TicTac

I think blogging is part of the fun for The Ladies Looking forward to joining the crew on the trip North. Skitters are pretty nasty this year, bring your bug nets! Have a fantastic time!

Besides the cheeks, collars (and belly) are some of the best parts of the fish. My favourite is Kampachi collar. Lots of salt on a very hot grill. Mmmm.

My nearly 4 year old son would go ape sh!t for this! He loves Peppa and Georgie pig. Great job.

Not sure I would buy seasoning either - in fact I would not. But I am interested to learn more about how one distributes it while keeping it attached and maintaining crispness.

Never been, but I heard his restaurant here (Toronto) was vastly overpriced and very poorly executed food.

Thank you @&roid - I will check it out! And by check it out, that means passing it along to Mrs Tac, as she does most of the baking, whilst I handle the cooking.

I joined the Yan Fan Train during the Wok with Yan days....loved that guy. I will look further at another local Chinese supermarket next I go for rice noodles. I have a load of Ramps which I think would go really well in a Ramp Ho Fun.

@kayb - I can assure you that you do not want Chrons - certainly not vs. Celiac (and better yet - neither!). I have seen both, and at least with celiac there is no need for medications and no scary effects so long as you manage your diet. We have yet to bake bread (found a good local one) and sweets - I would suggest recipes with almond flour (think marzipan, choc marzipan, etc)

Sorry, I should have said 'cross bred to eliminate the goodness' tomatoes.

It often is simply 'may contain' as wheat noodles are produced in the same facility. With Celiac disease, there is no taking chances. The poor kiddo cannot even go into bakeries or pizza parlors as flour remains airborne for up to 24h. Knock on wood we are doing something right, we just got his 6 month test results post diagnosis and his number (which was over 4,000 - off the charts - they expected to be closer to 1000) was down to 181. Sick Kids Hospital is an unreal facility and I tip my hat to the teams there. Now, if only I could find some GF Rice Noodles!

@KennethT - No way I would expect anyone to ever remember that! No apologies needed! Some fish, yes - it's quite odd. Anchovies, sardines, some white fish (salmon, tuna, cod, halibut - she is all fine with) but anything with a shell (the real good stuff!) is off limits. Shrimp I cannot even cook at home without it triggering her asthma - though recently I discovered steaming lobster is acceptable, so I will take the win!

Heirloom tomatoes are fantastic. Far superior to the genetically modified run of the mill supermarket varieties. From whites, to pink, purple, orange, green - nearly every color under the sun can be found. Tastes range from far less acidic and neutral to extremely sweet (mostly anything bright orange, especially 'Orange Zingers' are super sweet - and my preference).

@Wolf - buckwheat is a very good substitute - have note experimented much with it myself as of yet though. @&roid - thank you, I will check out that link. @Kenneth - I seem to find locally the rice noodles (least the fresh ones) contain some sort of wheat or may contain. Need to keep searching as you said, rice is now the staple. Wish I could use fish sauce, but my wife is allergic to shellfish, unfortunately. (I keep some Nuoac Chom in the fridge!)

If you are too lazy to weed, either let it grow and turn it over into the ground or just put newspaper over top. That robot sounds like a terrible idea. Shelby, you have my respect - nowhere near your scale, but I just finished planting our newly expanded 150 sf plot: 12 Tomatoes (6-5 varieties) 4 Zuccini 6 snap peas 4 yellow beans 20-30 Bunching onions 2 Huskberry's 2 Poblano's 2 Aurora peppers 3 pickling cukes 3 English cukes Basil plants thrown in around the 'Maters. Oh and at the farmers market this morning my farmer and I were chatting, he gave me a present he was growing for some other clients (and himself) - a beautiful little (legal) Cannabis plant

@CatIsHungry - Sweet potatoes are a staple in our house. Never made an actual sweet potato pie myself...*shrug*! Luckily he has no other food intolerance's - Almond flour is a staple in our house, as is coconut. I will have to look into Coconut Aminos, never heard of it before. Great thoughts, appreciate the input! @&roid - if you have any good Indian recipes, would love to hear. Indian is a big hit in my house, as is Chinese food, Thai, etc. Lately I have been turning zucchinis into noodles and making pasta - did a great tuna/tomato sauce the other day with it, with capers, black olives and goat cheese. Kids loved it.

Fantastic! Love vacationing (and eating) vicariously through your (and others) posts!

I find it curious that there is such aversion to sending food back when it is not up to ones standards. After all, you are spending your heard earned money and you have some level of expectation established. When I send food back: - It is not as advertised, essentially setting you up for disappointment! - There are bones in my fish, sinew in my sushi, etc. Particularly at high end restaurants. - Something is overcooked, improperly executed, etc. I am probably on the opposite end of the spectrum as I will not hesitate to communicate my concerns and if necessary, send food back; if I believe the quality is not in line with the cost.

Doc - I need some of those morels, sent here - pronto! 😛

While it might work well, it is a totally different beast! Sorrel is one of springs heralds, it is up in my garden already and a batch of sorrel sauce will be made soon. While arugula has a very nutty taste, sorrel has an extremely lemony flavour and is a perfect accompaniment for salmon. Some young spring garlic, good olive oil, sorrel and a bit of water is all that is needed! Plant some in your garden and let it go to seed, it spreads really well and can also be eaten raw in salads (a fantastic bright fresh note).

Oddly enough, I detest cooked salmon in all forms, but raw, cured or minimally seared, I quite enjoy it. Gravlax is at least a once a year (typically New Years) occurrence in our house. Typically made in a Scandinavian style, served with a balsamic/caper/dill sauce. Over the weekend I got some organic Irish salmon that I seared quickly, sliced sashimi style and served with a ponzu/spring garlic/ramp sauce - it was very well received. Edit - Darienne - if you ever want something shipped from Toronto, let me know (I am guessing City Fish Vodka Smoked Salmon!? )

Thanks for the feedback - perhaps have 2 size options, a smaller 100-150ml and a larger 500ml for those passionate about it. We have made our own (from their ramps) and have had their oils for years now - never an issue. It will last years in the freezer and weeks in the fridge, easily. And yes, hand ground means mortar and pestle - it is a far superior product than destroying the cell walls and adding air with a blender.

A friend of mine has access to a very large patch of Ramps in their forest and is considering making some Ramp Oil (using only sustainable harvesting techniques - aka leaving the roots in ground) for sale. What would you folks pay for a 500ml jar of hand ground ramp oil (using good quality EVOO)? I was thinking in the $20-30 range (for context, a small handful of ramps sell for $5 at markets here and a jar would take at least 3-4 times that much) but wanted to get feedback from others. This stuff is gold, I have jars still in my freezer and it goes on almost everything!

Thanks Ken. The peppers we are growing are Aurora and Poblano - will look into that a bit. I am curious whether these stunted little guys will get some more legs and be able to produce any sizeable fruit.

Sigh. Those look fantastic! Almost as much as Pizza, another thing I miss (naan with Indian...) after removing gluten from the diet.

Love seeing nature come to life through everyone's posts. Up here in Southern Ontario, we are starting to see wild garlic mustard, dandelions (though I have yet to figure out a way to prepare these which agree with me!), chives of various varieties, ramps (my little patch in the back is up), fiddle heads, spring garlic, to name a few... My indoor seed experiment is doing quite well, at least the tomatoes are. I think my 18/6 light cycle for the peppers threw them into flower and might have fu$*eD them up and stunted their growth - its on 12/12 now and while the tomatoes are thriving, the peppers are healthy, but still trying to pop out flowers (which I keep picking off). Arugula, snap peas, and lettuce seeds are all planted outdoors and starting to come out.