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So we had family game night tonight. Went pretty well, and I brought some banana pudding. Nothing fancy, instant pudding, Nilla wafers (trier to make them from scratch, but it didn’t go too well.), banana slices and a baked meringue topping. Tasted great! But I would like to kick it up a notch in the future. Any thoughts?

Well. I love the look and layout of this book, and one of the small details that I find charming is the ribbon bookmark. Except I wish there were at least 2 of them. (I already have Post-It Notes (TM) sticking out of a bunch of pages. On the other hand, her earlier book Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat doesn't have ANY ribbons. I wish it did.

I thought I'd read this somewhere, but couldn't remember for sure and made a full batch of the House Dressing tonight! I don't think I'll have any trouble using it up, though. 😀 It's a nice dressing, and a nice change from my usual vinaigrette.

Oh, that totally makes sense! And as it happens, I have a glut of potatoes right now. Thanks for mentioning it!

I’m glad you liked it! I’m finding it very versatile. One of the book’s uses for it is a warm potato salad that’s next up on my list.

First attempt at making and using the House Dressing from Samin Nosrat's Good Things (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). I didn't bother trying any of her salad suggestions, as such: the salad is spinach, olives, tomatoes, a hard boiled egg, mushrooms and croutons. The "House Dressing" is a honey/mustard sherry vinaigrette. One of the interesting steps about it is that you finely dice a shallot, rinse it, then soak in the vinegar and a bit of warm water for a couple of minutes before whisking in the rest of the ingredients. I think the soak helped tame the shallot a bit. When I tasted the dressing by itself to adjust seasonings, I thought it would all be a bit much (too much vinegar, too much shallot) but atop the salad it tastes wonderful. I'll have no trouble using this batch. Edited to add: @blue_dolphin links to the dressing recipe in this post.

Wow - it took me a few minutes to realize that you didn't pick this up from your local DTF! You never cease to amaze me... We loved DTF ever since we had it in the Causeway Bay branch in HK.

Reconvalescence dinner #2 for DW: I picked something dear to my heart - Din Tai Fung, an eternal favorite ever since I set foot into their Xinyi branch in Taipei during my graduate studies. The works … Their „house appetizer“: smoked tofu, bean sprouts, vermicelli & konbu … Cucumbers with chili oil … Braised beef with celery, peanuts and cilantro. Basically Fuji Feipian, with a Taiwanese twist. Very good ! (Commercial) Xiao Long Bao - no 18 folds, like Din Tai Fung prescribes it, but pretty decent. Will need to scratch that itch before we have their original XLB in May at their London branch … Sesame noodles with spicy meat topping. A version of Dan Dan Mian - it disappeared together with the rest in a fraction of the time it took to make it. Which made me happy 🤗 So - again - no complaints 🥳 DW is getting better … what else is there to ask for ?

Spaghetti with cabbage, pancetta and Calabrian chile from Six Seasons of Pasta I made this with Brussels sprouts instead of cabbage and bomba sauce instead of oil-packed Calabrian chiles. Very homey flavors of cabbage and a little pork, perked up by the Calabrian chiles and a squeeze of lemon. I’ll make this again with cabbage but I think the sprouts were a fair substitute.

I missed the edit window but should have added that the choice of squid ink pasta here was mine as I thought the photo in the book was a little bland with white squid on white pasta and I had the squid ink spaghetti on hand. The authors don’t use any flavored pastas and specifically say their flavors are either undetectable or “not very nice.”

Seared scallops on pistachio risotto with roasted shiitake mushrooms and spinach puree.

I suppose this was a chard curry of sorts. Sauteed onion, serrano chile, and garlic in rendered chorizo grease, and cooked down some leftover tomato sauce. Added rainbow chard and the lovely anise-scented meatball sauce from the other day. Cooked all that down, finished with leftover coconut cream and gosht masala, and topped with diced avocado. Full of flavor, and used up lots of leftovers - my kind of meal

Made a Pain de Campagne loaf. I’m liking the flavor of this one better than the sourdough I was making. This one has a little whole wheat added.

Crepes filled with lightly sweetened ricotta, topped with boozy fruits . I had a little apricot jam in the jar and added butter and a dash of water for the sauce, all got warmed in the micro for thirty seconds.

Does it smell like Vegemite?

I have frozen braised red cabbage before. Usually have to because it always seems to make a lot and I don't have the fridge space. I use cider vinegar and usually put in bay leaves and maybe juniper berries.

Putting this here, because... this is why we don't (shouldn't) put fatty food waste down the drain, folks! https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jan/17/fatberg-poo-balls-sydney-beaches-malabar-outfall-secret-report

Ham & mushroom crustless quiche, air fryer roasted cauliflower.

I finally made the Swiss steak I'd been planning, but I think I've forgotten how to cook. It is just not like I used to make. First of all, I realized that I'd taken all my large baking pans to the other house and was not going to make a trip over there in this frigid weather and wind. So, made it in a Dutch oven stove top. It just tastes so blah. I think I got the green peppers from Aldi, though it may have been Sprouts. I used 3 of them. They have no flavor. I can't even smell them. I've never had green peppers so tasteless--usually they overpower everything else. I'm blaming the mediocrity of this dish on the peppers and not my poor cooking skills. Maybe sitting in the fridge for a day or two will make it better. The buttered spinach was good!

Kimchi Jjigae from “Umma” - great comfort food with beef franks, pan-seared spam, pork belly slices, cabbage kimchi, fish sauce, beef broth, sugar and kimchi juice. Served over rice

Probably not. I’m afraid that when I was tasting the pasta for doneness, I wasn’t paying any attention to the flavor but it didn’t jump out at me either.

Felt the need for vegetables and noodles = Yaki Udon Noodles. It was a good way to clean out the vegetable crisper. I've learned to soak lots of dried shitaki mushrooms and keep them frozen to save time. Protein were shrimp and char siu from the freezer. Picked up ground turkey and made chili with a can of mixed beans. Eaten with paratha. These frozen paratha are great to have on hand - just toss onto a non-stick pan, a few presses, and they puff up beautifully. We've had balmy +single digit temperatures the last couple of days. Today, the temp dropped with bluster winds and snow. It was COLD! Turned the oven on and cooked a Weight Watchers recipe: Harissa and Yogurt Chicken - one pan meal. It was fragrant with cumin, and warmed the kitchen!

Yes. Here potatoes are not used so much as a starch but as a vegetable in its own right, just like any other. This is a popular way to deal with them. The potatoes retain a crispiness and the vinegar cuts the richness of the soy sauce braising sauce of the meatballs.

The potato dish is intriguing. Did you make it?

红烧狮子头 (hóng shāo shī zi tóu), Red Cooked Lion's Head Meatballs. 70:30 fatty pork, glutinous rice meatballs fried then braised in soy sauce. 醋溜土豆丝 (cù liū tǔ dòu sī), Vinegared Shredded Potato Julienned potato with vinegar and green and red chilli. Served with rice.