blue_dolphin

Thanks for the tips, @Toliver! Previously, I would try lots of flavors, out of curiousity. After sampling one, I'd usually leave the rest in the break room at work but I would try both of these if I spot them. The dark chocolate is my only repeat purchase. And my annual purchase of TJ's peppermint Jo Jo's

I borrowed France is a Feast: The Photographic Journey of Paul and Julia Child, the book referenced in the New Yorker article, from the library and mentioned it very briefly over in the "food-related reading" thread. Great photos and well worth a look for anyone who enjoyed the sampling in the article.

From the same sort of place you bought the seeds or transplants for the first generation. Seeds for growing seedless watermelon plants are triploid (meaning they have an extra set of chromosomes) and if you grow seedless watermelons, you also need to have to grow some normal diploid watermelons to produce the pollen necessary to fertilize the seedless watermelon flowers so they will set fruit. Thanks for asking that. I knew that seedless watermelons were hybrids and that hybrids generally don't breed true, requiring purchase of new seeds each season but I didn't know that the seedless watermelon plants were incapable of setting fruit on their own. The hybrid watermelon seeds are also apparently more difficult to germinate but their popularity must make them worth all the effort! Edited to add: I see your question was already answered while I was down the seedless watermelon hole!

I know I’m late on this but have you tried Book Depository?

How heavy is it? Most crocks of that sort could do the job, particularly if aimed carefully from a significant height.

Ooooh! You guys are so creative. This should be fun. I've been missing the annual Manitoulin trek, too. While I can't say that idea of a mushy pea pie sends me into raptures, I'm looking forward to hearing more as I do love savory pastries! I'll have to check what might be available from bakeries in my area. I have been hoarding one last Pastel de Carne (meat pie) in my freezer from Portos, a local Cuban bakery. I purchased a small stash from them back at the beginning of the pandemic. Photo and description from their website: A light and flaky puff pastry filled with picadillo (ground beef, onions, peppers, and Spanish seasonings). In honor of this thread, maybe I'll place another order and get some of their chicken empanadas while I'm at it!

I reheated this slice of last night's fig, caramelized onion and goat cheese pizza (thank you, @shain) on the steel a tiny bit too long but topped with a drizzle of Mike's hot honey, it was still a very fine breakfast.

A big thank you to @shain for the fig pizza idea! Figs, goat cheese and roasted balsamic onions with sage, black pepper Just a little mozzarella on the bottom to glue things in place!

They look like what I buy to give out for Halloween....hoping in part that I won't get many kids so I can eat them myself 🙄

I don't usually eat in the evening so rarely post in this thread but it happened today. Scallop Aguachile with tomato-habanero water and pickled gooseberries from Josef Centeno's Amá. Recipe available online here. Scallops were very big - 8 of them weighed a little over a pound - so I should have sliced them into thinner slices. Still tongue-tinglingly delicious. Edited to add that the tomato-habanero water this recipe uses is basically a drained pico de gallo. The recipe says not to press on the solids to avoid turning the water cloudy and to discard the solids. Since there was plenty of flavor there and because it used pineapple vinegar, I added chopped pineapple to the drained solids to make a pineapple salsa. Fried up some tortilla chips to complete the meal.

GNS Foods sells the mixed nuts American Airlines offers in their premium cabins and reportedly, Covid-19 caused American to take the warm nuts off the first class tray tables. The company has quite a surplus and is selling them online where one can choose the traditional 'First Class' mix, or an Aloha Mix that is a combination of almonds, cashews, piña colada-flavored pecans, and dried pineapple. I could heat them up in little ramekins, crank the AC so it's really cold and loud, grab a ratty blanket and settle in on my chaise with my Bose noise-cancelling headphones to watch a movie on my iPad.

I like them, too! These are some country-style ribs that I bought at Sprouts a while back. The top 2 pieces were ~12 oz each, the bottom one, with the bone was 16 oz. I often see them thinner but like these meaty ones. I cook them fairly low and slow, as I would a piece of pork shoulder. They're actually a pretty good sub for that cut when cooking for 1 or 2. I believe these guys got browned, then went into the oven at 350°F to braise with some liquid for 90 minutes covered, then another 30 min uncovered. At that point, they were quite tender. Possibly more tender than you'd prefer so maybe something in between?

Honestly, the Vegemite bothers me more than the squareness of the crumpets. I bear it no ill will but don't have a taste for it as a breakfast spread. That said, I'm sure many more might take exception to my choice of breakfast spread today - pesto! Pasta with pesto and broccoli, zucchini, sugar snap peas, carrots, red bell pepper and feta

May I ask what info was a disappointment for you? I lost my sense of smell a while back so I'm always intrigued by the topic. It lasted a long, long time and has never returned to normal, hence my interest. Anything in particular about this book that puts you off?

I've been using the shelf position that puts the surface of the steel just a bit over 5 inches below the broiler element. Any big crust bubbles char quickly so I'm wondering if that is too close.

Shrimp & Grits

I wanted shrimp & grits. Got the shrimp out to thaw but forgot to start the grits so I pivoted to this. Louisiana BBQ Shrimp, crusty bread, corn Edited again to add that peeling shrimp at the table, particularly the breakfast table, is not my jam.

Peach & Pomegranate

Two more. Used the rest of the blueberry purée from above to make peach & blueberry pops. I love the blueberry flavor and this is one of my favorite combinations. Also made these mint chip pops I made mint syrup from David Lebovitz's book Drinking French. Due to a misprint, I used 80 g of fresh mint leaves instead of 20 g. It's very green and very minty and it's what I used to flavor the milk/heavy cream mixture here.

Just ordered the Kindle version of Flavor Bombs: The Umami Ingredients That Make Taste Explode @ $2.99 on Amazon. It's the same price on Amazon.ca The updated version of David Lebovitz's The Perfect Scoop is listed as a deal of the day @ $1.99 on Amazon. It's the same price on Amazon.ca

Also labeled in stores around here as goldenberries

A friend sent me a NYT recipe for Creamy Lemon Pops With Basil. There's no actual lemon juice in them, just the zest. The recipe suggests adding fresh berries so each one got a few blueberries. I had some of that mix leftover so I puréed up the rest of the blueberries and made these Blueberry with Lemon Cream Pops

Cucumber, mint & lime pops These came out a bit on the sweet side as is but I've been keeping a small glass of rum in the freezer and calling this a faux-jito:

I'm a big fan of Food Forward, an organization here in Southern California that performs similar gleaning activities in Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties. They used to be able to send out teams of volunteers to harvest backyard fruit. With the virus, they are currently only sending 1 trained picker to residential locations though they can still send larger teams to glean from the agricultural fields. Per their website, Food Forward staff and volunteers rescue over 500,000 pounds of surplus produce each week from fruit trees, farmers markets and the Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Market for donation to over 1800 hunger relief agencies across 8 counties in Southern California.

This video may provide some guidance for the crust, assuming you'd like a lattice style.