FrogPrincesse

I also love apricots. Cooking them intensifies their flavor so it makes even mediocre apricots taste good. I made these individual galettes last weekend. The apricots were a bit tart (I added only a minimal amount of sugar) but I didn't mind.

I have had Bulgarian feta and agree that there are good ones. I honestly never had a truly awful feta when it was sheep or goat milk. All the terrible (dry, overly salty, tasteless) fetas have been cow milk based and therefore not authentic feta. I have a few middle Eastern stores nearby. Last time I shopped there was to get goat to make birria. When I go back, I will make sure to check out the feta offerings for you.

The parsley crackers aren't awful but they aren't great either. They taste mostly of garlic, with a hint of dried parsley (which doesn't have much flavor to begin with). Here they are with the parmigiano reggiano stravecchio (which is a favorite). Lately, the cracker offerings at TJ's haven't been that great, I used to love their beet crackers (which also happened to be gluten-free) but they disappeared from the shelves a while back.

I prefer the Greek feta (in the white tub), it has a lot more flavor than the Israeli. It's also cheaper as you pointed out. About "cow feta" - in Europe, feta cannot be called feta unless it's made from sheep or goat milk. Cow feta lacks the distinctive flavor of feta.

They take a few weeks to ripen once the fruit has reached its full size (like the one in the picture). This variety turns purple when ripe. At that point, they can be harvested but they will continue to ripen and get a bit wrinkly as they do. That’s when they taste the best, with the skin still supple but no longer smooth. It’s not hard to grow them here once they are established. I was warned by someone at the nursery that it will take over my yard but we are not quite there yet.

I also have this on a fence. It took many attempts but seems well established now after a few years. As of this morning, there are more than a dozen passionfruit on the vine.

Correct, I have some nasturtiums in there too. I will probably move a couple of them to the backyard where they will have more space to spread out! I do not know the variety of cherry tomatoes. This was from Walter Anderson, a local nursery, and it was the only one they had (although they had dozens of varieties of regular and heirloom tomatoes). It’s my first time ever growing tomatoes so you can imagine how excited I am! I looked for snap peas when I was there but they didn’t have any. Probably a good thing as my space is very limited! i just harvested some chard, parsley, and sorrel for my lunch. It’s so nice to have all these fresh greens available.

I got a raised planter which I am having fun with. I started in February with various herbs, plus arugula and chard. I made a few small salads and sandwiches with the arugula (it was fun to harvest it for my lunches). The chard produced more leaves over the weeks but has not grown taller for some reason (I suspect overly compacted soil). Here it was shortly after planting everything in February: The arugula is gone now (I got rid of it after it bolted and stopped producing new leaves). I planted a cherry tomato with a variety of basil last weekend, together with more herbs (an assortment of basil varieties, summer savory, more parsley). The cilantro from February bolted and I planted its seeds; fingers crossed that I will get a second generation. It's been fun and gives me an occasion to spend more time outside enjoying nature and listening to the birds. It's usually the first thing I do in the morning and it brings me a lot of joy!

Oyster shell infused gin and vermouth is a thing, and it’s actually very nice.

I use the plastic bowl of my oxo salad spinner on top of a cake plate. It is not the most elegant, but at least it doesn't take up additional space in my kitchen.

@Pete FredI am very jealous of your abundance of cherries. Cherries are somewhat of an exotic fruit in southern California where I live. I have seen them at the store, but at $15/lb decided to pass. I made a strawberry-rhubarb biscuit cobbler recently (this was for a cookbook club event where we were cooking from Carla Lalli Music's That Sounds So Good). I love rhubarb and strawberry so I enjoyed this dessert. The biscuit dough used hard boiled yolks which is supposed to prevent gluten formation. It was my first time making or eating biscuits, so I am not sure what the texture is supposed to be like. They were soft and moist, but I think I prefer the texture of a crumble because it provides more contrast with the soft fruit.

I bought my Anova for the specific purpose of making duck confit. I use 77C for 12 hours (after a 24 hour cure in salt etc) based on a recommendation from the app (recipe). I have made it countless times and have been very happy with the results.

We have a Kura revolving sushi in San Diego (Convoy) and I like it too, it’s fun place and the quality is pretty good for the price.

You could make citrus curd with the juice. Or you make cocktails.

Thanks for starting this thread, @Duvel, and great to see you back on eGullet! It was just my husband and me this year. We started with a simple little gems - heirloom tomato salad, and homemade confit garlic and sun-dried tomato focaccia. For the main course, I made a classic mustard-crusted and garlic-studded rack of lamb and Kenji’s best crispy roast potatoes (which disintegrated a bit, but were very tasty). I just love a good rack of lamb and this was perfect!