YOU ASKED FOR IT - APPLE BUTTER RECIPE

Due to the popular demand, I hereby share with you an apple butter recipe you can make at home or during a block party. It is almost summer in the US, so you have plenty of time to plan and gather all the ingredients before October!

If you are in Australia, well, you are too late. The apple harvest has just finished for the season. The good news is that you have an entire year to plant apple trees, find a copper kettle and sew your very own bonnet.

If anyone happens to have a bunch of Pennsylvania Dutch people lying around, here is a traditional recipe from 1839.

“Cider for apple butter must be perfectly new from the press, and the sweeter and mellower the apples are of which it is made, the better will the apple butter be.

Boil the cider till reduced to one half its original quantity, and skim it well.

Do not use for this purpose an iron kettle, or the butter will be very dark, and if you use a brass or copper kettle, it must be scoured as clean and bright as possible, before you put the cider into it, and you must not suffer the butter to remain in it a minute longer than is actually necessary to prepare it, or it will imbibe a copperish taste that will render it not only unpleasant, but really unhealthy.

It is best to prepare it late in the fall, when the apples are quite mellow. Select those that have a fine flavor, and will cook tender; pare and quarter them from the cores, and boil them in the cider till perfectly soft, having plenty of cider to cover them well.

If you wish to make it on a small scale, do not remove the apples from the cider when they get soft, but continue to boil them gently in it till the apples and cider form a thick smooth marmalade, which you must stir almost constantly towards the last.

A few minutes before you take it from the fire, flavor it highly with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and cloves, and when the seasonings are well intermixed, put it up in jars, tie folded paper over them and keep them in a cool place.

If made in a proper manner, it will keep good more than a year, and will be found very convenient, being always in readiness.

Many people who are in the habit of making apple butter, take it from the fire before it is boiled near enough. Both to keep it well and taste well, it should be boiled long after the apples have become soft, and towards the last, simmered over coals till it gets almost thick enough to slice.

If you wish to make it on a large scale, after you have boiled the first kettle full of apples soft, remove them from the cider, draining them with a perforated ladle that the cider may fall again to the kettle, and put them into a clean tub.

Fill up the kettle with fresh apples, having them pared and sliced from the cores, and having ready a kettle of boiling cider, that is reduced to at least half its original quantity; fill up the kettle of apples with it as often as is necessary.
When you have boiled in this manner as many apples as you wish, put the whole of them in a large kettle, or kettles, with the cider, and simmer it over a bed of coals till it is so thick, that it is with some difficulty you can stir it: it should be stirred almost constantly, with a wooden spaddle, or paddle, or it will be certain to scorch at the bottom or sides of the kettle.

Shortly before you take it from the fire, season it as before directed, and then put it up in jars."

If you are without a spaddle or bed of coals, I have altered the above into a 12 Step recipe:

Step 1. Grab your Golden Girls DVD and put into DVD player. If you are looking for more of a pioneer atmosphere when making apple butter try watching Little House on the Prairie.

Step 2. Take two kilos (about 4.5 pounds) of apples, peel two of them and then sigh “Oh my god, there is no way I am peeling all these apples!” Fortunately, peeling the apples is optional.

Step 3. Quarter the apples and dump them in the slow cooker with ½ cup of apple cider, 3 cups sugar and a dash of cinnamon and nutmeg. Then stir to mix. I cannot get apple cider down here, so I used an organic and freshly pressed apple juice, with no added sugar.

Step 4. Put your slow cooker on high and cook apples for three hours.

Step 5. After three hours, turn the slow cooker on low and let cook for another 9 hours or so, stirring occasionally.

Step 6. Now take a small amount of the cooked apples and puree in blender or food processor until smooth. Put the processed apple mixture in a bowl and continue until all of the apples and juice are pureed.

Word of caution: When I made a pineapple panna cotta, I pureed the piping hot pineapple mixture and was rewarded by a blender exploding boiling hot pineapple all over my face (Note to Mr Show, JLo and Pumpkin Delight: No jokes please about hot liquids exploding in one’s face). Avoid this horrific experience by blending only a small amount of apples and lifting the lid every few seconds to let the steam escape.

Step 7. Once all of the cooked apples have been pureed, put back into the slow cooker and add more spices. I really enjoy the spicy bite of cinnamon so basically I dumped in an unspecified amount until I was happy with the taste.

Step 8. After the mixture is perfectly seasoned, cook on low for about 2 or 3 more hours, stirring occasionally.

Step 9. When finished, the apple butter should be extremely thick in texture and a deep brown in colour.

Step 10. At this point, you should realise that you failed to obtain any mason jars. Quickly dump out the commercial pasta sauce and strong pickled onions from their jars, thoroughly wash and dry said jars and fill with apple butter.

Step 11. I set the filled jars upside down for about an hour or two and when I turned them over, the lids miraculously sealed! This may work for you, although I cannot guarantee that this technique seals well enough to store outside of the refrigerator.

Step 12. The final step is to proudly announce your culinary achievement to your ungrateful family, who will then refuse to even take one small taste.

I am fortunate enough to be surrounded by orchards that produce fruit year round. Peaches, Nectarines, Persimmons, Pears, Apples and let us not forget my own orchard’s specialty: Plums.

My intention is to attempt a butter out of each and every one of these fruits as they are harvested.

Do you think I should start a local apple butter festival?

Battle of the Cupcakes on Test Tube Kitchen (part four)

It’s the final countdown (dah dah dah dah! Um…it sounded good in my head).

Welcome to the Battle of the Cupcakes on this week’s Test Tube Kitchen.

In this four part series I have baked two competing Root Beer Float Cupcake recipes, compared the results and will crown the Winner of the Root Beer Float Cupcake.

Competing Recipe #1 comes to us from Bittersweet, a vegan recipe blog. Competing Recipe #2 hails from Teamsugar, which pretty much says it all.

How did a vegan baked good compare to one made almost entirely of sugar?

Let’s go to the FINAL COUNTDOWN!!

The cupcake recipes and the results were given up to five “smiles” in four categories; Ingredients, Preparation & Clean-up, Presentation and Tasting.

Let’s look at how our competing recipes fared in each category.

1. INGREDIENTS

Recipe #1 - 3.75 smiles

This recipe had almost no cost to me, with the exception of Apple Cider Vinegar, which I will get plenty of use out of. Where Recipe #1 lost out was a key ingredient of root beer extract is not available to me and neither was sarsaparilla extract or even sarsaparilla cordial. After some extensive research I was able to find, within Australia, a company that produced sarsaparilla cordial which you could order over the internet, however time was not on my side. Unfortunately, there was no alternative listed in the original recipe so no smiles were made up for.

Recipe #2 - 4.00 smiles

Initially Recipe #2 lost major points for not only calling for Root Beer Schnapps, an ingredient that is not only impossible to find in Australia, but difficult to find in other countries as well. However, some of the loss was picked up because the creator of this recipe listed an alternative ingredient of plain old Root Beer. The cost of the ingredients were relatively low to me, as most of them are pantry items, except I did have to go out and specifically buy two bags of icing sugar.


2. PREPARATION & CLEAN-UP

Recipe #1 - 4.67 smiles

This is an easy recipe to prepare, there are no special tools required and I only had to wash up a minimal amount of dishes and utensils. You can’t beat that.

Recipe #2 – 3.50 smiles

Recipe #2 wasn’t didn’t not have a high level of difficulty but it was definitely not a beginner recipe either. If this recipe was a steak, I would say it was medium-rare. There were no special tools required, but there was a ton of clean up and dirty dishes to wash. To add insult to injury, the dishes were not just dirty, but covered in a sticky glaze or sugary mix. Somehow it got all over my floors and I had to mop as well.


3. PRESENTATION

Recipe #1 – 3.67 smiles

Recipe #1 received a full five smiles for the shape of these cupcakes. They came out of the oven perfectly formed. I was incredibly impressed. The colour was a bit placid, however possibly it would be slightly more decisive if I had been able to find root beer extract, sarsaparilla extract or sarsaparilla cordial/concentrate. The decoration suggested by Bittersweet was simple bordering on boring, so I took the liberty of dusting them with vanilla sugar.

Recipe #2 – 4.00 smiles

The cupcakes baked over the liners and spilled out onto the tin, which not only made them more difficult to “flip”, it also made the shape a bit more abstract. The colour of this cakes was scrumptious, almost the colour of root beer. As for the decoration, it was impossible to fully cover the top of the cupcakes with the glaze without also covering the sides and liners. The recipe suggests garnishing the butter cream frosting with a root beer barrel candy. If they were accessible to me, it would have certainly increased the amount of smiles given for the decoration.

4. TASTING

Recipe #1 – 3.00 smiles

My biggest issue with these cupcakes was their lack of enough moisture to create an instant positive reaction. The flavour intensity of the sarsaparilla was detectable but not enough to make it instantly recognisable. In the recipe’s favour, the extract or cordial may have boosted the intensity. As was stated earlier, this recipe creates a perfectly shaped cupcake, which means not a crumb falls when being eaten, which is why this recipe received top marks in ‘ease of devouring.’

Recipe #2 – 4.13 smiles

This recipe created cupcakes that were super moist. So moist in fact it received the top number of smiles. If they had been any moister, they would have fallen apart. I can safely bet that the high moisture content had something to do with the tablespoon of sarsaparilla which was poured over the top of the cupcakes when they were fresh out of the oven. The flavour was intense, without being over the top and if anything, due to the high sugar content, sugar glazing and buttercream frosting, it was is danger of being too sweet. Because of the cupcakes moistness and sticky glaze, devouring was slightly hampered.


OVERALL TALLY

This was a very difficult decision to make. Each recipe offered completely different and at times conflicting strengths and weaknesses. However, as I stated in the beginning, each cupcake is judged on its own merit against four categories. The individual category ratings were then tallied to create and overall score. The battle was close, with only a .13 of a smile difference.

But there can only be one winner AND THE WINNER OF THE BATTLE OF THE ROOT BEER FLOAT CUPCAKES IS:

Recipe #2 from Teamsugar with a total of 3.90 smiles!


RUNNER-UP – Recipe #1 from Bittersweet with a total of 3.77 smiles

You can check out my smiley rating sheets here:

Let’s not forget that Recipe #1 is a vegan recipe. This means no milk or animal fats such as butter was used. I was a vegan for over 3 years and let me be the first to declare that it is exceptionally difficult to translate recipes into veganhood. If you are vegan or trying to cut back on the sugars and fats, this is the recipe for you. My props go out to Bittersweet for doing such a fantastic job creating this recipe and many other recipes on her site.


Congratulations to Recipe #2 from Teamsugar. If you make these cupcakes, please do not send me your dental bills.

If you, gentle reader, have made either of these recipes I want to read your comments, see your photos and hear your stories!

Battle of the Cupcakes on Test Tube Kitchen (part three)

Welcome to the Battle of the Cupcakes on this week’s Test Tube Kitchen.

In this four part series I have baked two competing Root Beer Float Cupcake recipes, compared the results and will crown the Winner of the Root Beer Float Cupcake.

Competing Recipe #1 comes to us from Bittersweet, a vegan recipe blog. Competing Recipe #2 hails from Teamsugar, which pretty much says it all.

Let’s continue the BATTLE OF THE CUPCAKES!!

Competing Recipe #2 comes from Teamsugar, a women’s social network & community which happens to have a very large recipe database. For the original recipe for Bittersweet’s Root Beer Float Cupcakes click here. As stated in yesterday’s Rules and Guidelines I have replaced root beer with sarsaparilla, white sugar with dark brown sugar and any required oils with olive oil.

Root Beer Float Cupcakes

1 Cup Root Beer Schnapps (Could not find any)*
1 1/2 Cups Sarsaparilla (or Root Beer, if you available in your country)
2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
2 Cups Dark Brown Sugar
1 Cup Butter
2 Eggs
3 Cups All-purpose Flour
1 Tbs. Baking Powder
2 tsp. Baking Soda
1 tsp. Salt

Plus 1 Tbs of Sarsaparilla/Root Beer for each cupcake.

Root Beer Glaze

4 Cups Confectioners Sugar
1/3 Cup Sarsaparilla
3 Tbs. Root Beer Schnapps*
3 Tbs. Olive Oil


*If you cannot find Root Beer Schnapps, the original recipes states that you can replace with more root beer, or in my case, sarsaparilla.

Vanilla Butter Cream Frosting
(from Cupcake Bakeshop by Chokylit)

2-3 cups Powdered Sugar
½ Cup Unsalted Butter
1 Tbs Milk
1 tsp Vanilla Extract

Let's begin, shall we?

Pre-heat oven to 180°C (350°F).

How does this recipe rate? Find out on Friday and line your cupcake tin with cupcake foil liners. This recipes makes 24 cupcakes.

In a bowl, gently mix together Root Beer Schnapps (if available), sarsaparilla (or root beer) and vanilla extract.

In a separate bowl cream together butter and sugar, until light and fluffy.

Add eggs and mix until smooth. Then sift in flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

With your hand mixer on low, slowly add the Sarsaparilla (or root beer) mixture. And mix until smooth and free of lumps.



Pour batter into the cupcake tin lined with foil liners approx ¾ full.



Bake for approximately 15 to 20 minutes.

Whilst the cupcakes are baking, take this time to make yourself another cocktail and prepare both the glaze and the buttercream frosting


If you think you are using way too much sugar to make the glaze and frosting, you are right. Don’t think about it.

After cupcakes are done baking and have been removed from oven, pour 1 Tbs of Sarsaparilla (or Root Beer) over the top. The foil liners will prevent any leakage.



Once this has soaked in, pour some glaze over the top.



After the glaze has hardened, place a dollop of buttercream frosting on top. The original recipe suggests using root beer barrel candy as garnish, but these are not available to me.



MUSIC TO BAKE BY:
Cyndi Lauper – She's So Unusual album


COOKING COCKTAIL:

Absolut Mandarin with an Ciata mixer garnished with a slice of tangello.


How did this recipe rank? Stop by tomorrow for the results and the crowning of the Battle of the Root Beer Float Cupcakes winner!

Battle of the Cupcakes on Test Tube Kitchen (part two)

Welcome to the Battle of the Cupcakes on this week’s Test Tube Kitchen.

In this four part series I have baked two competing Root Beer Float Cupcake recipes, compared the results and will crown the Winner of the Root Beer Float Cupcake. Competing Recipe #1 comes to us from Bittersweet, a vegan recipe blog. Competing Recipe #2 hails from Teamsugar, which pretty much says it all.

Let’s start the BATTLE OF THE CUPCAKES!!

Competing Recipe #1 comes from Bittersweet, an excellent blog that specialises in vegan recipes. For the original recipe for Bittersweet’s Root Beer Float Cupcakes click here. As stated in yesterday’s Rules and Guidelines I have replaced root beer with sarsaparilla, white sugar with dark brown sugar and any required oils with olive oil.

1 Cup Sarsaparilla
1 Teaspoon Apple Cider Vinegar
3/4 Cup Dark Brown Sugar
1/3 Cup Olive Oil
1/2 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
2 Teaspoons Root Beer Extract (note: if you can find it, use it. I could not find it)
1 1/3 Cups Flour
3/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Powder
Pinch of Salt

There is something missing from the picture of ingredients…


That’s better.


First preheat oven to 180°C (350°F).

In a bowl add the root beer and apple cider vinegar and let set for a few minutes.



While waiting, now is a good time to line the cupcake tin with papers. This recipe makes 12 cupcakes.

Now add the sugar and oil into the root beer mixture and whisk until frothy.



Stir in the vanilla extract (and the root beer extract if you can find it). Then slowly add the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Take care not to overmix.

Next spoon the batter into the cupcake liners until they are ¾ full.



Bake for approx 20 minutes.

In case you are wondering why 12 cupcakes went into the oven, but only 11 cupcakes appear here? I think it was abducted by mice who love to eat hot cupcakes.

After cupcakes cool, add chocolate ganache and butter cream frosting. Bittersweet’s original recipe called for making the butter cream with soy milk and vegetable shortening. I don’t have a use for soy milk and vegetable shortening is come in waxy sticks here, so I made a traditional butter cream frosting (which was also needed for Competing Recipe #2).

MUSIC TO BAKE BY:
A mix of disco favourites.


COOKING COCKTAIL:
Root beer floats conjure up wholesome images from the 1950s. Keeping with this theme, Martinis were in order.

How does this recipe rate? Find out on Friday.

Tomorrow we bake Competing Recipe #2 from Teamsugar.

Battle of the Cupcakes on Test Tube Kitchen (part one)

Welcome to the Battle of the Cupcakes on this week’s Test Tube Kitchen.

I will present to you a four-part series where I will bake two competing Root Beer Float Cupcake recipes, compare the results and crown the Winner of the Root Beer Float Cupcake.

Competitor 1 comes to us from Bittersweet, a vegan recipe blog. Competitor 2 hails from Teamsugar, which pretty much says it all.

Are you ready for the BATTLE OF THE CUPCAKES!!

Each competing recipe will receive up to five smiley faces in each of the four categories:

Ingredients – We will judge the availability and cost of the ingredients required

Preparation & Clean-up – We review the difficulty level, if any special tools are required and most importantly, how many dirty dishes are left for me to wash.

Presentation – At this stage we will critique the shape and colour of the cupcakes as well and rate the overall presentation, including icing and garnishes as suggested by the recipes.

Tasting – Some may say this is the most important part of the judging process. We look at the moisture, flavour intensity, ease of devouring and overall taste.

The number of smiley faces from each category will be averaged together to create the “Overall Smiles.” The cupcake recipe with the highest number of Overall Smiles will become the official winner of the Battle of the Root Beer Float Cupcakes.

Battle of the Cupcakes will proceed in four parts:

Tuesday 19 August 2008 - Part One (Which you are reading right this second) sets the ground rules and guidelines for the recipe competition.

Wednesday 20 August 2008 – Part Two. Our first competing recipe is prepared as per normal Test Tube Kitchen standards. The process and accompanying photographs are shared with you.

Thursday 21 August 2008 – Part Three. The process of preparing of the second competing recipe will be posted for you to read.

Friday 22 August 2008 – Part Four. The final results will be revealed and a winner declared!

I must state that Root Beer is exceptionally difficult to find in my part of the world, however Sarsaparilla is readily available. Whilst root beer and sarsaparilla are first cousins, they are not the same. Sarsaparilla is slightly earthier in flavour.

To counter balance the earthiness of the sarsaparilla, any Root Beer Float Cupcake recipe that calls for white sugar I will replace with dark brown sugar and add a dash of vanilla extract.

Also, the only oil I have in my cupboard is cold pressed extra virgin olive oil. Any oils that are required in each recipe will be replaced with olive oil. Why don’t I just go down to the grocery store and buy the suggested oils? Because I was already at the grocery store once today and I refuse to suffer the embarrassment of being served by the same check-out clerk twice in one afternoon. I am sure you understand.

Stop back tomorrow when we showcase competing recipe number one, from Bittersweet.

BATTLE OF THE CUPCAKES

Starting on Tuesday 19 August 2008 I will present to you a four-part series where I will bake two competing cupcake recipes, compare the results and crown the Winner of the Root Beer Float Cupcake.

Competitor 1 comes to us from Bittersweet, a vegan recipe blog. Competitor 2 hails from Teamsugar, which pretty much says it all.

Are you ready for the BATTLE OF THE CUPCAKES!!

TEST TUBE KITCHEN - Pineapple Panna Cotta

Recently my entire existence changed when I tasted the best panna cotta I have ever had in my life. This particular cauliflower panna cotta was the topic of last week’s Fabulous Friday. Since that epiphanous culinary outing, I have been obsessed with creating new and replicating interesting twists on the panna cotta experience.

The past two weeks I have turned my kitchen into a panna cotta palace as I obsessively created diagrams, altered recipes and collected prime ingredients. Thus far, I have made over 15 different varieties of panna cotta, both sweet and savoury.

Today I have decided to share with you a recipe which was literally created in my panna cotta palace! Although the result is delicious and aromatic, it is not quite perfect. I share this recipe with you in hopes that after you attempt to create it over the weekend, you can help me get it right.

Let’s getting cooking Pineapple Panna Cotta!

Before I begin to tell you of the beautiful smell of the cooking pineapple and coconut milk or the ecstasy of eating the leftover cuttings of a perfectly ripened pineapple, I must first give you this bit of advice – NEVER PUT STEAMING HOT LIQUIDS IN A BLENDER!!!!!

THE LID WILL BLOW OFF AND THE STEAMING HOT CONTENTS WILL EXPLODE ALL OVER YOU, YOUR KITCHEN AND YOUR COCKTAIL!!!!

Now that I have potentially saved your drink from catastrophe, let’s begin with the ingredients for Pineapple Panna Cotta:

Half a Pineapple
1 tin Coconut Milk
1 cup Heavy Cream
1/2 cup White Sugar
1/3 cup Milk
2 ½ tsp Gelatine
1 tsp Vanilla Essence

You may notice that there is a bottle of Frangelico in the photo. That was not to go into the recipe; it was to drink while making the Pineapple Panna Cotta.

Begin by gathering all your ingredients, utensils, blender, pan and moulds. This is immediately followed by fixing your cocktail and turning on music.

Cut the Pineapple in cubes (AFTER removing the skin and core).

Pour another cocktail.



Next in a bowl put 1/2 cup Milk and sprinkle Gelatine over milk, let stand.
Next mix the Pineapple, Coconut Milk, Heavy Cream, Sugar & several dashes of Vanilla Essence in a sauce pan. Place on medium heat and bring to a slow boil, stirring occasionally.

Pour another cocktail.

I was in heaven by the smells wafting from the stovetop. The tropical scent of the pineapple mixed with the rich, warm aroma of the cream had me floating around the kitchen. I wish I could capture that scent in a candle.

Pour another cocktail. Dance to music.

As the Pineapple chunks tenderise and the creamy mixture come to a boil, remove it from heat and dump the contents into a blender and pulse until smooth.



The picture I did not take was of the blender exploding steaming hot pineapple cream all over the kitchen walls, decorating my laptop and smothering my hair with tropical island lather.

Pour another cocktail.



Place what is left of the Pineapple mixture back into the pan and stir in the gelatine and milk mixture. Bring to boil for one minute, stirring constantly.



Next pour the mixture into ramekins / moulds / martini glasses / coffee mugs / ashtrays and bring to room temperature. Then chill for at least 4 hours or overnight, ideally.

Pour another cocktail.

To remove panna cotta from ramekins / moulds place in warm water for 5 seconds. Put chilled plate over top of moulds, holding on to the plate and the mould, flip the plate over and shake the panna cotta loose.



I originally was going to make a ginger jelly and use crushed macadamia nuts to top the Pineapple Panna Cotta. I ran out of time to make the ginger jelly and I forgot to buy macadamia nuts. So I used thickened cream and crushed cashews.

Time for the taste test!

The flavour is very strong pineapple, slightly subdued by the cream and coconut milk. It was also runnier than a panna cotta should be, which means I may have to increase the amount of gelatine to 3 tsp.

This panna cotta has promise, but it needs some tweaking to make it perfection! This is where I need your help. After you make this recipe to your own specifications, give me your thoughts on what made or would make it perfect!


OTHER POSSIBLE OPTIONS

- Increase gelatine to 3 tsp
- Try vanilla bean instead of vanilla extract
- Strain pineapple bits from mixture after pureeing in the blender, if this takes away some of the pineapple flavour, you may want to use the strained pineapple chunks to create a gelee as garnish.
- Make smaller portions, garnish generously with fresh ginger and serve in between courses as a palate cleanser (instead of the traditional citrus sorbet).
- Make fancy white chocolate nests to use as garnish, garnish place with crushed macadamia nuts, and use pineapple leaf to add height.


COOKING COCKTAIL

I initially started out with Frangelico over ice. Another word of advice, Frangelico and pineapple DO NOT play well together. So I recommend to you a Pink Grapefruit Martini. This consists of 60ml Campari and 120ml Cointreau topped with soda water.



MUSIC TO COOK BY

Original Cast Recording of “Mame” starring Angela Lansbury and Bea Arthur.

Test Tube Tryout [working title of show]

I have two loves in my life, 1. Musicals and 2. Food (if you are reading this honey, I love you too). Recently I have been thinking that I should really focus this blog on musicals, and do as La Marilyn suggests: "Specialize".

Fuck it.

Gentle reader, as you know, like my life this blog has no direction. Why should it? It's a blog, not a Fortune 500 corporation.

Now I am officially introducing my love of food with "TEST TUBE TRYOUT" (I am still working on the name). During Test Tube, I will experiment with making food found in restaurants and create new recipes.

So you can play along, I am planning for Test Tube to appear on Thursdays (fortnightly for now), giving you plenty of time to go food shopping and tryout the recipe on Saturday.

And take photos!!!