Merry Christmas, jean!, - Printable Version +- Cuisine at home Forums (https://www.forums.cuisineathome.com) +-- Thread: Merry Christmas, jean!, (/showthread.php?tid=147970)

Merry Christmas, jean!, - cjs - 02-22-2013 Sharon! What a great present! I'm sorry Bill has plied me with too darn wine &i can barely type. Will reveal all tomorrow! Re: Merry Christmas, jean!, - Harborwitch - 02-22-2013 I told Bill Margaritas Re: Merry Christmas, jean!, - cjs - 02-23-2013 Sharon, What a wonderful array of goodies to play with. I'll get everything lined up today and take a picture. The sugar cane arrived safely intact - thank heavens, that's probably the first thing I'll play with. Don't know why I haven't gotten some before! And, the salts, I've already tasted them. Well, at long last this wraps up Secret Santa for 2012! And, I apologize for dragging it out so long. Re: Merry Christmas, jean!, - cjs - 02-23-2013 salt samples, a halumi grill pan, beans, achiote paste, food saver thingee, drink mixes and a can of sugar cane. Thanks so much!! Sharon, those darn Takis (crunchy7 fajitas) are addictive!! Re: Merry Christmas, jean!, - labradors - 02-23-2013 Neat stuff! Zuko is one of the drink mixes popular here. I don't drink a lot of it but, for the most part, I like it better than the other brands (even Tang). The one negative (as is true for most drink mixes, nowadays) is that they do use artificial sweeteners (aspartame) and that does give some of them a bitter taste. The way I avoid this (regardless of brand) is to buy flavours that are naturally acidic (lemon, pineapple, etc.), so that the taste from the aspartame pretty much fits in and isn't that noticeable. Which flavours did you receive? Even with the aspartame, I hope you have the chance to try their horchata, guanabana, tamarind and passionfruit. Edit: Actually, I see one of the Zukos is hibiscus (Jamaica). That's a good one, too, but I prefer using the actual flowers, instead (and have quite a large package of them). If you like the Zuko Jamaica, you can probably find the flowers (pronounced "hah-MY-kah" in Spanish, should you need to know) at a Mexican/Latin-American store or maybe even in some health/natural-food stores (although the latter would probably charge more for it). Re: Merry Christmas, jean!, - Harborwitch - 02-23-2013 Oh Jean we are so glad you liked it. That little foodsaver things is so handy on the road - I use mine a lot for cheeses and hard vegges, not so much meat because I like to reuse the bags. I haven't tried the sugar cane either - need to go get a can! I did find out that you can freeze what you don't use. Have fun with all the stuff (those Takis are really addictive! Our Granddaughters got us hooked on them and we couldn't find them until we got here!) Oh, and the achiote paste - omg! It is one of my favorite things - Cochinita Pibil! Enjoy! (OH - the beans, OMG the beans - they are a favorite of ours, They're very different from pintos and kidneys - just so flavorful. Re: Merry Christmas, jean!, - Trixxee - 02-23-2013 Very nice! Christmas in February! Re: Merry Christmas, jean!, - Mare749 - 02-23-2013 What a great secret santa package! Glad you are having fun! I have never used canned sugar cane but did get to try fresh sugar cane when we were on vacation last year. I was astonished at how tasty and refreshing it was and not too sweet like you would expect. Re: Merry Christmas, jean!, - luvnit - 02-24-2013 Awesome! I had forgotten about Jean's Secret Santa. That's great! What a great bunch of fun things. You will have fun Jean!