blue_dolphin

I always thought the oeufs et caviar presentation where warm, creamy scrambled eggs are served in their shells topped with a few chives, cream and a big dollop of caviar was quite perfect with champagne but after watching @AAQuesada's video of Jeremiah Tower piling the caviar on potato chips, I might have to change my mind! I also might need to go buy some caviar and make those eggs!

The camera I am using is just a point and shoot (9 year old Canon PowerShot G15) so pointing and shooting is pretty much the extent of my technique! At this time of year, I have nice indirect lighting from a south-facing window and I routinely underexpose by 1/3 stop to provide some wiggle room before I blow out the highlights. For this photo, I used the default f/5.6

@Kerry Beal, have you tried pita yet? Wondering if there is enough space for them to puff up without incinerating the top.

From the LA Times: Trader Joe wrote a memoir, and it’s just as much fun as you’d expect About founder Joe Coulombe's posthumously published memoir, Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). Excerpt from the LAT article: Edited to add that the book comes out on June 22

Either the oven or CSO toaster oven. 350°F for ~ 5 min or so.

Trader Joe's Organic Unsweetened Coconut Chips. They are a nice size and look pretty when toasted.

I made some roasted pineapple sauce for another purpose and turned the rest into popsicles with toasted coconut I prefer fresh pineapple instead of roasted for popsicles but these will serve the purpose of a cooling snack.

Tried a combination from Simply Julia: Yogurt with Roasted Pineapple Sauce + Toasted Coconut Added blueberries

I think that's putting a strain on workers in vacation/resort areas across the country. I recently read this article about the Lake Tahoe/Truckee area: No housing, no employees.

I'm waffling on The Nom Wah Cookbook: Recipes and Stories from 100 Years at New York City's Iconic Dim Sum Restaurant (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). I don't think I would cook from it but it looks like it would be a good read...at least until I can feel OK about actually going to a crowded dim sum place in person. The Kindle version is $3.99 on both Amazon.com and .ca

The Kindle version of Julia Turshen's recent book, Simply Julia (eG-friendly Amazon.com link), is currently $3.99 on Amazon.com and .ca It's marked as a deal of the day, so I don't expect the price to last. I've been cooking from it quite a bit as it's the book of the month in a Facebook cookbook group that I belong to and I've been kind of surprised how much I've been enjoying it. Every recipe has not been a hit but there are quite a few excellent ones, like the Kale & Mushroom Pot Pie that's topped with triangles of puff pastry that's both easy and fancy-looking. The subtitle is, "110 Easy Recipes for Healthy Comfort Food," so it's not the book to take you on a culinary adventure but there are a lot of very easy, satisfying recipes. And with respect to the word Healthy in the subtitle, Julia seems to be approaching it in a spirit of attraction (meals that make you feel healthy) rather than restriction. It's not a diet book in any way. It is a very personal book. Lots of recipes are named for Julia's friends or family members and the header notes share their stories. Speaking of stories, there are a number of essays scattered through the book that I've enjoyed reading. Amazon's "Look Inside" feature has enough of a sample to see if her writing and the style of the book appeals to you. For more about the book, the various interviews of her virtual book tour are available as episodes of her podcast, Keep Calm and Cook On.

Yesterday, I made Jennie's Sorrel, from Simply Julia. This version of the hibiscus/jamaica/sorrel-infused beverage is from Julia's childhood babysitter, Jennie and has lots of fresh ginger and dried clove and is barely sweetened. I loved the ginger and tartness but the cloves were overpowering to me. However, used as a base for these Blackberry & Sorrel pops, I find the clove flavor interesting rather than offensive.

Made the egg in a cheese skirt again

Between January and April of this year, with fewer restaurant reviews, Jay wrote stand alone pieces on each of those books plus Marco Pierre White's White Heat. I guess the bad boy didn't make the top 10!

You're OK. They're your point of contact for the order and it certainly wasn't right. They can go after their shipper or not, as they choose. Probably not for that amount. The intended recipient of the metal parts is likely complaining to their vendor as well!

Anybody watching? I’m catching up. I think I’m up to episode 7 although I went ahead and watched to tofu episode because I heard it was good. It was as was the surf and turf challenge with local foods harvested by indigenous peoples of the area. Minimal silliness in the challenges, aside from having to do their prep work on tree stumps in one episode. The drive-in movie thing was close but quite timely given their pandemic popularity. No silly house drama since they are staying at a hotel.

TJ's is offering one of my favorite cheeses, Mobay, in 7 oz wedges for $6.99. The name is a play on the French Morbier although this stuff has separate layers of semi-soft sheep and goat cheeses separated by a layer of ash while Morbier is generally from one type of milk, most often cow. The TJ's label doesn't name the maker. I have only had the stuff made by Carr Valley Cheese in Wisconsin and they have a trademark on the name Mobay so I'd guess it's theirs unless they are leasing out the name to other makers.

Thank you so much for sharing, @shain, I am enjoying this immensely!

No, I have not. I just got the book recently and this is the first thing I’ve tried. Her videos seem to be extremely popular!

Soft and Crispy Focaccia from Claire Saffitz's Dessert Person I would have liked to have tried the overnight rise that she advocates for more flavor but no way does a half sheet pan fit in my side-by-side fridge. I'll stick with Ottolenghi's recipe as I know it adapts well to whole grain flours. https://youtu.be/NGnMrM9qDtE

Amazingly, yes. I immediately took them off and worked laundry pre-treatment gel into them, let that sit, soaked overnight with Biz and Oxiclean and washed the next day. I air dried them to avoid setting a stain and they came out OK. The shoes were Crocs so I was able to scrub them with hot soapy water.

They are a good option. I have 3 sizes, 14 oz, 17 oz and 30 oz. All purchased a little over 10 years ago with no casualties yet. All small enough that the weight has not been an issue for me. I believe I have 6 each of the smaller sizes and 4 of the 30 oz and they can be stacked for storage. They don't fully nest like some plastic containers so you are not saving much space but they nest enough that the stack is pretty stable in the cupboard. The lids are plastic with a silicone gasket so there is some potential for odor transfer if used for stinkier items. Hasn't been an issue for me thus far. The lids are nice and flat on the top so they stack nicely in the fridge or freezer or you can put something else on top of them without risk of tipping. I've been debating getting some larger sizes. They are expensive enough that I'm not going to send them off full of leftovers without knowing I'll get them back so I'll likely wait til my stash of plastic wears out. Oh, and I will never again set anything in that sliver of counter in front of the cutting board, so close to the edge that it can easily be brushed off by an elbow or sleeve or whatever. Thought I learned my lesson last week when I knocked a jar of anchovies such that the oil poured down over my shirt, pants and into my shoes before the jar itself landed and shattered into a million tiny pieces and splattered more oil over cabinets in all direction. Amazing how far the contents of such a small jar can go! Then, days later, I set my freshly built Old Fashioned down while I opened the cutlery drawer to get a cocktail spoon to stir it. No need to stir, the end of the spoon nudged the glass just enough that my cocktail poured into the open drawer, distributed into each and every division of the cutlery holder so I had to wash all the silverware, the holder and the drawer at which point, I really wanted a drink! I am generally not a spiller but clearly need to be more careful!.

Kale & Mushroom Pot Pie from Simply Julia. Recipe available online here. I made a half recipe in a smaller pan. Kale-phobes could easily use a different, fairly sturdy green. Not baby spinach. I liked the use of puff pastry shapes to make a pretty topping, roasting the mushroom and onions and the quick, flavorful "sauce" of sour cream, Boursin and black pepper.

Not too much freeway. Maybe it looks like that because I highlighted the route. From the cherry picking place, we took Elizabeth Lake Rd to Pine Canyon Rd to Ridge Route Rd to Gorman Post Rd to Ralphs Ranch Rd to Frazier Mountain Park Rd to Maricopa Hwy - all 2 lane roads. Sadly, I left my phone in the car and didn't get any lunch photos. I'll see if I can find some online.

Will what crack - the pan or the counter? My understanding is that granite can generally handle the heat from hot pans. Sealants and adhesives joining slabs may be less resistant. I do put hot pans on my granite counter from time to time and have not had a crack yet. When baking in glass or ceramic pans, I put them on a rack, or a dry, folded kitchen towel more for the sake of the pan than the granite counter.