chromedome

There's nothing "elaborate" about it. If the squashes are sound I roast them, and if they have soft/moldy spots I cut those out, cut what's left into wedges, peel them, and then cut them into rough dice (about 1cm, but I'm not overly fussy about it). Then I give 'em a minute or so in boiling water before I dip them out with a slotted spoon or a spider and shock them. Once they're well-drained I'll freeze them on a parchment-lined sheet pan, and then transfer them to a freezer bag or vacuum sealer bag for storage (vacuum sealing is best, but sometimes I'm lazy). Delicatas are relatively smaller and thinner, so they'd necessarily make for smaller dice and would probably need less blanching time. I usually cook those or Sweet Dumplings in real time as part of a meal. A favorite of mine is to use them as a container for shirred eggs: Halve and scoop the squash and then cook it until tender, line it with thin-sliced ham of some sort, then crack in your eggs and add a splash of cream and pop 'em back into the oven. For a less time-intensive version, poach the eggs separately and just spoon them into the squash (or simply make a mound of squash on your plate, press a well into it with the back of a spoon, and add the egg). It's the same kind of sweet-and-savory thing you'd get from having a waffle or pancake along with your egg and ham, but skewed more to savory than sweet (because squash is sweet, but not sugary-sweet if you know what I mean). Also, the yolk oozing into the squash makes it very rich, especially if you melt a pat of butter into the squash first as I do.

Harold Hill would be proud of you.

Buttercup is my default winter squash, because it's widely grown in my area. I like it because it (usually) bakes up dry and fluffy, like a baked russet. I can buy a 50-pound bag here directly from the farm gate for $25 or so (I share out a few with the extended family). I generally freeze some as blanched chunks, and keep some whole for a couple of months for cooking fresh. The rest I bake off in one marathon session, scoop from the shells, and bag flat in ziplocs with the air squeezed out. Some smaller bags for use as side dishes, some larger bags which become soups or my "pumpkin" cheesecake at holiday meals (my stepdaughter wants that each time, rather than a pumpkin pie).

In my neck of the woods a popular fast food is the Halifax-style "donair," a localization of doner kebab with a distinctive milk-based sweet-and-garlicky sauce. Its popularity has inspired donair pizza, donair egg rolls and donair perogies, and probably many similar things that I haven't actually noticed on my way through the supermarket. A friend of mine picked up the package of donair egg rolls one day, pulled a disgusted face, and pronounced that this was "just WRONG!" She was very surprised when I told her that egg rolls (and sweet-and-sour chicken balls, and many of her favorites) were bastardized pastiches to begin with, so it was rather akin to being upset over a novel flavor of Cheez Whiz.

I go the opposite direction. I seldom reuse my (off-brand, not Ziploc) zipper-seal bags, but always reuse my sealer bags until they stop holding a seal or become too small to hold anything meaningful. Those things are expensive! I usually cut them rather longer than needed, for the first use, and then cut them open as neatly and as close to the seal as I can manage. After washing and drying they're ready to go again. With the full-sized bags, when they become too short to use conventionally, I'll leave the seal in place on the long edge and open the bag from one of the factory-sealed sides. That way I can use it a few more times as a small bag. It's a silly and probably pointless frugality (I'm sure I waste more elsewhere than I save on sealer bags) but it's what I do.

It's an opinion piece. You've heard the rule of thumb that "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence?" The writer hasn't offered any, but *has* offered up a theory that a high percentage of all foods cooked throughout human history is bad for us. I wouldn't lose any sleep over it. We've only identified acrylimide in food within the last couple of decades, and given its prevalence (per the links in that very article, it's present in 40% of calories consumed in America) it clearly isn't moving the needle very much. I'm sure it's a factor in overall health for some people, and may be contributing to ill-health in a small percentage of the population, but there are much larger concerns out there.

Money quote: https://www.gq.com/story/how-marion-nestle-changed-the-way-we-talk-about-food

There's a recall on several sandwiches sold at Circle K/Couche Tard, for listeria. They're only *known* to have been sold in Quebec (and frankly, I suspect gas-station sandwiches aren't especially a weakness for most of us) but may have been distributed elsewhere. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/food-recall-warning-certain-circle-k-couche-tard-brand-sandwiches-recalled-due?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23&

I can't answer for what JNW gets in New Jersey, but up here the frozen fillets sold at the supermarket almost invariably meet the "half-inch or less" criterion. Life is filled with compromises...

I've done it at restaurants. It works well enough with smaller, thinner pieces of fish (say, half-inch or less). The key is that your deep-frying setup must have enough oil for the temperature to stay up where it belongs as you add the fish. Batter the fish while it's still hard-frozen, so the batter will cling to it like a kid's tongue to a flagpole. Otherwise, as Liuzhou says, it won't adhere. When you put it into the oil, the batter will set fairly quickly into its final shape. It'll cook slightly longer than usual, but with thin pieces that's still not terribly long.

I guess I made out like a bandit. Bought mine (14.5 lbs) right from the farmer's door for $47. Supermarket birds are a bit less, I guess, but really...what kind of meat can you get right now for $3.25/lb? I'm certainly not going to quibble.

My (local free-range) turkey is spatchcocked and dry-brined, and waiting in the refrigerator until tomorrow. The neck, back and wingtips have been roasted for a bit of stock. Apple pie (apples from the tree in our yard) and pumpkin cheesecake w. gingersnap crust (special request) are baked and cooling. Tomorrow I'll do a batch of pan rolls and a dish of stuffing/dressing, a dish of cabbage au gratin (another request), brussels sprouts cooked low and slow with onions in a cast-iron skillet, and round it out with a delicata squash, mashed potatoes (from our garden), a mess o' greens (ditto) and lots of green and yellow beans (also from the garden). Probably some carrots in there somewhere, too (because holiday feasts at my place skew heavily toward "veggiepalooza").

It's a 12-pack for $15. Still not negligible, if you fill your freezer with fish and game, but not nearly as big a pill to swallow.

This one has been expanded and now includes some cheddar as well. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/certain-nature-s-best-brand-and-zavat-chalav-brand-cheese-products-recalled-due?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23&

Nice. Now's the time to stock up on that kind of stuff, I guess, because a lot of it is going for dirt-cheap prices at estate sales (nobody wants granny's china anymore). In another 15-20 years, when tons of it has gone (sadly) to landfill, the pendulum will swing back and the hip young whatever-generation-after-Z kids will be buying it and driving the price back up.

There's a mozzarella recall (small-brand) affecting Ontario and Quebec. https://recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-recall/certain-nature-s-best-brand-and-zavat-chalav-brand-mozzarella-cheese-products-recalled?utm_source=gc-notify&utm_medium=email&utm_content=en&utm_campaign=hc-sc-rsa-22-23&

Their site says they're working on an induction-friendly unit, and bluntly confesses that on conventional electric stoves they're a pot like any other.

That was pretty much my thought. A look into any baseboard heater will tell you that vanes are excellent at emitting heat, so it seems logical enough that they'd do equally well at absorbing heat. Their site claims heavy usage by some big chains, which presumably would have done the testing before committing to a significant purchase.

I tripped across a pot design I was unfamiliar with, while researching an article this morning. I'm not especially interested (it seems they're made for gas, which I don't have) but I'm curious whether anyone here has hands-on experience (separating hype from actuality is always difficult, otherwise). https://turbopot.com/

Though we should all "remove the yoke" occasionally.

I dehydrate a lot of apple rings at this time of the year, and can a lot of applesauce (neither of which require freezer space). There are apple chutneys too, I suppose, and apple butter. I'm sure others have more/better ideas.