blue_dolphin

Yep, I saw that and making it with Quirky Furki was the first thing that came to my mind!

My cousin shared this photo he took on Roosevelt Island, NYC

I love the texture of burrata but I'm sure the ricotta would be good, too. I've done this: Sweet-Sour Macerated Cherries With Marcona Almonds, Mint, and Ricotta Recipe and enjoyed it.

Julia Turshen calls this An Egg in a Cheese Skirt in her book, Simply Julia. I prefer Frico Fried Egg. Either way, it's fun! Had the egg with Walnut "Sausage" Patties and Sweet Potato Hash Browns, also from that book. In my hands, the sweet potatoes were "hash" rather than "hash browns" and the patties need a major seasoning adjustment to boost the umami level. Should I make them again, I'd up the amount of sage, add plenty of black pepper and try Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce or some of that TJ's mushroom umami seasoning in lieu of some or all of the salt.

That was my first thought, too, but the user reviews suggested otherwise so I scrolled down and found this on the second page of the Q&As. Bolding is mine:

Cherry season is starting up again. The pick-your-own places aren't open yet but farmers are bringing them to the farmers markets. I ate most of the first batch out of hand and in a salad. Got more yesterday and tried a recipe for Burrata with Brown Butter, Lemon and Cherries from Melissa Clark's Dinner in French (recipe available online here) Served with crostini: Creamy burrata, rich, lemon zest-infused brown butter, fresh mint and sweet/tart cherries make a perfect bite! Adding a little balsamic vinegar to the cherries is a good trick. It would make ho-hum cherries great and took these over the top. This could be an appetizer or served as a cheese/fruit course with dessert wine or port.

Kindle Unlimited and Prime Reading are not bundled. Kindle Unlimited is still available @ 9.99/mo. Prime reading has been available for some years. I started using it when we discussed it in this thread back in 2018. I'd previously cancelled my Kindle Unlimited membership because I wasn't getting a good value from it.

Interesting they give a limited temp range of 85 - 200°F for that unit. I've used the Paragon for deep frying and jam making without issue. Wonder if they had problems with those higher temps.

The navigation probably varies depending on what device you are using. For me, I first choose "Nonfiction" from the tabs at the top and am then able to choose "Cooking, Food and Wine" from the menu that appears on the side. Then I'm shown the 31 books in that category. Edited to add that 100 Cookies (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) is a good one to check out if you are into baking.

Just came back from the farmers market and there were three growers offering loquats. I passed. Could go back. Or try foraging the neighborhood first. Drove by the trees I'm most familiar with and they've been picked pretty clean already.

Spaghetti with bottarga from Marcella's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking Being breakfast, I considered adding a poached egg, but why mess with perfection!

I used to pick a few from neighbors trees as I walked home from work everyday while they were in season. I'd often see people drive up in their cars and take away bags of fruit. They are a treat!

Sounds like you've got 2 issues: how to recreate the cocktail and how to adapt it for the slushy machine. I have no experience but am wondering if this: How to Use a Slushie Machine from Jeffrey Morgenthaler might help you get started in the right direction. Edited to add that there is some good discussion in the comments there, too.

Just realized that I got the name wrong, It's Harvest Grains Mix, not heritage. It's mostly pearled couscous but also contains small amounts of tri-colored orzo, split baby garbanzo beans and red quinoa. The baby garbanzos stayed a little firm but everything cooked appropriately in the 10 min simmer time given on the package.

Stewed Chickpeas with Peppers & Zucchini from Simply Julia served over Trader Joe's Harvest Grains mix. Edited to add that the recipe is available online here. This is an easy, delicious vegetable stew that's punched up with a lemony parsley sauce.

Oh, please do keep the stories coming, @patti. I love hearing about the personalities and the the little glimpses of the tours are interesting as well. My own experience with group travel is relatively limited and I know nothing about the host/guide/hospitality side of things.

Roasted Banana & Sour Cream Waffles from Julia Turshen's Simply Julia Very good flavor from the roasted bananas. Texture was a little on the heavy side. I used stone-ground Glenn wheat flour. Probably should have used a different variety or used half Sonora.

Pink grapefruit and sumac salad from Ottolenghi's Plenty More.available online here. This recipe has you reduce 1 1/4 cups of grapefruit + 2tsp sugar down to ~ 5 TBSP which makes a syrup to emulsify the dressing. It's delicious. I used curly endive instead of red endive and watercress and added watermelon radishes.

I made the Aubergine Dumplings alla Parmigiana from Ottolenghi's Flavour to deliver to my cousins. She avoiding meat, he a die hard carnivore. I got good reviews from both of them. Cubed eggplants are first roasted, then mashed and mixed with breadcrumbs, ricotta, Parmesan, parsley, garlic and egg before being shaped into balls and fried to brown on all sides. They're then baked in a simple tomato sauce and topped with basil, kalamata olives and more Parmesan. From the photo, I can see that the sauce and polenta thickened up on reheating at their house but they did not complain. I saved a small portion for myself and would make it again.

I'm not familiar with hamburger steaks. Like @cdh, I imagined it to be a burger on a plate instead of a bun so the question of how much was steak and how much hamburger makes no sense so it's only puzzling to me rather than truly humorous. You , on the other hand, are a woman of exceptionally good humor to deal with these characters and come out the other side with good stories rather than angst. Thank you for sharing them with us! And the emoji I most want to use for most of your stories is the good old 🙄

Cheesy Ranch Grits from Cooking with Julia, collards and a boiled egg I like plain grits just fine an don't usually add cheese but these were pretty good.

Another fruity salad. This one is called Midsummer's Salad from Asha Gomez's I Cook In Color. The grapefruit vinaigrette is very simple (grapefruit juice, honey, olive oil, sea salt and crushed red pepper flakes) but exactly perfect. Edited to add that the cherries are Brooks from Murray Family Farms's stand at the farmers market and the grapefruit is from a friend's tree.

Blueberry + mango is one of my favorite fresh fruit combinations. I wasn't sure how I'd feel about them cooked but I quite liked it. A lot of the blueberries burst and released their juice and the mango maintained its integrity so it was a good mix. The cobbler topping that I used comes out rather cake-like, similar to a lightly sweetened cornbread. It softens on sitting but the surface crisps up nicely when reheated. Not sure if that's appealing to you or not.

He really cracks me up! I love the intro his Dad wrote for the sandwich book. It can be viewed via Amazon's "Look Inside" feature here: Max's Sandwich Book (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) Max recently partnered with a UK chip/crisp maker to put out a booklet of sandwich recipes featuring their products: Walkers Sandwich Recipes with Max Halley Between that and the book, I'm now totally a fan of putting potato chips or other crunchy stuff into sandwiches. Trader Joe's has some crispy jalapeño slices that are excellent for this as are the shoestring potato stix that I had to order from Amazon 🙃

With some lovely blueberries from the farmers market, I browsed my cookbooks for salads that I hadn't yet tried and came upon this Spinach (or arugula) Salad with Blueberries & Corn in the Moosewood Restaurant Table. Red onion, walnuts (I used the sweet/spiced V's Nuts from This Will Make It Taste Good) and goat cheese are the other ingredients. It's served with a blueberry/basil dressing. The corn should have been freshly cut from the cob and I used frozen so there was certainly some charm lost there but overall, it was a good combo and the dressing is excellent.