curls

Next time you are in St. Louis I recommend Comet Coffee (http://cometcoffeestl.com) for coffee and pastries. For dinner I recommend Bulrush (http://bulrushstl.com).

It all depends on the fruit you are preserving, for the peach recipes you don’t have to create your own apple pectin. Perhaps strawberries have enough natural pectin too? Will check the book when I get home.

I haven’t tried Ferber’s strawberry jam recipes but I have made a few of her peach jams and really like them. Do you have her book, “Mes Confitures: The Jams and Jellies of Christine Ferber”?

@zgast thank you! What great choices! Just looked at Gadaleto’s takeout menu and it sounds like a great option. Mercato looks good too but I’ll save that for another trip. Yes, I’m looking forward to seeing the tulips and other spring blooms!

Thank you all very much for your suggestions!

@zgast thank you so much for the recommendations. No need for upscale on this trip but maybe for another trip. What do you recommend if we continue towards West Chester? Google was recommending taking Route 1 for the last bit of the drive and I was going to go that way but nice to know that a you recommend it too!

Planning a day trip to Longwood Gardens. Any recommendations for lunch or dinner along the way or in Kennet Square? Looking for outdoor dining or take away options.

@saf the dinners sound good. Where did you find ramps?

Whole Foods also has the harbison. It was also one of the sale cheeses during the WF 2020 12 days of cheese. Delicious cheese.

Great! You could use up the rest of your left over frozen bread cubes and make sweet and/or savory bread pudding.

How about bread pudding?

Yes, I saw those! Thank you for mentioning it.

I’m making holiday treats to give to our neighbors and will be making spritz cookies, chocolate chip cookies, caramilized peanuts (per the David Lebovitz recipe), and cinnamon marshmallows. I’m thinking about dipping some of the marshmallows in dark chocolate.

Zingermans has nice gift baskets & boxes and they ship. If you want to send a nice tin or box of pecans, I highly recommend Pearson Farm in Georgia. Just ordered and received a variety of pecan products from them and the quality of all of it is excellent (taste & packaging).

@Pat if you have an ice cream maker you could make eggnog ice cream. Just think of your eggnog as a custard ice cream base and pour your eggnog into your ice cream maker. The cookies sound good too.

I buy from Central Coffee Roasters in Sperryville. Great coffee beans, freshly roasted. They ship. http://www.centralcoffeeroasters.com

Pulled a homemade sourdough waffle out of the freezer to enjoy with sautéed bananas & pecans, Vermont Creamery cultured butter, and maple syrup. If any of you are making sourdough, I highly recommend King Arthur Baking’s sourdough waffle recipe https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/classic-sourdough-waffles-or-pancakes-recipe.

David Lebovitz’s jam tart is an excellent use for excess jam. https://www.davidlebovitz.com/jam-tart/

Last night, grilled hamburgers, grilled shishito peppers. Wegmans white cake with chocolate frosting for dessert.

Not sure where the nicest place to stay is but the Dunes Manor Hotel and Inn on the Ocean (an oceanfront B&B) are nice places. I’m not sure that luxury hotels exist in Ocean City. Given the current situation, it might be best to look for the nicest rental condo or house.

@curiouskitkatt so sorry to read this. My condolences to you and your family.

If you’re considering a Big Green Egg, I recommend looking at a Kamado Joe as well. They are both very well made kamado cookers. I went with the Kamado Joe... it came with accessories that I wanted and was cheaper than the Big Green Egg. Also, the Kamado Joe comes with a hinge that makes it easy to open and close the lid. When you try to open & close the lids on the larger Big Green Eggs, it requires a bit of muscle. The hinge on the Kamado Joe makes the weight of the lid a non issue.

Interesting project. Have you considered adding Tanqueray and Hendricks into your comparisons? I think of Tanqueray as a typical London juniper forward gin and Hendricks as one of the first new non-juniper gins.

Jumped on the sourdough bandwagon. Knew the bread baking would be fun had no idea how much I would like tracking down and making sourdough discard recipes. All the sourdough discard recipes that I have tried from the King Arthur website have been winners. Also, the same can be said for all of Andrew Janjigian's sourdough discard recipes. sourdough discard drop biscuits

If the coconut doesn’t stay nice and crispy, a suggestion for next time... enrobe the coconut in chocolate or cocoa butter. The chocolate coating will prevent moisture from getting to the coconut and softening it. Sounds like a tasty batch of ice cream.