Fk, thanks so much for the information. I was at the store today and they had a whole collection of ceramic pots and pans. I'm thinking to purchasing one and using it to caramilize the sugar

Gen, oh, good to know about the cake flour, now I won't feel like my cakes are not comletely right And that casserole sure looks delicious. The only casserole I've ever eaten was a cheese casserole. It's not exactly a food that we make around here

Rose, ooh, iHerb, a friend of mine buys stuff from there. Thanks for telling me, I'll see if perhaps molasses is something I can afford At least a little bit to make a proper gingerbread

I know molasses is known to be super nutrious, I read a lot about it, the reason we don't have it here is because our sugar doesn't come from the sugar cane but from beet roots, so yeah, few people have actually heard about it or know much about it

My family and I have a couple of casseroles we really like - Tater Tot and Hot Dish. I found a Tater Tot Casserole recipe with no canned soup on Pinterest a while back and we like it even more than the "original".

The Hot Dish Casserole on the other hand has been a little harder to make a healthy version. Today, I think I finally did it. I made a couple cups of gravy from scratch, then add salt, paper, ketchup (like the original recipe), minced garlic, and horseradish. After that cooked together for about 5 minutes and I added cooked hamburger (this had an onion in it) and a bag of frozen peas (should be slightly defrosted). Heated on the stove until the peas were cooked through. There were no leftovers, so I say success at last!

My recent baking endeavors were a Strawberry Lime Trifle and Sugar Cookies (without chilling the dough). We had company this week and for dessert we had the trifle. It was a combined effort by my Mom and I, I made the cake and whipped the cream and Mom cut the strawberries and layered the three in the serving bowl. Then I piped whipped cream rosettes around the top. It looked pretty good and tasted amazing. The lime/strawberry combo was terrific. I just wish I had practiced the rosettes before piping on the trifle.

I really wanted to make Sugar Cookies on Wednesday because I had just gotten Butter Vanilla bakery emulsion. Perfect choice! Especially paired with cream cheese frosting. But I didn't want to wait overnight for the cookie dough to chill (my regular recipe has to chill for 4 hours minimum). So I looked at a bunch of recipes on Pinterest and found one that didn't have to be chilled at all. It had great texture and flavor, just like the chilled recipe.

SnowAngel

My family and I have a couple of casseroles we really like - Tater Tot and Hot Dish. I found a Tater Tot Casserole recipe with no canned soup on Pinterest a while back and we like it even more than the "original".

So am I understanding correctly that Tator Tot is one dish and "hot dish" is another? Where I'm from we sometimes use the phrase "hot dish" to mean "casserole" and that is especially the case with Tater Tot. So we call it Tater Tot Hot Dish.

My family and I have a couple of casseroles we really like - Tater Tot and Hot Dish. I found a Tater Tot Casserole recipe with no canned soup on Pinterest a while back and we like it even more than the "original".

So am I understanding correctly that Tator Tot is one dish and "hot dish" is another? Where I'm from we sometimes use the phrase "hot dish" to mean "casserole" and that is especially the case with Tater Tot. So we call it Tater Tot Hot Dish.

Oops, yes... I forgot hot dish is often used to refer to all casseroles. Our original "Hot Dish" recipe was ground beef and canned soup with biscuits on top, over the years and as the family grew my Mom changed the recipe by adding peas and baking the biscuits separately.

SnowAngel

I asked one of the egg farmers at the market, and they said the trick is to make sure the eggs are not fresh. Well, now, that's annoying. Sure enough, when they sit for a week or more, they peel much better.

Another trick I heard if the eggs are fresh is to add vinegar to the water they cook in. I tried that, and it certainly helped a bit, but not as much as I'd like, for the shells did not come off totally smoothly, so the whites were still pock-marked after peeling.

Does anyone have any further tips? I also asked the farmer if white eggs peeled differently than brown eggs. The answer? Nope. I have 90 to peel on Thursday, so I may be purchasing them from the grocery store just so ensure they're older.

The tips you posted are the ones I've known. The age of the egg in particular makes the biggest difference.

Just what are you peeling 90 eggs for? If I may ask... That's a lotta eggs.

Wups, never mentioned that, did I? ... deviled eggs for 70 people. Yeah, I did not realize the age of an egg made such a difference. I'd better check for the oldest date at the grocery store then.

"Tater Tot Hot Dish" is one of the quintessential Minnesota/Upper Midwest dishes, at least according to the common stereotype.

(That reminds me of a story a teacher told our class several decades ago. She was from New England, and when asked to bring a 'hot dish' to a potluck, that's exactly what she brought, the story went. "It's properly called a casserole," she pointed out).

Deviled eggs for 70 jo? Wowsers.

Jo, what we do here is after the eggs have boiled we let them stand under running cold water for at least a minute, better two. The hot water must completely cool and turn ice cold. The eggs peel easily after that. When we spent our summers in the village and bought fresh eggs, this trick worked perfectly for us

That is exactly my method too, wrose, but it doesn't work for me with fresh eggs. At least in Canada. Sure glad it works for you, though. (What's with Canadian chickens, anyway? )

Hence, I'm saving our fresh eggs to use raw in scrambled or fried, etc, so I purchased grocery store eggs (much to my dismay) for these little deviled guys. They peeled beautifully. I cooked and peeled 84 late yesterday, and now just have one dozen to go.

(Welcome back, worse! )

That is exactly my method too, wrose, but it doesn't work for me with fresh eggs. At least in Canada. Sure glad it works for you, though. (What's with Canadian chickens, anyway? )

Hence, I'm saving our fresh eggs to use raw in scrambled or fried, etc, so I purchased grocery store eggs (much to my dismay) for these little deviled guys. They peeled beautifully. I cooked and peeled 84 late yesterday, and now just have one dozen to go.

(Welcome back, worse! )

What is it with Canadian chickens? Lol. I do remember now that my mom would keep the eggs in ice cold water for a long time, they could sit on the counter for ages and ages while she was busy with other projects, maybe that had something to do with them peeling normally, maybe not, I just remembered that part, so I thought I'd mention it

Woah, Jo, that is a LOT of eggs

(and thank you, it is so wonderful to be back )

The apple harvest is in here and soon I shall set to work making loads and loads of apple pie, I don't want them apples to go to waste we sure got a lot of them and more are coming in.

so yeah, anyone is welcome at my place, cause there is sure to be enough apple pie for all who come

Popping in here to ask, does anybody have a simple burrito recipe (like beef and bean) that they'd be willing to share? I've made them and they've come out horribly, but I've had other people's homemade burritos and they taste good, which leads me to believe it's something I'm doing wrong while cooking.

Umm, what have you tried, fk? My mom's recipe is usually leftover taco meat (and beans?) placed in a tortilla that's been spread with refried beans, rolled up, covered with salsa and cheese, and then baked until warm and the cheese melted. I'm not sure if that's what you're looking for or not, but I think hers are pretty good.

I know there are many recipes for turning dry, root-veggie yams into soft, sweet, candied yams. Can anyone help me turn too-many-cans of such yams into fries? They don't have to be restaurant-perfect, just good enough for ketchup.

Ah, sweet potatoes/yams. My favorite thing. I'm not coming up with many suggestions on Google aside from pan-frying canned potatoes, TOM. (Link and link.) If I wanted something more like a normal french fry, I think I would try patting the sweet potatoes dry, then cutting them into the desired shape and lightly coating them with oil to keep them from sticking. Then, roast them at a low heat for a while to draw out some of the moisture. You could either turn up the heat or try frying them to crisp them up after that.

In other foodsy news, I've been trying to watch my calorie intake these couple of weeks leading up to Christmas, and one thing I've really been enjoying is Celestial Seasoning's Sugar Cookie tea. It's so good with a little milk and some sweetener! Really nice way to deal with Christmas cookie cravings. (Unfortunately the tea contains gluten, though, so not a good choice for for anyone avoiding that.) Does anyone else have any favorite teas or hot drinks for wintertime?