Priscilla

I have gone through many types of juicers, and keep on hand now only the old wooden hand-held reamer and a relatively new capitulation, an inexpensive electric bought two years ago when we set out to make perfect margaritas at home after our margarita haven, the Mexican roadhouse within walking distance, was undergoing some sort of mysterious hardly-ever-open reorganization. The electric one, which might be a Black & Decker but I ferget, cost something like $14.95. Prior to that I'd been through so many types, from my grandmother's enameled cast iron and aluminum Mighty OJ to a regulation Pyrex one-piece to the plastic one that fits on the glass receptacle. The electric one is the best of the lot by a huge margin. It ain't romantic, nor even good-looking, but juicing is one of those jobs for me to get over and done. Edited in: Course it lacks the "hand-held" part of the "Hand-held citrus juicers" topic.

Not summer-hot, but warm. Tostadas for dinner, flour tortillas with homemade refried beans and carnitas and green salsa, finely shredded cabbage, chopped tomatoes, cheese, crema. Splash of vinegar for the man of the house, who likes that on his tostada. Icy beer; mineral water for the under-21 set.

I have wondered this over the years. I used pintos a lot a lot a lot, and cranberry beans rarely, and more rarely over the years as I love pintos so, but they are certainly similar. My bean question is: Are Swedish brown beans borlottis? They certainly behave like borlottis in the cooking.

Pizza for two. Dough made with about 1/3 whole wheat flour. Topped with sliced grilled summer squash leftover from the other night and a shower of very thinly sliced sweet onion, seasoned, generously drizzled with ex. virg. olive oil, mozz. Nicely crunchified on the blazing-hot pizza stone. Big redleaf salad with more ex. virg. olive oil and Balsamic vinegar.

Thank you so much for the rose pix ... they are so lush and beautiful. That pink stripey one that is your favorite is especially lovely. Colorwise, it would be welcome in my pink rose garden, too. Hmmm. I think there'll be an inordinate number of rustic loaves hiding smoked salmon sandwiches appearing around the world this picnic season. Does the preparation have a name, is it traditional?

A couple of warm-weather bacon staples in my house: BLT sandwich, even better with ripe avocado added. On your sourdough, toasted first -- that would be very good. Another one is Cobb salad, a chopped salad composed of cooked bacon, cold chicken, a blue cheese, tomato, h.b. egg, a crisp lettuce, all reduced to similar-sized pieces and arranged in segments in the salad bowl for viewing before being tossed with vinaigrette. I wonder if the smoked Stilton and the smoked h.b. eggs, together with the bacon, would be too much smokiness, or, alternatively, just enough? Hmmm.

Wow this is wonderful, and inspiring, Jack, as per usual! Wonder if elderflower would grow in intemperate Southern California? And yes to showing roses, please!

I love Maida Heatter, even though baking sweets is not my usual focus, and yesterday I found another of her books: Maida Heatter's New Book of Great Desserts. Heatter's knowledge and enthusiasm are infectious. Plus, it was a savory cracker recipe which leapt out as an obvious to-try, rather than a pesky sweet.

On the burger bun topic, here is an eG discussion that includes a good recipe, the in(ternet)famous Moomie's.

Hee I see Andiesenji and I are on the same wavelength!

At Smart & Final in the Dexter/Russell range, the ones with the white handles, there is a bread knife with a long offset serrated blade, for less than $20. I've used one for years and years and it's still going. Best bread knife ever! Especially for the price.

Last evening, running a little late, everyone was ravenous. A perfect moment to be served excellent double cheeseburgers, as prepared by the man of the house. Meat was chopped steak from the new butcher shop, really good. The usual condiment suspects, including an especially nice big old sweet onion. Trader Joe's aged cheddar potato chips. Icy icy beer -- Gerolsteiner for the under-21 set. Aaah.

One on purpose last week, Mario Batali's new Molto Italiano -- a real pleasure. Already had me hastening to grill some red bell peppers while the coals were burning down the other evening because I already had goat cheese like he said, and I'll be getting the giant cracked Sicilian olives before I want to serve -- it's that kind of book. Meaning, useful! And, has something I consider a personal Love Gift in any cookbook I care to use, a lovely placeholding ribbon, Mario's signature orange in this case. And one by accident, Paul Bocuse in Your Kitchen, an excellent addition.

Chicken legs tikka style, marinated overnight with the spice packet but yogurt added just several hours before grilling. Saag aloo, spinach with potatoes. Raita of yogurt cucumber garlic cilantro salt pepper. Basmati. Would-be naan, pretty good, off the blazing-hot pizza stone, good tenderness but lacking the true tandoor savor and actual black spots, the two not unrelated of course. Excellent fare after a long day of gardening.

I love yakisoba! My favorite Japanese lunch place serves it wildly sizzling on one of those metal platters sitting on its own wood trivet. So good! With a nice garni of pickled red ginger. I have tried to make it at home, using packet mixes, and also using separate ingredients and bottled sauce, but it is never as good. Torakris, or other experienced yakisobaers, could you give a brief rundown of your method? And I second the question of why yakiSOBA.

Wowee. Once again, caught between the rock bowl and the hard liquor, dunno which is more appealing. Don't want to choose, neither!

Both chicken preparations were incredibly delicious looking. Marlene, yours looked especially just-right on the spit. And off, too -- seemed perfectly done. A little champagne makes everything just that much better, too, I find. Sam's two-ways puts one in mind of his signature Thanksgiving turkey treatment.

Oh my the Man of the House has been wanting one of these to accessorize the old Weber for years, in fact wanted it for the old old Weber which predated the present old Weber. I keep saying, why not bend and crimp some sheet metal and use a Faberware rotisserie motor & c.? However this keeps not happening and I think, esp. since our new oven replaced an old oven with a built-in rotisserie, that the proper Weber setup is in our (near) future. Just to have the height-increasing collar would open up new Weber frontiers.

Birthday dinner for the Man of the House, 3"-thick porterhouses as per his request, rubbed with a paste of sage, parsley, mint, rosemary and ex-virg olive oil, cooked standing on their end bones in the oven after outdoor grilling was jettisoned in favor of an extended cocktail hour on the promontory. Icy good Negronis from the sterling silver shaker. So, steak. Frites fried twice in ex-virg olive oil. Homemade aioli. Lovely salad of little red and green Romaine leaves. LBB seedy baguette. Birthday cake was a quatre-quarts type flavored and glazed with the last of the blood oranges from the tree.

I vote for eggs, as Snowangel suggested up there. And not only because they are, (along with soup, which has already been covered), my favorite food, although that selfish interest cannot be denied. Besides, eggs go very well with meat of all sorts. Will be interested to see the two takes on chicken & spring veg!

I saved all the rendered fat and poured it back over the steaks on the platter. It's important, in this style, to cut the steak right on the platter on which you will be serving it (after resting the steak in the same platter). That way all the juices from the steak are in the platter and can be spooned back over the steak. For this reason, I didn't feel like it needed any additional butter. For a grilled steak, though, I like a pat of anchovy butter or herb butter melted over the steak in the platter. For the roasting stage, I stood the steaks up on their end bones (something you can't really do unless it's a very thick steak), put a thermometer probe down into the strip and roasted them to 125 degrees in a 350 degree oven. ← Thanks for the detail! My steaks are a bit more than 3 inches thick and can stand on end, have been in fact as they waited in the fridge since being purchased a couple of days ago. I like the idea of finishing their cooking with the ambient oven heat able to bathe all sides. However I have been informed in this interim that the Birthday Boy fancies lighting the old Weber and having his Negroni while presiding over the burn-down and watching the sun set, so no pan, no oven this time.

Well, that breakfast is quite nearly perfect, ain't it? Yeow. Adam, did you know what to order going in, or observe others, or read a menu, or ??? A non-sweet breakfast while traveling is a wonderful thing, and not always easy to find. That shark there sure does look like his bigger scarier relative!

Sam, Marlene: Dunno which appeals more, the cocktails or the meat. Just lovely. It's nice being a grownup, sometimes. After the photos and descriptions I am fully primed for the Negronis and porterhouse staged for tonight as per the Man of the House's birthday specification. I'll be browning and finishing in the oven, too ... Sam, will you expand on your method for the steak a little, like oven temp and roasting time? Any buttering after it came out? Blog on!

There is also a Marukai 98-Cent store in Fountain Valley.

I wouldn't be without my tabletop butane burner! I use it indoors in cool seasons for shabu shabu and suchlike, and outdoors (often!) in hot weather for all kinds of regular cooking. They are under $20. in Asian markets. The new one bought a few months ago, replacing our original Super Ninja after years of hard use, was I think $14.99 at 99 Ranch -- butane canisters are under $4. for a four-pack. While I lament the passing of the Super Ninja the new Joyful Cook has way increased BTUs and a slightly improved burner design.