Peeled Chestnuts: Make or buy?
I needed peeled chestnuts for a batch of pickled chestnuts I wanted to make. So I needed them whole, as opposed to a tin of chestnut purée; you don’t pickle chestnut gloop. I know you can buy peeled chestnuts canned in brine, but I wanted to do my own pickling. And with the advent of…
Skinny French Bread (Pain Epi / Wheat stalk bread)
This crispy bread is delicious and dead easy to make. You let the bread machine mix up a batch of dough, and store the dough for up to 14 days in the fridge in a sealed plastic container. Then, on the days when you want some bread, you cut off a small portion of the…
Two-level microwave oven cooking
Over the years, I had found myself staring at the empty vertical space inside a microwave oven, and often wishing that somehow a second dish or plate could be making use of that wasted upper space… say, oatmeal happening below while bacon is cooking above. Or, heating up two plates of food at once. I’d…
Hunting for a new microwave
The most recent microwave oven died two weeks ago. That officially made it three microwaves that I’ve gone through. Microwave No. (1), was a hand-me-down in the early 1990s. It was a big ole Panasonic dating from the mid 1980s — somewhere between 1.6 and 2 ish cubic feet (45 to 56 L), I’d…
Maggi
My new favourite best friend in the kitchen as of 2013 is Maggi. I had researched it and experimented with it briefly back in 2010 when I was writing my article on Maggi for cooksinfo.com, but after that the bottle languished on a cool shelf in the basement pantry. We get into such ruts…
Coconut Milk Instant Powder
As a cook, there’s four things about coconut milk. Makes a fabulous base for gorgeous curries and other sauces; Can be more fattening than double cream; You never have it around when you want it; There’s always an opened half-can of it way past best-by at the back of the fridge that you didn’t…
Weight Watchers Hot Chocolate
Weight Watchers ®Hot Chocolate drink is definitely one of this winter’s top finds for me. It is probably the best instant hot chocolate drink mix I’ve tasted, ever. The combination of a rich, thick texture and dark chocolate taste makes it like drinking a melted chocolate bar. Tasting sugar rather than chocolate has always…
Pressure Cooking Convert
By the standards of the rest of the world, I’m very late to the pressure cooking party. By North American standards, the party ain’t even started yet. Prior to the Second World War, pressure cooking had a full head of steam in gaining popularity in North America. Production of the pots had to be…
Weight Watchers Jams
I’m not the world’s biggest jam eater, but I have always loved my marmalade (which is not jam, of course, harumph), and a dollop of jam on top a bowl of yoghurt turns it into a dessert. I also often reach for a pot of jam when I need to bake something in a…
Marks & Sparks Shortbread
Christmas 2013 is the second Christmas I’ve enjoyed these shortbreads from Marks & Spencer. They are hands down perhaps the best shortbread I’ve had. Not sweet at all, really rich and buttery, and with that perfect crumbly, “sandy” texture that good shortbread must have. (Not sure exactly what shortbread is? ) You’ll notice I’ve been…
The hunt for the best egg nog recipe is over
Like many people, for years, come the start of December, I’d eye up an egg nog recipe or two trying to decide which one I was going to try that year, remembering the string of failures and disappointments stretching back into the past. Knowing that I’d probably revert to the tried and true chilled…
