blue_dolphin

A potato salad that could well offend the preferences of most, if not all, of those who have voiced them above...roasted sweet potato and pineapple kimchi dressed with gochujang mayo, celery for crunch, green onion for flavor and black sesame seed for garnish. Added a sprinkle of roasted, salted peanuts after the photo.

Best sleep over breakfast ever!

Here you go... Pickled Oregano Onions, yield ~ 4 cups 2 medium onions 2-3 dried arbol chiles, stemmed and seeded (or more, if you like) 1.5 cups white vinegar 1.5 cups water 2 t fine sea salt 2 t sugar 1.5 T dried Mexican Oregano, preferably Oregano Indio Slice the onions into 1/4 inch thick slices and place in a non-reactive container. Toast the chiles in a dry pan until fragrant Heat the vinegar, water, salt and sugar to boiling. Add the oregano & chiles and pour over the onions. They should be completely covered. Allow to cool, then store in the fridge. Wait a couple of hours before using. Amá is a great book that shows off the best of Tex-Mex cooking. The chorizo recipe is fabulous. I highly recommend the book.

The recipe for pickled red onions from the Zuni Café Cookbook may be sweeter than you have in mind but they are delightfully crunchy and delicious. The recipe is a bit fussy but the results are worth the effort. You can find the recipe online here. Two other recipes I like are from Josef Centeno. This recipe with a mix of herbs is very close to the one in his first book, Bäco. In the book, he includes one dried rosebud. In his other book, Amá, he has a more Mexican-style recipe that uses dried arbol chiles and dried Mexican oregano as the only herb. Absolutely wonderful made with Rancho Gordo's Oregano Indio as the book suggests but also good with regular Mexican oregano. I couldn't find that one online but I can give you the ingredients and paraphrase the recipe if you are interested.

Speaking of your kitchen....have you taken us on a tour yet? Did I miss it?

Poached eggs on toasted, buttered English muffins with Vivian Howard's Little Green Dress, an herby, green olive tapenade type thing:

I'm told that yesterday was National Ice Cream Day in the US. I was feeling left out last night but then spied a container in my freezer: Just one serving left: Saffron, pistachio and rose. The sahlab gives it a bit of a chewy texture. Need to go get more.

I have a 2-drawer style dishwasher (Fisher-Paykel) so basically just one shelf per drawer. Whenever I see those "top shelf dishwasher safe" labels I just throw it in and hope for the best. No heating element in the bottom so I think I'm safe.

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!