Kouign Aman

Such a discouragement today, but thats two happy preferments in a row, and the last set of loaves rose.... progress is being made. And you have Scarlet(t) pans - thats a positive omen, because "After all.... tomorrow is another day!"

Is it completely cheating to proof them and bake them directly in the baquette couche? (sans towel, of course) <editted for completeness>

third times the charm. 2 down, 1 to go! If you havent introduced your loaf to the birds yet, how about slicing it thinly, toasting and making bruschetta?

In our house, that is officially known by the title "Comfort Food", per the Mr. His version requires La Victoria Suprema salsa. No other will do.

Toliver, what kinds of tomatoes does your mom like to grow? I ended up with a 'red beefsteak' as the third plant, at the Mr's request.

PamR, you are a brave lady, blogging at this time of year. Thank you. I enjoyed your last blog very much and I also learned a ton. I particularly enjoy your sense of humor about life and its little quirks. Not knowing the correct form of greeting (tho I could probably figure it out by rereading this thread), I'll go with a heartfelt generic - Happy Holiday!

Gerhard, this is looking so good! Its terribly exciting to come back after days away, and see so much progress toward your goal. I am now forced, forced i say, to have sourdough toast at breakfast (commercial not homemade). Jackal10, you are Da Breadman, mon. Lori in PA - this is lovely: "May your starter ever bubble and your loaves never meet your foot", and so apt.

KimWB, I cant wait for the post Easter-brunch report. I hope your experience is such that it is a glowing one.

oh vey, oy veh. I've done that too. The english-speaking hand is soooo used to typing oh..... C'mon starter, you can do it..... c'mon yeastie boys go go go ! Have you ever goosed your starter with a little shot of sugar, jackal10? My college roomies and I brought ours back from the dead that way, tho it never tasted quite the same after. It got insanely sour, in fact. That does look like a skin - local humidity? A salamander will make the heated air quite dry I should think... your abode might be a bit damper. England is damp by definition.

Bugs as food (exceptions to lobster & family and crabs). Cant do mini-manti in my christmas cookies. no way, no how.

Another filling idea (also works in pastry shells) is curried chicken salad: chopped chicken, chopped apple, dried cherries, nuts or water chestnuts, other dried fruits to taste. I usually mix this with mayonnaise and (gasp)curry powder. (5 T mayo to 1/2 t curry powder). For sandwiches, chop everything finely. For shells, not so.

You're hired! Lovely pic, sirrah.

This is so good to know. Thank you.

Mexican cooking varies by region considerably, so one could go again and again. This all looks so delicious and the trip sounds like grand fun. Thank you for making the time and wracking your brain to present it to us.

The Fish Market in Del Mar

I third for Time/Life Foods of the World, Italy. You'd probably need to look on line for a used copy or see if your library can dig one up. Its interesting, talks about different regions, has beautiful pix and I began cooking out of the series when I was 9, so the recipe instructions are definitely kid-friendly. Since the series was published 30-40 years ago, it wont have the latest advances and changes in Italian cooking, but it has a great view of history.

Here I go, revealing my inner (and outer) hick. Last month, we ate at Osetra: The FishHouse downtown. The 'gimic's are the caviar and the Flying Fairy of Wine. No one ordered caviar; osetra or sevruga. I dont remember beluga being on the menu. The menu is not innovative. The food was well prepared and delicious. The featured ingredients are abundant (ex: lobster/crab ravioli were filled with lobster/crab, not with crab-flavored breadcrumbs). For what its worth, the portions were large - leftovers all round. Since we were headed to the opera after, no doggie bags. The prices are steep for this category of dining in this town: $28 for a plate of pasta. $11-19 for a dinner salad. Wine by the glass $11-$20. One salad, one glass of wine, one pasta order came to $70 w tax/tip (18%, included by the server as party was >= 6). The restaurant is not for small children. Its nicely decorated and divided into spaces of 6-8 tables (downstairs). They have a 'bead' curtain made of curtain weights hung very close together that served to separate our area from the bar - I liked it. The music is a tad loud for conversation. One couple asked to be moved to a different table as they were under a speaker and couldnt hear each other. The Flying Fairy of Wine: Osetra has a rectangle wine-cellar extending in a column from floor to near the ceiling (2 floors), and lit with blue neon. A young-person in yoga togs wears a black waist harness (climbers harness?) and is snapped into two cables. She 'flies' up to the location of the bottle you ordered, and gets it out of the cellar. Bottles are transported back to earth in hip-panniers, allowing her to pull more than one selection per flight. This allows her to walk like spiderman about the column. Its cute. They also have a vodka bar etc. Our party ranged from new parents to new social-security collectors. Everyone enjoyed the meal and can describe highlights in detail. No one wants to go back. This is more for the hip - those who need both hands to drink their $16 martinis (to quote MeganBlocker from another thread).

I have a guava tree in a pot that needs a better home, ditto a passion fruit vine (here's hoping its purple fruit, not yellow). If we can defeat the iceplant, we have a spot picked out for the passion fruit vine. The guava tho remains in limbo. Does it have invasive root habits? (note to self, must google...) The apple and plum trees are in flower. The peach tree has already set fruit. I hope all the recent rain doesnt hurt it. Does anyone know or have an opinion on which squash produces the best tasting blossoms? Im inclined to plant one vine, just for the flowers. Should it be zucchini, crookneck, or other? I am SO blonde this morning. Editted to add: I'm thinking of planting scarlet runner beans too. I probably wont get to it, but it would be fun to have.

That would explain the "ex"?

This is a wonderful thread! Thank you so much. Q: how does one wash squash blossoms? The ones used in the soup look like they were torn into pieces. Were the ones in the quesadillas whole or also broken up? Did anyone mention which variety of squash make the best tasting blossoms?

Congratulations! Avoid anything that smells. That means eating cold food, and letting someone else cook. Go for a walk if you have to, while the cooking is going on. There's no benefit to adding to your torture. Try to eat often - if in small quantities. For some weird reason, the nausea is worse on an empty stomach - hence the term 'morning sickness'. If you can wake up in the middle of the night and snack, that helps the morning bout, which helps you eat breakfast, which helps the later bouts.....Perhaps keep a slice of bread (&butter if you can stand it) next to your bed. In the morning, eat before you get out of bed. Can you stand smoothies? Milk, banana or peanut or almond butter and ice or icecream or yogurt? (the smell of pnut butter wouldnt work for me) Perhaps dried fruit (not apricots - strong smell). Its horrible, and it passes. (Nausea tho does have that horrible characteristic of seeming like forever when one has it). Good luck. editted to add: soup? lukewarm soup? (lukewarm to keep the smells down)

I'm building my annual gardening slowly, slowly... Major gopher/groundsquirrel population is pushing my garden into pots. One new tomato planted last week (Early Girl), one yellow grape tomato that over-wintered (we had a scary warm dry winter). One more variety, TBD, to go. Am prepping soil/pots to plant basil seeds and sweet pepper seeds this weekend. Am looking for cilantro seeds. Hope to harvest the rosemary flowers and use the recipe I got off one thread or another. Have plans for nasturtium flowers on the salad this week (thats how dry it was... the nasturtiums didnt flower til the rain started in March).

somewhere on this board, in some thread or another (a food blog, I think), someone gave a website with australian bush spices for sale. Someone better at the search function than I might be able to find the thread....

Do the stunned really believe that horse slaughter would stop if people couldnt eat the meat? My cat eats a lot of 'meat by-products'. Somehow, I suspect horse is one of those non-specified 'meat's. And my folks raised their dog on clearly-labeled frozen horse meat (granted, some 30 years ago). <editted to correct order of magnitude>

I once got some onion-filled sweet pastries from a Filipino bakery in town. No idea what they were called. No one who ate them ever guessed what the filling was.