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Taco salad with the usual suspects. And rockfish, white rice, and asparagus

For a minute there is thought Marco Polo had decided to check things out.

Well, it looks okay -- paler than I'd expected. When I make lemon curd or a lemon meringue pie the filling is brighter yellow. The proof will be in the pudding, though! Most of the little divots are from my poking to see if it was firm enough to remove from the oven. The one in the upper right is self-made. I'll be curious to see what happened there.

And @Neely one more anti-slime okra treatment is my husband's adaptation of Vivian Howard's Okra Oven Fries. Heat the oven to 400F. Slice the pods in half lengthwise, cutting off the stem end if you like. Toss the okra halves with olive oil, salt, pepper, and any other spice of choice. Howard suggests ground coriander, we like smoked paprika. Place the halves cut side down on a baking sheet.Don't crowd them. Roast for 15 minutes. Turn the halves over and roast another 15 minutes or more to desired crispness. The pieces should be partly browned, partly crispy, partly a little soft. Really great for cocktail hour with a Bloody Mary. Or with a Porch Swing. Or on a porch swing.

This is new to me. Today was the first time I saw it at the local TJ's. I may make a sandwich for dinner, or try one for lunch tomorrow. Has anyone tried this?

Almond frangipane cakelets with blackberries. These were served with a blackberry coulis. They have a fine textured crumb with a thin, crisp crust.

It's now in the oven. I see, now that it's too late, that I was supposed to not only grease the pan (which I did) but also put down a piece of parchment to use as a sling to lift it later! Ah well, it'll be an adventure. One instruction the recipe doesn't include but I did anyway was to strain the custard as I poured it atop the crust. In general, I don't like the texture of lemon zest. Maybe if I used a finer grater I wouldn't mind, but my microplane leaves detectable strips. The batter tastes good, though. On to my next batch of cleanup! Look at the garbage bag! (Okay, the watermelon rinds are from lunch, and the water bottles are to keep from dehydrating.)

Wasn't paragon about $2000?

I fear this particular recipe will be more trouble than it's worth, given the equipment (and room) I have. So far, here's the cleanup debris from making the crust. The recipe is for a 9x13 pan, and the 9x9 Corningware baking dish I bought last week is the biggest thing I have. I probably should have scaled it down, or found a second pan for a smaller batch. An additional issue is that my handheld wand blender isn't really good for creaming butter and sugar. It ground my toasted pecans nicely, and it's about to whisk the eggs for my lemon curd. I have no doubts about its ability to handle that job. However, it's woefully inadequate for mixing the dough. I tried the chopper blade and the whisk. Below, you see what I had to work with for patting into the pan, and you see the baked crust. That crust was pretty puffy. I used a flat spatula to compress it a bit, based on comments that the crust as written tended to develop holes and leak the filling down to the bottom. Assuming I keep traveling like this, I'll make a point of packing my handheld mixer. Sure, I could buy another -- but there's one sitting at home. I'll just avoid recipes that need it for the remainder of the trip. More updates later!

I would add some onion/shallot first, which would add sweetness, then sugar at the very end if it still needs it. Rather than using cooked potato for thickening, you might consider using a potato starch slurry - that would thicken better with less of it than cooked potato. In general, pepper seeds can be very bitter so I think it's important to be vigilant when eliminating them before pureeing. Edit - plus one for the tomato.... if you want to double down on the roasted flavor, you can char the onion/shallot, then rinse as much of the char off as you can... or just use some canned "fire roasted tomato"

I've often seen red bell peppers combined with tomatoes for a soup. A little tomato might reduce the bitterness and also support good color. I'm surprised your roasted peppers were bitter. Usually I find roasted red pepper dressed with salt and olive oil (when done by myself) to be pretty sweet. I've roasted tomatoes with a sprinkle of brown sugar, so as suggested above, sugar might help, and cream too.

I was just being silly. Oeufs de Lompe is lumpfish roe. For the avoidance of any doubt, I do not have a monthly supply of Sevruga sturgeon caviar, whereas I can often be seen shopping in Lidl. 😉

Today, while preparing to make mustard, I discovered that there are small brown seeds and larger brown seeds in my cabinet. I'm new to mustard making, and have only used the larger seeds once before. Is there any heat or flavor difference between the two sizes? Do they, in some way, need to be treated differently? Or are they interchangeable, with size being the only difference and consideration? Tks.

@AlaMoi '''' Pepin is an outstanding tutor for crepes and omelets ''' he is pretty much outstanding in anything you might want to not just eat , but might want to make for your self.

@rotuts, I went back. I elected to take the difference in meat. They ended up giving me about $30 worth of meat!

@Pete Fred, did you mean $3 ? Seems quite a price variance!

I'll go back to a bit of sugar, or maybe a little cream...

roasted red peppers, water, cooked potato for a bit of thickening, I really wanted a nice flavour of peppers and good red colour, so not too much water or potato.

Pepin is an outstanding tutor for crepes and omelets. the MSN link doesn't have the same pic, but the text is similar/same . . . perhaps the author 'sharing' or editors 'editing'?

Always fun to get some pickles. And lots of wisecracking from the owner to go along with.

Something sweet? What else is in your red pepper soup?

I was surprised how bitter my roasted red pepper soup was. It had roasted red peppers, not particularly charred, with most skin and most seeds removed. I'd made it before successfully. What could be used if it happens again to reduce the bitterness?

I guess you'll either love it or hate it, Jason Atherton's Marmite tart... It was Insta-famous for ten minutes before everyone moved on to the next thing. Given the ingredients, they really should stick it on the lunch menu at the Museum of Iconic British Brands... I liked it. It's essentially just a savoury crème brulée, not too strong, with a nice tangy note. In his restaurant, Atherton adds a scoop of caviar, so that was all the excuse I needed to break the seal on this month's tin of Sevruga* ($400/100g)... If anyone's curious and wants to take a stab, the recipe is here. *It's a bit cheaper at Lidl ($3/100g ) if you're lucky enough to have one nearby...

Only one small jar's worth, no doubt set aside in case I get tea-drinking company. I did check! 🤣

@OlyveOyl fantastic . add a couple of breakfast sausages , browned and ready to burst ... heaven itself.