MaryIsobel

Fig and honey bread sounds fabulous!

Love the white almond sour cream cake - it's my go-to for special occaision cakes.

I have baked gnocchi in a sheet pan dinner and liked the outcome. I'll have to try broiling it for the crispy factor.

Now that's a hot dog! Speaking of dogs, I made 15 beirocks today. DH and I will have a couple with soup for dinner and the rest will go in the freezer to feed our dog/house sitter for a week while we go to Mexico for a short trip. I pulled them out of the oven and pushed them to the far back of the stove top. Turned my back for less than 5 seconds and my granddog Mable had taken a bite. I moved them to the spare room to finish cooling and closed the door. As I was packaging them up, I again turned my back for less than 5 seeconds and Mabel had grabbed one and run off with it. Hard to get a photo of a black lab but here she is, scoping out the kitchen. Her much better behaved sister, Freckles, is in the background.

I agree Norm, I like to cook and find it relaxing but the figuring out of "what to make" exhausts me.

Oh my! I could gobble that up very inelegantly right this minute and I just had lunch! Carbonara is probably my favourite pasta. I limit myself to a couple of times a year at home but it is also my test dish at an Italian restaurant that I haven't been to. I don't order if it says bacon - I will give it a chance with prosciutto and if it's guanciale, I'm getting it. A local place does a great one using guanciale - it's served with a raw yolk on top.

I'd love to try this - quite the different take on coq au vin. I cannot find frozen pearl onions anywhere around here. Even the fresh ones only show up in canning season. I'll have to try harder to find them.

You're an amazing Dad. I hopee Charlie appreciates all your efforts!

I think your husband and mine might be long lost brothers

Jumped on sourdough bread during Covid. I've baked bread for years but had never done soudough. I like the taste of sourdough but honestly the babysitting got to me and now I normally just go with a classic french loaf, or a no knead boule made in a dutch oven or foccaicia. Not that I would ever turn down a loaf of sourdough - especially if it were enjoyed in San Fransisco. As a kid, when I was 9, we sailed from Vancouver to Southampton and stopped in San Fransisco. My mom was insistent that we found sourdough bread, so that and a few other things were are picnic before getting back on the ship.

I too thought the "commercial mayo" myth had been debunked.

Looking forward to your review although I cannot abide the thought of the ones with "warts." I have to avert my eyes when I see them on display!

Looking forward to which you prefer. There are more and more types of squash that I haven't heard of around here these days.

Love puttanesca and have put it on chicken and fish as well as pasta. I like the addition of zucchini and the chickpeas are a great idea for a veg version - thanks!

That sounds heaveny!

Fresh sockeye has spoiled me for any other type of salmon.

We have always had spinach as a stand along veg. Steamed and then sauteed with garlic and a bit of butter. I find that the butter cuts whatever that is that coats your teeeth when eating spinac.

Looks delicious. Sablefish is my next favourite to halibut! I find ling cod to be very similar in taste and texture so I love that too.

Wow - that looks fabulous - peaches are just coming into their own around here so will definitely pick up some proscitto.

My favourite ice cream is Maple Walnut - maple is obviously a big Canadian product - and almost all of our neighbours have a walnut tree on their property - hmmmm

After baking - they won't win any beauty contests

I tried a recipe from Half Baked Harvest; Brown Butter Raspberry White Chocolate cookies. Our son-in-law to be loves anything with white chocolate and raspberries. I've never been a hugs fan of white "chocolate" but he is such a great help to us - I like to keep him happy. The flavour profile was great - browned butter and raspberries, yum. The recipe needs tweaking; I flattened the cookie balls a bit and then slammed them on the counter after baking but they remained a bit puffy. Worth experimenting with for sure. Before baking:

One of my favourite desserts - my daughter bakes me on every year for my birthday.

If only they would come to Canada. There was a business in Vancouver years ago that sold TJ's stuff at inflated prices. I think it was called Pirate Joes's. Anyway - I guess TJ's shut them down with a cease and desist. Fair enough. There is one in Bellingham WA, which is about 40 km from me - I used to go down two or three times a year. Now I'm standing with my fellow Canucks, trying not to spend any money south of the 49th. Hopefully I will wake up and this has all been a bad dream....

I would love to have breakfast with you - every day! Between your unique breakfasts and your personality, it would be a wonderful meal!