SylviaLovegren

Would love to see it! Thanks!

Kerry, I haven't seen that PC offering -- I'll look to see if anyone in my neighborhood carries it. Creola, sounds good to me! I actually made non-cooked eggnog yesterday with some fresh farm eggs and it was pretty good. My only concern is that my husband and son don't like it with booze in it (they really are very nice people, otherwise) and the alcohol apparently does help kill any egg borne bacteria. On Sunday I made some cooked eggnog, but we didn't like the flavor nearly as much. I wonder if the paucity of eggnog here is a result of the English heritage? In the old eggnog recipe thread there's a comment from someone who took homemade eggnog to a party in England and none of the English knew what it was. I bet Dickens would have known! Wonder if the west and maritime parts of Canada are also low in eggnog?

Any Torontonians have a source for decent bought eggnog? Coming from the NJ area in the States, I'm used to having dozens of choices of eggnogs in the markets...and even the lowest supermarket brand is usually fairly adequate. So I didn't think anything about it when I picked up the President's Choice eggnog at the Freshco the other day, although I was surprised to see it was the only kind offered. But when the PC eggnog was poured it resembled thickened yellow water, which was pretty much what it tasted like and examining the ingredient list, sugar and water were the two top entries. Blech. That got dumped straight down the drain. Dreadful stuff. The health food store had Soy Nog but when I asked about eggnog they said they couldn't get any this year. ??? The other health food store in our neighborhood does carry Harmony Farms eggnog, which is pretty good (not fabulous but pretty good) but it's $8 for about 2 cups full. The Loblaws had another brand -- one only, as well, like Freshco -- but the ingredient list started with water and sugar and I'm not going that route again. NoFrills had a different President's Choice offering -- this one with spiced rum flavoring -- but it also listed water and sugar as the first two ingredients. Is eggnog not a particularly popular thing in Toronto? Maybe it's just my neighborhood? Anyone have a source/brand of good eggnog? The Harmony was pretty good, as I said, but at that price, I could make my own and end up with more than 2 cups worth of nog.

Those are beautiful!

Here's what Wikipedia has to say about it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flip_%28cocktail%29

Making it really really difficult to find cream that's not ultra-pasteurized. Stuff has a dead taste that I dislike intensely but even a lot of health food stores sell only organic ultra-pasteurized. Grrrrr.

But that's unpossible! Cookies are supposed to be easy, in general. What kind of cookies induced these feelings of failure and despair?

Oh, golly, cashews. Yes. I'm also mildly allergic to them so I not only do I feel like a pig for eating a whole can full, but also feel all tingly and weird. But I lurves them.

I'm just making my candied citrus peels now, then I'll be able to make my honey spice bars...and white fruit cake. Will try to make rum balls, pecan puffs, and frosted sugar cookies, but somehow there's less time in the world and more waistline!

Is that a technical chef-y term? They DO sound good.

Love pistachios (they've been on sale recently, so having them for breakfast every morning with Saudi dates, yum), weak in the knees for chips and dip, but the treat that makes me lose self control is lemon curd. It can be jarred or it can be freshly made, but it is irresistible to me. (The jarred stuff has to be good, though. The industrial grade lemon curd isn't worth using as floor wax.) It's the "just one more spoonful" and the next thing you know, it's almost gone and then you HAVE to finish it so you can throw away the jar or wash the bowl to hide the evidence of your shameful gluttony and weakness. I never have it in the house. And by the way, PSmith, I'd never heard of malt loaf but it sounds lovely. If I can find a malt supply here, I want to try it...with butter!

I've never "experimented" with this but I can tell you from experience that salting the water absolutely results in salted food and forgetting to salt the water results in unsalted food. And if you add other things to the water -- garlic, herbs, meats, etc., -- those flavors go into the food as well.

Rosemary and thyme are fine. Try to find Greek oregano dried...and I much prefer it in cooking to fresh oregano. Dried parsley is just dust. I find dried basil odd, as well. Dried tarragon and dried dill are also good.

Wow. I hadn't seen the earlier thread. I would not eat at any of those chef's restaurants, I don't care how good the food is supposed to be. Total jerks, bullies and crybabies. Ugh.

This. Where we were in NJ, we could get the chickens from A&P, which were juicy and excellent; Whole Foods which were more expensive and OK but not great; and Stop&Shop, which were unpleasant. I always made some sort of broth out of the carcasses. Waste not, want not!

Allergies or at least sensitivity could play a part in many food dislikes. Don't know if that's ever been studied. A friend of mine is gluten intolerant and one smell that she can't stand -- to the point of nausea -- is freshly baked bread. My husband, who has a problem with lactose, gets nauseated by the smell of fresh milk. Your nose is trying to tell you what the rest of your body thinks of ingesting that particular food.

Yippee! And, yes, photos!

Let's find out. An interesting discussion, for sure, but still doesn't answer the question. Although the explanation that new immigrants had to choose "sauce" or "gravy" for "sugo" sounds plausible to me. Google so far reveals nothing, except that "gravy" appears across the country in various Italian immigrant communities, and not just in the greater NY area.

Example? I can't think what you're describing.

Time for a Parkin tasting party! Who's with me?

I know! What is the POINT of non-melting chocolate? I already hate most of the expensive 90% chocolate bars that are around because they are crisp and brittle and don't melt at body temperature, and they crunch when you bite them. Chocolate should not crunch, it should melt in a lovely bittersweet puddle of deliciousness. What is the world coming to?

I LOVED her when she was at the LA Times, but her books got a bit too personal, for me, I really didn't want to know all those things about Colman Andrews...

I really don't think that has anything to do with it. In fact, sometimes the opposite. I once put sugar on my scrambled eggs instead of salt and my mother made me sit there until I ate every last bite. It took me about 2 hours. 53 years later I still can't stand the taste of sweetened egg. Also grew up in an oyster loving family. I have tried and tried and tried to like oysters. I love clams, and crabs and shrimp. Not wild about mussels but can tolerate them. But I just hate oysters. And most gelatinous meaty things -- chicken wings, cow ears, tripe, sea slug, etc. I have a real hard time at authentic Korean restaurants.

Pre-spiced pork!? An old reliable quickie is linguine with white clam sauce -- lots of olive oil, canned clams with juice, white wine, garlic, handful of parsley. Sauce is ready by the time the pasta is boiled and drained. But if I'm really feeling drained and low, grilled cheese sammiches (with processed cheese!) are the bomb. Might have a salad, or a bowl of tomato soup, or a side of pickles and chips, but those aren't necessary, just nice. There's something about the crispy buttery toasted bread filled with melty warm cheese that is the ultimate soul soother.

There's a recipe in an old Joy of Cooking for "Parkin" which they describe as "made in Yorkshire especially for Guy Fawkes Day". I've made it many times and prefer it to most other gingerbreads -- I do add a smidge of cardamom to the spice mix: 1/2 cup butter 2/3 cup treacle -- melt together over hot water. Mix in bowl: 2/3 cup rolled oats 1 cup flour 1 tablespoon sugar 1/2 t ginger 1/4 t cloves 1/2 t salt 1/2 t baking soda Stir the dry ingredients, then the butter mixture alternating with 2/3 cup milk. combine swiftly and don't over beat, the batter will be thin. Bake in 8x8 inch pan for 35 minutes at 350F or cake pulls away from sides. It's very moist and if the treacle (or molasses) is dark, the flavor is intense. I always serve it with hot lemon sauce.