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I split a couple of dozen raw ersters (9th Ward phonetic spelling) with Charlie "Boudreaux" Irby. Actually I ran him off after three since they were running a little small and I was pretty hungry.

No, they use the internet for that! Look, he cooked at Franny's and other good restaurants (though I'm not sure how much). Do you have this? That's a hard no!

to be fair to the author , allowing you to decided : re: Kale. for review purposes , from ' Six Seasons of Pasta ' Id try it , when MarketBasket caries Tuscan kale . and , looking over the various Ragu Rx's , Im reminded again , my Pork iPot Ragu lacks a carrot. I know that would improve it , as the carrot is in Classic Meat Ragu . but I keep forgetting to get one.

Not everyone loves mooncakes, but I do, because for me they represent friendships, celebrations and sharing. This is the set I made this year to give to friends. I'm pretty happy with them, but the star was unexpectedly the black sesame and pineapple. The subtle technical challenge is making the filling dry enough to mold, but not so dry as to make it unenjoyable in the mouth. My black bean mandarin filling was a touch too dry, but the sesame, which I thought was too loose, turned out perfect.

this pic from the above book ( e-bub version ) inspired me to think about my two pasta dishes . the Campari and the Pork iPot ragu . Im adding a little finely sliced raw spinach to my Campari Linguini tonight , as a result. go figure . And Im not sure Id ever add Kale to Macella's tomato sauce .

ATK/CC/MS make most of their money via cookbooks , and various subscriptions. and , of course , being experts at churn. I agree w @weinoo that their is not that much new in the pasta world and I agree w @blue_dolphin a cookbook , in hand , and be a joy for inspiration , esp w the photography .

Sounds like you think people buy cookbooks only for the recipes!

Well, some of us are. I just don't understand how a recipe might be written differently than a recipe is written. I also don't understand how, unless a recipe/dish for pasta comes out amazingly different, that it hasn't been written in one way, shape or form previously.

I’d say we’re in a place where people enjoy cookbooks for a variety of different reasons. We're engaged by different styles of writing and presentation and publishers capitalize on that. Learning what we need to know about a topic is one reason but certainly not the only one.

Apparently Ina Garten makes all her money off cookbooks and not TV. I would not have thought.

By the way, according to Amazon (to answer a question above):

I mean, I know - I get it - chef's, if they can, will write cookbooks because they need to make some money, which their restaurants probably aren't. But if we haven't learned all we need to know about pasta, it's uses, sauces, how to make it fresh or dried, etc. etc. from Marcella, Giuliano, Pellegrino, Katie, Roscioli, Julia della Croce, Simeti, Carlo MIddione, Lidia, et al. - then what is this world coming to?!

I discovered that this site shows several recipes from the book. I always like that--nice to try before you buy!

For what was hopefully the last of our hot weather for a while, I had a stuffed tomato (I've only got 2 home-grown left!) with one of my tinned fish meals. I didn't like this fish as much as the previous, which was Barcelona, but it was still tasty. I've still got the Provence/Nicoise version to go and plan to get some more of these to keep on hand. I haven't yet tried one on rice or pasta, but think they would be great. Or perhaps over a toasted baguette slice.

Stir-Fried Rice Cakes from “A Very Chinese Cookbook” by Pang & Pang - stir-fry with sliced rice cakes, thinly sliced pork chop (marinated in a mixture of soy sauce, shaoxing wine, toasted sesame oil, white pepper and cornstarch), garlic, shiitake mushrooms, carrots, snow peas and sauce with oyster sauce, soy sauce, dark soy sauce, chicken broth and toasted sesame oil

Welcome @Sweet-Tempered I’m in the Austin area. Good luck to you!

I assume it’s storebought but the recipes don’t precisely use that language. Each recipe’s ingredient list gives only the weight in grams and ounces and three shape options. The words homemade, dried, storebought or pasta do not appear in the recipe ingredient lists. The introduction lists recommended brands of dried pasta, including gluten-free options. There are no recipes in the book for homemade fresh or dried pasta nor recommendations for finding recipes.

Do the recipes call for homemade dried pasta or storebought dried pasta?

Broiled Salmon with an Apricot/Soy Glaze and stir fried pea shoots

Six Seasons of Pasta: A New Way with Everyone's Favorite Food (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) by Joshua McFadden and Martha Holmberg was published last week. I received my copy, have given it a good once over, cooked one of the recipes and have a bunch more marked to try. The book opens with a dried pasta primer and discussion of his decision to use dried pasta exclusively in the book. The recipes offer a range of interesting ingredient combinations but he also devotes space to “how to” pages for dressing pasta with the basic pestos, flavored butters and whipped ricotta that appear in the front of the book. There are similar sections for using ragus, making baked pasta dishes and pasta salads so the reader can build on the basics with their own recipes. After the basic sauces, the recipes are organized by season, similar to Six Seasons. Plenty of meat and seafood are used. It’s not a vegetarian cookbook but I think that cooking with vegetables is really McFadden's strength. In reading through, I thought some of the dishes would be delicious without the pasta, just adding more vegetables. With a few exceptions, the pasta recipes serve 2-4, depending on how hearty or rich they are. The ragu recipes tend to make enough for 8-12 servings, and he recommends freezing them in portions appropriate for one meal. There's one recipe for a Caesar salad and one for garlic bread but other than that, it’s all pasta. I’ve got several pasta cookbooks that focus on making fresh pasta, so I’m fine with the dry pasta focus. I’m also quite capable of concocting my own pasta dishes without relying on a cookbook but I think I’ll enjoy trying quite a few of the offerings here. I started with the eggplant puttanesca with fresh tomatoes on p 301 and thought it was quite good.

The cucumber is fine because they didn't have to cook it. One of the few things the locals will eat raw.

@Tropicalsenior Wow! Your breads look very good. I have not been able to get good slash marks on my only-sourdough starter breads. I did not know the term was preferment. I just called it aged yeast. A long time ago I read that commercial yeast cannot reproduce itself as the hybrid it was made, and will revert back to wild yeast if kept alive by repeated feedings. I don't know if that is as true with newer instant yeast or not. When someone gets some sourdough starter from me, I tell them "it's not a pet, it's ok if it dies. It isn't hard to start another one. I have not been in touch with other sourdough bakers before now. I didn't realize there are so many of us. Up to now it has just been trial and error for me.

For what I can see. The cucumber is good quality, and probably a short rinse would make it edible again. The steak is breaking my knowledge of physics.

Thanks, @blue_dolphin.