Shel_B

Thanks for the info. I came across a mention of the box a while back and asked about it, but didn't see a response. I'll read the thread ...

Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt - screwed up that one ... I'll fix it. I was going to post a pic, but my phone was in the car and the cameras were on their chargers, and the dish didn't look very interesting, just a pile of fusilli in red sauce. Also, I was more interested in sharing the experience of my thoughts and what I did than the final image.

I had a craving for pasta, specifically fusilli, but I didn’t want to spend a lot of time making a sauce since there was none at the ready. How would fusilli work with aglio e olio … As an aside, fusilli is quickly becoming one of my fvorite pasta shapes. The size is perfect for me, I love the texture of the pasta as it’s chewed, and the ridges do a pretty good job of holding most sauces. Good enough for this poor dirt farmer from NYC. I broke out the new, deeper 12-inch skillet and added about 2½ quarts of filtered water and a big dollop of Diamond Crystal Salt. I grabbed the last of the DeCecco fusilli from its resting place alongside the microwave oven, where several other pastas are also stored. While the water was heating, the sauce started to come together. Some Rancho Milagro EVOO went into a 10 inch skillet and, seeing some beautiful Italian anchovy fillets in the fridge I decided to add them to the aglio e olio, and when that decision was made, I decided to just riff a simple sauce leaving the aglio e olio as primarily a building block. I added enough anchovy to, hopefully, be just barely noticeable in the background, or at least that was the intention. About three large cloves of pressed garlic were added to the anchovies cooking at a medium temp. The garlic sizzled a bit when it hit the oil so I immediately added a little less than ¼ cup of water from the container on the stove. There's always water handy to add to cooking garlic to reduce or eliminate its tendency to burn. Next came the Aleppo pepper, two generous teaspoons of that lovely, flavorful pepper. That was cooked together with the garlic for a while, and the oil tasted for intensity and flavor. The garlic seemed to be fine, but a bit more Aleppo was required … not too much, though. And then the riff continued. A couple of tablespoons of Mutti Triple Concentrated tomato paste was added and cooked to a brick red color with the oil and other ingredients. Tasting told me I was on to something, but more was needed, and I imagined a kind of funky pork flavor as being a good addition to this , and so I added just about 1½ tablespoons of ’nduja (https://ndujausa.com/). The whole thing came together nicely. By the time the sauce was ready, the pasta was done. I pulled some pasta water from the skillet, drained the fusilli, and dumped it into the sauce, adding a bit less than ¼ cup of the starchy pasta liquid. When the stirring and mixing gave me the creaminess I wanted, I turned off the heat and removed the pan from the hob. It was time to add the cheese, a blend of Pecorino Romano and a lovely Grana Padano from a local, old school Italian deli. Lunch was a delight.

Good for you, Nancy. Explorations of a recipe or a particular dish are often an evolving process with progress being made by experiencing failures and the elimination and adjustment of various ingredients.

That's the name I couldn't remember.

Toasted Tots in the Toaster Oven

A gift of food is, for me, quite rare. A few days ago I received a couple of pieces of freshly made focaccia covered with black olives, feta cheese, and caramelized onions. The unusual thing was how I got the gift. It was early evening and I had just pushed the doorbell button at a friend's house. A moment later, he opened the door and at just that instant I heard a voice from behind me. "Hey, you guys want some focaccia?" Turning to the voice I saw a young man standing on the sidewalk in front of the house. He was holding, and offering, a take-away container in which there were a couple of pieces of the described focaccia. Friend and I were were taken aback not only by the offer, but by the circumstances. The young man explained it was from a restaurant around the corner, on one of Berkeley's main shopping streets. The man said that the restaurant was closing early and that they had some items left over that they decided to distribute to folks in the neighborhood, something akin to an advertising promotion I surmised. I got some information about the restaurant, and since the bread was quite delicious I'll visit the next time I'm in the heighborhood. The incident reminded me of the times when I was a kid and guys would come through our neighborhood and sell meat and chicken out of the trunk of their car. It was a little different though, as those guys were always selling stuff that fell off a truck. As a kid, I thought how lucky those guys were, but later on I came to fully understand their good fortune.

@Margaret Pilgrim Do you have any that are unusual or particularly interesting? It might be nice to see an image of one or two.

I don't see them in so harsh a light. For some types of sandwiches, however, they seem inappropriate. Some items need more "air" in the ingredients, and the press may squeeze out that air, or space. The sauerkraut in a Reuben is an example of that, although Smithy's sando didn't seem too bad in that regard. OTOH, I've seen sandos that were much worse. IMO, for certain things, Old Skool is the way to go.

Cloche: good word choice, although the cloche is but a part of the entire aparatus, is it not. Isn't it just the domed lid?

I still (rarely) enjoy the mini shredded wheat biscuits as a snack or as croutons in a salad. I say rarely only because I've cut W-A-Y back on eating dry cereals and using milk. Someone gave me a big box of cornflakes recently, and I'll buy some milk and eat those, but it's been months since I've purchased milk. If ever I buy shredded wheatagain, I'll certainly use them as a snack and on a salad.

Love 'em grilled, just not with a panini press.

That's a pretty poor looking Reuben sandwich. The cheese doesn't even look well melted. I'm sure yours would be measureably better. I'm old school, Reubens have no business being on/in/under/near a panini press.

A few bottles of some of my favorite hot sauces were delivered a while ago. Just in time, I might add. The last dregs of the garlic pepper sauce were used this morning.

I've been looking for this locally, not wanting to pay the high prices from online retailers where one had to buy 6 or 12 packages, or had to pay high shipping costs or place large orders. Sometimes that's OK, but all I wanted was a couple of boxes of pasta. Today, the local Natural Grocery called and said they'd recently received some fusilli, and within a few minutes I was on my way to grab a couple of boxes. There's a dish I wanted to make with this for a while, and tonight or tomorrow I'll put it together. Happy boy, here ...

I love it. A multi-tasking unitasker ...

Didn't think about that. That pretty much seals the deal to pass on getting one. Don't need more stuff to clean and wipe down.

I wish I had a spare corner on the countertop ... <sigh>

What is this thing called? More important, does it actually work to help maintain freshness of baked goods? A friend suggested it might be nice to have handy for those times when pastries are put out for guests. How long might baked goods retain adequate freshness when under the cover? Ordinairily, I'd eschew such a thing, but Barbara thought it would "add some elegance" to those times when guests come by. Usually I just put a few things on a platter and bring 'em out when the time's right. My friend suggested that I could bring the items out ahead of time, use them as a display which would allow for snacking, and save space on the table since its footprint takes up less space than a platter.

@YvetteMT Thanks so much for the heads up. I've a Costco run coming up and I'll take a look at the item. I don't know if my sister is a Costcoista.

Hmmm ... you've given me an idea for later in the week.

This is a simple, quick, and tasty meal. I add additional spice, usually Kashmiri or Aleppo pepper, preferably ground but flakes work too. If I have some handy, as there was today, I may add additional spinach, either a small amount of frozen and thawed or some fresh baby spinach leaves. Today,along with some spinach, was Kashmiri powder and a big spoonful of TJ's canned Hatch chilies.

@blue_dolphinThanks for posting that writeup. I'm not much of a drinker ... thus far, this year I've had three beers ... sometimes I enjoy a bubbly, though. This sparkler might be nice for a little get together we're planning later in the summer. Sweetie liked Prosecco and Orange Juice (Mimosa?) with eggs benedict, and I'd sometimes enjoy the drink with her. Do you think that this Frizzante would be a nice alternative to the mimosa?

This is a new-to-me entrée and I pretty much enjoyed it. For openers, the noodles had a decent texture although a little more "snap" might have been nice. The dish was adequately saucy and the peanut flavor was fine. There was a subtle, underlying sweetness to the dish, perhaps from the inclusion of some carrots, and there was an acceptable amount of chicken. Being a noodle dish, the chix played backup, but did so nicely. The dish was a little bland for my taste, but for others it may be just right. Adding a blend of red pepper, szechuan, and gochugaru chili flakes made the dish sing for me. 'Twas a lovely choral arrangement.

DeCecco pasta that I checked on Amazon was $2.89 or $2.62 with subscribe and save option. Safeway showed $2.50 for various varieties Whole Foods $2.69 Walmart (BIG surprise) DeCecco spaghetti: I went to replenish my supply of Marie Sharp's Garlic Habanero hot sauce and the price went from $9.60 the last time I purchased it to $15.00 now, and that's for a 10-oz bottle. I checked other sources and the price is pretty much the same ( Big bummer. ☹️) except that Amazon offers free shipping and I get 6% credit back, so Amazon works out to be the best price.