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Saturday's lunch that I forgot to post, a seafood boil that I picked up from ZEF BBQ: I didn't have high hopes for corn at this time of year, but it was very tender and juicy and everything was cooked perfectly. I also got an order of shrimp and grits which was so amazingly decadent that I split it into 2 meals and an excellent oxtail with rice and beans that I had for yesterday's late lunch and neglected to even photograph.

I received an unexpected gift of Wolferman's English muffins yesterday... ...toasted with almond butter and a cup-o-joe. I cut the muffin into 3 slices so there's one more that could become second breakfast.

I made this one and highly recommend it!

I assume the cancellation is due to Covid and that could be prudent, especially if there are high-risk individuals involved. On the other hand, it's a respiratory virus, spread largely through the air. Gatherings with lots of people sharing the same air brings orders of magnitude more risk than dropping off a plate or basket of homemade treats. There are many reasons to refuse home-cooked food gifts but, to me, Covid isn't one of them. If your food gifts have been enjoyed in the past and you feel up to and have an interest in making and sharing any this year, I'd go ahead and ask. I mentioned bringing a gift of eggnog. I can imagine many reasons for turning that down. Raw eggs? Dairy products? Personal preference? I kept the bottles in an insulated bag and when Anna came out to take names to match with orders, I asked if she thought anyone inside would care to try some eggnog made by me and she assured me that it would be well received. They have plenty of experience with the spiked popsicles that I share with them during the summer so maybe they trust me. Or they are all young and foolish. In any case, I'm pretty sure yesterday's "tip" will be enjoyed and not go to waste. I also understand being reluctant to go to a lot of effort to prepare something that's not going to be appreciated at this time.

I offered 2 bottles of Jeffrey Morganthaler's eggnog with añejo tequila and Amontillado sherry to the peeps at ZEF BBQ when I went to pick up my order yesterday. They happily accepted.

It's time for the annual Christmas Bird Count and with every local news article I read about it, thoughts of @IowaDee come to my mind. Miss her voice here!

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.