blue_dolphin

I did. My older Dartos cleaned up easily right from the start but the recent ones took me multiple rounds of hot, soapy water, Barkeepers Friend, Goo Gone and steel wool. Here's a before and an after.

That would be my top recommendation, in part because of the videos that he made to accompany the book. I've found them very helpful. Measurements are in both grams and cups/spoons.

Same breakfast yesterday and today. French baked eggs with smoked salmon and tarragon cream from Melissa Clark's Dinner in French. The leek, tarragon and cream mixture that goes into the bottom of the ramekins is delicious. Managed to overcook the eggs both times and today I overdid the toast a little, too. Need to work on my timing 🙃 The day before that, I had seafood stuffed potato balls from my freezer's panedemic stash. Mexican sriracha which I've been putting on everything lately from Josef Centano's cookbook Amá.

I received Alexander Smalls most recent cookbook, Meals, Music, and Muses: Recipes from My African American Kitchen, today and it's as delightful to read as his voice is to listen to. I love how the chapters progress from Jazz (appetizers) through Spirituals (rice, pasta & grits) and Gospel (greens & vegetables) to Opera (fish & seafood), Divas (meat & chicken) and Jukebox Music (bread, biscuits & muffins) and finally end with Serenades (desserts) with a full playlist for each of those sections.

For the sweet potatoes, this is something that I've been wanting to try after someone reviewed it favorably in another cooking group. Sweet Potato and Ricotta "Cookies" from Vij’s Indian: Our Stories, Spices and Cherished Recipes by Meeru Dhalwala and Vikram Vij of the well known Vancouver restaurants. Sounds like a fun recipe to play around with. The egg price you quoted above is very much in line with what organic, pasture farmed eggs sell for at Whole Foods and what I pay at my local farmers market. I think I posted elsewhere that while I like supporting my local farmers and humane animal husbandry, I drew the line at Apricot Lane Farms eggs @ $14/dozen 🙄. There are much less expensive eggs sold here at the supermarkets, though I haven't seen anything as low as some of the comparison quotes mentioned. I've paid a similar price to yours for Neuske's bacon and seen plenty of pricy olive oil but the OJ and pickles are at a level I haven't encountered.

Thanks! I recommend People's Pops if you're going to splash out on a book. I wrote a little review* of it shortly after I purchased and still refer to it often. I think you could start a popsicle business with that book! * Edited to add that if you go back to that old post, you can see an example of what happens if the molds are sitting in too warm water that doesn't go all the way up to the top of the molds. By the time the top part softened up enough to release, the bottom parts were all melty!

I have the same plastic molds that you do. The Peoples Pops book says they used those for their business for 3 years before switching to specialized molds that sit in a super cold alcohol bath for quick chilling. I imagine the stainless steel molds would chill more quickly than plastic even in a regular freezer. What seems to help me get them out cleanly is to put the mold into a container of room temp or barely tepid water, not hot, so it's not melting too fast. I use a shoebox-sized plastic tub so I don't need to fill up the whole sink. Secondly, make sure the water goes all the way up to the top of the mold. Otherwise, by the time the top part loosens enough to pull them out, the bottom has gotten too melty. I keep checking them until I can pull one out, then remove the mold from the water, quickly pull out all the pops and place them on a parchment or waxed paper lined cookie sheet that I keep in the freezer. I put that back in the freezer for a bit to firm up the surface again before I wrap or bag them up. Also, I don't use the lid that comes with that plastic mold. If even just 1 or 2 sticks get knocked askew and freeze like that then it's a pain to remove the lid. I just set a timer for 30-45 min and put the sticks in at that point. The only pops that haven't released cleanly when I've done that are the fudgsicles from the recipe on Serious Eats and she says to grease the molds, a step I've skipped. They contain gelatin so they're almost more a frozen pudding than an ice pop. I did get them out but they left stuff stuck to the mold, especially when I made some extra boozy variations with Chartreuse - they tasted great though!

I saw this one pop up the other day on Leite's Culinaria. Edited to add that the testers and comments have positive things to say about it. Here's another one that doesn't include any dairy from Nicole on Baking Bites

After reading this: I followed Kim's link and read this in the recipe introduction: So, before I ate my egg salad on toast, I performed the @Kim Shook egg salad test: I didn't necessarily follow the protocol for making the egg salad but I think it's at least, "Not Wet"

The location would indeed be good for that. Not sure I could fashion shelving that would be both attractive and earthquake safe and the cats would surely figure the shelves were for them. And I'd miss the art I currently have in that spot but I do have other options. Behind that pantry/fridge/oven wall is a hallway. There's a closet with shelves, 3 ft wide, 2 ft deep, aka the linen closet, though I have cat food, light bulbs, tools and all sorts of junk in there but no linens. That's one option but the deep shelves make it annoying to find bottles in the back. I have a lot of bottles - as my non-cocktailian, Tito's-drinking brother remarked, "you've got more weird bottles in here than anyone I know, but nothing to actually drink! 🙃 But immediately next to that, behind the fridge and oven, lurks another hallway closet that was designed as a laundry closet. 6.5 feet wide by 32 inches deep with low 7 ft ceilings due to ductwork running above.. A previous owner moved the laundry out to the garage but the hookups for water, electricity and gas remain. I use it for wine storage & mops & brooms but it's not well utilized. If money were free flowing, I'd convert that closet into little wet bar with a wine fridge and an under cabinet ice maker that would allow me to have plenty of ice without hogging up all the freezer space in the kitchen. Lacking the funds for that, I can still put some Metro-type shelving in there to accommodate my liquor collection. It's right around the corner from that buffet, so I can still use the top surface as my cocktail making station. Just need to get my butt in gear and do it!

I'm hoping that posting these photos will give me a nudge to sort things out and post some "afters." My main pantry lives behind these doors and has become ridiculously overcrowded. Luckily, it's all hidden from the casual visitor....well, it would be if I had casual visitors anymore! To the left, in the photo above, in the adjacent family room, you can see a buffet that I currently use for liquor, cocktail glasses, etc. If I can find another place for that stuff, I could use it for auxiliary kitchen storage. My Paragon induction burner and Phillips grill could live in there, along with some plastic bins or tubs of baking ingredients. Let's see if I can do something about that. Below, you can see the overcrowding. I'm pretty sure that every section contains some thing that doesn't belong so I really need to pull everything out and get it back in order. When taking this photo, I spied a can of pineapple juice in the wrong place. It's something I've been looking for but sadly had a best-by date in 2014 🙄 On the left side, the top shelf has large bottles of vinegar. Going down from there on the pull-out sections: 1. pasta, 2. more pasta with canned tomatoes, 3. vinegars (I recently counted 25 🙄) 4. sauces, 5. canned and jarred goods, 6. rice, grains & beans On the right side, the top shelf has 5 lb flour containers. Going down from there are 1. sugars, honey and sweet baking ingredients, 2. speciality flours & starches, 3. oils and a few vinegars too tall for the the vinegar section, 4. nut butters, misc baking ingredients, 5. cocktail bitters, misc canning & pickling supplies, 6. nuts & dried fruits Apron hanging at the ready inside the left door. Here's a photo with a pull-out pulled out: Above the oven is this deep cabinet that's not well used because I can only reach the stuff in the front Crackers & salty snacks on the top shelf, cereal & sweet snacks on the bottom. Both shelves have some random items that belong over in the pantry cabinet but got stashed here due to overcrowding. I believe we have covered spices before. This section has only become more overcrowded since I last photographed it. All in all, a rather ridiculous amount of food for one person, no? The cookbook shelves are also out of control and need either a serious purge or purchase of another book shelf. I justify it all by saying that I don't have too many other hobbies and I have to eat anyway! My house is a 1966 mid-century modern and the kitchen was an unfortunate remodel done in 2009, just before I bought the house. It's relatively functional but the shaker-style cabinets and the warm red/orange color are completely wrong for the house. Back up in the first photo, you can see the cooler wood tones of the open wood ceiling and the dark-stained posts and beams that are exposed throughout the house. I hate that orangey color! The granite countertops are also not appropriate for the house but their color is less offensive. I'd hoped to reface the cabinets with something from Semihandmade but leaving my job early left me without those handy dandy bonus checks that could fund it - darn! At some point, that fridge is going to die and replacing it may force me to address the cabinets as well.

I have one of the wooden-handled Danish whisks, too. I've had it for quite a few years and use it for pancakes, waffles, muffins & quick breads. It is pretty amazing how well it works since it looks like a piece of twisted wire coat hanger on a stick. No signs of coming apart here.

My top recommendation would go to Joshua McFadden's Six Seasons: A new way with vegetables. It is not strictly vegetarian as he uses anchovies here and there and even includes a recipe for Beef with Lots and Lots of Onions but it's mostly vegetarian and does very good things with vegetables. I've given it to 8 friends and even though it's been a couple of years, I still receive regular text messages with photos of what they are cooking from the book. He starts the book with a "go-to" section of sauces, pickles, compound butters and condiments that he draws on throughout the book. Some people think that's a sneaky way of hiding a recipe-in-a-recipe so be warned. There are photos of most dishes. We have a thread on cooking from it here. Joe Yonan's Cool Beans is a new title that is full of vegan bean recipes. Beautiful photos, too. I've enjoyed what I've cooked from it so far. Ottolenghi's Plenty and Plenty More have both been mentioned earlier in this thread and are both excellent. There's a "cooking from" thread on Plenty here . I thought there was one on Plenty More, but I can't find it. Both have tons of recipes with interesting flavor combinations and photos of a lot (though not all) of the dishes. If I were going to give either of those to an Ottolenghi novice who doesn't have access to ethnic groceries, I'd include a pantry gift of sumac, za'atar, pomegranate molasses, harissa, tahini and preserved lemons (or a recipe for that last one.) I don't see a recommendation for The Moosewood Restaurant Table upthread but it's a great book with a ton of (the cover says 250) recipes, most of which are fairly easy and not particularly time consuming. I'm quite fond of the Hummus with Preserved Lemon....all the dips are good. I love Deborah Madison, too, and I prefer her Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone to Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian but while the big tomes are good for reference, they don't draw me in as much as her other books. Vegetable Literacy is a beautiful book that will teach almost anyone a few new things about vegetables. The book is organized into "vegetable families" and there's an informative essay to begin each chapter so it's a good guide to substituting related veg in recipes. Her book, Local Flavors is a great farmers market companion. IMHO, The Greens Restaurant Cookbook, mentioned just above is on the restaurant-y side. For example, most of the soups require their own stocks. The results are generally worth the effort and there are quite a few recipes (Winter Squash Soup with Red Chili and Mint, Turnip Soup with Turnip Greens and Black Bean Chili) that I return to over and over but be aware that it's not entirely effortless cooking. My most used of her books is The Savory Way, which I've used a ton. Both of those are older books and lack photographs which I know is a deal breaker for some but they also happen to be my favorites. Finally, I'll put in a plug for another old favorite of mine, Mollie Katzen's Still Life with Menu. In this book, she promotes the idea of doing some prep work ahead so dinners are easy to put together at the end of the day. There are 50 menus and each one has a list of prep tasks that can be done 1, 2, or 3 days ahead. There are also quick pasta and stir fry meals, breakfasts and menus for vegetarian Thanksgiving, a vegetarian barbecue and a Seder, all meals that can confound those hosting vegetarian guests. Because of the menu planning aspect, this would be good for someone new to vegetarian cooking or someone who would like a bit of a nudge to get into menu planning or everyday cooking. There are some weekly menu plans at the end with advance tasks to do each day. No photos, the book is illustrated with Katzen's own artwork.

Hard water is pretty rough on dishwashers, too. I'd imagine it could be worth it in hard water areas. The last place I lived the water was awful. Even with a rinse aid, the dishwasher left spots and streaks on everything unless you yanked them out and towel dried everything as soon as it stopped.

Very exciting! Please do continue to keep us posted - I can't wait to hear what you think as things continue!

Lebovitz cites the Union Square bar nuts as his inspiration for the recipe in his book. Based on this discussion, I was prompted to make another batch last night. With a white (yellow?) negroni-type thing.

Last week, I made the Spicy Glazed Nut & Pretzel mix from David Lebovitz's book Drinking French. I expected the nuts to be great but the pretzels were surprising delicious as well. Sadly, it's all gone. The recipe is also available here on his blog. The book also has a recipe for quite a few tasty snacks that I'm looking forward to trying. The Rosemary Bar Nuts were quite good.

Finally got around to trying Wylie Dufresne’s Scrambled Egg Sandwich that I mentioned upthread and @liamsaunt shared here. As @liamsaunt noted, it is indeed very rich and I also only ate half though I'm considering going back for another bite 🙃 It held together much better than expected - I was sure the eggs would squish out all over the place but they did not. I nibbled some pickled onions on the side but I think it could benefit from a smear of something spicy on the bread. Maybe I'll saved the other half for lunch and dip it in tomato chutney.

Growing up in the far reaches of northern NY, I first experienced Sunset at the home of neighbors from California who subscribed to the magazine and had lots of back issues as well as cooking and gardening books in their library. I looked after their cat when they traveled and they encouraged me to spend time in the house so poor Toby would have a bit of company. I was happy to spend hours sprawled on their lovely Turkish carpets (after cleaning up Toby's hairballs, which he apparently NEVER hawked up when they were at home) and paging through Sunset magazines and books. I just loved the indoor-outdoor living they featured, something that didn't exist in a place where an open door elicited shouts of, "Shut the door! Shut the door!" most of the year because either freezing air or bugs would get in. Fast-forward to today, I live in a 1966 So Cal home that could well have appeared in the magazine. It's not uncommon for first-time visitors to say, "Wow, this looks like it belongs in Sunset!" I subscribed to the magazine as soon as I moved to So Cal. Back then, every issue was absolutely packed with content and they were cooking and trip-planning guides for many adventures in my new state. Lots of fond memories. I no longer subscribe but I'm always happy to find a new Sunset at the dentist's office. And believe me, there is nothing else happy about those visits!

Not sure if this is the best place for this but here goes.... I know there has been discussion in various threads about grocery delivery and mentions of Instacart and how they treat their shoppers (not well). I saw this article, A smaller competitor to Instacart is a better deal for shoppers, in the LA Times about a different app called Dumpling. That particular article is more about the shopper side of the business but I found the model appealing. I still haven't needed to use any grocery delivery services but if I do, I quite like the idea of being able to establish a relationship with an individual who's motivated to keep my business. Not sure how widespread their services are but I found several shoppers in my area. Has anyone used Dumpling?

Veering back towards the topic title of Alexander Smalls... for those interesting in listening to more of his speaking, LA cookbook store Now Serving is hosting him on virtual book tour this coming Wednesday, June 17 at 4 PM PDT where he will be speaking with LATimes Cooking Editor Genevieve Ko You can register for the live web session here: Now Serving Event Calendar After the event, you may be able to find it on this page where they have been sharing previous events: Now Serving Event Recordings He was also interviewed recently on this episode of Why Food on Heritage Radio. Alexander Small's new book is Meals, Music, and Muses: Recipes From My African American Kitchen, available from Amazon or Now Serving.

Crud?

I was already thinking of New Orleans BBQ shrimp so after reading this, I decided to make a batch of cornbread to compare with the crusty baguette that I'd planned to use to sop up the juices. Both the cornbread and shrimp recipes are from Toni Tipton-Martin's book, Jubilee. I really preferred the flavor of the cornbread with these shrimp but as a sauce-sopper, this particular cornbread is too crumbly. If I was craving shrimp surrounded by cornbread, then this would NOT scratch that itch and I'd much prefer a shrimp corndog. Since I was going for BBQ shrimp, I was happy. Finally, pardon me for using peeled shrimp...at least they still had their tails!

Well, if it never set up as well as it did the the past, then I was wondering if the oven temp could have been off and it might have needed more baking. Any chance the overnight fridge temp was lower than usual? If it was colder, that could have taken longer to bake and I'd imagine that if parts of it came close to freezing, then thawed, that could have prevented the custard from setting up. My own fridge is subject to random acts of freezing...when I least expect it! I stand by my guess that it will be perfect next time!

A bowl of grits topped with a soft-boiled egg, crispy chorizo and a quick salsa of tomato, avocado, pickled onions and jalapeño