Anna N

No amount of batter, bread crumbs or anything else for that matter can change the fact that these are not the 11 herbs and spices used in the Kentucky Fried Chicken that I know.

I am so with you! I need to remind myself of my blessings and stop looking at these photos!

When two or more members meet up I find myself feeling inordinately happy. I’ve been lucky enough to meet up with quite a number of members and can count most of them among my friends. Congratulations to both of you! Sounds like you had a wonderful time.

I am a fan of Kentucky Fried Chicken. I rarely get the opportunity to sample it so I’ve always thought I should give this “secret recipe” a chance to prove itself. Nope. Never. Not even close. Boring. I did bake rather than deep fry the chicken but I don’t think that should’ve made much difference in terms of the flavour of the coating. Just saying.

To me these things are to real pork rind as Pringles are to potato chips. I have had some that actually taste like pork. These didn’t despite the ingredient list which claims that they are nothing more than pork, lard and salt. Perhaps I should not have used the word fake. Perhaps factory-made would have been a better choice of words.

Looks like it would be worth having but once again Amazon.ca does not have it on sale. Damn

Nice presentation. Beautifully cooked steak. What are the two “bookends” to the ribeye?

And some decidedly flowery prose: ”Grain is resident in tabbouleh for the purpose of drinking up outlying flavors. Farro performs that task roundly—with bounce and verve. Eating tabbouleh made with bulgur is like driving a sedan down a long, flat road; eating tabbouleh made with farro is like driving a sports car over a series of short, curvy hills—it’s just a lot more fun.” As someone who is finding it difficult to love grains I find this amusing. Not sure yet that I am convinced of the merits of farro versus bulgur. But I shall be unable to resist further reading on the website.

It doesn’t always have to be about neatness. Some days you want a sandwich where the filling falls out on all sides. My HLT — ham, lettuce and tomato on store-bought multi grain bread with some olives – pitted question? unpitted? and some (fake) chicharron. The attendant at the olive bar when alerted that there were no olives with their pits still in place insisted on confusing me and another customer by using pitted and unpitted to mean the same thing. (It was a little like “Who’s on First?”) There was some eye rolling between me and the other customer I can tell you. What we both ended up with was some pitted and some unpitted much to our chagrin. It would’ve made quite a skit comedy TV.

An attempt to riff off a lunch appetizer. Thinly sliced beef with caramelized onions and horseradish cream. Aesthetically it needs work but otherwise...

With salt the first ingredient, and I am not a salt-phobe, and a list price of $1.98 per, I think I’ll stick with my spice and herb collection. When I’m feeling particularly lazy which can happen fairly often I will sprinkle the necessary seasoning on to my cutting board a la Jamie Oliver and press my protein into it. No fear of paper fires.

Today Kerry and I decided we would finally check out the Oakville iteration of Kenzo for some Japanese ramen. It has opened fairly recently nevertheless I was disappointed that my order for a warm sake Went unfulfilled as I am guessing they have yet to receive their liquor license. Sake was on the menu and it was obvious that the bar was set up but no beer or spirits were yet being served. This was the new appearance on their appetizer menu. It is chasu pork with s sauce and some scallions and it was delicious. Takoyaki was MIA. There was a misunderstanding initially about Kerry‘s order. First, she noticed the lack of an egg which she was expecting. She brought this to the attention of the server and half of a boiled egg was eventually brought to the table. But when she tasted the broth Kerry knew this was not what she thought she had ordered. Again she brought this to the attention of the server and eventually received the meal she really wanted. I ordered the tonkotsu ramen although the published menu photographs no longer match up. I hope they will eventually hit their stride but this was a far cry from what we are used to from Kenzo.

Roasted cauliflower with kimchi cream

Those were the days, my friend.

Cold noodle salad with beef, carrots, red and green onions and a soy sauce, chilli sauce, sesame oil and rice vinegar dressing.

But you may never know where I stand on the stuff on the end of the celery.

When I saw your celery in the market thread I was very tempted to ask you how the heck you were going to get it into your refrigerator. One of the challenges I find is that some vegetables are simply too long for my crisper drawers. Sometimes when I have to butcher them, I effectively reduce their life span. Can be annoying. In my next life I will surely find a way that I can shop more than once or twice a month.

Some days one may need to eat as if one’s ship really has come in (or perhaps one’s cattle train has made it back from the pampas). Today was one of those days. The last two potatoes in the pantry were cubed and fried with some minced garlic, a sv’d chuck eye from the freezer was re-thermed and lots and lots of horseradish was made available. For the record I only ate about half of this. I really needed the bounty in front of me but not inside of me.

And I thought I had grasped the concept of fusion cuisine.

More Catalan Beef Stew with Chocolate this time served over rice and with some peas added for colour and variety.

Fried duck egg on a toasted, homemade bun. (Bun came from my freezer.)

But here’s the thing – – my son-in-law loves coconut, my daughter is avoiding gluten, meeting people will eat just about anything so macaroons check many boxes.

Help me choose meeting-friendly snacks to bake I have repeated ad nauseum that I do not consider myself a baker. I love to make bread but cookies, bars, quick breads, coffee cakes and their ilk are just not my forte. When I'm successful I ascribe it to magic not skill. My son-in-law has asked if, every two to three weeks, I could provide him with a snack to take to his sales meeting. I was tempted to decline but decided that a challenge might be fun. I have loads of cook books including baking books, a reasonable batterie of cake/muffin pans and baking sheets. I have a Bosch compact mixer and a reliable oven. He requested that the snacks be: Meeting-friendly Non-gooey Nut-free Not too crumbly Not require refrigeration Be easily transportable Enough for 6-8 people My specs are: Doable by a novice Not requiring exotic and expensive ingredients (I have a very well-stocked pantry) Could tolerate being made a day or two ahead What say you, bakers? .

This is the treat I had hoped to send with my son-in-law tomorrow. These are supposed to be orange creamsicle coconut macaroons. They taste blah and most crumbled as soon as I touched them. I had collected my mise and I carefully weighed and measured all the ingredients. Nothing should have gone wrong. But I am not one to immediately blame the recipe. As I contemplated what might’ve gone wrong and re-read the ingredients I realized I had completely forgotten the honey. Coconut macaroons can be tooth-achingly sweet but since these were made with coconut milk there was no sweetener of any kind in there. I suspect the honey serves not just as a sweetener but also as a binder and hence the disaster. Having used all of my coconut there was no chance of a second attempt so I made shortbread inspired by @Kerry Beal here.

Fress is on my wish list but it’s not for sale at anything like that price on Amazon.ca.