SylviaLovegren

The old standard American cookbooks like Joy of Cooking and Betty Crocker tell you how they measure the dry ingredients. Some do it by sifting then scooping, others sift directly into a cup, some scoop and level, then sift and remeasure. By weight makes way more sense.

I hope not! One of the best things about EG.

Benny's is still there and the pies are still the same,still the same Albanian family. An acquired taste but sometimes all you want is a giant gooey Benny's slice. Didn't realize how much I would miss NY/NJ pizza when we moved to Toronto. Can't find bupkis worth eating here. Maybe it exists, but it has not come to mama yet.

Is there something called salmon jerky? The US Pacific NW aboriginal peoples make a dried smoked salmon thing that could be considered salmon jerky, but I find it delicious -- deeply flavored of smoky wood and chewy salmon.

Don't usually get LOLs on EG. Ha ha ha. Thanks!

When will Trader Joe's open in Canada? That's the one place I really really miss here.

Forgot to add: Diener's may be even better for breakfast than it is for dinner (or you can do we what used to and have breakfast and dinner there, using lunch time to digest...). They have scrapple and grits (PA is close to the South) and creamed chipped beef, along with all sorts of bacon, eggs, breads, etc. Excellent. BUT the best part is the breakfast sweet rolls. We try to get there early enough to buy a dozen of the pecan rolls to go -- they sell out fast, they are so delicious.

We were down in the States last week and I had Dannon's Oikos Greek yoghurt. The full fat was really good. I was impressed!

One of my favorite parts of the world. We used to take trips there every year when we lived in NJ. For a real Amish-country experience, go visit Diener's on Rte 30 in Ronks (about 10 miles east of Lancaster). They stop serving at 6 PM, so be sure you get there on time (they cater to farmers). It's an all-you-can-eat buffet but not one of the touristy ones that cost an arm and a leg. Last time we were there, dinner was $9.99 and filled with rib-sticking PA Dutch food made locally and the customers are Amish and locals -- along with lotsa church tour buses. There's usually a line but it's worth the wait, unlike some of the more touristy and expensive Amish buffets in the area. There's also a wonderful food store on Rte 340 about a mile west of Ronks Rd -- can't remember the name. If it comes to me, I'll come back, but it's a German name, Kaufman maybe, or something like that. It's run by Amish and has a huge variety of bulk food and local products and the prices are unbelievably low. Check out the beef Lebanon sausage made locally -- I prefer the non-sweet variety but the sweet is interesting. And there are huge tubs of a local yoghurt that are delicious, the fresh peach is my favorite. The variety of grains and cooking supplies are mind-boggling, as well. I bought toasted corn meal once and absolutely bombed on what to do with it -- would love to be able to get out there and try another batch!

One of the best egg salads I ever had was made by a friend when we were stuck on a Caribbean island (hard luck story, yo!) with eggs and butter but no mayo. Mr friend (who is thin, dang her eyes) made egg salad with butter. She creamed the butter first until it was soft and fluffy, then mixed in the roughly chopped eggs with some salt and pepper. It was incredibly rich and incredibly delicious. Without my friend and an island, I like it with warm eggs, salt and pepper, and some mayo, especially on some fresh whole wheat bread.

Bumping this back up for you. I haven't been to LA for years but when I lived there, there was so much good food you almost couldn't go wrong. There were, of course, lots of high end places that had amazing food, but what I loved were the local hole in the walls that made amazing Mexican or Thai or other ethnic food. And the local places that had fantastic burgers or hot dogs or whathaveyou. I used to love Ships diner in Culver City that had the most delicious fried shrimp sandwiches. Must be some LA food mavens here who can tell you what's good now.

I loved that picture of the old lady and she looked like my grandmother and her sisters, too. Yes, cover photos would be lovely!

Almond rather than pistachio for the tuile, I think. Pineapple seems more right than strawberry with the coffee flavor, but how does the wine flavor come out? I'm thinking the extra acid effect of the wine (or the balsamic, for that matter) jar against the coffee. Maybe some caramelized notes in the pineapple?

Hah.

A crisp cookie sounds good to me, too. Chocolate is the obvious choice but something nutty might be good, too. A thin, crisp tuile type with toasted almonds, maybe?

Are they apples? I thought they were Darth Vader heads... Gorgeous! Great job!

Oooh, and my favorite 50s pattern china!

ASIN numbers are Amazon's internal id numbers. I looked on Amazon for "time life cooking of the middle east" and came up with 4 different offerings with 3 different names (!) but they are all the same Time Life book. What happens when you sell on Amazon is that if you list the book slightly differently, Amazon will give it a separate listing and a separate ASIN. This can cause confusion for book buyers and sellers and is a constant complaint among careful booksellers who have to compete against folks who can't be bothered to be accurate when listing a book. Here's the Amazon search: http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=time+life+cooking+of+the+middle+east

There's a recipe on allrecipes that seems pretty standard and has good reviews http://allrecipes.com/recipe/norwegian-lefse/ Never tried the recipe though -- lefse was one of those things I hated as a kid and have never tasted it since.

The American cooking ones are simply wonderful. Although the Russian book entranced me when I was a young woman -- maybe I should crack that one open again!

An entire book on biscuits? That I would like to see (or does it mean "cakes," as it sometimes does?). Would also like to see the patisserie book. I still have about 6 or 7 volumes in my cookbook collection.I think "biscuits" in this case means what we in the States call "cookies."

A Greek recipe for an artichoke stew with lemon, carrots, potatoes and onions. It is really good, especially the 2nd day. Here's one version: http://greekfood.about.com/od/lentenmaindishes/r/Artichokes-City-Style-With-Lemon-And-Dill-Aginares-A-La-Polita.htm As to whether you could freeze the stew... No idea. Might work.

Is the biodynamic farm from upstate still selling? They specialized in cheese and bread and their old cheddars were amazing. The yoghurt was also delicious. Our son actually spent a week working on the farm as part of a school project...but I can never remember the name.

For salting water and general in cooking seasoning, I used iodized table salt. For finishing and salads, I use Kalas Greek sea salt -- I love it's rounded flavor. We have a Canadian brand of pickling salt on the table -- because it's the only one dry enough to not clog the mechanism of my table salt grinder.

Put them on the compost heap...I loathe sundried tomatoes. ;0 Big help, huh?