ElainaA

My daughter is getting a photo copy of my mother's hand written English muffin recipe, a griddle, cooling rack and a package of yeast. She loves baking but I don't think she has tried yeast breads yet and the muffins (NOTHING like commercial ones - a family tradition) are favorites. If my husband fails to act on my very direct hints that I want a Maslin pan I will be sorely disappointed. And will immediately buy one for myself. Elaina

Your baskets are lovely. Given what you have done in the past I trust this year's will be gorgeous. For us the situation is reversed - we receive these from some of my husband's company's customers. (For landlords with lots of property being on good terms with their plumber / HVAC repairman is a good idea.) The ones I like best are often Italian themed (probably the largest ethnicity in our town) - containing some form of exotic pasta, a wedge of good parmesan, good olive oil and balsamic vinegar, pasta sauce (often Rao's), cecchi, amoretti cookies, espresso beans... Not usually all of that at once - I see how this could get pricey - but we really enjoy it. I think the zuc. bread is fine. I think I would wrap it first in foil and then either in colored plastic wrap or a colored plastic bag, either way with a bow. We give some of our major contacts at suppliers bags of my homemade candy - I make about 18-20 types, mostly chocolate. People are already checking in with my husband to make sure they are still on the list. Elaina

Good luck - I hope your doctor's reports are good ones. Elaina

For the past two years I have been growing Coco Noir beans (seed from Pinetree Gardens in Maine) - they are easily the best black beans and probably the best beans I have ever had. I dry them - I've not tried them fresh. This year I also grew Jacob's Cattle beans - very good but not better than the coco noir. Has anyone else tried these? I have never seen them for sale - only the seed Andie's Jamaican rice and beans is very like something my grandmother made. My paternal grandparents were both born and raised in Jamaica, part of the small Sephardic Jewish population. They came to NY as adults. She used black eyed peas for the beans and did not add coconut milk but otherwise it is the same. My mother, all my siblings and myself all learned it. It had now moved on another two generations - and as far as I know the recipe has never been written down. Elaina

I make my own. Elaina

As of today I am back on a normal diet (read:omnivorous). Lisa - your suggestion of home made gelatins supplied the best things I ate over 2 days. The best was made with white grape juice following (of all things) a Martha Stewart recipe - nothing but fruit juice and gelatin. Very nice taste and texture - I appreciated having something non-liquid, if not quite solid, in my mouth. I also made a gelatin with a mixture of white cranberry juice and apple juice - which turned out too sweet. I fully intended to make another with ginger tea - but I ended up simply drinking the tea. Besides the gelatins I had some really delicious consumme that I had made in advance, various teas (chai, ginger, darjeeling) the occasional ginger ale and lots of water. Boring but livable. The clear liquid diet was preceded by 7 days of low fiber - no raw fruit or vegetables, no whole grains or dried beans, etc. I am having an enormous salad today for lunch. Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. Elaina

My husband loves his mother's version - the cauliflower is lightly steamed in a saute pan, cooked dry then sautéed in olive oil with onions and garlic. In my opinion, cooked until it is WAY over cooked - but that's how she cooked it and that's how he likes it. That's what he made for himself last night since I was on a restricted diet. My favorite is a vegetable curry with cauliflower, potatoes and peas. I need to pick the last cauliflower from my garden since it is supposed to snow tomorrow night. Elaina

Lisa - The jellies sound interesting - white grape juice? maybe ginger tea jelly? MM84321 - We have great tasting water but for a day and a half i need some variety. Now to get some gelatin and experiment..... Elaina

Cat Poet - Chai tea I think is acceptable. Various teas may be the saving grace. I was just given some lovely stem ginger so ginger tea is on. Cider I believe is too opaque. I think I may have to make some beef consomme. Elaina

I am getting close to a time on a clear liquid diet. I am not fond of jello or Seven-up. I have made a batch of consomme using Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Mark Bittman's recipe. I wondered if anyone had any other suggestions. (I made an argument for white wine and vodka as clear liquids but my doctor didn't buy it.) Elaina

In my area (upstate NY) stem ginger is hard to find - for about 2 weeks in late September I can get It at my local farmer's market. I sometimes find it in NYC's Chinatown at about the same time. Regular ginger just doesn't substitute. Elaina

Fresh corn. Some things that I grow - I can get leeks all year round but now is when they are ready in my garden and I can't quite value them at other times. And I can not imagine eating stollen except at Christmas. Elaina

Since my mother in law was the cookie queen I have always made candy for Holiday gifts. Mostly chocolate - truffles are not that difficult. Homemade marshmallows dipped in chocolate are fun. I always do peanut brittle and some form of toffee. Clusters of nuts and/or dried fruit dipped in chocolate are easy and fun. There are several threads on here that could give you lots of ideas. (There are a lot of very expert, wonderful candy makers here. I never expect to meet their level but they do give me ideas.) Elaina

I this may be another breach of manners - but oh well. I would recommend this site: http://forums.gardenweb.com/forums/harvest/. The primary focus is food preservation and several regular contributors are Master Preservationists, extremely knowledgeable and very helpful. elaina

This thread just reminded me of a pork stew with dried apricots and raisins that I haven't made in forever. And as I remember it was really good. Time to revisit that recipe. Elaina

I use both nuts and dried fruit frequently in savory dishes - basmati rice with dried cranberries, dried apricots and pecans, pork tenderloin with dried apricots, apples and pears hydrated in a white wine sauce, stuffed peppers with currents and cashews - and I could go on. I frequently throw a handful of nuts into salads with fresh apples,pears or dried cranberries. And of course I use them for many of the above mentioned sweets and breads - especially stollen and chocolates and confections at Christmas. Elaina

I use it daily for many of the already mentioned functions. But also - when breading meat or vegetables I put both the flour and the breadcrumbs on sheets of wax paper. Why wash a plate? Elaina

Boilsover - Thanks for the link. Their prices are really good but sadly shipping to the US would cost quite a bit more than the cost of the pan! I really like the recipe section though. Elaina

Boilsover - While I would use this for candy, my primary use would be preserving so I need the deep, bucket shape. Kerry - The Lee Valley pan is one I am looking at. It has been recommended by some people on another forum (focused mostly on various forms of preserving). Target has one the looks the same for significantly less money.(Significant to me, anyway.) Of course neither lists the weight that I can find. I think I will go with Lee Valley based on recommendations. Elaina

I really REALLY want one of these. Looking on line, though, the prices are all over the place - ranging from about $45 to over $200. In the descriptions I really don't see many differences. Does anyone have experience with any particular brand? Any recommendations? Elaina

It is actually more complicated than that. Higher percentage chocolate has less cocoa butter than lower percentage chocolate so the fat content needs to be adjusted also. Medrich says " the effect of using a higher percentage chocolate is a little like adding cocoa powder to a recipe and subtracting sugar at the same time. That just begins to explain dry cake batter. dense gummy mousse and ganache that curdles." (Medrich, Bittersweet,2003, page 345) She (nor anyone else that I have read) does not discuss adjusting recipes to use lower percentage chocolate. However I would assume that you would need to adjust the fat content here also. Elaina

Alice Medrich discusses this in her book Bittersweet. The appendix, titled Chocolate by the Numbers, gives formulae for substituting one type of chocolate for another. However her main focus is on substituting chocolate with a higher percentage label for chocolate with a lower percentage. She does discuss issues with mousse, brownies and tortes as well as ganache. Elaina

My Kitchen Aide immersion blender also has a mini chopper/processing attachment. I use it all the time - especially since my Mini-Cuisanart died about a week after I acquired the blender. It's a 2 1/2 cup plastic jar with a chopper blade; the power stick attaches to the top. It works great. Elaina

liuzhou - That salad sounds incredibly wonderful. Thank you. Elaina

I found this beautiful young, stem ginger at our local farmer's market this morning. Now I have to decide what to do with it. I still have ginger jam left from last year's batch, so not that. I'm thinking of pickling at least some of it but I wondered if anyone had any other suggestions.