blue_dolphin

A chicken leg and a reheated twice-baked collard potato with pickled collard stems from Deep Run Roots. The chicken was the Buttermilk-Marinated Roast Chicken from Samin Nosrat's Salt Fat, Acid Heat. The skin gets very dark but the meat is super moist. The recipe is available online here on the website from her TV show.

Thanks, @kayb, those biscuit slices sound right up my alley!

That's a great price. I tend to see the CI skillets priced very high, even when they're all rusty. Nice score!

Thanks for that, @rotuts. Some of the Father's prices are a little lower but, at least for me, Broadbent's shipping is much less. For example, last year, I ordered $69 dollars worth of stuff from Father's and the shipping was $32.83. Broadbent's shipping on a $69 order would be $18.90. Fathers Broadbent Hocks 6 x 1 lb/$16 4 x 1 lb/$16.90 Bacon Seasoning 6 x 1 lb/$10 4 x 1 lb/$16.90 Father's offers some smaller package sizes that are handy for me Fathers Broadbent Bacon end slices 1 lb/$5 5 x 14oz/$26.90 Slab bacon 2 lbs/$20 4-5 lbs/$29.20 8-9 lbs/$69 I'd like try some of the Broadbent's Applewood or Maplewood slab bacon but a 4-5 lb slab will last me forever. Hmmmm. What to do?

🤣🤣🤣 Love seeing the desert photos, especially the flowers. Thanks for sharing. In the last few days, I noticed recent newspaper reports of small earthquakes and dead birds due to avian cholera at the Salton Sea. If I'm planning a meal to share or cooking something entirely unfamiliar, I'll often consult the Flavor Bible or Vegetarian Flavor Bible.

Sun's up and shining on my sausage, egg & cheese on a roll Edited to add that the sausage is the Maple Sage Breakfast Sausage from Kenji's The Food Lab. I portioned the sausage out into thin, 2 oz patties, just the right size for a breakfast sandwich and they cook up pretty quickly, right from the freezer I'd gladly trade this for some of @Ann_T's beautiful toast!

In the interest of full disclosure 🙃, after draining the pasta, I returned it to the pan, added the butter, mustard (generous measure, ~ 2-3X what the recipe specified), chili flakes, parsley and half the cheese over low heat and added a ladle of pasta cooking water to make enough light sauce to coat the cauliflower, which I added last. I used the Dry Breadcrumbs from Six Seasons that I had on hand. I halved the amount of butter since I used some oil to roast the cauliflower. Edited to add that I will check out that Veg Literacy recipe as this is a good time of year for cauliflower around here.

Yes, grainy mustard would be perfect with Brussels sprouts!

Pasta with Cauliflower, Butter and Pepper from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone The unusual element for me in this recipe was grainy mustard. I used a generous amount of it and also roasted the cauliflower instead of boiling it. Could have put an egg on top but I'll save that for the leftovers.

Yes - that was the first category I checked!

Warm Kabocha Squash Salad with Dandelion, Bacon, Roncal (I subbed pecorino Romano) and Pecans from Sunday Suppers at Lucques p 237 The salad is dressed with a warm sherry/bacon vinaigrette. I used a mix of dandelion and curly endive. Like the last salad I made from this book, this is fun to eat as you use your fork to spear various combinations of sweet, roasted squash wedges, crisp, salty bacon pieces, fresh, slightly bitter greens, tangy cheese, tender shallot and crunchy pecans.

I think shallow frying and flipping would be a good alternative, especially if they were flattened a bit more. I was going to try spritzing some with olive oil and baking them in the CSO but I was standing there at the stove, frying, and it was easier to just keep going!

I'd say the mess was about average for deep frying stuff. Something I avoid due to the mess. I use a little Le Cruset that has a 6-inch internal diameter at the base (somewhat wider at the top) and is ~ 4 inches high. I was able to fry ~ 5 or 6 falafels at a time. I made half a batch which, in my hands, worked out to 15 balls. I did get some spatter around on the stovetop which would probably have been less if I'd used a deeper pot like the Instant Pot that you suggested. I picked that small pan to avoid wasting too much oil but it might have been worth it to avoid the clean up.

Thanks! This was my first time making falafel and I was quite pleased with how they came out. I thought the use of whipped egg white to bind them while keeping them light was a good trick. They freeze and re-heat quite nicely.

Late lunch/early dinner Leek Top Cacio e Pepe from Lindsay-Jean Hard's Cooking with Scraps. I always feel better about downing a big bowl of pasta when there's a vegetable in there! Here's what the leek tops looked like after I sliced them up and before they were tossed in to cook with the pasta for the last minute or so.

I make quick vegetable stocks in the Instant Pot when I am making vegetable soups or risotto. I use the trimmings from the vegetables and herbs that will go into the dish plus an onion, leek tops, that sort of stuff. No cabbage, no cruciferous and usually no garlic. Depending on the recipe, I may use the sauté function to brown the veg in a bit of butter or oil or just throw everything in and cover with water. Manual, high pressure, 10 minutes, slow release for at least 10 min, then vent. Strain and use.

Winter Squash Soup with Lemongrass and Coconut Milk from Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. Interesting and enjoyable flavor profile for a puréed vegetable soup. It's topped with cilantro, parsley, basil and diced jalapeño. This soup uses the Stock for Curried Dishes with the addition of the squash skin and seeds, galangal or ginger and herb trimmings. Since the stock for curried dishes is itself a variation on the Basic Vegetable Stock, this seemed like a lot of variations but it paid off with a rich, complex flavor.

A new shipment from the bean club should on its way soon so I need to eat up some beans. I made Bright Green Falafel made with Rancho Gordo garbanzo beans using a recipe from Shaya. Edited to add this link to an online version of the recipe. These got tucked into homemade pita and drizzled with a lemony, garlicky tahini sauce. This recipe calls for about 1/2 a pound of garbanzos and a quart of lightly packed parsley leaves which accounts for the green: I used some of the midnight black beans to make Black Bean-Smoked Chile Dip from a recipe in Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. The bean dip was used to make the Individual Nachos and the Quesadilla with Smoky Black Bean Spread and Salsa, both from the same cookbook.

That pile-o-bacon looks pretty good, too!

From Shaya, Mom's Leek Patties (leek & potato) topped with an egg I started to rummage in the fridge for some tomato chutney but then remembered this came from Shaya so I grabbed the harissa instead.

No, it is not "idiot proof" or at least not "blue_dolphin proof" 🙃 As you can tell from reading the threads, most of us have gone through a learning curve involving a fair amount of trial and error. I've had my share of mess-ups but overall, I've found it a worthwhile addition to my kitchen. For me, a stovetop pressure cooker required an annoying amount of attention while in use. I very much appreciate the ease of being able to set up the Instant Pot and walk away without coming back every few minutes to tweak the gas burner. Stews aren't my thing so with the exception of an occasional risotto-type dish, I rarely cook an entire meal in the Instant Pot but I still use it quite often.

@Biz1010, where are you located? I'm thinking that if you were in a country were home ovens were less common, your idea might be quite appealing. Personally, I'd be unlikely to purchase a "blank canvas cake." I'm happy to bake simple things for simple occasions and if it were a fancy, special occasion, I'd probably want something both baked and decorated by a fancy, special bakery.

More creamed collards from Deep Run Roots Unseen at the bottom of the pile is a potato patty I made from extra twice-baked collard potato stuffing, coated with French fried onion pieces and baked until crispy on the outside. It was then topped with more creamed collards, a boiled egg and pickled collard stems.

I'm ready for another round of that pistachio butter so I can make the beet slaw again. That's one of my favorite combinations of flavors and textures in the book. I used a regular vinegar when I made this but I've since purchased the Katz vinegars the author recommends. Made from late-harvest grapes, they have a bit more sweetness but the level of acidity (5.8% for the zin and 5.5% for the sauv blanc) are on a par with other vinegars. It will likely add a touch of sweetness but I don't think that will detract from the dish. We'll see.

I had lunch out with a friend today. It was excellent, though not nearly as interesting as @Anna N's meal just above. The location was curious as it's a small café in the lobby of a fitness center. They sell breakfast and lunch and also packaged meals to go or for delivery. The packaged meals seem to be their main business and they operate the cafés at a number of fitness centers in the LA area. I guess you can go work out and then take home your paleo, vegan, gluten-free, whatever meal. We didn't work out, just pigged out 🙃 My friend ordered the Chicken Tetrazzini Pappardelle I had Pistachio-Crusted Salmon with a garbanzo bean and beet salad and polenta cake.