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Got the beast setup and seasoned. I did ten coats of flax seed oil as I have with my carbon steel pans. Took my time with it, tiny thin layer each time, barely visible but it’s built up to a lovely smooth surface. Smash burgers here we come! Before: during: and after:

Here's an example with the OG chocolate fondant.

@Susanwusan I often make individual cakes in small mousse/entremet rings (10cm/4-inch). I just scale the recipes down and it seems to work fine. I usually seal the bottoms with tin foil, but if your tray isn't warped or the batter too runny, any leaks soon seal themselves in the oven. I've seen plenty of videos of bakeries do this.

The NYT recently ran an article about chefs riffing on the now-classic Taco Bell Crunchwrap Supreme: The Fast-Food Gimmick That Became an Unlikely Muse for Chefs. They include a recipe for a dupe for those interested: Crunchy Queso Wrap as well as descriptions of the variations created by a number of chefs for their own restaurants. Han Ly Hwang's Munchwrap Extreme with beef bulgogi and pickled banchan sounds pretty good to me. Anyone ever tried putting your own spin on these? I’ve never been to Taco Bell nor sampled the original but ever since I heard of Kris Yenbamroong’s Grapow Crunchwrap Supreme at Night + Market, I’ve wanted to try making one. It’s described thusly on the restaurant menu: I have his cookbook and have made the grapow chicken, which is crave-worthy on its own. The book has a recipe for a khao soi paste I could use to flavor a queso and I learned from the Times article that he uses a fried wonton wrapper instead of a tostada shell for the crunch part. If I make the grapow chicken and his khao soi, I’ll have 2 nice meals and leftovers to play around with. Seems like an excellent vehicle for repurposing leftovers. Anyone else want to play?

Peach, pecan, blueberries, fruit all local from the FM. Peach sauce for an extra little something.

It seems like chilli peppers in general like lots of light and are heavy nutrient feeders, so I am giving them a lot of light and am using a strong bloom formula nutrient, so yeah, I'm really happy with the way this plant is working out. All the leaves look great - no sign of nutrient deficiency which also means that the roots are in good shape as well. I think I'm going to harvest a bunch of the chillies green - maybe today... and then freeze them since I don't have much time for cooking this next week. Hopefully that will make the plant want to start flowering again as flowering has really slowed. I'll let the rest of the chillies ripen on the plant - hopefully they won't get too far while we're away starting in a little over a week.

@Pete Fred maybe under the grill as you suggested might be more to your liking!🤣 i found the taste of burned top permeated the cake better after a night’s rest in the frig.

Yes. I’m lucky that there are quite a few growers who bring multiple varieties of apricots to our local farmers markets. The grocery store varieties don’t compare.

So exciting! Lots of peppers on that plant, you must be providing them the right conditions! 🙂

I love dried apricots, but I become a walking bioweapon after about 6 of them. Weirdly enough I don't have the same issue with prunes

@blue_dolphin fine article . indeed , ripe , [ ' tree ripened ' ] means you have a tree , or someone else does , nearby.

@ElsieD My mom blanched garden vegetables and I'm following in her footsteps. She would start freezing water in empty milk containers prior to canning so she could chill the vegetables after processing. I have the luxury of an ice maker to build my inventory and sharp knives. She had a couple of dull Old Hickory knives that she used just about her whole life. We drove over to Cassebaum Farms Produce yesterday and bought a bushel of shelled speckled butter beans, half bushel of creamer peas and other fresh vegetables. I've never had nicer shelled beans/peas than these. I did not have any "bits and pieces" to pick out or have a lot of dirty scum during blanching. I put sixteen pints of beans and eight pints of peas in the freezer.

Pad Thai for Sunday breakfast - why not ..?! 🤗

Yes, Blenheims were the most commonly grown apricot in @rotuts area. Here's an article from Saveur by David Karp that discusses them: Looking for the Last Great Apricot

The first of my keriting chillies has started ripening!

Got poison ivy. Never had poison ivy before. Got lots to learn! dcarch 🥶

I believe they were Blenheims, as @Margaret Pilgrim notes above. I agree they were "just apricots" but my sister and I have commented on the change and loss many times. The backyard trees that still survived when we were visiting (12 years ago now) were Blenheims, and they had the quality and flavor we remembered.

https://www.apricotking.com/dried-blenheim-apricots-fancy-blend/ Wonder what tree type was dominant in CA where I grew up in the 50's they were just apricots back then but so tasty dried. fresh crop was about 10 days , and did not keep. just rotted, thus picked and dried during those 10 days.

Shrimp and oyster congee.

Well, unleashing the flamethrower did not salvage matters... It just smelled, and to a lesser extent tasted, burnt. Still, I could get used to cheesecake - burnt or not - for breakfast.

That’s the Japanese dish, with a ketchup-baaed sauce ?

I'm not confident my puny toaster oven will get that deeply caramelised/burnt look. I might just see what happens if I stick it under the grill or flamethrower it! While I'd like to achieve that signature look, La Viña seem to have a variety of colours and textures, so I'll attempt to peddle that as my excuse. 🤨

Spaghetti Napolitan

This evening I made some dashi. It's been quite a while since I made some, and it turned out very well. I used the cold infusion method, which is the preferred method here. I did a twelve hour soak for the kombu at room temp. Fifteen grams of katsuobushi were soaked for 12 minutes in 190-deg F. kombu broth.

I didn't cook him, did pick him up and deliver him to the cook though. And he was indeed dinner.