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Soup again… we love soup. This time with different mushrooms. Enokitake plus shiitake mushrooms, chicken, coriander, chilli, lemon grass, Vietnamese mint… love an Asian broth soup. The Vietnamese mint is growing like mad in the garden but not so the Vietnamese basil nor the sweet basil.

I’m lucky to have a friend who hobby farms a small herd of goats. This is a Meera Sodha recipe for a simple goat and potato curry. Served with cumin rice, a bit of salad and my homemade mango chutney. Please excuse the poor lighting.

Plan the next meal? As people used to do in places like France and Italy? Interestingly, about 8" of snow fell on the second day we were there. But on the first day. we drove up to Freeport, which is the home of LL Bean, since she needed some stuff to wear in the snow. Freeport is basically one big LL Bean store, along with outlets to every other brand you can imagine (Patagonia, North Face, J. Crew, et al.) So we did retail therapy on day 2. And on the following day, I did some local retail shopping at one of the many dispensaries, where cannabis is half the price it is in NYC. Our plans to go to museums and lighthouses were sadly undoable because of the snow. But there's plenty to see and do...on one of our more gorgeous coastlines. Last time, we were lucky enough to visit Winslow Homer's studio at Proust's Neck.

What does one do between meals in the winter in Portland?

Quick! What happens when you freeze russet potatoes? They freeze, of course...but does it affect the texture? The flavor? I realized I was going to find out when I went for a couple of handsful from this bucket of potatoes given me last October. It's very cold outside. It's very cold in the garage. Water in the garage refrigerator still isn't freezing, but water bottles in the car are. And, it turns out, the potatoes are frozen. I was too busy scrubbing to take photos of the washing and cutting process, but it was interesting to have a glaze of ice form on the exterior of each spud as I washed and rinsed. I could see ice crystals in the interior of the cut potatoes. On some, the skin started to loosen as I scrubbed and the outer layer began to thaw. I was doing this because I'd unearthed from the freezer a bone-in pork butt roast from April 2024, purchased as a Good Deal while my darling was still alive. Pork was his favorite protein, and pork butt roast was one of his favorite ways to eat pork. I used to chafe at his opinion that there is One True Way to cook pork butts, or pork steaks, but it's been long enough that I decided to cook a roast in his honor, as he liked it. Besides, I could see whether I want to keep our 6-quart slow cooker or donate it. The procedure: dice the potatoes, load them into the crock of the slow cooker, and microwave for 10 minutes to give the potatoes a head start. Season the butt roast with a package of Lipton Recipe Secrets (in this case, Golden Onion Soup Mix). Pack the roast into the potatoes, making sure that they protect the meat from the ceramic crock, and sprinkle the remainder of the soup mix atop the potatoes. Put the cover on. Turn the heat on High, and walk away. I did all that, and went out to shovel snow. Some hours later, the meat was done to perfection and so were the potatoes. Dinner was served. As for the potatoes: if they suffered from having been frozen, I couldn't tell. They mashed beautifully and soaked up the juices from the pork. In The Good Old Days I might have added butter to them, but these didn't need it. The only problem is that this is a huge amount of food. This dinner was more than I usually eat, and I still have at least 4 dinners' worth to go. I've loaded the meat and potatoes into separate containers for now. Maybe I'll invite company over. Maybe I'll parcel these out and freeze some dinners. But the potatoes - well, this form of cold storage doesn't seem to hurt them!

the maintenance manual is here https://tomric.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/RS200-ENG-Ed-20190201.pdf but it does not specify how often / conditions under which the filter should be changed. which . . . obviously depends on hours of use, general cleanliness of 'environment' / etc. from the pix, if that's two years(+) - I start with replace&check every year....

tonight was the "famous" Senate Bean Soup - we're in the temp F teens . . . it's a very simple recipe - Navy beans, smoke ham hock, onion . . . S&P but it is a 4-5 hour cooking time dish.

Hello everyone! I was looking for assistance or resources on replacing the air filter on my Selmi Chocolate Conveyor Belt the RS200 (well, not mine, my works' machine, but I am its unlucky caretaker) My Kitchen Manager was asking when this part had been cleaned or replaced and in the two years I have been here, it has not been replaced. I was curious on if anyone know how often it must be replaced or how to replace the filter? I've found where to purchase a replacement but I couldn't find any information in the owners manual on replacement. Any information would be extremely appreciated! Picture of the current air filter included so you can see how bad it is.

Another trip to Portland, even though part of our trip (to Montreal leading to Portland) had to get cancelled. We ended up driving up to Portland, instead of down to Portland, from Montreal. We padded the Portland portion with an extra night, and stayed at the Portland Harbor Hotel - a pretty nice property for the price. Then again, it's off season, so all the hotels were very reasonable. We did some damage to oysters, mostly within the same restaurant group since I didn't want to take any chances, and they do the best job...in my opinion. We'd never eaten at Street & Co., so on our first night we ate here - like a 2-minute walk from our hotel. The six on top are Pemaquids, from the Damariscotta River. The bottom six - Wolfe Necks, from Yarmouth. (no complaints). A really nice linguini with clam sauce couldn't be passed up. Night Two - it had to be Scales, at the bar. An excellent local halibut ceviché. Significant Eater was all in... While I opted for something a little different... A whole fluke, which could've fed 3 people. We did stop at a new bar, located right around the corner from our AirBnB, for a nightcap... Lovely little place. We did veer off-course, to check out Leeward, on our 3rd night in Portland... No pix, but excellent pastas, all made in-house. Night four, back to our old fave, Fore Street... Clockwise from top: Wet Smacks, Bombazines, Cora Cressy (4 each). We followed up dinner with... And dessert. I still contend that Portland, ME is the best city in the country for devouring excellent oysters and other seafood!

I wonder if they ever catch on fire…

Fettuccine with bacon, shallots, charred grape tomatoes in a white wine reduction. I am making more pastas now that I boil a big bag of it very al dente then freeze in meal sized portions. I thaw ziplock in cold water then add to sauce to heat thru. Saves time and an extra pot to wash.

The battery in the unit according to the manual is a Rechargeable Lithium Ion Battery Subtype: Lithium Iron Phosphate Rating: 208VDC, 25.8Ah (5366.4Wh) Operating temperature: 5C° to 50C° Storage temperature: 5C° to 50C° Internal cells: LiFePO4, 26700 size Cell configuration: 65S6P Weight: 59.5 kg Size: 586 x 550 x 132 mm Model: ZE23182. The battery according to an email I got from the manufacturer will last 10 to 15 years the independent price estimate google gave me for the battery was US$2500-US$3500. Given what other kitchen appliances cost to maintain I don’t really think this is that bad. GM Cadillacs cost more money to keep running than a GM Trax. A better comparison might be a Tesla with the big battery but not sure how to estimate that

Pistachios are back on the Canadian food recall list again today. Is there no end to the contaminated pistachios? Why don't they just haul them all away? I don't understand.

There are probably better places for this post, but I do find it bitterly funny.

Another classic joint. I also like https://pinosprimemeat.com/

Go over to ottomanelli’s on bleecker street. Their whole operation would fall apart without little pieces of white paper. Check out that spike full of them in the background

Sunday we had a NY Times cooking recipe for roasted carrots with whipped tahini. I roasted some yogurt and lemon marinated chicken thighs with the carrots, and added garlicky spinach. I also made some cilantro-garlic flatbread. Yesterday I made another NYTimes cooking recipe: winter vegetable curry with apple raita. The original recipe had potatoes and chickpeas but I eliminated both since I thought it would be too filling with the rice. The apple raita was a little strange on its own but tasted good mixed into the curry. I added pomegranate arils just because I had them in the fridge.

Their apple pie is terrific.

I had no idea he was at Chez Panisse. And your testament means a lot. Definitely buying some. BTW, I went to Berkeley. One of my fondest things was to stop off at Café Fanny for morning cafe au lait in a bowl, and some morning pastry. If I recall correctly Alice Waters had named it after her daughter, which also gave it special meaning. Bit of Parisian civilization which set the day right. Ah, wistfulness.... Edit: whoops, forgot - we have his Drinking French!

His recipes both sweet and savory have been so well tested and really work. Love how he's evolved as well from Chez Panisse to having lived in France for years. I've been thinking about his new book as well even though I have the first one! Pretty sure there is plenty new but still lol

Thank you! I really have to pick up a couple of his books. Been on my cart a long time.

Me Too! https://www.davidlebovitz.com/quince-tarte-tatin/

When I made a St Louis gooey butter cake a couple of years ago I was not particularly taken with it. Of the two broad types, I went with the bready kind over the cream cheese version. (I should've followed up on @Kim Shook's comment at the time. Oops.) So when one appeared in Cake Zine I thought it was worth a punt... OK, now I'm on board. Welcome to St. Louis. These were good, and certainly delivered on the gooeyness. My homemade tulip liners were a touch too small for the quantity of batter, so maybe next time I'll make larger liners or slightly smaller cakes. Or maybe not. I quite like the visual of exploded gooeyness.

I ordered one apple pie and one SOMA panettone. As @ElsieD said, they’ll ship after Dec 15.

Went for a little shop at one of my favorite places yesterday. Mortadella from Italy - so large it has to be cut in half to fit on the slicer. Above it is a pork sausage, mildly cured, from Emilia; sadly, I forgot what it is called. But it's cured for a minimal amount of time, so it's a bit softer than a long cured salami, as well as mildly spiced. And there probably is no place left that still adds up your purchases (and gives you a taste of everything) manually. Indeed - Di Palo Fine Foods.