blue_dolphin

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta Vinaigrette from Six Seasons topped with a poached egg

Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta Vinaigrette p 289 in Six Seasons. Since I made the pancetta vinaigrette yesterday and had some sprouts in the fridge, it was easy to make these. Just roast and toss with the vinaigrette. I can see this working with any number of roasted vegetables.

Suffering from hock-envy and bacon seasoning FOMO, I recently caved and placed an order with Father's. It was shipped last Monday and arrived today so it took a full week. The smoky, porky smell has completely infiltrated the entire house and the volume of pork products I received sort of amazed me. I ordered one package each of hocks and seasoning meat, 1 lb of hickory smoked bacon, 1 lb of bacon end slices, a 2 lb slab of bacon and a small package of their sliced prosciutto. The bacon end slices look quite nice, not that different from the regular and much nicer than the bacon ends I've purchased elsewhere. One hock and one package of seasoning meat seem like they might have a poor seal so I'll use them first. There's a couple of good sized grease spots inside the box so I hope I've correctly identified those two as the culprits.

They are called mini croissants. They are smaller than some, but not overly tiny. I always keep them on hand and highly recommend them. Here's one from a lunch I posted a while back: They also have frozen almond croissants from time to time.

Butter Lettuce with New Potatoes, Eggs and Pancetta Vinaigrette p 102 in Six Seasons. I just love the contrast between the rich pancetta vinaigrette-dressed potatoes and the fresh butter lettuce. The parsley leaves add the perfect bit of bitter green flavor and the pickled onions p 59 bring both sweetness and a sharp acidity. Excellent salad!

Leftover hummus & vegetables I made the Edamame Hummus and Hummus with Preserved Lemon from The Moosewood Restaurant Table for a family gathering yesterday and brought leftovers home.

Thanks for that advice! I put them back into the oven for another 35 minutes. I thought they were still on the gooey side but I brought them to the party anyway and they were a big hit. The family could have been humoring me with the compliments, but the negotiations to divide the leftovers were real!

I'm always on board with starting with mimosas! What did you think of Father's bacon? I finally placed an order last Monday and am waiting for it to arrive.

For a family gathering later today, I made the Roasted White Chocolate Brownies with Strawberry-Balsamic Swirl from Irvin Lin's MARBLED, SWIRLED, AND LAYERED. Recipe available online here. Despite baking them for 10 min longer than the given time and testing with a toothpick, they are badly underbaked and quite gooey in the middle, though crumbly around the edges. Too bad. I guess I will pick up something from Trader Joes on my way over Edited to add that some googling told me that people have put underbaked brownies back into the oven, even after cooling and they came out OK so I will try it. I might put some foil around the outside so the edges don't dry out too much. Editing yet again to report that I put them back into the oven for another 35 minutes. I thought they were still on the gooey side but I brought them to the party anyway and they were a big hit. They could have been humoring me with the compliments, but the negotiations to divide the leftovers were real! Here's the white chocolate before roasting: And after: Batter before baking: After baking:

It's rarely gets that hot here in the early AM but on those rare occasions, I've been known to start my day with a Vietnamese coffee popsicle

Sounds like too much navel gazing to me.

The herb guy at yesterday's farmers market accidentally gave me two bunches of dill - BIG bunches - instead of one so I was looking for ways to use my bounty. Pasta with Dill Pesto and Roasted Fennel from The Moosewood Restaurant Table cookbook. I made the vegan version of the recipe using toasted walnuts instead of cheese in the pesto and as a garnish. The pesto used up 2 cups of chopped dill so I still have enough to make a kuku or something like that.

I'm not a regular consumer of carbonated beverages but I enjoy Bundaberg's diet ginger beer (25 cal/375ml or ~ 12 oz). It contains sugar, aspartame, Acesulfame K and Sucralose - a little something for everyone! I also like Q tonic. It's sweetened with agave and has 24 calories/5 oz serving.

Yes! I mentioned the first chapter about New Orleans over here, when @ProfessionalHobbit was visiting the city. That chapter and two recipes can be read in the Amazon preview and give a good sense of the book. I very much enjoy his writing and I think it's an excellent read. It's more of a memoir than a cookbook, although each chapter does include a couple of recipes. No photos either, though they are available on his website or Instagram. He says, "I want you to pay attention to the aromas, flavors, textures, to the feel of the food in your mouth. Don't worry if what you make doesn't look good enough to be on the cover of a magazine. If it tastes good, you've succeeded."

I bet they are great! Since I don't have an outdoor grill, I've pan-grilled some on the stovetop and they were excellent but I filled the place with smoke and set off all the alarms so I've sort of given up that tactic!

With an excess of scallions in the vegetable drawer, I went ahead and made the Charred Scallion Salsa Verde from Six Seasons p 109 without giving much thought to how I'd use it. Turns out to go very nicely on a plate of eggs. The scallions get charred all over by putting them into a hot, heavy skillet and then putting another pan on top to flatten them. I perhaps went a bit too far - as you can see, my scallions are well and truly charred but plenty of lemon zest and juice and fresh parsley brighten it all up. The recipe instructs the the parsley stems be chopped finely, like chives, and they add a nice texture. I think this would be good over a nice piece of fish or even on sandwiches. I'll certainly make this again if I find myself with extra scallions on hand.

More leftovers Sautéed spinach, toasted corn topped with pico de gallo and queso fresco, cornbread sprinkled with a little parmesan, a few white beans with soy chorizo topped with a fried egg.

Gingerbread pancakes from The Moosewood Restaurant Table, mango chunks and yogurt The cookbook includes a recipe for a lemon syrup to be served with these pancakes which sounded awfully sweet to me. Instead, I stirred some lemon zest into plain Greek yogurt and topped it with a few slivers of candied lemon peel. The flavor of these pancakes was good but my batter was much too thick to be poured on to the griddle. Not sure what I did wrong but I'm not going to worry about it.

BTW, I got some excellent ideas I can use to expand on my above experiment in this 1995 article from the SF Chronicle: SAVORY SHORTCAKES / The perfect shortcut for summer entertaining I think they are all for individual shortcakes but no reason I can't adapt them to the format I used above.

The recent Cake Memories topic got me to thinking of the "fruit tortes" that my mom was locally famous for. Not a cake exactly, but a cake base, filled with some sort of custard or pudding and topped with fruit. I've mentioned them previously over in the Family Recipes topic . The recent thread got to me wondering if I could come up with a savory variation so I decided to make Nopalito's take on Mexican street corn, Esquite Tostado con Crema y Queso Fresco (Toasted Corn with Crema, Ground Chile and Queso Fresco) and put it on a corn bread/corn muffin base. Here's the "cake" made from a box of Jiffy corn muffin mix. I was dismayed that the box in my pantry said, "best by 9/25/12" so I invested 47 cents in a new box! Fresh corn cut from the cob gets toasted to get some color and mixed with lime juice and salt and is to be served topped with crema, queso fresco, ground chile and pico de gallo. I spread the crema over the corn bread then topped it with the corn/lime juice mix and queso fresco, spooned the pico de gallo in the middle and sprinkled the ground chile over everything. Here, with more pico de gallo on the side: To get something easier to serve, it would probably be best to mix some of the crema and toppings into corn to sort of glom it all together. Still, kinda fun

I bought the soy chorizo for the first time not long ago so I can't really compare brands. I got the stuff from Trader Joe's and I'm quite pleased with it as an easy way to add a lot of flavor to a dish like beans. I plan to keep it on hand, probably parcel it out in ice cube trays and freeze so it's easy to grab a little. It's pretty salty but I'm not eating a ton of it.

More leftovers - Marcella beans cooked with some soy chorizo, reheated broccolini with sesame seeds, Parmigiano and lemon and a poached egg

Two more Six Seasons recipes for my lunch today. Pan-Steamed Broccoli with Sesame Seeds, Parmigiano and Lemon p 176 and Roasted Radishes with Brown Butter, Chile and Honey p 116 both served with orzo with lemon and parsley from Diana Henry's Simple. The pan-steamed broccoli was nice. I substituted broccolini and followed one of the suggestions in the book to add some anchovy to the pan. Between the garlic, red chile pepper flakes, anchovy and lemon this is a very flavorful prep. One could easily toss this with pasta, maybe a few kalamata olives and call it dinner. The roasted radishes get started on the stovetop, then move to the oven and get finished back on the stove with a dab of butter and a splash of red wine vinegar and drizzle of honey. This gives them a lot more flavor than I got from the grilled radish salad I posted about above.

I'm sure @Anna N will weigh in on how things may have evolved but in the meantime, check the first post in this thread for the initial specs. Edited to add that I realize that this is the second time today that someone asked @Anna N a question and I jumped in with my 2 cents. I will stop interrupting. It's long been an issue of mine !

I grate them over pasta, vegetables - would be lovely on asparagus - for a little umami hit. Anywhere I might otherwise use a sprinkle of parm but don't want to go the cheese route. Since @Anna N is dipping into Japanese and Asian themes these days, I can imagine they would make a nice condiment there too and look forward to seeing how she uses them.