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No lunch on New Year's Day. I was raised mostly in Scotland where New Year is the most important celebration of the year. We stay up all night, then sleep until afternoon for breakfast. Then a bit later straight to dinner.

Ten minutes to midnight in China. In addition to preparing breakfast (Breakfast 2026) I’m preparing New Year Dinner dinner now; it takes time. And I don’t want to be doing this tomorrow. First I have to half 50 grams of dried Sichuan peppers and shake out the seeds. The chillies are very light when dried so 50 g is a lot. Then I will debone some chicken legs and chop the meat into cubes. Then I will celebrate with a comfortable bottle of bubbly! Or two! 新年快乐！ Welcome to 2026 and congratulations on making it through!

It’s very nearly midnight here in China and so almost 2026! I’m ensconced in the kitchen, preparing breakfast for sometime later. I’m making 皮蛋I瘦肉粥 (pí dàn shòu ròu zhōu), Century Egg and Lean Pork Congee, which I like to cook for around eight hours in my slow cooker, so I have to start now, before the celebrations begin. I'll post the result tomorrow when I wake up, though that will be late. 新年快乐！ Welcome to 2026 and congratulations on making it through 2025!

Holidays panic! Family is with us everyday for 10 days. We decided to replace many appliances so nothing will go wrong while they are here. There is one thing that I didn't think of, besides recipes for lunches and dinners . All these new "smart" devices, appliances have remote controls and numerous buttons. They are mostly have tiny inconspicuous labels that you need a magnifying glass to read. Total new buttons to memorize Dehydrater – 6 buttons DVD – 43 buttons Microwave – 22 buttons Toaster – 14 buttons. Smart TV – 20 buttons LED projector – 10 buttons Backup sous vide cooker -5 buttons Espresso coffee machine -6 buttons Total 126 buttons ---------------------------------- Help ! How do I disable the door safety child lock so I can take the food out? Help ! which button to get to the channel for the football game? dcarch

Leftovers from the Christmas lumch became Trinxat, a savory potato-cabbage pie from Andorra, served with various meat toppings … Yum 🤗

Pizza night - always a bit challenging without “my” oven setup, but I macgyvered it … Llonganissa (the Catalan equivalent of salami) & mushroom with cheese-stuffed crust … Jamom iberico, aragula and shaved Grana Padano .. Butifarra (a raw Catalan sausage), olives & red onions … Encore (leftovers from the three pies before) … No complaints 🥳

Smothered Chicken & Creamy Gravy over mashed potatoes

It's a great traveler, but for traveling I just use the flat and/or the grill insert. Use it in several hotels/accommodations. I wish it had been a roaring success for the vendor, but alas, not to be. I use the other inserts infrequently at home. I love it for patio cooking. I evangelized the travel and out of kitchen use as much as I could. I was one of the early adopters who paid the full(ish) price on the unit + inserts. Early bird I guess got the inserts in this case.

This is a similar dinner to the one i posted a few days ago. but improved . I generally fill the CSO w the russets I bake , the cool and refrigerate the spares for later use. I slice up the sausage , and then the potatoes . I micro the sausage 30 seconds or so , then add to a hot , dry non-stick pan. the potatoes get micro's for about a minute , then added to the same pan. i leave everything alone until I get some color on one side of the potatoes , as you can see . I add a pat of butter when the potatoes are done , and swish that all around and add to the spinach//tomato// Pico&Fruta seasoning. I also added dry roasted ( no added salt ) pecans ( Tj's ) . this version is better than the non-sauted ' fresh ' roasted russets . I think Im set for this dish , just like it is . very tasty , and very easy.

Today in the supermarket … 13€ 😎

Couple of items from Regalis Foods for New Year's Eve and day... Lousy picture of a beautiful 60-gram Black Perigord truffle. Siberian sturgeon caviar. Applewood smoked trout roe. All from Regalis Foods, with the shipping special (free) and the trout roe a gift with the order.

I think it would be a good travel tool, for someone who spends a lot of time in hotels and motels. Somebody here -- @lemniscate, maybe? --has used it for that purpose.

I didn't have much success with the basic A4 pan. I too was waiting for the accessories, to see if I could make the tool useful (to me). Methinks it would be good for someone who lives in a single room or dorm, or other small place without a big kitchen. The university here has a place where departing students can hand off their stuff which incoming students then wouldn't have to buy. Edited to add: Which I could do. I'm going to keep my eye on ebay for a little while

I doubt Ill ever use mine. Its still in the Box. I was waiting for the Meat-Baller .

@gulfporter Nice . My kind of dinner.

To be clear, it was selling the entire base unit with the extra deep pan. Still, it would be one way to acquire that pan.

Same same same!! An only and the youngest grandkid on both sides. Hard alcohol and ear plugs please! Wonder if partner would like your broccoli salad, he's not a raw veg fan but bacon and cheese can cover a lot of sins in his eyes!

@Maison Rustique, one of those links from @donk79 was selling the extra deep pan.

It's not a looker, but it tasted great. On New Years Day we are leaving for over a month so are going thru fridge/freezer to use up foods. Leftover charred tomatoes, leftover grilled asparagus, a previously cut shallot, 2 rashers of bacon. Tossed with fettuccine and grated parm. .

Baked a couple of sourdough batards this morning and sliced one for breakfast. I still had a chicken breast leftover from last night's dinner so I made Moe a toasted chicken sandwich for breakfast. The best reason to bake bread is for toast.

@weinoo, your roasted potatoes look amazing. I had a nice big chicken ready to roast for dinner. I gave Moe a choice between a traditional chicken dinner with all the sides or Fred's Italian chicken. Both are favourites. His choice was Fred's. When we lived in Sault Ste. Marie, we use to go to a restaurant called the New Marconi and the owner was a man named Fred. Fred liked to sing and he entertained his customers by singing old classics from Dean Martin, Sinatra, etc... On the menu was an Italian chicken dish served with pasta that we both really enjoyed. After we moved away from the Sault, I recreated this dish and have served it often over the 28 years we have been gone from there. Spatchcocked the Chicken and Served tonight with Spaghetti Aglio e Olio.

@PatrickT, Your English muffins look great. Thank you for sharing the link to the recipe. Every time I see English Muffins posted here, reminds me that I really want to try making them. I fed my "mother and daughter" sourdough starters yesterday. First time I have fed them since September. Had to pour off the hooch. Thankfully both these starters always bounce back with just one feed. The mother is always fed with organic rye and the daughter I spun off and always feed it with my commercial bread flour. They were both neglected because I have been using the "scrapings in the bottom on the jar" since February. Started two dough's yesterday using two of the mini starters and refed what was left in the jar. Both had doubled and went into the fridge. The Mother and the daughter were slower since it had been a while so I left them on the counter overnight and they went back into the fridge this morning. Will try and feed them more regularly, if for no other reason than I have 7 years invested in them and I don't want them to die. Both doughs went into the fridge yesterday morning and I took one out last night and left it on the counter until just before 3:00 AM and baked two batards.

They could maybe wash it?

The bacon looks so good in your broccoli salad! Because I was making a large batch last week, I used bacon crumbles that I microwaved to crisp up. It doesn’t show as well, but it worked out surprisingly as far as taste and texture. Confession: I had a leftover head of broccoli and so made a low carb version for myself, subbing Splenda for sugar in the dressing and omitting the Craisins. I’ve done this before and loved it, but day before yesterday I was weak and added a generous amount of Craisins and I have been grazing and overeating this salad ever since.

I'm beginning to re-think keeping this thing since it is so hard to track down the other pans. I've liked it, but really wanted the deeper pan and without that, I'm not sure I can justify the real estate it requires in my little house. I'll mull it over.