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That looks delicious Patti! I also have saved the salad recipe. I don't have the cranberries or I'd make it tonight to go with duck....I do have fresh cranberries but I don't think I'd like that as well.........

@Smithy, as I was typing this, I got an email from Goûter saying shipping to my address would be $55 for one Pannetone, $65 for two and asking if I wanted a payment link.

Our hunter friend requested ducks so I've been hoarding these in the freezer. And I think that was the smart thing to do because this cold weather seems to have sent them further south. A few weeks ago Ronnie and Scout were getting tons of them though. (I got Scoutie a new collar. It's pink much to Ronnie's dismay but she and I love it 😁) So I have 3 teal, 2 mallards and a pintail to roast tonight. I may also do some guts....... Side dishes are always a challenge it seems like. My two steam boys will be in use for the ducks and I really don't want to unload all the pans stored in my normal sized oven so that leaves the stove top as the only option. I might do stewed tomatoes. Maybe I could do scalloped potatoes and then while the ducks are resting I could throw them in the steam boy to brown on the top? The guys got up about 4:30 this morning and are out at the shooting house. It's really cold but the wind has layed down so they might see something.

I've never taken much interest in my medlar tree... The French name for the fruit is cul de chien (dog's arse), hopefully for their appearance rather than flavour... My reticence was mainly down to the 'bletting' process being a bit Ye Olde England, and processing the flesh looked like too much effort. But this year I decided to harvest them and give it a go... I gathered about 6 kg (13 lbs) in total and, after a lot of hard work, ended up with 3 kg of pulp... I can see how this was a welcome treat for our medieval ancestors at the beginning of winter, but I was underwhelmed. I didn't mind eating the odd one out of hand (seed disposal is a little, errrrr, inelegant), especially when they had a bit of tang, but a big bowl of pulp was nothing to write home about. I had some quince poaching syrup leftover from a few weeks back, so sweetened a portion with that, along with some spices (cinnamon, clove)... It was fine. Once the novelty wore off I froze most of it, maybe to be used as a side-blob for a tart or slice of cake in the future. Whilst looking around for things to do with the rest of the pulp, a medlar tart popped up in my feed (with lots more info about medlars if you're curious). I didn't end up making that one, but decided that a tart would definitely make a dent in my medlar mountain. Given that the medlar mush was a bit like pumpkin purée, I went in that direction, ultimately settling on a sweet potato pie by Claire Saffitz (YouTube) as the template, but mostly winging it in terms of sweeteners (a mix of dark brown sugar, cassonade, golden syrup, black treacle). Despite all of that and the spices, the filling was still lacking, so I threw in some Grand Marnier and lemon juice/zest hoping they would give it a lift. I'm not usually this experimental, tending to stick to a recipe, but mediocre medlar calls for desperate measures. I cooked it gently for a relatively soft set, and bruléed a slice to distract from the unrelenting brownness of it all. It was... fine. Think of it as a 'Meh'-dlar Tart. I will not be submitting it for inclusion in the next edition of Larousse Gastronomique. Going back to the tart I skipped over earlier, there was a link to a recipe for ma'amoul cookies that made use of the medlar flesh... Medlar and walnut on the left; date a orange flower on the right. You will be shocked - shocked! - to learn that I didn't think much to the medlar version, but I did like the dates. I've made ma'amoul a couple of times before, quite a while ago, but forgotten that I was a fan.

As we all know, time gets away from me and every year it seems to get worse. Our friend got on his connecting flight--just barely. He like 10 mins between the time the first flight landed to get over to the second one. I think he's decided that it's worth it to pay a bit more for direct flights from now on and I don't blame him. I made breakfast burritos early in the day--I never can seem to make enough scrambled eggs the first time so it took even longer because I had to go back and make more. Ronnie found a breakfast sausage mix that he really likes so he seasoned up some venison burger with it for me. Just eggs, venison breakfast sausage, cheese, a bit of salsa and some jalapeños. I left out the usual tater tots that I love to make it less carby. So that's done. There's enough for every morning so they won't go hungry but I will offer to make breakfast sandwiches if they get sick of these. I decided to make spaghetti and meatballs for dinner (I get a carb pass when our friend is here lol). I've probably talked about these before but I LOVE Hank Shaw's Venison Meatball Recipe. I deviate a bit and use a tablespoon or so of Italian seasoning from Sam's instead of the fennel. And I use Lawry's salt instead of regular. OH and I used Italian bread crumbs to roll them in in place of plain. I neglected to take a picture but after you roll the balls in the bread crumbs you just fry them in a skillet using oil. Easy peasy. They had stopped for lunch and by the time they got home from hunting yesterday it was about 6:30 so I just made a mess of deviled eggs and put out some spicy dill pickle pretzels and every thing bagel cashews from Nuts.com. I have a very bad addiction to that place now. I threw together a salad (you'll probably see a lot of those this time) , boiled the pasta (I had fleeting thoughts of making pasta but that was quickly put out of my mind lol), buttered and wrapped up some of my homemade French bread and warmed it and dinner was done!

Thank you so much! Lol....Santa doesn't scare me but I do feel at times he's a bit judgy......... I LOVE your Christmas decorations, too. I hope you'll show us a bit That Coca Cola Santa was my Grammy's and as long as I can remember he was always out. The life size Santa was a gift from Ronnie's mom. She got my sister in law one too. Her's is more of an old-timey Santa with pinks and mauves. She saw them while on vacation with my in laws in Georgia I believe. I can't remember whether they drove them home or had them shipped but either way I know it was a lot because he's very heavy! Awwww I'm happy that you de-lurked! You should do it more often I love your tree idea! I might just copy you!

I wrote to Goûter last weekend The notice I got said they didn't work Mon + Tuesday. So I would expect to be hearing from them soon. Trump has levied tariffs on many things, so we'll see. Last year there was no added tax.

@blue_dolphin, @TdeV, anyone else in the USA who's trying to order from gouter: have you actually managed to order? I got a price quote, with the caveat that the price covers product and shipping but not any tariffs that I might have to pay. I haven't heard anything since then and they haven't answered my question about how to actually place the order. (Last year they sent me a payment link via Square.) @Alleguede may be able to shed some light on this question, now that I think of it.

Funds for food , a recurrent item might be managed differently than funds for equipment , a ( possibly ) non-recurrent item.

Farm raised Atlantic salmon is pretty good. I have been lucky enough to fish the wild ones in Norway and have them side to side with farmed ones and they stand. For me is always funny to see that people only care on the origin of fish. They will prefer cultivated to wild fruits, greens, seeds and so on. They will regularly eat pork, not wild boar, or chicken, all domestic and human raised. They will choose beef against bison. They will buy "farmed" eggs rather than go to the bush and pick up some eggs, but when it came to fish, it needs to be pure and wild. I have seen a few blind tastes of species like branzino, and the people who is the more against "farmed" is the people that is not able to differentiate. If we talk about crustaceans, then it is funnier.

I couldn't disagree more. PDO classification is more than that. It is a guarantee that what you get is what you expect. A specific product made from specified ingredients in a specified manner in a specified place. Without it, it could be anything. I don't know what Champaigne (sic) is. I prefer Champagne.

I bought this in the James Joyce museum in Dublin which is located in the Martello tower which is the location of the opening of his masterpiece, Ulysses. "Yes" is the final word of the novel.

Beef Chow Fun from “That Noodle Life” - thinly sliced rib-eye steak is marinated for two hours in a mixture of light soy sauce, garlic, Shaoxing wine, toasted sesame oil and cornstarch. Afterwards, you stir-fry the meat mixture, add sliced red onions, add wide rice noodles and finish in the wok by adding a sauce made from light and dark sou sauce, Shaoxing wine, sugar and water. Finished with green onions and plenty of mung beans sprouts and served with toasted sesame seeds and chili crunch and oil

Battery powered devices like this are taking advantage of the device not being used all that much. That means there's plenty of time to charge the battery. That probably wouldn't work for a commercial kitchen. There's a fair amount of larger scale battery buffering being deployed, in many cases where an area has a peak demand greater than what the transmission liine to it can provide, but the energy demand can be met by it (averaged over a day), and it's impracticable to increase transmission capacity. there are also deployments for renewables like wind farms, where peak production can be quite a bit higher than average, and the grid connection isn't big enough for that. I don't think anyone has deployed a system big enough for a solar or wind farm to look like base load plants, but I won't be surprised when it happens.

Hey, I also used to have a Taylor & Ng mug (or maybe two or three)! I wish I still did—even though for the life of me I can't remember which ones.

HUZZAH! I'm a lurker, not a poster, but I had to chime in to say your biannual hunting sessions are something that I look forward to. This year, what with everything going on in the world. I literally stood up and clapped! Also, I keep a fairly small fake tree with warm white lights in my main living space year round. I decorate as I have the whim to as the seasons turn. It also means that if I have little motivation or life just interferes, I have at least a token Xmas decoration in place with no additional effort. Can't wait for updates!

My mugs are mementos, and many of them are museum pieces of a sort, due to their age. For instance: this little guy was a thank-you gift for donating to MPR, donkey's years ago. Bob Edwards, one of the founders, is long gone. My first flight instructors were invited to more than one Shuttle launch, thanks to a couple of their students who became astronauts. One time they gave me this mug, purchased at the Kennedy Space Center gift shop after watching Stan Love and his fellow crewmembers launch into space. This museum piece goes back to the company where I settled into a long-term North Woods career. The company has long since been taken over by another corporation, changed names, and changed culture as well. I think of happy discoveries and growth whenever I see this one. My father was an aviation enthusiast, and bought this at an airshow near their home. When Mom and Dad downsized, I claimed this mug. The oldest mug in my collection is this beauty from Taylor & Ng. I have a bunch more of their designs tucked away in storage, but this one stays out and gets frequent use. I love the pun. Finally, this mug is my most recent acquisition. I've been to the West Denmark Fiddle School in Wisconsin 3 years running, and plan to go again next summer. The last thing I needed was another mug! But for $3 I couldn't resist. It makes me smile. The fiddle school is like a weeklong musical boot camp: some 60-odd musicians, broken into sets according to accomplishment level, learn about a dozen pieces of music by ear. We learn those pieces in segments, bit by bit, and put them all together as an orchestra for public performance, from Sunday afternoon until Thursday night! The music is beautiful, the instructors excellent and funny. Truth is, the mug I use most is larger than any of these...a Friends of the Duluth Library purchase. But the decoration is fading from frequent washing, and the mug is dirty right now. I'm not going to show that one here!

A friend came over for dinner and I cooked a couple of South Indian dishes from 'Curry Cuisine' Kerala lamb: This was interesting in two ways. First, it was prepared like a Malaysian rendang - starts like a stew but the liquid cooks down to a spicy, aromatic glaze. Second, it contains a spice paste of grated coconut, sliced ginger, minced garlic, curry leaves, bay leaves, canela, cloves, and black pepper, all dry-roasted until the coconut browns. Other ingredients included shallots, ground coriander seed, cayenne, and turmeric, and a tadka of mustard seed, more curry leaves, and sliced chiles, quickly seared in hot oil. Mixed vegetable curry (rasa kayi): Carrots, potatoes, green beans, and cauliflower with lots of minced onion and sliced serrano chiles, flavored with ground coriander seed, cayenne, and turmeric, plus a spice paste of garlic, ginger, serrano chile, crushed tomato, and fennel seed. When everything is cooked swirl in coconut milk for richness. Very popular. Microwave cilantro rice to go with.

I just reread your post and I should have read it more carefully the first time. i now understand you to mean that if you can afford to own a lot if not all of the doodads, you can afford to buy wild salmon. You are correct. In my "quick reading" of your comment I thought you were saying that one should only buy and consume wild salmon which i took exception to, hence my comment.

Yes. A frying pan and some butter.

I prefer my chicken heads with their legs wide open too.

I don't know when I'll get to it, but I've downloaded that recipe. It does look good!

Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) . . . . sounded like a good idea, but as it has been 'fleshed out' companies/organizations/governments have risen to utterly insane detail levels for 'protecting' the 'name' long time ago, the US bowed to France re: Champaign - for USA products, it's 'sparkling wine' every name/description/type has been seized and 'protected' fortunately, the US has told the EU to take a hike on all that nonsense.

Today I bought some crabcakes from the market. Is anything special required for reheating seafood in the Anova?

Oh, do try the coleslaw! And thank you.