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Ours was an "indoor greenhouse," so it was smaller than that, and it lived in our laundry area (essentially a hallway). But the space was shared with a table that had an incubator and eggs, plus a 30"X30" grow-out cage for the baby chicks/quail (depending what had just come out of the incubator) as well as the laundry set and two households' worth of ongoing laundry. So yeah, pretty crowded. My nighttime bathroom runs were often rather perilous, or - as I sometimes put it - "had great comedic potential."

Wood stove, (apartment-sized) chest freezer, multiple plants under a grow light, and last winter a cage with 2 dozen live quail in ours (the latter of which are thankfully outside now, on a permanent basis). Also a "pet latrine" corner near the door, with puppy pads on a tray for the mutts and, on a stand over top of that, the cats' automatic self-cleaning litterbox and dishes. it's not a large room, so when you add in the rack for the firewood, and our respective chairs (and subtract the corner with the awkward under-stairway storage space) there isn't a lot left for actual... you know... living. This has been an ongoing complaint, because my sweetheart - despite her many virtues - has an odd compulsion about filling the available space to overflowing. I told her once that it was a passive-aggressive thing she'd learned while married to her [expletive deleted] ex. She's tiny (barely 5') but he's 6'5" and well over 300lbs (for the Europeans, that's almost 2 metres tall and roughly 150kg). I told her that her love of closely packed rooms (I tactfully avoided the word "cluttered") was a way of making him feel uncomfortable in "her" space, so he'd be motivated to head back up to the work camp (he was an oilpatch guy) instead of hanging around home. She was startled at that, but on reflection thought that I might have been right.

Frozen Costco cheese ravioli. Sauce was an attempt at a fridge purge. Leftover red sauce that I mixed with some cream. Leftover peeled shallots and red onion. Wine and chicken broth reduced. This was another attempt at cooking frozen pasta in a sauce, rather than boiling. I nestled the frozen ravioli in the sauce, covered tightly. Señor Google said it would take 10 minutes to cook the frozen ravioli (and to add water to the sauce which I decided against). Since this was a serving for two, the sauce wasn't sufficient quantity to cover the ravioli. So at the 5 minute mark, I gently flipped each ravioli. Another 5 minutes and voila!

Inspired by the Venetian dish called Schie con Polenta: Shrimp cooked with oil, butter, garlic, crushed red pepper, white wine, lemon juice. Creamy polenta with parmesan. In Venice, the dish would be made with schie, tiny gray shrimp not found here.

No photo. Still making instant food and will be until I get moved and settled. Had a baked potato stuffed with chili*, onion and shredded cheddar. *The chili was canned--Yellowstone brand, which I'd never heard of and had to try. Yes, it is owned by Paramount, though there are a couple of different manufacturers of the actual chili. It was about as good as canned chili ever is. I keep trying different brands hoping to find one I love, but nothing yet. I need to remember next time I make chili to freeze leftovers in small quantities so I can take one out for a chili dog or baked potato. I generally just freeze a couple of large bags that are enough for about 4 bowls, so too much for that.

Salad bowl for lunch with all the usual subjects plus pickled red cabbage salad, pimento and egg plant spread, boiled new tiny potatoes we call chat potatoes. Served with a vinaigrette dressing.

Carrying on strongly with the cheese theme; Sports Ball inevitably leads to the perfect marriage of casual Australian party food being stuck in the 80s and the equivalent British party food having to be beige. A Cob. My own personal fav combo of carbs, carbs, carbs and cheese. Featuring jalapeno and bacon. No, I'd prefer not to be reminded of Arteries at this time. 😅

White Poached Chicken with Napa Cabbage and Peanut Rayu from Ottolenghi’s “Comfort” - chicken breast gets poached in water and shredded. Rayu is made by slowly heating up canola oil with gochugaru and once hot you add chopped peanuts, sesame seeds and chopped garlic and cook for a few minutes. Off heat you add soy sauce, salt and sugar and let it cool down to rt. The chicken is mixed with thinly sliced napa cabbage, basil, ginger, scallions, shaoxing wine and the rayu. Finished with some lime juice

We also had a 5'x5'x7' grow tent!

Millions of people in China (including me) have a fridge/freezer in their living room.

Grilled Eggplant with Tomatoes, Torn Croutons, and Lots of Herbs This doesn't look at all like the photo in the cookbook. A principal reason is that I'm not a food stylist. You're seeing what I plopped into my bowl, rather than the entire platter they show in the book. However, two other reasons are easily spotted: in their photo, the eggplants aren't cut into bite-sized pieces; and I forgot to have a lot of fresh herbs on hand to add! Still, this recipe is a winner even in my inept hands. Today is the first day of truly fall-ish weather up here and I was too cold to grill after an afternoon doing yardwork, so I followed his instructions for oven roasting the eggplant. The instructions worked perfectly. I've asked my local farmer to save me some more of these little eggplants, as well as more tomatoes. This recipe is another keeper.

I'm not the only one who has a freezer in their living room!

Thomas Keller’s book “Bouchon Bakery” has a recipe for Demi-epis. That may be exactly what you are looking for @AlaMoi.

Homemade Meatloaf (2/3 beef 85% and 1/3 pork w/ onions, paprika, ketchup, Worcester sauce + more) with caramelized onions on top base is Potatoes w/ mace blades and thyme (though the mace overpowers the thyme) And Green Beans. The beans and potatoes are from my wife's garden, as is the thyme. Only see the stem: 2014 Millennium Cab from White Hall Lane.

Overall, I think your proposed procedure sounds well worth trying, and I'm going to try it myself with this wonderful-looking recipe. However, I have a question that may also occur to @tirgoddess: granted, the chicken will have been cooked, but it also will have been chilled. How would you suggest warming the chicken before putting it in that "very, very hot pan"? Allow to come up to room temperature? Put the sous vide package into a warm water bath before the final prep stage? Of course, this all assumes that @tirgoddess has access to sous vide equipment. In case that isn't true, I hope others will weigh in on non-sous-vide techniques. Edited to add: in reviewing the topic, I see @AlaMoi had a non-sous-vide suggestion above. Sorry, didn't mean to ignore that post!

A really good-looking guy in my freshman class at college asked me out. I suggested a picnic. He said he'd bring wine, and I agreed to bring cheese and a baguette a grocery store Italian bread loaf (this was 1970 in rural upstate NY). We met down at a large pond on the college property. No one thought to bring a blanket, or plates, or utensils, or glasses, or napkins. Afterall I was 17 and he was 18. We tore into the bread, smooshed the cheese into it and guzzled the wine straight from the bottle. Lake Country Pink barely a half-step above Ripple in taste and price. We've been married for over 50 years.

wow - sure does! thanks for the lead!

Snap peas with 'nduja and spring onion from Josh McFadden's new book, Six Seasons of Pasta This was very good. I don’t usually put snap peas in a red sauce but their crunch and sweetness are a good counterpoint to the richness of the ‘nduja. I used scallions instead of spring onions, capunti pasta instead of the suggested casarecce (which I like but didn’t have on hand), reduced the amount of pasta and increased the veg.

If you cook the chickent thighs sous vide, all the prep work will be done! See Serious Eats for possible cooking temperatures. My personal experience is that spicing (mustard, lemon) can wear out over a long cook, so you may want to refresh your spices, or, cover raw chicken with s + p, cook it sous vide, chill it in ice and then refrigerate. (Serious Eats says you can hold the cooked chicken for up to 4 days.) On the day of serving, make the spice/sauce In a very, very, very hot pan add a few drops of high heat oil (Grapeseed), wipe out with paper towel. Brown the skin for only 30-90 seconds (the chicken is already cooked) @rotuts ? @weinoo ?

You're an amazing Dad. I hopee Charlie appreciates all your efforts!

Looks like epis to me - cut with scissors as I recall. King Arthur recipe

Pasta with lentils. I ate a bite before remembering to snap a pic

I'm fixing to develop a copycat of the Bouchon "rolls" they serve (warm) with brunch. looks like: two issues: 1 - the bread itself 2 - the technique at first I thought they did the scissors-snip thing to create the 'outcroppings' - but on closer exam it appears they make individual taper/torpedo shape rolls and overlap / glue them together & let rise . . . note also what looks to be the 'cut surface' . . . like each was cut on diagonal from one long baguette(?) then 'stuck together' the crust on these is not hard-crisp; the softer crisp could be an artifact of baking/holding at humidity? it's the crumb where I have no good experience. the crumb is fairly 'fine' - no big holes/etc ala 'good rustic bread' the texture is not soft/mushy like a typical 'dinner roll' - it's 'firm' - tears easily - stands up to a knife spreading butter&jam my thinking is a well machine kneaded baguette dough - thinking the extra kneading may produce a finer crumb. any ideas / experiences / advice along the line?

After months -- maybe a year or more? -- of not making hummus or tabbouli due to a mental burnout, I got back to it yesterday and today. The impetus for the hummus was a half-can of cooked chickpeas sitting in the refrigerator. I hadn't frozen them and was afraid that they'd start going off as had a bunch of other stuff in the refrigerator. I was too lazy to dig out a food processor or blender, so tried mashing them by hand. With a fork. And then stirring in tahini, water, and lemon juice with some salt until I thought I had it about right. I am AMAZED at how much those little devils swelled up; what began as a cup or less of cooked chickpeas became more than a pint of hummus. And no, it isn't as smooth as if I'd used a food processor, but it's just fine. The tabbouli -- well, I confess to having bought several bunches of parsley and cilantro and keeping it too long. This time, I used it before it could go off. The mint came from my garden. I could thin that hummus even more, but I'm pretty happy with it as it is. And I'm happy scooping it all with Tostitos Scoops. It's late afternoon. This may be dinner as well as lunch.

My son and I went to a Cuban restauant a couple days ago. He wanted to order a Creole Lobster dish for us to share but changed his mind when he found out it was $60.00. He ordered a Cuban sandwich and I ordeered aa appitizer of three empanadas. We shared both. While we were waiting, he looked up the lobster recipe on his phone and asked me if I could make it with lobster and shrimp. I said I would and made it yesterday