Panaderia Canadiense

I hadn't been to my favourite Mercado Modelo lunch counter in what feels like forever, so... Llapingachos! The avocado is missing from the plate because Carmita had run off to get more. And happily, the Mercado now offers fresh carrot juice!

So, something you'll often hear in my house that I suspect you wouldn't best at anybody else's: "I am so freaking sick of mahi-mahi! If I have to eat another steak of that fish I am going to go crazy." #tropicalproblems Mahi-mahi is, in general, one of the least expensive fish I can buy (around $3.50/lb) and as a result we do eat an awful lot of it. However, because there's obviously such a thing as too much, last night's dinner was a step back. I give you... Popcorn merluza!

So, I got this weird thinger some time ago at a thrift shop here in Ambato; they had a massive box of them. It was 50¢ which I figured was a good deal. I know it's a plunger whisk; up until recently, though, I hadn't found a good use for it - it's insanely labour intensive to use it to foam milk or make meringue... However! It's now the only tool I'd ever consider using to muddle key lime or mora creme pie fillings.

I feel like my lunches are seriously humble compared to what you guys are eating! Nevertheless: honey-smoked jamón de fiambre on marbled quinua and rye, with butter lettuce and tomato, and achogcha-tamarillo relish. My own bread, and one that's fast becoming a favourite.

Rabid cuyes? Jaguars? The volcano? 😂 Seriously, I forgot how much I missed you all!

Kim! I'm so glad to see you again!!! I've been thinking of doing another one...

I am weirdly proud of this. It's a simple mocha cake with praline walnuts underneath, for a very small kid's birthday

Hi all! I'm trying to perfect my lemon bar recipe, which is from my grandmother's Purity cookbook with all sorts of notations and changes she made. It's perfect in terms of flavour and the pâté sucree base works exactly as it should, but the topping is coming out too fluid. The topping is 3C sugar, 1/4C lemon juice, the zest off of those lemons, 1tsp baking powder, 6 eggs and 2C coconut. What can I do to firm it up a bit, so that it stays put once I cut the bars? Would cornstarch or tapioca flour do it?

Oh shoot, that's one of my most common typos. It's actually Italian Merengue Buttercream, but honestly I even write ICBM on my storage tubs of it. @gfron1 - just the bottom tier was 35cm in diameter and weighed around 40 lbs. The whole thing was close to 100 lbs all told.

The wedding was yesterday. Mocha cake, naked, filled with cappuccino ICBM and butter praline walnut chunks, topped with chocolate lacquer and dusted with gold. The fresh flowers are mini-roses, freesias, and hypericum, and four wild orchids.

Doves, for a wedding cake to be assembled Saturday morning.

Nope, that's what the sandwich looked like closed. I neglected to mention it was a pumpernickel bagle.

Simple sandwich: fresh tomato, avocado, lettuce, and basil cheese on pumpernickel. It was glorious and messy.

There is absolutely tapioca flour in most parts of México - look for Harina de Yuca or Fecula de Yuca or Maicena de Yuca. Or Manioca. It's often sold in bags premixed with vanilla or chocolate, for making coladas and horchatas; the most popular brand in Ecuador is called Tapioquita.

Nancy, I'm at 10,000 feet, so maybe take my advice with a grain of salt…. But the way you say they spread out makes me think there might have been too much liquid. Egg whites, if they're unbeaten, actually expand and become more absorbent when they're heated - so if the batter was scoopable and behaved like a "normal" cookie dough ought to, it was actually too slack right then (think about Babka fillings, which are prepared the same way - they're very stiff going in to the bread, and relax into a bubbly liquid while they're in the oven). If egg whites and vanilla are your only liquids, then the batter should be so stiff that you can roll it into balls with your hands, without leaving too much behind on your palms. The original recipe says "gooey" which also makes me think you're not going for a fully cooked cookie - that maybe you want to set only the outer layer of the dough, so that they'll hold the walnut-cocoa-sugar goo inside them, kind of like flourless brownies. If that's the case, then the high oven temperature makes sense (at least for sea level) - but the 20 minute baking time definitely doesn't. When you try again, cut your egg whites back by one and try a slightly cooler oven, say 325 or even 300. Whenever my drop cookies turn into lace unintentionally, it's been from too much liquid in the batter, and too much heat in the oven for too much time. Alternately, if you've got potato starch or tapioca flour in your chametz, a little goes a long way to firming up this kind of thing. Like, 1 tsp little.

Here's the final cake. Layla will be 7 tomorrow, and this is very much in keeping with her personality. All the while I was making this, I was singing "I Feel Pretty"

The cake is yet to come, but I can't resist sharing the Tutu-Rex right now...

I always thought that if the presence of a certain ingredient is measured in fractions of a percent, it was classed as an "additive" - so in some of my recipes, that's salt, or baking soda. I see no issue with adding these things, or L-cysteine if you've got it - it's part of the quest for the best product you can make. Now, when the majority of the ingredients in bread are listed as refined chemicals rather than the basic building blocks of bread, I'm probably not going to buy it. But I'm not going to condemn the presence of those chemicals either.

I'm Ecuadorian. Metric was originally measured here.... 60cm is about the diameter of my smallest limes this harvest (unless you count the 300 or so I thinned off the tree so I wouldn't be looking at tiny little 20cm fruits that aren't nearly as juicy).

I harvested today. The smallest lime in the basket is about the size of a racquetball, and they're super juicy too. Hot Bourbon toddies, here I come!

Today is Teacher's Day! What are you doing for your local teachers? Because friends of mine are giving them fancy-pants mocha cupcakes….

This is my lime tree. I can't harvest the fresh ones fast enough. They're huge, and they're juicy, and they're free. At the mercado right now they're 50/$1.00 - not shortage pricing by any stretch.

OK, that's awful. I can buy a fatted goose from my neighbour for about $30 if I also bake her a cake….

@LindaK Fidelina would be thrilled that you're cooking it, no matter the season! She doesn't reserve Fanesca for Easter either - it pops up around squash time in the spring as well.

How did the soup go over?