lemniscate

Ha, currently binge watching Corner Gas on Amazon Prime Video. The Potato Bowl episode is funny in an eGullet way.

I'm trying to use up some pantry odd-n-ends lately. Had a bit of cornmeal looking for a project, also some freeze dried pineapple and cherries. I decided to give Alton Brown's Pineapple Upside-Down Cornmeal Cake a try. I used small corningware bowls instead of the skillet for convenience/portions. There was a bit of batter leftover after filling my prepped bowls so I baked another bowl with just the cornmeal cake, adding chopped spice pecans and bacon bits on top. I am very pleased with the cornmeal cake part, it's moist, smooth and not overly sweet as I feared it might be. It looks a bit of a mess in the picture, but that's what one-handed phone pics get you.

The original version is one of my ringtones currently......🎶

I had a rice failure of all things in the IP yesterday. I steamed some TJ's frozen red shrimp PIP with some butter, soy and chile garlic sauce. It was grand, but there was a lot of leftover juice in the bowl. I thought, hey, cook some white rice in that! I put the two cups of rice in and topped off the liquid, on the rice setting. Weird. Complete mush around the sides of the bowl and raw in the middle. Maybe had to do with the bowl I used still being hot from the shrimp. I dunno. I've made plain long grain rice this way without any issues in the IP, no problems. Anyway, didn't want to toss the rice mixture mess, so I made congee with it this morning. Shrimp congee is good on a slightly wet morning. Not all mistakes are mistakes in the end.

Now my interest is piqued into the psych of Mushroom Hunters. There's a book by Langdon Cook called "The Mushroom Hunters: On the trail of an Underground America". Sounds like a fun read, and I normally do audiobooks, so it's on my list now. Our cow pasture would erupt in what my parents called puffballs and the extended family would come out and harvest them. I don't recall eating them though. We always had a healthy fear of wild mushrooms as kids and knew not to just grab any old fungus. We did find morels a few lucky times on the farm.

Wow, my reading comprehension is really on the fritz lately. The funny part was the taunter took the time to laminate their response, very organized and didactic. I wonder if their father smelled of elderberries................

What did the "taunting laminated card" say? Inquiring minds want to know.

I don't have a ton of Instant Pot "only" accessories, I've been able to use things I already had for most things. I did break down and just bought this Oxo lifter/trivet. I used it this morning for PIP rice and no more burnt fingers! It's sturdy and not floppy like I feared. It lifted a stainless steel bowl with 4+ cups of cooked rice right out. Another thing I had already that has served me well in the Instant Pot is the Lekue bag. I use this exclusively for hard boiled eggs. I was having problems with some of my hb eggs cracking during the cook. I think it was because they would touch the metal sides of the pot while cooking as I load up the metal trivet with 8-10 eggs at a time. Since I have been putting the eggs in the bag, not a single cracked one has been found. It also allows for the eggs to be lifted out wholesale and put in the ice water all at once. I've had the bag for years but never found a good use for it until now.

Interesting read. I still shop Whole Foods at a minimal level, which is more than "before Amazon" when I didn't shop there at all. I almost exclusively shop the sale items, like the fresh seafood and cheese, and some produce. I am a Prime member with the Prime Visa, so I get those Amazon points for purchases. I feel I'm getting good perks. I am kind of surprised that my shopping there isn't increasing though. I still default to Costco and Trader Joe's for the vast majority of groceries. I don't recall seeing Whole 365 groceries being offered on the Prime specials, maybe the pricing doesn't allow for it. I would have the Prime membership with or without Whole Foods, but I appreciate them trying to entice me with the special pricing.

I have vague memories of a restaurant chain called Victoria Station that was made of of railcars. I think I had a birthday dinner there when I was a little kid.

I am on my 3rd use of the Instant Pot today and my 4th for the weekend. I did rice this morning, then a batch of bison sloppy joes (cross posting from the Freezer thread, used up some of my red chile cubes), and now doing a full pot of bone broth. Yesterday I did a large amount of sweet potato puree (using ChefSteps as a inspiration), some for me and some for Mom who is in the midst of dental work and needs soft foods. I am staggered by the usage of it when I stop and think about it. I think I average using it everyday somehow. Changed my life in the kitchen.

I only know the farm type knots that keep a hay bale from falling out of the truck bed, or keeping livestock from wandering away, or tying a younger sibling to a tree for...........................reasons.

I got through 1 package of parsley/walnut pesto cubes, served over pasta. I have an over abundance of red chile sauce cubes. I want to make a ground turkey red chile but I don't want to buy ground turkey just to make it and then need to put the leftovers back into the freezer. A conundrum wrapped around an enigma.

I think only Trader Joe's could answer that question accurately. BUT on the side of the wrapping it does say the following:

I hope dredging up an old thread topic is not frowned upon, but I just tried some Quillo Fried Egg flavored Potato Chips, from Spain, so qualifies as international flavor. Picked them up on whim at World Market. They taste Just Like fried eggs to my palate. I like them. $3.99 a bag, smallish bag. The other flavors stocked were White Truffle and Spanish Ham. I'm planning my return trip to grab those for a try. I still have a coupon.

A contender has arrived.........TJ's Dark Chocolate Sunflower Seed Butter Cups. Really, really good. Nice quality chocolate with a creamy-ish sunflower seed butter paste, very pleasant. I'm not usually a dark chocolate fan, but this is a mild version that I enjoyed. Ratio to chocolate to filling was about equal. I will buy again if it sticks around.

It's a soup consisting of pork broth, cooked until the meat is very soft. Grated potatoes, carrots and pickles are added. I'd say Mom's standard ratio is 6-8 cups of meat broth, 3-4 cups of grated potatoes, 1-2 cups grated carrots and 5-6 grated dill pickles (Vlasic is the usual choice) with juice reserved. The vegetables are added and cooked until just tender. Mom puts a good dollop of sour cream (3-4 tablespoons) and about half that amount flour in a mason jar with some water and shakes it to combine. Then pours the mixture through a fine sieve into the soup to avoid lumps. Cook until thickened. The pickle juice can be added to boost the tanginess of the soup if desired. This soup has a thick, chowder-like consistency. All this cooking is done by feel, so the amounts are my best guess since it was my job to grate all the vegetables. There are several recipes on the internet searches, most use chicken broth, some cube the veggies, some use an egg as part of the thickening....

I just finished a goodly portion of my Mom's Dill Pickle Soup, a staple from our farm days. It's creamed with a Sour Cream/flour mix and is so good and so comforting to me. She uses a pork broth base (uses country style ribs).

I don't have anything fermenting at the moment but I did a batch of sauerkraut with shredded cabbage and Brussel sprouts together. It was based on something my Mom remembered when my Grandparents would put up the barrel of kraut in the basement. They would shred large heads of cabbage. Farmers sold tiny immature heads of cabbage (late in the season heads that would likely not make it to full size) and these would be put whole into the barrel embedded in the shredded cabbage. According to Mom, these tiny heads were the most desired part of the kraut and the kids would fight over who got them when the kraut was done. The Brussels sprouts turned out very close to what Mom remembered. They got sweeter and lost the bitterness that can be a problem in sprouts. I also did a crock of fermented garlic cloves and whole shallots once. I thought that was really good and pungent. I then fermented carrots and celery in the some leftover garlic/shallot juice. That stuff was tasty. Tell me about the beer vinegar. I have tried making fruit vinegar a couple times and it was just too funky for my tastes.

Visiting Daiso to me is an event. I have to go 1 state over to shop there, but what fun! The snacks alone are worth the trip, and all the little doodads and organizing things, quite addicting. That's an amazing table. Is it temperature controlled or ???? Can't quite make out it's purpose.

I have done preserved lemons in my seemingly never-ending quest to use my fruit. Someone on egullet a long while ago posted about "preserved lemon paste". I took my jar at the time and pulverized the lemons into a smooth paste in the blender. This stuff was kind of a game changer. I add it to sauce when cooking chicken and fish, into stews that need an acid/salty kick, into homemade tartar sauce, mixed with olive oil for a bread dip, slathered on focaccia before baking for lemon essence......etc. I plan on adding it to my next try at bloody mary/bloody ceasar when I remember to make myself one. I think it's one of the most versatile condiments I have in my larder at the moment.

I was overwhelmed with lemon juice last year. Since I was a newbie canner, I made a concentrated lemon syrup by heating the juice and sugar. Can't tell you the proportions since I was experimenting. The juice reduced by half and I canned the syrup in pint jars. It works well for lemonade, I use it in baking cookies and it give a big lemon punch, and I use it as a substitute for simple syrup in citrus cocktails. I'm sure I'll pick up other uses as I go. I've also gifted it to people I know who like lemonade drinks. Recently, during our cold snap, I mixed it with hot water and had a warm lemonade drink that was really really good.

Me too. Exactly this. Some minds think alike.

My NY Day 2019 good luck foods, made by Mom, shared by all. Homemade sauerkraut made with smoked and fresh kielbasa and the (expensive) imported Polish dried mushrooms. Served over a few egg noodles. The bowl is much bigger than the picture indicates. Potato pancakes with sugar/sour cream and (Ikea fake)caviar/sour cream. Two kinds of marinated herring not pictured.

As a kid I used to make sumac "lemonade", eat elderberries, hunt and hoard wild strawberries, smash black walnuts, and ate (with some reservations) chokecherries. This is really cool history you have been given. I don't care for the flavor of Queen Anne's lace no matter how it's prepared.