crocus999 wrote: We went and picked saskatoons in the coulees with my grandparents all the time when we were growing up. Now my cousin has a huge patch of bushes. Your cross country trip sounds wonderful. I have been in the Yukon (and want to go back) but haven't been in the Northwest Territory and then the farthest east I have been in Canada is Winnipeg. Sure would like to visit the rest of the provinces back east some time. Love your grain elevator story. They are truly a disappearing sentinel of the Canadian prairies.

Lorchen! Look at how beautiful you are! Great picture.

Lorchen, You are looking lovely!

Love your photo, Lorchen, so beautiful, you look GREAT, with or without the saucer!

Rita, I think I could use the fish mold for shortbread as well as the miniature one with flowers. The others are way too deep, I think the shortbread would fall apart. Might have to try that sometime. You're right about moon cakes being labor-intensive, especially when you do them maybe once a year for this holiday and have to relook the recipe every time to make sure you don't forget something.

Taking a bow...... Thank you, Rita!

Actually, I can't believe that I look this good now. Mad me cry when I saw the picture for the first time. So I'm delighted to use it for my profile.... flying saucer and all.

Wow Lorchen! What a fabulous profile photo with your hat at a rakish angle. Girl you've got swag (as my daughter would say!)

Deep shortbread would be just fine. You'd get a little more.

Those moulds are beautiful Renata. I particularly like the fish. Could you use those for shortbread or are they too deep? Moon cakes are far too labour intensive for me - it would 'eat' into my quilting time.

My friend made the layered version of moon cake and it was filled with mung bean paste and a savory flavored filling added in but in a very small amount. The layered version simply means that the mung bean paste filling is wrapped in two different types of dough, but in the end, the dough comes out as flaky and layered because you fold and refold the dough on itself. She got her recipe from Eupho Café http://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=en&prev=/search%3Fq%3Deuphocafe%2Brecipes%26biw%3D1231%26bih%3D562&rurl=translate.google.com&sl=zh-TW&u=http://www.euphocafe.com/recipe/recipe.asp%3Frid%3D120&usg=ALkJrhgKth1EmDrBT8B9aqambdlx1weV3Q and I used the translator so you can see this recipe in English. It is actually made with bean paste and salted egg.

There are so many versions of moon cake. Some vary by country, in China the fillings even differ from region to region. The fillings vary too, from different kinds of pastes to crunchy nut fillings, with salted egg, a double egg for double luck, etcetera. There are also the very traditional recipes alongside modern interpretations of moon cake (kind of like our quilts--traditional, modern, art? ) So, if you've only tasted one kind and were not impressed, chances are there is one out there you might like. Of course, there are some folks who don't like moon cakes, period!

The layered version is the home-made version for people who don't have the traditional wooden presses, although nowadays you can purchase plastic molds. In the past, I have made the traditional one because I have a collection of both old Japanese and Chinese hand-carved wooden presses that I've purchased at antique markets in both China and Japan. To purchase a boxed set of four moon cakes of high quality, you can pay anywhere between $60-$100. What I bought this year was acceptable and I paid $40 for the boxed set. Moon cakes are not cheap (if they are they are also not that tasty... ) and they are very labor intensive to make, especially because you are making everything from scratch.

Here are some of my wooden molds:

Here's the recipe for mooncakes that I found which looked very tasty but I've nothing to compare since I've never eaten one. And not red bean ingredient either.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/zester-daily/moon-cakes_b_3939027.html
What do you think of this recipe, Renata, authentic or not?

I have never heard of English rib stitch. I just googled it and as far as I can see it's the same as Fisherman's rib.

The only ribbing I know about for knitting is 'knit one, purl one' etc, or if you want to get fancy, 'knit two, purl two' etc. but then I am not terribly up on knitting.

Where as 'ribbing' is much easier - how is your boxer short collection coming along Terrie?

Since I am switching topics for a sec. I did it here as you ladies are so forgiving. Does anyone out there know the difference between a English rib and just a plain old rib stitch in knitting? I did look on line but there seems to be differences in opinion on how it is done.