All Activity

My favourite ice cream is Maple Walnut - maple is obviously a big Canadian product - and almost all of our neighbours have a walnut tree on their property - hmmmm

O Canada you can do better than bubblegum ice cream. I have faith in you and wish everyone over the norther border a happy and well adjusted normal life.

Trader Joe’s hadn’t yet opened?

You're making Moe's breakfast.

The galangal I planted weeks ago (I forgot how many) finally sprouted...

Made me smile, too. Thanks for posting.

I've been telling you for years. CØrn is dangerous!

This may not be terribly different from my earlier Panini-Pressed sandwiches, but I continue to enjoy my $8 purchase. There are a fair number of appliances that I've bought over the years that, if/when they die, I won't bother to replace. This I'll replace, if/when it fails me. There's an adage, attributed to Dorothy Parker, that eternity = two people and a ham. Imagine the case for a single person! Nonetheless, my favorite local high-end grocery store commissions wonderful double-smoked hams as a holiday special, and I indulged during last year's holiday season. And cut it up, and vacuum-sealed the chunks. The strategy seems to be working well. Earlier this week I started jonesing for some of that ham. Ham with potatoes. Mac'n'cheese'n'ham. Grilled ham sandwiches. I pulled out a smallish chunk and roasted it with baby potatoes and a package of Lipton's Recipe Secrets (basically, their onion soup mix). Today was my chance at a grilled ham and cheese sandwich, using my beloved panini press. Sourdough bread, pepper jack cheese, mayo and mustard on the interior. @rotuts has mentioned before that putting mayonnaise on the outside of the bread, instead of butter, made for a nice coating. I decided to try it. To be fair, I'd used too much mayo inside and needed to do something with the extra. I did mayonnaise on one surface and butter on the other. After the whole shebang was grilled I put in chopped baby greens (arugula and spring greens). See the difference in doneness on the two sides? The bottom part had the mayonnaise on the outside. It's possible that the color difference is due to more heating on the bottom plate, but I think the composition of the mayonnaise was a factor also. All told, I preferred the buttered surface. It seemed a bit more flavorful. But the entire sandwich was good, and more than plenty for dinner.

After baking - they won't win any beauty contests

I tried a recipe from Half Baked Harvest; Brown Butter Raspberry White Chocolate cookies. Our son-in-law to be loves anything with white chocolate and raspberries. I've never been a hugs fan of white "chocolate" but he is such a great help to us - I like to keep him happy. The flavour profile was great - browned butter and raspberries, yum. The recipe needs tweaking; I flattened the cookie balls a bit and then slammed them on the counter after baking but they remained a bit puffy. Worth experimenting with for sure. Before baking:

One of my favourite desserts - my daughter bakes me on every year for my birthday.

Try this

Blocked unfortunately.

I think you're going to fit right in here! I remember staying up until 2, 3 or even 4 in the morning during an eG seminar on braising! Then I'd go to work after a few hours' sleep! (But I was much younger then. 😆)

Last night I smoked beef ribs. I got to bed at 4:00.

This story from the Washington Post made me smile. The article should be unlocked; if not, I'll give a synopsis or at least post the relevant photo. https://wapo.st/461RBnQ

Oh hells bells it needs to rest as well 😆

Same here. I like them and get them during the short summer window when they are available.

I dunno, but @JoNorvelleWalker seems to keep similar hours. Perhaps she has insights.

This sounds like the opening line of an entertaining story: OK, I’ll bite. What happened in 1958 that caused you to quit Fritos?

It's 11.40pm and I'm roasting 2kg of pork shoulder. It's only halfway through plus time to get the crackling crackled. Why am I like this.

First of all, I wouldn't use Fritos. I quit eating Fritos in 1958, and pretty much stayed away from corn chips and Frito-like products until discovering TJ's corn chips a couple of years ago. I like both of TJ's versions, and depending on whom I was feeding, I'd use one or the other. I'd fry up some ground beef with diced onions, add some herbs and spices depending on mood (I could see Rancho Gordo oregano Indo and my own blend of dried chile powder [Ancho, Guajillo, Pasilla Oaxaca for example] and which corn chips I was using. I'd add drained, diced fire roasted tomatoes packed with citric acid to help them retain shape and texture, a can of TJ's green hatch chilies or, if on hand, some very finely diced jalapeño. I'd use Whole Foods 365 spiced (or not) black beans, shredded cheddar or maybe pepper jack cheese. I'd adjust the moisture content with Bonafide organic beef bone broth. I'd layer the dish with chips, meat mix, chips, cheese, etc., rather than mix everything together and pop the whole mess into the oven to brown a little. The top layer would be cheddar, even if using pepper jack, and maybe some broken corn chip pieces would be rained across the final cheese layer. I'd probably cook the casserole in the Fat Daddio 3" deep 9 x 13 pan. Nice pan, good for taking to a pot luck and feeding a crowd. Except for the bottom layer of chips, which would be spread out over a very light layer of sauce to form sort of a bottom crust, the layers of chips would be spread thin so they'd not clump together too much and make eating the casserole just a little easier and more pleasant. Anyway, I'm just riffing on an idea or two. For a dish like this, the recipe is often cupboard dependent, but generally I'm pretty well stocked. Hope this gives you what you're looking for.

I agree. @pazzaglia has a bunch of risotto recipes on her site and this one for an asparagus risotto that uses a quick stock made from the asparagus trimmings really won me over. I sometimes add shrimp to that one, too.

If you were to make a Frito Pie, Shel, how would you make it?

On the previous page I linked to a video of the Cassonade cannelé shop in Bordeaux who make theirs with T80 flour (less refined) and cassonade sugar (also less refined). I was curious how this would compare to my regular recipe (adapted from Pierre Hermé). So, Cassonade at the back, Hermé in front... The Cassonade ones took a little longer to colour evenly (5-10 mins). There wasn't much difference in appearance outwardly, except the Hermé were ever so slightly taller... The Cassonade were a shade more beige inside, presumably from the sugar... The Hermé were a touch more yellow, presumably helped by the extra yolk... Flavour-wise, it wasn't a huge difference. The Cassonade tasted 'browner' somehow, but I doubt in a blind test I'd be able to put my finger on the specific flour or sugar. Texture was where things got interesting. The Cassonade had a crisper shell, but the inside was more dense and not as soft and creamy as the Hermé. I don't think the crispness was down to the slightly extended cooking time, because that tends to make the shells thicker and crunchier rather than pleasingly crisper (hard to explain!). Overall, I still preferred the Hermé textural contrast between inside and out, but the Cassonade shell was good, so maybe I'll punch T80 and brown sugar into Hermé's recipe and see if I get the benefit.