Tropicalsenior

I'm glad you asked that question because it sent me to my friend Google and I found out that yes, you can freeze mustard for up to a year and they even recommend freezing it in ice cube trays. Most replies say that it isn't necessary to freeze commercial preparations of mustard because they have a long shelf life but I make a version of Gourmet Mustard that has eggs in it and invariably I wind up pitching some of it because I'm not sure about the shelf life of this.

The only spice racks that I have in my kitchen sitting out are these two. This is one that my husband made for me about 25 years ago. These are the shelves of a butcher table that he also made. Only the spices that I use most often are here. My bottom cupboards are extremely deep, Costa Rican Style. I bought a whole bunch of cheap cake pans about 14x18 inches and everything that I have is in those pans so that I can use them as slide-out drawers. I have one cabinet that just has spices. All the bottles are labeled on the top so that I can just look down on them and choose what I need. I also have all my flavorings and food color in these. The rest of my spices are in the refrigerator or freezer because in this climate they go stale fast. I couldn't even imagine trying to cook with one or even two computerized racks. Although I did have one friend that only cooked with salt and pepper. She didn't believe in herbs or spices. Lunch at her house was always very boring.

Great minds think alike. I'm making something quite similar for dinner tonight.

That's a lot more than I can find in Costa Rica and we're practically neighbors with Mexico.

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.