Genkinaonna

My husband is surprising me with a lovely dinner out. I haven't decided where we're going yet . He knows better than to try and pick a place himself...smart man!

Hmmm....I wonder if the girls would let me "repurpose" their swimming pool for plants...the wheels are turning... I ate off of a taco truck for lunch today too, we must be on the same wavelength. But no one sang to me! (sniff sniff) Next time I'll take pictures, maybe that will help! I also snack on green beans like that, but my dip is half sour cream and half black olive tapenade. It's one of the few really healthy snacks I enjoy (well maybe not with the sour cream, but at least there is green involved) and it goes over great at parties.

Anything leguminous in a Middle eastern store. I get my red lentils for lentil soup for .89 cents a pound. And they go through a lot so they're pretty fresh, although I think they have a pretty long shelf life anyways. Winco (a local chain with a huge bulk section) has bulk ghirardelli 56% chocolate for $2.99 a pound. It's totally worth braving the sketchy people in the store (affectionately named "Meth Costco" ) once a month to stock up. The problem is I generally buy too much and then I have to figure out where to store it!

Awww...I feel so special I have oranges on my grocery list for today. Happy muffining! Wow it's only 6:30 am and I've already invented a new verb! I can tell it'll be a productive day...

I generally bake my muffins a little hotter, maybe 365 or so...depending on the size of the muffin tin. Definitely don't make the same mistake I ALWAYS do and overfill your muffin tins! But I'm sure you're better about that than I am anyways Can't wait for the pictures. I planned on making that cake this week but time got away from me. Maybe tomorrow, you've got me thinking about it again!

Agh! No fair! Do you preserve any of the bounty or do you mostly eat it as it comes? If you've got stuff growing all year it might be hard to come up with a time to use the preserved stuff. That's what we do in Portland when it rains for 8 mos . By all means, hie thee to Penzeys. I grew up about 20 min from the first one in WI, and they just opened a store down the street from my house here. Their spices are great, and you can get just about anything. They've got great cocoa powder too. Until I started making my own I swore by their vanilla as well. It's funny to see spice blends named after streets I grew up driving on...

Macaroni and cheese. Macaroni. Cheese. Not sausage, cauliflower, truffles, lobster, broccoli, kitchen sink, macaroni, and cheese. Some things just shouldn't be messed with. I'm fine with switching up the cheeses and messing with how they're thickened (I'm waiting for my iota carrageenan and sodium citrate as we speak) but the two primary ingredients are it, macaroni and cheese. If that makes me conservative, I can live with that. And don't get me started on all the crap they shovel onto cheesecake! Maybe I'm just a dairy traditionalist ...

Fake cherry. Like in Ludens cough drops or (hangs head in shame) cheap maraschino cherries...could eat 'em by the jarful, god help me...

Can't wait to see another west coaster blogging...I have serious back yard envy! Do you get fruit all year?

So far I've just tried the San Nen Bancha, steeped at 180 for 3 minutes. I definitely got a roasty aroma, as well as some more green aromas, like cut lawn and (I know it sounds weird) raw pumpkin/squash. After reading Chris' description I think wet fall leaves really fits as well, which is logical, of course, since it was, in fact, wet leaves... The flavor was definitely mild, I couldn't detect any bitterness at all. I'm used to drinking pretty strong black tea, so this was a departure for me and I hope that I'll pick up on more nuances as my palate continues to develop. And I could probably use some better adjectives, clearly . I'm planning on trying the Sanpu Bucha tonight.

Kim- I think it's just the store bought fondant that tastes terrible, the homemade stuff is supposed to taste okay...and those cupcakes are ADORABLE! And that cheesecake is so perfect for Easter. I almost made a coconut covered something as well but opted to go with a less than photogenic chocolate almond cake instead deensibat-If someone breaks into your house tonight and the only things determined to be missing are those macarons, I know nothing about it...I had an alibis for the whole night!

Sounds good to me, Dakki! Has "ooey gooey" been mentioned? That just sounds unsanitary! Definitely not something I'd want associated with my dessert.

Carlton-they sell curing salt (pink salt) at Williams Sonoma. It's in the spice section. Of course, I can never leave that damn store with just what I went in for, so be warned you might spend more than you'd bargained for ...

You can add Under Pressure and Sous Vide for the Home Cook to my list...guess what two pieces of kitchen gadgetry I just bought!

Thanks so much Pam! I learned quite a bit this week from you, since Kosher cooking is far from my range of experience. Take a couple of days off and let someone else cook for you!

JSMeeker-That tart looks great, like its just barely set enough to stay in the shell. I find so many lemon tarts have that unpleasant almost gelatinous quality to them...which can be very off putting! What're the ice cream flavors? GlorifiedRice-What do you use to make avocado shakes? Just avocado and ice cream, or are there any other ingredients or flavors you add?

Brioche can be a little tricky, if it doesn't turn out on the first try, don't get discouraged! Sometimes it just takes trying a different recipe as well. As you bake more and more, you'll develop a feel for what a recipe should look like at each stage of completion, and start to understand what you can do to fix it if something isn't turning out how you'd planned. Good luck and post some pictures when you have your brioche done!

The "jewels" are metallic sugars, silver and gold, and two sizes of pearl dragees. My husband makes fun of me for being sprinkle obsessed, I have to buy some any time we go somewhere that they have any new or interesting colors. But they certainly added something to the treasure chest. I wish I'd taken pics of the birthday boy eating the treasure chest, too funny. His mouth was coated with black food coloring but he ate the entire thing, jewels and all! @Darienne-I've been looking at trying out that recipe! It's getting hard to find blood oranges at a relatively reasonable price now, and I feel like I need to seize my opportunity soon.

Kim- Very cute! On the cake theme, I had two birthday cakes to make for parties today. One I got paid for and one was a "hey can you just make a cake instead of buying a gift" type deal...like my cake isn't worth way more in time and ingredients than a $20 birthday gift! She specifically requested a Barbie and the Three Musketeers Cake, which I personally thought was kind of a lame theme, but there's no accounting for the tastes of 5 year olds. The cake is the Downy Yellow Butter Cake from Cake Bible, which I'm on the fence about. It's super easy to make, and tastes okay, but it's a little to crumbly and delicate for my taste. I think I'll be returning to my go-to recipe from the Caprial's Desserts book next time. The frosting, under the shockingly pink fondant, was chocolate Italian meringue buttercream. The fondant was store bought, and I got the brand I usually do, but I had a lot of trouble with it cracking this time, which was unusual. It necessitated some extra decoration, costing me an hour of sleep. But everyone was happy with the outcome, so it's okay. The other cake was also for a 5 year old, and he wanted a pirate theme. Fun stuff! The bottom tier is chocolate buttermilk cake with chocolate Italian meringue buttercream, and the top was the aforementioned Downy Yellow Butter Cake, with the buttercream recipe from Flour Bakery (from the Oprah website) which was a recipe I'd been wanting to try. It was good, started with a cooked flour and milk base rather than meringue. It seemed like it was a little more heavy than a meringue buttercream. It was easy to make, and would work well when I am doing something egg free. A good recipe to keep in my arsenal. The treasure chest is rice krispy treat, covered in fondant, and the skull and crossbones is gumpaste. The edge of the waves is white chocolate confectionary coating. It was a technique that I found on the Interweb, and I was extremely happy with the result. Next weekend (so far) is blessedly cake free, but I wouldn't put it past one of my friends to spring one on me on short notice!

Cut into planks, slice into large matchsticks, et voila: The perfect swizzle stick for tropical drinks.

Willamette Valley Cheese. Amazing! Best havarti ever, although all of their cheeses are good. I usually get it at Whole Foods or the farmers market, but you can order online, at www.wvcheese.com. The horseradish havarti is great on a roast beef sandwich. Also Black Sheep Creamery makes some fresh sheep's milk cheeses that are great, I know some of their aged cheeses won awards at the ACS conference. I get it at a local grocery store (New Seasons), I'm not sure if you can get it online or not. The sundried tomato and basil fresh cheese on some italian bread drizzled with olive oil is pretty much the best lunch you can rustle up in 5 min or less. I know there are other food groups than the cheese group...I'll have to ponder today, I know there are lots of producers I'm missing.

So if I told you my birthday was coming up, would you send me a box of those macarons? It's not, just checking...

I used my SVS for the first time today to make chicken breasts. The children wouldn't eat them ...but they made a lovely chicken salad sandwich for me. I wanted to shake them and say, "There's two whole threads on this cooking method on Egullet! You should like this!" But I didn't. Tomorrow night they can make their own damn dinner.

Beautiful, ET...is there Frangelico in the gelato as well? That's always a nice support for anything flavored with hazelnuts...

Here's what I ended up sending: Kraft mac and cheese Salsa Taco Seasoning Mix Flour tortillas Refried beans Tortilla Chips A bar of Scharffenberger chocolate Nutrigrain bars (she loves them) Goldfish crackers Chocolate chips Emergen-C packets (gotta fight off those subarctic germs!) Two different kinds of hot sauce Maple syrup (even though I'm not Canadian ) A couple of t-shirts from local food places And the total to ship all said merch? $126.00. She'd better appreciate it! That's a quarter of the way to my copy of Modernist Cuisine Thanks everyone for all your input! If she was on Egullet, I'm sure she'd say thank you too!