DISQUS

Oh, *awesome*!

Chrome/silver would be my preference, but doesn't appear to be available for left-handed use. I like to mouse with my non-dominant hand and my laptop is set-up right-handed only. I've not gotten around to doing anything about it yet. I shoudl though--I've been having a lot of trouble with my right arm this year.

Hey! You can see my parents' greenhouses in the middle of the third pic--it's the big white spot!

Wee've had pretty nice weather here in Ottawa this week--but that's always the way, isn't it?

BTW:

As I have for others who were curious, I suggest coming over sometime when we're doing up something in the pressure canner to see how it works, etc. We used a much smaller one prior to buying our large one--it was fine but, as our quantities became larger, took quite awhile to process everything.

You can also blanch and freeze veggies. For example, I bought 15 head of broccoli for $5 at the end of the summer--it was grown in western Quebec (Shawville, I think). I blanched it according to home food preservation guidelines and froze it in meal size portions with the use of the handy-dandy vacuum sealer!

I will caution you that home canning can quickly become somewhat of an obsessive hobby.

I believe you can buy Ontario lemons and limes, but IIRC they are incredibly expensive and probably chew up more resources to grow and transport than ones imported from warmer countries.

Too funny--I was just coming buy to add "foodsaver" to your kitchen gadgets wishlist! :oD

Something I really enjoy using it for is preparing meals ahead. If I'm making cannelloni, I'll triple the batch and do some in aluminum baking trays, freeze it (to solidify the sauce) and then seal the whole thing in the largest size bag.

I did a Costco run last week--pork loin was $5 off/tray and I got 8 luscious pieces and made pork vindaloo. Yummmmm..

This past summer, I went wild with the sealer and bought lots of fruit at the market--sealing them in 1 cup portions for smoothies and baking. Well worth the effort!

FWIW, both of mine are carbon steel. The reason I made the "no wooden handles" suggestion is because it makes it a lot more difficult to properly season the wok if you can't put it in the oven. :)

Value Village, ONS, Salvation Army, and St Vincent de Paul often have woks and they're only a couple bucks. Good to try it out and then buy a new one when you have a feel for it.

Apparently they also regularly have yoghurt makers! :D

Nothing wrong with reading cookbooks. I do it on a regular basis. I have a cookbook fetish and, while I've been fleshing out my middle eastern/indian/asian selection in recent years, I've found the Bible of great soup. I've made around 10 recipes from it and they've all turned out beautifully (a rare feat, when following a cookbook--I find the success rate is usually around 60%). It's by Jaqueline Heriteau and it's called "Feast of Soups". It has a dozen or so recipes for various fish soups and chowders (my favorite non-lentil soups), and a great section on making stock. I highly recommend checking it out. Amazon.ca usually has a few sellers with used copies (I buy cookbooks used if I can't look at them in a store).

I

Pasta dough is extremely easy to make yourself. It's essentially flour and water with a bit of salt (some recipes also use egg), rolled out to the desired thickness. A marble rolling pin is supposed to make this a little easier, but I've used a regular one with good results.

The fancy gadgets at Preston are all fine and good, but really not necessary. :o) A sharp knife to cut the pasta and a fork to seal the edges of filled pasta work just fine.

I found the following links useful when I did it for the first time:

Making Pasta Dough
Home Made Pasta
How To Make Fresh Pasta Noodles

I have a great (and foolproof!) pierogi recipe, if you'd like it. It's from a friend's Ukranian grandmother. They're essentially ReallyBigRavioli (albeit stuffed with potato and cheese LOL).

Dh mentioned you had a blog. :o)

A cheap substitute for airtight spice bottles is ziploc bags. I use the snack ones for spices I use infrequently and in small amounts (fenugreek, tamarind, star anise, etc.) and mason jars for spices I use in larger quantities. I bought a really cool antique post office cabinet at Kitchenalia a couple years ago that has lots of tiny drawers and is perfect for storing the bagged spices--I have so many that I've taken to storing them alphabetically for easy retrieval.

I have an authentic wok that I inherited from my Dad's ill-advised foray into Chinese cookery, but I picked up a second one for $1.00 at Value Village. Make sure you get a wok that suits the type of cooking you will be doing, and don't get one with wooden handles that cannot be removed. I have a deep one and a shallow one.

I, too, am coveting a full size food processor. We've had a KitchenAid with oodles of attachments for 10 years now and I have a lovely little 4-cup food processor, but a combination 4-cup/8-cup would be so useful. Some of them are designed so that you can put ice into the larger recepticle while using the smaller bowl--effectively chilling what ever you are processing. A good feature for certain soups, icings, etc.

We need a new blender. :o) Ours is one of those nasty Oster ones with the big top and the tiny bottom that can't handle blending frozen fruit. WE drink a lot of smoothies, so this is a PITA.

Something else that is nice to have (which we don't, yet) are Silpat sheets.