blue_dolphin

I agree it does seem rather odd. There was a recall of pistachio cream in the US early in the summer but nothing since. It was a rather limited issue with few affected. The US is the world’s largest producer of pistachios (followed by Iran and Turkey, I believe) and the largest exporter but we also import them, presumably from the same places as Canada so you’d think there might be some of the same issues here.

It really is a hoot and I’m glad you’re enjoying it! I should get back to it as I’ve quite enjoyed the silly sandwiches I made!

Two new pasta shapes Haven’t tried the radiatore yet but the rigatoni is nice. Some rigatoni is awfully big and this is a nice bite size. The cooking time on the bag is 13-14 min. I tasted at 10 min and it was ready to go into the skillet to finish another min or two in the sauce.

Turnips with Lemon Ricotta and Hazelnuts from Six Seasons of Pasta p 203. Since I made enough of the lemon ricotta for 2 recipes when I made the cabbage recipe just above, I had my eye open for Hakurei turnips at yesterday’s farmers market and was pleased to find some nice little guys with very fresh greens to make this recipe. I used a square rigatoni I picked up at Trader Joe’s that’s a nice size - I don’t fancy big 2-bite rigatoni 🙃. The combination of sweet turnips and their slightly bitter, peppery greens, preserved lemon ricotta and toasty, crunchy hazelnuts, finished with a drizzle of lemon agrumato oil is excellent.

What a wonderful thing you’re doing! I’m impressed how appealing everything looks and sounds. As someone who mostly cooks for one and has banished much of my larger cookware to the garage, scaling up to 24 servings would be quite a challenge!

Good question. I’m pretty sure I lack the wherewithal to divide one of these up myself but I’d love to know what would be the best way to ask the meat counter to portion it. The one time I did, the guy who cut it was berated by his coworker for cutting it the wrong way. It didn’t really matter to me as I mostly wanted to make a big batch of pulled pork but needed to use 2 pots and grind some for sausage but I’d be curious what else I could have requested. Some pork shoulder steaks seem like a good idea.

That looks good! Your choice of farfalle made me laugh. A quote from McFadden in Six Seasons of Pasta:

Yes, preserved lemon paste is basically puréed preserved lemons. The book recommends the stuff from New York Shuk which he says is available online or in specialty stores. I usually make my own preserved lemons so I looked up recipes for making the paste and did that. Some recipes say to rinse the lemons first, others say absolutely don’t rinse. I made small batches each way and my unrinsed lemons made a ferociously salty paste so I used the rinsed version. I tend to be generous with the salt when I make the lemons! The lemon agrumato oil is made by crushing lemons along with the olives when they are milled. It’s pretty expensive but lovely, usually used as a finishing drizzle. I recently purchased this from Katz Farm here in California so that’s what I used. It’s delicious stuff. He recommends olio2go.com as a source for Italian brands.

Today I made the pappardelle and cabbage with whipped lemon ricotta and chile crisp on p 360. The whipped lemon ricotta (separate recipe on p 35) is made with ricotta, preserved lemon paste and lemon agrumato oil. I took a stab at making the paste with salt preserved lemons I made a while back and it worked out OK. The cabbage gets cut into wedges, coated with olive oil, dotted with butter and roasted. In lieu of chile crisp, I used some chile morita salsa macha with peanuts from Taco Maria that I picked up recently. This was very good and should be fun to play around with different chile crisps as I’ve got several on hand.

That’s what I really loved about my golf club restaurant job. The chef was really good. A big cut above most anything in the area. The place had gorgeous views and did a lot of catering for weddings, brunches, luncheons, dinner events, etc. so he was constantly working on custom menus that he’d try out on the kitchen staff. It was interesting to get to taste everything but also to hear the feedback and troubleshooting about stuff that might look and taste great but be a nightmare to prep or plate. Might have been uncommon for a chef to be so collaborative but fun to watch.

I’ve had this recipe for a lemony tuna salad sandwich marked to try for quite a while and finally got around to making it. The tuna salad is made with celery, lemon zest, Kewpie mayo, Dijon mustard, a bit of toasted sesame oil, S&P. It’s spread on a ciabatta roll, topped with a layer of sliced pepperoncini, followed by a layer of salt and vinegar kettle-style chips. Not my mom's tuna salad which is a go-to comfort food but I quite enjoyed it and would make it again.

I think Ridge still makes some excellent zins. As you note, the prices are on the high side and they make so many single vineyard zins that vary quite a bit in character that you run the risk of paying that premium price for something less than stellar. That’s no fun!

Wow, Carrol’s - that’s a blast from the past! There were two in my little Northern NY burg, well before McD’s came to town. I believe both locations are still Burger Kings. First food-adjacent job was really a babysitting gig for a couple who had a seasonal (summer) lakefront restaurant. When the kids were put to bed, I’d go help out in the kitchen with little stuff like salads and desserts. Other times, I’d get called over to be a spare pair of hands when the kitchen was in the weeds. I also worked as a dishwasher at the local golf course restaurant where I also helped out with plating, etc when they were catering for group lunches or dinners. Then I did my own fast food stint at McD’s. I continued to work there even when I was in college because they were happy to give me as many hours as I wanted and work around my schedule. They have corporate processes, training materials and templates for everything and we had a manager who wasn’t the sharpest crayon in the box and happy to turn tasks over to someone else so I volunteered and learned how to do the ordering, rotate stock, calculate waste & reject, man-hours and scheduling. I also did tours for school kids and scout troops, arranged birthday parties and donations to local nonprofits with insatiable thirsts for McD's orange drink. I also learned to do arithmetic in my head really fast so I could total things up while stuffing the bags, add the sales tax (I used to know 6.5% of anything without looking) and calculate the Canadian exchange for our guests who wanted to pay in CDN. Then I graduated, moved to California, and worked in labs where we weighed our ingredients but didn’t produce anything edible!

Did you try the gift link that @Smithy shared? In my experience, WaPo gift links require the reader to create an account by entering an email address. You may not wish to do that but there’s no charge.

I almost copied @Duvel with a pack of noodles but went with something even easier - poached eggs on toasted sourdough “buttered” with 'nduja