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Another "best of" list. This one the Best Food Books of 2018 from the New Yorker.

Same as yesterday, but with an egg on it.

I loved that the director had her mom come into the studio to make dumplings so the crew would know how to animate the process!

Couldn't figure out what I wanted today. Finally decided to make the Charred Cabbage with Hazelnut and Pomegranate Muhammara from Shaya Prior to roasting, the cabbage is poached in a broth flavored with orange juice, rice wine vinegar, sugar, garlic, jalapeño, star anise and lemon zest, so it ends up both tender and flavored throughout.

Back in this post, I mentioned the Pixar short, "Bao," that was released along with Incredibles 2. Pixar has released the full 7 minute short on YouTube for free for a limited time. Do take a look if you have a moment. The animation of the food is amazing!

I do use glass bakeware in the CSO. I'm sure there is a certain risk of them exploding as that's reported even in conventional ovens.

I make quiche all the time for pot lucks. I use Pillsbury All-Ready pie crusts because I am lazy and they always work. I always pre-bake the crust because I can't abide a doughy crust. For the last several years, the Pillsbury crusts have been very well behaved during pre-baking without weights, though there is always a risk of bubbles or cracks. The use of a post-bake/pre-fill egg wash to seal the crust as described here is extra insurance against a case of the leaky pie crust and easy with a quiche as you've probably got the eggs beaten and ready to go. I like making a polenta crust from time to time. I use ~ 3/4 Swiss/Gruyere/Jarlsberg and 1/4 sharp white cheddar Favorite fillings: Spinach & onion Mushroom & onion Spinach, mushroom & onion But I've used just about any combination of vegetables.

How about subbing in some of the TJ's Chili Lime Cashews for both the corn sticks and some or all of the honey roasted peanuts?

I have been enjoying the baharat/spice mixture from Alon Shaya's cookbook, Shaya and decided to make a Baharat Old Fashioned, following Dave Arnold's Cliff Old Fashioned from Liquid Intelligence that uses a coriander simple syrup as the sweetener. 2 oz bourbon + 3/8 oz baharat syrup. Orange twist. Delicious! The baharat contains: 6 T whole allspice berries 1 t black peppercorns 1/4 t whole cumin seeds 48 cardamom pods 28 whole cloves 2 dried rosebuds 2 T ground cinnamon 2 t Aleppo pepper 1 1/2 t freshly grated nutmeg The baharat syrup was 25 g baharat + 110 g water + 100 g sugar + 2 g Aleppo pepper warmed to dissolve, then filtered.

I am the same with burning nuts and can attest that it's possible to burn them in the CSO as well. Depends on the nut but some can go from perfectly toasted to burned from the residual heat if left in for a while after the timer goes off. Edited to add that little fellas like pine nuts are one of my favorite and expensive nuts to burn this way. Now, it does improve your odds and saves you from the billows of smoke and blaring alarms as they're only slightly burnt, but burning can happen 🙃

It's likely that I underproofed somewhat in the second rise - the recipe says to shape into a 9-inch disk and proof for 30 min. I gave it that much time and it certainly expanded but because of the excess grapes, I'm thinking I should have let it get larger. I'm not sure the method is ever going to develop the kind of flavor and texture I'd really like to have so I probably won't devote a lot of time to troubleshooting. I can make a nice chewy focaccia with these toppings and be a happy camper!

King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour

Cheddar, Onion and Spinach Tart from Diana Henry's How to Eat a Peach with the Apple and Fennel Salad with Candied Pecans from Shaya

I'm very glad to see you enjoying a hearty breakfast. I was a little worried when you posted this relatively spartan example the other day and no breakfasts in the interim.

What does the area of the oven where the tank sits look like? Mine is like this: There are round and oval pegs that align the tank and another round thing down in that reservoir that I assume allows the water to flow out of the tank. Neither of them seem to come off easily and don't look exactly like your photo, but I know there are multiple CSO models. Mine is one of the older ones (no steam clean button, no drain on the back)

Yesterday, I made this Tuscan Grape Bread from Diana Henry's How to Eat a Peach (recipe online at this link) and it was a fail for me. It looked nice and the crust was crisp and tasty from the olive oil, rosemary, sugar & grapes but the interior was just flabby, soft white bread with little texture, flavor or chew. I've never had Wonder Bread, but this is what I imagine it being like. I took it to a party last night and it made a nice presentation but very little was eaten, though the cheeses alongside were a big hit! I'm not an experienced baker so I'm not sure how to troubleshoot it. I'm sure it could have used more salt - the recipe called for only 1 tsp (3g) for ~ 500g flour. It also seems like the dough might not have behaved as expected. There was no way it was large enough after proofing for me to put all 1 lb 2 oz of grapes on top - I used less than half of them. The finished loaf was ~ 12 inches in diameter.

Yesterday's breakfast was another round of Shakshouka, identical to the previous day's lunch. Today, I used up the last of that cooked veg mix alongside some scrambled eggs, zhoug and the last pita, nicely rewarmed on steam bake in the CSO

A 9 x 13 inch pan is a little less than 1.5 x as large as a 9 x 9 inch, not twice as big. Either multiply your recipe quantities by 1.5 x (or 1.44 to be precise 🙃) for the 9 x 13 or use 2 pans.

This was going to be breakfast but the cilantro I planned to use for the zhoug turned out to be a second bag of parsley. I put things on hold until I could run out to the store so I didn't sit down to eat until close to noon. Lunch, it is! All from Shaya: Shakshouka served with Zhoug and Pita. The Shakshouka has Jerusalem artichokes and fava beans along with the usual suspects. For this batch of pita, I used half regular bread flour and half whole grain Sonora Red Fife wheat flour from Roan Mills. I was pleased that they still have good flavor and chew.

Here's what Amazon shows me when I search for "adhesive backed distraction marks" Nada. I have a lot of floor to ceiling windows so I'm interested in options compatible with a modern home.

When you're stuck in steerage, I've found the usual trans Pac mid-flight noodle service to be a breath of civility for those who can't sleep and the ready availability to make your own isn't bad either!

Most of the airlines list the options on their websites, like this one on United. And if you google the name of the meal and the airline name, you can usually find a bunch of photos. None of that is going to help keep the eggs away from your seat mates though

This reminds me of a time, back in the '80s, when after traveling to several meetings with colleagues from India, my meal preferences were somehow recorded by several airlines to match my friends': Hindu Vegetarian. Even when traveling on my own, I'd be served that meal and since meals were served on most longer flights, it happened pretty often. I don't remember ever getting curry though. It was more often a haphazard mix of the non-meat components of the normal meal plus extra slices of bread, cheese, hard boiled eggs and random pieces of fruit. I never bothered to call and request the change by phone so that preference followed me for years until sometime in the '90's when it became possible to access that info on websites. I think I left it because it was often entertaining to watch the flight attendants walking the aisles looking for the person getting the Hindu meal and never suspecting that it was me, who certainly didn't look the part

I think focaccia gets a free pass on the "cool before cutting" guidelines! Looks great.

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