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I occasionally buy this for special meals. It ain't cheap, even though Cambodia is only a short way away. They also do white and pink peppercorns, but I've never bought them. For daily use , I go for Vietnamese.

They look great. Thanks for the recommendation

You are remembering correctly - recipe on last page of the booklet I believe.

The place where I fond the samphire immediately above has expanded its range of offerings. The first, I've been looking for for years. It is native to China but hitherto has only been sold dried in TCM stores. 大黄 (dà huáng), Rheum × hybridum, Rhubarb. ¥25 / $ 3.50 USD for 500g And 蒔蘿 (shí luó), Anethum graveolens, Dill. This is not native to China and I've no idea what people here may do with it. I use it, of course, with fish. ¥18 / $2.50 USD for 250g.

Cool article about ancient bread: <https://www.rte.ie/news/newslens/2025/0527/1515125-ancient-bread-turkey/> "In the early Bronze Age, a piece of bread was buried beneath the threshold of a newly built house in what is today central Turkey. Now, more than 5,000 years later, archaeologists have unearthed it, and helped a local bakery to recreate the recipe - with customers lining up to buy it. .... Analyses showed that the bread was made with coarsely ground emmer flour, an ancient variety of wheat, and lentil seeds, with the leaf of an as yet undetermined plant used as yeast. .... To get as close as possible to the original recipe, the municipality, after analysing the ancient bread, decided to use Kavilca wheat, a variety that is close to ancient emmer, as well as bulgur and lentils." I've got emmer, and lentil, and bulgur....and now feeling like I must have been channeling an ancient middle-eastern baker when I recently made some random unyeasted flatbreads with bulger, lentils, and barley! Now I need to eat that up so I can make some room in the freezer for Kulluoba bread, and I've got some maybe appropriate sourdough starter made with emmer and barley that is quite lively and pleasing to work with. Will report back.

Mrs. C did a fused glass crafternoon with friends, and they stayed for dinner. Clockwise from bottom center: BBQ pork butt, rubbed with 'magic dust', smoked overnight in the Weber bullet, and then finished in the oven with a glaze of the BBQ sauce. Served with potato rolls, for those who prefer a traditional pulled pork sandwich with BBQ sauce and coleslaw. One guest said she would "skip the roll so she could eat more." BBQ sauce made with ketchup, brown sugar, yellow mustard, cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, garlic salt, celery salt, 'Soul Sucker' hot sauce, and ginger. Coleslaw made with green cabbage, onion, yellow mustard, rice vinegar, sugar, salt, and mayonnaise to taste. Chow chow, homemade by one of the guests Baked beans, made with canned navy, pinto, and black beans, BBQ sauce, chorizo, onion, red bell pepper, chile Poblano, hard cider, molasses, yellow mustard, cider vinegar, and burnt ends from the pork butt. Collard greens, made with smoked ham hocks, red bell pepper, chile Poblano, cider vinegar, molasses, black pepper, hot sauce, and celery seeds.

Lunch today ... I wanted to try out the new microwave oven, learn its operation and get a sense of the proper timing for cooking various items. This morning a stop at TJ's netted several frozen entrées upon which to practice, and this was the first such item I tried: By cooking in stages, it was fairly easy to arrive at a good cooking time. I added a few frozen (TJ's) broccoli florets that were diced into small pieces as well as some diced orange Bell peppers (also purchased at TJ's) that were previously frozen. The entrée was already seasoned satisfactorily. Overall, a nice experience with the new microwave and a quick, enjoyable lunch.

I don't see why not . I of course then chill it in the refrig. the one thing I noticed was that there was moisture in the chamber, thus , if you didnt have an oil pump ,that pump would fail sooner. I might not do this again. I had to move everything out of MC's gaze . better planning next time.

Is it safe to vac pac warm food?

There were two recipes in the newspaper today that I decided to try. One was Crispy Chicken with Lime Butter and the other one was Ree Drummond's Garlic Parmesan Fries. I didn't get to take a picture of the fries. It was eaten before I got a chance.

Some wonderful elaborate breakfasts here. By contrast, here's mine: Bacon and avocado on toast with Tantan Xiang pickled red chilies. With fresh coffee from the cafetiere. No regrets.

These on the other hand were a bit disappointing. Maybe I just don't like the small sardines. The flesh falls apart too easily, and the taste is a bit processed- not a happy mouthful for me. Average.

Marks and Spencer's posh line Skinless, boneless, but a lovely clean taste and firm texture. As good as any I've ever bought in a UK supermarket.

WTB # 5 : I decided I didnt need to add the back // frame to the bottom shelf this time. I tasted the 1 X stock it had a nice smoke flavor. I then recalled Aton Brown's Good Eats show where he made liquid smoke. one can add smoke flavor , but cannot take it out. And , Id just save the various backs that I already smoked add the fresh backs , which Id over roast ( bake ) plain to get good color. I did not use the skin , as I have plenty of flavor and there would be less turkey fat to deal with. De-salted the generic bacon , as before . but this time I added more of the seasonings , as I didnt need to consider those flavors becoming too pronounced in the eventual 2.5 x stock the seasonings : and I did this version simply by the clock : as before 1.5 Hr 225 F // 5 smoke. rotate and change self position . the 1.5 Hr 180 F 5 smoke. rotate again , then leave alone for 2 Hr.s , then done. @ 3 hrs done. temp on the top one was 145 F , bottom 139 F , the front of the TB, I removed the TB's and the drip pan when done , total 5 hrs. I learned my lesson last time. I also lined the drip pan w parchment ( the semi-disposable one ) and got this : it's had to see , but there is a pool of fat in the deeper end. I carefully poured that into a small plastic container the fond slipped right off the parchment paper, as the tray was still warm this Ill save and use in TJ's cornbread mix. Pork fat , smoke flavor , and other drippings. this was slightly salty, not over salty, probably from the brine the TB was subject too. exceptionally tasty. I cut one in half while still very warm , and made a wrap tortilla warmed over the gas burner , turkey , mayo , mustard , spinach , fresh black pepper hard to pic a wrap. I also had to work quickly as MC ( The Cat ) goes crazy for STB. he did get a decent amout. I had to get everything off the counter , and refrigerated due to MC's interest. Vac'd warm ( I had not done that before ). refrigerated . one seal needs to be re-done tomorrow. this was the best version Ive made. the others were mighty good , this was better : more seasonings while this process was going on , I stayed hydrated w a suggestion from @Smithy , mentioned here : https://www.thekitchn.com/best-trader-joes-wine-23580457 I of course had all sorts of ideas for TB # 6 I was going to do the same prep , but put each seasoned TB in a large SV bag , then SV for 8 hrs @ 140 F. Rapid chill , then the next AM , take the cold TB's ( 36 F ) and cold smoke on the Weber , one hour w the smoke tube as Ive done before w SV's Items. then Id carefully torch each , and partition , and Vac , and see what the difference was. SV does everything exactly how you want : pic a temp for ' doneness ' pic a time for tenderness however , its problematic heel is no Malliard Rx , and thats a very tasty Rx. but this version of the TB's was Sooooooooo good , and easy and I got a ton of fond and smoked bacon fat , and very little salt. not trying the SV version any time soon. P.S.: the bit of pickle you see in that wrap , is a half sour. I get them @ MarketBasket. I was running low so went to Stop&Shop to re-supply : 5 minutes vs 20 M. im glad I did : I got MB stopped carrying these . these are superb . as long as you like garlic , which I do. plenty of garlic w these. I leaned my lesson , by chance.

based on a recommendation from @Smithy , in another thread i just cant find, I decided to try this wine : for me , its a nice complement to my Bench Standard , TJ's Costal Chardonnay its dry , but not too dry . It has a light body , is a bit tart , and has ' green ' flavors . ' green flavors ' you have to figure out for your self. then I googled it and found this thread : https://www.thekitchn.com/best-trader-joes-wine-23580457 in down there in the middle. Ill look for a few of these others , if TJ's still have them , as the ref. is a year old.

The report for the 2025 Chocolate & Confectionery Workshop: A huge thank you to all the sponsors, planners, and participants!

Thank you for asking about that piece. I only picked up one piece and wondered who made it, very tasty. Thought it might have been a sugar lamination piece... we've had a few attempts at this at various workshops. I think we got a recipe from Mark Heim and one from Rebecca Millican. Would be great to know which recipe was used - wish I had seen it being made.

Bread pudding is, traditionally, a sweet dish. However, savory versions do exist. In our collection, I found: Spinach-shiitake bread pudding Bread Pudding With Artichokes, Cheddar and Scallions Mushroom Bread Pudding and then, just to throw another wrench in the works, I stumbled across Croque Monsieur Strata Strata with Spinach and Gruyère Strata With Mushrooms and Chard That last recipe, which I got from the New York Times, includes a paraphrase from Martha Rose Shulman where she calls strata "savory bread puddings." So I suppose that often the difference is often just the vessel in which the dish is prepared? I'm not sure what is meant by "homogenized" here, but it's essentially what I thought. I kind of still do. Yes. Every recipe I listed above, as well as every other recipe I came across, at a minimum called for three things: bread, eggs and dairy. The last two create a custard that is used to moisten the (usually stale or dried) bread and make it adhere to itself. Sometimes wine and/or stock is included.

That's exactly what we've said about the stores down here. All of a sudden there will be something in the store that we've never had before and it's a really great find. Then you never see it again. Your sardines are like our frozen peas. Every store in the country carried frozen peas and all of a sudden they disappeared. Everywhere! I haven't seen a frozen pea in 2 years. We had a type of salami that was pretty good and it was ubiquitous. It too has disappeared never to be restocked.

They are here too. Things come and go in mysterious ways. I've seen stuff selling like hotcakes and the stores never restocking. I think they find it messes up t heir shelf stacking rotas or something. We don't want to sell that! People just go and buy it!" Also stores disappear, too; restaurants more so but that's common everywhere. But this is different. Several stores carried those sardines. And I've been buying them for years. Suddenly they disappeared from al the stores at once. The stores are still there and trading though. Even through the pandemic, I could fins them easily. Í've never seen anything like that before. Also, the donkey restaurant is still there doing all the same dishes as before except the burgers. Most odd.

This is Ali Slagle's sheet-pan feta with chickpeas and tomatoes from NYT Cooking: If I’d been monitoring more closely, I might have pulled it out earlier and missed the bits of char on the chickpeas. Per the header notes, I added cauliflower and olives. Served on arugula, lightly dressed with salt, lemon juice and olive oil. Flatbread is my usual fluffy and crisp flatbread from Andy Baraghani's The Cook You Want To Be. I will make this again.

I usually avoid the bags of salad kits as they tend to have things I don't want in my salad-walnuts, croutons, tortilla bits, etc. But I've been tired of making salad lately, so I talked myself into this one from costco yesterday and the dressing is fantastic (and where the basil comes in). (Sorry, turn your head!)

Me too! Love this so much. Butterfinger is one of the few candy bars I still occasionally eat because I love the peanut butter insides. Now, if I could just make this myself... If I remember correctly @Kerry Beal made this one using "The Davenport Soft Peanut Brittle Recipe" from our workshop booklet. Am I remembering right? Any tips on how to successfully make these using the recipe in our booklet?

OMG! This is sooo good! It's something that butterfinger wishes it could be. Was this demo'ed in Las Vegas is 2017/2018? I love it! Sadly, I only got one piece

H.B. Moe ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhdOPhTHeoE