then maybe some hummus and pita, chips and salsa. And if it's black tie, there might be crackers with cheese and/or pate.

Wow, that's fantastic! I want to look for her cookbook. Thanks for sharing.

Going to my first Canadian New Year's Day party and have no idea whether there are any Canadian food traditions associated therewith. Will find out! My sorta Swedish family always had cheese and cold cuts (especially rolla polsa, which is Norwegian, I think, and which no one has heard of anymore, at least not meat shops) and a big pot of split pea soup. Dessert was all the left over cookies and fruit cake. Very easy on the cook!

That is so interesting! My hub has the same issue with bone-in chicken and freaking out that it isn't cooked and that I've killed him!!!OMG!!! A huge pain in the rear. I hate having to do boneless chicken but it may come to that. Glad, in a way, to know I'm not alone.

Forgot salt-rising bread. Yes, outstanding toast. Unduplicatable.

Me, for overall. But... My mom made the best pies and biscuits in the world, as well as wild berry jams, crab apple jelly and roast pork with gravy. And clam chowder. And fried chicken with gravy. Her mother was an ace cake baker and waffle maker. My other grandmother canned like the wind, made exotic jell-o molds that are still legendary -- if weird -- and introduced me to homemade raspberry shrub and Nanaimo bars. Both my parents shared a love of freshly picked/harvested/caught food and introduced us to some pretty exotic stuff for their time and place. I really don't think my mom's wild blackberry or huckleberry pies have ever been -- nor will ever be -- equaled. Perfect pastry with perfect fillings. And who would have the wherewithal to find and pick all those tiny wild berries (the blackberries surrounded by vicious thorns) to fill a pie, except my father who knew what my mom could do with them? Sigh.

And that would be my second choice! Found in south Jersey, too. It is the legendary style of bread that makes hoagies and cheesesteaks what they are, but in its own right, the bread has a lot of pure, yeasty flavor and aroma without the teeth-breaking, gum-raking consistency of more "serious" breads. After years of searching, I found the identical (more or less) bread in a local bakery here, traveling under the name "monaca" (which means "nun"...go figure). Crisp crust, light, airy but doughy and yeasty interior, with an aroma that will fill a large car. I am told that it differs from the rather dismal "pane commune" here only in that it is given extra time to rise. I am not sure why it never occurred to anybody to make all white "Italian" bread in that style, but the answer appears to be that some Italians in this neck of the woods like to wipe up sauces with bread that is stale before you get it home! Seriously?! Someone else knows and loves this bread?! And your description of it is exactly right.

Really? I use bleach on stainless steel fairly regularly (we have a stainless sink). Never had any problems. Was there some coating on your mincer that caused the issue maybe?

There's a type of "Italian bread" in northern New Jersey that comes pre-sliced and sold in plastic bags that makes the very best toast. It is mildly chewy and just very faintly sour but not enough to notice unless you're looking for it. I've tried to find this kind of bread elsewhere but no success. Next time I'm in Jersey I'm going to look up the place that makes it and see if I can get more info on what it is. There is some artisanal bread in Toronto that makes delicious toast, too -- but we're comparing $10 loaves to $2 loaves of Jersey bread. Budget plays a role in toast decisions.

Turns out that new boyfriend DOES cook. My beautiful prime rib was roasted covered with foil -- it was very tender but had no crispy brown bits and there was no gravy because all the water that was put in the pan when the foil went on just turned into a mildly flavored beef broth. But we didn't need gravy because we had burned scalloped potatoes, which certainly would not have been helped with gravy. Not that I'm complaining! Much. Well, VERY much. Some, maybe. A little.