464 Comments

These are lovely; alas, I hate turning on the oven, and there is trifle to be made no time at all. Probably not as good, but perfect for the lazy and sweet-toothed.

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I never heard of baking beads before. They are completely unknown in the Midwestern USA. And I can't buy caster sugar anywhere in my town. If I ask the supermarket staff about it, they have never heard of it. There are so many wonderful, delicious foods in the rest of the world that simply never made it to the Midwest, and I can't figure out why.

Of course when my parents moved to this little college town in 1946, you couldn't get any "foreign" food of any kind - no pasta, no pizza, no Chinese food, no Indian food, no Mexican food...nothing. Not even olive oil. My mother had to drive 120 miles to St. Louis to buy pastas and cheeses and imported olives and spices. The only pasta you could buy in local stores was elbow macaroni and that curly Fusilli which people sometimes used when they made cold potato salad. There wasn't even Parmesan cheese, let alone Romano or Gruyere or Mozzarella or Gouda. We finally got Tony's Pizza in 1963, and it was considered revolutionary and all the college students hung out there.

It's a lot better now. We have Middle Eastern, Italian, Chinese, Indian, Filipino, Vietnamese, Mexican, Thai, Cajun, Polish and anything else you can think of. But no baking beads.

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Beans are beads. Use dried beans. When you’re done, pour ‘em back in the bag to use again, or fix for chili.

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Also, you can use dried lentils or rice instead of baking beads. Their purpose is simply to weigh the pastry down and keep it flat whilst it blind bakes.

Alternatively, Amazon sells baking beads.

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That's good to know, thanks.

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Caster sugar is what you call superfine sugar. Not confectioners sugar, that's what we call icing sugar.

Tbh, you can just use the regular kind of sugar (granulated), the difference it makes to the recipe is minimal

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In the Midwestern USA we call confectioners sugar "powdered sugar." I've heard it called that all my life. Don't let boxes of it sit around down in the Gulf States, because ants love it and will get in the SEALED box and you are in big trouble when you open it - there will be a volcano eruption of millions of ants all over your countertop. I speak from experience.

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You can make your own superfine sugar - just put regular sugar (without ants plz) in a food processor and pulse it a few times. You'll be able to see the difference right away. (Don't turn it into a powder, though!)

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Baking beads: the strange things you learn about on Wonkette after you are no longer able to do much cooking.

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Ta, CakesWeLike. Beloved fiancé Meccalopolis and I were given a vintage red KitchenAid stand mixer when we visited our dear friend to see the eclipse. That was the first moment I truly felt like a bride! Eclipse Friend came for the weekend; our first houseguest. I baked a vegan frittata for brunch before she left. Then, once I knew my yeast was still alive, I used the dough hook Meccalopolis bought for the stand mixer to make whole wheat pizza dough. In about 20 minutes, it will be done rising in an oiled bowl. Meccalopolis made fresh tomato sauce, and I've reconstituted dried maitake (that we foraged ourselves in October of last year) and dried porcini from the health food store. The pizza will be topped with the sauce, Kalamata and Castelvetrano olives, the mushrooms, a little artichoke heart paste, vegan mozzarella, and fresh basil. We have enough dough and sauce to make two pizzas; that's what's for dinner! Oh, bonus, Eclipse Friend also gave us a pizza stone.

We planted the first three beds in our food garden; the first is surrounded by silver birch logs impregnated with mushrooms: blue oyster, lion's mane, and shiitake. We're creating our future.

Bon appétit!

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That sounds perfect.

I've just planted 3 strawberry plants, hopefully I'll be able to get a few years of homegrown strawberries out of them. I've not had much luck with growing food plants previously.

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All of that sounds amazing, but especially the garden beds. When they grow, please post pics.

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That cake/flan is absolutely beautiful!

And I make quiche all the time...but never homemade crust, cuz' I don't bake gud. (All those precise measurements drive me insane.) I have a bakery next door that does quiche every day and their crust is heavenly and rich and flaky and it causes me guilt when I taste how delicious it is. (I'm convinced that they use lard, but if they do, they'd never tell their well-heeled customers about it!) Anyhow, I bought a rolling pin a few months ago. Maybe one of these days, dear Cakes, I'll use it.

:)

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The precision is just one of those things you have to accept when it comes to baking. This is why I always recommend digital kitchen scales, they are the most used item in my kitchen.

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"Knees Up"!?

How ribald!

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Better thank "knees down", I suppose.

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Cockney term for a party/celebration - usually involving dancing.

https://youtu.be/X7q3PxD__VA?si=bxD-WoDIgYrza5_n

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Lovely - both recipes. It's very kind of you to share these with us. I'm feeling brave, so I might just try the first recipe. My hands shake too much for the beautiful decorations on the second recipe, but maybe I'll just enlarge the picture and put it in the kitchen as aspiration to better days. Hark! The timer calls me to test my pineapple upside down cake - this month's culinary feat.

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You don't need to be as precise as I've been with the decoration of the flan, you can place the fruit however you want.

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Mine would look like it was decorated by Lucille Ball.

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Go for it. Just say you were going for abstract.

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Free form

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I don't know if it has been said already, but that picture with the strawberries should be shared all over the internet.

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Definitely gonna need to get a flan pan. Yummers!

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Far fancier than the custard flan I'm used to. Thanks for the recipes!

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Nicola, your crust looks like perfection! I've never made one because I have very good pie crust makers in my family- my stepfather does not cook but he learned from his mum.

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I occasionally make crust. When my daughter is around I request she please make one for stuff I do if she has time. I have I think got a little better just learning from her—mine a little less heavy now—but hers is still much flakier.

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The shortcrust recipe I use is excellent, you can make shortcrust pastry without the egg yolk, but it really is so much better with it.

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I always loved quiche, because if you have a pre-bought shell (sorry, Nicola) it's such a quick and yummy family dinner/snack/it's so serviceable. In the last ~4-6 months, I've lost the ability to eat eggs - they make me sick almost immediately. Boo for me.

So, I get to watch my family eating cheesy tasty yumminess while reminiscing and eating whatever we've made for a side - usually wild rice and some sort of steamed vegetables.

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Eggs have always made me ill; that's one of the reasons I became vegan decades ago. For most recipes requiring egg, I use Bob's Red Mill Egg Replacer. However, that won't work for things like frittata or quiche. For that, there's Just Egg™️, a plant based replacement that makes wonderful omelettes and frittatas. It would also work for quiche.

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There is absolutely no shame in using a pre-bought shell.

And you could always fill one with a fruit filling and top it with a crumble mix - no eggs involved.

Or fill it with fresh fruit and then pour in some fruit flavoured jello and chill until set. Delicious with cream or ice cream.

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"There is absolutely no shame in using a pre-bought shell."

Totally this. I just like using pie weights really.

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𝗪𝗔𝗧𝗖𝗛: 𝗚𝗢𝗣 𝗚𝗼𝘃. 𝗖𝗵𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝘂𝗻𝘂𝗻𝘂 𝗥𝘂𝗻𝘀 𝗔𝘄𝗮𝘆 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗛𝗶𝘀 𝗣𝗮𝘀𝘁 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁𝘀 𝗧𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗽 𝗖𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝗪𝗶𝗻 𝗘𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝗳 𝗖𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗲𝗱

https://www.mediaite.com/news/watch-gop-gov-chris-sununu-runs-away-from-his-past-comments-that-trump-couldnt-win-election-if-convicted/

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He's still going with citing the polls, but have any been done since trump became the felon?

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It's clear that the MSM is going to play it as a "He says this they say that" type of story, and not "One American political party, having broken up with democracy, is all in on several big lies and the other one isn't"

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Well, six percent are saying they're "less likely" to vote for Trump, but if that just means they're changing from 100 percent likely to 90 percent likely, it doesn't mean much.

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Olbermann was citing some polls yesterday, done overnight. Not good news for PAB, although I forget the exact numbers.

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Sununu will say/do anything that best serves Sununu.

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Jun 2·edited Jun 3

Always. Kind of in the Susan Collins mode or method of self-preservation. "What can I say to fool the voters, both-sides every issue and keep my seat?"

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He's a true Republican in that regard.

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I think you accidentally pasted the wrong link.

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Not anymore!

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Frank is a busy, busy man and mistakes were made.

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O: I.e., all of it.

𝗥𝗡𝗖 𝗖𝗼-𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗶𝗿 𝗟𝗮𝗿𝗮 𝗧𝗿𝘂𝗺𝗽 𝗥𝗲𝗳𝘂𝘀𝗲𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗦𝗮𝘆 𝗛𝗼𝘄 𝗠𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗗𝗼𝗻𝗼𝗿 𝗖𝗮𝘀𝗵 𝗜𝘀 𝗚𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗛𝗲𝗿 𝗙𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿-𝗶𝗻-𝗟𝗮𝘄’𝘀 𝗟𝗲𝗴𝗮𝗹 𝗕𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀: ‘𝗪𝗮𝗶𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗦𝗲𝗲’

https://www.mediaite.com/tv/rnc-co-chair-lara-trump-refuses-to-say-how-much-donor-cash-is-going-to-her-father-in-laws-legal-bills-wait-and-see/

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Yep, totally all of it.

Suck it, RNC, you made this.

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deletedJun 2
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Those are the people who are running for lower offices who ask for money to be sent to PAB's legal expenses.

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AOT,K!

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I don't really concern myself about zombie cultists willingly throwing their money in a gilded toilet.

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Still annoyed as fuck about my new microwave. Not the product, but the installation. Two guys showed up, and one called me "sir". I politely but firmly said "It's ma'am". His gormless assistant then calls me sir again. I stopped them to say they can leave if they can't handle ma'am.

So they start work only for the assistant to keep calling me sir, when I'm told the dumbfuck doesn't speak English. Just enough to infuriate me. Finally told them "Just shut the fuck up and finish to get the fuck out of my house".

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To management: "What do you intend to do about this?"

Repeat until they do something about it.

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Sorry you had to experience that level of dumb-fuckery...

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Follow up with their management. In writing.

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That is so unfortunate.

No. wait. It isn't. It wasn't a random natural event. It was a person's choice to misgender you and continue to do so after you clearly corrected them. I'm not buying the linguistic barrier story. If they know how to say "sir" they also know the word "ma'am."

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Yep. Also not like he couldn't have said, “Wait a sec… (converse in Spanish), ok I told him”

Also the dude knew enough English to keep running his mouth then apologizing

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From time to time, Mrs. Callis will make a quiche. She does not appreciate it when I refer to it as a "quickie," so I cut it out with that nonsense a while back.

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She doesn't like quickies?

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You're safe here though - say it loud, say it proud.

And then I'm going to steal it!

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