blue_dolphin

Castelvetranos are pretty mild so might be a good choice. They are a pain to pit so get the pitted ones for this. Finely diced, roasted red bell peppers would be another more neutrally flavored ingredient. The old school canned ripe black olives are pretty tasteless and might be an option. You can also add more olive oil. It tends to soak into the other ingredients as it sits overnight. It will help the tapenade go further so you are using less of it. Tapenade is kinda supposed to be a flavor bomb so using less might be best if you like the general flavor.

Thanks for the reminder to take a look at those recipes while figs are in season. I should look at the peach chapter, too. I remember I liked the curried peach preserves.

Gorgeous! You should put this over in the eG 20th Happy Birthday thread! Tarte au Fromage with Goat Cheese, Crème Fraîche and Honey-Drizzled Figs from Melissa Clark's Dinner in French. Recipe can be found online here. I used little individual tart pans (~ 2.75 x 4.75") instead of a 10" round. I made a half recipe and had enough of the cookie crumb crust for 4 tarts and a bit of filling left over. This is a very light and not too sweet cheesecake-like tart. I'm looking forward to trying this with other fruits.

@Duvel, did you pack the Ooni?

Lovely photo. No idea whether it's a pint glass or tiny juice glass or what. Would you be willing to enlighten us on how much corn juice one can get from 2 ears in such a machine and how long it takes? And what you do with such a product? If I've got nice fresh corn, I'd rather eat it but maybe I'm missing something.

Wow, that is some supermarket! I especially like this nice sagittal slicing job:

The Kindle version of Bestia: Italian Recipes Created in the Heart of L.A. (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) by Ori Menashe and his wife Genevieve Gergis, owners of the restaurant of the same name is currently $2.99 on Amazon.com but not on .ca This book is a bit restaurant chef-y with a number of recipes that require previous prep of other recipes. Not the book you turn to at 5:30 for dinner at six but everything I've tried has been very good and generally worth the effort. When my Facebook cooking group cooked from this book, there were a lot of raves for the salad dressings. I'm a fan of the pizzas. So as not to leave out the other coast, Estella (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) by Ignacio Mattos and Gabe Ulla of the NYC bistro of the same name is also $2.99. Sadly, not in Canada, either. I have the hardback of this book. It's beautifully photographed and has a lot of interesting ingredient combinations that I've used more for inspiration than actually making the exact recipe. Flipping through now, I'm thinking I should change that. Edited to add one more: Kindle versions of Josef Centeno's Bäco: Vivid Recipes from the Heart of Los Angeles (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) are $2.99 on both .com and .ca I like that book a lot, especially the Bäco breads!

I used to put it in smoothies. Once the Blendtec was done, there was really no telling it was there!

Fig fest breakfast with a creamy blue cheese

Maybe we don’t know that we want to do those things? Maybe we don’t even know what those things are?

I'm curious about that as well. It sounds like there is an option of eating in a common area vs bringing meals back to their "hut" or "box" and I wondered if the take-out container was used for everyone or not. @CantCookStillTry has indicated that the styrofoam containers need to be replaced at some point. Here in the US, most national chains have switched to other options (either coated cardboard or other plastics) as local styrofoam bans have been enacted. Not sure the replacements are more environmentally advantageous but we'll see. I'll be interested in what this particular operation will choose.

The farm that sells peaches at my farmers market, Tenerelli Orchards, started a mail order peach business last year. They are awfully expensive but they are really good and usually pretty big. The Elegant Lady peaches I got from them this week are all 7 - 8 oz each. They have different varieties that ripen into October so if you get a yen for them and have $$ burning a hole in your pocket, you could splurge on a box. O’Henry is my favorite. https://peaches.la

I've made a few BLT's with the iceberg slice and overall, I give it a thumb's up because you get a nice crunch of lettuce in each bite. Actual success will depend in part on the bread you use. Max recommends a ciabatta roll for his BLT and goes the next step to brown the cut sides in the pan the bacon was cooked in. I used a sturdy sourdough and toasted it. His recipe puts the tomato next to the mayo-dressed bread, bacon in the middle and lettuce on top. I wouldn't bother doing the lettuce slice with a squishy white bread where it might be better to use lettuce leaves to protect the bread from the juicy tomato.

And then we have the world of bruschetta, crostini and crostoni! Yesterday's lunch was an actual sandwich - a BLT, trying Max Halley's method of using a 1 cm thick slice off a head of iceberg lettuce instead of separate leaves and mixing a bit of bacon dripping, malt vinegar and hot sauce into the mayo. He also pours more hot bacon dripping and any juices from the tomatoes over the lettuce. I skipped that last bit.

I’m not Margaret, so I know you didn’t ask me but I’ve been using the proportions from a David Lebovitz recipe: 75g roasted cocoa nibs in 430 ml vodka. Swirl every day or so for at least a week, then strain. He adds 1 tsp vanilla and sweetens it at this point.

English peas are just standard garden peas, aka shelling peas. The "English" is just a silly usage that cropped up in a former colony. Pay us no mind. Maybe it was to distinguish them from the edible-pod peas that we do NOT refer to as "mange-tout."

From that NYT article: How much of that diet soda addiction is due to caffeine alone? My brother is surely addicted to diet Mt. Dew and I have a cousin addicted to diet iced tea but how about diet sodas w/o caffeine?

My TJ's is currently offering these little St. Albans cheeses from Vermont Creamery for $3.99. They are reportedly VT Creamery's take on St. Marcellin. I'm always a sucker for anything that comes in a cute little crock. I put the crock into the oven while I was heating the take-and-bake baguette and it was delicious when warmed up like that. I'll also give a shout-out to the Giardino Pinot Grigio delle Venezie Vivace Rose. It's a very easy-drinking, slightly fizzy rosé. $3.99. Too lazy to take a photo but you can see it here on the importer's IG.

Q is my first pick. Their original product has a little over half the calories in Schweppes regular. I like the taste but it's hard to beat the price of Schweppes. Q “Spectacular” Tonic: 45 calories / 7.5 oz. - this is their original product Q "Classic" Tonic: 70 calories / 7.5 oz. - this was previously called "Indian" Q Elderflower Tonic: 80 calories / 7.5 oz. Q Light: 20 calories/ 7.5 oz. Schweppes Tonic: 81 calories / 7.5 oz. Schweppes Diet Tonic: 0 calories / 7.5 oz. Fever Tree Indian Tonic: 78 calories / 7.5 oz. Fever Tree Mediterranean Tonic: 78 calories / 7.5 oz. Fever Tree Elderflower Tonic: 78 calories / 7.5 oz. Fever Tree Light Indian Tonic: 33 calories / 7.5 oz. Fever Tree Light Cucumber Tonic: 44 calories / 7.5 oz. I like trying different gins. Always have Beefeater and use it whenever I'm trying a new cocktail. I like Sipsmith quite a lot. At $27 / 750 ml, it's a tolerable expense but certainly pricier than Beefeater, Tanqueray and Bombay Sapphire which are all ~ $23/ l.75 L or Gordons @ $19 for the same. Also my liquor cabinet and all in the non-standard category: I like the combination of honey notes with juniper in Barr Hill Gin from Vermont. It's almost an Old Tom style. Unpleasantly sweet in a G & T. I like it just over ice with a squeeze of lemon. Nolet Silver is one of those contemporary floral style gins. Overpoweringly floral to me. Perfume-y. I've not found a good use for it. Wilder Gin from Ventura Spirits is made with local botanicals. Not at all a typical gin but always reminds me of hiking on the local trails. I like it in a White Negroni and like supporting the local business. I see St. George Dry Rye Gin compared to genever. I like the spices in a White Negroni The other day, I picked up a bottle of Beefeater 24 but haven't tried it yet. I also bought a bottle of Sipsmith Zesty Orange Gin which was sort of a silly purchase but I wanted to try the Flaming Orange Gully cocktail so I could turn it into popsicles. I don't really go for vodka cocktails so I figured this would be a reasonable sub for the orange vodka it calls for. So far, I liked the Flaming Orange Gully and found the orange gin fine in Negroni. Fun to try but not worth the cost.

Not to worry, I ate that one already 🙃

Great donkey story! Hope the storm moves through without causing too much damage and you all stay safe!

Saw this recipe for Molly Baz's Niçoise Sando With Smashed Eggs & Black Olive Mayo on Food52 and decided to try it Good sando. I've made it a couple of times. A little on the messy side though

Made a batch of Flaming Orange Gully pops as my contribution to the celebration The Flaming Orange Gully cocktail was created by Dale DeGroff after being challenged by@Varmint during an eG Q&A session back in 2002. You can find the recipe here and read some discussion about it over here. The cocktail recipe uses orange vodka as the base spirit. There's no reason to put vodka in pops as it just makes them melty and doesn't add any flavor beyond a bit of citrus in this case so I omitted it but used the recipe proportions of orange juice, lime juice, Velvet Falernum and Angostora bitters and grated the nutmeg garnish over the pops after unmolding them.

For the eG 20th anniversary party, I made a batch of Flaming Orange Gully pops The Flaming Orange Gully cocktail was created by Dale DeGroff after being challenged by@Varmint during an eG Q&A session back in 2002. You can find the recipe here and read some discussion about it over here. The cocktail recipe uses orange vodka as the base spirit. There's no reason to put vodka in pops as it just makes them melty and doesn't add any flavor beyond a bit of citrus in this case so I omitted it but used the recipe proportions of orange juice, lime juice, Velvet Falernum and Angostora bitters and grated the nutmeg garnish over the pops after unmolding them. Here's the flaming part 🙃

I think they'd be very cute with one of the cakes or ice cream desserts served in little flower pots!