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You've earned it, and you're among friends. Ramble away! I can only tip my hat to a couple closing in on 70 years together.

Our daughter is here this weekend and I pressed her into taking some photos on my behalf. Mug on the left bears a photo of the drive shed, Ed's lair...which is strictly enter at own risk, preferably wearing sturdy boots with steel-capped toes. Ed's sister gave the mug to Ed as a Christmas present one year. Mug on the right is a Rottie of course, a mainstay of our lives for almost forty years now, and only one of many Rottie mugs and stuffies and plaques and t-shirts and nighties and you name it (and Hummingbird things also) we have been given by the wonderful friends from the States and Ontario and Quebec who attended 20 years of Annual Dog Weekends (and I use the term loosely...from Thursday to Tuesday for the Delaware folks) at the farm. What incredible memories of those times. The mug on the left says Moab, our home away from home and it's been 8 years since we last were there. 1985-2017. I still miss it and when I see Facebook short reel videos of the area, my heart clenches sometimes. The graphic is of course Kokopelli. Kokopelli and southwest lizards were our late son Steve's favorites. In fact, one of our upstairs bedroom is the Kokopelli Room (yes, our bedrooms have names...we are nothing if not pretentious) filled with Kokopelli bits and bobs we brought back over the years for him. We did take Steve with us to Moab one year. The blue glass mug is just that, blue glass, one of my favorites. The first years on the farm I bought a complete set of blue glass plates and glasses and bowls and mugs. They're almost all gone now, except for some mugs and two large serving bowls, but I still have and use the blue handled cutlery ...which Ed hated...said they were too light and small. So I use it and everyone else has a heavier, more conventional set to use. It's hard to believe but we've been on the farm 35 years. Of course it's hard to believe that we are in our mid-80s and have been together since I was 15 and he was 16. Sorry, I'm old and I tend to ramble...

Bumping this up because I had eggplant involtini the other night that showed me just how good this stuff can be. The restaurant in question was Rinata, in St. Paul, MN. (If you're ever in the area, I recommend you make the opportunity to eat at Rinata. Wonderful food! Excellent staff! The appetizer in question was eggplant involtini, which the menu says is The exterior of each roll was firm, not tough: with some bite, almost crisp. I can't remember whether I thought it was fried or baked. The thing I learned is that my previous efforts at making rolled eggplant anything used much too thickly sliced eggplant: this was probably 2 mm thick, and I think my thinnest attempts have been along the lines of 1/4" (more like 6 mm). I seem to be on a kick of rolled foods lately, given my determination to get burrito-rolling (and filling) technique right. The eggplant is another challenge to enjoy. So: who likes to make involtini -- doesn't have to be eggplant -- and how do you like to make it?

Gumbo has become my favorite "what's been in the freezer that I've been passing over" solution. Proteins in this version were-grouse, elk, pork, andouille sausage, and shrimp.

Mokonuts multigrain chocolate chip cookies (recipe)... A mighty fine cookie. Crispy edges with a chewy middle. Couldn't particularly taste the multigrains, but it worked as a whole. Recommended.

Kale-Salsiccia-Pie - pie crust done with a typical pie dough - AP flour, cold butter, little bit of ice water, blind baking etc. Filling made of sautéed salsiccia crumbles, kale and red onion mixed with sour cream and eggs. Topped with cashews and manchego

I'd love to try it at L'Ami Jean! It really is fantastic, I've made it a bunch

Gnocchi gratin

No pics but i found that you can order fried chicken at your local grocery store ( its so much cheaper then KFC ) but they usually start shutting down the fryers at like 4:30 pm so you have to order before 4. So what i do is as soon as i get the bag i open it up to let steam out, then take home and put it in my anova at 135F with the door cracked. I have held it as long as 3 hours without losing any crispness.

Beef and pork meatballs with fresh tomato sauce (not bottled). Served with rice and fried mixed mushrooms (not pictured).

Posted lamb shanks done sous vide on the Dinner thread with a time/temp description a few posts down. Tasty.

@rotuts, I tend to like lamb shanks more well done, so that's 141ºF for 72 hours* which delivers meat which is quite soft with a tiny, tiny bit of chew. I always eat with a knife and fork, so I don't know if it can be cut with a fork; but probably. Easy to pull all the meat off the bone by hand. I have sometimes (accidentally) done lamb shanks at the lamb leg temperature of 133ºF which meat is quite pink, quite chewy, and is going to require a soup later to get all the meat off the bone. * then the bags of lamb shanks were frozen. The day of dinner, the shanks were put into the Anova Steam Oven (APO) on sous vide setting @137ºF. They were taken out while I upped the setting to steam potatoes. Then oven was cooled and shanks put back into the APO on sous vide setting @137ºF.Then I took them out, upped the temperature to 400ºF, heat top + rear, steam 0%. The lamb shanks were removed from the bag with juice onto a sheet pan, potatoes added. Then the whole went into the APO at 400ºF for about 10 minutes (I was planning on 20, but I could smell the roast). Then I cut hunks off the lamb bones and served.

I gotta tell you : Ive had these from time to time growing up perhaps better ones , as we lived in Europe ? ' 60 's ? nothing much happened for eme Il love to try that Priano Panettone Cake with Orange Peel and Raisins its at aldi's . I might stop by , its right nest to Total Wine . See it now ?

@TdeV Ive never done lamb shanks Ive had them in a Greek restaurant or two . but there were other more tasty , and very tasty choices at those places . but Id like to know : your times ant temps for SV 141 F suites your for doneness and it look fantastic How long ?

Snow storm Wine Time Sous Vide lamb shanks (141 ºF) finished in hot Anova Steam Oven for 10 minutes, previously steamed russet potatoes German-style green beans with bacon and cider vinegar, brought by a guest. Dessert was rich chocolate & peanut butter brownies.

Yeah, they tried 33 total and it seems like the under $65 group were less represented in the top tier! I might give the $7 Aldi version a try. Should be fine for French toast!

No paywall. The top sentence is "We tried 18 panettone that cost under $65 for our 2025 update." Let me stay that a very, very small number of offerings were less than $65. 😜

Those Aldi pork gyoza which were disappointing in soup, actually turned out okay when baked with Thai red curry paste and coconut milk. I added broccolini and topped it off with bean sprouts and chilli crisp.

I'm spoiled, the imported ones that my BIL brings during the holiday season are so good...they aren't hand made, but good quality. A local Italian deli had an Instagram reel showing shelves upon shelves of imported varieties, I'm trying really hard to stay away. BTW, I had the brilliant idea of using two pieces to make an ice cream sandwich, like how they sell gelato in brioche in Italy. (oink oink)

fascinating.... I think it's a whole lot like 'which soft boiled egg is best' unless one has all the 'candidates' available on the table . . . to evaluate . . . there's 'good stuff' and 'not so good stuff' like, Dude . . . how "good" is "good?" how "good" is "best?" I'm on the side of "artisan" is always better that "mass production" - which actually provides an easy way to differentiate 'so-so/bad' from 'good' to 'superb'

The NYT Wirecutter listed their favorite panettone here: https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-panettone/ Not sure if there’s a paywall or not.

Wasn't sure whether to put this in Food Funnies or Non-Food. LOL!

Mussels and orzo in a coconut and saffron stew from Mezcla by Ixta Belfrage. I loved this and will absolutely make it again. I used Thai bird chiles instead of Scotch bonnet and red bell pepper instead of yellow. The Calabrian chile paste was a great addition.

More mussels. This is the bucatini with fennel, salami, tomato, and mussels from Six Seasons of Pasta and I thought it was quite good. I thought the mussels might be overwhelmed by the other flavors but that wasn’t the case. They weren’t exactly the star of the show but it was an excellent ensemble performance!

The day after I enjoyed the above Breton rice pudding, Ruth Reichl shared a recipe for Longchamps rice pudding with raisins*. It had a few departures from how I normally approach rice pudding (basmati rice, egg-thickened, raisins, whipped cream topped) so my interest was piqued... I'm not sure what went wrong but, oh boy, this was poor. It was a very loose consistency, except at the edges where the egg had overcooked and scrambled. The rice was mealy, and the raisins just weird (and I speak as someone who is not usually affiliated with eGullet's militant, anti-raisin faction). * I presume Longchamps has nothing to do with leather or racehorses, but rather the restaurant chain. It's not something I'm familiar with, but this article has a little history for those who recall it.