Quoting Dave Drum to Sean Dennis <=-

That's sort-of upside down. Usually suburbia is the high-priced
spread and the core city is, if not El Cheapo Central, at least
more reasonable.

That may be true in post industrial rustbelt smokestack cities. But
not in all cities. Downtown Toronto is $1.7 MM plus, while the GTA
is $1M with a handful of rundown places under $500K. And Sean was
talking about rural counties far outside the suburbs anyway.
Peterborough is 55 miles northwest of Oshawa and the average home
there is just $365K (and even that is up 25% in one year thanks to
the Covid bump).

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06

Title: Devil's Food Cake - Country Living Holidays
Categories: Desserts, Cakes, Chocolate, Frosting
Yield: 12 Servings

1/4 c Butter or margarine,
-softened
1 1/2 c Sugar
1/4 ts Salt
1 tb Vanilla
3/4 c Unsweetened cocoa
3 1/2 c Unsifted cake flour
2 ts Baking soda
2 1/2 c Water
4 Egg whites, at room temp.
Cocoa frosting
Chocolate glaze
Confectioners' sugar and
-unsweetened cocoa (opt.
-for checkerboard
-decoration)

Heat oven to 350 F. Generously grease and flour three 9-inch round
cake pans.

In a large bowl with electric beater or mixer, beat butter, 3/4 C
sugar, salt, and vanilla together until fluffy. Combine cocoa,
flour, and soda in a sifter. Sift into bowl on top of butter
mixture. Add water and beat at low speed just until smooth.

With clean beaters in a medium bowl, beat egg whites until fluffy.
Gradually add remaining 3/4 C sugar. Continue beating until stiff
peaks form. Fold, one-third at a time, into chocolate batter.

Divide batter evenly into prepared pans. Bake until centers spring
back when touched-20 to 25 minutes. Cool 5 minutes in pans. Turn
out on cooling rack and cool completely.

Prepare cocoa frosting. Fill and assemble cake. Spread a thin
smooth layer of frosting over cake. Refrigerate 1 hour.

Prepare chocolate glaze. Place chilled cake on a cooling rack with
a tray underneath it. Spoon glaze onto top of cake. Spread evenly
allowing glaze to flow down sides. Smooth sides.

Place cake, still on cooling rack with tray, in refrigerator until
glaze is firm. Decorate top with cocoa and confectioners' sugar
checkerboard just before serving, if desired. Place 1-inch strips
of thin cardboard gently onto frosting 1-inch apart. Sift
unsweetened cocoa over top of cake to solidly fill spaces.
Carefully remove and clean strips. Place gently in opposite
direction. Sift confectioners' sugar over cake. Remove strips.

Cocoa Frosting: In a medium bowl, beat together 1/3 C softened
butter or margarine, 1 1/2 lb confectioners' sugar, 1/3 C
unsweetened cocoa, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 3/4 t vanilla and
1/3 to 1/2 C milk. Use to fill and frost cake.

Chocolate Glaze: In the top of a double boiler, over hot (not
boiling) water, melt 6 1-oz squares semisweet chocolate and 4 T
butter. Stir in 3 T cold water and 1/4 C confectioners' sugar
until smooth. Use to glaze a 9-inch cake.

Country Living Holidays/92 Scanned & fixed by Di Pahl

MMMMM

Cheers

Jim


... When you screw up an omelet you still have scrambled eggs & it's ok

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JIM WELLER wrote to DAVE DRUM <=-

That's sort-of upside down. Usually suburbia is the high-priced
spread and the core city is, if not El Cheapo Central, at least
more reasonable.

That may be true in post industrial rustbelt smokestack cities. But
not in all cities. Downtown Toronto is $1.7 MM plus, while the GTA
is $1M with a handful of rundown places under $500K. And Sean was
talking about rural counties far outside the suburbs anyway.
Peterborough is 55 miles northwest of Oshawa and the average home
there is just $365K (and even that is up 25% in one year thanks to
the Covid bump).

Springfield is not a "smokestack" city. Although at one time it would
have been considered as such. But the city fathers, with malice
aforethought drove the factories to the real rust-belt. We are a paper shuffling city - with several insurance companies and state gummint as
the core income producers. Of course we are also in the heart of some
of the richest farming land in America.

I did very well on my little bungalow. Zillow "Zestimate" says it's
worth U$64,200. Trulia says the same. https://www.homefacts.com is a
bit lower @ U$56,100.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06

Title: Mortgage Lifter Tomato, Corn & Sheep Cheese Salad
Categories: Five, Vegetables, Cheese, Herbs, Salads
Yield: 3 Servings

1 lg (or 2) heirloom tomatoes *
Fresh basil
1 Ear steamed sweet corn
Bonnieview Farm Coomersdale;
- semi-hard sheep cheese
Olive oil
White wine vinegar
Salt & pepper

Slice tomatoes about a half inch in thickness and arrange
on a platter. Cut the corn from the cob and sprinkle on
top of the tomatoes. Chop the basil and layer on the
tomatoes and corn. Grate or shave the cheese on top and
drizzle with olive oil and vinegar. Season with salt and
pepper and enjoy.

It's best served with all ingredients at room temperature.

* Mortgage Lifter Tomato was perfect, but I've had this
salad made with three or four different heirlooms on one
plate.

From: http://nourishingwords.net

Uncle Dirty Dave's Archives

MMMMM

... I am tired of being part of a major historical event.
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Quoting Dave Drum to Jim Weller <=-

Springfield is not a "smokestack" city.

I didn't mean to imply that it was.

Zillow "Zestimate" says it's worth U$64,200.

Zillow estimates are very crude as they rely solely on zip codes. I
live in a transitional neighbourhood. There is a road full of
mobile homes one block away from a street full of large, two storey
homes with double garages. The two streets are in different
residential zones separated by a strip of green space but share a
postal code. One day Zillow estimated my place at $275K and another
day it thought the place was worth $550K! No local appraiser or
Realtor with feet on the ground would ever make that mistake.

They may right in your case as I recall you bought a "handy man
special" and put some effort into whipping it into shape. Plus the
markets almost everywhere are up since then.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06

Title: Zesty Mashed Potatoes
Categories: Indian, Vegetables, Chilies, Vegetarian
Yield: 4 servings

5 lg Potatoes, baked or boiled
3 tb Ghee
1 ts Salt
1 ds Black pepper
2 Minced green chilies
3 tb Water or soy milk
Fresh parsley for garnish

Mash the potatoes sans their skins. Add all the ingredients. Use
warmed water or soy milk. Whisk till creamy with a fork. Serve
immediately or keep warm in a double broiler.

Adapted from Yamuna Devi, "The Art of Indian Vegetarian Cooking"

MMMMM



Cheers

Jim


... Millions drink smoothies because they were told to do so.

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JIM WELLER wrote to DAVE DRUM <=-

Springfield is not a "smokestack" city.

I didn't mean to imply that it was.

You were painting with a wide brush.

Zillow "Zestimate" says it's worth U$64,200.

Zillow estimates are very crude as they rely solely on zip codes. I
live in a transitional neighbourhood. There is a road full of
mobile homes one block away from a street full of large, two storey
homes with double garages. The two streets are in different
residential zones separated by a strip of green space but share a
postal code. One day Zillow estimated my place at $275K and another
day it thought the place was worth $550K! No local appraiser or
Realtor with feet on the ground would ever make that mistake.

In which case ($550K) I'd say "Sold. Where's my cheque?" Bv)=

They may right in your case as I recall you bought a "handy man
special" and put some effort into whipping it into shape. Plus the
markets almost everywhere are up since then.

It was minimal effort, TBH. Main problems were the fascia boards behing
the gutters on the carport were rotted and the gutters needed replacing.

I used plastic composite for the board replacements (not susceptible to
rot). And eschewed the gutters altogether. I may at some point install guttering and lead the flow to my (planned) raised bed garden.

I had the place re-roofed in 2019. And rebuilt the patio cover due to
a limb from a huuuuuuge silver maple (8' across the base) spearing thru
it in a wind storm. My contractor built the replacement so that I san
turn it into a "screen room" fairly easily in futures.

And the silver maple fell to the chain saws of a tree service. That was
$3,000 I didn't want to part with. But, it was insurance that the tree
would not further damage my house, nor the neighbour's.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06

Title: Zesty Mashed Potatoes
Categories: Indian, Vegetables, Chilies, Vegetarian
Yield: 4 servings

I'll take a pass on this one (sounding like Married Ruth). I likes me
mash to be smooth and creamy for the most part. Chilies come into play
w/taters only in the "twice baked" end of the spectrum.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06

Title: Twice Baked Potato Poppers
Categories: Five, Appetisers, Potatoes, Cheese, Salsa
Yield: 6 Servings

6 sm Round potatoes; scrubbed
2 tb Salsa verde
1 tb Unsalted butter
Salt & ground black pepper
2 tb Shredded white Cheddar

Set oven @ 400ºF/205ºC.

Place potatoes onto a baking sheet and bake in the
preheated oven until tender but still firm, about 25
minutes. Remove potatoes and set aside.

When potatoes are cool enough to handle, cut them in
half. With a melon baller, scoop centers out of each
potato, leaving a thick shell. Place scooped-out potato
centers into a bowl. Arrange hollowed-out potato halves
onto a baking sheet.

Mash scooped-out potato centers in a bowl with green
salsa and butter; season with salt and black pepper.

Spoon the mixture lightly into the hollowed-out spuds;
do not overfill. Top each filled potato half with a
pinch of white Cheddar cheese.

Turn on the oven's broiler.

Place potatoes under the broiler about 6" from the heat
source until tops are browned, about 5 minutes.

RECIPE FROM: http://allrecipes.com

Uncle Dirty Dave's Kitchen

MMMMM

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06

Title: Salsa Verde M5
Categories: Vegetables, Herbs, Chilies
Yield: 5 Servings

8 Tomatillos
3 Serranos
2 Jalapenos
1/3 c Fine chopped onion
1 cl Garlic; fine chopped
1/4 ts Ground cumin
1 tb Fresh cilantro leaves
1 tb Vinegar
1 tb Oil
pn Salt

Peel and rinse the tomatillos, being careful for little
worms and things. Heat the comal and roll the tomatillos
on the surface until there are significant browned
patches on all of them. Similarly treat the peppers.
Puree the tomatillos and peppers (or if you must, mash
them on a molcajete) and force through a seive to remove
bits of skin and seeds. (Tomatillo seeds will wind up
jumping everywhere.)

Heat the oil in a small skillet and sautee the onion
until transparent (about 5 minutes at pretty high heat).
Add the garlic and stir quickly; allow neither the
garlic nor the onion to brown. Add the cumin and the
puree and stir quickly. Reduce heat slightly and allow
to reduce until somewhat less watery. Taste and season,
adding the vinegar if the tomatillos didn't add enough
bite (be careful with the vinegar). Remove from heat
and stir in cilantro leaves.

This sauce is a nice accompaniment to grilled pork or
chicken. It can be combined in trendy ways with a rich
red/brown sauce made from dried peppers.

Mike McNally - From the Chile-Heads Recipe Collection

Uncle Dirty Dave's Kitchen

MMMMM

... "Never confuse movement with action." -- Ernest Hemingway
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