Kouign Aman

Harvested corn - more for the experience. Easier and cheaper at the store, and just as good. The cherry tomatoes are grand, in 4 colors. Very pretty, very tasty. Some huge beets. Time to learn how to roast them, no? Teenytiny carrots - no surprise when they never got thinned! But they are so ... cute. From my dad's garden = potatoes for the purplest mashed potatoes ever, onions, rhubarb! (pie, at last!). 4 cantaloupe to date (very good and sweet), the eggplants are flowering, the beans are thinking about it, the peppers lost the battle for sun to the tomatoes, but as the tomato plants die off, the peppers are growing. The okra is just praying, for what I do not know. Have tried more sun, less sun, more water, less water. It stays at 4" high and holding.

Huh! I've done that; white miso, butter. Its good on broccoli too. White miso, ginger and vinegar is a good salad dressing.

Tropical Star on Balboa Ave has a pan-central/south american menu. At first glance they may not meet requirement for cheap eats, but since any one meal will feed two adults easily, its all good. The wall o' groceries on one side is interesting too. Something from it wends its way into my order every time. Its a hole in the wall. A couple tables outside, a few inside. The palomilla bistec was good, I didnt care for the ropa vieja particularly, the chicken in banana leaf is very good. Many things come with a fried egg atop buttered rice. The sweet plantains are well prepared (maduros). We particularly liked the batido de maracuya (passion fruit) and tamarindo (tamarind) which had the sweet sour balance of excellent lemonade. The guanabana version was thick and sweet as expected.

Anchovy paste works well in deviled eggs.

chopped green olives or perhaps capers - little bits of salty tangy zing in random bits (not enough to be in every bite. that would get boring fast).

Only if we're all at the same table.

Chili-infused vinegar I made before 1998. Cant remember if it was 1 or 3 years before.

Yup. And you talking about removal from the shelf.

Have a party. Use all the dishes. Stop worrying. Even so, the bottom dish in your stack was the first one to hit the shelf in your cupboard, so despite Mr Chang's phenomonal memory, and the factory camera, it was the first in.

Weeping may be an issue. Perhaps make a test cake the first time you thaw the zucchini, so you can adjust. Fresh zucchini is holding onto the moisture until its cooked out of it and into your cake. The frozen zucchini strands are going to let go of some of that moisture, which will pour away easily if not careful. The remaining zucchini isnt as moisture-laden as the fresh stuff. of course, if you froze it in 'batch' size, I am impressed, because you set yourself up to mix in the entire bag, weep and all.

I found it about a week after my post. As always, I didnt have to share so I had two pounds of rhubarb, stewed, with heavy cream. Wonderful breakfast, lunch, dessert. A classic at our house growing up was rhubarb pie served with liquid custard (creme anglaise-ish). Crumble is good. I very much dislike the combination of strawberry with rhubarb.

Someone in England once sent me a Kahlua & Coke. It crossed the line, far far across it, of being too sweet to consume.

No, but you are required to write an in-depth article about the social history leading up to it and review the moral implications of its creation! Depends - did you eat them all yourself or serve them to someone else?

"Other people's houses" is not equal to "your family". I'd love to see Home Ec become a required HS course again - how to shop, cook, balance a checkbook, sew on a button, maintain a car, change a lightbulb, shut off a water valve, etc. In there would be how to keep yourself and others healthy when you cook for them. Food left standing hours at bacterial repro temperatures can make people very miserable afterward. Anyway, my comments resulted in unintentional hijack, so I'm done here. Back to the originally scheduled discussion of horrific habits of excellent cooks.

Nothing is. Just adding some perspective re relative risks.

WTF??????????? Does it erupt, too? No, that was the special pinata. The cake flamed. We put all the candles in the caldera:

I like a tart which is nearly as easy to make as the crisp or cobbler. 1/2 c butter, 1 c flour, 1/2 c sugar, 1 egg (adjust flour up if egg is jumbo), pinch baking powder, season if you will. Pat into pan. slice peaches (I dont like the peel) arrange slices on crust. Bake til done. Your definition of done may be brown and crusty. Mine is usually that the center dough is no longer raw, and the peaches are getting smooshy soft. I bake everything at 350F, but have done this one at whatver temp the oven was at for other things at the time. Its very touchy-feely.

Last week, for a birthday party.

Deary me, then dont shake the good dr's son's hands either. Or ruffle his hair, if he's little. I'm not against food hygeine. I am discussing relative risks of food prepared for close family members, for immediate consumption, vs food prepared by/for strangers in vast quantities that might sit around a while. Its the same sort of reason the bus driver has more stringent driver's license requirements than the soccer parent.

Last week I found an unopened bottle of Marie's bleu cheese dressing that had expired in 2008. It remained unopened as it exited the premises. Back then, that was a splurge purchase for us, so how it got neglected is a wonder.

We call that oxalis "sour grass". Its pretty common for kids around here to gnaw on a flowerstem while playing. I've never seen the flowers or leaves in a salad. May have to taste a flower sometime. Have you? What did you think?

Why not, if its not labeled "pure rye"? I've never in my life eaten a rye bread that is pure rye flour. And why is the 'fakery' so over-the-top cool if it comes from one huge recent very expensive cookbook, but 'fakery' when from any other source?

??? 'splain, pls.

Hair in food is definitely unpleasant (and the smell of burning hair likewise), but what medical condition do you suppose could be transferred in such a fashion?

Dairy Queen's got a decent burger. Has anyone mentioned Wendy's ?