blue_dolphin

Another one from Batch Cocktails, All She Wrote by Jeremy Simpson when he was at Bestia in Los Angeles. The batch recipe from the book is available online here and is one of the "Drinks that Keep" and are recommended for aging. I made a batch of these for a gathering back in June and have been enjoying the leftovers since then. In honor of the last glass, I assembled the ingredients for this group photo. This is strongly flavored enough to sip slowly but relatively low in alcohol. The suggested garnish is a pinch of salt and I found it to pull the flavors together nicely.

Another one of those light, crispy yeasted cornmeal waffles with praline bourbon bacon syrup. This time with fresh figs.

Thanks for taking us along! I especially loved seeing all those beautiful sunsets without a single bug bite 🙃

There's a an excellent thread over at this link that you can mine for ideas. Almost every homemade gift I've given has been well received, so I'd encourage you to pursue your ideas. When I receive homemade food gifts, I always appreciate recommendations for using them. I used to put together baskets of baked goods and everyone got a small fruitcake. Then the anti-fruitcake articles that always pop up around the holidays put me off but a lot of people have asked so I should make them again. I like to troll the thrift stores for cocktail or liqueur glasses and to give along with a bottle of homemade limoncello or tequila por mi amante or some other homemade liqueur and a cocktail recipe or serving suggestion.

Fresh figs, toasted baguette slices and Point Reyes Blue

Thanks so much for taking us along and especially for catching up on that last, marvelous dinner....and those toutons!

Country ham on a savory scone with fresh peach slices The freezer dive that unearthed the gougères I had the other day also revealed a bag of unbaked Cream Cheese Radish and Dill Scones from Sister Pie. I cut these a good bit smaller than the recipe does. They are rich so this was plenty. I pulled one out and while it was baking in the CSO, I mixed up some Dijon and mayo and browned up a Broadbent country ham biscuit slice. Truth in advertising requires me to say that only half of the ham is pictured above. After a bite, I determined the meat:bread ratio was off so I separated the scone halves and gave them each a smear of mustard and a piece of ham. Excellent!

Indeed. I clicked "like" on that post while reading about the toast, red pepper, onion, ham, egg and ketchup. Sounded good. Then my eyes somehow darted back and saw what I'd missed. I quickly removed my "like"

Roasted Peach, Honey and Earl Grey pops I had some honey/Earl Grey syrup I'd made for a cocktail so I used the leftovers to sweeten these pops. Peaches are the July Flame variety from the farmers market.

Ha ha - sounds like something I would do. I know I was looking for verjus a while back but I can't remember what for. I think maybe it was for an apple and pear mostarda to be served with seared scallops. Or maybe not. In the meantime, here's a link to a list of recipes available online that call for verjus, via Eat Your Books. Maybe something there will strike your fancy.

I think I mentioned above that Dave Arnold's been doing a segment on Classics in the Field on his Cooking Issues podcast. A recently mentioned book is Ruth Mary Griswold's Experimental Study of Foods published in 1962 so it's less old than @teonzo may have had in mind for this thread but I thought I'd mention it here anyway since it does meet the "free to read/download" criteria. Here's a link to an online version of Experimental Study of Foods. Edited to add that this is also not a cookbook. It was written as a text for Food Science students. Dave speaks of it as a predecessor to McGee and especially raves about the first sections on "Introduction to Food Experimentation" and "Introduction to Food Science" as well as the last sections on "Food Experimentation." Even if I'm not doing experiments, I'm often comparing recipe outcomes when I change things and found her considerations worth a read and thought others may as well. If you want to hear the rest of Dave's rave about the book, the segment starts around the 55 minute mark here: Cooking Issues Episode 376: The Army Ant of Grass

Rosé-dipped Strawberry Rose Ice Pops from Naz Devarian's Bottom of the Pot The pops are just lightly sweetened strawberries whizzed in the blender with a splash of rosewater, served dipped in a dry rosé.

Yesterday, I spied a few gougères in the freezer and thought they'd be just the ticket with egg salad so I boiled up some eggs and this was yesterday's breakfast: There are 3 in the photo, but I ate 5 🙃. Today, I decided on a 2-course waffle extravaganza. These are the same yeasted waffles with cornmeal that I made the other day for lunch (posted over here in the waffle thread), frozen and reheated in the CSO to their delightful crispiness. I got the waffle recipe from the LA Times but I know people have firewall issues so when I was looking for the recipe on other sites, I saw this one from Sunset which includes 2 more topping options in addition to the apple cider syrup that appears in most other versions. I figured I'd try them today. First up is the Praline Bourbon Bacon Syrup Topping. Adding the toasted pecans and diced bacon to the brown sugar syrup cooled it to the point that it almost solidified on the waffles, which I didn't expect but it makes it a very praline-like topping. I added more bacon & pecans after I took this photo. After an interlude of floor mopping, I moved on to my second waffle course with Rosé-Steeped Strawberries with Vanilla Whipped Cream Topping These berries are the Seascape variety from Harry's Berries and are perfect on their own but I liked the way the acidity of a dry rosé (I used a Tavel) prevented the syrup from tasting overly sweet and enhanced the berry flavors.

I have, except for the ice. On a hot day, I'll often add some sparkling water to a glass of rosé. If it's really hot, that might be adding some rosé to a glass of sparkling water. I've done the same with a light red and found it rather nice. I confessed that sin to a friend who's from a large Italian-American family. She said that was nothing. Her family only drink red wines but in the summer, they dilute it with ....Fresca! The Fresca business doesn't appeal to me but I haven't tried it so I shouldn't knock it 🙃

Nice article! Lost Spirits was briefly mentioned in this recent post Disruptive technology may change the whisk(e)y industry - Economist mag shared by @eugenep and quite a few folks have posted cocktails they've made with Lost Spirits rum. I gave a bottle of it and tickets to a Lost Spirits tour to my cousins last Christmas. I'll have to check and see if they've gone yet.

Your mention of a bit of sweetness reminds me of my favorite: Yank Sing Chili Pepper Sauce. It's not at all Sichuanese as it's from a Cantonese-style restaurant in San Francisco known for Dim Sum but it is very delicious. Sadly, they are no longer selling it. I heard somewhere that it was a family dispute of some sort. Anyway, eG member @hzrt8w put some effort into duplicating the product and shared his recipe in this post: Home made hot chili oil recipe. He allows that it's not a duplicate but that he likes it. He also mentions what alternatives he tried and what he thought of them. That might also give you some ideas. I've still got one jar of the Yank Sing sauce that I've been hoarding. I should try @hzrt8w's recipe while I've still got the original to compare to. Here are the listed ingredients on my jar:

@tikidoc, how would you compare that sauce you loved to Lao Gan Ma's Spicy Chili Crisp? There are recipes around for homemade versions of that condiment (like this one from Serious Eats) that could be a good starting point if they are at all similar.

Another yeast-raised waffle here. Brown Sugar Kitchen’s Cornmeal Waffles are basically the same as the classic Marion Cunningham/Fanny Farmer recipe but with the addition of cornmeal. Served with fresh peaches, whipped cream and a little maple syrup. Deliciously crispy. I made a half recipe which yielded ten 6.5 inch round waffles. I usually use 1/2 cup of batter/waffle but these bubbled up all over the place so much that I needed to scale back to ~ 1/3 cup each.

Yes, I toasted first, though not to total crispness, then applied tuna & cheese and finally broiled. All in the CSO. Also, I linked to the tuna I have but I've seen jalapeño tuna from the common brands in the supermarket.

I'm embarrassed to say that I just used canned tuna with jalapeños instead of plain tuna in my usual mix.

Jalapeño tuna salad on toast with TJ's Unexpected Cheddar broiled on top

Thanks! It's a 9-inch cast iron Wagner Ware chef's skillet. It has sloped sides and that nice smooth finish of old cast iron.

Yes, I put just a thin film of avocado oil into the pan when it was heating. I do that when I'm roasting a whole bird for less sticking when I turn it. Probably not necessary here.

Chicken leg quarters, ~ 9 oz each. Placed in a cast iron skillet that had been pre-heated on the stove top then directly into the CSO on steam bake, 425°F, 30 min. Perfect!

Ooops, I did it again