Smithy

And that size works for you and your spouse? Or do you cook for a larger crowd?

Is it this pan? If so, it looks like the sort of sturdy pan that could be used for everything. However, I have one of their 6-quart saute pans and rarely use it because it's so big. Depends on how many people one is cooking for. My 3-quart saute pans get a lot more use. As to your final question: every one of my All-Clad pans has been bought from their Factory Seconds sales, and I've never detected a flaw in them. I've been pleased to have them.

Thanks for that recommendation, @blue_dolphin. Some of the dishes you've cooked are from recipes I've bookmarked but not tried yet. I especially love this header in the Table of Contents: 😄

A bargain! I love hummus but would be seriously challenged if I needed to make the tahini first. 🙂

So, here's what I did and how I went about it. I'll note first that I had some vague idea of following this recipe from Heartbeet Kitchen: Marinated Gigante Beans. Someday, maybe I'll try following her recipe. Today wasn't it. But I'll still give her credit for the inspiration! You'll have to look at the recipe to see what she actually calls for. I started with mushrooms, a shallot and garlic still surviving (really) from home, a can each of beans and tomatoes, the aforementioned Juusto cheese-now-become-croutons, ...some broccoli about to expire in the refrigerator, the Very Last of a bag of frozen corn from last year, before my darling died; dried oregano, and a cube of pesto from last summer or fall when I was busy saving basil at home. The rest of the steps, that I haven't already shown: Oh, there was also red wine. In the skillet, and now in me. The final result, with shredded Parmesan as a topper: Not bad at all. I doubt I'll ever try to reproduce it, especially with the dratted sweet corn, but I'll be able to feast on it for a few days. And I've finished the frozen corn (which would never have gone without my assistance, one way or the other) and the broccoli, which was on its way out unassisted.

Thanks for that! As it happens, I did something with it before I checked back in and found your post. As you can see from this photo, Option 4 was the way to go....this time, anyway. 🙂 Stuff was like nice, crispy croutons! I'll show what I did with it in my next post.

And another confession, this one an "oops". This delightful Finnish cheese has been hanging around in the refrigerator since a dinner party before I left home. As you can see from the instructions, it's intended to be eaten warm. It can be heated in the oven (my preferred method) or microwave. I think I've even had it grilled. Once it's warm, it gets gooey although not as spreadable as a soft cheese like, say, Brie. It's salty and savory, not a stinky cheese. I like it. I decided to finish it today for lunch, with crackers. So I microwaved it. The first time, it wasn't soft enough so I microwaved it longer. It began to bubble. See? Well. I can't even cut it with a sharp knife! It's taken on the toughness of a Parmesan rind! I tried chewing it, to no avail. Good flavors come off it, but it isn't edible any more. I suspect it's more because of overcooking than because of age. As I said: oops! I'll try cutting it and putting it in a bean or other skillet dish, to see if I can coax the last bit of umami out of it the way one does with Parmesan rinds. I may need my meat cleaver to do it.

I have a confession to make. This glass of pomegranate juice was squeezed from the pomegranates I bought last fall. Still good, probably not as juicy as when I first bought them!

The showmanship of those places is marvelous! I assume the food is every bit as good. Thanks so much for the photos and descriptions!

It looks delicious! I had to look up "farfel" to learn its culinary definition*. Are you using the pasta, or matzoh farfel? *as opposed to the dog's name in the old Nestle's Quik commercials

I thoroughly enjoyed that discussion (maybe there's more to come?) about tunas and the varying meanings of the term! Thanks, folks! That sort of discussion really helps liven this foodblog and adds interesting information. Especially on days like today. It's almost 8 pm, the sun has been set for nearly an hour, and it's still 94F outside. I broke down and turned on the air conditioning at 5 pm, after a day away from the trailer. I'd left windows open and fans on, but my thermometers said it was 105F outside and 99F inside. A/C it was. The upshot is that my dinner plans fell apart. At lunch I'd had more of that endless salad I've prepared. It's endless, or perhaps more properly what restaurants would call "bottomless", because I get the level of chopped lettuce and vegetables down in the container, then augment it with more lettuce, tomatoes, chopped celery, croutons, and so on. After I'd had 2 bowlsful like this the container was still more full than when I'd started! That was at noon, before it got so flaming hot. When I got home, turned on the A/C, and unpacked groceries (more greens, kefir, half-and-half, coffee, kitchen sponges and pet supplies) I decided I was peckish. That potato salad I made yesterday hit the spot. What's strange is that when I'd gotten home I'd had the aroma of fast food in my memory thanks to the shopping center, and I'd decided to cook a Superburger. Nope. No Way. Not In This Heat. Not That Hungry. The potato salad was plenty. And water. Lots of water. I'll probably have a glass or two of wine and call it a night. Gratuitous photo of sand tracery from this morning's walk, when it was only 78F.

Potato salad for dinner. It took care of the red potatoes that have been sitting out on the counter; most of the parsley and green onions sitting around in the refrigerator; capers (I'm so glad I found that jar amongst my pantry supplies); lemon juice; vinegar; olive oil; and a bit of mayonnaise but not enough to make it gloppy. I was at least in my 30's, maybe my 40's, before I discovered that potato salad doesn't have to be sweet. For that matter, it doesn't have to be gloppy although the glop doesn't bother me as much as Miracle Whip or sweet pickles. These particular potatoes aren't holding their shape well, but the overall flavor suits me. And now I've used a bunch of ingredients before they could go off, and I'll have something easy to reach for when I'm feeling peckish. The little bowl of chicken salad I showed earlier today is already gone.

Last's night's dinner was some of the planned-over panade, and a couple of bites of steak before I gave it to PJ. 🙂 I'm not sure what my dinner plans will be. A few days ago I bought another rotisserie chicken and, after eating a bit of it, pulled the meat from the bones and put it all into a container. The plan was to make the Peruvian chicken stew (Aji de Gallina) that I've been rabbitting on about, now that I finally have all the ingredients. Well. It's hot outside. Really hot. 98F, and don't bother telling me that it's okay because "it's a dry heat". Although I have air conditioning in the trailer, I'm still disinclined to make a nice hot stew. So just now I chopped some of the chicken meat up with chopped parsley, capers, lemon juice and mayo. It made a nice chicken salad. Even better atop Triscuits. This may be dinner as well, along with some good lettuce salad or some of the broccoli hanging out in the crisper drawer. Seen on this morning's walk: Back in the day, only a few years ago, I was interested in harvesting prickly pear tunas and making prickly pear syrup from them. I'm pretty sure I still have some of the commercially prepared stuff from that time. When I noticed a cactus along my walk that had the fruits, I briefly considered asking the owner whether I could harvest some. Then I decided not to bother. Now look at it. Starting its new blooms; nobody ever collected the tunas. No, I'm not sorry that I didn't bother. I'm sorry to see them wasted, though.

This caught my eye at the end: My procedure, in my current living situation with a French press, is to pour enough water into the press to wet all the grounds, give it all a stir to make sure the grounds are wetted (sound familiar?) then pour the rest of the water over the spoon so it's rinsed. Voila, no dirty cutlery. 🙂 I suppose that wouldn't work in a commercial kitchen.

@rotuts, I've seen those adverts but I'm still mystified. Can you clarify the size of those totes? Roughly? The ad copy makes them sound too small for shopping and too bulky for, say, produce storage. But maybe I'm misreading.