[Mike Nolan]

Although it's 91 here today, we've had several cool spells this summer and I made that eye of round during one of them. Last week we had a day where the high was in the 50's. It's supposed to be in the 70's next week. The crew putting a new roof on our house next week will appreciate that. Now it just needs to NOT rain!

I've got the ingredients for vegetable beef soup ready to go, just waiting for a cooler day.

[Mike Nolan]

Chocolate chips and raisins always seem to sink to the bottom for me, too.

Coating them with flour is supposed to help, I haven't tried it enough to say whether it does or not. (Not sure how you would coat chocolate chips with flour, anyway.)

[Mike Nolan]

I think it's a common mistake to assume that 'Madagascar Bourbon' refers to the type of alcohol used to create vanilla extract. In fact, Bourbon is a reference to the former name of the island nation of Reunion and generally refers to vanilla grown in that part of the world, as opposed to Tahitian or Mexican vanilla.

The ideal approach for someone making their own vanilla would probably be to use pure grain alcohol, which has no flavor profile whatsoever. Most vodkas have some flavor profile, or at least I think they do. This could then be diluted with distilled water to the appropriate strength.

I find it interesting that according to the food renegade site some bottles of McCormick Vanilla Extract say they contain corn syrup but others do not. I have not tried to confirm that report. However, of the 3 bottles of Vanilla Extract in my cupboard at the moment, the Schilling one lists sugar, the McCormick and Sonoma ones do not.

[Mike Nolan]

Looks like avoiding getting any corn syrup with vanilla extract is not easy to do, I wonder if the Mexican vanillas are the same?

For those with a corn allergy, that could be a serious problem. (Most of the people that I've read about with a corn allergy have so many other allergies that there probably aren't many things vanilla is used in that they can eat anyway.)

[Mike Nolan]

aaronatthedoublef wrote:

McCormick has no sugar in it if anyone is looking for that.

According to this site, that's not always the case, so check the label:

http://www.foodrenegade.com/decoding-labels-mccormick-pure-vanilla-extract/

[Mike Nolan]

My wife likes the Watkins vanilla, but I generally just buy the large bottle of McCormick Vanilla Extract at Sams Club.

[Mike Nolan]

I made an 11x17 Texas Sheet Cake Thursday night to send in to my wife's office to celebrate our anniversary (we had the leftovers today), and I made Vienna bread today.

[Mike Nolan]

Today is our 44th wedding anniversary, we had beef stroganoff on rice.

I've been making beef stock since yesterday morning, the main batch (10 quarts) is cooling in the downstairs refrigerator, the remouillage is still on the stove.

[Mike Nolan]

I've been making my own pasta for years, but I stick to simple things like spaghetti, linguini, egg noodles and lasagna. I have the KitchenAid basic pasta set, but I don't have an extruder for making things like mostaccioli or elbow macaroni, though I do have a spaetzle cutter.

I've also not tried making 'flavored' pasta, like spinach or chocolate pasta, much less something like squid ink pasta. (Finding squid ink in Nebraska would be something of a challenge, I suspect.)

[Mike Nolan]

My personal opinion, as long as it still tastes like pie, it's pie, regardless of the shape.

However, at some point a pie made in a casserole dish tends to be a crumble, buckle or cobbler, not because of the shape but because of the type of and placement of crust, and that affects the taste. Now, I'm all up for a good peach cobbler, apple crumble or blueberry buckle, but the taste and mouth feel is different.

[Mike Nolan]

Not really a goof, some very experienced chefs (but not pastry chefs, I think) refer to the French meringue ones as 'macaroons'.

But anything that gets us talking is good. 🙂

[Mike Nolan]

I haven't tried making any of them, but if you google 'dairy free coconut macaroons' you'll get several recipes. (I always thought they were gluten-free, kosher for Passover and dairy-free.)

Another homemade coconut candy I like but don't get often is chocolate haystacks. I've never made them but several people in my home town used to bring them to bake sales. (I haven't been to a good bake sale in years, they're kind of falling out of fashion in the schools due to issues with food allergies and a few unfortunate food poisoning incidents.)

Since my wife won't eat coconut, I seldom have it in the house. I always get all the coconut candies in a box of chocolates, though these days candies are not on my wife's diet.

[Mike Nolan]

When I see the word 'macaroons' (rhymes with 'tunes'), I always think of the coconut goodies that show up mostly around Passover. (And I love coconut cookies.)

I prefer the French word 'macarons' (falls in between rhyming with 'johns' and 'lawns', there's no real equivalent in English, you have to sort of swallow the vowel) for the meringue-like cookies made with almond flour. When you get them just right, the inside is deliciously creamy.

What spelling and pronunciation do folks prefer?

[Mike Nolan]

The recipe my wife likes so much also uses toasted almond slices or slivers. (Toasting them for 4-5 minutes at 350 makes a huge difference in flavor.)

[Mike Nolan]

I wonder how your chicken salad with grapes recipe is compared to the one my wife likes, which also has mandarin oranges and lemon juice? (Yes, I've posted it.)

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