I have a Christmas pudding recipe that calls for suet. This year, I can't find it anywhere. Can I use butter, or something else instead? --Ruth Christmas pudding is a cake-like dessert made with flour, eggs, suet, molasses or treacle, spices and dried fruits. The word pudding in this context may mean dessert, which is common usage for... Read more →
Help! A family feud has erupted about whether or not lavender is one of the flavors in Herbes de Provence. I think it makes everything taste like hand soap, but my wife insists it is authentic. Which of us is right?--Dave I have checked most of my references on authentic french cooking, including Larousse Gastronomique, Julia Child, and... Read more →
So, I'm in the local Safeway looking for pitas for tonight's falafal. I see standard, Safeway brand 60% whole wheat pitas, and Weight Watchers 100% whole wheat. Looking at the labels, I see that Safeway's nutritional values are given per whole pita, whereas Weight Watchers are given for only a half pita. Expanding them out to compare... Read more →
From Bless this Food, a prayer suitable for the Thanksgiving season: So once a year we throngUpon a day apart,To praise the Lord with feast and song,In thankfulness of heart - Arthur Guiterman When I first heard about Bless this Food: Ancient and Contemporary Graces from Aound the World, my thoughts wound back two our two... Read more →
On a recent vacation to Paris, I thought it might be fun to take a cooking class. My wife, Pat, loves to paint so it would also be a chance to get out of her hair while we each did something that interests us. The problem, though, is that I don't need someone to teach me how to make Beef Bourguignon, or Tarte Tatin. Those I make at home... Read more →
"Did you know that of the 6000 bakers in NYC, only 16% are women and only 500 are immigrant women? ... Maseca, a processed corn flour, has replaced fresh ground corn in most commercial tortillas. Domestic workers in New York are 99% foreign-born and 93% of these workers are women of color." Facts from @hotbreadkitchen If you haven't... Read more →
Eggplant Puttanescawith Handmade Fettuccini One of the things I have been enjoying about the Saskatoon Farmers Market this year is the availability of fresh eggplant. What we have enjoyed most so far is Eggplant Parmigiana, but recently I got a hankering to see if I could find a recipe for Eggplant Puttanesca. Puttanesca is... Read more →
I read recently in a magazine that you can lose weight just by drinking cold beverages, since your body has to burn calories in order to warm the liquid up to body temperature. Is that true? - April The short answer is 'yes, perhaps', the longer answer is 'not very effectively'. To start, we need to understand that the word 'calorie'... Read more →
A friend of mine just made a small batch of salsa and put in 5 habanero peppers. She wanted it to be smoking hot but to her dismay it came out mild. It did get a tiny bit hotter after a couple weeks but still is mild. Any idea why it didn't turn out hotter? - Ruth I can think of a number of reasons why your friend's salsa ended up not... Read more →
It seemed like a good idea, the Chef Buddy Digital Detachable Measuring Cup Scale, a measuring cup with a built in digital scale so you can weigh as well as measure. Imagine a measuring cup with a digital scale built into the handle. Since I love making bread, the idea of a measuring cup that I could use to weigh liquids sounded like a... Read more →