blue_dolphin

Good point. I’m not a panini press hater but it’s not the right tool for every sandwich. Today, I made Ottolenghi's Fried scallops with saffron potatoes, asparagus and samphire and did a miserable job of plating and didn’t have the pan hot enough for an attractive sear on the halibut cheeks that I substituted for the scallops. No matter, it was very delicious. The cheeks were perfectly, if not stunningly cooked. The spuds, asparagus and samphire are a great combo. Per the recipe, each serving is to be topped with 1 tsp of the aioli you make with gently roasted garlic. A rather stingy amount in my book as it goes with everything on the plate. The garnish was supposed to be 5 mm cubes of fresh tomato but I threw in a handful of tiny orange tomatoes instead.

From the NYT: Chefs on the Films That Always Make Them Hungry Eleven chefs each talk about one movie and its impact on them. Only two picked the same film. A few classic “food movies” but some don’t have a strong food focus at all but still struck a chord for them in some way.

I’m glad you liked them! I also prefer bread over crackers with cheese and I don’t think your shredded wheat option is odd. My mom used to eat them as a snack when I was a kid. I like them better than Triscuits though it would be nice if they came in a shape somewhere between the mini and those big honking original biscuits. My mom liked those, too, though I was never a fan!

More stale bread French toast, topped with the Baked Apricots with Maple & Fenugreek from A Whisper of Cardamom by Eleanor Ford The recipe includes an unsweetened whipped yogurt and a sprinkle of amaretti cookie crumbs. Interesting use of fenugreek here. The seeds are toasted and infuse the maple syrup drizzled over the apricots before baking. It doesn’t overwhelm but adds a nutty, earthy flavor that's most noticeable when you bite into one of the seeds.

I haven’t seen this shape elsewhere either. It cooks up quickly, since it’s a little tube. I dressed this lightly but it has little ridges that hold onto the sauce, exactly as you say!

Lemon pasta with asparagus and tiny tomatoes TJ's lemon torchetti pasta dressed with TJ's lemon pesto with asparagus, tiny orange tomatoes and a sprinkle of feta.

I’m sure you will like them. The ECC nails the balance between creamy and crumbly. Had some this morning on a sausage, egg & cheese sando. And that Gouda is always great - tons of flavor from just a sliver!

I’d say the sweetness is probably comparable to a mimosa made with Prosecco but the orange flavor here is more from the peel or the zest of the orange than from juice. Almost more like Tang than orange juice. Not artificial, just from a different part of the fruit.

Wow - I had no idea! Is it a general holiday or do people have to arrange time off from work for this, ahem, religious observance? I had no idea there was such a thing as a liquor belt. The things I learn here! Today’s lunch was the Fish in Paper, Spring Edition from Ari Kolender's How to Cook the Finest Things in the Sea, recipe available online here. Before cooking: And after, with a handful of tiny tomatoes thrown in for color: He suggests serving this with crusty bread and it was indeed perfect for sopping up the liquid that’s steamed out of the fish, veg and aromatics inside the parchment, no dilution, pure flavor!

French toast made from a loaf of sourdough so stale that I ended up letting the slice sit overnight in the egg:milk mixture when it became clear it wasn’t going to soften in time for yesterday’s breakfast 😮 The sausage patty was a freezer remnant from a while back when I used an Aldi breakfast sausage chub to freeze up a batch of thin patties I could cook quickly, right from frozen for breakfast sandwiches. Time to make another batch.

Here's another new item I tried, the Tarongino Frizzante Sparkling Orange Wine from Spain @ $12.99. I can see this being popular at summer parties when you want something cool and festive but don’t want to get smashed. It’s not a sugar bomb as I feared and I liked it more than I expected. This is not an orange wine that gets its color from skin contact but is actually made by fermenting muscadet grape juice and Valencia orange juice together after macerating them with the orange peels. It also comes in a still version @ $9.99. They are both low alcohol, 6.9 ABV for this one and 51 calories/5 oz serving. I saw the still version a few weeks ago and thought it sounded awful, then read a review of the frizzante that sounded more appealing. As you can see, it’s the color of an orange popsicle and it has some of that taste, too. There’s some sweetness but it’s not cloying and is balanced by the acidity and a hint of bitterness from the zest or peels. I enjoyed sipping a chilled glass on a rather hot afternoon. TJ's has a nice Vinho Verde from Portugal that’s my choice for an afternoon sipper and for something a little more frizzante, I’ll take their Giardino Pinot Grigio delle Venezie Vivace Rosé, both $5.99

My French butter cookie comparison was rather flawed. I have the smaller, classic St. Michel galettes and the TJ's are more similar to the larger St. Michel Grandes Galettes which I’ve had but don’t have on hand at the moment. Going from memory, TJ's are denser and kind of hard. I’m not a dunker, but I would dunk these. The St. Michel are crisp but not as hard. As predicted by @weinoo, I give the edge to St. Michel. My flawed comparison photos: The TJ's box has 3 packets of 4 larger cookies (on the left) while the classic St. Michel has 4 packets of 5 smaller cookies (on the right). The St. Michel Grandes Galettes also come in packets of 4 like the TJ's. Closer view: Ingredients are similar.

It’s also on sale here: $2.49

These are the Israeli and Greek fetas in brine that I get at TJ's. Both much better than that cow feta she tasted. The Israeli stuff has a cute little plastic basket inside the tub so you can easily lift it from the brine but the Greek gives you more cheese for the same price. The Greek is my go-to but both are good. When it comes to sharp cheddar-type cheeses, the Cabot Extra Sharp $7.99/lb) English Coastal Cheddar ($8.99/lb) and even the Kerrygold Dubliner ($9.99/lb) have more oomph than the New Zealand Sharp Cheddar ($6.99/lb) that she tasted which is a nice cheese but very soft and mild. I bought the English Coastal, some Unexpected Cheddar and 1000 day Gouda. New to me this AM are these French butter cookies ($3.49) pictured here with the St. Michel brand I usually pick up elsewhere. I will conduct a side-by-side tasting and report back.

Yes, that’s another of my favorites , though it’s not always available.