Smithy

Those both look gorgeous and delicious. Thank you for the warning that the strawberry "artisanal" arrangement only appeals to you every three years or so. I might have gotten round to trying it otherwise, then turning them blue with my bad words.

I could have bought 40 pounds for $9 instead of 20 pounds for $5. I was mightily tempted. I *think* I made the right decision, given our lack of temporal and physical space, but I still wish I'd had time/space for more.

That looks like a nice venue, with a comfortable meal to match. Thanks for sharing, @huiray.

Well, since you and I are in about the same midlands non-boat, what size package (approximately) of mussels are you using for the proportions you posted above? I see them occasionally in our Duluth stores. I think they're usually sold in lots of, er, a pint? (I've never bought them.)

@Mmmpomps, thank you very much for that recipe and inspiration. Now, I want to ask - how the heck are you getting fresh mussels in Calgary?? Do you have some magic connection to an ocean, or a very good grocer?

We visited the Savage, MN Farmers' Market today on the way home from a family visit. I have been trying - and to some degree succeeding - in not overbuying food. Today, the dam burst. I want to make marinated eggplant. I want to do some stir fries with smaller eggplant. The onions and chiles and garlic were beautiful. Beets! I also treated myself to a lavish and luxuriant flower bouquet. On the way home, we stopped at a roadside stand. Freshly-dug russet potatoes: a 20-pound bag for $5. Fresh potatoes are amazing! The local corn is coming in, too. And the Colorado peaches are in! Now, I have to live up to my ambition.

A little more about that tortilla, please. I was thinking along those lines with my latest, wildly unrealistic (because of time constraints) haul from a couple of farmers' markets today. Slice the potatoes thinly, of course. Remind me, please: do they need to be softened, say, in the microwave before layering? I'm planning to add chorizo (Mexican) to the layer. Bake the whole shebang at, what, 375F? I'm not trying to take a turn here but I like the idea of stealing an idea or two. :-)

Well, that was an excellent guess, aided by a good memory! Yes, it's ElsieD and yes, she's going to Newfoundland. No need to keep the guessing game going at this point, but I'll dole out the teaser photos to keep y'all interested for the next few days. Here is the next image I'd planned to use (when I got back to the computer), thinking it might help people decide between Scandanavia (since it wasn't Iceland) and Newfoundland. I think she sent me 4 more photos. Stay tuned.

Dingdingding! One of these is right. Good job on the alternate name for cloudberries, FauxPas. Nobody has guessed the blogger yet. Now, I have an apology to make: due to social obligations I may not be able to check in often for the next 24 hours or so. If I don't respond to a guess, it won't be because I'm being coy. I didn't think the schedule through carefully enough before I began this fanfare. Sorry! I'll check in when I can. Here's the next teaser.

Not @BonVivant. In all fairness I should note that @chefmd correctly identified the plant but not the venue. I'll post another teaser in an hour or so.

Nope. ...and, to @Thanks for the Crepes's question: not @sartoric, either.

Y'all have to tell me whether you want me to (a) tell you when someone's getting warm or (b) keep my fingers away from the keyboard. If someone nails the location or poster, I'll confirm it, but that leaves the question of 'warm but not there' open. Either way, more photos will be doled out as the time gets closer.

Woot woot! An intrepid member has offered to take us on a 10-day trip, beginning Aug. 25. This foodblog will be slightly out of the ordinary: not only is it slightly longer than usual, but it will showcase the food and scenery of a beloved area that is not the member's home turf... ...in other words, the teaser photos will be clues to the location, but not necessarily to the member. Hehehe. Y'all will be doing double guessing. I took a lesson from the last time around, too: to the best of our knowledge, none of the teaser photos has been posted before. Here's a photo from an earlier visit: Let the guessing begin!

You did indeed post it on the Instant Pot topic; I thought at the time it looked good. Now that you've reminded me I think I'll have to go find a pork roast and try it!

I like the sound of those popsicles very much, @blue_dolphin. Looking at the recipe, I think the roasting treatment and addition of bourbon to my standard peach ice cream might work very well. It will be a few days before I can get to something like this. In the meantime: can anyone (not just blue_dolphin) think of a reason that roasting peaches and adding a touch of bourbon to this ice cream recipe would not work? It would depress the freezing point slightly, but I don't know that that's necessarily bad. Along different lines: I think a bourbon/roasted peach sauce over, say, roast pork? would be excellent. Any ideas on that one? What other meats would take well to a stone fruit sauce? Roast chicken and apricots can be mighty fine.

Thanks for that rice information, rotuts. I tried the rice cooker function last week for the first time: jasmine rice, using the standard program; mixed in with other sauteed ingredients (shrimp, garlic, I forget what else) for a 1-pot meal. It seemed the rice was a bit gummy until I fluffed and mixed it with the rest of the ingredients. Overall it was pretty good, but I can tell that guidelines for rice cooking times will be helpful.

I love fetteh. My favorite version, in Egypt, involves chicken but is otherwise similar. Iit seems a great way to use stale pita and a lot of healthful ingredients. It's nice to see another version, in another land.

I spotted the white version on Amazon. I've never seen it in our local stores. The blade is not quite 1-3/8" wide. The long edge, which juts out 7/8" from the spine, is 3-1/2" long and has a rounded corner to accommodate interiors such as those of mayonnaise jars. The shorter edge is only 1/2" from the center and 2-3/4" long. It has a much sharper corner, more suited to smaller jars with sharper interior corners. I'll post a photo or sketch if this description doesn't make sense.

Rubbermaid makes containers designed for those bag sizes. I like them because they're rectangular and store well in cabinets, and are easier to find in stores than Cambro. One disadvantage to the long and narrow footprint is that scooping out of it without making a mess takes practice. I think the 16-cup Modular Storage Container is the size you need. The store label says, but this image doesn't. Edit: Sorry, I just reread your question. I transfer the contents from the bag into the container. I don't think these are bag-shaped enough. My bad.

Here is a less expensive version of the same thing, that I think has a better shape: iSi Basics Skinny Silicone Spatula I posted about it last fall. It's my go-to spatula for batters, jars, mixing bread ingredients. I found it in one of our local kitchen stores - and later went back for more of the same - but the link goes to Amazon's offering.

I don't understand the purpose of the strainer. Why you would want to make the mayonnaise "more fluid"? Do you mean you'd want to make it smoother? If so, I'd recommend straining the jalapeno puree before blending it with anything. gfweb raises a good point about how hot it might become, too. By the way: welcome to eGullet!

Welcome! It looks like you've already jumped into the discussions, and that's a great way to meet other members. I have to ask: what, in this context, is Dynamite? I associate dynamite with explosions in mining and demolition. I do hope you don't mean it to have, er, explosive results in the culinary sense.

Today's "Luann" comic strip made me giggle: http://www.gocomics.com/luann/

Thanks for that blog post and link. This part especially made me smile:

They really look delicious. The flakiness of the bases made me think you'd cut the dough with something circular, the way one might cut biscuit dough. I didn't know they'd actually been baked in the rings. Thank you for that information.