Tropicalsenior

I make my own only because I like instant gratification and I've developed a darn good Italians seasoning mix. That the only mix that I don't make myself is Herbs de Provence because I can't find lavender. I don't have anything either that is very hot. The only thing that I have is some new Mexican chili powder which I have to be kind of careful with. I forgot about my saffron and when I went to look for it I realized I have another cabinet with about 20 other spices such as asafran, achiote, three types of mustard seed, Goya Sazón, Etc. I wish we hadn't started this. I can see a project in my future of spice reorganization.

I've got you beat! I just counted 86 bottles. Some Are Spice mixes and a few are large backup spice bottles. I'm not even going to try to photograph them because some are in my freezer, a lot are in my refrigerator door and only the ones that I use the most often are in the open in my kitchen. And when I need any one of them I know exactly where they are, no blinking lights for me, please.

I think it's just somebody's convoluted way of saying you can order it with whatever spices you want. It seems we are now contending with a generation that thinks that everything must be done with an app. They are all dead in the water if the power goes off or the Wi-Fi goes out.

The only thing that I can figure out that MIA stands for is missing in action and what is missing in action is common sense. Besides that. 20 bottles? I would need 4 racks. I'd have a new full-time career just managing my spice apps.

Thank you, the recipe seems pretty straightforward but I do have a question. Do you really make the caramel sauce in such a small batch or do you double it?

Yes, some of the ones that we get here are huge. And we have some that are completely round about the size of a croquet ball.

I have the same problem here. And I can't even order these things by mail because they have a law that if something isn't on the specific allowed import list they just pitch it when it comes in and send you a notice.

Our national avocados are very similar to the ones in Florida. I don't like them as well as the Hass avocados because it's flesh is too watery for my taste, but they have started to grow the Hass down here now. They still cost about twice what the nationals do.

When I made my Japanese Curry I made it completely from scratch even down to making my own Japanese curry powder. It seems like I pulled out every spice in my cabinet except cinnamon and star anise.

Sometimes I see that in our national avocados. My favorite vegetable man explained that it happens when the avocado tree doesn't get enough water during the growing season. The seed grows just the same as usual but there just isn't as much Flesh on the avocado.

That sounds delicious. I Googled it and recipes that I found that they called for coconut water. Do you have a link to the recipe you use or can at least explain how you do it. Thank you

All this talk about pizza made me hungry for pizza so I decided to make some individual pizzas for lunch. These are certainly not in the league of what you are making but they sure were good. I used @Duvel's emergency pizza dough and instead of just putting it in the pan I rolled them thin and cooked them briefly on a griddle, just enough to Brown them a little. And I put them on a cookie sheet and added the condiments. Just pizza sauce, mozzarella, and pepperoni. The next time I will put the pepperoni under the cheese because I like a lot of cheese and it all slid off. Two of them were the perfect size for lunch and the other two will go in the freezer for the next time that I get a craving.

Pork loin is one of my favorite cuts of pork. I cut them into individual cutlets and freeze them in packages of two. Some I later pound out for schnitzel and some I cut thicker and make tonkatsu. I have found out that if I brine the meat in one tablespoon of salt to one cup of water for about 4 hours they are really moist and tender.

Thought I would post a picture of my finished product. It's not terribly thick and it's not terribly tart but I'm happy. It is yogurt. Perfect for eating and perfect for baking and sauces. I've tried various methods of flavoring the yogurt and the best one that I have found is this. It makes a yogurt drink better than any that I have been able to buy. I would think that any drink powder that you can get would work.

@Maison Rustique if you do make it with the discard, you want to make sure that it isn't too sour. It can affect the flavor greatly.

This is a recipe I found for crumpets that I have been wanting to try. Maybe I'll give it a go today and let you know. Her pictures look great and the directions give a lot of good advice.

The best crumpets that I ever made were made from my sourdough discard. It was a recipe from KA. It was just a cup of discard to which you added baking soda and sugar. The crumpets were wonderful but I no longer make sourdough starter to where I have discard. I do miss those crumpets.

Oh boy, lots of questions. One, I use whole milk powder because skin powder or 2% just doesn't seem to make a difference. Two, the milk itself is 2%. Believe it or not, we only have two brands of milk available here and they are both owned by the same company. And they are both only available in 2%. My only other option is to find somebody with a cow. Three, I use a fresh starter each time. I haven't tried using the yogurt that I make because usually I use it all up in a week and we have so many bugs in the air here that I'm not sure that it wouldn't have contaminants in it after a while. Four, that price is including the cost of milk, yogurt and powder. I'm curious as to what the cost of electricity is for my little oven but I haven't figured out how to cost that out. Edit note: I would use a starter if I can find one but that is something that is just not available here

I guess the whole thing is a moot point. Raspberry and rhubarb are two things that you will never see in Costa Rica. Which is a shame because I love raspberries. Actually, I lie. I have seen rhubarb here once and I bought it because my husband liked it. It was so old and bitter that I swore I would never buy it again which was rather unnecessary because I've never seen it again.

I'm not fond of rhubarb but that looks delicious.

I would love to see a picture. I haven't made in crumpets in ages and now you have me wanting crumpets.

Yesterday I made my usual Sunday stuffed buns. As usual, I had enough dough left over for a small loaf of bread for dinner this week. I just put in a ground beef filling with mushrooms, celery and a thick rich beef gravy. They turned out pretty good if I do have to say so myself.

Here's a little bit from Arm & Hammer about using soda on meat. It doesn't say anything about ground meat but it does give you an idea about how the soda works.

As for the part about making it into Greek yogurt, years ago I devised my own setup for that. it is just two plastic containers, one large one and one small one that fits comfortably inside the other. I cut the handle off a cheap, plastic strainer to fit on the top of the smaller container and I use a coffee filter to strain the yogurt. All you do is pour in the yogurt, snap on the lid, and put it in the refrigerator for 24 hours. You have perfect Greek yogurt. I've had it for about 20 years and at the time that I made it it probably cost me $2 to make.

I watched the video above and although I can see that it would work it is a whole lot more work than what I do to make mine. I make yogurt every Monday and today I decided to photograph and time my process. The ingredients. Milk, yogurt, dry whole milk powder. The equipment that I use, not including my microwave. I have a Hamilton Beach convection oven that has a setting low enough to maintain the milk at a temperature of about 110°. Before I begin anything I set the oven to heat. Making one container at a time, I pour the container half full of milk and add four heaping tablespoons of milk powder, mixing well. I fill it with the rest of the container of milk and heated in the microwave for 4 minutes. That brings it to a temperature of about 105°. I then add two tablespoons of yogurt and mix well. I then repeat with the other two containers. Using two loaf pans, I add two cups of water that I have microwaved for 2 minutes to each one. I put the containers of yogurt into the loaf fans and leave in the oven for 8 hours. The whole process from taking the milk out of the refrigerator to putting everything in the oven took me 20 minutes and these days I'm pretty slow at doing things. The best thing was the only clean up that I had was washing the Whisk and the spoon. My cost breakdown is equally satisfying. It cost me about $1.75 per liter compared to the $5 that a liter of yogurt would cost me. I realize that not everyone has an oven with that lower temperature setting, but I have also successfully made yogurt using a heating pad on the lowest setting and a plastic container full of water to hold the yogurt containers. I much prefer using the oven.