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This is very good cheese. I liked the depth of flavor, although it seems a little one note to me. I'll need to taste some more. Still, very enjoyable. I had it cold from the fridge, at room temp, and melted on an English muffin. In all cases I was saisfied, although it's not at its best melted. Perfect on a cheese platter, IMO, and a good addition to a charcuterie platter. A nice, and perhaps a better, alternative to many cheddars.

Moe is one lucky lad

Moe's breakfasts Yesterday's - Schwartz's Montreal Smoke Meat on homemade sourdough rye. Today's breakfast Steak and Eggs with fried mushrooms and toasted sourdough rye bread.

I know I've posted about this before, but when I roadtrip, the A4 comes with. It's light, fairly easy to keep clean, fits on most hotel countertops. I use it on the patio during pleasant weather for al fresco cooking. I do have all the accessory pans, I paid full price when the A4 was first offered. @JoNorvelleWalker makes a good point about the takoyaki pan, it does a good job for meatballs and egg bits. I am more than satisfied with the device and accessories. I did order the deal for a second one as a backup or possibly a gift. That being said, there are very similar appliances like this one (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) that exist. I don't think it's an unusual cooker appliance in Asia, but in North America, it's a bit of an anomaly.

Now you're cookin'!

@Smithy I was thinking cook a couple of slices of bacon, , waffle and an egg. Pile egg & bacon on top of waffle.

@JoNorvelleWalker, I can't help either way. I will note that anything, chopped finely enough, can be gummed into submission. I'll also note that I'd love to see more activity and use on this new appliance.

Yes, absolutely to the use while you move it! Let us know about the frozen waffles. It's decades since I had one, and my head is stuck on "toaster".

I just realized I should take this to the new house to use until I get all my regular stuff moved. I'll have a couple of months of going back and forth and it would be good to be able to do quick grilled cheese or whatever instead of running out for fast food. Frozen waffles maybe.

藏菜 (zàng cài) / Tibetan: བོད་ཀྱི་ཟས་མཆོག, Tibetan (西藏) Cuisine Part Two I forget why I abandoned this project, if I indeed deliberately did. I was only about two-thirds of the way through my list. I came across it today, so, now I’ll resume. I left it hanging for some reason after promising a part two to the previous post. Here I will mention some typical Tibetan dishes. As I said before, I’ve never been to Tibet itself but have been to Tibetan restaurants in other neighbouring areas of China. Yet, this post will be lighter on images than I would prefer. The food is not that well documented (or is so very badly). Tibet relies on barley as its staple grain. It is made into རྩམ་པ (tsampa) which is a roasted barley flour used to bake various breads known as Balep བག་ལེབ།. Perhaps the best known is Sha balep (ཤ་བག་ལེབ), which are a kind of fried beef pie which remind me of Cornish pasties! Various noodle soups (thukpa - ཐུག་པ) are also popular, Among these thenthuk (འཐེན་ཐུག་) is common in the capital Lhasa. Thenthuk As said before, the main protein (and source of dairy products is yak (གཡག། - gyag) Braised Yak but celebration meals often consist of Lunggoi Katsa (ལུག་མགོ།་) which is a curried sheep’s head stew. Tibet is also one of the few Chinese areas where they make cheese, again from yak milk. Churpi (ཆུར་བ།) comes in two types – a soft cheese and as an extremely chewy type. Tibetan Cheese I must mention momo (མོག་མོག), although these originated in northern China as jiaozi and were introduced to the Himalayas by the Mongols. Whether they went first to Nepal or Tibet and which introduced them to the other is uncertain, although I favour them being from China to Tibet then to Nepal. My reasoning is that Tibetan momos are made in the traditional jiaozi crescent shape, suggesting they are direct introductions, whereas Nepali momo are round like bao buns. Whatever, they are more popular in Nepal these days. The Tibetan type contain yak, potato or cheese. Tibetan Yak Momo

Apricot pistachio raspberry sour cream cake, a variation on the strawberry cake up thread. This has a raspberry filling/compote drizzled into the batter which is very complementary to the apricots.

Save me or enable me! Tonight I noticed Amazon was offering easy payments on the $559.99 price. On another forum I jested that if Amazon ever offered easy payments I'd be interested. Of course I should be paying medical bills or taxes, but what fun is that? Besides turkey breasts what have people been smoking? I'd be interested in chicken breasts or thighs. Smoked eggplant sounds wonderful. And I'd want to try making pastrami. How about shellfish? Of concern, I don't have much in the way of dentation, and the smoked items would have to be easy to gum into submission. On the other forum I mentioned someone responded with a picture of a sign from a BBQ joint that read "You don't need no teeth to eat our meat". Has anyone tried smoking tender cuts of beef or pork? Help me in my weakness!

I happen to have two Sichuanese people visiting for the weekend. I was checking out eG and they noticed this. "WTF is that?" they asked in Chinese. I explained that Kung Pao is what America calls 宫保 (gōng bǎo)" as in 宫保鸡丁 (gōng bǎo jī dīng), Gongbao Chicken Cubes, Sichuan's most famous dish, named after Ding Baozhen (1820–1886) whose honorary title was Gong Bao ("palace guard"). It was said to be his favourite dish. Oh!", they replied "but what are those green things?" I explained and said they are like tiny cabbages. They fell about laughing! "Oh, you are always joking with us!" Total disbelief. One thing for sure, Mr. Ding never saw a Brussel Sprout in his life! They are virtually unknown in China; totally unknown in Sichuan. Then I told them that many people in America call their province "Schezwan". Now, they don't believe a word a say!

Pretty durned good ... Perhaps a bit sweet for my taste, but not by much, so they fell into the acceptable range in that regard. They cooked up nice and soft, although a few of the sprouts had somewhat hard stems on them, but they were easy to eat around. I wouldn't put them as a top-rated entrée, but I'd certainly buy 'em again. I'll have to compare them to the regular frozen Brussels sprouts

I grabbed a wedge of the 1000 day Gouda this afternoon and am looking forward to trying it. Maybe with breakfast ...

I think it's worth a try. Whole eggs will whip up and double or more in volume, but won't be quite as stiff/stable as egg whites alone. Another thought is to try to add flavor to purchased ladyfingers. Brush with a little vanilla simple syrup then bake to dry out before grinding?

My recipe grinds up Simple Pleasures Social Tea biscuits - soaks them in the mold with some espresso powder/marsala/mocca compound

I think just you and me use cash. When I go to some of my neighborhood places to get takeout, sometimes, the younger staff look at me like I'm crazy when I hand them cash - like I just gave them an ancient artifact or that it might bite them, or like they don't know what to do with it. Even funnier when they try to make change! I try to make it easier for them by just telling them how much to give me back (which would include the gratuity). One time, I was in the Xi'An FF that's a block away and I was waiting for a human to take my order (they have 2 kiosks also) and one of the young people said I could use a kiosk - when I told him I wanted to pay with cash, he looked at me like I was speaking in Swahili! But you're right - if you're in a bar and plan to order more than 1 drink, you should definitely start a tab - if for nothing else, it's a lot more convenient! Why wait around to pay more than once?

I don't make meatballs often, but it is my goto tool for meatballs.

I freeze cooked rice in one cup portions, so on the lowest of low days, I nuke a bag of rice. Depending on the level of ennui, I may only add butter and salt and pepper. If I have a bit more interest in eating, I will throw in a handful of frozen shrimp (thawed obviously) and maybe some green onions and a handful of frozen peas, some ginger garlic and soy sauce.

It's not too often that such a degree of ennui overtakes me, but when it does and I don't care, I fall back on cheap ramen, some frozen veggies, and grated cheese, and call it a day. It's hard to get any more noncommital with something like that ... alright, I could just make the ramen and skip the veggies and cheese.

It's not an option for me either. In my area I have a choice of fried chicken, fried chicken, or fried chicken. I may not know what I want but I do know that that's not it.

True ennui does not involve googling. Googling involves energy and caring about the answer to your questions. Also, at least for me, going out is not an option, since it involves making choices and putting on shoes.

I unpacked the rest of my recent cookbook haul today. It included several gems that I may or may not use, depending on my cooking style going forward...although in truth, that really applied to my past cooking style variations as well. 🙂 My darling and I experimented with making sausage for a while, and even had a vertical smoker. Eventually we reached the point where it was easier to buy someone else's. However, Bruce Aidell has good-looking recipes and we've liked some of his commercially produced sausages. Two more books in the "Best of the Best" series. I like this series very much. My cousin was an outstanding baker, and this book has a ribbon at what may have been one of her favorite recipes: an asparagus and cheese pie. Of course there are sweet pies in here, but there are plenty of savory pies as well. Note the spelling on the cover of this baking book. The book is copyrighted 1963, although this copy is from the 18th printing, 1976. I don't remember the word being spelled "cooky" when I was growing up. Finally, here's another hyper-regional cookbook, from the city near where my cousins lived from the 1960's on:

Cilantro fried rice with steelhead and stir-fried yellow bell pepper, topped with bird chiles in fish sauce. Roasted chile paste and lots of garlic in with the fried rice. Cukes on the side.