Deryn

When I was very young (younger than when I was in the Yukon), in the 50's, we lived in Toronto and I don't recall my mother 'putting anything up' - pretty well all our food came out of cans or the freezer case at the supermarket. But, when we moved up north, suddenly - possibly because there was a scarcity of fresh stuff anyway up there (everything had to be trucked or flown in so prices were high, quality was lacking and supply was meager, especially in winter) or perhaps places like the Yukon just inspire people to learn to 'live off the land' - my mother began learning about and preparing many foods from foraged plants - and my father began hunting - for rabbits, grouse, moose - and fishing. What they did back then probably changed me forever - though other than berry picking with Mom and a bit of hunting and fishing with Dad, I didn't do much of the actual prep (save for being the only child in the family that loved to skin/de-feather/gut the spoils of hunting and fishing) and wasn't that much into kitchen capers as a teenager. I recall my mother bustling around in the kitchen (and I ate the proceeds of that activity) but I didn't stand by her side and pull on her apron strings to learn how to do it myself. Something filtered through though - even if it was just a smell and/or taste memory. I have since spent my life trying to bring back those memories perhaps but, as important, seemed to be making sure there was always extra in the cupboards (just in case .. of some emergency) whether I lived in a large city or a rural area. It became a habit - and not one that I wanted to completely lose even when things became more available to me via more commercial means. So, when the seasons permit, I seek out (or grow) things, not from the grocery store, that I can 'put up' myself. There is such a satisfaction from having done that myself and there is also the peace of mind knowing I have a full larder and precisely where the food came from. Not only that, but since so many do not do this kind of thing - even in rural areas these days - I can give 'gifts from the heart' rather easily to those who don't - and many appreciate them. And now that I live alone - and produce/meat packages often seem so scaled for those in larger families - it is once again becoming necessity so I don't waste as much as I feel I must buy when I make the long trek to town. Thank you, Elaina, for starting this thread. A topic like this always gets my juices running again - and reminds me that the seasons are fleeting .. and I need to prepare.

I recently bought some WF 365 organic lemon juice in a bottle - pure juice, pasturized but no preservatives. It doesn't need refrigeration (until opened) - and they also have a lime juice as well. The expiry date is really long for that type of product (in my opinion) - I saw some with more than a year left and I have no idea how long they have been there on the shelf. There are other bottled lemon products on the market I know but frankly, they taste horrible. This is real lemon (lime) juice (there is even a bit of pulp) and it really tastes like fresh. The bottles are 10 fl. oz/296 mil. A bit pricey ($3.95 I think) - what does one expect for convenience, organic and from WF - but may be worth it if you can get hold of some to keep around if lemons are not easy to buy locally. I have been adding it to plain cold water and I get a lovely sour lemonade with no off-taste. I didn't expect much but I was very impressed. I have now bought some extra bottles to take back up north with me because I can't seem to get either decent lemons or limes near (within 50 miles of) where I live - and buying too many when I am in town shopping usually leads to them going bad (if I buy in quantity) before I use them up. I also prefer lime juice personally - but I do use lemon juice on occasion - and I think this bottled stuff may be a godsend for me living where I live.

Wait till the rose hips turn red. Can you try using those tiny windfall apples to see what they produce? I haven't done that myself but perhaps they can still be used, even that tiny and immature. Before they rot, pick up some and plop them in a pot with a bit of water.

Rose hip jelly is very easy to make. I (as I usually do) just 'wing' it these days when it comes to amounts of rose hips, water, sugar, etc. but there are many recipes on the web (here is one: http://homecooking.about.com/od/jellyrecipes/r/blfruit14.htm.) Most don't vary too much except in quantities. Be sure to only use rose hips from unsprayed plants - I get mine along the shore where there is a mass of wild roses. Few people seem to know that they make a lovely jelly so no one picks them. The process is fast and simple: 1) Boil up a quantity of rose hips with about half as much water till they are soft. That doesn't take very long - only a few minutes. 2) Mash the resultant mix and put it through a jelly bag to get a clear liquid, which is usually slightly yellowy-brown, though sometimes it may have a pink tinge - depends on the type of roses I think. Mom used to hang her bag for several hours as I recall to make sure she got all the goodness out and kept the jelly clear but you can hurry it up a bit by gently pressing on the rose hip mash - though the jelly may be cloudier if you do. 3) Measure the rose hip juice and add pectin powder according to its volume. The linked recipe suggests 1 package for 4 cups of juice - depending on how much juice you have you may have to play around with this a bit. My mother didn't have pectin powder so she used apple skins and pips boiled down and strained. Pectin powder is easier but less flavourful of course. 4) Add sugar - up to 1 1/4 cups for each cup of juice (for taste and jelling purposes). I don't like it too sweet so I cut the corners on that addition as much as possible but if you cut it I suggest you do a gel test before putting in jars to be sure it will set. You may need more pectin if you reduce the sugar. 5) Add some lemon juice to cut a bit of the sweetness and round out the flavour. 6) Boil the mixture for about a minute (be sure all the sugar is well dissolved) and pour into jelly jars. When I was young in the Yukon, we didn't have access to fresh citrus very often so Mom would make us use this jelly on our toast as often as she could to provide us with Vitamin C, especially during the long winters. Rose hips are high in Vitamin C but heaven knows how much is really left after processing it into jam.

I seem to go through phases - by season and by year - where I get on a kick of either canning (both water bath and pressure), dehydrating and now freeze-drying various things from the garden or from the local area. Last year I made rose hip jelly (as my mother used to do in the Yukon - it brought back so many memories for me) for the first time in eons. This year I will probably primarily concentrate on freeze-drying but should I luck into some juicy fruit (perhaps wild apples, or, if I can catch the last of the rhubarb when I get back up north soon) I may make some applesauce, or apple jelly and put up some rhubarb. I may also dehydrate a few things from my garden. I will be freeze-drying lobster and local shrimp (and some scallops - a friend of a friend, way out west, wants some Digby scallops and I think this form is the only way to get them to her 'fresh' - sort of). I have in the past pickled vegetables but I found I forgot to open the jars in a timely manner so unless I can think of people to give to as gifts, I probably won't do any this year. Mind you, I would absolutely love some garlic scapes right now.

I am not Jewish (so I have never done this) but hummingbirdkiss brought to mind that one could use leftover (or extra) noodles from dinner in kugel for dessert.

Josh - Did anyone say anything that helped you solve the problem as you stated it? If so, I hope you will come back and tell us what was the solution that worked - for your unique situation. Or, did you try the sous vide idea? I personally think that won't achieve the results you want, but, I love to know if it did so I can learn too. People were just trying to help.

In fact, as far as I can figure out, the 'good', 'better', 'best' ratings have to do with 'environmental' stuff and not really with whether the produce, etc. is organic or conventional. By that system, apparently an organic item can rate below a conventional one or the conventional above the organic depending on how one decides to order it (IF the appropriate paperwork is filled out by the conventional grower - whether truthfully or not - and/or if the organic farmer doesn't fill it out, again truthfully or not). Seems to me that either they are completely getting out of labelling anything organic or they want to reduce (again) the amount of organic stuff they carry by deluding the buyer into thinking that 'best' conventional will always be better than anything lower 'organic' - when indeed they are not about the same thing at all. A farmer reducing his water needs or saving the whales, for me, has nothing to do with the heirloom quality or lack of GMO's etc. associated with the (organic) product on the shelf. If WF begins leaving off the organic signs completely (so far I have not seen them do this), this (occasional) customer will not be a happy camper. And like an elephant .. I do not forget. I will ignore these new 'ratings' as I don't see them as pertinent to what I want to buy - even if that is blasphemy to some. We'll see how long this lasts. I do not think it a wise move on their part.

Why not both/all (taste/texture/looks) if you can have it? What I am hearing is that if it tastes good ... you would never use it as a garnish? Or you would do something to make sure it didn't taste good before you would add it as a garnish? And .. so .. you have had a number of ideas relayed here on how to stop the wrinkled pea issue - what have you decided to do?

One could use that applesauce (prepared to accompany maybe a pork roast) as a main ingredient in muffins or applesauce cake being cooked while dinner is being served. Or perhaps extra roasted apple slices could be added to a batter and 'frittered' up in a hurry. I read about (disclosure: have never tried) a Cornish pasty with 'afters' - a meat mixture at one end and a sweet (usually apple) one at the other. Not exactly what you mean I think but an interesting concept for a work lunch/dinner all in one package. http://www.cornishpasties.org.uk/pasties-with-afters-I-trials.htm The only part that is included in both, mind you, is the pastry but I suppose one could modify even the fillings to qualify as well. Another idea is crepes - savoury filling for dinner followed by a sweet filling or perhaps a crepes suzette type dessert iteration. This one I actually HAVE done .. just didn't think of it earlier. Extra bacon from dinner? Add it to pumpkin and bake it in a pie. http://themeathouseblog.com/tag/meat-dessert/ Or make it quickly into 'pig candy' dipped in chocolate (or not). Leftover beets - puree and throw into a chocolate pudding cake? But, none of these is as simple (or even as satisfying and memory making) as Kerry's rice or your Yorkshire pud desserts on the fly. Those are genius. Kudos to your Moms!

Another article - this time from Fox News - announcing the pre-orders that start today - $1500 ... $95 deposit - to be delivered (maybe) in time for next Easter - with programming for only 15 different food types (whatever that means). If marketing hype can sell a product that is still partially vapour-ware (in my estimation) .. these guys will prove it. Will be interesting to watch - from afar. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/06/12/this-super-smart-oven-wont-screw-up-dinner/

Anna, as I mentioned above I have little personal experience as a child with dinner as dessert (or dessert in general) but I have a question - are you just wanting to hear personal stories about a dinner item only being used at the same meal as dessert or could it be used tomorrow? or could one just talk in general about things that would be served normally for dinner that might show up in a dessert too. I did use to take the applesauce that was served with pork and save it for the end of the meal and call that a dessert of sorts - a sweet to end the meal - but it was not 'transformed' in any way, nor formally served as dessert. The subject is interesting - got me thinking about what one might serve for dinner that could then serve as a dessert as well and I like that (so thank you - and Kerry) - but I don't want to take this off your intended track. Keep on carrying on.

I just checked Amazon, lindag - and there are several offerings for the various flavours there but when I looked at who the actual seller was, in only 1 case was it labelled as Amazon per se. One was an outside seller, no mention of Amazon. Another couple were an outside seller but fulfilled by Amazon. Getting complicated these days to know who is really selling what via Amazon I guess. I really wonder, now that Amazon is having to charge sales taxes, if that is not going to make buying certain things from them much more difficult, as you say, even if they don't mention that they are 'doing the job for Lipton', they may not even deliver in a state where there is no distribution center for various products. Not sure I would think of this kind of product as being that easy to ship in single pack form over long distances, but, the expectation would be (based on historical/my experience over the years) that if a product is offered by Amazon per se, they have that figured out and have decided they can ship it - and ship it across state borders, many state borders if need be, or they don't usually sell it at all - or, at the very least, they state limitations up front (so you don't have to call and ask them why in your case you could not put the product in your basket). For those who are enjoying this product I am sorry if it is hard to find. Seems Lipton doesn't really want to sell it if they won't make it widely available.

Kahtiki spring rolls come in a wrapper that helps crisp up the outsides in the microwave. You just open the ends and nuke them and they come out crisp. The wrapper is some kind of plastic but the inside is that dull silvery grey colour. You might remember that special paper you could buy or which would come with microwaveable French fries when that fad was new (maybe they still come that way - I never buy nukable French fries these days). It works in the microwave and I have also used it in the oven. I'm not dead yet but using plastic in the microwave or oven always worries me a bit.

Leftover Yorkshire pudding? Whoa .. that would have been a wonderful thing. We gobbled it all up during the dinner part. Loved that stuff. Someday maybe I will make some just to try it with raspberry vinegar - that sounds delicious. We very rarely had dessert when I was a child (perhaps some jello once every blue moon or the occasional piece of fruit or cake if it was someone's birthday). I have eaten enough desserts in my adult years though to make up for that sad lack in childhood. Since my father was Welsh/British, he loved rice pudding. Mom would make it for him once a year. The rest of us never even tried it. And I have to say I am glad - somehow it never appealed to me. Bread pudding likewise (which I guess one could make from the leftover dinner rolls and butter?)

Oh dear. I love that smaller greenhouse. And the price seems very reasonable! Looks as though it would be transportable too (before it is set up). What size and how many boxes did it arrive in, gfron? I hope you have a lot of fun and profit from this latest undertaking. Good for you. I love to visit restaurants that 'grow their own' (or forage). One knows for sure that the food is going to be fresh!

I like my iced tea totally unsweetened. Apparently, I am more in the minority than you are, Elsie - so take heart. What is very strange to me is that I grew up having iced tea with no sugar in it - in Canada. Few, if any, people seemed to put sugar in their iced tea back then. Even my American relatives (northern states - New York mostly) didn't use sugar in their teas (iced or otherwise). But, these days, to find a restaurant (or even fast food joint) which even has an unsweetened ice tea (or knows how to make it!) is pretty well impossible in eastern Canada (can't vouch for the west) and yet I can find it at most restaurants in the States, especially the southern states ironically, with relative ease. What happened, Canadians? I was in Pictou, Nova Scotia last summer at a charming restaurant and asked for an unsweetened ice tea. They were totally confused by my (what I thought was a simple) request, so I tried to explain - just make some tea and pour it over ice, please. They could not even seem to understand that simple 'recipe' but eventually produced something which I think was made from some kind of tea powder enhanced by a lemon extract (didn't ask for lemon). It was horrible. The food was wonderful but I would never go back there in summer if I was in the mood for iced tea. When I visit Ottawa the only place I can get unsweetened ice tea is at Starbucks. Not even McDonalds offers it up north - though they do as soon as you cross the border into the States. It is not sold even in jugs in supermarkets as it is down south. All that to say that, if a company offers iced teas, in bottles or cans, I will buy them (especially when I am travelling) IF they also make (and stores stock) unsweetened as well as sweetened. Most of us need to reduce our sugar consumption and this is a decent place to start.

I agree with huiray that frozen peas are often far better than fresh, and that your 'fresh' peas may indeed not be anywhere near as fresh as you think they are which definitely can cause your wrinkled issue. Have you tried 'nuking' them in the microwave? I would merely wash them off with a bit of water so the water clings (don't add extra and don't cover) and then I would try less than a minute on high to start with and then taste. Peas don't take much - and if they are really fresh, you can eat them right out of the pod without cooking at all.

Apparently the people who started this company have friends in high places. There is an article about them on Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelwolf/2015/06/09/former-path-execs-launch-smart-kitchen-startup-to-try-and-reinvent-the-oven/ Link was found courtesy of Drudge - so they are creating a lot of buzz this week. Lots of folksy stuff - like answers to questions like why did they add a knob? ... asked when someone commented that the oven looked like the 'love child of a toaster oven and a 3D printer'.

Thanks for the laugh. Alaskan salt that 'tastes like the Yukon' (says someone who I expect is 'non-Canadian, and a 'non-Yukoner' about an Alaskan salt!) ... I lived in the Yukon for 20 plus years and I would still love to know what 'tastes like the Yukon' means! I spit out my coffee when I read that. By the way, the link to this Mr. Bitterman - the selmelier's (a term he may have coined himself since he started the Selmelier Association apparently) shop - The Meadow - appears to be incorrect in that article. I had to go out on the web and find it .. it is http://themeadow.com/. While this is a somewhat interesting piece it is basically a self-promotion (probably paid for) article I think. Coincidentally, all the salts mentioned .. are on his shelves and many of them seem to have the name Bitterman in front of them.

Lately I have realized, despite my avid use of the computer (and the fact that I was around, working in the tech industry, at the time it was 'invented') that I am really getting to be an old fogey. I have a LOT of gadgets, most with technology I don't even understand any more, most with computer chips in them - and most with high price tags and limited warranties. They are guaranteed - to fail ... faster than ever and at the most inopportune time. And they are guaranteed to make me dumber, poorer and less capable of thinking and doing things the old fashioned, tried and true way - that maybe wasn't perfect but with practice it was pretty darned close most of the time. Actually I feel lucky to BE an old fogey - since I learned the old ways of doing things before I got tangled up with the fancy new gadgets and I can still go back there. The younger generations perhaps not so much. So .. the June Oven .. could, if I had a fortune to put out for it, and if I was young and hip and lived in a major city where no one ever cooked for themselves .. make for a fast and perfect way to heat up my store-bought pizza? Or perfectly reheat my Chinese takeout? I am sure I could do more with it but if I were the type that I think may purchase one of these, I probably would not know how to do more. I don't want to be cynical - but, I am not sure I see the market for this oven, especially at this exhorbitant price .. unless it is those very well off hipsters in small city apartments - who don't really know how to cook. And as others have mentioned, I have my doubts restaurants will buy them when their Rationales have done the job reliably for so many years. I also agree that it seems these days that many of these new kitchen gadgets (and I am NOT talking about the EZTemper or even the HR freeze-drier) seem to designed by those who don't have many cooking skills at all - and whose language is often backwards to the way their target audience still thinks. Believe me, I would love to look at this new oven and say 'Oh cool'! But somehow I just can't - though I wish them luck and hope I am wrong.

bagna cauda? marinated artichokes? I bet the chef is also dealing with a 'budget' issue too - and so you may be right .. back to the carrot/celery/cucumber sticks. You could add or replace with radishes and butter maybe I suppose - but butter is a dairy product and I am not sure how bruschetta and radishes would mix.

Caprese salad, panzanella salad and sandwiches with bacon, lettuce, tomato - not sure how I would make those without fresh tomatoes. On the other hand, I won't buy them in winter - and so far, I am very disappointed this year even with organic tomatoes, supposedly vine ripened (but which stay like plastic for ages it seems). Haven't planted my own yet. I will probably only get to grow cherry or grape sized ones this year though - the season will be so late in starting for me. Shelby - send me some of those Kansas homegrowns please!

I wonder if soaking the (current SS) pot for a few hours would help get rid of that gunky, burnt on mess faster (in terms of your actual on-task time) than spending an hour scrubbing.

Shel - You cook chicken breasts (are they bone in or boneless, by the way?) DIRECTLY over HOT coals for 40 minutes? Are you sure? How big are these breasts? Do you ever turn them? Do you move them to the side at all?