Shel_B

I'm a WaPo subscriber as well, so all was well. I make my "everyday" cornbread and muffins in an 8x8 pan and cook them in the big Breville oven. Since sweetie died, and I mostly cook for myself or one other person, I rarely use the regular oven. I go back and forth between cornmeal (Bob's medium grind) and Bob's polenta. I've got the product and the oven dialed in pretty well. Tried other, more "posh" brands, and have always returned to Bob's. The cardamom grabbed my attention when first reading your post. Marmalade, not so much, even though I loved sweeties marmalade. I may play around with lemon. Have made lemon-blueberry cornbread before, and it's a nice combo. I think some lemon zest would be very nice with the blueberries, not sure how it would go with the cardamom. Thanks so much for your help.

@gulfporter I'm a sucker for polenta with blueberries. As it happens, there are plenty of both here ... are you able to provide the recipe? Private is cool if there are copyright concerns.

Easy and Expeditious Lunch: The basis was ... to which was added a heaping handful of TJ's organic frozen spinach, TJ's frozen broccoli florets, diced small, a handful of trimmed leaves from TJ's frozen Brussels sprouts, and the whole dish was seasoned with a mixture of Booneville's smoked Piment d'Ville and ground Kashmiri pepper (a very nice combination, not too hot and quite flavorful). Lately, I've been working on a complicated art project a few of us are working on, and cooking has taken a seat at the back of the bus. Having some of TJ's frozen entrées and vegetables handy has been very helpful.

These were available at the sample table not too long ago. Overly sweet. Cookie description according to Trader Joe: The base is a butter Cookie. (We do mean this literally!) Butter is the second ingredient (after flour), and makes up 24%—almost a quarter of the recipe. A variety of fun, multi-textured Things are mixed into the Cookie dough before baking, including corn flakes, pretzels, marshmallows, semisweet chocolate chips, and crispy rice. Once baked, these circular, golden-brown confections entice with a sweet, buttery aroma. Each crunchy bite may lead to a piece of salted pretzel, or a cluster of rich chocolate chips. The marshmallows have taken on an almost toffee-like candy character. And the corn flakes and crispy rice bring a lighter, crisp crunch to the whole experience. This cookie is excessive in so many ways. It exemplifies the lack of subtlety and the style of excess that so many foods have taken on. If some is good, then more - much more - must be just right. Demasiado!

There's a pasta dish I make in which the sauce is boiled broccoli with the addition of some oil, perhaps a bit of meat, and some chili pepper flakes. The broccoli is boiled and essentially mashed, and then the pasta, cooked in the water in which the broccoli was boiled, is added. Here, in a few seconds, you can see what I'm trying to describe: https://youtu.be/wCDKnMwPQEk?t=47 Might this "sauce" freeze well for a week or so? Would the freezing destroy texture or flavor, or just ruin the sauce?

@Smithy Your postulation was a very fine post.

Perhaps that explains why my poaching chicken thighs disappeared ....

And what is the missing 7-degrees between simmering and boiling called and what would you cook at those temps?

@TdeV To answer your question about the shelf life of arrowroot, the simple answer, per the author of the linked srticle, is "I have found arrow root to have a limited shelf life." https://www.realbakingwithrose.com/blog/2014/04/05/the_secret_shelf_life_of_arrow

This is what I found. Thanks. https://scholars.direct/Articles/industrial-biotechnology/jib-3-003.pdf

Now that's interesting. The article says "... neither arrowroot nor cornstarch must come to a full boil to activate their thickening power." I've always been of the impression that cornstarch required coming to a boil in order to properly thicken a sauce or dish. Many years ago I observed that my chocolate pudding didn't properly thicken and was told, on this site, by folks more knowledgeable and experienced than I, that the mixture needed to come to a boil in order to thicken properly. Since that time, I've always taken my pudding to a boild and the results have been consistently good. Is there a difference between a boil and a full boil?

Here's a thought: Why not post the name of the site and the name of the article? Ex: AbcWebsite.com Bob's article about enzymes

Recently, I was intruduced to the concept of marinating various steak and beef cuts in fruit marinade. Pineapple, Asian Pear, Papaya marinades were used among others An acquaintance provided this link. https://youtu.be/OMWrbaOxj3k Have you tried this technique and what has been your experience?

@KennethT What's the technique that you use for hydrating and steaming Jasmine rice?

Some years ago, there was a local company producing a sauce that was supposed to be more like a Thai version. It was certainly not as sweet as that "Rooster" sauce that's so popuar these days. I've not seen the local sauce in a while. HTK is defintely worth a look. Her ingredient list is just about identical to the locally-made sauce I mentioned.