FauxPas

Wow, that's a lot of seeding/planting you have done! Did you start tomatoes from seed in your greenhouse? No shishito peppers? 🙂 Do you ever grow winter squash? So glad that the storm didn't do more damage to your beautiful and bountiful garden!!!!

This is one of the few times when something is LESS expensive on Amazon Canada. It looks like exactly the same pan (same model #) and is $33.99 Canadian which is just under $25 US. Here is the listing link.

Agree with this. But I'd add (and I'm sure you'd agree) that Kristen is also very attractive and articulate. Very eloquent about food and cooking. She went to culinary school, worked in kitchens and has competed (and won) on Top Chef. And she operates a restaurant. She understands the pressures of the competition and the industry in a very deep and personal way. And honestly, I just find her more likeable! 😄

Pete and Trudy on the show Mad Men had one of these. You can see it here in the right background just past 15 second mark. I loved some of the 60's decor on that show!

I like to grate my onion and add the grated onion plus any onion juice that has accumulated to the meat mix. Sometime I add a bit of grated carrot as well. I don't know if the classic tomato glaze appeals to you or not, but I often add one - mine is usually ketchup, brown sugar, bit of mustard, Worcestershire sauce and some hot sauce. @rotuts might advise you to just wrap in bacon instead. 🙂

Loving The Dish with Kish! I really hope they keep this show around. It's so much fun to see the production details and background stuff and also it's really a thoughtful little program with real information. Useful cooking information. The recent one that featured cranberry went through the process of making a wonderful little dish based on umeboshi (preserved pickled plums) but basically a cranberry boshi which was served with a hamachi or yellowtail crudo and a cranberry ponzu sauce. I think it would be easily replicable at home though I wasn't sure about all the ponzu ingredients.

Yeah, no oils or fats in our regional composting program either. Restaurants and commercial food producers can sell their used cooking oils to companies that will provide storage containers and come and pick it up periodically, but I don't think there's a parallel household program. The collected oils are processed and used for biofuels and other things. I guess it's possible that some restaurants would let us add to their containers but I don't think they would want the hassle of dealing with a bunch of people coming by! 🙂

I don't live in Ontario and can't help with specific grocery stores and their products but I'll mention a couple of possibilities. M&M Foods has a gluten-free list. It's not my favourite store but they have some good stuff and it might be a way to stock your freezer with a few easy to prepare items. https://www.mmfoodmarket.com/categories/gluten-free Also, services like Heart to Home will deliver frozen meals and also have a special diet menu. https://www.hearttohomemeals.ca/meals?collection=specialdiets Not sure if either are a good option for you.

I have a suggestion for the green garlic. A local farmer gave us this recipe for salad dressing and I make it whenever I can get green garlic at local farmstands or farmers' markets. I adore this stuff. It kinda looks like pea soup but it's SO tasty! 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 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.

I hope so! Last year was fairly good, but I hope for better this year!!! 🙂

I have some plants that I started from seed, including tomatoes (3 kinds) and peppers (jalapeno, serrano and sweet). They are really getting big and I'm getting tired of bringing them in at night so hope tonight is the last night for that. We're supposed to get back to warmer overnight temps tomorrow. Here are photos of some of them. Also, we have blossoms on the strawberry plants!

I've been making a lot of Spanish or Mexican rice in the Instant Pot lately (not sure which country to choose). I use 1 heaping cup of long-grain rice and sauté in a Tbsp or so of oil. Then I add about 1 1/4 cup of chicken stock and 1 generous cup of Pace Chunky Salsa. Cook on high pressure for 5 or 6 minutes. This almost always turns out really well. A couple of times I missed the right proportions and got a Burn warning though so I am careful about measuring the chicken stock. Sometimes I want a bit more heat, depending on the salsa's heat. I add diced fresh or canned jalapenos before cooking or just before serving. It makes a decent-sized batch and I freeze it and then just microwave it to serve. It's so handy when we are having some meals where there is already a lot of chopping and prep and this is such an easy addition. I got the original idea/recipe from an online site but have modified it for my own purposes. I almost always have some in my freezer now.

Aw, hope you two can relax and recover, @Smithy! Your kitty looks pretty content! 🙂

I wasn't familiar with this, had to look it up. Your cocktails really do sound like perfectioni! The first Hawaiian island I visited was the Big Island. My husband took me there for my birthday one year not long after we were first together and we returned about a year later. Some good memories! But haven't been back since as we acquired a very decent timeshare on Kauai and so spent most of our time there (a leasehold which expired a few years ago). Looking forward to a vicarious return to the Big Island! 🙂 Thanks for bringing us along.

If you did end up with extra apple butter, you can use it in cake or muffin recipes. Do a Google search for baking with apple butter or apple butter in cakes, etc. Or ask here for a recipe! 🙂

The biggest choice will be whether you want to cook the apples with cores and peels or not. If you have a food mill or are willing to strain after initial cooking, you can just cut the apples up and start cooking. If you have an immersion blender or food processor, you can core the apples but leave the peels on and blend them in (I'd probably do this and use my immersion blender). Or you can peel and core and just cook the fruit pulp, but you'll lose some of the thickening benefit of the pectin. Do you want to make just a small batch or a larger batch for canning that will be shelf stable? I'd go for a small batch for your initial attempt. Something like this one, which yields about 1.5 cups: https://www.loveandoliveoil.com/2018/10/small-batch-stovetop-apple-butter.html You can also add other spices like nutmeg or allspice.

With all that you have been going through, I would have expected you to be feeling pretty tired. So pleased to hear your upbeat tones and see you having some bits of fun in the kitchen! Best wishes for healing and travels! ❤️

More mystery. Apparently Murphy said he wasn't allowed to participate in LCK and couldn't say more because of NDAs, but I saw somewhere that Tom had said he "opted out." https://www.realityblurred.com/realitytv/2024/03/top-chef-wisconsin-episode-2-recap-last-chance-kitchen-chef/

Also, just discovered that there is another web-based companion series to Top Chef this season. It's called The Dish with Kish. I watched the first episode and enjoyed it. It's hosted by Kristen and includes background info on production, guest cooks and bits of Top Chef history. Seems fun! https://www.bravotv.com/top-chef-the-dish-with-kish It also shows Chef David Murphy at the end of Top Chef episode 1 and it suggests that he didn't shake hands with Tom. Tom says something like "Are you sure you want to play it that way?"

Is anyone watching Last Chance Kitchen? Any idea what happened to Cowboy Chef? He was eliminated in the first Top Chef episode and should have turned up in LCK but instead there was some 16th Chef instead. I've got to go and watch more Last Chance Kitchen to see if they enlighten us, I've only watched the first episode. Oops, just found this article but it seems to raise some other questions. https://vincemancini.substack.com/p/top-chef-david-murphy-not-on-last-chance-kitchen

When I was still working full-time and only had the chance to do real cooking on some weekends, I would often listen to All Blues on NPR with John Kessler. Saturdays and Sundays, 6 pm to midnight, easy to tune into for an hour or two. Or more. 🙂 https://www.knkx.org/allblues

I make mango bread every now and then. I love mangoes but sometimes buy more than I can eat right away so I peel, cut up and freeze the extra ones. I have some in the freezer right now and was thinking I should either make chutney or a quick bread. Thrifty Foods had ataulfo mangoes for a really good price last week and maybe still does? I think they were $1.25 each. I don't have a favourite recipe as I don't make it that often. But I do like a mix of pureed and diced fruit. Either of these recipes would be a good starting point for me. https://www.garlicandzest.com/mango-bread-recipe/ https://whattocooktoday.com/easy-hawaiian-mango-bread.html

I like Buddha's comments on the episode. https://people.com/top-chef-wisconsin-recap-buddha-lo-episode-1-8611775

Totally agree that the camera work and/or editing was distracting. I definitely noticed that while watching the episode. I hope it calms down a bit so that we can see more of the details and in a less frenetic manner. And better food and chef shots/angles, etc. I had mixed feelings on abandoning the QuickFire challenge. As @blue_dolphinsaid, it's hard to get a feeling for the chefs in the first episode with all 15 doing their own thing. Maybe the grouped challenges would make sense and make it easier to follow each one. But then the camera stuff was so offputting, I still had a hard time figuring things out. More time for one challenge could have been better managed, I think. And then they just added a different kind of challenge on to the end. It felt like Next Level Chef a bit though. And I just want Top Chef to stay Top Chef, darn it. 🙂 In the past the QuickFires sometimes seemed so random that it felt like luck rather than skill to get the win and it seemed unfair to be able to get immunity based on that. But many of the QuickFires were also FUN and some definitely showed skills. I still want to see them but agree that dropping the immunity part makes sense. I thought Kristen was fine. It will be nice to see how she develops the hosting role.

hahahahaha 🤣 Also, totally agree about the grocery store derby. But I guess Whole Foods likes having a big old ad right in the middle of the show. I recorded it last night, will likely watch tonight.