lemniscate

This situation is too good to not ask AI for advice I was genuinely curious about the fix. If your Juusto (Finnish squeaky cheese) gets tough, try these fixes: Soften with Heat: Warm it gently in a pan or microwave for a few seconds to restore its soft, squeaky texture. Avoid overheating to prevent melting. Soak in Warm Water: Submerge it in warm (not hot) water for a few minutes to rehydrate and soften. Store Properly: To prevent further toughening, keep Juusto wrapped tightly in plastic wrap or an airtight container in the fridge to retain moisture. Use in Cooking: If it’s too tough to eat as is, grate or cube it for dishes like casseroles or salads, where texture matters less. Toughness often comes from drying out, so moisture and gentle heat are key.

Apple Blossoms. May have been mentioned in this thread earlier, but these are so nice. A muffin shaped pie, I find the ratio to crust and apple filling just right, but I like the crust on pies if they are quality. You can bake or microwave. I like my pie room temp, so I just leave one out on the counter for a while and it's delicious. If I can't get the apple tarte seanonally, this will more than do. I also bought a jar of TJ's unsweetened apple sauce, probably eat that with my TJ's cottage cheese.

Why is this tiny bag thing giving me Beanie Baby vibes?

Irish porter cheddar (I loved Cahill's) Dolce Gorgonzola Smoked Mozzarella di Bufala Sartori Bellavitano cabernet sauvignon (Costco)

Another time travel thread because this is the only one I could find historically about green chickpeas. I found a bag of frozen green chickpeas in my freezer. I think I might have grabbed them shopping months ago thinking they were some other type of frozen bean. Anyway, I have never even been aware of green chickpeas and wanted to use them. I wanted to prepare as simple as possible to understand the flavors. A cup or so of water, the 16oz bag of frozen gr chickpeas, and sprinkle of salt and 0 minutes pressure in the instant pot. I am not the biggest fan of dried chickpeas, hummus is really not something I crave, so my chickpea skepticism was on the high side. Green chickpeas are delicious, sweet, creamy and a fresh green flavor, mirrors edemame a bit. Even the bean liquor is delicious to sip. I am planning to go and mistakenly buy more bags of these. I was not expecting success.

Time travel 2025 I overbought bacon (I know, is there such a thing) from D'Artagnan when they had a more generous than normal sale. My Mom loves their end and pieces, so I rounded out the order with slab for me that I wasn't sure I needed. Mom loved the gift of her ends and pieces. Sliced medium thick and oven baked, paired with halved Costco cherry tomatoes that I fried to softness in the bacon fat, on some random storebought sourdough. No lettuce on mine thanks, or mayo. Havarti cheese was added to the Households sandwiches by request. Those bacon fat fried softened cherry tomatoes.......OMG.........so intense. The bacon was worth the premium price (love you Mom) too.

I like it. It has the look of a cumulus cloud, or the foam from a crashing wave. And it looks delicious.

Same. I won't touch them. And I grew up with the whole Paczki Day craziness. Which is today March 4th 2025, so there's probably lines in bakeries in the Metro Detroit, Chicago, and Cleveland (among others) buying up the paczkis by the dozens.

Wow, serendipity. We just had a crepe stack for breakfast layered with sausage crumbles, basted eggs, drizzled with melted butter and dusted with maple sugar. I heartily approve of a crepe holiday. Bonne Chandeleur.

Impulse purchase, DJ&A Veggie Crisps Tempura with Lotus, Eggplant & Pumpkin , a bit pricey. I love the Japanese tempura seaweed chips, so I gave these a shot. These are wonderful, the coating is light and the veg pieces are crunchy. Not overly salty. I think I like the pumpkin pieces the best. product of Australia.

Commercial canned is good enough for a tonnato sauce, which is then tasty and versatile. I did it with some disappointing canned tuna a while back and used it mostly over pasta and roasted potatoes.

I got the "Christmas season is finally over" feeling yesterday when I ate the last piece of the pear chocolate panettone. I have officially changed my mind on panettone, looking forward to finding more pear/choc version later this year. Still don't like the candied fruit version though.

Julia Child and Jacques Pepin have braised sweetbread recipes on Youtube in various decades. Some from Julia are in black and white.

Big PASS for me on the TJ's Movie Theater Popcorn. Flavors OK, people seem to rave about it. But there are some tooth breakers hiding in the bags. Super hard pieces that masquerade as popped pieces. BEWARE. I still love the white cheddar popcorn, it's delicious and I've never encountered a dangerous kernal.

Most of the stuff I eat can be described like this LOL 😄

See now, I'd try this. It's like french toast with cinnamon sugar and bacon slices that I've eaten hundreds of times. I bet it smells amazing cooking. I guess candied bacon has hit the mainstream. also, I am still onboard with the gravy-flavored mayo from a few months back.

I've been making hot toddies with a coffee bean/cocoa nib infused vodka and a splash of homemade berry liqueur (I don't remember the combo). It tastes like a Belgian truffle candy, except warming. I have also made this with my orange liqueur. Chilly evenings are more than tolerable. I've got a lot of concoctions on the liquor shelves, I need to start a utilization process.

My mojo has taken a hit because I've been a bit over-provisioned by a harvested feral pig that we got in a hunt. That thing has lasted a long time in the fridge. I've divided it into sausages, chops, (something like) ham, stews roasts, etc. All vac packed in portions and sous vided when needed. Every meal is practically made in mind of what part of the that damn pig I can use. I want to use it all the way before thinking about restocking the proteins. There are black cod filets in the freezer, and a bit of ground bison. So there are other options that the pig. I'd say I'm 70% thru the pork but that last 30%............................it's boring. I miss the flexibility of "What do I want to make today?"

I had the Honey and Halawi. Both were moist. The Honey are very tender, sweet, mild and sticky with an easily dealt with pit. The Halawi were a bit harder and long/skinny but not dry and had a more dense caramel flavor. Maybe this year was good for dates. It was horrible for citrus. I actually ordered a lot more of the Honey dates for delivery. Not cheap, but the household really likes them. Never been a fan of medjool.

D'Artagnan has a 40th anniversary special going. I bought veal for my Mom, who bemoans that it has been unobtainable here locally for quite some time.

honey dates from Dateland while channel switching NFL games. I have no dog in any of the fights today, nor any $$.

I have never been a big fan of panettone, mostly because I don't care for candied fruit. But, at an Italian deli today, I succumbed to this version for ~$12 (clearance). Pear and chocolate sounded OK to me.

I think craft beer consumption is also declining. Hard seltzers are replacing beers on tap at local places.

Three potato pierogies, a scoop of cottage cheese, all covered with the leftover cured salmon roe from last night. I want to live 2025 unconventionally.

The times, they are a-changin' https://www.sfchronicle.com/food/wine/article/red-wine-restaurants-19930284.php