Susan in FL

Oh, good! I can join in this time because I meet the qualifications to do this one. I am stretching that a bit. I made it a few times back in my previous life (first marriage), but it's been years and years, so I'll call that rarely. My then-mother-in-law bought me a cast-iron skillet and taught me how to make fried chicken in it immediatly after I married her son. She used bacon grease -- I sometimes did, and sometimes used peanut oil, and sometimes both -- and flour with "special seasonings." No offense or any negativity taken here! Russ pan-fries his chicken thighs that way. I love them. I could eat them every week and request them often.

We started with a vodka and tonic last night, and then had dinner at sunset of grilled hamburgers and hotdogs, salad, and for dessert gingered mango and blueberries.

April 15th? Oh my. And ouch... At a little before midnight on that date, I will be at the Post Office partaking of cookies and punch, and listening to music to mail by. This has been a great blog. Once again, I've been busy and haven't been able to take the proper time to read it, but I sure have enjoyed looking at the pictures. Beautiful! Thank you both very much for your devotion to this thread. I will go back and read it more carefully at a later time.

Both meals sound way good... That's my kind of food. If I can talk my husband into baking it, I'll ask you for your ciabatta recipe! We have been so busy this week, I can't remember most of the meals. Russ cooked last night: "his" chicken thighs by my request, great big potatoes rubbed with peanut oil and coarse salt and oven baked, and Brussels sprouts. Tonight I made a first course of carpaccio (his request), and then an olive and tomato salsa (also his request) to go with the skewered shrimp and vegetables that he grilled. Wine tonight was a Cline Zinfandel. No photos last night, and tonight the picture of the main course was too terrible to show. The carpaccio was presentable. Still to come, once again, beautiful Plant City Strawberries, with balsamic vinegar and pine nuts over vanilla ice cream.

Mmmmm... that looks good Suzy! I made that dish one year on Beaujolais Nouveau release weekend in November, to go with the Nouveau. We loved it. Yours looks wonderful!

A quick good morning to everyone before I leave for work... Thanks for the info, Susan. About thinner, I meant that the plum sauce at that restaurant is thinner than the "Thai style" plum sauce I made. Maybe it's a farang thing, LOL! Good suggestion about asking them how it's made or buying some. Have a great day and weekend, all.

I'm loving these flowers too, Susan. This year our winter garden has been much more successful than summer gardens. We are enjoying homegrown little pear shaped yellow tomatoes now! Hopefully we will have some red ones soon. Interesting about the juiciness thing. I imagine I enjoy more "juice" than you were accustomed to in Thailand, but I also do not want to compromise the flavors. It's the flavors of Thai food that have hooked me. What does "a farang thing" mean? I made the spring rolls aka summer rolls aka roll-ups aka salad rolls, etc. etc. etc. tonight for an appetizer. Mostly I followed the True Thai recipe, but I improvised a bit also. The rice paper wrappers... dipping those buggers in the hot water and doing the wrapping can be tricky! I was just beginning to get on to it, when I finished this batch. I made plum sauce last night, but I like the plum sauce my favorite Thai restaurant serves with theirs better. The recipe I made was called Thai style, and I think that what the restaurant serves is Vietnamese style (thinner). As always, comments and advice welcome.

Thanks for that tip. I'm making it a point to slice it that way next time. Cauliflower just moved up to the top of my shopping list. ← Had it tonight, and did it this way... very good, but not the best roasted cauliflower I've made. My mistake was hurrying it along a bit, because the rest of dinner was done. I used two pans, so it would be single layers and gave it about 35 minutes at 400 degrees. It would have been perfect at about 40 or 45 minutes, I think. The jury is still out for us to flip or not to flip. Tonight I did not flip. What say you?

Bill, I like your modifications on the Chicken with Basil. Often I find I want dishes from HSSS more liquidy than the recipes are written. I like ground meat in a lot of them, as well. Looks good!

Looks like a few of us have been hit by the Thai bug recently, looks good! Susan, congrats on the rice noodles. Ain't it the truth? But I enjoy it. However, tonight I underestimated the work that soup, spring rolls, and this duck dish would be and so instead of stressing, I just skipped the spring rolls. I'll do them tomorrow night or Friday night, hopefully.I continued my research for Thai cooking at home when I was in Tampa last week and had dinner at a place called Jasmine Thai. Their spring rolls were fried, and I was hoping for not-fried, but they were really good anyway. The larb was a disappointment; mine is much better! The highlight was the Tom Yum soup. I can't remember the rest of the Thai words, but it had a few different seafoods in it. It was one of the best soups I've ever eaten. Tonight's dinner: Clear-Broth Soup with Ground Pork ["meatballs"], Garlic, and Spinach Crispy Kaffir Lime Duck on Noodles

Duck breats again, only this time Thai style... "Crispy Kaffir Duck" on rice noodles with broccolini, and a curried broth followed an appetizer of Clear-Broth Soup with Ground Pork, Garlic, and Spinach.

Thanks for that tip. I'm making it a point to slice it that way next time. Cauliflower just moved up to the top of my shopping list.

Anita, thanks for posting and sharing the link to Ofoto. Nice! It looks like a lot of good eats and fun was had by all, as well as the great experience in Thai cooking and tasting like you and Wendy described.

That reminds me of the most delicious thing -- or one of the most delicious things -- I ate Saturday... lemon souffle pancakes with raspberries, raspberry sauce, and pine nuts, at Pelagia Trattoria in Tampa.

Fried Egg Topped with Blanched Asparagus and Gratings of Parm-Reg Duck Breast and Pasta with Sweet Corn, and Red Wine Reduction Sauce

Soft-boiled eggs and toast is a breakfast I love, too Chufi. I'll have to remember to add some cheese to that.

We decided to go out in style today, before I cut back my caloric intake and kick it up a notch on my workouts starting tomorrow morning.... Eggs, potatoes cooked in goose fat, left-over steak, French toast for "dessert", and Dogfish Head Chicory Stout.

Your blog was awesome! ...Just wanted to add my thanks, since I haven't been commenting while following it. I have thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you!

I am back from Tampa (with some pounds to lose, but I sure did enjoy what it took to gain them), and everyone's dinners from the posts I missed sound and look great. Pete, I've done a take on that recipe of Mario's much like yours. It's very good. We used to eat lots of squid and I found it searching for recipes using squid. That looks good! And it looks lean enough for my menus while I'm taking off the afforementioned extra pounds. I printed that out and hope we make it soon. That's so pretty! And, I love your plates... I covet your plates! Yesterday we had a big breakfast, and then lunch with plenty of beers at a brewpub, so we didn't have our usual appetites for dinner. I made us a salad of mixed greens and pears with three blue cheeses I bought on the way home from Tampa. The cheeses were Roaring Forties, Maytag, and Bleu d'Auvergne, it had some slices of smoked sausage on the side, and we drank a glass of Port with it.

The salad looks refreshing. It seems like it would be a good way to use leftover asparagus. Is that parsley I see in it...or cilantro, perhaps? Is there any other green involved? And how was the dressing? Sweet overtones or savory? The minute I hear "soy dressing" I think of ginger as a natural partner. ← It would be a good way to use leftover asparagus. The herbs were cilantro and mint, and those were the only other green, besides the asparagus and cucumber. Sweet and savory flavors... there was sugar, fish sauce, and sugar along with the soy sauce. If this had not been a test recipe, I probably would have added ginger and probably will next time.

Even though I don't use cream in Carbonara and this has been hashed and rehashed here, I still wanted to thank Gastro888 for the great photos and post on how he/she made this "dish."

Bill, it looks good, and I love those dipping bowls! ..."Double Dipping" bowls! Is there an official difference between spring and summer rolls?

Same here. Tonight we started with edamame. Then we had a Leite's Culinaria test recipe, Snapper Fillet with Asparagus Salad and Soy Dressing, by Bill Granger from Bill's Open Kitchen. Here's the salad waiting to be topped with the fish and dressing. The stringy things are "shavings" of cucumber. For plating I served (store-bought) spring rolls with it, and garnished it with scallions and starfruit.

Wonderful post, Gastro888. The end result looks luscious. My kind of food porn! Thanks for the step-by-step.

LOL!We had a real breakfast Sunday morning. We were staying with Russ's sister Judy who lives in Palm Bay, the Melbourne (FL) area. She served grapefruit that she went out and picked from her backyard, and then seeded and cut up; a nice homemade coffee cake called Cowboy Coffee Cake which they used to eat as kids; scrambled eggs; and "country ham" which was awesome. I forgot to take a picture when she served the ham and eggs, but here's the table she set for the meal. Palm Bay is about an hour and a half south of here, so it was a little warmer than our area. It was a nice morning, but then we left and a terrible tornado hit her town. We are still waiting to hear from her.