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Yes! I’m hoarding some of that romesco in the freezer and should treat myself to some shrimp soon.

Long time, no Zuni! Yesterday, I made Connie & Maryanna's Chimichurri p 298 and used it to make the Crostini with Bean Purée & Sardines in Chimichurri p 124 This chimichurri is different from most I've made. More oil and less herbs, though still a nice variety - oregano, thyme, rosemary and parsley. I liked that the herbs (aside from parsley) are pounded in a mortar to bruise them but not finely chopped or blitzed in a machine so you still see all the individual leaves. I've already followed the suggestion to fry eggs in it and am looking forward to trying other ways to use it. For the crostini, warm white beans are smashed, spread on olive oil brushed toasts then topped with sardines that have been warmed in chimichurri and a bit more of the chimichurri sauce at the end. These are delicious. Just the thing to turn a simple salad or soup into a meal. If you are squeamish about little fishies on your toast, just mash them up into the chimichurri and spoon that over the beans. And if you're a bean-phobe, just leave them out and go with the sardines and chimichurri.

Yesterday, I made Connie & Maryanna's Chimichurri from the Zuni Cafe Cookbook and decided to follow the header note suggestion to fry eggs in it Put a bit more of the chimichurri on top. Very good.

Gorgeous evening/nighttime photos! I've been to Athens several times but catching sight of the Parthenon and other ancient buildings on the Acropolis when they're illuminated at night never fails to amaze me and your photos bring me back to that feeling of wonderment. Thanks for sharing once again.

Wow, I can’t believe what a perfect fit that is!

Still life with sardine 🙃 Also known as Summer Squash with Canned Sardines from David Kinch's book At Home in the Kitchen. It's in the salad, soups and starters chapter. I added a slice of toast to make it more breakfast-y 🤣

Not sure if this duplicates material elsewhere but I noticed a digital preview of a few pages over on EYB.

Did you order saute pans or paella pans? The little paella pans do tempt me for baking individual servings.

More sardines on toast. This one is a recipe from Melissa Clark's Dinner, Changing the Game. The ingredient list is very similar to the toasts above but instead of rubbing the toasts with a large tomato, this one uses cherry tomatoes that are halved, seared and tossed with sherry vinegar.

Finally got around to trying that Pasta Grammar recipe with fried eggplant & ricotta, available online here. Didn't really float my boat. The cascatelli shape is fine. The fried eggplant tasted bitter and the whole thing was kind of bland. Roasting the halved cherry tomatoes for 45 min and tossing them in at the end is a great trick though.

The other day, I made a recipe from Ottolenghi's Flavour for Corn Ribs with Pumpkin Seed Black Lime Butter. The corn cobs get cut up, deep fried, tossed with honey and salt and served with the compound butter. The butter is delicious. The rest of it is a terrible thing to do to a lovely fresh ear of corn. I ended up cooking another ear and putting the butter on it. This was good, although I think a perfect ear of sweet corn needs no butter, no salt, nothing between those kernels, ready to burst, and my teeth! That said, sometimes it's fun to try something different so I riffed off this recent Dinner post from @Kim Shook And made this Shrimp & Corn Sauté with Pumpkin Seed Black Lime Butter: Such a quick, easy recipe!

@Kim Shook, those honeyed figs and yogurt look and sound sublime, as do your peaches and tomatoes. What is on the toasts along with the tomatoes? Mayo? Whipped mascarpone butter? From the sublime to the .... well.....sardine: Toasted baguette rubbed with garlic and tomato, topped with sardines and pickled shallot, garnished with basil.

There are some entertaining responses out there, like this tweet from Preet Bharara:

Smoked turkey, pickled shallot, lettuce and peach sandwich dressed with Vivian Howard's Herbdacious roasted garlic and herb spread from This Will Make It Taste Good Vivian's book recommends using Herbdacious on a BLP (bacon, lettuce & peach) so I figured it would work with smoked turkey, too.

I’m ever so impressed with your FIL's endeavor @Duvel! It seems very different from textiles but I guess success is always about knowing how to please your customers! Also very impressed with the quality and quantity of those meals for 17,00€ With everything included. Did you receive family perks or are they always that generous? Finally, you describe it as a camping site. Here in the US, I tend to think of camping sites as places where the clientele provide their own housing in the form of tents or vehicles of various types equipped for sleeping, cooking, etc. Does this sort of self catering exist at your in-law’s establishment or is it mostly rental of units like the charming cabin you showed? Thanks for taking us along!

Toast with creamy ricotta (recipe from Bestia that uses milk, cream and buttermilk), fresh sliced peaches, Vivian Howard's blackberry Sweet Potential preserves, pecans and mint

Avocado kimchi toast with a fried egg

There was plenty of bacon at the store last time I was there. I want to get another package of Wrights and try making bacon jam so I'll check prices when I do that. One of my brothers is the biggest bacon hound I know and also works for Carnival. I have forwarded that article to him and asked if he had anything to do with the situation 🙃

Fear of missing out!

Mine haven't shipped yet but I know what's in the box, thanks to the Facebook group. As much as the FOMO kills me, I think I'm going to downsize to the bean club-lite.

Ding ding ding! From the Burlap & Barrel website:

Most of my dishes in this category involve pasta or toast. I like to keep some tinned mussels in escabeche in the cupboard. They can go on little toasts with aioli or into a quick pasta like I made last night: Cook pasta, drain and return to the pot with all the liquid from the tinned mussels. Add a splash of pasta cooking water, a dollop of heavy cream or tomato sauce and heat until the sauce comes together. I like to add diced salt-preserved citrus rind and some of the pulp if it needs salt. Add the mussels to the pan just long enough to warm them up.

I order from Burlap & Barrel and Diaspora, both mentioned in that article. I also order often from Spice Station, a small LA business that seems to know their spices. Local to me are small Persian and Indian restaurants that have grocery sections and seem to have decent turnover so I'll pop over there if I need a couple of things in a hurry. The fancy foods store where I get the Bordier butter also has some excellent spices. Good smoked paprika (both hot and sweet) and piment d'espelette. The brand of black/Omani limes they carry are nicer than the Persian market. Mala Market for Sichuan peppercorns. I ordered black peppercorns from Sir Spice but can't seem to access their website now. I used to order more from Penzey's and Spice House but since I've been using these other options, I haven't had the larger orders that earn free shipping from them. I have some of the B&B Wild Mountain cumin and also some cumin from Diaspora. Both are fresh and fragrant. My understanding is the B&B cumin is botanically distinct from regular cumin. The seeds are smaller and darker in color. B&B Wild Mountain on the left and Diaspora on the right: The aroma and flavor are similar to regular cumin but I find it more complex and regular cumin tastes a little one-note in comparison. I try to use it where the flavor can stand out rather than as a base for a batch of my friend's masala spice mix that contains 20 other spices. Sometimes that standard cumin flavor is exactly what's needed. Sorry my explanation isn't very good. For whatever reason, the olfactory and taste centers of by brain are not well connected to the language area!

Smoked turkey salad sandwich made with pickled shallots, dried tart cherries, toasted pecans and mayo on a toasted baguette with lettuce.