lemniscate

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.

I had heard there was some type of Company-wide inventory action going on since Sunday and all store personnel were pulled in to deal with that and it caused great upheaval in getting pickup and delivery orders put together and out the door and other normal store functions.

I am in a cycle where I'm just tired of eating out. Like restaurant fatigue. If we do go out, it's for breakfast mostly, ordering the kind I don't make at home (huevos rancheros, or smoked salmon-eggs-fresh bialy etc...). I don't know if its the noise, the struggle for parking, the somewhat "sameness" of design of all the hip local restaurants, I just don't crave the experience at the moment. We ate out, a lot, 3-4 times a week. I bet now its down to 3 times a month.

I used this recipe for inspiration.

If you were closer, I would put buckets full on your doorstep. Lemons/grapefruit are the zucchinis of our backyard produce world around here, don't leave your car unlocked or you will find "gifted" citrus on the seat. People do hoard the Navels, Minneolas and AZ sweets oranges, rightfully so. I haven't been able to get free oranges this year......

I did lemon curd in jars today, 167F for 1 hour (1 pint and 3 half pints). I am still on my tear of using the most out of the free citrus in the neighborhood. I use a whole egg recipe. A couple of my jars let water in, but no curd leaked out. Not sure if I didn't tighten the lids *just* enough or if there were issues with the lids themselves. Despite the water, it did not seem to ruin the curd. Very smooth, very tasty. I'll be making more in the next few days. I might try the next batch in the Instant Pot though.

Looks like one of the bunnies out of Watership Down.

I am constantly gifted "joke" aprons because people know I like to cook, so I guess they think I need aprons a lot. Most are terrible in function and fabric and have stupid jokes, but one of them turned out to be pretty useful. It's a Thinkgeek Tactical Apron, camo. It is kind of heavy, but it covers where I get the most splatters. I find I reach for it when pasta making, rolling out pizza dough, juicing prickly pears (bloody messy). It is a ridiculous garment, but I grin when I put it on.

Noted. Costco had LEM chambers for $600. Couldn't find any info on them. Thanks.

Does anyone have any experience with LEM brand vacuum chambers?

I *had* a Zojirushi 10 cup induction rice cooker since 2005. The non-stick coating in the pot started peeling off within 3-4 years. I hand washed it, never abused it, but the coating flaked and peeled consistently. Zojirushi had the view with complaints that the pot could be used safely despite the peeling coating. I bought a new pot (expensive!) and that one lasted about 10 years before it too started peeling, but now I could no longer purchase the pot for that cooker, end-of-life and out of stock. So I reluctantly got rid of the cooker. I loved that rice cooker, but now I get good enough results in the IP, so I'm not going to invest in another Zo. I wouldn't hesitate to buy another Zo, but I might buy a spare pot, just in case.

@FauxPas Have you tried the TJ's cottage cheese? To me Shamrock and Daisy are such inferior products in taste and texture by comparison.

Trader Joe's 4% small curd cottage cheese is something I would be hard pressed to live without. I use it in place of sour cream on Mexican and Eastern European dishes as a condiment. I don't, however, cook with it. I always eat it cold, straight or as part of the finished dish. I won't buy any other type, been buying it for ages. I don't know who makes it for TJ's. I guess I wouldn't turn down the opportunity to try hepped-up artisanals if samples were offered somewhere. I do not like Greek yogurt. I was hoping traditional texture sour yogurt would return after the Greek yogurt trend lost steam.

It is smack dab in backyard citrus ripening here. I have canned 24 quarts of white grapefruit juice so far. I am canning lemon juice in pint jars also. This year I ordered a Victorio VPK1130 Multi Use Canner instead of using traditional boiling water canning. I am using the steam canning setup. Many pluses for me, the pot is induction friendly, so I can use my induction hob. The amount of water used to steam can in the pot is a fraction of the amount for boiling water canning. The lid includes a gauge to indicate when the canner is ready based on elevation to start the timing. I am still very much a newbie at canning, citrus seems a easy access product to learn the process.

Turn them upside down and they remind me of a game piece from Clue or a stylized Chess pawn.

I had an almost failure of a product at TJ's. We've been on a nuts and seeds kick lately, so I've been grabbing the various offerings at TJ's every other week or so. Ended up with Thai Chile Lime Cashews. They were.....weird. Salty, tangy, spicy, but no cashew flavor left. I thought about taking them back. Cashews are my favorite and these I didn't think I would actively eat at snack time. Then I had a light bulb go off in the head, chopped them and add to (canned) white meat chicken + mayo = thai chile lime cashew chicken salad. It works! Household thumbs up. No need to return, and I'll probably buy them to add chicken salad in the future.

World Market had 30% off Irish-y things for SPD, of course. I succumbed to these Keogh's crisps, despite a kitschy name. The Household agreed these were the best ever sour cream/onion chips we have had. Chips were nicely potato flavored under the realistically tasting sour cream powder with the onion/garlic/cheddar flavor. I liked these better than the Quillo egg flavor, which I thought was my new all time favorite.

@rotuts I use Costco standard large eggs right out of fridge. Somewhere between .5 to 1 cup water in IP with 6-9 eggs in silicone net bag. 3 minutes manual. I really haven't noticed if high or low pressure. QR and into an ice bath. I get an egg with soft pliable white with custardy, slightly liquid yolk. I'd call that solidly a soft boiled egg. I don't think I'd equivocate it to a poached egg. I just this morning did 9 eggs (cold and in the silicone bag) in SV (Joule) 167F for 13 minutes, and THAT is what I would call a poached egg. I cracked the egg over hot rice and it delivered an ovally, very soft set white exterior and a oozy custardy yolk interior. It jiggled. It looked like a traditional poached egg to me. I'd might back off a minute for a more oozy yolk in the future to see what happens. I don't know how I would do that in the IP. I think in my opinion the biggest difference between boiled and poached eggs in the texture of the whites (?), maybe (?).