Kouign Aman

My brown-skinned, black-haired friend and I (fishbelly pale, blonde) ordered dessert - she ordered banana cream pie, I ordered chocolate cream pie. Then we swapped places at the table for some reason, so our waiter served us the wrong items (I assume he had a table 'map' and place 1 ordered X, place 2 ordered Y). Friend looked at the poor lad and said "hey! You cant go by color!".

FWIW, I also serve meals in a laminar flow hood, so that airborne beasties dont land on it before its comsumed.

I haven made it. I made a bit of tomato jam, and the family liked it as long as they didnt know what it was, then old habit kicked in and it became 'ew'. Gonna try again for the child, who is remarkably free of the expectations, and who keeps seeing tomato jam in the littlehouseontheprairie books.

Meanderer - LOL!!! The entire garden is behind - due to weather, and my schedule both. Its beautiful to look at, til you realize how closely crowded the plants are. Except the corn - planted well spaced and barely showing thru the soil. Not gonna be knee high by the 4th of July, that's fer shure. Neighbor made some mods to wall, and the sun is blocked a bit too much from my favorite patch for veg gardening. One sunny lettuce bolted since Saturday. I will have to move the rhubarb pot to that spot. The rhubarb is short, and scrawny and no longer has red stems. Can I still pick it and cook it? Sparrowgrass, its basically "queen (co-een) aman" and its a rich sticky buttery laminated pastry.

Keylime pie bars. Follow standard keylime pie recipe. Pat the graham crust into rectangle pan. Bake 1/2 layer keylime filling on crust. Cool. Cut into squares. Me, I like to swap equal volume eggwhite for 1/3 the suggested yolks. I think the recipe on the keylime juice bottle was developed with small or medium eggs, and using all three from teh XL egss I have gets 'eggy' in a not-good way. Swapping in the egg white ensures the custard cooks firmly. base recipe (without my mods) 3 yolks 1/2 cup keylime juice 1 can sweetened condensed milk (14 oz). mix, bake at 350F for 15 min. Let stand 10 min before chilling. Nothing sells as well as chocolate, tho.

Sweet tomato icecream with bits of candied tomato or tomato jam swirl. passion fruit.

In several wine making countries, you can schlep your big jug to the vintners, and decant a jug of wine for the week. Whats the diff between that and the box? The box does a better job of preventing oxidization of the wine. Its a good thing. It may not be the thing for the very best wines, but there's a lot of enjoyable 'vin ordinaire' in the world.

Key lime pie. I replaced one egg yolk with equal volume of egg white, and successfully avoided the sulfury-eggy taste that sometimes happens. It was wonderful.

Thinned the beets once, have to do this again soon. I wonder if we'll get "baby"beets or just skinny red roots at this stage. One of three lettuces bolted. The others still growing faster than we eat them. Carrots need to be thinned - we may score some realy baby carrots out of this. Corn is coming up. The watering system broke - the corn has a struggle. Okra - did it again. Sprouts gangbusters then withers away. need to cover the potatoes. its a garden. life is good.

Awesome stories. Great to have accomplishments that bring pleasure to others as well. We were treated to homemade cherry - orange juice. Same great beam as we all asked for seconds.

?more acid? Seems to slow the gelling process.

I have not seen rhubarb in the store this year. Did I miss it? My own little rhubarb plant is just that - little. Still, it has all summer to recover - is it still good to harvest once the stems are going green? Or does it need to be new and bright red stems only? My first rhubarb each year is simply stewed, then served with heavy cream. I dont have to share unless my parents are visiting.

I re-use empty spice bottles with shaker tops for colored sugar. We color our own, and its nice to have the useful bottles. Did anyone mention using carboard egg cartons as seed nurseries? Cut the bits apart and plant it along with the seedling (or compost it separately). Disposable sushi containers (flat rectangle boxes w clear lids) are nice for gift wrapping small delicate things.

A totally silent restaurant is disconcerting tho. I feel like we have to whisper or force everyone to listen in . Some level of white noise actually provides privacy.

I gown and glove before entering the space designated 'kitchen'. I traded the stove for an autoclave.

rice crackers

Sourcream and honey. Honey / lemon "vinaigrette"

To many of the above, I also now go with mushrooms chopped and browned to chwey goodness, butter, salt, lemon (or wine), garlic. Add anything green if available and easy. Noodles of any shape.

Cheap balloon whisks in 3 sizes. Dont know why, as I didnt use them at all ever, until I started cooking with the toddler. At that time, whisks became very attractive for participation, where the previously favored electric mixer required protection. Now I reach for the middle sized whisk just about every time I cook. hmmm. But, the toddler isnt one any longer, and can use the e.m. for cooky dough and whipping cream. Hooray!

Obviously not glassware at all, but a little white cup with a blue bottom bearing the legend "Dairy" - just like in the graphic!

Oooh! Hot Pot! I used a crockpot last time we did hotpot, but the height is a problem. A shallow pan and an induction burner seems an easier solution (tho it does mean I have to store yet another gadget).

Specifically, its a Fuyu persimmon, which can be eaten while firm. The bigger heartshaped fruit needs to be completely mushy to be tolerable or pleasant eating. I've made pie with Fuyus. It didnt need sugar,and I tried to spice to match the slightly spicy taste the fruit has on its own. They also make good puree, along the lines of an apple sauce, but smoother and sweeter.

1] feta cheese smashed w kalamata olives spread on the bread, then pile on roasted vegetables, and second slice of bread. Tangy, salty, sweet. 2]liverwurst and very crispy bacon. Tomato is good. 3] Marmite and butter

Floating island - nice eggy custard w meringue islands. French vanilla souffle

That would be fun! Now, what glassware to go with it?