blue_dolphin

I can’t say that I’d drive that far to Trader Joe's but I drive a similar distance to Asian markets, as do my Asian friends. If you’ve got a decent cooler with frozen ice packs, then frozen foods should be OK. My friends always bring 2 coolers, one with ice packs for the frozen stuff and another one (or insulated bags) for refrigerated stuff that shouldn’t freeze. Finding the time? Unfortunately, I can’t help with that!

Toasted crumpet spread with plenty of butter and ginger preserves. July Flame peach from the farmers market. Black coffee.

Another bean/tuna combo: Seared rare tuna with mashed flageolet beans and radicchio from A Twist of The Wrist by Nancy Silverton This was very good though I prefer the version with harissa and baby limas, also in this book that I posted just above. I made this with Rancho Gordo flagolets instead of canned. Per the recipe, the mashed beans get a drizzle of balsamic vinegar, that’s good but it’s the charred radicchio leaves that really benefit from the added sweetness and acidity so I added more.

I paid a visit to TJ's this morning. Of course, I picked up a container of All the Things cookies, following the advice of @rotuts to avoid the paler specimens and choose a box with more “well done” cookies. I agree with his assessment that they’re on the sweet side but I don’t find them overly sweet at all. I saw comments elsewhere that they were too dry but I found them pleasantly light and crisp. Nice with a cup of coffee. They won’t replace the Triple Ginger Snaps as my favorite TJ's cookie but I don’t think I’ll have any problem finishing them off. Edited to add one more comment on the cookies. I’m a nibbler, so I take tiny bites to make my treats last long as possible. What’s fun about nibbling on All the Things cookies is that each little bite is different. I like that. I also got a box of the All Butter Apricot Shortbread cookies. I believe they had an apple version last year. There's 15 cookies/box @ $3.49. I like these a lot and probably will grab a few boxes before they disappear. I’m not usually a fan of strawberry ice cream but I was curious so I got a pint of this new item. It’s quite good with little strawberry chunks that have a nice, tangy flavor. I also picked up the following: Clockwise from the top: I usually get fried shallots at an Asian grocery but it’s nice to have a more local source. I’m not sure how I feel about greige pasta but I always like trying new shapes and this line of Italian pastas tends to cook up almost like a fresh pasta so I bought a box of the Black Pepper Barilotti. Not sure what I’ll serve it with. Seems like it would work in a cold pasta salad with salami, tomatoes, etc. The salsa macha has a chili crisp look in the labeling and the consistency of the contents. The salsa macha I make (with the customary peanuts) is a bit more pulverized while the seeds here are all intact, floating in the oil. I’ll try this on roasted Brussels sprouts or maybe Romano beans…. The organic, dry-farmed Early Girl tomatoes are grown in California so I’m not sure if they’re widely distributed but they are nice little tomatoes. They’ve been offered at my TJ's for a couple of years but just for a short period. I forgot to get tomatoes at the farmers market so these are a decent sub.

I've added balsamic vinegar to both strawberry popsicles and sorbet. You can test the effect by putting a drop or two of balsamic vinegar on a strawberry and tasting. I’m not sure I’d go for it in an ice cream but it’s quite nice in the non-dairy recipes I made. I also made a very nice strawberry shrub with balsamic vinegar. I don’t have any flavored balsamic vinegars, just various ages of the regular stuff. Edited to add that I think the balsamic would be excellent with cherries, too.

Inspired by @Katie Meadow, I cooked up some baby green limas and could have sworn I posted about them here. Apparently I’m getting forgetful 🙃 In any case, this is the recipe I had in mind when I cooked them. It's the seared tuna with lima bean purée and harissa from Nancy Silverton's book, A Twist of the Wrist. The combination of a lightly seasoned, lemony lima mash with the harissa and herb marinated-whole beans is excellent and could stand on its own without the tuna, though that was a treat, too. The only oddity is that she calls for poaching the beans (she calls for canned or frozen) for 5 min in a cup and a half of olive oil to “infuse them.” Some of the oil is used in the marinade and the mash, but certainly not all of it. Not sure that’s necessary. There are a few more tuna + bean recipes in the book so I’ll be checking those out as well.

This link should take you to a search for kitchen islands and carts on Wayfair. They have quite a few options at affordable price points and should at least give you an idea of what’s available. I was able to find similar items at Home Depot and Lowe’s, though not as many options.

I agree with your assessment. A lot depends on how stable this needs to be to support the anticipated amount of chopping. A while back, I spent a good amount of time shopping for similar options for my mom’s kitchen. In her case, there was another bit of countertop that would function as the main prep area so the need was primarily storage and extra counter space. I found quite a few options but they didn’t need to be super stable for lots of chopping.

I didn’t put the clock on them but after reading your post, I started tasting early on and they seem largely intact. My plan for them was a Nancy Silverton recipe for seared, rare tuna with lima bean purée and harissa but they took long enough that I started getting hangry and tossed this together. Tuna will happen tomorrow. Thanks for the succotash tips, they sound good. I’ve only had the simplest version with corn, limas, a little onion, a pat of butter, salt & pepper.

I’d also be interested in a stellar succotash recipe! After reading @Katie Meadow's post, I cooked up some Rancho Gordo baby green limas, tossed them with Trader Joe's lemon pesto and had beans on garlic-rubbed toast.

Very much so. The marshmallows are different but the vibe of salty crunchy bits in a cookie with a ton of mix-ins certainly fits. Here's Christina Tosi's Compost Cookie recipe for those interested.

I'm not in the UK or Ireland, nor have I baked my own crumpets but this seems as good a place as any to share these recipes I made from Mezcla by Ixta Belfrage, who likes them quite a lot. First up is this Tomato salad with tahini-ginger sauce, chilli oil and crumpet croutons: The crumpet croutons are made by cutting up the crumpets, tossing the cubes with olive oil, garlic and salt and baking them @ 400°F for ~ 15 min, tossing midway. They come out delightfully crisp and crunchy. The whole salad is good but the crumpet croutons are the thing I will remember to use again in other salads. Next, is a dessert called Black Forest crumpets. The crumpets get tossed with melted butter and sugar then baked at 425°F for 15 min or until crisp, golden brown and caramelized. They’re topped with a mix of cherries and berries, lightly macerated in sugar, kirsch, orange zest and vanilla, a dollop of whipped cream, melted chocolate and a cherry. The caramelized crumpet is very crunchy so it doesn’t get soggy from the fruit at all. I would certainly play around with them as an easy dessert base. The last one is the Tuna crudo with soy butter and jalapeño-cucumber salsa served on toasted crumpets. This was fine but, for me, crumpets aren’t the best choice for this dish - I’d much rather scoop it up with chips or plate it on a tostada - but it did give me ideas for using crumpets as a base for other savory dishes.

I watched a few seconds of the video but have no idea what “sauce” you want to freeze. Just the boiled broccoli? Or you want to mash the boiled broccoli and freeze? Or you want to add some pasta cooling water to boiled, mashed broccoli and freeze that? In my experience, almost anything can be frozen well, so yes to that. If kept in the freezer, it will stay well frozen. The texture will change. Plant cell walls will rupture and release liquid so it will be watery compared to before freezing. Flavor-wise, the sulfur-containing compounds in cruciferous vegetables become more noticeable with extended cooking time so you can expect that effect. It’s up to you whether that’s destroyed or just changed. I make this type of pasta often because it’s so quick and easy. It’s never occurred to me to freeze it mid-prep. I have frozen the finished pasta dish, made with a chunky pasta shape. It made for serviceable work lunches but not something I’d choose if I could cook up a fresh batch.

It’s the Black Hole of Boiling. Nothing should be cooked there! 🙃

This article has a pretty good boil vs simmer discussion.