Shel_B

Lately I've been playing around with white pepper. Since rediscovering a second pepper grinder that I'd stashed away and forgot about, it's been easy to use two types of pepper. Not having used white pepper very much, I was surprised by what it brought to many dishes. I'm still experimenting and learning my preferences, but both black and white together in some dishes has been a surprisingly nice combination.

Cumin comes quickly to mind, as does a bit of fresh-ground white pepper. Nicely colored dish, though.

Nice image ... well done.

Here's the dinner with the sauce. The flavor was quite good, although a little more intensity would have been welcome. The sauce was great on its own, but the flavor got lost a bit when diluted with the rice, chicken, and veggies. Notwithstanding, it's worth playing around with some more. There was some left over, and I may try to punch up the flavor a bit before using it in another dish. Of course, just adding more sauce might have doe it as well.

Roasted Sweet Potato (garnet yams) and Carrot Sauce: I made this for dinner tonight. I'll be having it with a brown rice stir fry, veggies, and chicken. The veggies for the sauce were deeply roasted and caramelized, and there was even a bit of char on the carrot, some of which I kept. Chicken broth was infused with fresh and roasted garlic, added to the potatoes and carrot, along with salt, fresh ground Kampot pepper, a bit of fresh lemon juice, and freshly ground corriander and cumin, and given a ride in the Vitamix. It tastes pretty good as is, and the real test is how it works with the rice, chicken, and vegetable(s) tonight.

Toasted English muffins with melted pepper jack cheese, cup of medium-strength Ethiopian coffee.

Late Lunch Leftovers: Yesterday I poached some chicken thighs. A couple-three days before I made a vegetable and broken spaghetti soup. Today I put some thighs together with the soup, adjusted the seasoning, and made a light but filling chicken-veggie-noodle bowl. Five minutes to put together.

Poached Chicken Thighs: These'll be used in some subsequent meals ... added to the recently made veggie-spaghetti soup, a rice dish with veggies, might even make a chicken salad. The broth will be used as a base for various dishes. I'll cook and mash up some Yukon Golds with it, freeze some for later ...

Just a simple breakfast: thick cornmeal porridge (Bob's Medium Grind) and a cuppa black Ethiopian coffee brewed strong.

Dark chocolate Milky Way (Forever Yours, Mars Bar, Midnight), Almond Snickers, Original Reese's Peanut Butter Cup (only the original size) and a definite mention goes to York Peppermint Patty.

Vegetable and Broken Spaghetti Soup: Made enough for a few days. Did a little fridge cleaning as well. Green beans, onion, carrot, red bell pepper, sautéed in Calabrian pepper oil, plus the addition of zucchini, a small can of diced fire roasted tomatoes, and broken whole wheat spaghetti. Slightly under cooked to account for subsequent reheating. During the following days, various proteins will be added to round out the meals ... glorified leftovers!

One of the You Tube sites I frequent made a Dubai Pistachio Chocolate bar a while back. Maybe you'll enjoy the video. https://youtu.be/sZoh97hXdm8

I discovered this in the big, bottom drawer of my office desk this afternoon. Totally forgotten, but the images and ideas it contains are still as fresh in my mind as the day I acquired the book. Many of the pasta images were of thinly drawn sheets of translucent pasta with herbs pressed between them, cut into small shapes to fit comfortably on the plate. At the time, I'd never seen anything quite like those diaphanous ravioli ... I guess you'd call them ravioli. (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

Tomatoes Recalled Due to Potential Salmonella Contamination Three brands of tomatoes have been recently recalled due to this potential contamination. First, Williams Farms Repack tomatoes sold in two-layer, 60-count trays and two-layer, three-count trays are being recalled, as well as H&C Farms Label tomatoes sold in 5x6 25-pound containers and 6x6 25-pound containers.2 These two brands of tomatoes were packaged between April 23 through April 28, 2025 and sold to wholesalers and distributors in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina. These recalled tomatoes contain lot codes of R4467 or R4470. Additionally, another recall was announced on Ray & Mascari Inc. Vine Ripe Tomatoes sold in four-count clam shell packages.1 U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA). Ray & Mascari Inc. recalls 4 count Vine Ripe Tomatoes because of possible health risk. These tomatoes were sold in Gordon Food Service Stores in the following states: Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Mississippi, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin. The recalled containers have a printed UPC of “7 96553 20062 1” and a master case label with lot number “RM250424 15250B” or “RM250427 15250B.” https://www.eatingwell.com/tomatoes-recalled-salmonella-contamination-11728285?