blue_dolphin

I can't say I've got the rest of the ingredients on hand but the idea of using pickled sushi ginger as a garnish is very appealing.

A number of my Chinese friends ended up in areas of the US (Stevens Point, WI, for one) that lacked local sources of Chinese ingredients back in the '70s & '80's. I was surprised at some of the substitutions they came up with, though they had the advantage of knowing what they were aiming for in terms of flavor and textures. If you have the opportunity, I'd recommend reaching out to any Chinese expat groups in your area. Perhaps affiliated with a college or university? I suspect your interest would be well received and you may get some good suggestions for tracking down ingredients or good local substations. All the best with pursuing your interest

Very similar. In the book, They use shredded sharp cheddar instead of sliced and use the greens to make a pesto with garlic, rice vinegar and oil. Edited to add that I love that was from Yankee magazine - a blast from the past as it was a regular during my growing up years! I do indeed have a bunch of Grip Stics at the ready - I think I bought them after seeing you or @Kerry Beal had snagged a bargain purchase of them on one of your ventures- I'm a big fan! I will have to see if I can open this particular package in a different way because when I cut off the fused end, there's not enough bag left to make a fold that the stic can grip!

This is the article that was discussed in the radio show I mentioned listening to on Tuesday: Methane and NOx Emissions from Natural Gas Stoves, Cooktops, and Ovens in Residential Homes and the senior author of that study, Rob Jackson of Stanford, was a guest on the show, along with Katherine Blunt, energy reporter from the WSJ. This is the same study referred to in the article that @Darienne shared in the first post. The numbers in the study are very small, only 50 some homes and obviously not powered to assist in brand selection. The supporting information lists the stoves but does not specify the exact model, nor the age. Only one Bluestar. In the radio interview, Jackson said that the stoves ranged from 3 - 30 years old. He said there was not a strict correlation between age and the amount of leakage. In some cases, auto-igniters weren't working but owners reported using the burners anyway so that's surely going to result in more methane leakage. He was clear that the levels of methane leakage from stoves are generally NOT a health hazard in homes but that the cumulative leakage has broader impacts on climate. That said, NO2 levels can be more concerning and are a good reason to ensure adequate ventilation. He was not advocating for getting rid of functioning gas appliances but for encouraging alternatives for future development.

They are in the frozen case and were near the potstickers and other Asian foods. Here's the package: I wish it were re-sealable but it’s easy enough to slide the open pack into a gallon ziplock.

On the upside, you can perhaps afford food that would provide more nourishment if not as much joy as boiling water in new pots.

This one was totally inspired by the Double Awesome in the book except I used Little Green Dress instead of pesto, Parm instead of Cheddar and only one egg. I will surely try the real thing one of these days!

Sounds pretty unpleasant 😢. Hope you can find subs for those items elsewhere. From that list, the only thing I’d touch is the sour cream 🤣 and yet, I'm a TJ's fan. Lotsa changes in the 40+ years I’ve been shopping there. Lotsa stuff I don’t buy but still getting the cheese, dairy, wine and nuts that sold me back then. Plus my new love, the frozen Taiwanese scallion pancakes! In my area, the number of kids went way down during Covid. Used to be tons with parents combining school pick-ups with other errands. Not now. I guess my TJ's have always been corporate since as long as I’ve been shopping there, they've completely rearranged their stores on a regular basis. I figured they wanted us to wander around lost and happen upon new stuff. I very much appreciate that none of the dozen or so stores in my area have done more than minor shifts of frozen foods during Covid so still relatively easy to find stuff. Does the Kerrygold butter from Costco taste different from TJ's? Although I’ve never seen a skid of anything other than Two Buck Chuck in there so maybe that’s it?

@Kim Shook, toast goes with everything! Another TJ's Taiwanese scallion pancake idea from Double Awesome Chinese Food. Pulled pork with cranberry: The book has a recipe for a cranberry sweet & sour sauce which I'll try one of these days but I already had a cranberry sauce flavored with orange, kaffir lime and cinnamon so I reduced some down to thicken it a bit. This combo of cranberry & scallion pancake would be really good with a smear of brie or other creamy, funky cheese.

I had not given much thought to the climate impact of passive gas leakage from appliances that aren't powered on. I've got a gas cooktop, gas furnace, gas clothes dryer and 2 gas-fired hot water heaters, all quite standard in this area. I don't have any sort of ventilation hood, which would probably benefit my indoor environment! Any larger environmental benefits of switching to electric are certainly going to depend on the source of the electric power. In California, it's fairly clean. Not so much where it's generated by burning coal. I was listening to a radio program on this issue yesterday. One of the callers pointed out that during our increasingly frequent, days-long public safety power shut-offs (to enable the power companies to avoid liability for wind-driven wildfires), she can still use her gas stove to cook and feed her family and asked when the electric utility would provide better stability. No one answered her question. Doesn't matter how clean the energy source is if it's unreliable. Long term, I'd like to upgrade my electric service and rewire the house so I can switch to electric appliances, upgrade my rooftop solar to power them and add storage batteries to provide at least a moderate level of power during those shut-offs. That'll be $$$ and I'm not wild about the environmental impact of present-day batteries but hope by the time I've got the money, they'll be better.

Thanks for the tip on them - only $2.49 for a packet of 5. I was thinking to make my own, but at that price, it’s hardly worth it. Depending on your personal preferences, I recommend letting them get nice and crispy on the outside. I’ve been cooking them in a well-seasoned cast iron skillet and skipping the small amount of oil. Only downside is they have to be cooked one at a time so not great for feeding a crowd. For yesterday’s breakfast, I cooked one, added a smear of tomato chili jam, a sprinkle of cheese and what my grandmother called a 'pancake egg' then rolled it all up. For today's breakfast, I cooked another scallion pancake, cut it into wedges and made little open-face tuna salad bites.

Two new cookbooks for me. First is Chad Robertson's Bread Book. This one was published on Dec 21, 2021. Kind of an odd pub date for a cookbook. I'm guessing it was delayed by issues we've all been reading about. Last week, I listened to a Zoom author session via LA bookshop Nowserving with Chad, his co-author and Tartine bread director, Jennifer Latham, Anson Mills founder Glenn Roberts, and Carinsprings Mill founder Kevin Morse hosted by Evan Kleiman. In spite of my failures to maintain starters, I was sucked in by all the veneration of heritage grains and ordered the book. I have the Kindle version of his first bread book,Tartine Bread (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) but not the second, Tartine Book No. 3 (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). There's a chapter for each of 14 master recipes: his classic country bread, baguettes, slab breads, a white sandwich "kids' bread," flatbreads, buns, dinner rolls, rye bread, vegan bread, gluten-free bread, crisp breads, tortillas, pizza dough and fermented pasta. Compared with his first book, this one goes more deeply into particular types of wheat and other whole grain flours but does not have as many step-by-step photos of the process. Each chapter also includes several recipes for dishes to make with the bread. I have a selection of Cairnspring Mill flours in my shopping cart and we'll see if I pull the trigger and manage to actually bake anything! Nowserving generally archives these sessions on their "Event Recordings" page and I'll come back and update this if I see it. Here's a direct link to this Zoom event. If that link doesn't work, go back to that Event Recordings page and you'll find it listed on 1/26/2022. My other "new" book was published in 2019, Double Awesome Chinese Food: Irresistible and Totally Achievable Recipes from Our Chinese-American Kitchen by Margaret Li, Irene Li and Andrew Li, siblings who started Boston food truck and Asian fusion restaurant Mei Mei Street Kitchen. Kenji gave this one a shout out recently and it promptly disappeared from Amazon but their listing (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) still has a good bit of info on the book. I thought some of the ideas and flavor combinations sounded like fun. I suspect I'll use this more for ideas than actually following recipes exactly but who knows? I already made a version of their Double Awesome breakfast sandwich (fried eggs, cheddar cheese, greens and pesto in a scallion pancake) and their kimchi dog (also served in a scallion pancake will be happening here!

I agree, fun article. I like this sentence concerning the effect of the Conterno glass on younger reds:

Pulled pork and pineapple kimchi with a smear of gochujang mayo on another TJ's Taiwanese green onion pancake Cara cara orange on the side.

Just a small squeeze!

ZEFtovers*: pulled pork & pineapple kimchi on homemade whole wheat focaccia. A little gochujang mayo on the bottom. * leftovers from last week's pick-up at ZEF BBQ

I was just reading about that. What a mess! It’s good to see that at least 2 of the authors are reacting with a sense of humor.

From what I’ve read, yes. I hate to peel large amounts of garlic so I’m unlikely to try it.

Thank you so much for mentioning this in another thread when I was complaining about harsh-tasting onion powder. Since I don’t have a dehydrator and was using the dehydrator setting on my oven, I just did one onion to test it out. I used the 1/8” julienne setting on my Oxo slicer, spread them out on parchment, put them into the oven at 140F for ~ 4 hrs and powdered them in my whirly blade spice grinder. Holy cow! That stuff tastes sweet and oniony - nothing like the jar in my cupboard! Now that stuff was likely past its prime but I’m sure it never tasted that good, even when it was fresh. I put 2 more onions in the oven for now. Once I see how long it lasts, I can easily scale up.

Another TJ's Taiwanese green onion pancake, this time with a smear of Vivian Howard's Little Green Dress, a sprinkle of grated Parm and a fried egg

Sort of but I should try it again. Ottolenghi has a grape & fennel seed focaccia that gets sprinkled with sugar. I tried it but left off the sugar. I should do it again, maybe with this recipe as I think the whole wheat flavor would complement the sweetness. I also made a Tuscan grape bread from a Diana Henry recipe and liked the toppings but thought the bread itself was boring. That could be fixed.

Grains for Every Season: Wild Rice Salad with Roasted Beets, Cucumbers and Dill p 294 made with Yogo Ranch Dressing p 313 Nice, healthy-ish lunch. Peeling and roasting the beets in small chunks seemed fussy but it certainly does enhance their sweetness. I neglected to seed the cukes - putting instructions like that over in the ingredients list apparently challenges my little brain 🙃. I wish I'd had some of @Okanagancook's homemade onion powder for the Yogo Ranch Dressing. I let it sit for about 3 hours prior to plating and the onion powder flavor was still a bit harsh. Didn't bother me in the salad but I should probably have made it a day ahead and as she reported, it's very thick. I just went for small dollops here but it does need to be diluted to actually "drizzle" as this recipe calls for.

Yes. Someone on one of the Creami Facebook groups asked the company about a minimum volume and was told that it should be fine down to around a quarter full.

She estimates half a pound of berries for a cup of purée. That's what I used and it seems about right.

Upthread, I mentioned that I'd prepped a batch of the Philly-style vanilla ice cream from Baking with Dorie. It's nice but there's just a faint touch of that spoon-coating butterfat thing that I've observed with other high-fat but uncooked Ninja preps. Nothing awful, and barely noticeable when served with...say....hot fudge sauce but not quite perfect either. Here it is with some of the first strawberries of the season from Harry's Berries that I picked up at the farmers market and a drizzle of extra vecchio balsamic vinegar. Great berries and great vinegar! Focusing on those berries, I decided to try a sorbet and went with the recipe in the Zuni Cafe Cookbook. So simple and built around the berries. Purée and strain the berries. Add sugar to taste. The recipe calls for 1-3 T sugar for a cup of strained purée. I used 2T. Judy suggests testing to see if a pinch of salt helps elevate the flavor. I thought it did. It can be frozen here or you can add 1/2 - 3/4 t balsamic vinegar and a little more sugar if necessary. I added the balsamic but no additional sugar. At this point, the recommendation is to freeze a small amount to test the flavor. I put it in the coldest part of the fridge and tasted than I went ahead and froze it in one of the Ninja containers and scraped a bit off the top to taste before spinning. I figured I could always thaw it out if it needed adjusting but it was good. Here is it with a scoop of the vanilla: It's as perfect as the berries. The balsamic vinegar doesn't stand out, it just enhances the flavor of the berries.