MaryIsobel

I'd love your recipe. I am just about to make passion fruit curd with frozen passion fruit puree. I wonder if your method would work with passion fruit?

I'm sorry - reading too fast I guess.

Yes, everything in my childhood was cooked to death! My Dad liked all meat well done, and all veg were grossly overdone. My Mom had taught Home Economics, so I suspect she knew better but catered to my Dad. I was probably the only child I knew who had never had a casserole, as Dad didn't like "things all cooked together." We were very much a meat, starch and 2 veg family.

I understand what it is supposed to do. I just don't understand how rubbing one end of the cucumber would draw bitterness out of the whole thing.

One thing that I don't do, and my mother never did, is to cut a small end off a cucumber and rub it on the other cut end to supposedly "draw the bitterness out." My best friends mom always did it, but I have never seen how it could be effective. I still use a doube boiler for a lot of things that could be done carefully over low heat or in the microwave (like lemon curd) because my Mom always did.

My thoughts exactly. I have found that for our tastes, I like to go somewhere in between "peanut butter" and "milk chocolate" for gumbo roux. Takes time and no distractions! I have done the oven roux and it's fine, I just prefer that hands on, stovetop approach.

Thanks Weino. There are certainly lots of sources on the net that say so, but some even say to leave it on the counter for a week or two so nice to hear an opinion from someone who actually knows.

According to several sources on the internet, it can be done. Mine would be a fairly dark roux (for gumbo.) I will be making the gumbo at my sister's house and there will be two other people cooking at the same time, all making different components of the meal. I thought it would free up the kitchen considerably if the roux could be made ahead of time. I will be leaving on a Tuesday, it is about a 5 hour drive and the meal will be served on the following Thursday. Just wondered if anyone had done this (or kept it in the fridge for about 3 days) with satisfactory results?

Thank you. I will have to try this! Maybe I'll do the chicken with 40 cloves of garlic soon.

Thanks for the reminder. When I was a kid and we raised beef, we had lots of ground beef. This was a family favourite but I haven't made it in years.

Lovely menu and such a sweet back story. You are allowed to have dead eyes when you have a baby in the house!

On the odd occaision that my Dad was in charge of dinner for us kids, it was inevitably canned meatballs; dog food comes to mind... It's funny, he is in long term care now and complains endlessly about the food. I remind him that he used to eat canned meatballs, oh, and canned "corned beef!" Again, better suited to canines in my opinion, except for the extremely high sodium content.

The first time my husband saw blackened halibut on a menu, he asked the waiter what that was. The waiter stammered "uh, they just kind of burn the spices on there." Hopefully he came up with a better explanation eventually. Someone at the table next to us overheard and when the waiter left, they explained that blackened is no more burnt than a well seared steak is, so my husband ordered it and it remains one of his favourite treatments for halibut.

I need this exact dinner!

As much as I hate the expression, OMG, OMG! I would devour every single thing (except the uni - long story, I think my first taste was bad.) Although we live in the sticks and our dining choices are shall I say, severly limited, we are an hour drive away from downtown Vancouver where I'm sure we could find something somewahat equal to your dinner, but the traffic, the parking... We do have tickets for a concert downtown in early March, so looking forward to having something other than the pub "special."

You lost me at Cream of Wheat. One of my worst childhood memories was an overnight at the home of a friend. They were a no nonsense - "clean your plate" kind of family. A bowl of Cream of Wheat was breakfast. Fortunately they were dairy farmers, so with copious amounts of milk, I managed to finish my bowl, but never again! Polenta that has been cooked and chilled and then sauteed might be a good introduction for me. I am a pretty adventurous eater and hate to cross anything off my list.

I have a textural issue with oatmeal (porridge) although I love oatmeal cookies, muffins, bread, etc. This has held me back from trying grits but similarily, I love cornbread, corn tortillas, etc. I guess the only way to find out is to give it a try.

Thank you. I have never had shrimp and grits. I've had shrimp - tons of them, but I've never had grits. They are just not a "thang" around these parts although I have seen them on a couple of restaurant menus in the last few years.

Made the Weight Watcher friendly cabbage rolls tonight. Ground turkey and brown rice. Didn't salt the turkey/onion/garlic mixture because I had the idea of adding some Better Than Bouillon Beef to try to amp up the flavour of ground turkey. It worked. Picture is sad, I know, but it all tasted good. Instapot beets with balsamic and the cream on the side was Greek yogurt, scallions and dill.

Thanks so much! My Dad always loved Scotch Eggs that my aunt used to make for him. She deepfried them, not my thing but when I can visit him again, I will take him your baked version.

Would love to have your recipe for baked Scotch Eggs. My husband in particular would be eternally grateful!

Random memory provoked by this post. When our daughters were about 6, we went to a golf club Mother's Day brunch. One daughter came back with a dinner plate piled high with nothing but bacon... I did serve bacon occaisionally at home, but normaly two slices per person. We were all gobsmacked, but we had explained the concept of a buffet prior to arriving and had said "there is lots of great food and you can take anything you like, as long as you can eat it all." Our bad. We let her have a few piecs and then divied it up amongst the table and encouraged her to go back for fruit. She did - taking full advantage of the chocolate fountain. Oy!

Gnocchi puttanesca over sauteed spinach and red peppers. Gnochhi were store bought, I've made gnocchi lots of times, but wasn't in the mood tonight. These were good.

Totally agree. It's just about being mindful and eating lots of non starchy veg, which isn't difficult. Unlike other "diets", nothing is forbidden, you just have to allow for it, which works well for me, as my 5:00 G&T keeps me happy!

Okay - that does it. I was thinking today that I could make cabbage rolls with brown rice and ground turkey to keep within our weight watchers goals. It's a whole new way of cooking, but kind of fun. We are both down 12 pounds in a month, including a couple of cheat days. Had a great Greek meal at our favourite place on Sunday and still lost.