BeeZee

Avocado toast made on Dave's Killer Bread, with furikake.

The molasses is simple, around 1/2 cup sugar mixed into 4 cups juice, plus 2 tbs lemon juice, simmer until reduced to a syrupy consistency, it will be around 1 cup when it’s done. I scale down for much smaller batches, since I didn’t have that much juice or a great antique juicer!

When life gives you pomegranate juice, make pomegranate molasses!

That question of packaging was actually one of the reasons I wanted to take a look in person. I didn't rummage through the piles since I wasn't intending to buy anything, but looking at the packages of fish superficially, they seemed reasonably consistent. I will take a closer look when I'm actually going to be buying some.

I finally got around to visiting the retail location near my office. A strange in person shopping experience, everything in plastic (cryovac) bags (or boxes, in some cases), a visually sterile environment. I realized how much merchandising/visual appeal factors in to the desire to shop. I did satisfy my curiosity and everything looked to be in good condition, plus there were items that I definitely can't get at my usual supermarkets.

We had some hiccups in our area surrounding the relatively minor snow events last week, I suspect it was due to shipments of produce which were delayed from California. Some dry goods were out of stock, but that happens sometimes when the market has a "hot sale" on something so it could be supply chain issues or under stock/over sold! There was one stretch where we had zero availability of grape/cherry tomatoes for around a week.

@liuzhou, what is meant by “explaining money”? The other aspects of the celebration sound pretty terrific and a joyous way to come together.

I think “spicy” is preferable. In my household, we have a little joke about soup being “thermally hot” but the genesis of that was someone’s confusion of “hot vs spicy”.

Vegan curry with yams, red lentils, chickpeas, and baby spinach added at the end to wilt. Served with brown rice.

I like our local supermarket’s house brand mushroom and cheese veggie burger/patty (frozen, 4 pack, on sale for $3.49 today) but I prefer to differentiate these products (personally) since I don’t eat them as a meat burger sub. Like @rotuts, I will eat turkey burgers for the burger on a bun experience.

This quote says it all: "Why try to squeeze another 20 per cent profit out of something you're going to dispose of?" Our local supermarket has a refrigerated case near check out where they put "short date" prepared foods and sometimes things like fresh pasta (not to mention "sushi" which seems like Russian Roulette, hard pass on that). There are some legit buys in that case, not to mention the "day old" bakery stuff and "use or freeze by tomorrow" fresh meats in the butcher area.

You can also find recipes for "farrotto" which is farro cooked like a risotto. I'm a fan of the grain for it's chew, it works for room temp salads or hot as a side dish, reheats well, and as @Katie Meadow says, great to add to soup because it doesn't turn to mush.

Whole wheat pita warmed/lightly toasted with hummous and baba ganoush

Regarding exploding butter...don't discount the possibility that it was exacerbated by the issues being reported of diminished butter quality in some brands (more water). I also cut the butter into chunks before melting, and do the melting in short bursts of full power with stirring between. Only once did I superheat water in the microwave, in a Pyrex measuring cup, thankfully it was just water and I realized what happened so I avoided getting burned.

Oh, yes, I knew exactly what it was when I heard it, I was in an adjacent room. Definitely not bad to clean up compared to other things, and my microwave is now “spotless”🤣.

I will never again cook a spaghetti squash, whole, in the microwave (yes, I poked many holes into it on all sides)

The best way to cook swordfish is outdoors on the grill, it is very firm and meaty - like tuna. Not oily like salmon. I cut out the dark red/brown flesh after cooking, it is strongly flavored. You could also try Sicilian braised swordfish, which cooks in tomato sauce and is a nice way to cook indoors.

My sister, who had what seemed like a non-stop supply of Sicilian pannetone flowing through her home, said it keeps just fine for 2 weeks if well-wrapped.

Supermarket had some large globe artichokes on sale 3/$5 so I grabbed some, with full knowledge that they aren’t in season and would not be great, but they were pretty tight and heavy. Decided to roast them, covered, since I assumed they needed some extra flavor. The hearts were great, the stems too stringy to eat, but its a lot of time to prep for the ROI! We had thin cut chicken breasts cooked in a grill pan, and slices of white-flesh sweet potato roasted in the oven, also.

Delicata squash soup, added some crumbled feta on top.

OMG, I don’t know what some of those tools are, but it’s fascinating and tempting!

Another batch of squash soup. Peeled and roasted 2 delicata squash and 1 white-fleshed sweet potato. Sauteed diced red onion and garlic, peeled/chopped Granny Smith apple, added a carton of stock, seasonings, handful of raw cashews. Simmered a bit, added the roasted veg and juice from half an orange, simmered more until everything was soft and then blended it up. Very good, the orange juice is subtle in the background.

Thanks for posting the recipe, I'm going to make these for sure. My husband needs to watch what types of carbs he eats (oat fiber is very good for you), and these would be a good type of alternate cracker for him.

Have had olives stuffed with garlic, which pickles the cloves, and they are delicious! Nice to have along with cheese and crackers.

Persimmons range in cost around here from 79 cents (TJ’s) to $2 each (supermarket ripoff). When I was at the Asian market the other day, they had flats of them on sale for $10, which is a pretty good deal…I’m tempted.