blue_dolphin

Community Supported Agriculture. Generally, you sign up with a farm, pay a set fee for a season and receive a regular box of produce. Variations abound. See more here.

I wish someone would make square or rectangular containers in a range of sizes that use the same lids. Deli dishes fit this description with sizes from 8 - 32 oz, varying in height but accepting the same lids. I find square or rectangular shapes store more efficiently in the fridge or freezer. I had a bunch of very sturdy 16oz square Rubbermaid containers I used for my work lunches and also as @rotuts describes to pre-freeze sauces, beans, etc that I'd remove and vacuum seal. I bought them about 30 years ago and am down to my last few. They served me well but now I’ve got a mishmash of different brands and random takeout containers that take up a ton of space and annoy the heck out of me when I need to find the right lid. Thirty years is probably asking too much as I probably won’t last that long myself but I wish I could find something fairly durable to invest in. Any suggestions?

The TJ's Greek feta is my preference as well, though for slightly different reasons. If they’re out, the Israeli is an acceptable option.

I recently purchased Galette!: Sweet and Savory Recipes as Easy as Pie (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) by Rebecca Firkser and it looks like it will be fun. There's one basic dough recipe used throughout, with options for adding flavors or other flours like cocoa, buckwheat, etc. The wide range of shapes and sizes she uses is very appealing to me. Everything from an XL sheetpan size for parties to individual servings in folded squares or muffin tins to a deep-dish version baked in a springform pan to accommodate lots of filling. First on my list to try is the Rotisserie Chicken, Potato, and Chèvre Galette which Rebecca describes as a chicken pot pie on vacation in France. She offers a Buffalo wing variation with blue cheese instead of chèvre. Maggie Hoffman recently hosted Rebecca on her Dinner Plan podcast to chat about the book and other things. You can listen to the podcast and find the recipes for the chicken galettes I mentioned and a pretty summer tian galette here: The Dinner Plan: Rebecca Firkser’s Best Advice for Cooking on a Budget You can scroll down on this page on the author's website to find a carousel that includes several pages and recipes from the book: https://www.rebeccafirkser.com Other recipes: Sour Cherry and Campari Galette Sweet Cherry and Lime Galette Sugared and Peppered Plum Galette

Ah, I knew about the one store liquor or wine license rule and that TJ's had one wine shop in NY but didn’t realize it had closed. Luckily, you have many superior options close by!

Trader Joe's had a nice private label Bandol rosé earlier this summer @12.99. I polished off my last bottle over the weekend. Unfortunately, I think it’s sold out now but it’s worth trying if you happen to spot any.

Braised Romano beans with anchovy, chile flakes, and fancy olive oil from Sunlight and Breadcrumbs by Renee Erickson with a fried egg on top. A very luxurious and flavorful version of these silky beans!

As long as you weren’t stark nekkid, I’m sure you’d have been better dressed than anyone else you encountered in the wee hours! If they sent up coffee packets, I’m sure there would be no filters…or no cups…or… When I traveled a lot for work, I kept a ziplock that tucked neatly between the handle rails of my carry-on with tea bags, oatmeal, single-serving pucks of peanut butter and jam (hoarded from my work cafeterias) some of those Wasa crackers sure to survive a nuclear attack, prunes - almost as durable (and yes, as effective as the Wasa), plastic utensils, several folded paper towels, wet wipes, etc. It got me through a LOT of unexpectedly late arrivals when I needed to be at work very early! Those in-room coffee makers always gave me pause though. If I wanted to use them for hot water, I always ran 3 cycles of water through to get rid of the stale coffee smell. I think you were likely saved by the ineptness of this operation!

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.