Shotguns? A baseball bat should do very well. Canada Geese in the UK are not shy of humans. Rather, they are aggressive and attack pedestrians along the river walks. In the name of self defence one or two might easily be garnered for the cooking pot.

You're correct to set out the ice cream for some time. I use double cream and egg yolks (=lots of fat), and sugar, but my ice cream is also rock hard from the freezer. So is Haagen-Dazs.

I always intend to store freshly made ice cream in individual serving cups to speed up the softening time, and to avoid the hassle of softening more than I will be using. Silicone cupcake cases are the ideal size and the ice cream would be easy to unmold.

The under surface of the freezer bowl has a central indentation shaped to fit the cogs of the turning gear. Other than that, it is flat. The inner surface of the freezer bowl is also flat. A hump all the way across is not the way it is "supposed to be".

Contact your seller or Cuisinart for advice, and try to return/ replace this item. You've used it only once, so it is probably quite new. I believe the machine has a 5 year guarantee.

Ice Cream Science has some great tips : http://icecreamscience.com/2012/06/13....

Hope this helps.

Try a Spanish omelette. The egg white proteins will have a chance to firm up and form a non stick "crust" before flipping. The French omelette requires jiggling and movement to avoid that same "crust", resulting in a looser texture.

Thank you Cheflars for sharing the "quick season" method. Neither wanting nor needing a fried egg, I took up the challenge for my "new" Wagner pans (nobbly base type). I bought the set last year while in San Diego and hauled them to the UK as a culinary reminder of "Made in the USA". Reluctance to embark upon the long, drawn out task of seasoning, kept the pans in a state of suspended decoration, i.e., hanging on the wall.

A few minutes spent on your "quick season" procedure had me frying an egg using just a few drops of oil.

The ability to deep fry an egg in any type of receptacle with any type of fat is not the issue. What is astonishing is that a cast iron pan could be made non stick by such a simple and elegant process.

Here is a link for buying the noodles online in the UK. Includes some information about konjac.

Good luck with your diet.

Kasuri mahti (dried fenugreek leaves).

Passionate use of Caps by a falafel purist.

Alas. Raw green chickpeas are not good for falafel. It appears that there is no quick fix, even in August.

At the other extreme, once I was unable to make falefel the following day as planned. I ended up with some really rank and bubbly, oversoaked chickpeas.

It is amazing that such an unpretentious street-foodish item requires so much forethought and synchronisation.

The different forms of chickpeas produce different textures and tastes. Canned chickpeas are already cooked and good for hummus and cutlets. Chickpea flour is used for pakoras (baji). Raw dried chickpeas are soaked and ground to make falafel.

There is nothing snobbish or refined about cakes made from scratch. They are simply home made. A handy skill like knitting or growing tomatoes or carpentry or even knowing how to keep your car well maintained.

Some people can prepare a really gourmet cake and all credit to them.

Boxed cakes hold up well to inaccurate, or no, measuring. I watched an old fried of mine preparing one while doing other tasks and attending to the sporadic demands of her children. She appeared to have added the required amount of water several times, and I began to despair when I saw the extremely thin batter. It baked up a treat. Fool proof and distraction proof.

Home made cakes are divas and rather more demanding. Even with the best recipe and the greatest care in measuring, results depend on other variables such as flour quality, humidity, oven idiosyncrasies, altitude and, apparently, attitude.

Boxed cakes can be really good and nowadays are the definitive cake.

This year for a Thanksgiving Day shared brunch with neighbours I made a dark chocolate cake with 60% chocolate ganache icing. The cake was delicious, moist , light, with a fine crumb. A nineteen year old proclaimed that it was really good and tasted like brownies. I love brownies, but they are sugary, dense and totally different to cake. Perhaps her experience has been with boxed and other commercial cakes, and brownies to her are the nearest match to a homemade cake.

I don't make boxed cakes because I enjoy the entire process of making caked from scratch, and am quite delighted when they come out just right. It's a personal indulgence, because boxed cakes are cheaper and easier to make, and as Elle mentions, well appreciated.

The nuts eventually do go rancid. That's why it's a good idea to return it to the giver right away, as mentioned above by GG Mora on Oct 29, 2002 09:54AM.

Poorly made, re-gifted, stale fruitcakes have earned an undeservedly bad reputation for this lovely cake. When done properly it is time consuming, labour intensive and expensive to make. The result is certainly worth the trouble, but not if your work of art is destined to be unappreciated due to association with the doorstop variety.

Yes. The great tasting British Christmas cake. I remember my neighbour likes his with the traditional layer of marzipan but without the fondant. It remains deliciously moist but not over sweet.

Ghee is great for baking. It is butter oil and can be used in the many recipes and techniques found online for oil cookies, oil cakes, oil pie crust, etc. It is a solid at a much higher temperature than most cooking oils, and this is an advantage when creaming with sugar for cakes or when making flaky pie crusts. It may be used for chocolate cake or the various spice cakes, but I find the taste of the ghee is masked, so other oils do just as well. Ghee is really good for genoese sponge cake. Shortcrust pastry turns out light and flavourful. Amazing aroma while baking. It is best, and easily, assembled by hand, as mixing in a food processor tends to produce a sludge. (Experience.) For flaky pastry measure, mix and refrigerate the dry ingredients right in the food processor bowl, so everything starts out cold. Cool the ghee flat on a cling film lined plate or tray. When the ghee solidifies nice and hard the film can be peeled off and the ghee easily cracked into small pieces. These cold ingredients may then be mixed in the food processor as usual, using ice water to bind. It handles very well when rolling out to make a pie crust. 1/2 cup of ghee to every 2 cups of flour.

Bo's Seafood Market and Grill in Hillcrest makes the best Clam Chowder in San Diego...and beyond. The other day I bought live clams from Bo's and made a really great chowder at home. I sent some to my neighbour and she told me that it was so good that her husband licked the bowl. So the next time I was shopping in the area I decided to have some of Bo's chowder for comparison. I never became so humble so fast! In all fairness I had to order a bowl to go for my neighbour. Then I invited another friend to Bo's for more of the same. She is well travelled and somewhat of a food critic, and she gave the chowder a thumbs up. It was rich and full of clams. The cup is satisfying and the bowl is a meal. Unless you have a passion for scrubbing clams, it is simply not worth the effort and expense of making clam chowder at home vs. enjoying a cup at Bo's. I've had the clam chowder at the other places mentioned, and Bo's makes the best by far.

I, too, have much respect for Hellman's real mayo. Guess you're not west of the Rockies where it is Best Foods. Somehow the name is off-putting, tho' I am assured it is manufactured by the same company to a very similar recipe. I add finely chopped onions to the salads you mention for an old style Lower East Side NYC taste.

I remember well the IndoPak beverage Kanji. It's made from pickled black carrots and assorted spices, including whole mustard seeds. The concoction is fermented in the sun for a few days to develop a deep red color and pungent aroma. Served with a sprinkle of kala namak (black salt) to add a sulfur kick. This drink is widely consumed during the summer and is very cooling for those who survive. How could something so stink taste so good?

The Costcos I've been to in NYC and san Diego have a fresh fish counter. They occasionally have unfrozen shrimp.

Yes. The shrimp are impressive and good value for the money. They are the right size for barbeque, with or without skewers.

San Diego Costco has a twin pack of organic extra virgin olive oil that is a great bargain. I bought it while shopping with a friend. Even after giving one of the bottles to her, I still saved over buying at other local stores. The oil makes delicious and fresh tasting mayonaisse.

Oops! Sorry about the nearly century error.
Yes, they are rough, but I am looking forward to putting in the time and effort required to achieve proper seasoning.
I shall hang them for display in my kitchen in the UK to remind me of Lehman's and the Amish and things USA.

The interior bottoms are not machined.
The entire surface, inside and out, is rough.
There is some smoothening to the inner and outer edge of the pan rims, as well as to the margin of the thumb part of the handle.
The box is printed in English with smaller print French and Spanish translation.
TMI?

Thank you KristyBee fot the photos and the tips.

Your cake was well risen and did not slip out of the pan when inverted. The finished product was a beauty and I bet it tasted great.

My search for an angel food cake pan has been bewildering. Feet, no feet. Non stick, not non stick. One piece, two piece.

I think I'll give silicone a try. If it doesn't work out for me, well I can always use a good bundt pan.

I received my set of Wagner cast iron skillets today from Lehman's.

The 10 1/2 inch and 6 1/2 inch both have deeply stamped on the outside base : Wagner's 1981 Original. Cast Iron Cookware. Seasoning Instructions (a list of 4). Made In USA.

The 8 inch skillet has engraved : Wagner. Sidney-Ohio-USA.

I'm chuffed, but wondering how to shlep them all from San Diego to the UK.

Another Chowhound link mentioned Wasserstrom. They have the JB Prince 1 Piece Aluminum Angel Food Cake Pan that is not non stick and 7 inches deep. I'm looking for onr myself, and this seems to be ideal.

Alton Brown does recommend an angel food cake pan with feet and separate tube-base. His very informative demo is on You Tube.

Chicago Metallic Professional 2-Piece Angel Food Cake Pan with Feet, 5.8 inches deep. Non-stick. Available from Amazon, Target, etc.
NordicWare Classic Angel Food Cake Pan 6.5 inches with feet. Not non-stick. Available from Williams-Sonoma.

Lehman's have the Wagner cast iron skillet set on their site : http://www.lehmans.com/store/Kitchen_...

The set is identified : Tough, rugged and USA made since 1891.

It appears to be a genuine site with lots of interesting stuff.