Over Hill, Over Dale, Gypsies hit the dusty trail....

I've been educated and I'm proud!!! Thanks moon never really gave it any thought. Ok gone to watch GH will catch yall in a bit. I've spit this day away but don't feel guilty and enjoyed the chats. Love our different cultures!! cya

Smiley, good rules! By the way, does white chocolate have any chocolate in it?

Same chocolate friend makes her own vanilla. A bottle of good vodka, can't use the cheap stuff, and fresh vanilla beans. Put beans in vodka and wait.... It takes months, I forget how long.

now I have that song in my head...
Don't go 'round tonight
For it's bound to take your live
There's a bad moon on the rise.

I hear hurricanes a blowin'
And I know the end is coming soon
I fear rivers overflowing
I hear the voice for rage and ruin

ok what did I miss?

I believe white chocolate is just the fat from chocolate.

here's a wiki page on white chocolate:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_chocolate

I never liked it, and that darned Easter Bunny used to bring me one every year. I kept telling him I didn't like it, but he still brought it.

(it just now dawned on me that ... maybe... she bought me white chocolate knowing I would give it to her, so she could eat it. You all know who "she" would be...)

hmmm well we're talking about food & plants, very unusual for us...

Lynnie, I just looked on my bottle of vanilla and it says 35% alcohol, vanilla bean extractives in water, and corn syrup.

I will not kill my stepson, I will not kill my stepson, I will not kill my stepson

Yes, that is the Vanilla Orchid, Vanilla planifolia. The beans form after the flowers fade, and only if it got fertilized, which may require hand pollination.
You can see the beans forming directly to the left of the flower. That was several months ago, I'll go get a photo of what it looks like today.

As Vanilla Beans ripen up and turn from green to dark brown, they let off an extremely appealing scent! When you look at the bean and see where the scent comes from, and get a whiff close-up, the bean almost says; taste me!

we could change bad moon to full moon on the rise

yes Lynnie, lunch break again. I'm making up for all the lunch breaks I've worked through. After 23 years, there's a lot of them!

I wonder what kind of alcohol, Venice...

Okey dokey, Smiley....grin CCR was who you were thinking of though, eh? Gee, juniper berries and vanilla....hmmmm

The green things in Dave's pic are the soon to be vanilla beans. They are left on the plant until they are 4 or 5 inches long and 'ripe', just like any seed pod. You can often find dried vanilla beans at health food stores and places that carry hispanic foods.

Venice, people who make their own vanilla won't even use the store stuff. My friend used to have a fit, I told her I used the 99 cent stuff, the imitation, not even extract. She'd practically hurl. But then, she's a serious baker and I'm not.

I read once that vanilla is the most appealing scent to man because it invokes memories of mothers milk and breast feeding.

Lynnie, I have no idea what kind of alcohol McCormick uses in their vanilla.

This is what that link said:
In the US chocolate must be at least 20% cocoa butter (by weight), at least 14% total milk solids, at least 3.5% milk fat, and less than 55% sugar or other sweeteners.

I guess the cocoa butter is what is left over from the chocolate process. Is that right?

Yeah I wish I could get some so I could grow my own...but I like baking, and cooking when I have good ingredients to cook with

Oh Smiley, I would never use that imitation stuff either!

That was Lynnie humming that CCR song, Moon. But you just have a way with words.

I know, I've changed my ways Venice. I buy the real stuff now.

lol Smiley I heard it was cinnamon

I hope you got your * together
Hope you are quite prepared to die
Looks like we're in for nasty weather
One eye taken for an eye.

it's seriously stuck in my head...I'm gonna have to play it now.

I know Martha Stewart is very picky about her vanilla (of course!). I have no idea what kind she has, but I have never seen that shape of bottle in any store where I shop.

I don't use imitation either...life is too short for imitation vanilla.

Smiley, good for you!

I remember years ago, to make pie crust we always used Crisco. Well, since they change their ingredients it is just not the same.

I was just making a comparison to imitation vs the real thing.

Yeah, Smiley, i meant way up there when ya said ya knew the name of the next thread....lol

Me too, Lynnie...got it on the CD player right now....so don't go around tonight....bound to be a fight, there's a bad moon on the rise....

When youse guys are ready, here is the new, get to it quicker, thread....grin


http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/1055677/#post_7267870

I use Crisco, my mother was saying the same thing though....
I need to wake up, I took a snooze on the couch,I think i have a touch of what my daughter had....nausea, headache...I have to go to work tonight.

Venice, I don't know for sure, but I'll bet dollars to chocolate Martha makes her own vanilla.

My neighbor uses lard for her pie crusts. And there's nothing like it, either. She makes these things called cornish pastee's (PAHS-tees) that have meat & veggies in it. At one end is a little baked apple, or whatever. Apparently it was a mining thing, She's from Sudbury in Canada, big mining town, and they would eat it from end-to-end and end up with the dessert.

Every now & then she brings one over for me. I bring it for lunch.

Commercial Chocolate producers make their product by first pressure squeezing the cocoa butter out of the bulk cacao beans. They then grind the beans very fine. Add lots of sugar, milk & other stuff, sometimes put the fat back in.

Traditional Chocolate is made by grinding up the whole beans.

I make Vanilla Extract with Whaler's Dark Rum.

Mmmmm!

Hey Dave, Venice, y'all make the jump to the new thread...loads quicker Dave. (link is about 5 or 6 posts up.