Panaderia Canadiense

Should be OK, but if you're looking for a softer texture you may want to pressure-cook it or something before finishing it on the grill - exposure to open flame will make most raw goat (even kid, which is far more forgiving) toughen up like nobody's business. Incidentally, I normally marinade goat cubes in beer blendered with a bit of papaya or babaco for 2-3 days before pressure cooking and then grill-finishing if I want seared flavour.

Not in my experience. You just get little pale cocoa-coloured pearls leaking out instead.

In the line of others who have posted what they use daily, what's rarely used, and what's almost never used, here's my list (and I think that's a great idea - if you can get enough of us to do it, you'll find the "average" kitchen set in the stuff we use daily). Daily/almost daily use 12" cast iron (no enamel) skillet, with or without its lid Small stainless steel saucepan (about 2 L) Medium stainless steel saucepan (about 4 L) Large stainless steel saucepan (about 8 L) Stainless steel purpose-built vegetable steamer Ceramic casserole dishes with lids, various sizes Corelleware clear tempered glass casserole dishes, various sizes Nakiri Paring knives Steel Bread knife Cake knife Chicken shears Silicone spatulas 16" steel-bearing turntable Bamboo cutting boards Medium and large stainless steel mixing bowls Kitchenaid KW450 stand mixer (despite which I prefer to make all of my bread by hand. The KA is for cakes and icings.) Kitchen scale Blender (standing model) Measuring cups in 1, 2, and 4 cup sizes (Anchorware and graduated cylinders) and 1/4, 1/3, 1/2 and 1 cup sizes (collapsible silicone) Measuring spoons in every gradation between 1 mL and 15 mL. Stainless steel kettle Various sizes of mesh strainers, sieves, and colanders Bread pans, in tin, iron, non-stick, and tempered glass Cake pans, in springform tin, straight tin, non-stick, and various shapes of silicone Silpats and Exopats (there is a difference!) Mortar and pestle (various sizes, shapes, and materials. I have 4 sets at the moment.) Rice cooker (I have a very simple, very small one, that makes just enough rice for dinner for 4) Double Boiler Oven Thermometer Stovetop Thermometer (to 100 C) Candy Thermometer Occasional use Large chicken/turkey roasting pan, enameled iron 10" drop-forged iron round-bottomed frypan 10 L and 12 L cast-iron stockpots Stick/Immersion Blender Masher Large glazed earthenware crocks of various shapes Heat sealer Rare use Dutch oven (why do I keep this thing in the cupboard? It's only taking up space....) Boning knife Tomato knife (but when they're in season, this moves up to daily use)

I'm going to die eventually regardless of what I eat. I might as well enjoy what I eat while I'm still here! Then again, at the altitude where I live, a higher-sodium and -fat diet is almost obligatory for good health....

Yes, this is all gumpaste I'm working with. Pastillage was too crumbly, and I hate fondant. The sheep in particular are made with lemon-flavoured gum paste tinted with gel colours, and after a great deal of experimentation I settled on the pretzel stick legs for them. The base sheep is made with white paste, and then wool is added in individual twists and held on with gum arabic dissolved in vodka (which takes longer than a water solution, but evaporates very quickly and thereby doesn't cause warping of the pieces. Start dissolving the gum arabic powder in the alcohol a couple of days ahead of time to get a good solution.) I'd strongly recommend trying to get your hands on Gum Trag - it extends the open time of pastillage enough to allow the kind of effects you're seeing with my little critters. The recipe I use is as follows: 500g of the finest confectioner's sugar possible (I can get 000 mesh, so that's what I use) 10g Gum Tragacanth (accept no substitutes. Tylose makes crumbly paste, and Carboxymethylcellulose works, but not as nicely and you need twice as much) 45 mL warm water 15 mL lemon or lime juice (I squeeze fresh) 5 mL of the flavour of your preference (optional - lemon, vanilla, and almond are quite good) 15 mL liquid glucose (the stiffest grade you can get your paws on) 7.5 g neutral gelatine (I can't get leaf here, so I use Knox.) 1. Sift the sugar with the gum trag into a large mixing bowl. 2. In a separate small, microwave-safe bowl or cup, combine the lemon juice, water, flavouring, and gelatine, and let stand 10-15 minutes or until the gelatine blooms. With almond extract as a flavouring, you may have to double the amount of gelatine in order to see a bloom - something about the extract seems to inhibit it. 3. Once the gelatine mixture is kind of spongey, add the glucose, then pop the mixture into the microwave for 30 seconds on high, and then stir like crazy until everything is well combined. 4. Add this to the sugar/gum trag and knead until you have a smooth dough (it might require a little more sugar, but in no case use more than 100 g, as it will contribute to crumbly paste). 5. Roll into a chub and seal in a ziplock baggie overnight. The gum paste is ready for working in the morning. Other recipes are out there, some of which use egg whites in the formula, but I've found that this one gets me the smoothest, most workable paste with the longest open time - it's almost as plastic as plastiline/modeling clay when I get it warmed up. As with pastillage, it's a good idea to work with small amounts at any given time and to knead them well before you start forming. A piece the size of the sheep is dry to touch in about 20 minutes after I stop working it, and fully hardened overnight. ETA - if you'd like a step-by-step sheep tutorial, I can make one for you. Now that I know what I'm doing, a sheep takes about 25-30 minutes from start to finish.

I'm hoping for a sort of "squeeeee" cuteness overload when they're all combined together.

I'm surprised that nobody here has mentioned cast-iron cookware. If you can get your paws on even one pan and then take care of it, it's good for a lifetime of largely hassle-free cooking no matter what level you're at. A basic 12" cast iron skillet with a lid (even if you buy the lid separately) is crazy versatile and can be used in place of more than half of the pans you've listed above. I'm a pastry chef professionally, which for me at least means that in the dinner arena I'm all about basic, easy, fast, and tasty meals. So, while I have about 200 cake pans of varying sizes and compositions in the bakery, I have only two pans in my kitchen: a 12" cast iron skillet with a lid, and an 8" round-bottomed drop-forged iron pan that I use as a wok. You can have them when you pry them from my cold dead hands - almost everything else in the dinner kitchen is dispensable. Edited to clarify what types of pan I'm talking about.

Here's the dodo and the sheep (kudos to minas for the suggestion!). Next up, pegasus, unicorns, gryphons, and centaurs!

I've had great success candying peel that's been soaked in alcohol for about 2-3 days before I start the blanching process (it's a byproduct of producing infused brandies, and I hate to waste anything!).

Lior, now you've made me consider whether or not I can get away with a little donkey-headed fairy..... Oberon and Titania were always going to be on the cake, but I'd completely forgotten about Bottom!

For me it's chicken baked in strong mango chutney, over coconut rice, with steamed veggies on the side. It was dee-lish.

Should be doable - chicharrones are puffed up to a day in advance with no loss of texture, and they're not normally stored airtight by any means. If you can keep your duck chicharrones airtight with dessicants, they'll probably be perfect when it comes time to serve them.

Hey, make a suggestion and you'll probably get to see it made! My lemon and marzipan pastes are ready for use now - dodos, for example. are lemon critters.

Absolutely - he can be with the herd of bunnies on the carrot cake. I've also got dodo birds now....

For those who are curious, apparently the ideal number of flying pigs in a gruntle is five. Here they are!

OK, major kudos go out to Judiu. Without your suggestion, I'd never have even thought to ask the question: "how many flying pigs constitute a flock?"

The decoration charge is only slightly less than the charge for the cake itself. The whole schmoo will come in just under 1G. Today is for insects!

Straight out of the crock, sometimes with a few chives finely chopped and tossed in. I also really like it blended with cherry preserves, and as a base for hot-spicy curries.

And here's the second of four dragons (blue is for water; green is for earth. The next two will be red for fire, which will have wings, and rainbow for air, also with wings.)

If I understand the idea correctly, you're laying the equivalent of a sugar cloth over the meat before torching it. You won't get that if you use the proper ratio of components at the beginning - the fondant is the actual support that allows the sugar blankie to be wrapped evenly.

Obviously there's a red maple leaf - one of the fairies will be wearing it by way of a dress! The sizes of the pieces will vary wildly - I have mushrooms not much bigger than my first thumb knuckle, and the dragon (the largest piece by weight at the moment) is just shy of 3" tall - in the scale of this little world I'm creating, he's about as big as a standing fairy - a smaller nymph could ride him but to a larger one he's like a big dog. I love the idea of fauns and massive big bumblebees, and all manner of other bugs as well - with the kind of gloss I'm getting out of the gum arabic wash, scarab beetles would be really spiffy, and we get some real jewel-toned ones down here. My mushroom photos aren't coming out that well this morning - I'll take some later on the whitecloth. However, the fairy is lookin' good!

OMG, Baby Duck! I thought that was unique to Alberta.... It's still not the worst, but it's definitely in the bottom 5.

I'll say my worst was a Reunite "Merlot" - served to me as a table wine at a restaurant that really should have known better. (Even the Clos box wines are better, but that's damning with faint praise.) Upfront and meaty garlic sausage tones followed by a metallic clash and an unpleasant, overripe naranjilla bitter finish. I believe it's the only wine I've ever set out to drink and then spit out. I had to gargle with Listerine to remove the lingering garlic and oily clinginess - a simple sparkling water didn't suffice.

If they are exported, it's on a very small scale and only to areas that have both an Ecuadorian community and one that drinks wine. This is, however, in keeping with the size of the wineries - Conde de la Cruz, for example, corks only about 2,000 bottles in any given year. Even locally, I have only found their wines at one small liquor store whose owners have contacts in Cuenca. I'm also eagerly awaiting the five-year aged Tunguraha vintages - their 2005 and 2006 Sirah was exquisite, and I have high hopes for the 2007, which was a bumper year for the grapes. They should also be releasing their Italian styles this year, particularly the Lambrusco, which is a wine I truly adore but which is very difficult to get here. There are a couple of coastal vineyards that have larger corkages and are available nationally, but I prefer the flavours of the sierra-based wineries. (It has to do with the climate and soils - Cuenca, Riobamba, and Ambato, where the sierra wineries are based, have eternal springtime weather and soils fed by fresh volcanic ash. It makes for some amazingly complex grapes. The coast is richer, loamier soil and eternal summertime weather, which is ideal for great whites but produces inferior reds.)

It's the fault of the wineries (in many other countries, but particularly Chile, Argentina, France, and Italy) that sell their dregs to unscrupulous Ecuadorian companies, who then sloosh them up with cheap aguardiente and package the result as "wine." It's also the fault of the companies that buy the dregs and repackage them as "wine". I find it unconsionable because Ecuador does have a fledgeling wine industry based in its sierra that actually produces some rather stellar vintages, particularly Malbec and Sirah, which this whole debacle with repackaging lees serves to obscure and devalue. I will take a bottle of Conde de la Cruz Malbec over a similar Chilean or Argentine wine of the same age and grape any day, but only because I've taken the time to wade through the crap "wine" made in the manner I state above, to find the real wineries. If you search on Ecuadorian wines, you'll likely come back with a number of results saying "horrid, skip it" and that's because of the sludge peddlars. Grrrr.