blue_dolphin

If it's plain cheese and looks OK and smells OK, I'd probably give it a taste and see. I'd be more wary of a cheese with inclusions like peppers and stuff. You can also consider whether you want to take advice from someone who cut mold off all sides of a piece of Cabot extra sharp cheddar, grated up the clean remains and put it in my breakfast yesterday 🙃

Brave? They're Canadian!

The same Beemster Royaal Grand Cru 12 month Gouda is back as the Spotlight cheese at my TJs. $10.99/lb, as it was last year. I need to pick up a few chunks as it's good stuff!

I have a Le Creuset that I thought was permanently discolored from cooking black beans. I finally got around to giving it an overnight soak in PBW and it looks amazing!

Scroll back up to this post where I describe making that soup. I think it's what got us on the hock topic. In my hands, one hour was not sufficient. I strained the broth so as not to obliterate the vegetables and put the hock and broth in the Instant Pot for another hour. Next time, I will follow your suggestion of making ham broth (I'll do it in the Instant Pot) that I can de-fat so I can use it and the meat separately or together.

Another copy cat. I followed the recipe in the NYT (here) but reduced the cheese to a little over 1 oz and used a duck egg and toasted bacon bread.

Indeed. Another half-sized version of the Marion Burros Plum Torte, this one with pear & cranberry.

Assuming they are from your area, I'd suspect any servings of escargot would be seasonal 🙃

Oh, no! That's just mine. You'll have to sleuth out the dietary history of your own ducks...or not!

I've never seen smoked shanks in the grocery store. Even smoked hocks aren't all that common and the ones that turn up are bony little things. The hocks I order from Broadbent's are very meaty, like baby hams.

A bowl of the heirloom bean and escarole soup from Ad Hoc at Home topped with a fried duck egg. @Anna N's recent duck egg adventures encouraged me to pick some up at the local farmers market yesterday. They came with a description of their jobs on the farm: For what they cost, I should have gotten a photo of the duck who laid each egg. Oh wait, maybe that's what this is on the other side 🙃

I think Fuyus are the best choice here as I agree with @heidih that dead ripe Hachiyas would turn into mush and even though the article says that either are OK, it also says the fruit should still be somewhat firm and that would surely be unpleasantly astringent if they were Hachiyas. As is often the case with this cake, the flavors improved or melded on sitting and I liked it a lot more than when I tasted it still warm. Ripe Hachiyas might work if paired with another, firmer fruit but I don't think I'd like them on their own. If I'd remembered to buy some at the farmers market, I could try a Hachiya persimmon & cranberry torte but I didn't so pear & cranberry may be up next!

No, I won't be making it again for a while - once I add more escarole & beans, this batch will take me through the next few years! But for that distant future time, how long to soak? What volume and temp of water? How many changes? Assume a 1-1.5 lb hock. Do you use chicken stock when you make it?

Good idea. I've also got some smaller hunks of "seasoning meat" that I could have used instead. I was thinking that I wouldn't mind if this soup was fairly meaty and thought I might be OK since my stock was unsalted and I didn't add any other salt. I was wrong 🙃

Heirloom bean and escarole soup from Ad Hoc at Home. Beans are the Mogette de Vendée Bean from Rancho Gordo. I have some issues with the recipe but some of it was my own fault. I made a half recipe but used a whole ham hock as they're terribly not easy to bisect. As a result, it came out too salty. I'll go get another head or two of escarole and add more beans. And have soup for months 🙃. The recipe has you first sauté leeks, carrot and onion until tender, then add the smoked ham hock and chicken stock and simmer for an hour, then remove the hock and shred the meat. I'm not an experienced hock cooker but IMO it takes more than an hour to get truly shred-able meat from a hock and indeed this was true so I strained out the veg and put the broth and hock in the Instant Pot for another hour. Much better. But also saltier. Secondly, I think using chicken stock to simmer that hock is a bit of a waste as the smoky ham along with the aromatics is more than enough flavor for this soup. Not sure exactly what order I'll do things in next time but it will be different from the book.

This one is still $2.99 on Amazon.com and $2.51 on Amazon.ca. As @MelissaH pointed out, it's not a Kindle single, it's the full version of the book. You can check out a review of it and a sample recipe over here at EYB.

I'm not certain what the article author was referring to but if one chooses to make a risotto-like dish in the instant pot vs the classic stove top method of stirring in one ladle of broth at a time, then indeed, one is relieved "of most of the stirring."

I see some glassware in the photos, was your Mission successful?

Last week, Ben Mims shared a recipe for California Persimmon Torte in the LA Times, his variation on the Marian Burros Plum Torte from the NYT. I baked a half-sized recipe in a 6-inch springform pan. His changes were to reduce the sugar to 2/3 cup, increase the lemon juice to 1T and add ground ginger & turmeric (1/2 t each) and 1 t vanilla. I'd prefer to let lovely crisp-sweet Fuyu persimmons shine in a salad rather than baking them like this but it's nice to have another fall-winter option for this cake.

I put a Zuni Café Cookbook fried egg on top of the leftovers of the Three Sisters Bowl I made the other day for lunch. The crunch of the breadcrumbs and tartness of the vinegar were good additions, though I would never have turned down one of @Ann_T's magnificent biscuits!

I only drink beer (or wine) with food. If I manage to get my bites and sips out of sync and end up with a bit of pizza or fish & chips, or a bite of burger on my plate and an empty beer glass, then I will certainly wish for another splash to wash down that last bite. But once the food is gone, no, I don't want another beer.

If I were shivering and wrapped in blankets like @heidih, I'm not sure I'd want one but I find them quite pleasant whenever it's over 85°F or so and I've noticed that kids seem to like them most anytime. Edited to add that last year, I made some eggnog popsicles and I'm kinda looking forward to having those again over the holidays!

Extra points if you can make that into a rebus that will fit on a beer cap!

It is cloudy and chilly this AM and the high will only be in the mid 70's today - quite a change from last week and the weekend!

Hmmm. That no-touch method of juicing that @FauxPas shared looks pretty good. Maybe I should bring a pair of tongs out on my walks and grab some of these. I could make some prickly pear popsicles, no?