FauxPas

Tried out a FarmBox from a nearby organic grower and used some of the mixed tomatoes, green beans and carrots for dinner last night. Started with a very simple salad with butter lettuce and tomatoes and vinaigrette, then had some beans and carrots with Chilean Sea Bass. The sea bass was pan-fried with a cumin rub, finished in the oven.

Just a quick note on a squash variety that was new to me until this past summer. While in the Comox Valley, I saw some locally grown Gem squash. They are a perfect size for one or two portions and very tasty. Our tenant is from South Africa and says it was his fave vegetable growing up. I cooked them a couple of times and really enjoyed them. http://www.cooksister.com/2010/10/gem-squash-central-finding-them-growing-them-and-eating-them.html

Tomato and apple chutney is quite good, maybe you could add some apples to your hot sauce?

I made a beautiful dinner salad tonight and the pics didn't turn out at all, sniff. But it was roasted cubed Carnival squash (cooled), roasted cubed beets, orange supremes and pepitas over mixed greens with a citrus vinaigrette. We had it with some leftover beef brisket and that was dinner, as the salad was quite filling. I wish I had pics, because it looked nice. Another salad I wanted to do was a warm one with squash (I have a butternut to use up) and black beans and a spicy dressing. Not sure what all will go in that one, but I might make some cornbread to go with it and that will be another dinner.

It's been fairly warm here but after some thunderstorms overnight, it cooled down quite a lot so I made porotos granados (Cranberry Beans with Squash & Corn) topped with a fairly spicy pebre sauce - from the Time Life Recipes: Latin American Cooking. It's basically a stew with beans, squash, tomatoes, onion, corn and some seasonings. I used a cubed Carnival squash and added them later than the recipe suggested, since I wanted them to retain their shape. The cranberry beans came from Rancho Gordo and were delicious. Overall, the dish was tasty, but probably would have been a bit bland without the pebre sauce (oil, white wine vinegar, cilantro, onion, jalapeno pepper, garlic - all chopped finely and mixed in advance for flavour to develop). The pebre topping brought the whole thing to life. My husband really liked the meal.

I see Amazon has the Kindle edition of Plenty for $3.99. Not sure if that is just a short term price or not. Plenty by Ottolenghi

Happy birthday, Kerry!

Shelby, Happy Belated Birthday! Hope you had a great day! The cake looks and sounds delicious. We have a large chain of restaurants in Canada called Boston Pizza. I don't know why the name, is it supposed to be Boston-style pizza? Does anyone know? Anyway, they used to have Boston Cream Pie on their menu and sometimes I would go there just to share some BCP with a friend (they were fairly generous portions). But then they removed it from their menu. When I next had a craving for some, I decided to make my own. It was a bit of a pain but, like yours, it was pretty tasty. But it makes a lot of cake! You need friends to help finish it off. Or pets, maybe. Ha.

Totally agree.

I'm not doing a lot with apples right now. I did make several pies and some apple sauce. But nothing to keep for long. I saw this Alice Waters recipe for making apple cider vinegar from peels and cores and it made me smile. From her new book, My Pantry: http://www.marthastewart.com/1127863/alice-waters-my-pantry

I think that's the big question, for sure.

Kenji at Serious Eats plays around with a prototype: http://www.seriouseats.com/2015/10/worlds-most-precise-griddle-replace-sous-vide.html Not fully realized yet, there are some limitations on the test unit. For example: I'm wondering how much of a jump it is from the prototype to the desired final product.

Wondering if anyone else has seen this Meater tool? Completely wireless, can be used in ovens or grills and will send notification to smartphone when meat reaches desired temperature. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1977846026/meater-the-first-truly-wireless-smart-meat-thermom?utm_source=eggaddiction&utm_medium=campaign&utm_content=cross&utm_campaign=kspledges Any thoughts?

BKEats, lovely to hear from you again. I remember how you took the time to send me a PM to fill out some details on a question I once asked. You mentioned you were opening a restaurant and I kept wondering if that had happened yet. And now I see it has, and what a fabulous looking spot it is! Is that 'egg monster' your little one? You certainly have been living a busy life! So many things happening. Your food looks and sounds delicious. I wish you every success!

Wow, I am impressed by the way you are tempting the fates by setting that filled glass on the edge of your laptop keyboard AND near the edge of the table/tray. If that were me, my next photo would be picking up glass shards from the floor and using a paper towel to try and dry off my laptop keys.

I hope ChefCrash will correct me if I am wrong, but i suspect it's basically a lemon vinaigrette dressing.

I can view them from here (in Canada). Both play fine for me on my Windows 10 laptop.

Gardening or foraging? Hazelnuts from our yard, we have four mature hazelnut trees. The previous owners planted them and they produce quite a few nuts. But this year the deer got a few and the raccoon (plural) got a few. And right now we have a group of lovely blue jays (Steller's jays here in BC, our provincial bird) who have been hanging out in the trees. I love the jays so much and they love the younger nuts that are still on the trees, so I'm not going to shake the trees or anything. I'm also going to leave some nuts on the ground for them because I enjoy watching them and don't mind helping them stock up for winter. Cracking these is like shelling peas - a disproportionate number ended up in my mouth. Ha. Still, I usually have a few to use in a salad or dessert.

Local Dungeness crab is delicious! Served with some garlic butter, coleslaw and potato salad. I like to add lemon to my garlic butter.

Smitten Kitchen has a decent recipe - based on Madhur Jaffrey's. I used some fresh tomatoes that were steam-roasted and peeled. Had some cooked chickpeas in the freezer. I thought about using the cauliflower to make Aloo Gobi and maybe skip the rice but instead threw some chopped cauliflower in with the masala.http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2010/02/chana-masala/

Another cool and rainy day, though we should be back to sun in a couple of days. In the meantime, I wanted something warm and fragrant and didn't feel a need for meat so went with Chana Masala (plus added some cauliflower I couldn't resist at the farm market). Basmati rice and mango chutney. It was fun pulling out some spices that I haven't used that much lately.

Jo, sorry your planned dinner didn't work out. I completely agree that the Amy's soup is vile. I felt the same way. I do keep the Gardennay/Campbell's Red Pepper & Black Bean on hand. My husband and I both like it enough and we can use it when we are really pressed for a quick lunch or dinner. I always add a little bit of water/stock to it and sometimes add leftover beans/rice/tomatoes/onions/peppers etc and it's not too bad. It'll do for dinner in a pinch! You can always donate the extra cans of Amy's to a food bank. Of course, you are sticking someone else with them, but someone must like them. They keep making them.

Last year the weather stayed warm and sunny and dry right through September, but this year we are getting a bit of cool and rainy weather already. It's starting to feel like autumn and I couldn't resist buying a Carnival squash from the farm when I went produce shopping. I steam-roasted the halves in the Cuisinart steam oven and filled them with a mix of cooked beans, tomatoes and onions. Some fresh tomatoes on the side. Forgot to take a pic after filling. We loved this meal, almost forgot how lovely these taste.

Do you ever make hot sauces with your jalapenos?

Thanks, TFTC! I ordered more eggplant seeds, the variety that really grows well in a pot. I may gift most of the plants I grow but will keep at least one to give another go at eating them!