FauxPas

I'd never heard of ruby chocolate before. I wonder if the local TJs have this product!

yes, they were huge! That's why in my 'after' photo, you can see that I had to rely on a fork to help me deal with them, ha. 🙂 They must have been 50 or 60 cm long, at least. And wide. But delicious and toothy. Oh so delicious, with all that lovely oil and heat and garlic and green onions. My mouth is still 'singing' a bit. Funny about the Chinese character and Xi'an city. 🙂

There's a new restaurant in Tucson that I was eager to try and my friend's birthday was the excuse to visit today for lunch. Fatman Kitchen has two chefs, one is Sichuan and one from Shaanxi. We ordered Xi'an Oil Splashing Noodles, Pork Belly with Garlic Sauce and Stir-Fried String Bean. The wheat noodles are made fresh in-house and were delicious with lots of minced garlic, chili oil, bean sprouts. I believe they are sometimes called Biang Biang noodles and an interesting article with recipe and video here advises that the Chinese character for 'biang' is one of the most complex characters, requiring 42 to 71 strokes to fashion it. But here is a copy of their menu (no website yet) and the characters don't look complex, so I guess they aren't actually calling them Biang Biang noodles here? @liuzhou, if you are inclined to help, can you advise? Thank you! Edited to add: I also read this in the article, maybe that's the explanation. Is it literally "oil splashing noodles"? Biang Biang noodles is also called You Po Che Mian (油泼扯面) which literally means “Oil pouring over hand-pulled noodles”. This name explains a particular method of seasoning “You Po”: place chilli flakes, chilli powder, ground Sichuan pepper, minced garlic and spring onion on top of the cooked noodles, then pour hot oil over. The heat immediately releases the full flavour of all the herbs and spices. Noodles before mixing, lots of fresh minced garlic! After mixing all that lovely topping into the noodles and oil. This dish is quite spicy, but in a very mouth-pleasing way. The noodles are huge and toothsome! Sauteed beans with the option of adding some nice hot chilies to each bite. 🙂 And pork belly, served cold with cucumbers and more chili oil. Sorry, we had already made good progress on this dish before I remembered to take a photo. The food was amazing and the price very reasonable. Leftovers went home with my friend. I really want to return here but need to remember to go early or late, as it fills up fast.

Have we talked about seed libraries before? The local libraries here (Pima County Public Library branches) have a seed library, which includes a selection of heirloom and open-pollinated seeds that can be "borrowed" to grow at home. It's pretty cool. I have no idea how common this is. They have lots of information and book recommendations tied to the seeds provided. They give growing timelines, organize classes and events and so forth. https://www.library.pima.gov/browse_program/seed-library/

I'm sure @gfron1 posted somewhere about it, but I can't find it. Maybe it was on his FB page.

Every time I go to TJ's I am struck by the range of East Indian meals, especially in the frozen section. I have tried the Butter Chicken, Channa Masala, Chicken Tikka Masala, Vegetable Biryani, Naan, Samosas, Aloo Chat Kati and their Mango-Ginger chutney. The only one we didn't really like was the Aloo Chat Kati and I'm not sure why. At first the pockets tasted good, but then there was a bit of an aftertaste that I found unpleasant. Have not tried the garlic Naan bread, Vegan Tikka Masala, Palak Paneer, the eggplant curry (Baincan Bharta), or the Korma Fish Curry. I have Lamb Vindaloo in the freezer now. Who else has tried these and am I missing any others? I put off trying their frozen meals because I liked making my own Indian food, but I've since found they are a nice option to have on hand for days when things are rushed or just not feeling up to cooking. Photo from one of the local Trader Joe's freezer sections.

I like nasturtiums as well. I used to make infused vinegar with the flowers and leaves. The colour of the vinegar was lovely, nice to use in vinaigrette. I like the idea of the nasturtium butter at the same link, though I have not tried it myself. http://therunawayspoon.com/blog/2011/06/nasturtium-butter-and-nasturtium-vinegar/

Agreed, she has a restrained feisty quality or something that is quite charming!

The show moved to Channel 4 from BBC a couple of years ago. Paul Hollywood is still there, but the second judge is now Prue Leith and the new hosts are Noel Fielding and Sandi Toksvig. I've watched the new seasons and the format is pretty much exactly the same. Sandi and Noel are OK, I don't mind them.

@Shelby, I ordered the pan also. My husband loves caramel and I'm sure he would love this flan! Thanks for sharing! 🙂

My husband tends to take this approach as well. I just go ahead and do it differently if I feel strongly enough about it. The only problem is that we often do agree that the original method/pairing was indeed superior. 😣

Salton Sea is such a quirky place with such an odd history. How long do you stay there?

Those pita look perfect, @Smithy!

OH, just figured this out. 🙂

I follow the conventional oven directions, though you can also do them in the microwave. The oven instructions are 400F for 20 to 25 mins. I do them in the CSO for about 22 mins at 375F usually. Ha, it looks quite a bit bigger than it was because of the camera angle or something. 😄

Thanks to @rotuts, we had to try that Pancake Bread. 🙂 It's pretty good, my husband thought it was a bit like a muffin. Husband loves the TJ's hashbrowns. I think they're OK, but I'm not quite as big a fan. We did a brunch thing today. I made him basted eggs on hashbrowns with bacon, he was happy! Eggs are also from TJs this time.

I'm sure if I am saying this wrong, someone here will correct me. A traditional oven is heated to 350F or 400F or whatever to get the food to an internal temperature of 140F or 150F or similar because air is not a great heat conductor and you have to overshoot the temp to get your food to cook. An immersion circulator heats the water to 140F instead and the food cooks in the water bath, which is a better heat conductor. So if you use an immersion circulator (Anova, Joule, etc), you don't need to have a temp similar to an oven, you only need a temperature similar to the desired end food temp. And they are pretty good at maintaining a set temperature. Are you sure that you need to heat something to 230-240F or are you trying to maintain an oven temperature such that a food will cook to the acceptable range, which will be quite a bit lower than your oven temperature?

Wow, your freezer is definitely raid-worthy!

I see The Kitchn has a fun little list of meals made entirely of TJ items. Each meal is prepared from three TJ products. Cute, though not sure how many I would try! https://www.thekitchn.com/trader-joes-dinner-ideas-265012

Yes, good point and I was wondering about that myself! And I might try buying a steak there again, it's been a while and maybe things are different.

We were disappointed with the NY Strip steak that we bought from TJ's also and I am pretty sure that my husband cooked it on the grill. It was quite a while ago and all I really remember is that we said we wouldn't buy another one.

Wiki suggests we call it a Shepherdess Pie. .

Pretty sure my freezer would have several packages of "mystery meats" if I filled it up properly.

I especially like "looks like pork tenderloin". 🙂

Yes, that's sort of what I was saying.