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I can see this becoming family lore: When I was a kid, my father breaded my fingertips and fried them for a snack!

Avocado, mango, and fried plantain salad with brisket bacon, Gorgonzola cheese, and pistachios - from the Dinner 2026 thread

Avocado, mango, and fried plantain salad with brisket bacon, Gorgonzola cheese, and pistachios, served over butter lettuce and arugula. Dressing (in the shot glass) was garlic and serrano chiles, sauteed and then blended (plus the oil) with lime juice, honey, and salt. Mangoes were wonderfully sweet

Salmon burger on a brioche bun with arugula and yuzu mayo and a quick slaw of Brussels sprouts, carrot, snap peas and scallions

One of my daughters saw that these are good for storing smaller amount of potatoes and onions. Since both daughters are two person households at the moment, these are big enough to hold a couple of week's worth of potatoes and onions and fit neatly in their pantry cupboards.

Sauscisse is the (nuch) older version from which the English derivation comes. Saucisson is modern French, although both are still used.

Our wine fridge has a cartridge of expanded clay pellets that was soaked in water for a few hours before being installed in the floor when we first initialized it. The way our wine fridge works is that the walls get cold and any humidity condenses on the walls and hangs around there, eventually running down to the floor and into the cartridge of pellets, which then evaporates to re-condense on the walls. It keeps the humidity pretty constant - around 70%. I store all of our "cellar" items in there... potatoes last a really long time, onions, garlic, apples - anything that would have gone into a root cellar back in the old days. We keep them in rattan baskets to help allow air circulation.

Everything looks fantastic (except for the hospital food).... but I hope the little one didn't need to go to the hospital after frying his fingers! hehe....

I was hoping you'd chime in about this. I knew that boudin wasn't a translation for sausage, but meant that it was a type of French sausage. I always thought the French was saucisson - but I don't know how that differs from saucisse...

Made some crispy chicken thighs for lunch today. Made a quick cream pan sauce to go with.

The French Acadians brought the tradition of boudin noir with them to Louisiana, but it evolved with the influences of German settlers/sausage makers, who also industrialized rice farming in south Louisiana. They made rice the binder instead of blood or milk. There were Spanish and Afro-Caribbean influences, as well. Blood boudin was usually made during a traditional boucherie, a hog butchering where every part of the animal is used. One of the best episodes of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations was filmed at a boucherie in south Louisiana. Look for the Cajun Country episode. It’s so good! Not to be confused with another Cajun episode he filmed a few months before his death about Cajun Mardi Gras. It was not good at all.

the miracles of modern chemistry to retard sprouting can be found here: https://www.simplehomecookedrecipes.com/cooking/what-chemical-is-used-to-stop-potatoes-from-sprouting old school storing potatoes (and lots of other root crops . . . ) in a root cellar is a homestead topic of its own.... humidity/moist medium/temperature/freeze protection . . . it gets 'complicated' real fast, homesteaders had it mastered a century ago. curiously, ethylene retards potato sprouting . . . . home available of ethylene is duck soup simple: bananas (and other fruits, but bananas are king of the ethylene heap....)

It's relatively easy to get 100% humidity or very low humidity but harder to control in between. I don't know how wine fridges regulate humidity. For what it's worth, I looked into it once and the main people with containers for in between humidity were using them for cigars or greener smoking material.

I'll throw out my Pasta con Costco as a suggestion. I don't shop there right now but the principle is the same with smaller jars. You know those huge jars of stuff you buy at Costco but then have to figure out how to use? Marinated artichoke hearts, kalamata olives, sun dried tomatoes, marinated feta, pickled veg? 4 bean salad? Why not? Cook up some pasta - fresh if you want fast, then toss in veg from the above jars and top with some grated Parmesan. Dead easy. You could portion out a mixture of Costco stuff into a container in advance so you just dump it in.

I keep potatoes in a basket under the butcher block island in our kitchen. Baby potatoes and small Yukon Golds last about a month before starting to get soft. Russets last as long but do start to sprout from their eyes if they last longer. At that point I just cut the sprouts off and the potatoes seem fine. Is there any solution that retards the sprouting?

The time limit on frozen food is almost entirely a cya, in my opinion. Freezer burn can be a problem. Partner just made some very good gnocchi (fair bit of effort and fair bit of potato & flour glue all over the place) and the instructions for freezing said to freeze them separated flat on a tray and then bag them for storage in the freezer. So I'd look at trying that with potatoes and other stuff that could turn to mush. My parents used to make a turkey in mock hollandaise sauce and freeze it. The sauce is basically a Béchamel sauce with egg yolk added at the end. I'm pretty sure that for freezing they would put everything in but the egg and add it after thawing. Of course that means you would have to have the ability to separate, whisk, and temper in the egg, but at least you are most of the way there.

DW had to spend a few days im the hospital after a small procedure. You might have heard that German hospital food is not for the faint of heart … She was released todat, so I picked her up and asked for her first recovery meal - surprisingly, she opted for “more” German food: SchniPoSa - Schnitzel, pommes frites and salad. I bought some veal and got cracking … (Commercial) Fries from the airfryer, doused with Duvel dust - always a good option … Salad with balsamic reduction … And some mushroom cream sauce for good measure … Little one breaded the Schnitzel and had some breading on the tip of his fingers, which we fried as well 🙄 The whole ensemble … And as usual - plenty of leftovers for tomorrows Schnitzelbrötchen … Finally, from our trip back through France we had some puddings left. Paris-Brest themed: cream, caramel, praline - what can go wrong 🤗 No complaints and we are more than happy she is back 🥳

Hot chiles with shrimp, mussels, squid, basil, and mint on squid ink pasta from Six Seasons of Pasta. I love the garlicky, lemony, winey sauce, kicked up with the fresh hot chile but ultimately, fishing mussels and larger shrimp out of a dish of pasta is awkward. I made this with squid ink pasta, manzano chiles and shrimp that were big enough to need cutting up. My fault on the shrimp size but unlike the mussels and squid, they didn’t add a lot to the dish. I’d make this again with the mussels & squid but take the mussels out of the shells before serving.

Almost. Boudin is indeed French but only refers to the two specific sausages you mention: boudin noir which is a blood sausage from the Champagne region; and boudin blanc from Brittany and Normandy and which is made from white meats and milk. Neither contain rice. The French for sausage in general is saucisse, from which the English was derived in the Middle Ages. Boudiin in southern USA is from Louisiana and is totally unrelated to the French versions. It does include rice. I know nothing about the Amish, but suspect theirs is related to.the Louisiana version.

Changed my mind.

I didn't know all of this! I definitely always think of the Cajun version because I didn't know other versions existed! I learn something here every day . According to Google a lot of the Amish that live there have roots from the Swiss Mennonites? I know they speak Pennsylvania Dutch. So I'm sure you're right! And thank you for enlightening me me

Montréal is great if you're travelling public transport and visiting farmers' markets. There are neighbourhood butchers!!!! Maybe renting a bicycle. And you can eat at Au Pied de Cochon (maybe get a reservation now). I recommend the pig's head (feeds two). Outstanding! Québec has amazing things to see. Great restaurants, even 'round the touristy spots. In either place you can practise your French. 😁

@Shelby Around these parts (the US, especially in the south) when we see boudin, we think of the Cajun version, but boudin originates in France (I think) - where it basically just means sausage. Typical boudin in France is a blood sausage, but there's also boudin blanc which is blood-less. There's also a boudin in Belgium that is similar to the French but not the same. As far as I know, none of these have rice in them and all of them are very different from a Cajun boudin... Maybe that's the type that the Amish make? Are your Amish similar to the Pennsylvania Dutch Amish?

In our freezer are currently smallish pieces of cooked meats: ham, turkey, chicken and roast beef. The ham and beef are there for Ed to defrost and have with his salad at night if he chooses...and the turkey and chicken mainly to make chicken/turkey salad for sandwiches. We also have cooked ground pork and hamburger to add to sauces or Chinese dishes or soups if either of us gets around to that part of life again (not for two years now...).

I think we might be sisters with a different mother...and our husbands might be related also. I worked as a descriptive bibliographer before I retired and the work demanded absolute care. Not a letter nor a number out of place. Ed says he lives by the seat of his pants...and so he does!!!!