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No - you're spot on,.

Last night there were a couple of Austrian winemakers pouring and discussing their wines at Cafe Katja. I enjoyed. The Furmint was sparkling and delicious. And the "Strange Traminer" was ostensibly orange, but not crazily so. Enjoyed all 5.

Back to the pan: Per Ken Forkish, and his overnight pizza dough. Sure is easier, and way less frustrating (for me), than dealing with a pizza peel. Nice crust, both crisp yet tender where you want it to be.

This is from Katie Parla's current book, ROME: (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

Does anyone have a tried and true recipe for pinsa?

And I always use silpat, I think the batter spreads more evenly 🤷‍♀️ Agree that egg whites need to 'age' and the batter needs to dry. Adding additional non-whipped egg white might be part of the problem. Good luck!

Seared shrimp and zucchini with two roasted chile Poblanos, served on leftover basmati rice. Serrano and Holland chiles, garlic, fish sauce, cumin, and Mexican oregano for flavor, heavy cream and feta cheese for balance. I was very happy with how this turned out.

I forgot to say that the boxes used were given to me by the lady who manages the food pantry/fridge. They were donated to the church, but aren’t particularly convenient to use. They’ve got to be folded into shape and they won’t stay closed without tape. My husband loves details like this! 😜 This was our second time using them and they worked out fine. Fully folded and taped.

Thank ya ma’am! I did it low and slow and did it for six hours. Wanted to be sure it was easily shreddable. Plus, ten pounds of chicken! This was a much smaller meal than I usually do. Hopefully, the recipients felt nourished and full.

Like you we don't eat out any holidays but especially Valentine's Day! We're having friends over for gumbo tomorrow night and my daughters are taking me out for brunch on Sunday - so Valentine's dinner for us will no doubt be leftover gumbo! I haven't decided on a dessert for tomorrow yet but there will likely be leftovers of that as well.

Yes, you want to be able to use the parchment paper to lift out the weights.

Well done once again Patti!

@blue_dolphin That information was very helpful. The cheese fixing holes trick is fantastic ... I can envision using it in other situations. Should the parchment paper come up the sides?

It was quite nice. The recipe follows Jeni’s Splended Ice Cream’s standard recipe and is credited to her. I made a fennel and black pepper ice cream in the past but most of the fennel flavor came from the fennel seeds. No seeds in this one, just the stems so the flavor is more subtle but the lemon zest and vanilla complement it nicely. Coincidentally, a friend of mine just made a roasted fennel ice cream for a plated dessert and said she roasted it until it was quite charred around the edges. Sounds interesting!

Another stellar week! How long did you do the chicken in the slow cooker?

I prefer to pre-bake before filling to minimize the soggy bottom issue. I don’t dock the crust. I do use pie weights - same dried beans and popcorn I’ve been using for 20 years or more! I put parchment paper in first, then beans. I bake at 400°F until the crust is just starting to turn brown. If you note any holes or cracks in the crust before baking, press them back together with moistened fingers. If you note holes or cracks after the pre-bake, you can patch them up with small slices of whatever cheese you are using. Pop it back in the oven for a minute so the cheese melts and seals the cracks.

Yesterday’s CFM was delivered by 2pm. 24 boxed lunches of slow cooker BBQ pulled chicken sandwiches and bean salad. I won’t start with pictures of cooking the dried beans, but they included these two, plus a pound of small white beans. In the future, if I’m making bean salad with dried beans and not canned, I would not add aromatics or anything else that will “muddy” the salad. In the first pot of beans, which was the pinto-like bean, I’d sautéed diced carrots, celery, and onion. Regretting that decision, I used larger aromatics in the second pot so they could be fished out easily, and in the third, no aromatics, to see if the beans would look “cleaner.” They did, but too late for this salad. Four of the six English cucumbers, first layer. 1.5 large red onions, diced, soaked in water, drained. In addition to the three beans previously mentioned, 2 28 oz cans of garbanzo beans, and a couple of cans of cannellini beans were also used, plus two bunches of fresh parsley and one small bunch of dill. It’s looking pretty, but I wish I had more cucumbers because they add so much. Seasoned with salt, black pepper, garlic powder, paprika, cumin, Tony’s. Sorry I didn’t quote the posts, but @blue_dolphin, I did use Samin Nosrat’s Creamy Oregano Dressing! Thought I had pics of it, but since I made enough for an army, I’ll snap a pic a little later. I don’t have leftover salad, but I have leftover dressing. @Smithy, I bought both sliced black olives and sliced Kalamatas with the intention of trying each of those, as well as capers, and picking a favorite. At one point I reminded myself to take them out, and then never thought of them again!! Yikes. I was not ignoring your suggestion, just got caught up and forgot! @SLB, dilly beans sound dill-icious, but alas, my groceries were purchased. I could’ve run to the store and bought some the next day so I could’ve forgotten to use them, like the other suggestions. 🤷‍♀️ And dressed Besides chicken, this stuff went into the slow cooker. First layer of chicken in the slow cooker. After second layer, it was about 10 pounds of chicken, with enough leftover to feed my son’s family. They’re not food insecure, they just like Mom’s cooking. Right before putting the sandwiches together. There were three trays like this of lightly buttered and toasted buns. Before topping with dill slices.

Have any plans? Going out? Eating at home? Cooking, or delivery/take out? We won't eat out for any holiday. Too many over-priced meals, too crowded. Plus one Valentine's Day we witnessed a young man ask his date to marry him at the (far too close) table next to us.......and get (politely) turned down. I still can't get over the sadness it left in me, and that was 40 years ago! For most holidays we cook together and/or divide the courses between us. I am making a simple seafood quasi-curry; mi esposo has taken on a Herculean task, given the inadequacy of our Mexican oven....a Basque cheesecake. Our oven has no thermostat and keeping at a steady temperature for more than a few minutes is challenging, to say the least. What are you doing, planning?

How was the Ice Cream! sounds delicious

@Smithy and @blue_dolphin I picked up up a couple of Pillsbury ready-made frozen shells yesterday. Should they be blind baked and docked before being filled? Time/temp suggestions for blind baking? TTips for docking? Do I need pie weights or can I just toss 'em in the oven? Thanks

I made the Fruit & nut biscotti with orange & fennel from Baking & the Meaning of Life by Helen Goh because I was looking for a little cookie to go with the fennel stalk ice cream with lemon and vanilla bean that I made from Cooking with Scraps by Lindsay-Jean Hard The biscotti dough is pressed into a pan instead of shaping into a loaf for the first bake. The fruit is dried apricots, blueberries, and I subbed in dried cherries for the currants in the recipe. Nuts are almond and pistachio. I made a half batch, baked in a 1/8 sheet pan. I used . Helen said not to skip the dip in white chocolate and she was right - they’re not particularly sweet so it’s a nice touch. Should be a fun recipe to play around with different fruit and nut combos. I’m thinking a tropical version with mango, papaya, pineapple, coconut and macadamia nuts would be fun.

Butternut, tamarind, and coconut stew from Ottolenghi’s Comfort, with rice and flatbread

Not Really - I’m not a huge fan of some Laval areas. But that’s just me. If you stay in the core you should be fine.

Hi, can you send your whole recipe and method? it looks like your meringue is the problem at first glance

Yum!!