blue_dolphin

I've been wanting to try the Dates, Turnips and Bacon with Gorgonzola Dressing from Shaya. He describes it as a riff on the appetizer of bacon-wrapped dates stuffed with Gorgonzola. As vegetable dishes go, it's pretty decadent and I made it even more so by putting an egg on it. Edited to add: Here's how it looks as written, without the egg running all over the place

@wabi, My before photos of my recent DARTO shipment are in this post above. And afters here in this post. I've been using them regularly and am quite pleased with them.

The Kindle version of Joshua McFadden's Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables is now available to read for free for Amazon Prime members. Looks like this is the case on Amazon.ca, too. I am a big fan of this book and there's a thread here on cooking from it.

A few more 50 cent cocktail glasses for my collection. I purchased 2 each of three glasses - a big $3 investment for 6 glasses. These tulip-shaped glasses have an etched leaf and dot pattern that matches the smaller glasses that I purchased a while back. I suppose they are sherry glasses or something like that. I see the pattern on eBay and Etsy but haven't seen it identified. The larger ones will hold a 3.5 - 4 oz drink and the small ones accommodate a 2 oz drink. I tried but couldn't get a good photo of the pattern. The shop had 8 of those glasses but they weren't packaged together so I felt OK taking 2. I like the pretty shape and small size of these. The stem is not frosted glass, just frosty from the freezer! I thought these little coupes were a coup for 50 cents:

No, not from a Brazilian pepper tree (Schinus terebinthifolius), though I do have annoying sprouts popping up here and there from that invasive one. I harvested these from my Schinus molle, aka Peruvian pepper, California pepper.

Quoting myself here to say that this brut sparkling wine and its brut rosé sibling, which I prefer, are back in stock at TJ's again. They are both $9.99 but taste like more expensive bottles. Last year, the rosé disappeared promptly after New Years on Jan 2 so if you want to stock up, now is the time. I've got one case of the rosé now and I think I'll pick up another as it's so nice to have some bubbles on hand to celebrate unexpected occasions....like Wednesdays

There's a lot of agriculture here in Ventura county and the other day a kale spill snarled traffic on an onramp to the 101 Fwy. Of course, I though immediately of you Today's breakfast was a variation on the Avocado Toast with Smoked Whitefish from Shaya I used smoked trout instead of smoked whitefish and slices of a whole grain baguette instead of pumpernickel. Not a fan of biting into the pink peppercorns though, to be fair, they came from the tree at the end of my driveway so perhaps not the best source 🙃

Or maybe Russian Tea Cakes aka Mexican Wedding Cookies aka Snowballs?

I'll be interested in hearing what you think of the book! I kinda wish I would have gotten the larger Paella pan that you got but I'm OK for now. They certainly are useful as roasting pans in the CSO - no worrying about that thin little pan that came with it warping in the heat!

Yes, Shaya: An Odyssey of Food, My Journey Back to Israel is the book and I commented on it over here in the cookbook thread. It's a great read and a solid cookbook that gets 2 thumbs up from me! Edited to add that the recipe is available online at this link. The DARTO is the N 20 Paella pan. I also bought the N 25 Paella. Both are quite shallow but very good for cooking for one or two.

I love thinly sliced roasted cauliflower, all on its own, so I've been putting off trying the Whole Roasted Cauliflower with Whipped Feta from Shaya. I finally gave it a try, with just half a head, and I'm sold. Prior to roasting, the cauliflower is first boiled/steamed in a broth of white wine, salt, lemon juice, butter red pepper flakes, bay leaf and a bit of sugar, a step that infuses it with extra flavors. Edited to add that the cauliflower recipe is available online at this link. Per the book, it's served with a whipped feta/goat cheese/cream cheese mixture. I added some crostini topped with Matbucha, a rustic mix of tomato, roasted red bell pepper and onion, cooked together with spices, also from the book.

Half price Humboldt Fog always sounds good to me, as so some of the others!

In one of the early chapters of his book, Alon Shaya writes about going fishing with his father who always brought along turkey & cheese sandwiches on white bread that was usually soggy by the time they were ready for lunch. He also includes a recipe for a much better version: He calls for mincing some Castelvetrano olives and mixing them into the mayo before spreading it on one side of the bread, a trick I'll use on other sandwiches. From there, we have turkey, tallegio cheese, roasted red pepper, tomato and avocado. This is supposed to be built on slices of crusty whole grain bread, rather than a baguette so I ended up making quite a mess while eating but it was good.

I am no help at all but I'm impressed at your efforts to make it work and get something edible out of it!

Before 2018 is over, I want to give a shout-out to Alon Shaya's book, Shaya: An Odyssey of Food, My Journey Back to Israel. It's as much a memoir as a cookbook so it's very much worth a read even if you don't plan to cook from it. The recipes I've cooked, quite a few now, have all worked well. They are clearly written and offer substitutions for unusual ingredients. Because it's written as a narrative, recipes don't appear by type. I noticed at least one Amazon reviewer complaining about this but there is a category listing in the back of the book and I didn't have a problem with unconventional organization. There are color photos of every dish while watercolor sketches and photographs illustrate the stories. Weights are given for the baking recipes but most of the book uses conventional US volumetric measures, my only nit to pick with the book. Each of the 26 chapters begins with a personal essay, beginning with a difficult childhood in Philadelphia punctuated with sweet memories of cooking with his visiting Safta (grandmother), rebellious and delinquent teenage years where he was rescued by a committed Home Ec teacher, culinary school and time as a rather obnoxious young chef before moving on to New Orleans and Katrina recovery, a sojourn in Italy, opening the modern Israeli restaurant Shaya and closing the loop with hosting his parents at the restaurant. All the stories are woven together through food memories and the recipe headers often continue the stories and weave the recipes into the narrative. In the acknowledgments, Shaya credits co-writer Tina Antolini with suggesting he read Laurie Colwin's Home Cooking when he was struggling with how to make the stories he had written flow together with the recipes and he says that suggestion greatly helped him with the book. I don't know whether he went to therapy or whether writing these stories WAS therapy but his descriptions of his (occasionally unpleasant) past selves are personal, insightful and honest. The book was written prior to Shaya's split from the Besh group which owned the restaurants, Shaya, Dominica and Pizza Dominica, where he was executive chef and it was published while Shaya and Besh were in the midst of their complicated corporate divorce. He seems to have landed on his feet, forming his own restaurant group and opening his own modern Israeli restaurant, Saba (grandfather) just down the street from Shaya and a second restaurant, Safta, in Denver. I borrowed Shaya from the library when it was first published in March or April of this year. Flipping through the book, one of the first chapters I read was titled "Family Meal." It describes a Thanksgiving dinner Shaya cooks with and for his family after a family tragedy and it touched me deeply. I knew that I wouldn't be able to part with the book in just 2 weeks. I quickly tried a couple of recipes to make sure they worked and ordered the book. No regrets on that purchase and I'd encourage you to give it a look if it's at your library.

I haven't thought of them in ages, but I remember baking similar cookies when I was a kid, for school bake sales. This was back in the day when peanuts could roam freely in school corridors though I'm sure the nuns would have had a plenty to say about them absorbing into anyone's soul. Ours were just regular PB cookie dough, rolled into a ball and smushed with a kiss. I think I put the kisses on before baking as I recall their tips getting dark and caramelized. Or maybe I intentionally overbaked those so I could eat them myself .

@rotuts Did any of your DHL emails have a tracking number? If so, go ahead and check that on the DHL site. Below is my complete tracking after delivery. I got that first "Confirmación de envío" email on Nov 2. I got another email on Nov 5, that included a tracking # and said it would be delivered by the end of the day on Nov 7. That was pretty unreasonable but it did eventually get here!

Cranberry sauce with rosemary & orange and whipped feta/goat cheese (both from Shaya) on toasted rosemary bread The cranberry sauce is lightly sweetened sugar and honey and flavored with orange, rosemary, black pepper, bay leaves and vanilla bean.

Curried Sweet Potato and Leek Pie and Green Salad with Green Dressing, both from Shaya The "curry" in the pie comes from the Hawaij spice mixture, also in the book and I modified the pie to use a polenta crust instead of regular pastry. The salad is amazingly green from a dressing that's almost entirely herbs - parsley, dill and cilantro - blanched and puréed with a little yogurt, avocado oil, vinegar, garlic

@rotuts, what did you order this time?

The "prize" for the winner is the opportunity to dine with the expert chefs who have judged the episodes. That dinner would take place at the "final table"

I'd say it depends on what you want to use it for. I have a 2.75 qt LC oval Dutch/French oven and use it often. It's good for cooking a pound of dry beans, for example. It's rather too small for baking loaves of no-knead bread. Edited to add that Amazon helpfully informed me that I paid $79.99 for it back in 2006.

I agree with @gfron1 that some of the "celeb-judges" don't always add that much, although some have made some interesting observations and Hasan Minhaj added some levity to the discussions. I wondered what sort of weighting the critic's opinion was given when it came to the final decisions. At least that judging panel doesn't actually eliminate anyone. Edited to add this clip from the Indian episode of The Final Table for the non-Netflix peeps. This shows the judging of one team by the 2 celeb-judges and a food critic from India.

I've watched Mexico, Spain, the UK, Brazil and India. I find it more appealing with fewer chef teams. Easier to keep track of them as I've gotten to know them a bit in previous episodes. At the same time, I really wish I could see more from the eliminated teams. They were all quite interesting.

Is anyone watching The Final Table on Netflix? The stadium/set, lighting, music and sound effects are over the top but at least the gimmicks stop there and no one has to cook an entrée from Cheetos outside during a windstorm with only a cigarette lighter and one hand tied behind their backs. The talent is pretty amazing - multiple Michelin stars amongst the contestants alone and while there is relatively little interaction shown between them, the contestants all seem to respect each other, as do the expert judges. The international mix of contestants, judges and cuisines is interesting. My favorite bit is during that second phase of each episode when the 3 bottom teams cook for the expert judge and he/she visits each team while they're cooking. Anyone else watching?