blue_dolphin

A couple of Trader Joe's potato pancakes, heated from frozen in the CSO and served with sour cream and David Lebovitz's cranberry chutney. Plus a glass of sparkling wine, (Trader Joe's Reserve Brut Rosé North Coast) not pictured. For me, the charm of potato pancakes is in the lacy edges which are understandably lacking here but they're not bad.

@Duvel, that spread looks amazing! I'd be most pleased with a birthday feast like that....if I can skip the crown featuring my advanced age! This morning, I followed @Anna N's lead and made the Fatoot Samneh that she posted about here the other day. It might not look like much but it's exceedingly delicious. I had some nice homemade, whole grain pita bread but I think any sort of pita would become crispy and delicious when fried in a generous amount of ghee. Definitely a more than the sum of its parts dish. I had my doubts about the suggested topping of honey but I added a drizzle of Mike's Hot Honey to a corner of my plate and called that bite my dessert. Not bad.

I bought mine at the same local mill where I get the coarser stuff I use for polenta. It is certainly finer than the polenta stuff, but still with a noticeable grit. I went ahead and sifted enough for another batch with a mesh strainer, giving the coarse bits an extra grind in my old whirly-blade coffee grinder until they were fine enough to pass through. Dorie recommended the Bob's Red Mill corn flour for these cookies but I don't want to buy more corn stuff. I'll save that expense and perhaps invest it in some cultured butter as Dorie says they use at Poilâne 🙃

A slice & bake version of Poilâne's Corn Sablés. The recipe appears in Apollonia Poilâne’s new book, “Poilâne, The Secrets of the World-Famous Bread Bakery.” I used the recipe that Dorie Greenspan wrote about in the NYT: A Cookie Inspired by American Cornbread, Perfected in a French Bakery. Instead of rolling the dough and using a 2" inch cutter, I shaped it into 2" diameter logs. Dorie describes the corn flour called for as, "a type of cornmeal so finely milled that you can barely feel the grain’s grit." I purchased corn flour but it must be a more coarsely ground product as my cookies have a slightly gritty texture. I don't mind it, but I might try sifting the corn flour next time to see if that makes a difference. On the other hand, she also says that sablé means sandy so maybe the texture is as it should be, though mine do look a bit more coarse than the article photo does. Either way, I like them - buttery, sandy and not too sweet.

@Anna N, that Fatoot Samneh sounds really good. Did you try the suggestion of putting honey on it? I was going to make it today but decided to stick with my original plan. I did take a pita out of the freezer so it will be ready for tomorrow. Or maybe lunch🙃 Today's breakfast was Instant Pot polenta, CSO steam-roasted asparagus and fried duck egg, each layer anointed with the Double Mushroom Butter from Six Seasons.

I know you are wanting to source the real deal but Karin on Brot & Bread opines that roggenmehl typ 997 is similar to the white rye flour that can be purchased from King Arthur. Might do in a pinch. She also says that the King Arthur medium rye is similar to roggenmehl typ 1370 and the two can be mixed together to approximate roggenmehl typ 1150. Too bad you missed your opportunity to have @Duvel hand a packet off on his recent EWR layover......edited to add: what could ever be suspicious about a kilo or two of white powder????

Growing up, we got Pop-Tarts maybe once a year or so. Maybe it was a sale or a coupon because we were each allowed to pick a flavor. And I always picked the Frosted Brown Sugar Cinnamon, too!

OK, I'll bite. What were your all measuring cups occupied with? And why was your scale unavailable?

I have to say that I also didn't think it a complete disaster at first glance. The cheese looked warm and melty, the eggs like they might have a goo-ey yolk and the bread or roll looked nicely toasted with holes that all suggested a crisp exterior and chewy crumb. But since @liamsaunt described it as "sad," I believed her and figured that her amazing photography skills might make most anything look marvelous!

Well, you're on vacation, so there's that 🙃!

I'd compare it to feta but a bit more dry and dense

My former boss advised following this maxim: "When traveling, eat early and eat often," when on business travel. @Duvel may be following the corollary that applies to drink ,

Afternoon friendly? I'll hold out for the roasted mushroom Pop Tarts...maybe with a layer of mascarpone?

Apples, onions, pork? That sounds really great, @Anna N. I would be inclined to include a smear of grainy mustard but I guess that would take the pita out of Denmark, wouldn't it?

I roasted mushrooms for a pizza last night I included extras and used the trimmings from the lot of them, along with a handful of dried porcini to make a batch of the Six Seasons Double Mushroom Butter. Used some of that to scramble up a duck egg for my breakfast and put it on my toast, too.

Duck egg scrambled with Double Mushroom Butter from Six Seasons More mushroom butter on my toast. Mushroom butter on everything!

Indeed it is! I've usually started off with a half recipe of these compound butters but I'm glad I made the full recipe of this one - this is one big umami bomb of a compound butter Double Mushroom Butter from Six Seasons p 35. When I was roasting mushrooms for a pizza last night, I roasted extra and used the trimmings from all of them to make a batch of this compound butter. Since these were just regular creminis, not the wild mushrooms the recipe recommends, I added a handful of dried porcini to the trimmings which get boiled with garlic and thyme and the broth reduced to a couple of tablespoons. I followed the Six Season suggestion and used it to scramble eggs and finish them with fresh chives. Here, I used duck eggs and couldn't resist putting the butter on my toast, too - yum!

Yes, I've seen some other recipes that suffered some unfortunate "upgrades" as well. In some cases, I had saved my own printout and could spot the issues but sometimes they're otherwise undetectable. It seems like this one might have had some issues from the beginning, judging from @Toliver's query on @suzilightning's blog:

Roasted mushroom pizza Al Taglio dough @ 80% hydration from Mastering Pizza. Dough made with 50% bread flour and 50% stone ground whole grain Glenn wheat flour.

I followed a recipe from the NYT for Beans & Garlic Toast with Broth and put a fried duck egg on top. This recipe throws Parm rinds in with the cooking beans so the broth is extra tasty. The bread is sliced rosemary baguette so for the herbal note, I used a drizzle of rosemary and garlic-infused olive oil instead of the fresh marjoram specified in the recipe.

@Kim Shook, I have to echo @Smithy's "delightful" comment on that dish and I thank her for the links to the recipes. If I ever saw something like that on a restaurant menu, I would break my "look but don't touch" dessert rule in an instant! I was also pleased to read that the recipe calls for dried figs as I thought your photo looked like they might be fresh, and out of reach around here. Do you make the green apple ice in an ice cream maker? I don't have one but would love to make this over the holidays. Or maybe I can rope my cousin in to the plan and use hers!

They've had the dog calendars for a while. This is the first year that I've seen the cat version. How is it going over? I was afraid that Patrick and Michael would be able to sniff out the treats and eat more plastic and cardboard than they should whilst trying to get to the treats tempting them so!

There was a much shorter interview on Evan Kleiman's Good Food podcast this past week. You can listen and find a recipe here.

Toasted rosemary baguette, Silver Goat brand goat cheese and cranberry chutney from David Lebovitz's blog.

Made a batch of David Lebovitz's Cranberry Chutney this AM. He says to use any combination, of dried fruit: dates, figs, raisins, apricots, candied ginger, dried cherries, cranberries, pineapples, or other favorites, including chopped candied orange or lemon peel. I used candied ginger, dried blueberries and some of those dried, sweetened mandarin orange segments from TJ's. I also followed the head note suggestion to include a branch of rosemary while simmering. I used a baharat spice blend from Shaya in lieu of the ground spices in the recipe and a couple of de arbol chilies instead of chili flakes . I got 3 half-pint jars to process plus a half a jar to try on toast with some goat cheese: