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Great demo, Pam! And thanks helping us learn to say it and telling us a bit about Chanukah. It's always good to learn how food ties in to someone's celebration. Great info! And they look delicious!

That really gorgeous, Michael!

I made Tejon's coconut cranberry chews from this thread for the office last week and they were a huge hit!

That's the most beautiful fruitcake I've ever seen! Great job!

Had a day off work yesterday so I had a Star Wars/cookie baking marathon. Make a batch, watch a movie, make a batch...made four different cookies, two of which were the sables and of course, a must, the world peace cookies. Brought in a big bowl full and went back for a cookie for myself maybe 15 minutes later and my coworkers had devoured them. The sables were really cute with the multicolored sanding sugar from Williams Sonoma. (Didn't get pics. Should have. Sorry.) Planning on the vanilla rum cake soon. Pound cake marathon will be next.

Very cool! Thanks for sharing with us, Filipe!

Isn't Trader Joe's a wonderful place for fruits and nuts? I have a big box at home that looks just like that photo! I decided that I really need to dig into that box and use up my stuff for the holiday and share instead of just munching on it all myself. Mom and I were just talking about fruitcake last night. I'm excited to see what you come up with! I've never seen candied apricots before. It may just be because I tend to pass over the whole candied fruit section. Might have to take a look this year and pay attention.

It turned out beautiful! Great job!

I'm a sucker for "how sweet it is" corn. I'll have to try Silver Queen. White is the best. I have seen white in the freezer section of the grocery store. Not the same as fresh but it still beats yellow corn.

I personally am finding the banana bread totally addictive. I love the sugar crunch on top and when it's fresh out of the oven, the crumb is soft and the crust is chewy so you get three different textures and I love them all. My only problem was slicing it while it was still a little warm. The loaf that I overbaked a little crumbled a bit. If I had waited until morning and had it wrapped in plastic for awhile before slicing it would have worked because the slices I had in a baggie to take to work are softer now. Still holds the crunch on top though. The flavors are not overkill and I found it complex enough with the nutmeg, coconut and rum. It's more mellow the next day. The coconut just gives it just a little texture and flavor. I will definately make this one again. I wish I had held on to more for myself before sending a plateful to work with my mom. And welcome, DanaG!

I did the No Need to Knead pizza dough the other night. Really easy. Buzz it up in the food processor, put it in a freezer bag and toss it in the fridge overnight. It was pretty decent for my first try at pizza. I think next time I might try doing it ahead so it ferments longer than just overnight. When I do Susan's pan rustica, I've started the starter before I went off to work and finished it up when I got home. It made a nice all round basic bread. I've also started the starter the night before and forgot about it until late the next day. The starter went for 18 to 20 hours and it was a nice sour bread for turkey sandwiches. Works great with a grilled turkey burger.

I've been working from Suzanne Dunaway's No Need To Knead for a couple months now and I've been turning out some of the beast loaves I've ever made in my life using this method. It's so little work that I've begun making our basic bread for home no matter how many hours a week I'm working. I can come home at the end of the day and still do a couple loaves. It's easy. I figure with my brother's arthritis, I could still teach him to do this. Sometimes he has trouble holding a spoon but I do pretty much everything with my hands any more and don't use a spoon so much. We've pretty much stopped buying bread now.

Great job! It looks great! Wishing I could reach right into the computer screen and snag one of those pecans. Yum!

I'm not sure it will be 5 desserts, but I want 5 corn components which reflect the 5 themes. The theme part is having a hard time forming at the moment. Autumnal beauty -- good Indian brothers -- easy Love of family -- have an idea But, how to differentiate love of each other from love of family? And what about freedom? Stretching here at the moment. PS -- love you signature line.... ← Love for each other could be a pairing of some sort and the love of family could be a cluster such as caramel corn or layered item with many components. Freedom made me think of something new and wild like K8's tea caviar or something presented in a new and artsy way.

Interesting twist. Nice challenge. First thing that came to mind for me was a corn cob jelly recipe that I always meant to try. http://www.inmamaskitchen.com/RECIPES/RECI...rncobjelly.html

Yeah, it is fairly common here in Portland. The orange and purple together are a stunning sight when you walk into a produce section of the market. I love bright colors. I find the purple to be a bit milder than the normal white. I haven't tried the orange yet because I have a thing for purple and two heads of cauliflower is a lot of cauliflower for just me. I wonder if the orange color holds up after cooking? Raw, they would make a beautiful veggie platter for the holidays.

According to this site they're also called obsttortenform and there's photos for any one wondering what they look like. http://www.foodsubs.com/EqBake.html This one is the daisy ann. http://design.hgtv.com/kitchen/Product_detail.aspx?id=369

It does appear to be in pretty good shape. Mine didn't fare so well getting wet. The cover crumpled up as it dried. It kinda gives you the idea of what Tony might look like as a klingon.

Amazing job, Anthony! I was looking forward to see where you would go with this one. We have someone that brings us in fire-roasted veggies and they brought us a sample of fire-roasted apples. I'd been wondering myself what to match them up with and your clove caramel sauce sounds like it would be right up my alley. I love to cloves. But to balance it with the tartness of lemongrass...brilliant. Great job.

I have the Beirut tahini rolls marked to try down the road. Made the Montreal bagels last night. While they were hot, they were crunchy on the outside and the honey really stood out. Now that it's morning, they're a little more chewy on the outside and the honey has mellowed. I need some cream cheese. My mother proclaimed them "highly addictive". Tried the velvety bean bread but it was really heavy on the salt and I could still taste the beans. Not my thing. Got bananas ripening for the banana bread later in the week.

I have some pans that I can taste and some that I can't. Don't know the difference other than probably different manufacturers.

I've had a custard made with coconut milk before. Very high in fat but delicious! I'll see if I can dig up the recipe.

Sitting here munchin' on rice flour muffin cakes. They have a wonderful slightly crunchy texture kind of like cornbread but kinda not. If I were stuck doing the gluten free life, I would be very happy to find this recipe. They are amazing right out of the oven. Just the right amount of softness and crunch and the perfect amount of vanilla goodness. I would be careful on these not to overbake them because they don't get brown and don't overbeat your egg whites and let them get dry. I wasn't real sure when making the batter how they were going to turn out because it's different in texture than any other "batter" I've tried but they're great.

I'm in total shock. We should have gotten together for that drink while we could have. Never put anything off until tomorrow. Live and do everything you can today. RIP, dear Bill. You'll be missed.

Found some fresh quince at the farmer's market this weekend so I made the provencal quince bread last night with the quince stuffed with sugar and almonds. My mother made the comment that it would be really good if you really liked quince. We found it interesting and it was good to try something new but I don't think I'm fond enough of quince to eat the entire loaf. I've been looking at the truck stop cinnamon rolls. I did the Bread Baker's Apprentice ones and it left me wanted to try other recipes. The cover recipe has always intrigued me as well. I'll probably try a bread recipe or two next weekend.