Tropicalsenior

Me too but it sounds really good. I have some homemade corned beef curing and it sounds like it would be good with that.

I definitely wouldn't cook the apple butter on the stove top. There are three other ways that you can do it. My personal preference would be the microwave but you could also make it in a slow cooker or in a pressure cooker. Just check with Google. There are lots of recipes to choose from.

Reminds me of the time that we were invited to have lunch at the home of a colleague of my husband who had bragged about being such a fantastic cook. When the 15 guests arrived at the appointed time we found our hostess sitting in her bathrobe, so hungover she couldn't even find the kitchen. Everyone pitched in and did the cooking so we at least got something to eat. Her fabulous meal was fajitas and canned refried beans.

@Norm Matthews I always look forward to seeing your posts. Your skill is evident and you obviously cook with love of the food and the people that you are preparing it for. I'd rather have an invitation to dinner with you and Charlie then any fancy restaurant that I could even think of. That creep doesn't realize how lucky he is.

Ditto for me. Couldn't even get it clean so I finally just pitched it.

I've been using this one for years. It's a Walmart product. I don't use Pam because it is twice the price of this one. Great Value also has a butter flavored spray. I don't know how it is in The States, but down here it is about $2 more than the vegetable oil spray and I can't tell a nickel's worth a difference between the two.

According to this article about the author, you have a real treasure there.

The liquid from the Fresh coconuts is a very popular drink in Costa Rica. They sell them along the roadsides with just a straw stuck in a hole. They also sell it bottled in the grocery stores. It is called agua de pipa. It's supposed to be very good for your urinary system and helps prevent kidney stones. I've had a kidney stone a few times and they gave it to me to drink. Horrible stuff, as far as I am concerned. But my housemate Carlos is almost addicted to them. Every Saturday we buy three pipas, as they are called here. He first drinks the liquid and then he eats the raw coconut.

I made a pot of beans today with a very gelatinized hamstock. I did them in the instant pot and they turned out beautifully.

If you ever do put down any type of poison, make sure that you keep track of how many you put out and where you put them so you can put them in the garbage later or dispose of them safely. When we were living in Lake Tahoe the previous tenant had put out little green bottles of ant killer. The label said arsenic. I thought that I had found them all but my two-year-old found one. She was extremely premature and wasn't talking yet so she was unable to tell me whether she had ingested any of it or not. We were about 8 hours in the emergency room waiting to see whether she had any effects or not. Fortunately she didn't. To this day, I will not have any type of poison in my house. I have had really good luck with the sticky paper traps. I put cheese and peanut butter in the middle. It seems to get them every time. Once in a while they also catch me but at least they aren't going to kill me.

Unfortunately I have. We had a neighbor that put out poisoned meat for the rats. Our cat found a piece and brought it home. He was a persnickety little character and wouldn't eat it but the next door neighbor's dog did eat it and died. She was a beautiful little Cocker Spaniel and everybody in our condominium loved her. Needless to say, when the culprit was discovered, she was persuaded to never do anything like that again.

Today when I went to the grocery store, I saw some panettone in the cookie section. They had one small one about 120 g for $2 and they had one for 400 G for $9. However, it was a brand that we had tried and really didn't like so I passed. I was really disappointed with the one that we bought because it was from a company called Winters and they make chocolates that are really good. Their expertise apparently doesn't transfer to panettone.

I got the same feeling last Thursday when we finished off our final panettone. We both remarked that it is a shame that they don't make it all year long.

Everything looks so wonderful. You're making me hungry and I just finished dinner. We have chicken livers quite often because it is one of our favorites. I have found that if you poke each liver several times with a small sharp skewer right after you put them in the pan, they don't pop.

I made my mango ice cream yesterday and I thought that that I would share my findings. Mango Ice Cream, Base 2 1/2 cups lactose-free whole whole milk (divided) 3 teaspoons cornstarch 3 tablespoons cream cheese 2/3 cup granulated sugar Mango Puree 2 cups mango puree 2 tablespoons corn syrup (optional) 1 tablespoon lemon juice 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1/2 tsp nutmeg I used my microwave to make the base. Make a cornstarch slurry with 1/2 cup of milk and the 2 teaspoons of cornstarch. Microwave 2 cups of milk at 2 minute intervals stirring well between each interval until bubbles form at the edges. Stir the cornstarch slurry into the hot milk and microwave 2 minutes more. Stir several spoonfuls of hot milk into the cream cheese in a small bowl and stir well until soft. Add the cream cheese mixture to the hot milk, stirring well. Stir 3/4 cup of sugar into the hot milk until completely dissolved. Add cinnamon puree mixture and mix well. Refrigerate the mixture until completely cold, preferably overnight. When you are ready to freeze the mixture assemble everything as quickly as possible and turn the mixer on to slow. Pour the mixture carefully into the bowl and process for 5 minutes. Turn the mixture up to 2 and process until it doubles in volume. This should take about 10 minutes. It will be the consistency of a soft serve ice cream. For a more solid ice cream, scoop into containers and freeze for about 4 hours. Note: The mango that I used weighed 25 oz (709 G). I diced it and pureed it with an immersion blender. It yielded exactly two cups of puree. Results: Although this made a passable ice cream, I learned a valuable lesson with this one. There was too much mix for the ice cream maker. I think that the ideal quantity of mix is with 3 1/2 cups of liquid. I plan to try making mango ice cream again tomorrow and I will cut the mango back to 1 cup and the sugar to 1/2 cup. I will also eliminate the cinnamon and the nutmeg. Although it gave the ice cream a very good flavor, it detracted from the mango.