Kouign Aman

Amen, sister. I see we come from a similarly culinary breakfast background. Fried bread. :ah!: I used to keep the little fried circles/hearts from the frames, and snarf them myself, til the munchkin caught on and demanded her rightful due.

My husband grew up (arizona) calling it that: "Egg in a frame". Since he cooks most breakfasts, that's the name being perpetuated in our house. I got the recipe from a novel when I was a kid (Southern California, some 30+ years back), where it was called a Goldmine sandwich. Over the years I've used pert near everything to cut out that hole: knife, upside down glass, cookie cutters, My daughter insists on the heart-shaped cookie cutter. I find it works best to butter one side of the bread, cut the hole, fry the bread, add butter to pan, flip bread, add egg. That's because herself insists on extremely runny yolks. For the rest of the world, its ok to add the egg before flipping.

Thanks. I hope your kiwis are a hit.

Any chance there's an "or" missing between the two kinds of canned salmon?

Yup, there goes my recipe for lime-chili icecream with cilantro sorbet, served with black bean biscuits. Seriously I hear ya. Its good, but its not the only possibility. Chocolate volcano cakes are good too. Next ? Although, I must edit to comment - crickets are especially good with lime, chili and cilantro. You might want to let Emma know.

We got nothing but wonderful cherries this year. We even had fun buying (ungodly-expensive) Bing cherries from California, while we were in New Zealand. It was a nice twist on our usual purchase of NZ apples when we're home.

There are absolutely chemicals that some folks can not taste, for genetic reasons. Its a fairly common high school chemistry experiment. I am sure the same happens from environmental causes too - illness, damage, things eaten earlier in the day, etc. I recently learned I cant stand cheese after eating pinenuts (except in basil pesto. Not sure why the exception) - almost all cheese tastes strongly of ammonia to me, in that circumstance. And as others have said, there is what you are used to. That first bite of cinnamon-flavored meat at a Greek restaurant is a real surprise to those of us raised in a different seasoning tradition. I think there's no shortcut to learning to pull subtle flavors apart. Practice, contrast, practice. But what could be more fun than the practicing?

Very pretty looking! How do they taste? Were they the golden variant? Why do you dry the kiwi and pineapple first? Do you do this for all the juicy fruits, to prevent the water in the fruit from diluting the syrup? Then why steam?

Growing anything my kid can pick and eat on the spot. Making berry jam or jelly. The first time I ever got to eat food I picked was the summer I turned 5. We went to England where both sets of my grandparents lived. Went berrying in the New Forest with one Nan (and ate ourselves purple). Then I picked the berries in the backyard, and made jam with the leftovers with the other Nan (the leftovers after eating myself purple). I got to meet two of my greatgrandmothers. My kid didnt even get to meet all 4 grandparents, but we do what we can. She's also got G-gma's on the other-side's cake recipe.

1) What Tri2Cook said - the suggestion was for gravy for the replacement dish (the chops), not to salve the carbonized mess that is burnt ribs and barbecue sauce. Mine was a two part post - suggestion, commiseration. 2) changing topics to the meal you served The glaze you made sounds interesting. How'd they like it? The crisp looks especially appealing to me. Yum.

Bisto. Instant gravy. They probably love it. oh my. Such a shame. All that sugar in the ribsauce...sugar burns so nasty.

Wiping with olive oil would seem to slow or end moisture evaporation from the sausage, so I'd think that only applied to a fully cured sausage if at all.

cilantro & lime flavors as well, ala ceviche?

The saltiness is part of what is good about it. Nice with cucumber slices too.

It sucks to go to that much effort and not have the food eaten. Someone earlier posted a great idea - get someone to put some on their plate and walk around talking it up. It works. I've take the same dish to potlucks repeatedly. Sometimes it disappears, sometimes it sits untouched. On those latter occasions, I take a big OBVIOUS portion (the serving plate clearly shows that someone's been at it), and walk about eating it. Somehow, seeing that someone else has tried it, makes it safe for others, and it starts to go away.

mini gefilte fish egg rolls.

that is bad indeed.

Assorted nibbles Bratwurst - probably simmered in beer with onions. Maybe grilled. Sauerkraut corn on the cob home grown tomatoes fruit salad (cherries, grapes, pineapple probably, blueberries) lemon meringue pie -I havent made one in forever, I love them, and I have lemons courtesy kind neighbors. icecream (home made) The child will probably not want a bratwurst and will hoover thru the pate instead.

Blueberry pancakes to start the day. At some point, corn on the cob. Everything else is still up in the air.

Daily - bare wood Events - either. Tablecloth especially if more diners than table is built to hold. Sometimes tablecloth with contrasting placemats on top if going really formal because table itself is very casual in style. If casual, placemats only. Once in a rare while, table cloth with table runner down the center. Its like playing with dolls - how can we dress the table today?

Salt grinder and matching pepper grinder (gifts) flowers in vase 3 napkins 2009 'Father's Day' placemat & card. Honeydo list for him from her Its the only place in the house that gets tidied 2x a day.

Summer came a month earlier than last year, despite the cool weather. I credit that short hot blast a few months back. We've eaten the first Early Girl , and should have several more this week. Glacier is also ripening fast (its supposed to be faster than Early Girl). IF we can beat back the d*%$#!d ground squirrels this year. I havent made the trek to Hillcrest yet, Toliver, but I keep dreaming about it! Our neighbors picked their first corn this week and were kind enough to share with us. A lovely purple husk on the outside, and sweet deep yellow kernels. This variety has a good strong corn flavor, not a supersweet. I liked! We put in some bean & pea seedlings just for kicks, have a strong looking yellow squash that I may shortcircuit by taking the flowers, and a zucchini ditto. We're hoping the pumpkins sprout soon. The sunflowers are looking promising, if very very small (only planted them a week ago). The carrots had an adventure. A small guest tried to harvest them all in huge handfuls. This pulled the tiny-just-a-root ones out, and broke the greens off the bite-sized ones, leaving them in the ground. We're watering, and watching. I figured they'd all rot, but at least some are sending up new leaves, and we planted new seed which is doing well, so we'll get those purple, yellow and white carrots yet! We've had a couple tiny ones, just so we could say we did! Now what can one cook with iceplant (aka pickleweed)?

I used to add gelatin to the popsicles before I froze them, when I was making them for little kids. Helps control the drip factor and melt rate.

Try mustard. It provides the tang and salt that cheese does, plus its own special self. If you also miss the richness of cheese, you can butter the bread. when I make one of these, its buttered toast, softfried egg, mustard. Very drippy. Or the same, with scrambled egg. Not drippy. Time to try the 'broken yolk' method.

Tomatoes are easy. (Im in zone 10). Speaking of which - we are picking the SunGolds in 1s & 2s already! We have the first Early Girl ripening in the window - someone got confused about which tomatoes were ripe at orange, and which need full red. We've had loads of carrots, and are waiting for the fun purple ones to get bigger. We've pulled a couple tiny ones, just to see and taste. Lots of fun!