Panaderia Canadiense

I'm toying with the concept of peanut-butter and mango chutney bars, and I've got the base licked (peanut-butter oatmeal cookie with peanut chunks, baked) but I'm struggling with a way to get the chutney tops on. I'm thinking of trying pureed chutney set with gelatine, but I'd like to know whether the mild acidity of the chutney is going to interfere with the setting of the gelatine (and I'd love to not find out the hard way). Any ideas? Has anybody ever done anything even remotely similar? Am I nuts for wanting to try it?

Yikes! The Ecuadorian brands are still large chunks of fragrant meat in just enough water (only water and salt, mind) to cover them well and assure they don't spoil. I think people might rebel if they had experiences like yours with tuna from the local fisheries. See if you can find Van Camp's, Isabella, Atun Real, or La Rioja in your markets (all of them get exported to the states) - they're hands-down superior. Isabella also sometimes comes packed in olive oil instead of water, and that stuff is amazing when it turns up.

It's not that great for you, no. Since you've already got the mold problem, I'd suggest giving your gourd an overnight soak with some 10% hydrogen peroxide (food grade if you can get it) to kill off any spores and deaden the mycellium of the mold. Then dump it out and rinse it with boiling water. That will take care of the current mold problem, and if it recurs you can always repeat the H2O2 tretment.

Do you wash your mate gourd after using it, or do you leave mate residue in it? I ask because the mate itself, if you haven't brewed it too hot, contains a couple of mold-inhibitor chemicals - this is why Uruguayans will always tell you (in the most strident of tones, yet) that you should NEVER wash your gourd, just rinse it lightly after drinking and then use either strong sunlight or your hairdryer to dry it out. To answer your other question, if you prepared your own gourd: it has nothing to do with the relative thickness/thinness of the calabash - if it's going moldy, it was improperly scraped or dried to begin with. I see the black mold spots quite often on calabashes that were harvested before they were really ripe, and then scraped and not dried out entirely.

Can you explain? Living at extreme altitude (low oxygen content in my air!) means that my body produces about 25-30% more red blood corpuscles than somebody living at sea level to 500 masl. This means my blood is that much thicker. My doctor has advised me that I have to something to thin my blood out a bit so that living won't be so hard on my heart, and he gave me the choice of taking the shot of vinegar daily or taking warfarin. I don't like the idea of eating even small amounts of rat poison, so I'm going with the vinegar. So, basically, my resolution is actually "I will not eat rat poison this year" but the other phrasing sounds a lot better.

OK, colour me horrified (I think it's a shade similar to rotten okra...)! I live in a cold-water flat, which common across Latin American countries, but everybody I know, me included, rinses their dishes in hot water! That's what kettles and lpg burners were invented for.... We've also got cream soaps formulated especially to rinse in cold water, then use boiling water to sterilize because the tap water might have any number of weirdnesses in it that aren't fit for human consumption. It's either that or do a violent parasite purge every 3 months. I think I'll stick with the boiling water!

Shel, this might be too late for this season's Chirimoyas, but they're flat out amazing when simply quartered and popped in the freezer for 20-30 minutes. The result is something like the finest ice-cream you've ever had, but with a fruity texture (and of course the seeds). A good friend in Loja introduced me to Chirimoya this way about 4 years ago, and I was hooked. They are also amazing gently candied in light syrup, and blendered with vanilla yogurt (remove the seeds and use only the pulp) as a shake. And of course if you're looking for a use for the seeds, you can dry and powder them and use that to kill cockroaches (it's very effective.) -- New to me ingredients this year were dried Suelleus luteus pseudoboletes from the pine forests of the next province over. I've grown very fond of adding a few little pieces to my pasta water when I'm going to cover that pasta with creamy mushroom sauce - it ups the perception of "buttery" without needing to add extra butter. Sooo tasty!

I resolve to start each day with a 1-oz shot of cider vinegar.

Country-style one-pan meal here: leftover chicken borscht with fluffy quinua biscuits baked on top. I do so love my cast-iron pan, I do, I do!

Which cookbook, Darienne? I might have it on my shelf right here, and be able to give you the exact recipe.

The descriptor on the tag you like is Garamond; I'm not fond of Calibri and I'll give Palatino a look. Thanks!

Candied ginger. This was done in heavy Panela syrup, which was a first for me, and I think I like it better than simple white sugar syrup. The ginger came out darker, of course, but the flavour!

That's Mona Lisa ITC, a font from the same period as Andes, my main branding typeface.

And here are some alternatives to the all-caps font for the cookie descriptors. I'm leaning towards the one on the upper right-hand corner.

All great suggestions, but they've gone to the client (who, now that he's happy, I can identify as the Canadian Ambassador to Ecuador), so there's no changing those ones (95 boxes, holding 47.5 dozen cookies, was the final tally). They ended up looking fabulous, and his excellency was thrilled with them. I will be changing the tag, but once the boxes are tied up I really like the ratio of lid to base visible, and so I won't be changing that. There are also shippability and printing efficiency things built into the proportions of those boxes, and changing them would make them more of a challenge to ship or to print - at the moment they're the perfect balance. 25 dozen of these cookies were shipped to Guayaquil, a route with notoriously bumpy roads, and all arrived 100% intact, which is a personal record for tender shortbreads of this type. Here's what they looked like when they shipped. And here's how they were packed for shipping (this is the 25 boxes to Guayaquil - by the time I got the 70 boxes for Quito assembled, tied, and packed, I was so tired that I was kind of like a bakery zombie and thus didn't take pictures.)

The ones that get me are "squids", "shrimps" and "octopi" - the proper plurals are squid, shrimp, and octopusses or octopodes.

Shredded dried coconut just needs a cool, dry place. I keep mine in a barrel under my peninsular countertop, where it never sees the sun.

For me, the essential freezer items are: coconut pulp (milk plus shredded meat) and other pulpi-paks, Andean blueberries, pre-measured mashed pumpkin, applesauce, shredded zucchini, guavas, white vegetable shortening, bananas, mangrove shrimp, pizza sauce, presliced chorizo and pepperoncini, bacon, and pizza dough. I also tend to freeze most of the meat I buy.

Rancho Gordo?

Try it on a a little bit, and see if you like it with the sea salt. That way if it's awful, you don't have a ruined batch on your hands....

Thanks, Toliver. I'll do that, but not with Times. I have a serious hate on for that font. Now I get to hyperventilate about something else - they've upped the order to about 40 dozen cookies. I think we'll be able to do it if we bake from 8 am tomorrow until we finish, and make all of the boxes tonight.

I really like Breads, which is part of The Good Cook series from Time Life. Excellent for beginning bread bakers, lots of really good and consistent recipes, and some faboo ideas for bread modifications. Also great for explaining the why and whatfor of the basic ingredients without getting too technical. My copy appears to have been published in 1981; I have no idea whether it's still in print. Aha, it appears that it is.

OK, the client has chosen this one: Thank you everybody for your advice and help! edit - image tags, duh....

Allrighty then! Here's the red bottom, red-and-white leaves top box (I really like it! Thanks, Djyee - even if this doesn't end up being the box for this client, it will become the box for the standard Christmas baskets.) And also a take on miniscules/majescules for the tags - is it easier to read now that the miniscules have been squashed down?

I'm doing Maple-Walnut Shortbreads, a huge assortment of pickled things (everything from dilled green beans and carrots to mango chutney), and fresh candied gingerroot this year, on top of the regular Artesanal menu that I offer daily as a matter of course in the bakery. And possibly some gingerbread casas de campo, if I can get them to stop collapsing under the weight of their cookie-tile roofs.... I think I've got the solution this time.