FauxPas

Wow, what a menu! Like a culinary tour of the archipelago? 🙂

Some growers here used to give them away but since scapes have become a popular ingredient they have started charging, although usually just a couple of dollars for a batch.

I've used them in the most obvious way, which to me is pesto! But I also used them to make the Green Garlic Dressing that I love so much, though the scapes didn't seem to break down the same way that the green garlic does and I ended up straining after blending. It still tasted great, and I guess you could skip the straining but I didn't like the texture. The end result was not nearly as thick as using green garlic but it may be that the scapes i used were getting a bit old? Green Garlic Salad Dressing 3 stalks green garlic (white and green parts) chopped 1/2 cup olive oil 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar 1 teaspoon mustard (I used a honey garlic mustard) 2 tablespoons honey 1 tablespoon lemon juice Salt and pepper to taste Blend until dressing is smooth and emulsified (like a smoothy). Refrigerate. Drizzle green garlic dressing on anything to add a sweet, intense garlic flavor. From salads to pasta, to bruschetta and roasted vegetables. Edited to add: I tried pickling them one year but I honestly did not like the result. The texture was not pleasant to us and not sure the garlic flavour was intense enough. But that may have been me, I know other people like them pickled.

Gros Morne Park is beautiful, I'd love to go back and visit and have one of those lobster rolls!!!!! 🙂

Haven't seen it yet, but have set up TV recording for next Friday. Thanks!

I've never tried the VH mango chili sauce but here's a recipe my friend gave me if you want to try making your own. Not sure how close this would be to the VH though. 😞 I made it once a while back, pretty sure I reduced the sugar/honey amounts. Mango Sweet Chili Sauce Ingredients: 1 cup fresh mango, chopped 1/4 cup vinegar 1/4 cup sugar 2 tablespoons honey (optional) 2-3 garlic cloves, minced 1-2 red chilies or 1-2 teaspoons chili flakes 1/2 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon cornstarch + 2 tablespoons water Instructions: Purée mango until smooth. Pour into a saucepan and add remaining ingredients except slurry. Simmer for 3-5 minutes. Stir in slurry and cook until glossy and thick. Cool and store in a clean jar. Tips: Add lime juice for extra tang Use less chili for milder flavor Strain for a smoother texture

For me, it all depends on the variety. We go crazy for Warba potatoes here in the late Spring and early summer. They are the very first potatoes and are harvested before they even form a skin. So these ones need to be kept refrigerated and we usually eat them soon after purchase, within a week or two at most. A Yukon Gold or new red or white potato with skin will get stored in my lower corner cabinet in the kitchen where it's fairly cool most of the time. Here in BC, I never put them in the fridge. But when we lived in Arizona, I kept them in the fridge because the house temp would vary so much and it was so dry. We buy russet potatoes here from the local farms in the autumn and we store them in our garage which at that time of year will usually be cool and not too dry. If stored properly in there, they can last for at least a couple of months. We also keep carrots and onions there. But that all depends on local climate and so forth.

There was/is a decent Chinese restaurant in Tucson called Fatman Kitchen. One of the chefs was from Xi'an and their menu just calls the noodles "Xi'an Oil Splashing Noodles". No mention of Biang Biang there, although a local newspaper review did make that association. 🙂 They were delicious!

You definitely got a better deal! I purchased mine at a fundraiser for a good cause, so I didn't mind paying a bit more than I usually would for a used book. 🙂

Just picked up this one for $20. Published in 2010 and over 800 pages.

I looked up Fish Peppers, they sound interesting. Caribbean origin and a serrano variety, if what I read is correct. https://www.incredibleseeds.ca/products/fish-hot-pepper-seeds As for picking green peppers, I just kept sampling until they started to get nice and hot. In our climate, it's tricky to get fully ripe peppers without a greenhouse, so I only had a few here and there that turned red.

OMG, are you ok? Did you get badly burned? 😞

I adore artichoke on pizza. My fave combo is artichoke, Feta, kalamata olives. But wow, yours just looks so amazingly good!

So exciting! Lots of peppers on that plant, you must be providing them the right conditions! 🙂

The always popular roasted cherry tomato and feta pasta with lots of fresh basil. And a few strawberries from my plants, served with a bit of vanilla ice cream.

I use this basic recipe but I skip the diced onions - instead I just use a chunky salsa (like Pace). 🙂 And I like to use good homemade chicken stock. https://www.pressurecookingtoday.com/quick-and-easy-spanish-rice/

I know that I'll have days/evenings when I don't much feel like cooking so I do two things to get by. One is to try and make sure I have a few items in fridge/freezer/pantry for those times and the other is to make myself do a bit of prep ahead of time. One of my fave non-cook meals is bean salad over lettuce. I used to can my own but now I buy it - Paisley Farms brand (from Costco?) when I was in the US, I think. Easy to keep a jar in the pantry/fridge. It usually contains kidney, garbanzo, green and yellow beans with onion and red pepper so I feel like I am getting protein and veggies along with a bit of sweet and sour vinegar tang. Yum. I make Instant Pot Spanish Rice (itself very easy to make with chicken stock and jarred salsa) and keep some meal-size portions in freezer. If I have cooked beans in freezer, I add some + a bit of salsa and then microwave. Or I add frozen green peas and/or diced ham and microwave. I also like an apple with cheese slices. Cut up the apple or not, ha. And cottage cheese with fruit or cherry tomatoes. I sometimes lose interest in prep as it gets later in the day so I try to do as much as I can earlier in the day. Having pre-washed and chopped veggies etc makes it much easier for me to follow through on meal plans. And if not that day, then most things will keep until the following day. I don't know if I'm really addressing your topic very well though?

I wanted to ask if the 50 pounder referred to the halibut or the zucchini. 🙂 Just ask @Shelby, ha. @Duvel, that Käsespätzle looks like what Mac 'n Cheese dreams of becoming when it grows up. We are boring. 🙂 The new Warba potatoes (a local craze, the farmstand got rushed when they first came out) are available at local farms so I made potato salad served with a roti chicken for a couple of nights. (I used to enjoy roasting a whole chicken but my husband is one of the early bird Costco shoppers and he sometimes grabs a $5 bird, the day-after ones.) Two nights of chicken + potato salad with local tomatoes and cukes (greenhouse, but very good). Then back to fajitas! Chicken, this time. We get tortillas from a local farm, a Mennonite woman who lived in Mexico for years.

Thank you so much, not sure why I couldn't find that on my own. 🙂

Hoping @Shelbywill reply. I did a search for her eggroll recipe and couldn't find it, but I did find several mentions and photos of the eggrolls she makes. Would love to see her recipe again. Pretty please, @Shelby? 🙂

That's awesome! I had a couple growing at a place in Arizona, but they never formed any fruit so they may have been just the ornamental variety. They were still attractive and unique though the actual fruit would have been nice! How long do they take to ripen, do you know?

I hope you'll share details of your harvest with us!!! 🙂 I start peas from seed, they tend to be pretty easy to grow here on Vancouver Island as it's not usually very hot.

It will be so pretty as it fills in! Looks like some nasturtiums in there also? What variety of cherry tomato, do you know? I have "Husky Cherry Red", a few "Sweet 100", "Sugary" grape tomato, and several "Sweet Million" cherry plants. I would have had more of the "Sweet Millions" but some of the ones I started from seed didn't fare very well. So I'm glad that I bought a few plants at the nursery when they were on sale. I picked the first strawberries yesterday. I just have two hanging baskets with plants but they have quite a bit of fruit for their size. Not enough ripen together to do a full dessert usually but enough to enhance a fruit salad or have with a bit of yogurt. I have some snap peas too but lost some as I discovered that my cat likes to munch on pea shoots. And not just dainty little nibbles either, ha. 🙂

We had strip loins one night and then made fajitas the next night with the leftovers. No plated photos though.

I want to laugh but I can see a lot of work ahead for you! 🙂 How many tomato plants do you usually grow? Everything looks so wonderful though. Well, except for all the zucchini .... 😄😄😄