Hey good lookin', what's cookin'?

There are a couple of places here in Mtl that make their own panettone.  There must be some in Toronto! If you buy a commercial one, make sure that it is made with butter and not some mystery fat. The fewer ingredients (except for raisins, candied fruit etc.) the better. Tre Marie is a decent "commercial" one. Now if you get a slightly stale one on sale, don't just cut it up and serve it. There are two basic things to do with it then 1) toast it, and serve with butter and 2) make a luxe version of French Toast or bread pudding. It will be fine.

No, not at all. Just that there are tasty things you can make with panettoni that are a bit dry. When they hit $2 it is probably too late.

I saw Tre Marie (a decent, all-butter commercial brand) at Pharmaprix here (Shoppers to you) for about $11. I haven't bought one yet; I don't know whether I'm having any guests over. I'm not doing anything much for that nasty holiday.

Can you get mulled wine teabags here? It isn't one of my favourite things, but I have seen them.

Still on the fruitcake tangent, this is what the other half of that lump of suet is destined for:

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/george_orwells_recipe_for_christmas_p...

(though I would have thought almonds were hard to find in Britain during the war)

There are only four of us, and I am not in my own kitchen.  So I have decided to ditch the traditional Christmas menu and instead offer filet mignon, potatoes cooked in duck fat and glazed carrots.  Plus a small cake from a bakery.  

It is most definitely not cheaper, but can be on the table in 45 minutes.

Tomorrow I will make Belgian waffles with raspberries for breakfast, and gourmet tourtiere (bought from the same obscenely expensive Toronto butcher which supplied the steaks).

Honestly, I think non-traditional foods are more delicious anyway.  Like fettucine alfredo, or a lamb curry.

For some reason people think of those things for NYE, not Christmas.

pookie, I'm sure it was cheaper and less stressful than a restaurant. It is always more expensive when one is far from one's kitchen and usual suppliers. I'm not making a tourtière this year, at least not so far. I usually make a duck one, but have had too many travails. Just a seafood rice, like a cheat paella, though I have been grinding the saffron and other spices in a mortar and pestle: saffron threads, a bit of smoked pimentón and a smidgen of turmeric... too much makes it bitter and kills the saffron. Soaking in a tablespoon or so of white wine, in a 125 ml (tiny) mason jar in the fridge. I'll also do a base of onion, garlic and a bit of sweet red pepper.

Too bad your butcher is so pricy. I'm sure Magoo and some other GTA babblers could find you good but cheaper sources. Next week I'm buying a three-litre metal container of Greek extra-virgin olive oil ($15) and lugging it home. Good to have supplies if it gets hard to carry stuff, with snow and cold.

6-month,no. More like 3-month. I make even crusts for savoury pies with olive oil; I use very little butter. Non-olive oil is for Asian cooking. If I had more money (if only!) I'd buy two.

Oh definitely, lagatta.  What I just cooked for us would have been $400 in a restaurant.  Easily.

Yes I could have gotten the meat more cheaply.  But we are downtown, I had limited time and am not familiar/comfortable with Chinatown butchers and was absolutely unwilling to drive today.  

So...Queen St W for me. 

@6079 - I know they produce lard in Canada (even if it violates dietary laws for Jews, Muslims and the vegan crowd), but coconut oil and peanut oil... not so much. Try Canola.

I have a very good less-refined sunflower oil that tastes ... like sunflower seeds. However, like extra-virgin olive oil, it can't be used for high-heat frying (either deep or wok-type). I have cheaper sunflower oil for the wok.

I do sautée with olive oil (not a very expensive one) as I'd sautée with butter - not at a high heat.

I utterly loathe canola oil. Not everyone gets the "rotten-fish" aftertaste, but I do. Odd, as I like fish sauce that acutally is made with fermented fish.

I certainly don't use a cup of olive oil a week in day-to-day cooking. I measure everything; oil into littlle glass prep bowls. I use more oil when I'm doing projects such as foccaccia/fougasse, savoury tarts and pies and similar stuff, not all of which is eaten by me, then the use goes up.

pookie, your choices were definitely wise. I hope you had a lovely time.

I ran outta rice, so I made stir fried pearled barley with vegetables and hot sauce.  Not bad, actually.  The pearled barley was like pudgy rice.

It never was just for beer. But of course, it is also for beer! Barley is also great in soup.

Does anyone like to cook buckwheat? I bought something (on sale) called "white buckwheat" - think it is the same thing as kasha but not toasted yet. I'll probably toast it.

I've been lucky to find some decent green vegetables and eggplant on sale. The price of greens is just terrifying, and even the price of a lot of stuff grown or produced in Canada has risen terribly.

I was so happy to have bought a three-litre jug of Greek olive oil for $15 - I bought two, actually, one for a neighbour, who reimbursed me. So happy not to have to worry about that during the winter.

Mmm, cream of mushroom soup.  Mushroom and barley soup is good too. 

Speaking of barley, I occasionally enjoy barley coffee (aka roasted grain beverage).  You usually find it in European sections of grocery stores (or at Honest Ed's in Toronto).

The Romas really didn't appeal. I bought a LOT of other stuff though, for under $16. Three of those chicken legs, which were large, and locally-sourced chicken. They came to 1.250g or so, meaning they were about all I could put in my small old crockpot along with pot vegetables (onion, carrot, the hard stems of kale, frozen veg scraps...) The cooked chicken has been removed from the crockpot and is in the fridge, the bones put back in withe the pot veg to keep on cooking for the rest of the night at least.

Here is a recipe for caldo verde. http://leitesculinaria.com/7580/recipes-portuguese-kale-soup-caldo-verde... I dont have any chouriço but might buy a piece tomorrow as I have to go near a Portuguese "intermarché" superette. However, I think my chicken will be going into the soup, which will be more of a soup-stew (simple meal for cold weather).

Yes, I julienned the kale and reduced my stock a bit, early this morning. The soup won't take long to put together. I might substitute quinoa for the potatoes, because I have some leftover quinoa and it is good in soup - that is how it is often used in the Andes.

About time you can cook indoors, Timebandit!

I took a break from work to finish off the Caldo verde soup - it involved a lot of fine chopping, but I enjoy fine chopping. That would not be the case if I had four kids! I did get the chouriço. One thing I did differently from the recipe I shared was that it called for ALL the onion-garlic-potato-kale mix to be puréed with a stick blender. That seemed too much like baby food, and the types I'd eaten in Portuguese restaurants had more texture, so I puréed half (as one often does with legume-based soups). I had put some of those baby-cut carrots (which I NEVER buy), leftover from a co-op Christmas party in the stock (I don't like eating them; find them hard and tasteless). I sliced them into tiny rounds, if nothing more some colour contrast (as was the sausage). Some fresh parsley on top would be nice too, but I'm out of it. It made quite a lot, but I think it will freeze well.

The old Segall's grocery at the corner of St-Laurent and Duluth sells bags of hunks of prosciutto (offcuts that couldn't be sliced by machine) for a similar price, but they don't also have them. I also buy those for the same reason. I haven't found the Portugese ham on sale. And Segall's is a lot more Portuguese than Italian. As the name indicates, it was originally Askhenazi Jewish, and the old owner's son is still there, but most of the staff are Portuguese. But a lot of their customers, other than Portuguese and other "ethnic" shoppers of a certain age, are university and Cégep students, as it is about half way between McGill and Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) and Cégep du Vieux-Montréal.

This prosciutto is local, of course, but it is perfectly fine for the uses you state, and if one slices it carefully into little canapé sizes, is very popular with any friends popping in for drinks and snacks.