blue_dolphin

If you want to can just a few jars, it seems OK for waterbath or steam canning but not for pressure canning. See this from Food in Jars which suggests the company is working with McGill University on testing pressure canning with the IP Max but I don’t believe they have it wrapped up.

Thanks - sun-dried tomato and roasted cauliflower are great partners! I made another jar of Little Green Dress this morning. There was still some remaining in my last jar but I'd forgotten to date it so I decided a fresh jar was in order and I'm glad I did as it looks and smells much livelier than the stuff I tossed. Then made myself a Gas Station Focaccia breakfast sandwich - a riff on the recipe for Gas Station Biscuits that's in the LGD chapter. Added a fried egg - yolk too runny for neatness but we don't worry about that down at the gas station 🙃

I don’t like it. The tone of a voice conveys more than the words of an email and Bourdain's voice was iconic. Using AI to reconstruct a poor quality voice recording is fine if it's transparent. Likewise, using a voice-over narrator to read a character’s writing is fine as viewers understand it’s a reconstruction. But using AI to make a deceased author speak sentences they wrote but never spoke and not making that clear is inappropriate. Disappointed.

As someone who doesn't eat much meat, I'm not sure what came over me, but I decided to try a local BBQ pop-up that's been getting some good press. That's a 1/2 lb piece of brisket in front and a beef rib (aka dino bone) in the back Cut side of dino bone. See thumb at lower left for scale: I suspect this will be lunch and dinner and maybe lunch again....

I posted above about making the Very Versatile Smear of Stuff from the V's Nuts chapter of This Will Make It Taste Good. Yesterday, I tossed some of it with capunti pasta, roasted cauliflower, parsley and toasted pine nuts.

The farmer who sells at some of the local farmers markets around here offers a range of conventional cuts of goat so it would seem that it can be done: Jimenez Family Farm goat

How about using the Italian names for various precious metals or gemstones or semi-precious stones? They could be used to differentiate by price levels. Using the Italian names for various herbs could also work and connote an eco-friendly position.

Grapefruit White Chocolate Cake from Yossy Arefi's book, Snacking Cakes, a cute little book where all the cakes are designed to be baked in 8 or 9-inch square pans with modifications provided for loaf pans or to scale up for Bundt or 9 x 13 inch pans. I baked this in three 5" baby loaf pans which is not one of the provided options but rather handy giving me one to snack on and 2 to give away. You can see that I likely pulled them out a bit too soon but it was certainly edible. Since I was using pink grapefruit, I thought it might be fun to use some of the pinkish Ruby chocolate from Callebaut instead of white chocolate. Most of the pieces kind of sank to the bottom and don't look particularly pink after baking. I don't think they added much flavor either so I wouldn't bother with that again but I do like the cake. Not too sweet and the grapefruit flavor comes through nicely. I usually skip glazes but I like this one a lot.

Spinach, caramelized onion and cheese quesadilla

If Cooks Illustrated is to be believed, the whipped stuff may not give the best texture in a baked cheesecake but should be fine in a cream cheese frosting or anything that's not heated as long as you measure by weight.

Well, since I had those green tortillas, I decided to try Hippie Burritos p 87 from the Can-Do-Kraut chapter of This Will Make It Taste Good. This basically a riff on a bean burrito, made with lentils. Vivian uses diced kielbasa, I had some exceedingly dry salami that I diced and cooked along with the lentils to soften it up. The "salsa" made from sauerkraut, diced apple, onion, parsley, mint, lemon, hot sauce and honey is quite a nice little condiment that I'm making note of to try with other things. I wasn't sure about this but ended up enjoying them.

Apologies if this has already been shared here

Thanks for the tip! Both Kindle versions are now available for $1.99 on Amazon.com as well. Dining In: Highly Cookable Recipes: A Cookbook (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) by Alison Roman. I have the hardcover version of this one and I like it. I know she's gotten in trouble for cultural/ethnic appropriation but she's very good at writing recipes that work. High on the Hog: A Culinary Journey from Africa to America (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) by Jessica B. Harris

Everything I've ever seen or been served as a wrap has a waxy texture when chilled as most wrap sandwiches are served. Not that different from a cheap, un-warmed flour tortilla

More leftover chicken so I decided to try Wrapmagic p 304 from the Sweet Potential chapter of This Will Make It Taste Good. This is pretty good. Kind of a salad-stuffed burrito crossed with a quesadilla. Not a fan of the wrap, in general. Those waxy wraps add little beyond containment (and sometimes fail at that) and have as many calories and more fat than a slice of nice bread. But Vivian's description intrigued me so I bought a package of green wraps and gave it a try. Not disappointed. I used kumquat Sweet Potential and subbed baby kale for arugula, apricots for grapes and lemon juice for orange juice. No panini press so I put a cast iron skillet on top. Probably didn't need something that heavy - mine def looks more smooshed than the book photo but it didn't do any harm and the two crispy sides make this better than any wrap I've had.

Where are you doing the above shaping and topping? In the kitchen? Outdoors next to the oven? My Ooni has yet to ship so I'm biding my time by taking in all this excellent info and thinking about where I should set the thing up. I don't have a grill or any sort of outdoor cooking area so considering what else I want nearby. Seems to be some sort of propane shortage around here so I should get that sorted, too. I ordered the Koda 16 but was thinking of cancelling and getting the 12. I don't plan on making 16" pies but ordered it because of the burner config and to have a little extra room so I was especially happy to read this. I'll stick with the 16.

I do, too. Nice with a cup of tea or coffee. Should have added that!

I used some of the chicken I roasted on Monday to make the Chicken Salad Worth Discussion p 216 from the Herbdacious chapter of This Will Make It Taste Good. It has cucumber and red onion that are quick-pickled and added separately. I had pickled shallots that I'd already made from another book so I used them and added some pickled Fresno chilies for color, though the heat was a good addition. Vivian tosses cooked chicken breast chunks with lemon juice and black pepper, a nice trick for adding flavor. The mellow Herbdacious makes friends with the pickled vegetables in a way that pesto wouldn't do as nicely. If you've got a bunch of pickled stuff on hand, this recipe could certainly accommodate to use what's available.

Yes, I have an Oxo V-slicer which is quite mandoline-like. A vegetable peeler would work fine, too. The olives weren't bad at all but the flavor and texture were too similar to the rest of the salad to add much contrast.

Per Whole Foods website, Mary's Organic Chicken is $3.99/lb this week, at my local store.

Yes, that brand of chicken is sold at my Whole Foods. They have the turkeys at Thanksgiving, maybe other times, too. I have had the turkey. It was fine. I don't remember it being anything remarkable but I'm usually more interested in the side dishes at that meal!

Do not judge the world of figs by the Newton. Perfectly ripe, fresh figs are worlds away from commercial cookies made from dried fruit.

I have no expectations based on the "Heirloom" label but I've also had positive experience with these birds. I don't have access to the fancy breeds mentioned above but always look for air-cooled birds over the water-cooled supermarket standard stuff that's often waterlogged and tasteless. I also have better luck finding these birds in the 2.5 - 3.5 range rather than pushing 5 lbs like most of Mary's birds at Whole Foods.

Squash in Its Raw Wonder p 162 from the Citrus Shrine chapter in This Will Make It Taste Good This is a raw summer squash salad in which thin slices of summer squash are first marinated with scallions, lemon juice, salt, red pepper flakes and strips of salt-preserved citrus rind. The recipe calls for lemon, I used orange. After a 15 min maceration to soften the squash strips, olive oil, fresh oregano, Niçoise olives (I subbed kalamatas) and shavings of Parmigiano are added to finish. Maybe because I used the wrong olive variety, I didn't find they added anything to the salad and would have gone with toasted salted almonds or another nut. Very nice light side dish to serve with something rich. I had it for lunch with the most basic of chicken sandwiches. If I was better at channeling Max Halley, I could have put it IN my sandwich! Two from the V's Nuts chapter that I rolled my eyes at - who goes through the trouble of making crispy, crunchy spiced nuts and then puts them into a sauce or soaks them in milk to make ice cream? But with a bag of walnut V's Nuts that wasn't as fresh as it used to be, I went ahead and made this Very Versatile Smear of Stuff p 279. The recipe is subtitled, "Spiced Pecan, Sun-Dried Romesco," and in addition to the nuts, it includes sun-dried tomatoes and their oil, fresh herbs (I used basil & parsley), olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and Parmigiano Reggiano. My only adjustment was to add more garlic and to stir in a bit more lemon juice after I tasted it. So far, the only thing I've smeared this on has been some crusty bread. It's very good. Trader Joe's used to sell a sun-dried tomato pesto in their refrigerator case. I really liked that stuff and miss it. This is a perfect sub and I look forward to using it in lots of ways. I used to freeze that TJ's stuff and am sure this will freeze nicely, too. I don't have an ice cream machine so I adapted Kim's Invention Ice Cream p 275 to make these spiced walnut popsicles Steeping toasted nuts in cream or milk is a pretty common in paleta recipes. They usually soak for a short time and then purée some or all of the nuts into the dairy before freezing. For her ice cream, Vivian steeps the spiced nuts overnight and then discards them. I did the overnight steep, puréed in some fresh spiced nuts, added a little maple syrup instead of sugar as the sweetener and then stuck some more on the outside for decoration. I have to say the flavor of the spiced nuts comes through very nicely and the contrast between the spicy/salty nut topping with the creamy pop is appealing.

From the R-Rated Onions chapter in This Will Make It Taste Good, I made the Once-a-Week Roasted Chicken with Sweet Onion Cauliflower Purée p 60 Vivian has a number recipes in the book where the chicken is roasted on top of something else like rice, grits, bread, etc. where the chicken drippings make those things quite delicious. In this case, the lucky victim is cauliflower cut into 2"-thick steaks. Once the chicken is done, the roasted cauliflower is puréed with milk before being returned to the roasting pan which has been de-glazed with R-rated onions. My gracious that cauliflower purée is amazing. It's like the the lightest, most luxurious mousse that just happens to be a big umami bomb, too! Kinda like a rich brown gravy mousse. Not sure I should be eating chicken-fat saturated cauliflower on the regular but it's very good. The chicken itself won't replace my fave Zuni Café roast chicken but I didn't have to work around a loosely wrapped raw chicken in my fridge for days either so I give this a win.