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The "Ultimate" Trader Joe's Cheese Tasting

Thank you for taking us all along. M.P and P.J. look very happy.

@Maison Rustique You'll have a blast going through those books. I find old cookbooks to be fascinating reading.

Thank you for sharing your first solo venture. I am in awe that you can drive, park and maintain that rig all on your own - not sure I could do that. Whenever my husband and I go on a long trip in the RV - the night before we will be home I pack an "evacuation bag" - electronic devices, medications etc. When we get home, we plug the RV in, take our evacuation bag in the house and call it a day. We start the cleaning process once we've had a good night's sleep in our own bed!

More leftovers: pulled pork with homemade BBQ sauce and coleslaw on a potato roll. Baked beans. No complaints.

Yay! I'm so glad you've made it!! I know you (and your wonderful husband) are perfectly capable of everything you do, but I always did/do breathe a sigh of relief when I know you guys are home safe and sound. PJ is LOVING that stream. Those are my favorite kind of capers. I need to order some.

I'm home! I spent the night before last at a Walmart parking lot. Although I gave the company plenty of money for pet food items and other things I needed then or would need soon, their deli was closed when I started shopping. That was okay; I enjoyed the last of the chicken and rice dish I'd made a week or two before. I also celebrated: finished one fine (by my lights) wine and opened another. I was almost home, and I had the blessed sound of frogs at the pond across the way. The first I've heard in months. Yesterday I arrived home around noon, finally got the Princessmobile parked on our snaky driveway, and began the fun of unpacking and enjoying being home again. The dog and cats felt the same way. It feels as though I've been gone forever, but it was actually only 4 months, as opposed to the 6 months my darling and I were gone each year. It feels longer. One factor is that I'm back a month later than usual. I have the green jungle ("yard") to prove it. The ramps are up. The chives are already about to flower. I've started laundry and emptied the boxes that have been waiting for me. Hallelujah, the capers I ordered back here have arrived! The packaging was superb. I've been on a considerable venture and adventure, and am on my way to establishing my new life. There's a mountain of chores and a sea of choices ahead of me. But I'm glad I went, glad to be back, and glad that I wrote about it here. Thanks for coming along, folks, and for your comments (culinary and otherwise) and encouragement. Maybe it's time to revive the Best Use of Stale Bread topic?

@curls thank you for posting that video. maybe a few people need to get a life. I say that , as I don't care for pistachio . Im please Dubai didnt make a version w pecans. P's prices have gone up enough recently.

@Maison Rustique - what a fun haul of books! I hope we'll see some explorations of (and maybe cookery from) them as your life settles. It's fun to see so much shellfish content...but I'm especially interested in "Liberace Cooks". Did he really? 🙂 Was he as flamboyant a cook as musician, I wonder?

Pan- fried polenta served with steak gravy was what my Croatian grandmother-in-law called “sconsa”.

Just saw this video… didn’t know that so many companies were making Dubai chocolate items! May still be time to add your own version to the mix.

Okay, I'm a grits snob. Instant grits just aren't as good as fresh stone ground grits. If you want the most freshly milled grits order from a place that actually has a mill. I've been ordering from Marsh Hen Mill (formerly known as Geechie Boy) for many years now. The mill is on Edisto Island in South Carolina. Anson Mills is another purvveyor. It is true that a pot of grits needs attention and close to an hour from start to finish, but it isn't at all difficult. Yes I agree that if you want grits frequently for breakfast you had best figure out how to cook grits ahead. I find leftover grits are just fine for breakfast, but this idea works really well and is bit more elegant. Make a large batch of grits. Pour when still very hot and soft into a sheet pan, making a layer of about 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch and try to get it smooth and even. When cooled, you can cut it into portions. These can be refrigerated and used as desired, by sautéing in butter or oil in a non-stick pan. The outside should be crispy and the inside melty. This takes only a few minutes on each side, and can be eaten sweet or savory, not just for breakfast, but for a fast easy easy side dish or a snack. And the squares can also be baked with a a variety of ingredients, like tomatoes and mozzarella.

Still too early for cherries in the PNW. Waiting to do cherry pies.

I'm still looking for things to do with all these cherries. Today it was cherry jam in a cream tea... I'm just back from collecting another couple of kilos (4 lbs)... Sadly, I think cherry fatigue is starting to set in. There's another four trees that are a couple of weeks behind the others, but my enthusiasm is waning. 'Pick Your Own' might be the way forward.

Meat stuffed pitas, dry fried in a skillet, pickled red onions. Green salad with sprouts , honey mustard vinaigrette. Easy to put together depending on what meat you have at hand, seasonings are whatever you have a desire for, very adaptable possibilities from the original Lebanese to Asian inspired.

Today was my lucky day. I got all these cookbooks from a lovely local woman in the Buy Nothing group. And another friend gave me TONS of moving boxes in desirable expensive to buy sizes and big bags of packing materials. And another friend brought me 2 packages of fresh raviolis and a carton of ice cream. No pix of the food and boxes.

I picked some up today - I like it a lot. The chocolate isn’t too thick, to @Kerry Beal’s point - seems thinner than the chocolate in a Caramello, for example. It’s a darker chocolate, but not too dark, and it’s a nice counterpoint to the filling. It has good pistachio flavor. My only quibble is that the katayifi is not crispy enough, and there’s not enough of it to get the textural experience I want out of it.

@SLB, have you tried cooking, portioning and freezing? I haven’t but maybe I should. If you’re cooking a full meal and start the grits first, it’s not a big deal to wait 40-50 minutes but if you just want a bowl of grits for breakfast, that’s different.

Thanks for that, @Anchobrie Gloomy reading indeed!

just go with conventional aka 'non-instant' - very few people have found 'instant' to be acceptable . . . btw, same with oatmeal. the difference in cooking time is not a big deal.

In this Year of Our Lord 2025 -- are there still no exceptional instant grits??? Should I make and dehydrate my own GoodGrits? Asking for those of us who eat in the backcountry, and want grits every day instead of oatmeal . . . .

Sardinella.

Pan-fried prok and chive dumplings can make a nice starter...or even dinner, for that matter. Alaskan sockeye salmon and halibut, roasted in the steam oven, came out beautifully. Served with basmati rice pilaf and a broccoli/carrot stir fry.

In Simple French Food (1974), on p 266, Richard Olney said, “An onion panade is surely the ancestor and still the best of all the onion soups.” Being Richard Olney, he has more to say and includes a recipe for onion panade. Here’s a bit: Edited to add that in 2005, @russ parsons wrote this about Olney's recipe in an LA Times piece about favorite cookbooks:

Too true in MEX re: one time finds. Our motto-- See it, like it, buy it. NOW. Another local shopping oddity that at least 3 small business owners here have confirmed to me. When a new item becomes so popular that it flies off the shelves, the business will stop stocking it. Their rationale (?) is they don't like disappointing their customers. Go figure 🤔