blue_dolphin

It was a frozen item from Trader Joe's and most pre-made foods like that are saltier than I prefer. Listed at 300 mg sodium/serving, it wasn't awful or inedible. I just didn't want to accent it with even saltier things like the olives and feta. Today, I had a BLT+A Yesterday's breakfast was something called Exceptional Scrambled Eggs from Alex Guarnaschelli's book Cook with Me. It uses soy sauce to season the eggs and crème fraîche to add richness. They tasted fine but the soy sauce turned them an unpleasant khaki color. I should really post them in the regrettable foods topic but I'm too lazy to look for it, so here you go. Squeamish types should look away. I nibbled on the toast for quite a while before I could make myself sample the eggs. As I said, they taste fine but eeeeew - they don't look so good!

The Kindle version of Michael Twitty's The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) is $1.99 on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca Ferment: A Guide to the Ancient Art of Culturing Foods, from Kombucha to Sourdough (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)by Holly Davis with a foreword by Sandor Katz is $2.99 on Amazon.com and Amazon.ca Max Halley's Max's Sandwich Book: The Ultimate Guide to Creating Perfection Between Two Slices of Bread (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) is $1.99 on both .com & .ca. This little book is a favorite of mine. Max is a hoot and the book is packed with his crazy sandwiches. If you like sandwiches, you are sure to pick up some ideas to try. How about some gravy mayo for your turkey sandwich made from holiday dinner leftovers?

I vote for both!

@shain's travels in Greece prompted me to buy a frozen spanokopita at Trader Joe's and fix myself a Greek-inspired plate this morning. Sadly, it was very salty so I skipped the olives and feta.

Since it's been a while since I cooked from Zuni, after posting the sardine crostini, I re-read the thread and noted this comment from @ludja, way back near the beginning. So I went ahead and made the chocolate pots de crème. My ramekins hold about 3 oz, smaller than the specified 4-5 oz so I shortened the cooking time but they still got a little overcooked. I probably shouldn't have used the CSO as I know it overshoots the temp from time to time. So the texture isn't quite perfect but the flavor is still very good and I would make them again. The recipe gives the option of adding "a splash" of Cointreau or Frangelico before baking. Since I was just playing around, I made one plain and flavored the others with Cointreau, Green Chartreuse or Coffee flavored rum. Here's the Chartreuse version with a small glass of the same spirit: The glass is quite petite and holds just about an ounce.

Stopped in the grocery store seeking wasabi, miso and Niçoise olives. Struck out on all three at the first place but I did buy Chocolate Hazelnut Oreos: I ate one. Nothing awful about them but I couldn't detect anything Nutella-like in the flavor and the filling was sweeter than the Dark Chocolate or the Java Chip where the filling actually did have a coffee flavor. I'll put them in the cupboard for a while and see what happens. Maybe I'll develop more of a sweet tooth...or find a recipe that calls for Oreos 🙃

Beans on toast Rancho Gordo Marcella beans tossed with pesto. Tomato slices and pecorino Romano on the side.

Awww, thanks @Margaret Pilgrim! @Shelby, I hope you like the book. The recipes may look a bit wordy, but if you read them through carefully before you start cooking, you're pretty much assured of getting a good result. I think I could open the book at random, pick any recipe to cook and end up learning from it!

Yes! I’m hoarding some of that romesco in the freezer and should treat myself to some shrimp soon.

Long time, no Zuni! Yesterday, I made Connie & Maryanna's Chimichurri p 298 and used it to make the Crostini with Bean Purée & Sardines in Chimichurri p 124 This chimichurri is different from most I've made. More oil and less herbs, though still a nice variety - oregano, thyme, rosemary and parsley. I liked that the herbs (aside from parsley) are pounded in a mortar to bruise them but not finely chopped or blitzed in a machine so you still see all the individual leaves. I've already followed the suggestion to fry eggs in it and am looking forward to trying other ways to use it. For the crostini, warm white beans are smashed, spread on olive oil brushed toasts then topped with sardines that have been warmed in chimichurri and a bit more of the chimichurri sauce at the end. These are delicious. Just the thing to turn a simple salad or soup into a meal. If you are squeamish about little fishies on your toast, just mash them up into the chimichurri and spoon that over the beans. And if you're a bean-phobe, just leave them out and go with the sardines and chimichurri.

Yesterday, I made Connie & Maryanna's Chimichurri from the Zuni Cafe Cookbook and decided to follow the header note suggestion to fry eggs in it Put a bit more of the chimichurri on top. Very good.

Gorgeous evening/nighttime photos! I've been to Athens several times but catching sight of the Parthenon and other ancient buildings on the Acropolis when they're illuminated at night never fails to amaze me and your photos bring me back to that feeling of wonderment. Thanks for sharing once again.

Wow, I can’t believe what a perfect fit that is!

Still life with sardine 🙃 Also known as Summer Squash with Canned Sardines from David Kinch's book At Home in the Kitchen. It's in the salad, soups and starters chapter. I added a slice of toast to make it more breakfast-y 🤣

Not sure if this duplicates material elsewhere but I noticed a digital preview of a few pages over on EYB.

Did you order saute pans or paella pans? The little paella pans do tempt me for baking individual servings.

More sardines on toast. This one is a recipe from Melissa Clark's Dinner, Changing the Game. The ingredient list is very similar to the toasts above but instead of rubbing the toasts with a large tomato, this one uses cherry tomatoes that are halved, seared and tossed with sherry vinegar.

Finally got around to trying that Pasta Grammar recipe with fried eggplant & ricotta, available online here. Didn't really float my boat. The cascatelli shape is fine. The fried eggplant tasted bitter and the whole thing was kind of bland. Roasting the halved cherry tomatoes for 45 min and tossing them in at the end is a great trick though.

The other day, I made a recipe from Ottolenghi's Flavour for Corn Ribs with Pumpkin Seed Black Lime Butter. The corn cobs get cut up, deep fried, tossed with honey and salt and served with the compound butter. The butter is delicious. The rest of it is a terrible thing to do to a lovely fresh ear of corn. I ended up cooking another ear and putting the butter on it. This was good, although I think a perfect ear of sweet corn needs no butter, no salt, nothing between those kernels, ready to burst, and my teeth! That said, sometimes it's fun to try something different so I riffed off this recent Dinner post from @Kim Shook And made this Shrimp & Corn Sauté with Pumpkin Seed Black Lime Butter: Such a quick, easy recipe!

@Kim Shook, those honeyed figs and yogurt look and sound sublime, as do your peaches and tomatoes. What is on the toasts along with the tomatoes? Mayo? Whipped mascarpone butter? From the sublime to the .... well.....sardine: Toasted baguette rubbed with garlic and tomato, topped with sardines and pickled shallot, garnished with basil.

There are some entertaining responses out there, like this tweet from Preet Bharara:

Smoked turkey, pickled shallot, lettuce and peach sandwich dressed with Vivian Howard's Herbdacious roasted garlic and herb spread from This Will Make It Taste Good Vivian's book recommends using Herbdacious on a BLP (bacon, lettuce & peach) so I figured it would work with smoked turkey, too.

I’m ever so impressed with your FIL's endeavor @Duvel! It seems very different from textiles but I guess success is always about knowing how to please your customers! Also very impressed with the quality and quantity of those meals for 17,00€ With everything included. Did you receive family perks or are they always that generous? Finally, you describe it as a camping site. Here in the US, I tend to think of camping sites as places where the clientele provide their own housing in the form of tents or vehicles of various types equipped for sleeping, cooking, etc. Does this sort of self catering exist at your in-law’s establishment or is it mostly rental of units like the charming cabin you showed? Thanks for taking us along!

Toast with creamy ricotta (recipe from Bestia that uses milk, cream and buttermilk), fresh sliced peaches, Vivian Howard's blackberry Sweet Potential preserves, pecans and mint

Avocado kimchi toast with a fried egg