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Continuing on with the Sweet Potential chapter of This Will Make It Taste Good, we have I Wish I Was A Cheese Baller p 312, which is not a cheese ball but a baked cheese spread that includes some fruit preserves. It's very similar to the Party Magnet cheese ball from Deep Run Roots with additional cream cheese instead of butter (which would surely break and melt in the oven) and Sweet Potential fruit preserves instead of dates. The photo in the book looks like strawberry or raspberry, which did not appeal to me. Nor did the pineapple, blackberry, kumquat or apple Sweet Potential preserves that I made recently. One of the things Vivian says in the beginning of the chapter is that we all have Sweet Potential in our fridges already so I reached into my pantry for a jar of the Whole Fig and Lemon Preserves that I made last year from the recipe in Deep Run Roots. They were more cooked down than the syrup that Vivian describes for Sweet Potential so I dumped the jar into a pan, added some water and simmered for a while to get them back to that consistency. I also gave the figs a rough chop since the whole ones are way bigger than cracker size. I made a half batch and baked off a small 2.5 oz portion so I could test it. I used walnuts instead of pecans because I like them with figs & blue cheese. Here's my tester portion: It's very luxurious. I was worried about it being too sweet but it was delicious and I'm sold on adding the fruit preserves. I also liked the small size so I packed the rest into similar 2.5 and 4 oz ramekins lined with plastic wrap. Once they'd firmed up, I pulled them out and stashed them in the freezer. I took one of the small ones out of the freezer last night, unwrapped it, put it into the ramekin and baked it in the CSO @ 400°F for 12 min, sprinkled on the nuts and it was perfect. Thanks to my above efforts to thin down the fig preserves, I now have fig syrup to work with so I turned back to the cocktail page and made a Fig (instead of Cherry) Boulevardier p 315. I dialed back on the syrup and adjust proportions to my taste and it was delicious. I think a Fig Old Fashioned or Fig Manhattan will be happening, too. Just the thing to have with the cheese!

In my area, the sweet stuff is called cream of coconut and like @heidih said is often found with cocktail or baking supplies. Coco Lopez is a popular brand. As described here from thekitchn:

Bean dips & veggies used to be one of my staple lunches to pack for work. Aside from hummus, I hadn't made any in quite a while and forgot how handy it is to have some at the ready!

Happy hour nibbles...aka dinner...from This Will Make It Taste Good. A trio of bean dips from the Party In A Can Bean Dip p 164 with fresh veggie dippers. I made the main recipe on this page a few months ago but I can't remember if I posted about it. It was a curious conglomeration of beans, Castelvetrano olives, sun-dried tomatoes, Citrus Shrine preserved lemon with lemon juice, garlic, salt & olive oil, whizzed to smoothness in the blender. It was pretty good, especially the next day as Vivian says in the recipe. Today, I had 3 of the variations: The green one on the left has beans, Herbdacious, Greek yogurt, anchovies, capers, lemon Citrus Shrine, lemon juice and olive oil. Upper right has beans, Can-Do-Kraut, R-Rated Onions, sour cream, Parmigiano Reggiani, hot sauce and olive oil. Lower right has beans, Red Weapons, Lime Citrus Shrine and olive oil. All were made with Rancho Gordo Vallarta, Alubia Blanca or Giant Lima beans instead of canned cannellinis. All were good. All were better the next day. I had the most doubts about the one with the kraut and caramelized onions but it was surprisingly good. None of these variations indicate quantities of the ingredients so you need to play around so they suit your taste. I also made the one with Quirky Furki, soy sauce, sesame oil, rice vinegar and olive oil but I didn't get the flavors where I wanted which was disappointing as I was looking forward to it. I'll probably try again. There's another one with LGD, avocado, lime, lemon Citrus Shrine, honey and olive oil. Not sure about that or the one with Sweet Potential but maybe I'll try them when I have some leftover beans handy.

Those could be deadly for my bacon-loving cat!

Oh yes, I agree with you. I would never think of omitting it. Just wanted to note an observation I've had with a few photos in the book that don't exactly match up with the recipe instructions.

All Clad stainless 1 qt saucier. It's little but very handy!

Today's cook from This Will Make It Taste Good is Sweet Heat Side of Salmon p 307, in which Sweet Potential preserved fruit gets cooked into a glaze with jalapeño peppers, garlic, vinegar, soy sauce and citrus juice. The warm glaze is slathered on a side of grilled salmon which is then served with a salad of arugula, radishes and herbs. I used some of the pineapple & lime Sweet Potential and cooked a salmon filet on the Philips grill rather than a whole side. Green onions aren't mentioned but appear in the book photo and were a good addition. This was quite good. The glaze is vinegar-y enough to serve as a vinaigrette for the greens. I added a serving of rice after I took the photo although this would be fine on its own as a salad. Back to that book photo, you will see salmon with a glaze that is a light golden color with prettily colored fruit and green slices of candied jalapeño. Rather like mine looked BEFORE I added the soy sauce and vinegar: Here it is after adding those ingredients and cooking it down as directed. Not so pretty, right? It tasted fine, but the photo did a rather poor job of managing my expectations!

I don't drink soda nor do I eat peeps but those packs of pink, blue & yellow mini cans are awfully cute! Photo from Pepsi press release

and I am waiting....patiently...because I'm sure the results will be marvelous!

Thanks! Yes, that's the rice that gets Quirky Furki added during cooking. Don’t worry about the citrus, it will be good for ages!

Today's lunch was a sous vide cooked pork chop, seared off and sauced with the Back Pocket Pan Sauce from This Will Make It Taste Good p 311 This recipe is in the Sweet Potential chapter that features fruit preserves and I used the kumquat version that I made the other day. This a great template (with variations) for making a pan sauce featuring fruit preserves to use with pork tenderloin, as in the recipe. Chicken, duck or salmon would also be good. I had some boneless pork loin chops so I cooked them sous vide and seared them off to get some brown stuff going for the sauce. I served this with a brown rice version of Please Forgive Me Steamed Rice p 257 and some steamed veg. I don't cook a ton of meat but will certainly be returning to this recipe when I want a fruity sauce.

The combination of loose bottom and a deep indent seems like a recipe for leakage.

I have to admit that this got me thinking that Twinkies filled with lemon or lime curd might be nice to make. I went off to Google Twinkie pans but haven't ordered one yet 🙃

They also had a chocolate hazelnut flavor. They might be good, too.

You are right about that. As you heard, he said the pan was a last minute sub before going into production and was a big mistake. Just tell the people to buy their own damn pan!

I bought these at Target yesterday. Java Chip flavor. I thought they were pretty good. The chocolate cookie is the dominant flavor but you can certainly taste the coffee, too. Note that it says there are "chocolatey chips" in the coffee creme, NOT actual chocolate chips. Since they're about the size of a grain of salt, I was't really expecting actual chocolate chips. The amount of filling seemed kind of random. Some had a lot, others much less. Maybe those pesky chocolatey chips plug up the creme dispenser? 🙃 I read some reviews that seemed to think these weren't sweet enough. I disagree.

I don't know enough about the frequency of this particular problem to have a good sense of how many units they'd need to test before seeing it. As small company, in a niche market, I'm not surprised it was missed. Rejiggering the venting process so the tank is more protected would fix the issue but would likely be very expensive and wouldn't help anyone with an existing unit. My takeaway was Scott's comment that ovens like the Cusi CSO offer steam as a feature while the APO actually offers control of the steam. The vast majority of the time, I'm pretty happy with "steam as a feature" so I don't plan to upgrade from the CSO to the APO. I'll assess the situation when give up the ghost and I really need a replacement.

Two more This Will Make It Taste Good meals. Fast Road to Fancy Pork Scaloppine p 191 uses Community Organizer p 176 to make a quick sauce. This is indeed quick to make, assuming you've got Community Organizer at the ready, and tasty, too. I served it over orzo. I had olives with pits so I had to butcher them to get the pits out. I contemplated using kalamatas which are much easier to de-pit but stuck with the recipe. I think the kalamatas would have been fine, as would any salty, tangy thing like capers. I'd make this again. For this next one, the actual book recipe I tried is the Please Forgive Me Steamed Rice p 257 that adds finely ground Quirky Furki p 236 to the rice during the cooking time vs sprinkling furikake over already cooked rice, as one would usually do. Turns out, this is actually quite a nice way of making a quick seasoned rice. The flavors are much more embedded in the rice, rather than sprinkled here and there so it's a very much a different thing. Atop my rice is a salmon filet that I topped with the caramelized onion/kalamata olive vinaigrette that's used in the Here's to Eggplant, grilled eggplant recipe. It's a versatile sauce.

Just in case anyone missed it, yesterday's episode of Dave Arnold's Cooking Issues featured Scott Heimendinger of Anova to discuss the APO. You can listen here. He said the initial super flimsy flat pan susceptible to warping at high heat only went out in early shipments and has been replaced with a different pan which is ribbed. Anyone who got the original can get a replacement but it sounds like it's still kind of a stopgap. I'd guess one is likely better off purchasing a good sturdy pan separately. They discussed a tank issue that sounded more like internal crazing than through and through cracks. As has been pointed out here, it's largely a cosmetic defect. They are not happy with it and want to fix it but there are limited materials that are food-safe, clear and can withstand the thermal stress that part of the tank is exposed to during steam venting. They don't have a long-term fix but are working on it. As far as toast goes, Dave's general recommendation for APO owners was to get a toaster. Edited to add that Scott was on for over an hour so much more was covered. Listen

I can't imagine the trauma of going from your exquisite cooking to a college dining hall!

Yes, I think you could come up with lots of variations....in fact, Google offered up a lot of choices with just this particular brand of rolls! Great idea! The rice vinegar was a nice combo with the pineapple.

Absolutely. I enjoy Old Fashioned-type cocktails made with any rum that's delicious enough to sip on its own and a dash of most of the Sweet Potential syrups as the sweetener would be enjoyable to me. Not sure about the apple but I think the blackberry, kumquat and especially the pineapple Sweet Potential with be lovely with rum. On the cocktail page in the book, there's a recipe for a Strawberry Daiquiri, using white rum, that I think would be nice with a lot of fruits. In the book, Vivian says that most of the recipes in the Sweet Potential section can be made with other jellies, jams or preserves you might have on hand. I believe that's true for most of the recipes but the cocktails really need a lighter syrup and wouldn't work as well with a spoonful of jam from the fridge.

My adventures with This Will Make It Taste Good continue with a scaled down batch of Inspiration Strikes Party Rolls p 251, that use Quirky Furki p 236. These are surprisingly good but I will not be serving large batches them at any parties inside my house because the melted butter that helps make both the tops and bottoms crispy and delicious also leads to messier eating than I want going on. Not to mention the melty cheese, juicy pineapple and mayo. Maybe outside? With lots of wipes? I dunno. They are tasty though. I loved Vivian's "Inspiration Strikes" essay about how the idea for this recipe came to her while shopping at her local Piggly Wiggly. Bologna, cheese and pineapple on King's Hawaiian rolls, topped with butter and a furikake-inspired seasoning mix sounded so strange that I had to give them a try. I used Black Forest Ham instead of bologna and Fontina instead of Provolone but otherwise followed the recipe. The pineapple gets cut into very thin slices and marinated in rice vinegar so they're almost more like a pickle than a hunk of fruit. After whining in a post above about not wanting to make Sweet Potential p 296, I decided I might as well play around with some small batches so I can see if it's something I want to make more of when the summer fruits are in season. Instead of using 4 lbs of fresh fruit, per the recipe, I used 12 oz of blackberries and half a pound of apples and kumquats. I put Meyer lemon slices in with the apples and blackberries. Here they are after macerating overnight and simmering for 15 min for the kumquats & berries and an hour for the apples: Much more manageable than 6 quarts! I set up another small batch of Sweet Potential with a pound of pineapple and lime slices since I had plenty leftover from those sandwiches above and I'll cook it up tomorrow. In the meantime, I've already taken my blackberry Sweet Potential over to Cocktail o'Clock p 314 and used it to make a Blackberry Mint Gimlet. Very pretty. I also made a Blackberry Old Fashioned with 1/4 oz blackberry Sweet Potential syrup, 2 oz bourbon and ginger bitters, garnished with a blackberry. That last one is not in the book but do recommend it. Apologies for not taking photos of the drinks. I was apparently thirsty 🙃

I bought it because I wanted to try incorporating it into a finishing seasoning or other applications where you wouldn't necessarily want to add a liquid.