lemniscate

I was inspired by the Trader Joe's Semi Dried Antipasto veg to see if I could do something similar homemade. I was at the Chinese market and picked up Asian eggplants and largish zucchini. I sliced them 1/4" minus and seasoned, put them on my grill mats in the Oster oven at about 110F for 2-3 hours. I tossed the semi dried pieces in a cambro, doused with Greek olive oil, salt, and dash or two of balsamic. Not pretty like the TJ's stuff, since just eggplant/zucchini experiment, But it is close in texture and taste to me. I didn't add a ton of olive oil since I'm pretty sure these will soak up as much as you can add (trying to hold down the calorie count on the dish). I ate some over rice. I think these would be great on pizza, or added to pasta sauce or cold in a salad.

I tried the Semi-dried Antipasto Vegetables and thought they were fantastic. Had them as a side dish room temp. The texture of the veg was not mushy, but toothsome and had lots of flavor. The oil is subdued and not too much. Product of Turkey, I know they sun dry a lot of veg in Turkey, so I wonder if these are sundried or? I bought the antipasto cherry tomatoes and the grilled artichokes but have yet to open them.

I shove a bunch of it in the bottle of an inexpensive silver tequila (Kirkland) and let it steep. Then I make cilantro margaritas with it.

I just came home from my local Chinese market with an Edwards Classic Country Ham in the cloth bag, ~15lbs, for significantly less than the online + delivery price. Last one, or maybe only one they had. I brought it home. This won't be an Easter ham, since I already took delivery of Nueske's smoked ham. King of impulse buys , I'd say.

It was a wild and windy Tuesday night, cooler than normal. We sat on the patio to watch the skies and shared two bombers, a Unibroue Don de Dieu that I found at Whole Foods for a reasonable price. The 2nd was Left Coast Asylum. These are big alcohol heavy beers and we were feeling no pain fairly soon and were cheerful.

My favorite soy sauce, Yamasa, adds alcohol as a "natural" preservative. Since I went to Japan years ago, I found I preferred the soy sauces with the alcohol base.

In the chefsteps comments, someone noted that 13 min 30 sec was the sweet spot for the set whites (no residue) vs. luscious yolk at 167F.

For me, nopales is best with tomatillos. Tomatillos are supposed to help with the okra-like sliminess that nopales can have when stewed. I use this as a side for roasted, shredded pork. Do not forget the crumbled queso fresco or cotija for the topping. https://pinaenlacocina.com/2014/05/15/nopalitos-con-rajas-en-salsa-verde-cactus-with-roasted-green-chiles-in-tomatillo-salsa/

I had done cold large eggs (Costco) at 167F (Joule) for 13 minutes and got results of what *I* would deem acceptable as a traditional poached egg texture. YMMV due to personal taste. Whites will stick to the shell in a layer when cracked. I didn't take any pictures though. I also use a silicone net bag to hold the eggs in the water. adding Chefsteps 167F egg link, (pre-Joule release apparently)

I'd love to try the Squash Flower soup. I had Squash Flower crepes in Mexicali with Huitlacoche soup. I think about that meal often. The delicacy of the flavors were wonderful. Don't get me wrong, I like a good Sonoran style burro or enchilada, I just wish those other flavors of Mexico would catch on here. We had some access to good Mexico City style food, but that chain seems to have given up the ghost lately.

I don't have marmalade, so I used zest, lemon juice and sugar to replicate.

Rice Stock Hard Boiled Eggs Pasta Sweet Potatoes White Potatoes Assorted Vegetables (cauliflower, broccoli, squash etc....) Chicken thighs Meatballs

In my seemingly never-ending search to use my backyard lemons up (and I am giving them away also at a record pace) I found inspiration for a lemon base Jezebel Sauce. I drizzled a bit on pasta last night with some olive oil. wow. Lively dish.

For US Costco members, the Instant Pot Nova Plus 6 Qt 9-in-1 Multi-Use Pressure Cooker is $25 off online ($89.99 from $114.99). Good thru 4/21.

Maybe "something" corresponds with these holes in the lounge table? hmmmmmmmmmmmm

I think I accidentally made pita bread. I have a slightly unique situation. I built a wood fired pizza oven, but not at my house. It's on a different property. I have romantic ideas of evenings with hot pizza out of the oven and cold beers watching the sunset on the side of the mountain. I am doing my learning curve on how the oven behaves and how to make pizza dough. I've never done homemade pizza. The first try was make the dough and take it to the site and stretch/roll onsite, and cook. Well, that's a pain in the wild I found. Second experiment is make the pizza dough at home, roll/stretch, PAR BAKE, freeze and then take to the oven for ease. When I par baked the pizza rounds, they puffed up exactly like pita breads. (I also have never tried to make pitas before.) Is pizza dough and pita bread dough the same? This is my absurdly simple question.

Ah, I spent time in Rodeo about 10 years ago. I really liked that tiny place. It's a damn shame the Tavern is now closed. The walls are covered with the most entertaining figures from a traveling artist who needed to work off his bar bill, in the 40's or 50's I think. His name was Chas. Campbell. The art was quite risque for the Mormon ranchers and the children were expressly told to not look at the walls when there were community events held in the Tavern I was told by a longtime local. LOL.

Right next to these in the freezer were whole NZ lambs, halal, wrapped in white cloth, piled 4 feet high. Amazing. I didn't take a pic of those.

Speaking of duck. I stopped in at Costco Business yesterday during a break from a work thing. They didn't have the "thing" I was looking for, but I did find this. I didn't have a way to keep them frozen for the remaining hours away from home, but I will be returning to purchase, when I clear up a bit of freezer space......

I have been intending for eons to get to the Saturday sale at HF Coors. I've made up my mind, Star Wars Day (May the Fourth) is the day I will finally make it, as Yoda says "Do or do not, there is no try". I love that second pattern you showed, a lot.

Oh, I know LeeLee's. I am a regular . I was just no where near LeeLee's unfortunately when I started looking for apricot puree. Sprout's had no such thing, I even tried the baby food aisle. Everything is a multi-fruit-vegetable puree now. I was hoping to find the Knudsen's nectar version. No luck. I could have bought some dried apricots and rehydrated/blitzed them, but the preserves were close enough for me.

I bet that rabbit will be talked about for years. Good job! I'd happily buy a raffle ticket hoping to win him.

I made Apricot Chicken (a la Meg, for the final episode of McLeod's Daughters bingeing on Amazon Prime). It's mentioned in the series quite a few times, so I thought it would be fun to eat and watch. I couldn't find apricot puree, so a low sugar apricot preserve was used, Lipton's onion soup mix, boneless skinless chicken thighs in the Instant Pot. A few leftover gnocchi on the communal platter. It was a nice sweet onion sauce. I'd add a little sour to it somehow if I make this again, just my preference. We enjoyed it. Thanks Australia!

Yes, but I will say I used the recipe for "inspiration" meaning I kind of did my own thing otherwise. The texture in the jars that were sous vided is like a soft flan texture, but spreadable. I backed off on the sweetening quite a bit (sorry no measurements) and bumped up the zest amount quite a bit. I was tasting it as I was making it to adjust for my preference. It's tart, smooth and has the adult "bite" of zest. I am going to make it again in the Instant Pot in jars since I had some water incursion issues with the sous vide.

I actually doubled that recipe and used 6 whole eggs, whites and yolks. The color of the curd is a lighter yellow than just using yolks. I was referring to the recipe as a "whole egg" version, rather than the typical yolk only versions.