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Miso isn't something I've baked with before, so after picking up a packet or two there was work to be done. First up, Dorie Greenspan's Miso-Maple Loaf Cake... I didn't much care for the texture of this cake - too dense and close crumbed for me. "Sturdy" should've tipped me off. I've also learned to be suspicious when a recipe says the mixture "might" curdle, as that's usually code for "always curdles, but let's pretend it doesn't matter". But I really liked the flavour; the miso-maple combo was a winner. Next, Miso Rose Chocolate Chip Cookies... These mostly tasted of chocolate. A pleasant miso umami-ness came through in the aftertaste, albeit not particularly strongly. I couldn't detect the rosewater, but that may be down to the brand. I found the cookies a touch too soft. When baked for longer to firm up more, they were too dark and overbaked for my taste. Finally - and this is quite a mouthful - Prune & Chinese Five Spice Sticky Toffee Pudding with Miso Butterscotch Sauce... Great flavours here; the five spice worked really well with the miso toffee sauce. I was less enthusiastic about the sponge, however, which was too soft for my liking. I'll just have to sub those flavours into my regular STP when I fancy a change. Overall, I liked what miso brings to the party. Just need to find the right vehicle for it.

That conch place looks right up my alley. How were the conch fritters? That calm sound looks amazing - you could turn it into a postcard!

My husband recently mentioned something he thought we should spend money on in the house and I thought, “Can we afford that?” And then felt horribly guilty that I spend our money on something I want to do (like the CFMs), but considered telling him I didn’t think we could afford what he wants to do. It gives one pause. I’m not exhausted yet! But I have given some thought to how long I can realistically do this, or even how long I want to do this. Thank you. My contact at the church told me that the regulars loved the pizza last time I made it, and encouraged me to repeat. I hope they did enjoy it! Thank you all for your kind words and support. I feel like I’m already more than halfway to my goal and it could be very doable! I wouldn’t be doing this if I didn’t also get something out of it. It keeps me busy enough, it gives me purpose, and it gives me a sense of accomplishment each time we deliver. I can’t do much about the state of the US and the economy, but I can do what I can do, and I have always loved feeding people. Y’all wouldn’t be on this site if you didn’t know how good it feels to make good food. (And why I beat myself up when the food isn’t delicious.)

Believe me, I have tried! It is just tooooo cold. 😂 Yesterday we went over to explore the area where another house we can stay in is located. The beach was very pretty. It was good for walking because it was flat and the sand was packed in There’s a little restaurant on the beach called Da Conch Shack. As you get closer the conch shells start to pile up in the water The restaurant The menu We shared some conch fritters And some blackened grouper tacos After linner we went back to the Bight for a long walk And then back to the house, where the Sound was like glass

Decided I'm going to jump into the spraying cocoa butter world. I've found a dealer who is selling overstock Q5 turbines at a significant discount. Q5 packages are discounted if getting an RSD unit, which is basically returned, unsold stock from a prior dealer and come with a 2 year Fuji Spray warranty. He can combine that turbine with the spray gun, whip hose and 0.8mm cap set for the chocolatier package. He also sells the D6 chocolatier package. Listing it here in case someone else in interested too. hello@spraysystem.store and https://spraysystem.store/. Tim will respond.

@blue_dolphin, that story took me through chills and shivers (I grew up near the Sierras and know those roads) and laughs and admiration! Too bad about the Awahnee, but good on you for the entire adventure! My "jury rigged" system wasn't as dire. For reasons that I don't fully understand, and need to call about, the mobile repair folks "fixed" the problem, temporarily at least, by switching the "in" and "out" wires for the glide. So far it seems to be working, instead of jamming cockamamie in the frame as it had been. I've been able to move on. The Greek Chicken salad in a "shakeable bowl" turns out to be exactly as @chromedome described. After shaking the mixture (without explosions, splashing or other culinary disasters) it looked like this: If I'd made this salad I think I'd have torn, chopped or cut the greens finer, but the flavors were excellent and the salad was a fine dinner. More than one type of lettuce and olives; pepperoncini; chicken breast that wasn't dried out; tomatoes; cucumbers; shredded cabbage; feta cheese. No doubt I've forgotten a few things. There was a gracious plenty of dressing. All told, I'm pleased with this dinner.

Replying to myself to say that I’m sure you are confident that the repair will do the job and get you where you need to go and I don’t doubt that one bit! It reminds me of an incident that happened years ago when I’d recently moved to California. My parents came to visit from NY and I took them on my tour of the state. On the way from San Francisco to Yosemite, a rather winding route, up, down and side to side. After a long uphill, my gas pedal stayed stuck to the floor even when I took my foot off entirely. I tried to pry it up with my toe and the pedal came free but the engine was still at full throttle. It was a manual transmission so I could down shift to slow down until we came to a turn out but it backfired like the 4th of July when I shut it off. I called AAA from a pay phone. The guy they sent showed me how the accelerator cable was catching on a crack in its sleeve. He said it would take about a week to get a replacement shipped to them. Then he used his pen knife to trim the sleeve where it was catching and said if I’d handled that situation, I should be fine. I was entirely confident in that jury-rigged repair, though I believe my mom was saying the rosary the whole way home! To make this somewhat food related, I’ll add that I’d made reservations at the grand old Ahwahnee Hotel for both our night’s stay and a lovely dinner but with all the waiting for the AAA guy, we were running late. My pleas to extend the check-in times were denied so we dined in the cafeteria and stayed in a tent cabin! Looking forward to your travels and hope they go smoothly!

Pasta Salad with Kassler and Eggs - fusilli with pan-seared kassler, hard boiled eggs, carrots, romaine lettuce and chives. Salad dressing made with yogurt, mayonnaise, lemon zest and juice and a pinch of sugar

In a pinch, braised red cabbage can replace sauerkraut in a reuben

Dinner was a variation of Stracotto Di Manzo prepared with beef cheeks and short ribs. I added some sauteed Italian Oyster mushrooms to the sauce and served over fresh tagliatelle pasta that I made with my trusty Atlas pasta machine that I bought in the early 1980's.

This bowl of beige is the Oyster Pan Roast with Yuzu Kosho Cream and Spicy Cornmeal Biscuits from Sunlight & Breadcrumbs by Renee Erickson. I tried my best to make it look appealing but it’s still a bowl of beige, however delicious. That said, the combination of cream, yuzu kosho and briny oyster liquor is pretty delicious! Here are the biscuits on their own: I’ll never be a biscuit maven but these weren’t bad and should provide me with a few smallish breakfast sandwiches.

Mapo tofu from a Sichuan restaurant, sesame scallion roll with a nod to the NYT. This had scallion, sesame oil and chili crisp as the filling, a little sesame oil in the dough. Chocolate dessert, chocolate flakes, candied hazelnuts and raspberries.

@Ann_T yep straight in the fridge. Most recipes suggest placing a weight on the fish while it cures but I've never had an issue when I've vacuum bagged it.

@Steve Irby Mortadella counts as tasty ' fibre '

This would have been a fairly healthy salad except I ate four slices of mortadella while I was preparing it!

I have always wanted to try that. You make it sound easy. I'm assuming, but tell me if I am wrong, that once it is vacuumed package it resides in the fridge? Made Moe French Toast for breakfast this morning with yesterday's sourdough bread. And yesterday for his breakfast, I pulled a piece of Moussaka out of the freezer that I had made and froze a couple of weeks ago.

I'm so hungry for good seafood. You're not helping 🤣 It sure is beautiful there. Dip a toe in the pool at least

@Smithy thank you for the pictures of the stores shelves. I enjoy seeing how various stores stock this and that . esp in other locales , and countries .

Flavor is Rosemary, which is a regular flavor in my 16 piece assortment. Out of 96 made, I got about 40 decent ones for a special order (phew). I can melt the rest with more cream to make a new batch. I probably will, to me they look sooo much like the CB stuck to the mold, even if it didn’t. thanks!

I admire your restraint in not purchasing everything in that store lol. I think I'd have to ban myself from the cheese section.

I've definitely been doing really bad about about sticking to the low carb/no carb thing. I hope I'm not slowly killing Ronnie one French fry at a time lol sigh. It's just hard in the throes of winter. I want alllllll the comfort foods and that means carbs. So, I hope I'm forgiven by his doctor. But I bet I'm not. Anyway. We've finally climbed out of the deep freeze. The snow that hasn't melted will today. I've turned the heater off that was by the pipes in the basement and turned the faucets off from the incessant dripping that was driving me crazy--but that's better than busted pipes. I better order my seeds for the garden within the next week or so because spring is fast arriving. Picked up a Sam's rotisserie chicken and got several meals out of it --quesadillas was one. Zoodles with the last of my venison meatballs and salad Really wanted some seafood so I dug out some of the oysters from the freezer--I have enough left for one more meal. Did some shrimp Alfredo with a mix of zoodles and regular pasta (I blame @Dejah--her shrimp alfredo up yonder looked so good). I had one jar of "apple" pie filling left that I canned --it's actually zucchini-so I made a galette for dessert Pizza night because I had left over sauce Chicken wings, squash and a cabbage salad Jalapeno sausages and fries Last night I climbed back on the no carb wagon and did SV'd pork chops, salad and cheesy cauliflower and broccoli

I bet the people really enjoyed getting that delicious looking pizza! I know I would. I, too, am cheering you on and wowed and awed by what you're doing.

That's an exhausting commitment. I would certainly not expect that you could keep it up indefinitely. Many hurrahs to you and your husband for what you re accomplishing. I stand in awe of you.

I applaud your goal! But I can see what you mean about needing your husband's help and support on this. I look at those stacked boxes (or bags, at other times) and think about all the money that you're spending on containers as well as supplies. It's wonderful, it's laudable, and it takes a household.

Yes, it is definitely all the same system. It’s just bad luck, and you cannot control the weather. One year we went to St. John in June for 21 days and it absolutely poured for 20 of them! There was so much rain that the roads flooded and cars were floating down the streets. We could not leave the rental house. It was nuts. We just turned up the music and danced in the living room every afternoon. We never got I. The water other than the villa pool, but it actually ended up being a nice break! Yesterday turned into a decently warm and sunny day. We decided to check out another beach near the house, Sapodilla Bay. This is known as the “relaxing party” beach. You can rent chairs and umbrellas, and there are little beach bars. Low key reggae plays, and you can rent water toys like kayaks and even jet skis (yikes). Everyone working at the beach was really friendly, but it was too crowded for us, so we just walked the length and then went back to quiet Taylor Bay. Here are a few pictures of Sapodilla Later that day we went back to the Bight to walk on that beach. It was nice and calm. We found another washed up US Coast Guard buoy. The one we found earlier in the week was green, and this one was red. They are really huge. I wonder what storm washed them ashore? For dinner, we went to the Marine Room, which is across the street from the Bight. Menu Cocktail/mocktail Husband had the tuna tartare to start. He wanted the lemon shark but they were out of it. I had the yellowtail crudo Husband had the squid ink pasta and I had the prawn risotto We shared a slice of the key lime tart for dessert There’s some more unsettled weather moving through this morning, but it is supposed to clear up this afternoon. We have plans to go investigate another area of the island that we might stay on for a future visit (if we decide to come back, the jury is still out on that question) and then we want to find some more conch salad or similar for dinner.