BeeZee

I had a hunch. Although the squirrels don't normally come onto the deck, I'll take preventive measures! When we moved into my childhood home, we were so excited to find that it had a peach tree. Until we realized that the (one) good peach it produced would get sampled by "something" as soon as it started to ripen. I'd like to keep my meagre harvest intact.

I'll make this the absurdly silly gardening question. I don't have a garden, I don't have time to keep a garden...but I'd like to get some container cherry tomato plants and keep them on my deck (southern exposure, lots of sunlight). Do birds or garden rodents (we have rabbits, squirrels, groundhogs, chipmunks) eat cherry tomatoes? I have some 2x4's in the basement and could buy screen/netting to make some kind of covers...

I can’t recall which store had this, but one of the scales/scanners had a camera (likely similar to the one Chromedome mentioned) that vaguely recognized produce, so if you put some apples on the scale, it prompts you with various apple options for the produce code…so that theoretically if you punched in code 4011 for bananas (less than 50 cents per lb.) rather than some kind of apple (more expensive), it might “flag”? I never tested it.

well...some don't like them "that much" but a little bit is good for umami!

Anchovies, oil packed. I took them out of the tin and put them/the oil in a clean glass jar and covered with more oil. Currently keeping in fridge. Are they more or less good forever (or at least 6 months) in this state? The oil has solidified.

My instinct says maybe the oil (and other ingredients) degrade with repeated re-frying and maybe it won't taste as good?

Do you think you could freeze it as a flattened mass, thin enough to break off pieces? You could make a bunch of smaller chunks and re-bag them, or leave that flattened pack and break off as desired?

Same here, no baking recently, thanks for the reminder…I should get to these while its still cool out.

Bruce, do you have a link to that mole recipe, it looks great

Seems like the mushroom liquid that comes out during microwaving might be good for saving for soup?

Had a meeting the next town over and finally was able to stop in a place serving Thai style chicken and rice which opened a couple of months ago (www.gainyc.com - it's a franchise location). It's quick serve, order from kiosk and mostly take out. I ate mine at one of the tables. Ordered the steamed white meat bowl ($12.95) which had a nice portion of steamed chicken over ginger rice with ginger chili sauce on the side (a little sweet, very more-ish) and some clear broth which had a definite kick. I felt like it was a pretty darn healthy lunch. They do, of course, offer other options from the less-healthy side (fried chicken, fries, wings...). I'd get the steamed chicken again.

I have enjoyed chocolate pudding made from avocado as a dairy-free option.

I didn’t bake this, but enjoyed it at a little French bakery in Sarasota, FL. The lemon merengue tart was outstanding for it’s tart lemon filling (not overly sweet) and the merengue was closer to marshmallow texture.

I wound up making guava jam with some white guavas that were suboptimal. It is delicious, I added a little lime juice and 1/8 tsp vanilla paste to the strained fruit (which I had simmered with lime peel). The texture is a little grainy, similar to apple butter.

Some leftover steamed asparagus, dotted with a little mustard, melted cheese in toasted Dave’s Killer Bread.

Thanks, my original plan to make jam is probably the way I'm going to deal with them. Seems like hard seeds are a characteristic of this variety.

I just received Ripert's "Seafood Simple" as a birthday gift, looking forward to reading it. Although I will undoubtedly gnash my teeth at the prospect of sourcing fresh seafood good enough to take advantage of his recipes!

Bought a package of guavas today, they are yellowish with cream color flesh. I tried one which looked sort of ripe, maybe it wasn’t quite there, but the seeds are really unpleasant. It was like chewing BB’s, they were really hard. Do the seeds get any softer if the fruit is more ripe? I like the flavor, but no way I am eating those seeds, I will cook them and use a fine strainer to separate the flesh as fall back.

@Pete Fred I wanted to take a moment to thank you for posting the types of baked goods that you often do - the deceptively simple looking ones, no piped frosting, no glitter, but full of flavors. The flavors and textures you describe are my very favorite, I always gravitate to these types of cakes.

Casserole pre-bake…spaghetti squash with a topping of sauteed mushrooms/onion, tomatoes, and diced, roasted eggplant. Grated parm. Will be having it with panko-crusted chicken breast strips.

We went out for our celebratory dinner on Saturday, I have a long day of work on Wednesday. Perhaps take-out pizza and chocolate!

Some leftovers from dinner - roasted broccoli, quinoa, sweet potato, Patak's mango curry sauce and added chickpeas.

My Uncle had one of these Tovola ovens, he liked the convenience but said the meals they provided were very salty.

Conceptually, I gather some of the gifts should be referencing the animal year (dragon = tea), are sweets also traditional as we use in other cultures, “sweets for a sweet year”? Or is it more of a tradition of presenting something outside the every day/indulgent?

Spaghetti, chicken meatballs, Marcella's tomato sauce (ate the onion, too), sauteed spinach.