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@blue_dolphin and @liuzhou The recipe writer suggested that cider vinegar could be used as a substitute for the coconut vinegar. Would you agree?

It turned up in Max Halley's new book Max’s World of Sandwiches (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) Yes, neutral oil. No, I can’t taste the oil though I’ve blotted the egg on a paper towel after scooping it out of the oil. He says to use at least 1/8 inch of oil, a fairly standard amount for shallow frying.

Completed one more "seasoning" by filling each side with oil, heating to smoking, letting cool, draining, and wiping mostly clean. Then I baked on my grill for 2 hours (I had a call for work). It didn't get much darker, just a bit more bronze. The iron came with three recipes, I tried 1/3 batch of the country one, using some IDY instead of a bag of barm. Per AlaMoi's suggestion, buttered up the the iron generously. The batch made 7 waffles. Here are the remaining four. And the mess on the stove omg. I think I want to "season" the exterior sides of the iron as well before next time. But I finally had me some waffles. I'm happy. Next project, the swedish waffles from David Chang's recent live netflix show, and then try to make the hippie-compatible versions and their variations (no dairy, no eggs, no gluten, etc). I'll update over next couple weeks for sake of posterity. Recipe Waffles Stove

@blue_dolphin interesting. how much oil do you use ? neutral oil ? can you taste the oil in the finished egg ? id there a ref. for this technique you can post ?

Salmon croquettes from Jubilee topped with another novelty slow fried egg Here's the egg, cracked into a cold pan, showing the yolk bobbing above the oil. Here we are almost done. These eggs weren't the freshest so you can see I have a little skirt of loose white but most of it is hanging together and the yolk is still above the oil. And done, on top of the salmon croquettes. It really does look like an egg emoji!

I bought some a few years ago. Coconut Secret is a brand that was recommended to me but I ended up purchasing the store brand at Sprouts. It's a nice, mild vinegar. Not too sharp and it doesn't taste particularly strongly of coconut. I used it to make the homemade Goan-style chouriço sausage from Nik Sharma's book Season, in several marinades and to make a pineapple coconut. I need to get some more. Coconut aminos are not the same thing.

No They are not the same. Coconut vinegar is made from the flowers of the coconut palm. Coconut aminos is made from the sap of the tree mixed with salt.

There are some recipes I'd like to try that call for this product. I've never used coconut vinegar, in fact, hadn't even heard of it until two days ago. What should I be seeking and what should be avoided with this product. Is coconut vinegar the same thing as coconut aminos? While searching for the vinegar coconut aminos also came up.

Yes. 🔺🏔️

Spitzkohl, right ?

@Shel_B You're right, I have a Vitamix and also have one of those bags. I never thought of using the Vitamix as a juicer. Let us know how it goes.

Thanks, again. I'll look at the recipe when I return from errands later this morning. If I recall, you have a Vitamix ... Well, I, too, don't have a juicer, but I've been using my Vitamix model 5300 for making juice with excellent results. Apart from the machine, the only thing needed is a method for straining the juice, and this is what I've been using to accomplish that: (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) I've been using the same bag for seven years. It's durable, of a good size, easy to clean, and free of harmful chemicals. Apples are on my list to purchase this morning, and if I can get the kind I want, apple juice will be one of todays projects. Thanks again!

We tried a new stopover place last night: the Rock & Brews Casino in Braman, Oklahoma. I've noticed the place in passing over the last few years, but this time we realized they offered boondocking. It's even free! Well, it would have been if I hadn't bought dinner there. That, and the gambling, are the point of offering free boondocking, aren't they? In order to boondock you have to register for their Players Club (free) and that gets you $5 worth of loyalty points to play on the machines. I didn't get as many photos as I'd thought, and that's a shame. The place is filled with electronic gaming machines, most stand-alone but some "cascading" and connected to other casinos via the internet. (Don't ask me to explain that.) The place has a Hard Rock Cafe sort of vibe, with giant murals / photos of rockers and rock bands. I liked the music, both for its familiarity and its relatively low volume. My darling wouldn't have liked it, but he couldn't walk there anyway. I brought food back to the Princessmobile. Here's the menu. I was sorely tempted to buy both a burger and their "Hotel California Cobb Salad", but I knew it would be overkill. I settled on Alice Cooper's Poison Burger (Brioche Bun, Pepper Cheese Spread, Reaper Ranch, Fresh Fried Jalapeno, Crispy Onion Strings, Alice Cooper Poison Sauce). My darling opted for the Smokehouse Burger (Brioche Bun, BBQ Sauce, Double Melted Cheddar, Applewood Smoked Bacon, Onion Ring, Lettuce, Tomato, Dill Pickle, Mayo) minus the dill pickles. French fries with both dinners. I ordered the burgers medium rare. While I waited for my order I admired the decor and puzzled over the games. Things have changed drastically since the days of the one-armed bandits! The burgers and fries were excellent! The fries were crisp on the outside, seasoned nicely, and still hot when I got them back to the Princessmobile. His burger, on the right above, was quite messy; his travel clothes are now decorated with spots of BBQ sauce, but he had no complaints. My burger's jalapenos, the pepper cheese spread, and the Poison sauce all carried a delicious hot whallop. Wherever they're getting their jalapenos, these are NOT of the insipid variety. 🙂 As I expected, we didn't come close to finishing our dinners. The remains are in the refrigerator and will make at least one more meal apiece. I'm not sure how I'll reheat those fries to do justice to them -- no air fryer or CSO available -- but we'll Give It Our Best Shot.

Shrimp fried rice: onion, ginger, garlic, jalapeno, red curry paste, fish sauce, and an egg Cucumber salad: ginger, jalapeno, fish sauce, lemon juice, brown sugar, and cilantro. The two went very well together

Here's one method for applestroop. This requires only apples and maybe a smidgen of sugar. Other recipes I've found call for various spices, with no consistency from one to another. I'd be tempted to try this one, but i don't have a juicer. Maybe in the fall I'll try it when I can buy fresh apple juice at one of our local apple orchards. https://www.toineskitchen.com/recipes/appelstroop/

Here's one of the thrills of rediscovering ancient Greece in modern Athens... archaeology in metro stations. The construction of new metro system in the 90's unearthed new ancient treasures. Actually, it was Greece's biggest archaeological excavation project, the staggering depth of 50 thousand artefacts . I've only checked out 2 stations (on purpose), saving the rest for future returns. The next station is Ancient Cemetery (Evangelismos station) There's a dairy shop in the same area where I wanted to eat something. Fresh goat's milk, sheep's/goat's yoghurt with quince spoon sweet and barrel-aged feta. It's a nice dairy shop where you can sit down and have a light meal that involves dairy products they sell, plus sandwiches etc. They also sell small-scale products from other places in Greece. Instead of taking the metro to my next point of interest I walked there, about 20 minutes. Only 1 metro station away to Syntagma where the parliament is located. The flag of Greece is actually not that old. Blue and white represent the colours of the sea and sky. Apparently, the horizontal blue and white lines are the numbers of syllables in the motto of Greece: "Victory or Death". Anything red on a national flag is out of the question as it evokes painful memories of the Ottoman occupation. A war monument in front of the parliament, one of the top attractions in the capital. It depicts a naked warrior holding his shield and wearing an ancient Greek helmet, seemingly ready to arise again. This powerful sculpture commands and maintains the attention of every person who sees it. Here a tourist was making photos of the cenotaph. The changing of guards takes place every hour. A formal and elaborate version is at 11am on Sunday. The Tomb of The Unknown Soldier (this monument) is guarded 24/7. I thought the slow-motion choreographed moves with lots of high kicks were rather comical. Every spectator was mesmerised, me included! 2 people, brother and sister, asked me right after the guard change march, if they could see the photos on my IG/FB/etc. But I am not part of that culture. We exchanged emails. I have sent them a bunch of their brother's photos later. Their younger brother is a new guard. They seemed most proud of him. Yes, that's a skirt, it has 400 plaits which represent the number of years under Ottoman occupation. I'm surprised the guards' caps are red. Pompom shoes with metal studs. At ease position. The guards are an elite unit of the Greek military. Meanwhile across the street from the parliament... we have learnt nothing from history. (I shall keep my critical opinion to myself) I spent a lot of time wandering round and round and finding many things interesting (to me). A leafy park next to the parliament where I ran into this turtle.There are no fences and no zoo in the park. Then I took another path... Ancient Greece in the city. A ruin near the park. Next year I will get a combo ticket to visit several sites, including this one. Golden hour meal at a nice restaurant known for their grilled lamb rib chops. They have 2 locations on the same street and both were full. Unfortunately, my table was in the shadow with strong spots of bright sun. Boiled greens (a lot like weeds in my garden when uncooked), aubergine dip/spread and portion of lamb rib chops. It was a Saturday afternoon, the place was full of Greeks who came with the whole family or group of friends. Even if there's just 2 Greek, they usually order a whole kilo. They take it home if there's leftovers, but I don't think so. Mostly bones and fat but it's so good. At home I use a Weber and cook the chops outside (smoke and fat spatter) like this... The views at night are just as nice. A row of beer taps (at another craft beer bar). Only metal music played here (metal music is fine but the volume though, it's senselessly loud). And the sight of my beer Unfortunately, the music level was too much (I wore earplugs) so I fled so fast to the safety of my hostel room. This is why it's near impossible to use the pavement or foot path in Athens. Meanwhile at home people walk on bike path. So why did I pay for the foot path then?!!! Seems if there's a suitable (or not) surface it'll be used to set up a table or splatter with graffiti. After weeks of feasting my eyes on empty streets and graffiti-free surfaces in Japan this is a sensory overload. I was this close to Acropolis today during my walk. Seen here is the back of the Parthenon. You know it because it's still under scaffolding. They say it probably takes 40 years till the work is done. I've read it was briefly scaffold-free only once, years ago. First time to Greece was Corfu in 1997 via Brindisi, also interailing. Money was still the Drachma. The partner has been to many places in Greece interailing as a youth, when things were still free and so much cheaper. Greece is still cheaper than a lot of places in Europe. Besides, I just love visiting/being in Greece!

I've mentioned this elsewhere but I rely heavily on this handy little book that lives on my kitchen counter: The Baker's Appendix (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) It contains conversion tables for most common baking ingredients, grouped by ingredient type (chocolate, dairy, eggs, fats, flours, sweeteners and common "mix-ins" (oats, mashed bananas, applesauce, coconut, mayo, etc) It also contains oven temp conversions, sugar syrup temps, baking pan volume conversions, fraction to decimal conversions, general volume and weight conversions, egg size and weights for yolks and whites. That's the kind of stuff that used to appear at the front or back of every baking book, but not so much anymore. There are a couple of random baking recipes and a few pages of useful tips for stuff like ingredient substitutions, folding parchment paper to cut and fit into cake pans but the bulk of the book is the conversion tables, which look like this: The range of measurements keeps arithmetic to a minimum. Yes, one can easily look up all of this stuff on the internet but I like having it in the kitchen in one compact book (it's about 5" x 7") without needing to find a device and run a search. My one quibble is that it lacks an index of the ingredients. Once you're familiar with how they're grouped, it's pretty quick to find things but an ingredient index would be helpful to get started.

Mushrooms -------- #2 --------- Baked ricotta More mushrooms Sicilian-inspired. Pasta with ricotta (and olive oil. Chopped pistachios would be nice, of course). Bucatini with parsley and raw garlic. I add a few dollops of ricotta to the pasta as I eat but Sicilians mix plain ricotta with olive oil and stir into the pasta. -------- #3 --------- I rarely buy rice, let alone this much. (It's for someone else, though.) "Pointed cabbage" Miso soup with soft tofu and seaweed Typical "neba-neba" (slimy food) ingredients.

Like here?

The type of men I like...

This. So much this. As many of you will recall I'm a freelancer, and I write a lot on topics related to internet safety, scam avoidance, etc. One really large and growing issue is that so many of these "smart" Internet of Things (IoT) devices can't be meaningfully patched or upgraded once they're in the field, which means that any vulnerabilities in their aging chipsets can be exploited for the remainder of their operational life. Sometimes there's no direct harm (you wouldn't know if your fridge or combi-oven was dragooned into a botnet), but in other cases attackers can gain access to your home network and many of the attached devices. You know, the ones containing your banking information, etc (not to mention the ones with mics and cameras).

Pork sausages and du puy lentils cooked in the oven with carrots, celery, onion, garlic, pancetta, bay leaves and chicken broth. Served with an herb relish made with parsley, basil, chive, mint, lemon juice, garlic, capers, dijon mustard and olive oil

I've seen Christmas dinners packed that way, on the "No Context Brits" Twitter feed. A perfect illustration of the aphorism that "just because you (ahem) can, doesn't mean you should." On a completely unrelated note, my daughter just sent me this one:

An interesting seder idea ...

I didn't buy this one. Can't think why? Any of these would be OK