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@Kerry Beal No, just vanilla and soft, light brown sugar as per O/G. (As an aside, I've been using Ugandan vanilla beans of late and have been pleasantly surprised with the quality. At less than a third of the price of similarly sized Tahitian/Madagascan here in France, it's a relief not having to sell body parts to fund my hobby.)

I love it. A multi-tasking unitasker ...

I’ve had no reliable WiFi for a month but hopefully now can post some of the food I’ve been eating in Europe. We had a meal in Harry’s Bar Venice which is on the Grand Canal just around the corner from St Marks Square ( a sentence I don’t use everyday!! Smile ). Harry’s Bar is an iconic restaurant in Venice and has been going for nearly a century with its prime being in the 1930’s, 40’s, and 50’s with the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Peggy Guggenheim, Katherine Hepburn, Truman Capote to name drop a few, eating there. It seems still as exciting and busily high end as it used to be, with superb service. Below…We had drinks to start followed by steak tartare and prawn and calamari tartare below… I had this dish which is quite famous in Venice and to this restaurant in particular… Creamed dried cod with polenta. I liked it very much, salty and creamy… I never liked polenta much but after this one, I now can say I like it Below… my son had this ravioli dish Below… one of the desserts, Below… the actual kitchen is so tiny that the meals are presented onto customers plates in the restaurant by the waiters. Below, very blurred photo but you can just see that there is a little white dog in a ladies handbag in the restaurant. I will post some Breakfast photos under the Breakfast heading The photos aren’t very good at showing off the food because I didn’t like to make a fuss of taking food photos and just quickly snapped where I could.

Yeah. I've been doing that for about 50 years!

Yeaaaahhhh get that in my belly

Talking about skin and or chicharrones... I broiled a chicken skin in one piece the weekend Much better than my initial guess.

One of my favourites, which I omitted to mention before is 猪皮冻 (zhū pí dòng), pig skin jelly. This is basically pig skin boiled in water to make a gelatinous broth which on cooling turns to jelly. Various flavourings can be added just as you would with most stocks, ginger and garlic being the most common. I've seen suggestions to add soy sauce (usually on American Chinese websites), but never seen that here. Surprisingly delicious. Unsurprisingly served cold.

I just bought his for my daughter's bridal shower. I would have preferred a glass dome but this is what she requested. It's multi tasker; cake dome, footed bowl or charcuterie platter.

Your daughter's pastry box is really something. I think I would start with that peach croissant. Roasted a small rack of pork. Just two bones.

I recently tried 'chicharron preparado' - not a crispy fried chicharron (pig skin) with toppings but a wheat cracker with slightly chewy but tender pieces of skin in the pile on top. The skin didn't seem particularly pickled like the recipes I found suggest, but maybe the lime juice and hot sauce hid that. More just a textural element with a very faintly porky flavor when eaten on its own. Overall reminded me of ceviche, with lime, tajin, hot sauce, salty cheese, cucumber, lettuce, & avocado. Mayo was offered and declined. I enjoyed it. https://mysliceofmexico.ca/2021/10/22/cueritos-with-vegan-option/

One of my favourite gentle youtube channels had a taste.

That is right up my alley - will put on the list or next week. I love lemon with pasta.

I haven’t seen this shape elsewhere either. It cooks up quickly, since it’s a little tube. I dressed this lightly but it has little ridges that hold onto the sauce, exactly as you say!

My mom sold Princess House crystal when I was growing up and The Cake Plate was the most coveted item they had! I think it might have only been offered if you hosted a party and the sales were above some number. I have to wonder how many people ever really used it. I also remember we just kept everything (baked goods) in a bread box. A fun game to play with the younger generation is to ask them if they know what a rotary dial is, or a bread box....

Did you make it with the bay leaves?

I've never seen that shape before, I bet it holds sauce like a champion

Lemon pasta with asparagus and tiny tomatoes TJ's lemon torchetti pasta dressed with TJ's lemon pesto with asparagus, tiny orange tomatoes and a sprinkle of feta.

Gee, sounds familiar!

It's actually a relatively useless corner as it is under the microwave shelf which is 12" off the counter.

Didn't think about that. That pretty much seals the deal to pass on getting one. Don't need more stuff to clean and wipe down.

Be careful what you wish for. I have plenty of counter space which just means I have more space to stick stuff and I still don't have enough space to work.

I wish I had a spare corner on the countertop ... <sigh>

Cake stand with dome. Yes, if you live in low humidity it'll help keep things from drying out.

ours is not used daily - but days at a stretch for keeping homemade bread/pastries/pies/cobblers....

I have always called it a footed cake dome. Mine appears to be the same as the one in your photo. With mine, you can flip the base upide down and the knob on the top of the dome fits into the depression in the stand and becomes a footed bowl. I use it this way for salad for a crowd or trifle. We quite often have muffins or quick bread, so I keep a few days worth under the dome which slides into a corner on the counter top.