blue_dolphin

Scrambled eggs, one of the cheese and spicy pepper potato balls that I ordered from Porto's, a Cuban bakery in LA and a glass of fresh squeezed OJ.

I agree that @Smithy's cauliflower looks perfect to me, too. I always start nibbling on those smallest brown bits and pretty soon, I've nibbled away half the pan! My order from Porto's arrived yesterday as expected. Everything nicely packed with ample dry ice in the box. Four dozen little treats for me! There was a separate packet of parchment paper to line baking sheets and instruction cards for each. I transferred them to ziplocks to take up less freezer room Having a Dulce de Leche Besito right now with a cup of coffee. It's a not too sweet shortbread type kiss filled with dulce de leche. This could be a very dangerous habit!

This week's episode of Evan Kleiman's Good Food podcast is very appropriate to this topic. Interviews with Steve Sando of Rancho Gordo, Carla Lalli Music, a segment with Chef Gino about cooking with kids and some words of wisdom from Evan that I appreciated like, "I'm so grateful I know how to cook," and "Don't call them leftovers, think of them as mis en place for your next meal." https://kcrw.co/2Qx71cI

The Celery Salad With Dates, Almonds and Parmigiano from Six Seasons is very good, as are all the celery recipes in that book. Every time I get a big head of celery, I think about trying this celery marmalade. I am very curious to see what it would taste like but apparently not curious enough to have actually made it 🙃. Perhaps now is the time.

A basic, boring egg salad on toast with carrot sticks.

I ventured out for a few essentials

I don't usually post leftovers but what the heck. I reheated a slice of the Asparagus, Goat Cheese and Tarragon Tart that I made for yesterday's lunch. Decorated with smoked salmon rosebuds and a squeeze of lemon.

I'll have to keep that cocktail idea in mind. I saved the syrup thinking of using it in some hot toddies....you know....for medicinal purposes 🙃 I get a little tongue tingle from these but not really numbness but I've only had a few nibbles so far.

The other day, I made a batch of the pink grapefruit marmalade from David Lebovitz's blog. I used the extra rinds to make a batch of the candied grapefruit peel that he also featured recently. I'm very happy with both. Perfect balance of sweet, bitter and citrusy flavors. I'd considered adding rosemary to the marmalade but followed David's recommendation to make it as is and am glad that I did. I'm going to try his slightly different recipe for candied orange peel from his book, Ready for Dessert (recipe online here) in the next few days and then use both peels to make the Pane del Pescatore from the Il Forniao Baking Book (recipe online here.) The recipe calls for candied lemon and orange peels but I figured I can sub grapefruit for the lemon. Those sweet, crumbly breads were one of my favorite treats to pick up from Il Fornaio in my old neighborhood. Hope I can recreate them. I was surprised at the bright orange color of the marmalade, seen here on my breakfast photo from yesterday where you can see the orange compared with the light pink of the fresh fruit: The peels looked fairly orange when they came out of the syrup: but the sugar coating mutes that somewhat:

I went to the local farmers market today. It was busier than usual. Normal but not normal. Lots of signs warning everyone to maintain social distancing, no touching anything unless you buy it, no sampling or tasting. Some prepared food vendors were still there, like the tamale people but no picnic tables to eat at. All the egg vendors had lines at their booths. Long lines of people standing far apart. Lots of people seemed on edge. Quite a few wearing masks, many of them incorrectly. The market staff were walking around policing all the regulations. They want to keep the markets open but are afraid that they'll be shut down if people aren't complying. I hope they'll be able to continue. I rarely purchase any prepared frozen foods, but I decided to order a few bake-at-home items from Porto's, a family owned bakery and restaurant in the LA area. Supporting a local business and giving myself some options when I've been too preoccupied to cook. I ordered meat pie, cheese & spicy pepper potato balls and the seafood potato balls they make during Lent. With a salad or a little soup, a couple of them can be a meal. I love their dulce de leche kisses and if these are anywhere near as good as the ones from the bakery, they'll be a treat. I like the guava pastries, too, but don't need to be having a dozen of them around.

Asparagus, Goat Cheese and Tarragon Tart from Melissa Clark's new book, Dinner in French with asparagus from today's farmers market. This was very nice and the raw asparagus roasted nicely while this was baking but I don’t think I’d make it again as written. Might consider doing it as individual pastries. My brain just wasn’t in the mood for arithmetic this afternoon so I made the whole thing.

Made the Pink Grapefruit Marmalade from David Lebovitz's blog yesterday. Enjoyed some toast with the last of my French cultured butter. Black coffee. Debating whether that butter is an essential item. It might just be. The gourmet foods shop where I got it is a small business that sells mostly to restaurants. The staff got together and purchased the business from the previous owner and had just gotten things to a stable situation. I'm sure they are hurting and would like to support them.

A friend who's still at my former company told me they'd been asked not to leave out any shared treats. Moot point now - as of today, the whole site has been shuttered. I have been taking my baked treats to the library but this is out now as well. A couple of friends with kids at home have told me they'd welcome anything I bake so I may have a few takers if I get into a baking mood.

That's what I was trying to figure out!

There's still one of those Helms trucks on display at the old Helms bakery which became the Antique Guild and is now a furniture/design showroom. We also had bread delivery in upstate NY, but it was Freihofer’s. Same deal with the sign in the window so the driver knew to stop. The company started out delivering from horse-drawn wagons and when I was quite small, they still used them to deliver to my grandmother's house in Troy. If I recall, they only brought the old horse-drawn wagon around on Saturdays at that time and I remember it being called out as something special to see. My mother never wanted us to be around when the Freihofer man came by because he always had all sorts of treats that we would clamor for but that we couldn't afford, aside from the occasional box of their chocolate chip cookies, which my brothers adored! Seems to often be subject to panic buying. The manager at my local Smart & Final said they'd stopped carrying it for that reason - too hard to keep in stock. I last ordered a pack of 3 - 3lb boxes for $14 which I thought was highway robbery. Currently a little more than twice that price.

Not to worry. I was only mildly disappointed that Chick-Fil-A, which has a location just around the corner, is not selling a bag-o-bacon. I must say that it looks quite nice and crispy. Is that the case?

We had one on the front porch, but not built in. It was insulated to keep milk from freezing, at least for a while. As I recall, they were provided by the dairy and sported their logo as a bit of advertising. Even if you had to step out on to the purchase to open the box, it would still be handy for these times.

Yesterday's late lunch/early dinner. Lemony White Beans With Anchovy and Parmesan from Alison Roman's Nothing Fancy My Rancho Gordo Azufrado beans were a bit tender to handle the sauté with the garlic, red chili and anchovy but it certainly made them taste good!

Editing to share an Irish coffee anecdote. On September 11, 1901, Catherine O'Connor, age 17, who would become my grandmother, arrived from Ireland at Ellis Island, NY. Seventy five years later, in 1976, she returned for the first time on a family vacation and was introduced to Irish coffee as a great way to warm up a damp afternoon. While on that trip, my cousin asked her if they had Irish coffee before she emigrated. Her response, "Oh sure child, if we had this back then, I never would have left!" Should you decide to share the blessing on that mug, make sure to pronounce the name of the evil one in the way my grandmother did. It's the Divil, don't you know!

There is some discussion earlier in the thread. I keep it in the freezer and grate what I need with a microplane without thawing. Several other people also freeze it. @KennethT reported that the flavor becomes muted when frozen. If I want slices or julienne, I use fresh but otherwise, haven't noticed a big loss of flavor.

It's been a while since this thread has seen any action. A friend shared this 1969 booklet of maple recipes from the Miner Institute in northern NY and it being sugaring season and all, I thought I'd pass them on. I can't speak to having tried any of them. The cornflake cookies interest me but the maple salad dressing for fruit salads is a bit of a curiosity.

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Scallops with Spicy Beans, Tomatillo, and Citrus from Alison Roman's Nothing Fancy. Recipe available online at this link. I purchased this book as a Christmas gift for my cousin and this was one recipe that I photographed because the combination of ingredients sounded so curious and since I found 2 open bags of scallops in the freezer the other day, it was time. Quite nice.

Red beans & rice Beans from the freezer, rice cooked up fresh in the Instant Pot.

Well, we all know that one person's treat makes another one shudder 🙃!