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The difficult thing about doing these mushrooms is identifying what the hell they are. I only have the Chinese name for most. The Chinese rarely do scientific names and even when they do often get it wrong. One specimen was given a name that turned out to be a common houseplant; not anything fungal. Another led to a totally different mushroom. But mostly, I just don’t know. I can translate the Chinese name and search for that, but some names are rather cryptic, while others bear no relation to any real English name, so lead nowhere. This one is less opaque than most in that there is some information on it but I have still been unable to find any Latin name. It is 龙爪菇 (lóng zhuǎ gū) which translates as ‘Dragon’s Claw Mushroom’. It is native to Chinese but not specifically Yunnan. In fact, it was first found by commercial concerns in Fujian province, far from Yunnan. Most are foraged but they are successfully cultivated in very limited amounts in a few places. They rarely get exported. It is a type of clavarioid species, the coral fungi (in Chinese 珊瑚菇 (shān hú gū)) but that is an umbrella term covering many unrelated types. They must be cooked and the taste is mildly sweet and earthy. The texture is crispy and meaty.

I searched the library and found books by Philip Craig, no cookbook though. There was a cookbook titled Delish, but by a different author. If you have the pate recipe, how much fish and how much cream cheese?

I had a similar situation last week with 1 1/2 pounds of frozen meat. The meat went into the fridge early in the day, then removed to the counter for an hour or so, then back to the fridge. While I didn't temp the meat, it remained cool, but was very soft. When ready to cook, I just put it back on the counter fro 30-40 minutes to warm a bit. Worked like a charm. All times are estimates and approximate.

Some meals from the cottage… delicious local’ish winery. Highly recommended!

Seared scallops with curried onions and lime from Mezcla by Ixta Belfrage served on polenta with a slaw dressed with lime vinaigrette. I made the curried onions, basically finely chopped, slow caramelized onions with the addition of curry powder for another dish so this was quick and easy.

My ‘other’ garden. Needs very little weeding or watering!

Gosh I love rendang, and that one looks gorgeous.

I don't see a need to change mess the water. I'd work to eliminate added water entirely, but it often helps the fruit blend to a nice puree.

@TdeV I agree with you , a micro can destroy a dish. using the automatic defrost button. when i defrost , I select the time , usual only a few minutes then select the power , say 2 or 3 and see what happens.

Camarones al mojo de ajo (garlic shrimp): Marinate shrimp in a paste of garlic (lots of garlic), black pepper, rice vinegar, and salt. Saute with butter and olive oil, and finish with lime juice. Served over last night's leftover salad. Finished off the last of the muhammara with toasted naan, but there is a picture above.

I don't trust the microwave not to destroy the dish. 😂

Not one of my garden plants, but this was probably the most appropriate spot for it (I think?). Spotted alongside one of my compost piles, this is... red clover. I've never noticed it before, but having scrutinized several other plants apparently the leaves take this shape immediately beneath the blossom (so...bracts, I guess?). Anyway, it's amazing the beautiful things you see when you take a moment to actually look.

I'd leave it out on the counter for the afternoon, or overnight if necessary, to thaw. Then I'd put it in the refrigerator. In my household, at least, it will thaw but still be cool if left out overnight. If bacterial growth is a concern for you then the sink trick would work, or rotuts' suggestion for the microwave thawing.

microwave on defrost ?

In the freezer I discovered a pyrex dish with frozen contents, some kind of stew-ish thing. I moved it to the fridge. I'd like to serve it for dinner tomorrow night. My experience is that fully frozen big items (not soup, etc.) don't thaw in 24 hours. I could place it in a baking dish in the sink, fill with water, weighted down by something, for a couple hours. I could put it in the Anova oven and heat on some low setting. Or . . . What do you suggest?

While I have seen some with marginal parking, the ones in my area and the ones that I frequent have vast amounts of easily accessible parking, including 6 handicapped spaced directly in front of the store and about eight or ten just off to both sides of the store. In addition, there are two spaces reserved for quick in-and-out shopping.

@pastrygirl Thanks for the reminder. I haven’t done any popsicles this year, and root beer (float or not) sounds intriguing.

Thanks, I don't have that book either. Maybe I'll try this syrup: https://beveragemixers.com/products/genuine-root-beer?srsltid=AfmBOoppTOgovspQsS_lxb1Wwb7BeHqETffOTnOIVbjNXB6h61yOvc-E

I am pretty sure having a terrible parking lot is part of TJ site selection criteria. All of the ones I've ever been to (maybe a dozen, in several states) have had horrible parking lots. Too small for the traffic, horribly laid out, or both.

I checked my books and don’t find any straight up root beer pops. I've got a few recipes for root beer float pops that loosely fill the molds with little bits of vanilla ice cream and then pour in flat, cold root beer. Eat Your Books tells me there's a root beer sorbet in The Modern Café by Francisco Migoya and the CIA that uses both root beer and root beer extract, sugar, sorbet stabilizer and glucose powder. I don’t have the book, but an approach like this (root beer + extract) sounds like the best route 🤣 for a good root beer flavor in a frozen treat.

Does anyone have a recipe for root beer popsicles? I just had an inquiry. Beyond just freezing off-the-shelf root beer

Prima Taste Singapore Curry Lamian Noodles (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) with various additions. A guilty pleasure.

@TdeV An individual plated dessert, this is made from a hot milk sponge cake recipe, (KAB) the center of the cake is recessed and filled with raspberry compote, fresh raspberries, apricot and sour cream. The exterior of the cake was brushed with apricot jam and dusted with confectionery sugar. *The hot milk sponge cake on the King Arthur Baking site is the Chef Zeb method. The only difference is that he adds the oil separately from the heated milk/butter, otherwise the recipes the same. I made 1/4 of the recipe and made 4-5 of the cakelets. It’s the same recipe I had posted in an other presentation upthread on June 24.

A friend came to dinner last night, and these are the leftovers: Thai beef salad (yam nuea): Marinate strip steak with garlic, black pepper, and soy sauce. Grill steaks over charcoal until still mooing, and then slice thinly. Saute garlic and then add lime juice, sugar, fish sauce, black pepper, roasted rice powder, and the sliced beef. Served as make-your-own salad with butter lettuce, sliced cucumber, tomato, mint, cilantro, scallions, sliced shallots, and sliced long red chiles. Mrs. C made another batch of muhammara (roasted red bell pepper dip) and this one was even better - more heat, and plenty of sumac. Served with toasted, buttered naan.

We were leaving early the next morning - our flight to Manado left around 9AM, so with Jakarta's traffic, we needed to leave the hotel around 6, all of which means that we wanted to have an early and fast dinner... so back to the food court at the mall! This place makes mostly grilled or fried chicken or duck. Fried duck with sambal hitam (the dark brown paste on top), with a side of sambal terasi. Sambal hitam is not spicy at all, and comes from the island of Madura, just off the coast of Surabaya in east Java. Most recipes I can find for sambal hitam say that it contains kluwak, which would definitely help in turning it such a dark brown, almost black color (hitam means black in Indonesian). This would also make sense since the other dish that I know of from that area, rawon, the beef soup, also uses kluwak. The sambal terasi is quite spicy and contains shrimp paste, for which it is named. Grilled chicken with sambal matah. Sambal matah is the most common sambal in Bali. It is one of the few sambal in the Indonesian canon that are "raw" and not fried. I put raw in quotes because the finishing step is to pour hot oil over the sliced mixture which does cook it slightly. It's also a sliced sambal, as opposed to most others that are pounded or ground. It is made up of mainly shallots, lemongrass, chillies, kaffir lime leaves, garlic, shrimp paste and lime juice. Both duck and chicken were cooked well and both really good. It's so nice to have a mall with a huge food court attached to the hotel!! In the airport the next morning, we had plenty of time to sit down at a restaurant after checking our bags. A location of Sate Khas Senayan is in Terminal 3, so, sate it is! Ginger tea Stir fried kangkong (water spinach) with shrimp paste Chicken sate lilit. Sate lilit is common in Bali - it uses minced meat and seasonings but not in a casing. Many times it is made from fish. This one is served with sambal matah, again from Bali. Chicken sausage sate, in casing, sitting in sweet soy sauce with crushed chillies and sliced shallots. Lamb sate - both cubed lamb (with that delicious piece of lamb fat) and lamb sausage. So that's it for the Jakarta portion of this trip! Up next, an island off the coast of Manado, in North Sulawesi.