blue_dolphin

Continuing my exploration of radish toast for breakfast... These are "English Garden Toasts" from A Modern Cook's Year. The bottom layer is a minted mash of peas (I used fava beans), topped with oven-roasted radishes, goat cheese and red onions, lightly pickled in lemon juice.

I freeze cooked beans all the time and they do fine. I cook a full pound of dried beans at a time and end up freezing at least a few servings for later meals. I usually freeze them with some of their pot liquor to help avoid freezer burn.

I may have mentioned this elsewhere but can't resist sharing it here as well. A beautiful 1 hr 15 min documentary, ‘Five Seasons: The Gardens of Piet Oudolf’ is available free for all to stream online THIS WEEKEND ONLY via Hauser & Wirth Gallery: link here A little past the middle of the documentary is footage of Oudolf admiring the spring wildflowers during a visit to the Texas Hill Country. They also pay a visit to Cooper's for barbecue. His comment on the wildflowers, "Beautiful, there is only one word." And on the barbecue: "Completely insane. No other word." The documentary is lovely and very much worth a watch if you get a chance this weekend. Not to mis-represent it. It's about a renowned landscape designer and not focussed on Texas or barbecue!

I had some notion of making dainty little tea sandwiches with a compound watercress/garlic/lemon zest butter from Six Seasons that I had stashed in the freezer. I used the appropriate ingredients but veered way off course from my initial vision. First, I toasted slices from a rustic loaf rather than a cocktail-sized loaf of white bread. Instead of a layer of pale, creamy butter flecked with watercress, the butter melted quickly into my warm toast and the watercress turned a bright green. Once I saw that, I gave up on arranging thin layers of sliced French breakfast radish and just quartered a handful of them. Nothing wrong with the end result, it's just not at all what I set out to make!

After ~ 5 weeks of no grocery shopping except for the weekly farmers market, I went to Trader Joe's during their AM "senior" hour yesterday. They were normally stocked and I got everything on my list except AP flour. I saw on Instagram that a local bakery is selling King Arthur Sir Galahad flour so I decided to venture out again. This bakery mills and sells their own organic flour and had repackaged the Sir Galahad in 10 lb bags so I bought one. I've got bread flour on the way from Central Milling which should be delivered tomorrow or Monday. The little gourmet/import shop that I visit occasionally got in a big shipment of yeast (SAF Red and Gold Instant, Red Star Active Dry and Fleischmann's Instant, all in 1 lbs) so I may plan a trip over there next week. My yeast is well past its "best by" date, although it's still working, I was thinking of replacing it....more critically, I'm running a little low on French butter. I still haven't tried any grocery delivery services despite the Instacart emails that I've received for ages. The other day, I got an email from them encouraging me to sign up with them as a shopper. No, thank you. I did do a curbside delivery at Total Wine the other day so I've got Campari back in stock and a few white and rosé wines. Easy peasy. Just pop the trunk, they put the box in and you're on your way. And, not food, but food-related, I just received Mandy Lee's (of Lady and Pups) book The Art of Escapism Cooking: A Survival Story, with Intensely Good Flavors. It came out last fall and is about her own cooking in isolation when she moved to China for her husbands job but the title seems quite appropriate to these times, too. Her recipes often require more grocery procurement than I'm doing these days but I'm looking forward to reading it

Soft boiled egg on toasted focaccia, sausage links, cherry tomatoes

For today's Instagram Apéro Hour, David Lebovitz made hot chocolate so I did, too: Chocolat Chaud from Drinking French. Served in one of my grandmothers Limoges chocolate cups. I'm now on a sugar high and better go wash the floors before I crash!

I have seen similar grapes sold as Moon Drops and Sweet Sapphire grapes. I think I read somewhere that US consumers did not fancy the witches’ fingers moniker for a fruit. Picky, picky!

David Lebovitz started his IGTV "Apéro Hour" after his book tour for Drinking French was cancelled and it's rapidly become the highlight of my day. Too bad it's at 9 AM my time as things just go downhill once it's over until it's finally a reasonable hour to make and enjoy the cocktail of the day 🙄 Today's guest was Alexandre Gabriel, founder of Pierre Ferrand, Citadelle & Plantation, who prepared a Daiquiri with Plantation Stiggins Fancy Pineapple Rum. Limes from my tree Also from the book, I've recently enjoyed the Yellow Cocktail, which is indeed very yellow: A Brooklyn: And more than one Rosemary Gimlets:

A linguine version of the Spaghetti with Anchovies, Tomatoes and Basil from Melissa Clark's Dinner in French In the header notes, Ms. Clark allows that this is not really a French-inspired recipe but that she first added the tomatoes into her usual pasta with anchovies while on vacation in Provence. It works for me.

Focaccia That missing portion, a little bit at a time, along with some feta, fresh tomato, more olives and a glass or two of wine became dinner.

Toxic Hell? We always call it Taco Smell 🤣

Yeah, I was going to say that hard shell tacos aren't common in restaurants around here but then I went and checked the Taco Bell and Del Taco websites and they have some listed. I guess I don't go to the right places for my tacos 🤣

Maybe Staub doesn't currently manufacture cauldrons?

I say a taco is folded around the filling using small tortillas that can be eaten out of hand. A burrito is rolled to completely enclose the filling and usually made with larger tortillas. Taquitos are rolled, then fried. But I’m a gringa so what do I know?

I'm sure there is a better thread for take-out pizza vs home cooked, but I guess I can share these toppings as something I might try....maybe...someday 🙃. My cousin and his wife, who live in Queens, are currently in Rio and shared these photos of a delivery pizza they ordered. Toppings on the Portuguesa pizza include tomato (no sauce), ham, chouriço sausage, cheese, onion, hard boiled egg, green pepper, olives and oregano. The whole thing looks a bit pale to me. My cousin said the crust was lacking but did not complain. Considering the way it's packaged (and likely transported, see the last photo) a certain amount of steaming seems unavoidable. Apparently, ketchup and mustard are standard pizza condiments.

The ingredient list on the package says cassava root starch. Maybe try contacting them via their website for more info?

Indeed. That price is very low. Perhaps too good to be true? This BBB page on the vendor does not sound promising.

Over here, in another thread, @jedovaty mentioned Brazilian pão de queijo and reminded me that I picked up a packet of frozen, bake-at-home mini pães at the farmers market a while back. These are the cassava root flour type and are cheesy, chewy and salty. I added a drizzle of Mike's Hot Honey and enjoyed with a tangerine & black coffee.

Oh my! What could be better than @Ann_T's gorgeous biscuits? Why, @Ann_T's Ham, Cheddar and Chive Biscuits, of course!

When I watched that segment, I spied quite a few pints of Jeni's. I've been wanting both bread flour and all-purpose flour and finally had both, plus a bonus bag of 00 pizza flour, in my cart at Central Milling the other day. Mid-checkout, the doorbell rang - my friend dropping off 2 cute kittens for me to mind - by the time I got back, the bread flour was out of stock. Yesterday, the AP was out. Today, it's all out. At least I've got kittens to play with 🤣

For over ten years now, local public radio station KCRW in conjunction with Evan Kleiman's Good Food radio show/podcast has been hosting an annual pie contest. Since it had to be cancelled this year, the are doing an Instagram Pie Pageant with prizes for the best looking pie and the best pie story. It's going on now and the deadline is tomorrow. Anyone going to enter a pie? Both winners get a Vitamix. Looking at the early entries, this Easter empanada is my favorite since it's savory and I like the story, too.

I couldn't decide whether this was a sweet or a bread but I had it for breakfast today, so I'll just put it here. I made a half batch of Pane del Pescatore or Fisherman's Bread from Il Fornaio Baking Book (recipe available online here) and shaped them into three rounds Years ago, I used to walk over and buy these for special weekend treat at the Il Fornaio shop in my neighborhood in Santa Monica but this was my first time to try making them. They're kind of like a scone with candied citrus peel (I used a mix of lemon, orange and grapefruit peels that I made recently) golden raisins and fennel seeds. I think my fennel was past its prime and they were rather generous in size for a single serving but otherwise good. I'll add some pine nuts next time.

Is that Powerwash spray the same one that inspired @Anna N to start this thread or something even newer?

But that's the good thing about the Kindle version - found it in a flash with a search for "ranch" Edited to add that finding ramps to pickle is much less easy but I knew that!