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Our first meal back to Mexico after a 6 week absence. At Lobo de Mar in Ajijic.

I can't wait!

Yesterday’s breakfast was green eggs & ham on a ciabatta roll, an idea I stole from Joe Sasto’s recent cookbook, Breaking the Rules which I borrowed from the library. His version is eggs, scrambled with pesto, piled on toast and topped with crisped up slices of salami. I browned a slice of Canadian bacon instead of the salami and put it on the bottom, though it’s kind of invisible in the photo. Not bad. Today, I made a bean version of the pasta with butternut squash, sausage, sage, and spicy chiles from Six Seasons of Pasta using Rancho Gordo Royal Corona beans instead of pasta. I also added a big handful of baby kale. This was really good for a chilly morning. I used bean cooking broth instead of pasta water to bring things together.

Love these two. Sohla wears her heart on her sleeve and Ham knows his stuff. Great cooking!

this is JOC "White Bread Plus" - T&T here....

That's The Best Recipe (1999), from the Cook's Illustrated gang, before it was America's Test Kitchen. I've found very reliable for bread!

Chocolatier and author Tine Prefers Chocolate has an ebook on decorating without an airbrush. Her striped bonbon is beautiful; alas, my experiments have not equaled hers.

That looks like a well loved cookbook! What is it?

Mrs. C made halibut for dinner the other night, and there was a piece left over so I cut it into cubes for green curry. We also had sliced onions from last night's dinner. Blended Mae Ploy green curry paste with sliced jalapeno, garlic, ginger, galangal, palm sugar, and cilantro stems. Sauteed the onions with more garlic, fried the curry paste, and then mixed in cilantro leaves and microwave chopped spinach with a small amount of coconut milk. Seasoned with fish sauce and garam masala, and warmed the halibut in the curry. End result was sneaky-hot and aromatic, just what I needed.

Ambitious I say!! @blue_dolphin

I'm not at all a chocolatier or confectioner, so I'm asking questions as much for my own edification as to help stimulate this conversation. In baking, if I were to add liquor my considerations would be (a) overall liquid to solids propotions (i.e. keep the propoortions more or less the same) (b) possible pH changes and effects (c) sugar content change, and how that might affect the flavor as well as consistency of the final product Is that the sort of thing you're considering? Finally (for now), am I correct in assuming you're talking about liquor as a flavoring in the filling? Or are you talking about liquor-filled sealed bonbons, in which my considerations above are totally irrelevant? 🤷‍♀️

Last workshop we wanted to look at decorating without an airbrush - don’t think we succeeded though

And to share it with your granddaughter. It doesn't get any better than that. This. My heart is full because of this part.

You're very welcome. Well, I'm kind of tired of airbrushes haha. Right now I'm thinking of what you can do except just blasting a mold with cocoa butter. 😅

@Rajala Nice! Thanks for sharing. It’s inspiring! I haven’t moved into the airbrushing world yet so I like to see how color is used without airbrushing.

Sheer genius and generosity on your part. And to share it with your granddaughter. It doesn't get any better than that.

Yessss. I saw someone using a Dremel to make a "swirl" in their mold once, I tried that only to discover that force of something spinning could to other things. https://www.instagram.com/reel/DRHqsfxjC2k/

@Rajala I really like the yellow stripe of cocoa butter. Simple yet classy. Would you share what tool you used to apply the cocoa butter to the mold?

When I roasted the butternut squash cubes for the last recipe, I roasted the rest of the squash and made the butternut squash purée that’s used in the pasta with butternut squash with sausage, sage, and spicy chiles on p 375. The squash/sausage/sage combo is pretty classic but the Calabrian chilies are what make it sing! After finding the roasted squash/nut ragu pasta too sweet for my taste, I was a bit wary about trying this one but the purée was made so I soldiered on and was pleasantly surprised by how much I liked this. I used hot Italian sausage and used Calabrian bomba sauce instead of the sliced chilies called for and suspect a variety of chiles or chile pastes would work. I also threw in a handful of arugula to increase the veg quotient. I have more squash purée left and plan to try some variations on this theme.

New bonbons. I don't know what to call the filling. It's a praliné, but it's not? It's "duja", but it's not? It's under investigation, will update you once I've figured it out

After much indecision, I started on the pulled pork. I cut each roast in half(ish), slathered in mustard, and applied the dry rub, which consisted of brown sugar, smoked paprika, salt, cumin, chili powder, garlic powder, black pepper, and cayenne pepper. I was out of onion powder. About to make the rub. Added the rub. Wrapped the pork in plastic wrap and put back in the fridge until later today. I still have plenty of time to be indecisive about the mac and cheese, as well as which pot(s) I will use. Meanwhile, my idea for sandwiches for kids home from school next week has exploded! I posted a on a Facebook group page, suggesting that if a lot of us made just one loaf of sandwiches each, we could keep the fridges full next week. “Fill the fridges with sandwiches” has taken off, as people have shared the suggestion on their own pages. I can’t wait to see how it works out next week! My three year old granddaughter will help me with sandwiches next week. 😍

Aww, that’s sweet of you to say ❤️

I can identify with that "so much food to use up...but I HAVE to have this now!" feeling. If I were to stop buying rotisserie chickens and the occasional fried chicken thigh I'd have far more room in my freezers by now! I think that pizza looks wonderful. I'm glad you indulged yourself on your anniversary.

Its fine, i use it for my Mexican sauce recipes. .rojo and verde, also in pickling. Got be careful, as the can have a raw garlic taste

You really have been missed, @andiesenji. You and heidih were my very first mentors on eGullet so many years ago.