Kouign Aman

Thanks for blogging. Your kids are adorable. The food is fun. A single cup of drip coffee can be made using standard filters, tucked into a funnel, perched on top of a mug. Pour boiling water very carefully. When I was regularly in a situation where I had the choice of no morning coffee or drinking instant, I resorted to STING caffeinated gum which a friend brought me from Japan.

A wonderful refreshing week. As noted by so many, you have a knack with your camera and particularly with food photography. That first bread-pudding pic wins the all time breadpudding award for me. It looks like breadpudding AND it looks delicious. Thats hard to do with a photo of bread pudding. Thanks very much for blogging.

acetate and ribbon - made me wonder if you could wrap it in a bittersweet chocolate ribbon? Perhaps just around the top bit, where the jagged parts show? Or pat the sides with bittersweet chocolate shavings?

They are beautiful. To travel, can they be slipped back in their (now clean) baking pans? For serving, a dollop of whipped cream and a scattering of fresh currents on the top (like carelessly draping a "throw" across the couch). If you really want to hide the edges, you could pipe the cream decoratively, but I think they look quite marvy as they are. My mouth is watering. Sheesh! Red currrants.. whimper.... do you get black currants too? Or half-whip the cream (no sweetening) and use it as a lovely soft frosting dripping off the edges? Obviously, traveling with whipped cream presents its own challenges.

My grandmothers both lived 'across the pond'. In the few visits we had, I learned the joys of cheddar cheese, green grapes and how to make french fries from one and how to make blackberry jelly from the other. I hope I pass some kind of equally lasting good memories along that include the joy in making something delicious to share. I'll also be leaving a copy of MFK Fisher's books and the entire set (including recipe booklets) of the Time-Life FotW series. A cutting board beautifully patched from myriad woods, made by my father - if it lasts that long. Italian glassware purchased by The Tenor on the trip when we met and fell in love - damn, I hope the kid(s) like(s) the style! My husband's great-grandmother's recipe for chocolate pudding cake. And one bird, suitable for keeping as a pet or turning into a very small pile of snacks. I make jelly every few years from the wild blackberries growing near my father's house, and I think of his mom and dad every time I do. The munchkin & my nephew already know the joys of jam and of English cheeses.

Yum. Where can I get this stuff? Where in the 99 Ranch market would I seek it? Marmite on buttered toast This is embarrassing.... in addition to most of the things already listed by others, when I really want salt I'll: eat marmite by the spoonful. eat beef bouillion cubes or granules eat table salt (dip finger method) My co-workers have photographic evidence of me enjoying their xmas gift to me some years ago: a red mineral salt-lick

The basil is shot. All three pots have flowered and the leaves have gotten tough. Still tastes fine but the texture is unpleasant in Caprese etc. Time to collect seeds and start afresh, in a shadier location. These pots can serve as bee-bait next to the termaters. Its a bummer because I really wanted to use our basil on our tomatoes (ah well. Its not like we keep a milk buffalo in the back yard for the cheese. I can buy basil too) The sage is looking fine... it looked so small and overwhelmed in its pot when first planted, now Im wondering if I should get it a larger home. Tomatoes are reddening :jump for joy:. The Beefsteak plant has only two, both green, both getting huger each day. Two planted Early Girls are abundant and showing color (2 are scarlet.... sooooo close). One volunteer appears to be Early Girl too. Yellow pear tomatoes are few and young. The heirloom (cant remember type) is holding onto a small crop of midsized still green tomatoes. I'm wondering if there is still time to put in more plants, with the way the weather has been. The orange peppers - the potted plant is carrying large fruit - still dark green. The transplants are flowering madly. Brusselsprouts - wow! I had no idea how wide those plants get. The cilantro is also shot. Now waiting for the seeds to ripen. Next crop will get a shadier locale. Found seeds for the yard-long beans.... where to plant? Such a fun question to ponder. About a bazillion baby limes formed, but only 3 have remained on the dwarf tree. Most exciting - we moved the potted guava/feijoa tree this spring and after 3 happy but flowerless years, its blooming madly and I saw one little swelling baby fruit starting to form.

Their call to go with an empty table or to notify someone on the waiting list then. They can pull it off with the demand for a table. What is the restaurant equivalent (with similar connotations) of 'diva' or 'prima donna'?

It took me 20 yrs of trying and an August trip to Austria to learn to like raw tomatoes. And then, its only perfectly summery ones. Others are ... barely tolerated. I can swallow them in chunks but I cannot chew them. But a sweet ripe summer tomato now brings joy. Watermelon. Never. Ever. Not in juice, fruit salad, granita, Jolly Rancher, or molecular whatever. No way, no how. At least I no longer gag at the smell.

This makes sense if one person is reserving large blocks and selling them off. but its kind of nuts if I have a reservation, cant make it, and give it to a friend. I assume that one could make a phone call and explain the situation in that case?

Fools. I like mine with raspberry but want to try with passionfruit. Perhaps with cardamom in the cream.

Lots of real mexican food in San Diego. Mexico has regional variations just as other countries do. We "specialize" in Baja style, which is also occasionally refered to as "mexican fast food". Tijuana is a trolley ride away if you want to be certain of an authentic experience. There are a number of fine dining establishements there in addition to taco cart food. How many days? Meals? Breakfasts? Dinners? expensive, budget, etc? Car? no car?

High (for the locale) humidity and heat, no a/c. We're on a roll with Caprese, cold meats, pate, cheese, pickles, olives, ice water, bread, crackers. Corn on the cob. Assorted veggies, nuked, served cold. Lettuce salads topped with whatever and dressed on a whim (asian-influenced dressings "feel" cooler). Home-made icecream*. Anyone who turns on the oven will be shot on sight. The toaster oven may be used in limited quantities, preferably while placed outdoors. There is unlimited microwave use. *I've heard that technically icecream is lousy warm weather food as it generates more heat in digestion (calorie content) than it cools, but the illusion holds for us.

Buttered toast and honey.... yum.

What about high fructose corn syrup is unnatural? Is it chemically modified to increase the fructose content? Fructose is a sugar the body recognizes just fine. To get sugar from cane or beets requires extensive processing. Ditto to get syrup from corn. What am I not getting here in this "natural" debate? (yes, sugar in soda tastes better. Thats not my Q).

Nothing exotic. French Vanilla using a recipe from Joy of Cooking and extra vanilla. Served 4th of July and very popular. Made an interesting "sweet cream" and dark chocolate chip icecream last night. It tasted ok but .... it needed a little sugar. So then I rechurned it , this time adding the sugared milk which had been forgotten as it sat cooling in the fridge. Sigh[/]. The grated belgian chocolate went very well in it. This recipe was a 'hurry up' one for prep time: 2 c milk, 3/4 c sugar, 2 T vanilla, 2 c heavy cream. Grated choc added near end of 1st churning. It held together ok for the second churning. (Bless electricity). Strawberry icecream - doesnt store well but oh! it tastes good. 1 qt berries, washed, stemmed and smashed. ~ 3/4 c sugar (to taste) mixed with the berries. 2 c cream, churn. It comes out screaming neon frightening pink.

Better than lemon/lime for a sour orange substitute is regular orange juice kicked up with lime juice. Goya also sells bottled sour orange juice as well as the premade Mojo and othe sauces/marinades. Mojo isnt complicated - juice, salt, garlic. Refinements to taste. I've bought bottled that was horrible and that was good. Havent tried Goya's but they are usually good. Got an orange and lime tree so I dont buy Mojo any more. Pork is classic, chicken is good. editted to add: complimentary side dishes black beans, rice or moro rice platanos tostones or maduros yuca or boniato spinach or other greens. avocado

I wasnt sure of ettiquette - to post or not. Thanks for leading the way, AnnaN. Thanks for writing that, Maggie/Margaret. Its beautiful. My childhood cookbooks were The Time-Life Food of the World series. They've been mine since I was 12 and are jealously treasured.

Thanks for the food, dude! How about changing your homemade gadget to one that is threaded, so you can drill a hole in the end and put a bar thru? That would greatly increase the pressure you could apply, and take less effort. What makes you conclude the food was americanized (other than the lack of goat on the menu, perhaps) ?

I think I need this recipe, please. I can only make so many plain meringues & pavlovas with the extra egg whites now that it is icecream season... I too cant wait to see The Lion! Will he be painted on the front or the back of the glass plate? Will you frame, or try for an invisible mount? Its been fascinating reading.

I confess, I do not, after repeated samples, understand the fan-base for In-n-Out burgers. And their fries are simply a shame. I do have a fondness for their shakes, and their willingness to grill onions for the burgers, and I promise to try a burger animal-style, but after 30 years of eating there intermittently, I still dont comprehend the rave reviews. Its a lot of fun seeing the results of playing with all your pretty toys. How did it all taste? Were you pleased? What would you change, if anything, for next time? What other fruit have you tried carbonating?

They look like the over-the-cab fairings on long-haul trucks to me.

Hooray! I second the question - what to do if the only available buttermilk is 2%fat? QS to full volume using sour cream? Hubba hubba on those shoes, oh my!

What in heck was that baby doing holding a 9 inch slicer? (ok, I'm only laughing because the save was successful, and I'm trying not to hyperventilate at the image you created). Marlene, are your tetanus vaccines up to date? OUCH.

Harvesting might work by the squeeze method: if the fruit gives, its ripe. Or by the gentle-tug method - if it releases from the plant with a gentle tug, its ripe.