blue_dolphin

Yes I believe it is supposed to be very close to that. Eggplant is an excellent idea. I thought it was very good on falafel. I used homemade falafel and pita (from Shaya) I had stashed in the freezer but TJ's sells frozen falafel that would probably be good, too. Ottolenghi has a recipe for a yogurt/amba sauce that's about 50:50 if I remember correctly. I tried that with the TJ's mango sauce and it kind of got lost I needed to add some of the TJ's Yuzu kosho sauce to perk it up!

That's my kind of meal - lots of little tastes to enjoy! Edited to add that I just looked at the menu and don't know how you managed to narrow it down - so many interesting choices!

Food52 published this "best butter for baking" piece last month using prices from the NYC area. They're showing Land O' Lakes @ $4.89/lb, Whole Foods store brand @ $3.49 and Trader Joe's @ $2.99. I buy Kerrygold for the table and it's higher, $2.85/8 oz. I haven't scoped out local prices for the others.

I made a bookmark called Kindle and I apply it to all my Kindle books when I enter them. If you've got a huge collection and need to go back and mark them, it's a bit of a bother but once it's done, it's handy. You can pull up the whole list of Kindle books or use it in the search criteria for a book or recipe.

When EYB came along, I was at a point where it was hard to justify purchasing any more cookbooks because it was easier to look up recipes on the internet, though the results were often of lesser quality than what was in my cookbook collection. My membership was the key to making good use of my books and generating quality search results from the blogs, magazines, newspaper columns, etc. that I follow. The current annual membership of $30/year is around the cost of one newly published cookbook. Certainly more pricy than what I paid for a lifetime membership but it's a trade-off I'd make in a minute. @TdeV, it sounds like you would be happier investing that $30/year in lots of used cookbooks. I can see that side of it but I'm happier making good use of the collection I own and adding to it judiciously. It's all good!

Here's a photo I posted back in March with the sort of celery I generally find at my local farmers market. I suspect that one is about 2 feet long so there are plenty of leaves! Neither the parsley nor cilantro/coriander are sold with roots by most vendors. There are a couple of vendors specializing in Asian vegetables who sell coriander roots but I have never seen parsley roots offered. All the market vendors sell broccoli with the stems and usually plenty of leaves, too. Grocery stores usually offer a choice of crowns-only or whole stalks.

These Banana Date Nut Crisps are nice: I had them with some of the Silver Goat chèvre. Nice for a snack with a cup of coffee...or glass of wine. My only complaint is that quite a few of them were broken. Not an issue for me but annoying if you were planning to arrange them on a cheese platter for guests.

You are correct. Culinary Market Proves a Wise Choice for Lab Equipment Manufacturers

Now I need to go get one of the Bread & Chocolate bars from Theo. They use butter but it's still a great combination and I'd love to try an olive oil version.

Last year, Jaden from Steamy Kitchen wrote up a review of this Sharp steam oven, including comparisons to the CSO with which she is familiar. The Sharp has no steam-only setting and while the headspace is limited it appears to take up more counter space than then CSO. Jaden agrees:

Back to the strawberries, my first thought was that they're not one of the fruits that come first to my mind for inclusion in savory dishes, as compared with other fruits like citrus, stone fruits, other berries like blueberries, blackberries, etc. or even jams so I though there might be something to that. On the other hand, one of my favorite salads is a spinach salad with fresh strawberries and feta (among other things) and if feta's not salt, I don't know what is so there are certainly exceptions to every rule!

I saw @Anna N's plate of scrambled eggs and toast and decided it would be good start to the day: Toast was rubbed with garlic and topped with some TJ's marinated antipasto vegetables

Will the appliances convey with the house? Here, except for built-ins, they generally do not, unless it's specifically written into the contract. Particularly true for fridges.

So, what did you think of the kid? A dining companion ordered a roast shoulder of kid at a restaurant in Barcelona and that's the only time I tried it. I was somewhat taken aback at the small size of the bones but I always want to try things and it was very good!,

First popsicles of the season. Back to basics with straight up strawberry and strawberries and cream:

What gorgeous photos - they did a beautiful job capturing the various textures and especially the glow of the natural woods. I liked the linked photos to their party that shows people enjoying the space, the food, drinks and each other. I really need that coffee table ....and someone to come in and present me with an after dinner experience on the regular 🙃 When you have a moment, a couple of questions based on previous discussions here. First, what did you decide to do about music? From listening to some of Dave Arnold's rants on Cooking Issues, it seems like such a difficult thing to manage both control and rights. Second, you mentioned the potential use of Alice Ballard's meditation bowls. I'd love to see how you will use them. After you mentioned her, I purchased a few of them myself and love their shapes, textures and colors.

Beautiful! Looks like a bright and beautiful space to cook in.

I was lucky enough to have received my dim sum training from Chinese friends. I remember an occasion back in the very early '80s probably, when LA's Chinatown still had more dim sum places than the San Gabriel Valley and the bill was still figured by counting up the plates. A Caucasian couple was seated within earshot and were clearly unfamiliar with the offerings so they asked the server what they were. She lifted the lid from the first stack of steamers on her cart and tilted one so they could see the contents and shouted, "MEAT INSIDE!" She did the same with her next stack, a completely different item, and again loudly intoned, "MEAT INSIDE!" and yes, she said the same thing a third time for her last offering. I can't remember what the items were but I think one was shrimp, one pork and maybe something with chicken. Those diners could certainly have used that field guide!

I used some of the semi-dried cherry tomatoes in a quick pasta with broccoli and hot Italian sausage Flavor-wise, they're similar to sun-dried tomatoes packed in olive oil. You can probably tell from the photo that they retain more moisture than regular sun-dried so their texture is less dry and more tender. And since they're little cherry tomatoes, there's no need to chop them up, a nice convenience for me at the moment. I need to make some bruschetta with them next.

Resurrecting an old thread to add this comment about something that's not exactly a gadget but may be helpful to those dealing with hand, wrist or arm bandages that prevent wearing gloves. I've found that Glad Press 'N Seal wrap can be used to make a water-resistant covering to keep bandages clean and dry during various kitchen activities. It adheres nicely to itself and to the skin. Multiple, narrow strips can be used to wrap around fingers, etc. Just make sure to press on the edges to seal them. It's relatively easy to remove and replace if it gets dirty. Also easy to wrap around the end of a bag and seals it nicely to your skin if you need to cover your whole hand. I don't think I'd fully immerse my hand in water but it's let me use that hand to hold a dish while I scrub it with my other hand and everything stayed dry and tidy. Like any sort of plastic covering, you wouldn't want to leave it on long term as it would get sort of steamy but it's very handy in the short term.

The other day, I picked up the Kindle version of The Dim Sum Field Guide: A Taxonomy of Dumplings, Buns, Meats, Sweets, and Other Specialties of the Chinese Teahouse by @Carolyn Phillips for $1.99 US, sadly not similarly reduced on Amazon.ca I'd been intrigued by this since it came out as it sounded terribly cute but I didn't want to spend $15 dollars on it. I knew the book contained the author's own drawings of the various sorts of dim sum and was worried that it might be awkwardly laid out in the Kindle version. The "Look Inside" feature didn't display any of the actual listings but I figured it was worth a try for $1.99 and was pleased to find that it actually works quite well with a hyperlinked table of contents, index and handy links to related items within the text. There's a nice intro to dim sum up front, which you can see via "Look Inside," followed by individual listings for a pretty wide assortment of dim sum items. It's a charming little book. Here's one of the listings, captured from my phone so you can see that it is indeed a field guide and not a cook book as some negative Amazon reviews apparently thought. The inclusion of a section on "Nesting Habits" cracks me up!

I stop in at TJ's often but usually on autopilot so I tend to miss new items. Thanks to @lemniscate's intro and @Maison Rustique's specific suggestion, I went in search of these and came home with 4 new-to-me items: All the veg are in shelf-stable packs at RT, the mango sauce was in the refrigerated section and has a "use by" date that is fast approaching. I'm looking forward to trying it on falafels, then we'll see what else it would work with. Most of the reviews I've found online give me the impression that its flavors are more mild than potentially more authentic versions. I have no experience to compare it to. The packaging on the veg and tomatoes say they are dried in ovens, so prob not sun-dried.

Dorie Greenspan's Lower East Side Tart (recipe available online here) with all the stuff you'd serve with bagels: smoked salmon, cream cheese, capers, sliced red onions, tomatoes, fresh dill, but distributed in a pie crust, topped off with an egg/cream custard. and baked. I still have a big bandage on my right (and very dominant) hand so this is certainly not my best work but no complaints.

I see this:

I toss with olive oil, S & P, then roast on steam-bake @ 400 F for 8-10 min depending on thickness.