Sylvain, everything you cook sounds soooo good and the fruit cake sounds Great. I would leave out the
brandy as we do not have anything with alcohol with all of my husbands medications . Maybe you could
share that recipe

Please let me know how the giardinera turns out for you. I always appreciate feedback. The crew here are eyeing that jar in the fridge and they know I will invoke the old Sicilian curse upon them if they touch it before it is ready. Dad loves the cauliflower and Gail can't wait to sink her teeth in one of those halved French shallots. I like it all. The Sicilian curse is awful because it causes your socks to fall down around your ankles. So, you're always bending down to pull them up again and eventually, your back gives out. I use it sparingly, but it is very effective.

Gotta get me a snake fix.

Take care, everyone.
Sylvain.

I'm sorry, Shannon. We seem to have cross-posted.I lay no claim to the recipe being mine. It's one of Alton Brown's recipes, available at:

http://www.foodnetwork.com/rec...

I throw in whatever I like, but the principle is rather straightforward.

I fully understand about the brandy. However, to give your cake that little extra boost and moisture, you could boil 4 ounces brandy and burn off the alcohol. The alcohol itself has no taste, but the brandy imparts a very festive taste to it all without interfering with medication. Same thing goes for the rum you use to macerate the dehydrated fruit: consider burning off the alcohol. I bake mine in a large tube pan with a removable bottom. I cover the tube pan's sides, the bottom and the chimney with parchment paper to avoid having it stick to the pan. I am quite handy with parchment paper and I freely admit being rather controlling about cakes NOT sticking to the pan. That is one cake that has to look as stupendous as it tastes. As soon as it's done, I'll endeavor to take a picture and show it off here.

Snake fix time!
Take care, everyone.
Sylvain.

Thank you for sharing your recipe, Sylvain -- can't wait to try the giardiniera ! (I will say that it looks to me like it needs some hot peppers... but then, just about everything around here gets hot peppers added to it)

(I'm not planning to market or label it, but if I do you will definitely receive an honorable mention )

Hi, everyone.

It's a beautiful day here in Delray-les-Dunes, 84 degrees F, 61% relative humidity and ever so enjoyable.

The weather is so nice, I brought Lucy out for a breath of fresh air. She was in a climbing mood and took full advantage of my readers to get some much-needed support. Picture included.

Take care, everyone.
Sylvain.

At first I thought you had a scarf around your neck, Sylvain, then I saw it was Lucy's body! Her markings are lovely!

That's a happy snake!

I left her there just long enough to snap the picture, to share with you all and save my reading glasses from destruction. Snakes are all muscle and those are my brand-new readers. I hope you all enjoy it.

Life is good with a pet snake, although I always make sure the neighbors don't see her and fire a written complaint to the HOA. I don't need the hassles the HOA would heap upon us if there were a complaint. The neighbors will be returning to their home state in 2 weeks.

Sylvain

A pox on the HOA!! Your snake is lovely...your glasses, not so much. Glad you saved them from certain destruction.

Sylvain,
The picture was adorable and I agree. There is always someone who would screech about the killer snake.

Sylvain, I'm not sure if you are still posting here or mostly on DG so I'm checking both places. I have to chuckle when I think about keeping up with the life of a snake. I was going to say that you are quite a snake charmer but that is also the name of a hunting rifle so I probably shouldn't use that term much.

Sylvain and others - snake update. We have found several corn snakes on the property here - quite peaceful. I love to find them and show the grandchildren so they can see snakes as just part of all nature and not as "demons" to be instantly killed. We get cameras out, not hoes or shotguns.

Hi, everyone.

I haven't posted much lately, as you all know. I posted a bit on the other side if the chain link fence, because there are people over there who don't come here and I miss them.

Ah, Stillwood... corn snakes on your property: such a blessing. Still, they are wild animals that can bite. They are not venomous and they are rather popular in the pet trade. They make a good first-time snake with an easygoing temperament and a forgiving nature. Corn snakes are usually placid little animals that just want to go about their business and find themselves some tasty little rodent here and them. They'll also eat crickets and other large insects. A friend of mine found one crawling inside a bush right there off the sidewalk, adopted it and they have become fast friends. Poor thing had lice (the snake, not the friend), so a lice treatment was soon applied to relieve the poor animal. That kind of thing happens in the wild.

I had Lucy around my neck last night and she seemed to be hugging my neck tighter than usual and I heard a sound similar to paper being scrunched behind my head. She has begun her shed while wrapped against my neck. When I realized what was going on, I let her finish and cleaned the back of my neck. It was hard work for her, so she snuggled in the crook of my elbow and went to sleep. I was covered in big patches of dead skin, but glad that she had done such a fine job of removing the belly's skin. She'll get the sides and the back peeled off by wrapping and rubbing herself on her jungle gym overnight. I'll be able to peel the rest off today, outside. You gotta love your snake to do things like that. You all know I do.

Take care, everyone.
Sylvain.

Awww, I'm glad you were there for Lucy and she knew not to squeeze you too hard. Awesome!

Throughout all this, Lucy was ever so gentle, applying only as much pressure as was needed, to an extent that had I not heard a funny noise behind my neck, I wouldn't have known something unusual was going on. She had a busy night, for sure. She slept all day. And I will check the shedding process later tonight, armed with a lukewarm wet face cloth to help finish the process. Lucy likes a nice wet rub-down at such times. That snake lives in the lap of luxury, I tell you. We wouldn't have it any other way. How many snakes in darkest Africa get a spa evening? I would have to say less than three, if that many at all. But this is purely anecdotal and based on no actual reliable numbers.

Take care, everyone
Sylvain.

We spotted a legless lizard in the garden today. Tomorrow I'll look for the lizard and let him or her know what a Lucky snake Lucy is.

I was cutting back some overgrown groundcover that never died back because of our mild winter. As I went to pull it out of the way a tiny brown snake moved towards me. I don't know who was more surprised, him (or her)
Or me! I was on my knees so fell back and landed on my b___.
I knew it wasn't a dangerous one ( we have copperheads around here) and it disappeared so quickly I didn't see where it went. After that I made a lot of noise and movement before I reached into the dense areas.

Sylvain - I am glad to see the corn snake(s) and hope for some black snakes as we currently have an influx of tiny mice. The property behind us is part of a massive development (sad story for another time) and last month they (those awful, awful bulldozers) cleared (scraped brutally) all the vegetation getting ready for building large houses (all about 20 feet apart - I would choke having someone so near to me). The first result of the clearing has been an influx of mice into our basement apartment - poor little mites have had their universe destroyed.

Because I will not kill them, the only option was to try humane "mice hotels". We have set 4 of them over and over - taking them over the creek to release and racing back to the house trying to beat them back! Then we decided putting out those traps with cheese was probably enticing them in - free buffet. So we went around and sealed up all holes and possible entrances we can. And all food in the storeroom and kitchen carefully sealed up in containers. For several days no sign of any mice. Then today I found evidence around the recycling bins although I wash all recycling. I have ordered new bins with tight fitting lids.

Upshot of the whole thing - the mice as a fact of life, especially now with the disturbance of their habitat. So I just have to continue to seal them out. Although I will not kill them, the corn snakes and black snakes have no such scruples. Maybe they can help get things back in a natural kilter.

Lucy certainly does live in the lap of luxury. I have two cats who live like that. It won't be long until I see a lot of lizard activity here. I enjoy them but they do tend to startle me and I have to be careful not to wet my pants.

Hi, everyone.

When I started this thread, I was hoping to create a place where people would exchange ideas and the goings-ons happening around them. It didn't happen. I tried, but this thread is basically dead. I'll mark this thread as finished and rethink my habits. To all, fond farewells.

Sylvain.