blue_dolphin

While I've had the book for a while and have read it cover to cover, I haven't cooked from it yet, so you can take this with a grain 🙃 of salt. Bottom line: if your giftees were happy with Six Seasons, I'd say they're likely to enjoy this as well. I plan to give it to a number of friends that I gave Six Seasons to previously. My caveat would be towards people who are already all-in on whole grains. With Six Seasons, even cooks very experienced with vegetables could find a lot of fresh ideas in the book. I'm not sure this one would be quite as much of a revelation for people who already cook with a lot of whole grains. That said there are still fun new ideas like adding the crunch of quinoa to a tempura batter and a millet streusel that he uses on a butternut squash quick bread but sounds like it would be fun to sprinkle on other things. It's not an encyclopedic grains reference book but the background on most of the featured grains is adequate. The whole wheat flour chapter is mostly baking recipes. I think it could benefit from a discussion on different types of wheat but he tends to include some AP or white bread flour in most recipes so parsing out the types may not be that important. Most of the featured grains are represented with a nice assortment of different recipe types, others, not so much. For example, the oat recipes sound appealing but they are all sweet. I would have liked to see a savory oatmeal or something to mix up that chapter. There's a "Go-To" chapter with dressings, sauces and the like. They sound good but they are not as fully integrated into the rest of this book as in Six Seasons where I felt that prepping some of them ahead really streamlined the other recipes. Some people would disagree and hated that recipe-in-a-recipe trick so they'll be happy. There are just a few go-to's that are repeated like the brined, roasted almonds and torn croutons. The well known kale sauce also reappears here but with lots of variations added so it's worthy of the repeat. Speaking of variations, they pop up regularly in the book. There are several fold-out sections (pilafs, grain bowls, stir-fries and pizza) that offer a basic how-to template and six seasonal variations. Others, like the kale sauce and the 6 variations on focaccia could have fit into that same framework. I like the concept but have yet to put it into practice. This book is the year-long book for the Facebook cookbook group I belong to so I expect to start cooking from it shortly. Maybe today....the Super-Crisp Flatbread That Tastes Like Cheez-Its has caught my eye!

Would love to see what you come up with, @paulraphael, please do share a photo if you can!

Bought some at Whole Foods on Monday for $4.99/lb. Organic, free range, yada yada. Intact and nicely trimmed. Walmart Neighborhood Market is usually ~ $1.99/lb for Tyson or the like. They often look like they were removed from the bird with a roto-tiller.

Yes, I have watched that one. How would you compare your results with tara gum to that with other gums?

What did you conclude from your tests thus far?

I had the same iciness when I tried freezing & spinning some Trader Joe's egg nog to which I added 1T brandy + 1T dark rum. A second spin didn't significantly improve it. It wasn't horrible, just not the creamy texture you want in ice cream. I didn't try adding cream. I mentioned that I planned to make a batch of Jeffery Morganthaler's egg nog and would try that but it's got too much alcohol to freeze. I could make a small batch (he's got a 2-serving recipe that would make ~ a pint), reduce the alcohol, cook the eggs & cream to make a custard base and maybe add some stabilizer but if I'm going to that much trouble, I might as well just follow an eggnog ice cream recipe!

Skipping the icing sounds like a great idea. Some of the photos at the link I shared above look most realistic without icing. Of course, that effect is enhanced when they are photographed in B&W. If you could use buckwheat flour, activated charcoal or black cocoa to give a darker color and impress your texture on it prior to baking, it could be a win.

Maybe some ideas here. For the Guggenheim, looks like they used a white icing with sugar crystals to provide a concrete-like texture. You could use a coarser sprinkle for a rougher concrete look.

I first saw them when visiting my mom in northern NY in 2014 and saw them pop up in the farmers markets here a year or so later.

A very similar squash, named Honeynut is sold around here. I really like them because of their smaller size. If I don't plan well, I end up tossing parts of a big butternut.

I have a bunch of the Oxo version (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) of this sort of thing. I used them for cocktails and all sorts of things. If I need 1T citrus juice, I can squeeze it right into one of these. Measure and set out for your wise in one step. Edited to add that mine don't have handles though.

I'll be interested to hear what you think. I wasn't sure about that combo of chocolate with tangy yogurt. Also didn't have any milk chocolate on hand.

Goat cheese ice cream from Hello, My Name is Ice Cream with toasted walnuts and buckwheat honey, a topping that David Lebovitz recommends for the goat cheese ice cream in A Perfect Scoop. My plan was to test some different swirl-ins, settle on one and mix it in by hand. My candidates: Fig butter - very good but I'm concerned the seediness will detract from the creamy ice cream and make it seem grainy. Drunken raisins with port from Zuni Cafe Cookbook - not a bad combo but I don't think I want cold raisin bits swirled in. I will try warming and reducing some of this and pouring over top instead. Spiced prunes from Zuni Café Cookbook - not bad but they are vinegar-y and compete with the tangy goat cheese flavor. Interesting combo though. Pickled cranberries - same as above, not bad but the goat cheese gets lost. I will make up a little cranberry sauce to try. Only problem.....after all that testing, there's not a ton left 🙃

Poached egg on toast After a bite, I determined the toast:egg ratio was off so I shifted the egg to one side, dropped another in the water and had a second egg ready as soon as I'd finished the first.

If your audience is open to something a little non-traditional, I can vouch for Deb Perelman's Olive Oil Shortbread with Rosemary & Chocolate Chunks. I've made it many times I think it's pretty foolproof. I like to add orange zest. Lemon zest, rosemary and dry-cured black olives make it into a nice cocktail cookie. I've also played around subbing in nuts instead of the chocolate (pistachio is quite nice) using different herbs, etc. Never had a failure.

The chef's 3-page response appears at the end of this article: 27 courses, very little edible: Review of Michelin-starred restaurant goes viral

I thought it was hilarious, too. She does have a book: All Over the Place: Adventures in Travel, True Love, and Petty Theft (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) though I haven't read it. I know the other day, Everywhereist was rather overwhelmed so she reposted on Medium. Here's that link in case anyone finds the Everywhereist slow to load.

I've been enjoying her YouTube videos lately. She always seems to be having a good time in them.

I'm not Jo, but I'm going to guess that you are correct and that she is using what I would call a ring stand, basically an upright rod attached to a heavy base. Here's one (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) that comes with with two rings and a clamp. It looks to me like Jo has the bag hanging off the back end of a clamp. My house is sadly lacking in the ring stand department so I tend to hang my nut milk bag from one of the upper cabinet pulls. Sometimes a clothespin is involved.

It doesn't sound like the canned cherry tomatoes would be your jam, and that's just fine. Personally, I find their flavor to be a bit better than most small cans of tomatoes. I have a good selection of brands when it comes to larger cans but when you get down to the 400g/14 or 15 oz size, my stores don't have a ton of choice so I've found it handy to keep the canned cherries around for when I don't need a larger amount. They usually mush themselves up nicely without me needing to do any chopping as I'd likely do with whole canned tomatoes so that's handy as well. I'll add that some canned cherry tomatoes are peeled and some are not. Check the label and if it's important, choose one that makes it clear.

I don't think there was any char. The color is likely from the pan sauce that they were cooked in. Mine sauce came out looking a good bit darker than in the book photo....but then that's the case with much of what I cook 🙃

A late lunch/early dinner. Chicken thigh with olives and green beans from At Home in the Kitchen. Served over Massa Organics brown rice. The recipe calls for a curious 12 green beans to serve 6 people. Perhaps they're intended as a garnish? I dunno but I used more. Stayed fairly true to the ingredients but made quite a few modifications in the cooking procedure. The result was good.

A few good ideas in this older thread: Kitchen gadgets for those with injuries & disabilities

I always say I will not be sucked into buying too much cheese...but I always do! Harbison, Humboldt Fog, Herve Mons Mary Dans Les Etoiles, Rogue Creamery Enraptured Cherries Jubilee and Cowgirl's Mt Tam are all calling my name. They're all on the soft side and won't last forever so if I buy, I need to eat and not save it for "special" 🙃

The meals, nibbles and treats, the stories, the animals - wild, domestic and in between. Love it all. Thanks for taking the time to take us along again!