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Which makes it fake in legal terms. Under Chinese regulations, Shaoxing wine is a protected name and can only be used for wines made in Shaoxing.

Shaoxing wine is barrel aged. That aging usually stops when bottled of jarred for sale. Any maturing is minimal to non-existent, mainly because the wine is pasteurised. Some unpasteurised wine is sold, but is rare. Even then, the maturation is minimal. So a 2020 Shaoxing kept for 20 years will be old, yes, but no better or more mature than is was 20 years earlier. It may even be unusable. Shaoxing can deteriorate or even go 'off'.

Roasted chile Poblano tacos with chorizo, potato, white onion, spinach, and crema. Seasoning included garlic, thyme, Mexican oregano, and cilantro. Served with sliced radish. Frijoles refritos with chorizo, white onion, garlic, and canned black beans.

Chocolate banana muffins, very chocolatey, with cocoa and mini chips. This muffin is light in texture in spite of all the chocolate. It’s a 5 muffin, 1 banana recipe from Baking Misfits, it was adapted for the smaller amount from Smitten Kitchen’s chocolate banana loaf. It’s perfect for a mini batch of muffins when you have one banana to use up! I added some freeze dried pulverized banana to the confectionery sugar on top although , in this context, it’s difficult to identify the banana element.

BBQ dinner at Stiles Switch. Yum!

Willow enrobing her carrot cake bonbon.

The silicone stamps. There is a learning curve!

Most definitely. Which is why it looks like the Alberta Beef Producers are influencing next week's challenge. Still, I hold out hope for more creativity with the selections.

Heyday?

Yeah, after a couple of years you'll have all the blossoms you need and still plenty of chives. Our grandkids pick them just because they think they're pretty in a vase, but they also like to pluck the little individual... blossoms? petals?... that make up the familiar purple ball (I'm not 100% clear on allium-flower anatomy) and nibble them. I put them on salads as a garnish sometimes, too.

Your hanging basket is beautiful! I may have been overzealous on planting that basil, one is Not Happy. Not dead,but. Last weekend was gorgeous (when i planted) and this entire week has rained and cooled way off- snow just a few miles from us. We got in the 30s one night, above freezing but I should have covered the herbs at least. Was an unexpected drop in temps for the entire week. My strawberries get no special winter treatment, I don't even put straw on them, and they do well. Great news on moving my chives, thank you! And yes, it was originally for bug control. It's in a pot so I'll tease some out. I haven't done anything with the blossoms as i love watching the bees congregate on them, hopefully starting a second means I'll steal some blossoms for vinegar.

In my experience, if you have one established clump of chives you won't need another. My original inch-diameter plug of chives from about three summers ago is now... I dunno, an easy 18 inches in diameter, and that's not counting the second clump that magically materialized nearby (has to be self-seeded, because I surely didn't plant more). It provides me with lavish quantities of chives all year, despite the grandkids having my blanket permission to enjoy a few whenever they choose. If the existing chive plant is near your berries as a bug deterrent, you can separate a few of the stems at the root and move them into your main herb bed. Within a couple of years that spot will be pretty big as well. Speaking of the grandkids, grandson was out helping me weed a couple of days ago when he spotted the curly kale that I'd overwintered. His eyes lit right up (as I've mentioned before, he's inordinately fond of kale) and he had to have a leaf right there and then. I promised him we'd have some with our dinner last night, so that's our first serving of veg from the garden for the season. It wasn't much, but it was at least symbolic.

@rotuts Here's a link to recipe. It's a really stiff dough but I do it all by hand and I have 3 non-working fingers. It's coffee-cake in texture. I like that its density allows it to be cut into little pieces for a snack. https://amandascookin.com/blueberry-breakfast-cake/

I bet this would be great with Huckleberries.

@gulfporter looks tasty. Id like to hear more about it , possibly an Rx ?thank you

I suspect that many/most of the locations and challenges are product-driven. Perhaps @chromedome could sponsor a rabbit challenge?

A gardening friend came over the other day and I noticed her arms were all scratched up - I know she doesn't have a cat so I asked "Raspberries?" Yup. 🙂 (But you look better prepared with those heavy gloves!) Your garden looks so tidy and well-prepared! Your weather must have warmed up a lot to put basil out. The Costco Garden Centre here is usually very good, we often buy things there. For several years, we have bought fuchsia hanging baskets from them - only $19.99 for big, healthy ones, an excellent price for our part of the world. Here's one from last year, this year's haven't really bloomed too much yet. I have a few baskets with strawberries. They are a few years old and wasn't sure how they would come back but they are off to a pretty good start this Spring.

It finally quit raining so i spent time thinning the raspberries and since i was out there anyway- Rosemary bush from Costco of all places. (With marigolds that I don't think really deter deer, but I try). There are also 2 basil plants and one oregano planted nearby. Decided I was going to do herbs instead of vegetables this year. I have a lovely chive near my strawberries and can't find another to go in this trough with the other herbs) this is a lilac bush with the darkest purple flowers. A gift from my bestie Strawberry with marigolds in their bed- and flowers from one of the haskap bushes. Id have sworn one was dead but she made it. No clue if I'll get berries, each variety requires a different one for pollination and while I have 3 that will pollinate one another, that slow starter hasn't produced flowers yet.

Teowchew bak kut teh with homemade pork broth, garlic, black pepper from Sarawak and Argentinian red shrimp Cucumber pickle

I still wish they had done more interesting things while in Canada, as they really haven't made use of the location. Most of the time they have been in that Top Chef bunker/warehouse which might as well be in Akron, Ohio. Why didn't they go to PEI to cook PEI mussels? Not sure about the Calgary Stampede visit either. Don't get me wrong, the Stampede is a big part of Calgary history and can be quite colourful and is known for its sometimes oddball midway foods, (cheeseburger ice cream, pickle fry poutine, watermelon burger and lots of bao last year) but still... Calgary certainly has more attractive venues than rodeo grounds. Thinking of the lovely River Café on Prince's Island Park or Rouge Restaurant or several other places with local and/or historical significance. Or even SAIT and its culinary campus, it had a student take home the Trophée Jean Rougié last year. First Street Market would work or maybe cook at the top of the Calgary Tower (and not just walk around the edges of it, as they did on the CN Tower, ha). Or the Rocky Mtn Wine & Food Festival in Calgary. Or go to the actual Rocky Mountains! Sigh, so many interesting and lovely Canadian things they could make use of while in Canada, but haven't. I hope they prove me wrong about the Stampede stuff, maybe I'll really enjoy it. 🙂

Blueberry Breakfast Cake

Sigh. Lovely.

I was in the mood for something fruity today so I made this Whole Grilled Halloumi with Apricots from Greekish by Georgina Hayden which is the cookbook of the month in the online cookbook group I participate in. This was one of those dishes that the more I ate, the more I wanted! My apricots were quite ripe so there was lots of juice to soak up with the bread. This would be a great addition to a charcuterie spread for wine o'clock.

I don't think the Bee cares about original usage, it's more about current usage. And lallygag ain't it. 😄