Kouign Aman

Watermelon - or anything scented/flavored or in contact with it (all those "Rain" and "Ocean" scented products smell like watermelon to me. *shudder*) Any soda. I hate carbonation. I can coax myself to drink beer and champagne, because the flavor is worth the tradeoff. There is no soda or sparkling water extant that I will drink short of imminent death by dehydration.

This got us thinking and we just decided we'd clear off the workbench in the garage and set up the nuclear oven and coleman stove out there. Got the deepsink by the washer, room for the fridge. God, I hope we never actually have to do that!

Is there anyone in your neck of the woods that could build you an off-set two tiered rack that would fit the weber (lid closed) ? That bacon looks so good. Thank you all again, for your blogging prowess and weather-smokin-grillin perseverence. Its been a lot of fun hangin with you guys this week! (well, except for yesterday when I was forbidden to eat for 8 hours. Then it was painful and I had to log off! )

eje posted a link elsewhere saying Coi was open and giving a menu. Anyone been there? editted to add: here it is: eje's link Coi webpage

It all looks so good. Home made bacon..........:drool: 4-layer cake ............:drool: potato pizza ..........:drool: (Is it breakfast time?) I am totally impressed that you'd make a frosting that generated not one, not two, but THREE dirty sticky dishes. The thought of replicating that gives me the heebie-jeebies. I modify all my cooking to use the fewest possible containers, dishes etc. (the Tenor, on the other hand, would see nothing to blink at in three, four or five dishes for one batch of frosting). Thanks for blogging on, brave folk, weather be damned! (low 70's and overcast 24/7)

That's it - the marine layer. Keeps the watering down, at least! Does your mom want some brussels sprouts sprouts? I'm going to have to thin them this weekend.

Has anyone been to Aqua Blu ?

Flavored meringues which have the advantage of being very light. They need strong walls around them tho, during travel (tupperware) If you were willing to do the hassle, they are delicious when sandwiched about whipped cream (must be done at time of service tho).

My god, those beautiful strawberries... so red, so lovely.

Chicken, dried cherries, apple, nuts, other dried fruit as appeals (cranberries are good, apricots can be), water chestnuts. Mix curry powder & mayonnaise to taste. Mix in the solid stough. Chunky serve on lettuce, in shells, on crackers or in hearty sandwich. If chopped very fine, can be used to fill crustless tea sandwiches. I think I know what's for dinner tonight...

Oh goodie, this will be fun! Thanks for blogging, y'all.

Thanks. Sounds like the problem is Grey Spot. I removed all affected foliage ... so far, so good. There's new clean foliage on that plant and the others appear to have remained clean. One tiny tomato... And..... :hooray!: I spotted bees in the yard yesterday. Appears they came with the sunshine. Brusselsprouts up to 4" and ready to thin. Garlic a foot tall, peppers-cilantro about an inch, basil from seed, just setting the set of leaves after the cotyledons. (The munchkin covered them with sand which they did not like). Basil transplants doing well, ditto tricolor sage. Potatoes replanted and still a complete bust. We've just not had enough sun, Im thinking. Lots of buds on the mini-lime. Flowers on the apple tree. Hey, its a garden! As the weeds have also noticed... time to renew that little battle. editted. the brusselsprouts are ready to thin, not thing.

kalypso, what do you think of Extraordinary Desserts?

Welcome, FrogPrincesse! After that great first post, I am looking forward to more. Thank you. As for a kouign aman, I havent found one in town yet, so am dreaming of baking them at home over the summer. I tried once, years ago. Got close enough to know I can do it, but that the recipe I used needs work. I plan to start with two recipes and work til I get there. You will be invited to taste the later attempts, and pass judgement, if you are interested (and if I actually get my act together and do this thing). :sheepish:

Its exhausting to take a smallfry to a dinner party. I'm always grateful (& surprised) when our hosts want the munchkin present, and Im always falling down tired by the end of the evening. It takes a lot of energy and thought to keep both a table full of adults and one baby/toddler happy. I'm thinking that 5-6 years of age should be a breeze in contrast. (please dont burst my bubble)

Same thing as Eilen described: I buy or make 'a' coffee when its anything fancier than straight from the brew vessel +cream and sugar. That old standby is 'coffee' or 'some coffee', or 'a cup of coffee'. Same thing happened with beer. My folks drank a glass of or a can of beer (mass). My college roomies "had a beer" (or six) (count). Jaymes, thanks for the chuckle. I suspect the day is here when some folks open the fridge, show off the various bottles of water in the door, and ask their guest if she wants 'a water'. I've been asked if I wanted 'a Perrier'.

Perfection - avo, salt. Variety: Halve, fill well with sesame soy dressing (I like Annies Natural, but a homemade version can be just a bit subtler which would be better). Salad: avocado slices mango slices papaya slices. (substitute mamey if you can get them). Arrange in alternate slices, in a fan. Dress with lemon or lime & salt. Avocado and bacon. Any which way.

Better than conch fritters is cracked conch (conch pounded, cut into strips and batter fried). Grouper a must. If you dont see a grouper sandwich anywhere else, there's always Hooters. But you should see them everywhere. Between the top of Key Largo and Homestead there was a place called Roberts at the Keys or something similar. Its a produce stand. The Key Lime milkshake is well worth a stop. I havent been there in 10 yrs, so maybe its gone.

Loved reading all these happy memories. Am smiling. We had three parameters - a whole buncha friends who'd have been hopping mad not to see us get hitched, a tight budget, and a burning desire to make sure everyone had plenty to eat. I hate weddings where they run out of food. So... we debated lasagna but ended up with quiche lorraine, broccoli quiche, crusty rolls, fresh strawberries, whipped cream, coffee, tea, sodas, beer, wine. 2 full sheet cakes = chocolate cake with raspberry filling and chocolate frosting - ivory and coffee colored frosting roses on it (Mr KA loves chocolate). Outdoor wedding (our new backyard), RSVPs from 180 guests (of whom a whacking great 5 were relatives or friends of relatives). Tables set up in the garden, spaced so the two quiches were quite separate (several guests of the keep-kosher at home, dont eat meat outside the home persuasion, several vegetarians). Chairs for the ceremony, to be folded away and replaced with small tall tables for eating. Table clothes already doublesticky taped to the tables. Oven preheating for quiches. Bowls of whipped cream ready. 10 flats of strawberries brought in that morning from the fields; the vendor'd left them an extra day on the vine for us. Washed, piled in glass bowls and ready to go. Bottles opened and set in ice, glasses stacked neatly near by. Garden is glorious - full of day lilies, mexican primrose, rosemary, potted flowers of all sorts, nasturtiums. The lawn is looking mighty fine. The day dawns clear and bright and glorious. 30 min before the ceremony was due to start, the clouds arrived. It rained, cold hard rain, during the ceremony. Immediately we finished speaking our vows, ~ 150 people crammed into a 1400 sq ft house. I think it took less than a minute to get them all inside. They were motivated! Then we started wedging in a table from which to serve the food. I remember I ate a strawberry at one point. My BIL barricaded off the kitchen, removing some available squarefootage, but this let him keep the hot quiches coming. My dad made endless pots of hot coffee. Wine was consumed, the soda languished. People got to know each other really well, but it was so crowded, was hard to get to the food, and hard to find room to eat it. There were abundant leftovers which we spent the next day freezing. Other than the rain, I wouldnt change a thing. Note to self: April is too early for outdoor weddings, even in SoCal.

My description is pretty basic: I live to eat, rather than eating to live. Things I enjoy eating run a very wide gamut.

Being as daffodils and their cousins are poisonous, you're right. Its not a good idea to pop something into your mouth, unknown. Good luck identifying it! (give it a couple weeks, it may bloom and identify itself. I have a similarly mysterious garden).

I think its a bad idea, firstly because I dont like lying and secondly, because its much too likely to be caught out, in any industry. Experience shows. However, when I applied for a shortorder cook job some 20 years ago, the restaurant manager pretty much told me to come back tomorrow and this time lie about my (lack of) experience.

sadistick, I meant why is it bad to put tomato plants in the compost heap to rot. I got a good answer. Especially since one of mine is fighting a nasty.

If she guessed your age and didnt bother to confirm with her friend, she doesnt have enough smarts to worry about.

Got the fine dinner out and it was lovely indeed. Three meals a week. Check - I finally made it. But only get 20 min still. Working on that 30 min! New recipes... I made Klary's Butter Beef. Got three meals out of it. (but really, its still a roast or a braise and I do those allatime) Lots more progress needed here and on the learning to season. Garden planted, (tho I need to replace the potatoes which I planted too deep and they rotted ) The munchkin had crab & fell back in love with orange juice. Its been a bust on the new veggie front. Must shop more..... oh wait. Must find more interesting place to shop! Party tentatively planned for memorial day weekend. Immediate goals - eat at local Korean place before end of June. Stirfry a green and apply info gleaned from wok-threads, egullet tutorial etc. This thread keeps me honest, and somewhat focussed. Whew, I need that!