Kouign Aman

There've been several references to buffalo wing sauce being sweet. I am flabbergasted. Its hot, and sour. I have not tasted nor smelled a sweet note to the sauce anywhere I've eaten buffalo wings. Thank goodness! As for beyond - wings in oven pan, drench in 50/50 soy / teriaki sauce. Bake at low heat for far too long (250F til the sauce is in danger). The chicken ends up changing texture, becoming kind of weirdly fudgy. Very popular at potlucks. I havent made these in ages.

Ashen, that is one pretty cake!

Kim - the shrimp corn dish looks both delicious and practical. Do you share the recipe? Soba - such beautifully prepared sardines RRO - supermodel scallops, are those. percyn - those lamb burgers make me want to change our dinner plans C.sapidus your meal plates always look so well put together d.carch - edible art, as usual Shelby - I can smell that pizza, I swear, and the strawberries are simply too too! Okanagancook - the richness of the dauble is leaping off the plate Hassoun - Did you buy the bowl just for that soup? The patterns and colors and whispy herb bits are perfect together. Dinner last night was customized frittatas; bok choy/mushroom/onion/chili/chili paste* with shrimp topper for one, and sausage w cheese for the munchkin. Served w steamed cabbage, which they both like, tho one sauces with sriracha and the other w soy sauce, and a warm baguette. (*repurposed leftovers)

In the jar its a lovely pale purple. Used properly, I expect its like fish sauce in Thai food - key to the just-right flavor, but not obviously indicating its delicious utility without a recipe or guide. Left improperly sealed, you can wonder what is rotting in your house, thanks to the sulfer. Its cheap enough when you find it in the store to splurge and try it (couple dollars for several ounces very finely ground).

Yes indeed. Without opening the jar, from across the room. Cant agree on the love part, but then I didnt grow up with it. Its considerably not pure NaCl, of course.

if you like Scharffen Berger chocolate, you might like dark-chocolate yogurt. The SB has a very sour component to its taste, especially noticeable in teh aftertaste. It would blend right in with the tang of good yogurt.

Hmm. I thought capsaicin was oil-soluble: My link. Maybe I'll try extracting it into ethanol. That should help with the risks of bacterial growth too. thanks for the input, all.

Even tho the recipe calls for minimal soaking, it seems to me that in a restaurant kitchen, a vast batch of batter would be prepared early in the morning so that it had experienced considerable soaking time by the end of the shift. Maybe that's the trick? I really like the gritty texture so I've never explored trying to minimize it. Be interesting to learn what you end up with.

weinoo, have you had corn cakes before that have the texture and flavor you are looking for?

As I was cutting up a watermelon, I happened to mention to the munchkin that people sometimes pickle watermelon rind. Well, asked said munchkin, then why dont we? Realizing that answering that would take longer than making the pickle, I dug out the recipe from my 1972 Joy of Cooking. I was surprised to find it is a sweet pickle. The book called for 7:2 sugar volume to vinegar volume. I changed that to ~ 5:2. We added a pinch of cinnamon for that is one of the variants suggested in the recipe. For the fun and the pretty of it, we left a bit of the melon attached to the rind. The process was easy: boil the syrup and pour over the rind. Pour off and boil the syrup and pour it back over the rind the next day. Repeat on the third day and you're done. The pickles were unexpectedly toothsome. We preferred the very thinly sliced bits,and even tho the red looks lovely, we preferred the crisp snap of the rind to the soggy leathery flesh. If ever we do this again, we'll try without the sugar at all.

Pretty pastel stars. The munchkin was given silicon cake pans with what I thought was an insane level of detail that would never survive baking. Nice to be wrong! Lemon cake with lemon glaze: This is one of the chili-oil drop candies from above. I've got dried chilies waiting to be extracted for round 2.

Eggs 'n spuds.

I keep forgetting to photograph dinner, but this plate intended to amuse a tired child was documented by the recipient. Rigatoni, meat'ball', and spinach. The details of the nose are due to the Calvin and Hobbes school of feeding a child.

Looks good, FrogPrincesse. I havent encountered MIHO yet. Bet those radishes are fun to grow. Here's a sandwich from Groggies. Buffalo Chicken - fried chicken chunks in buffalo wing sauce, with lettuce, blue cheese dressing and frenchfries in the wrap. The chicken was crispy and the sauce had sufficient bite to overcome the dilution by bread etc. Its a tasty monster. Easily a meal for two, and I think I prefer my fries on the side. Good enough to try other things on the menu next time I see the truck, maybe not to go out of my way for. Then again, I'm not much of a sandwich eater. The truck: the "fat" sandwich:

Has anyone tried crushing the dried chili seeds and using a very small amount of oil, to extract the spicy heat and make an oil that's very concentrated?

Wednesday was a combination of 'clean out the fridge' day and 'we need vegetables' day. Part the first: reheated pasta w tomato sauce plus mozzarella melted on top and fried chicken reheated in the counter-top convection oven Part the second: stirfried vegetable combination: white mushrooms, shitake mushrooms, onion chunks, baby "bok choy" (so labeled at the store, but with bright green stem and matching green leaf - not the dark green and white version), with sesame oil and preserved black beans. Plain noodles, cooked in chicken broth. It made for interesting combinations on our plates. The vegetable dish worked well, with sweet & crunch from the onion, salt from the beans, and umami chewiness from the mushrooms. It was pretty too, but there are no pictures. Last night was omelets for dinner, filled with: mushrooms cooked in butter and garlic til chewy steamed broccoli extra-sharp cheddar accented with sriracha for two of us

Reason 1 = one-stop shopping Reason 2 = one batch of tzatziki would run in the vicinity of $11 for a person who bought one lemon, one head of garlic, and the cheapest oil and vinegar available. If you dont have a use for the unused quantities, that's a bit more costly than the $5 jar.

peanut butter filled pretzel nuggets.

Mette, the cake is so pretty! I think I may request marzipan to 'frost' my next bday cake. Cayenne if I can pull the heat out, but I dont want the grit of the powdered peppers in the candy itself. I started w powdered cayenne, but the capsaicin didnt extract into water well (no real surprise).

Anchovy-stuffed olives. Salty, tangy, slightly chewy, fishy goodness. and now available not only at your local spendy specialty shop (Andre's Cuban market, Tropical Star, etc), but through Amazon.

Tri2Cook and minas6907, thanks for the recommendations and ideas. This first try, I used about 2 tsp of the oil from a chinese condiment that is mashed peppers, oil (and apparently onions), with 2T sugar. Its good and hot, just not hot enough. My friend wont suffer. She'll enjoy it. I'll know its finally spicy enough when I suffer. QC is gonna be ... interesting. I'll post if I do more work on this idea.

They offer a custom design option.

soft boil, peel, marinate in 3:2:1 water, soy, mirin.

Kim, that lemon cake is so pretty! Chocolot, adorable ladybirds! I want to make a spicy hot hot hot hot hard candy for a friend,and could use some advice. Last night I did a first quick and dirty trial run: melted sugar, added chili oil & a bit of vinegar, made lozenges by dropping the mix onto foil. It worked ok - they have a definite burn and arent super sweet. But, they arent as fiery spicy as desired, and the oil is extracting itself from the lozenges. I'd rather not be contaminating peoples fingers with super spicy oil. (and it turns out the oil I used includes onion in the making. Onion is quite clear in the candies. Oops.) Any suggestions on the best way to get that hot spicy flavor into the candy? Can it be extracted into vinegar or? thanks

Coffee maker, note pad, sugar bowl, odd glass boxes that have no other home, fruit bowl, cutting board and pizza peel leaning against wall, toaster oven, drain rack, plants (behind the sink), wine, fishtank, general dump depot for incoming paperwork. The Oster kitchen center is in an eye-level cupboard, along with the blender and the hand-mixer - not ideal, but for now we can handle it. The glass counter-top convection oven is in a low cupboard.