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English Peas with Prosciutto and New Potatoes from Six Seasons p 86 I was a little short on potatoes so I threw in a couple of Hakurei turnips. I added mint to my serving rather than to the pan to avoid limp black leaves in the leftovers. One of the variations is to turn it into a "crusty hash" by drizzling in some cream and grated Parmesan and crushing everything with a spatula until it flattens and sticks together. Maybe I didn't crush sufficiently. I got a lot of crust stuck to the bottom of the pan but I never got everything to stick together to the point that I could turn it over several times as the notes say. I'll try it again as the crispy bits made this very delicious.

I absolutely loved that you made those eclairs for breakfast - on a Monday morning, no less, but I'll take a runny yolk or two over an eclair any day!

I saw a link to this essay the other day and thought others here might appreciate it, too. Why I Never Feel Alone When I Cook

I finally received the Penzey's order I placed from this sale. It didn't ship for a full 2 weeks after the order was placed. One of the slowest I've experienced from them. I won't complain though as I got a free 3/4 cup bag of Tellicherry black peppercorns, 1/2 cup jar of cinnamon and 1/4 cup jar of ground chipotle pepper, all of which I needed and would have been $19.93. I added enough other restocks (embarrassing how closely my old ground ginger and allspice resembled dust ) to make the $15 free shipping limit. Nice deal.

This may not be what you mean by "quick leavened baked goods" but most of the recipes I've seen for fruit or vegetable quick breads (apple, banana, carrot, zucchini, pumpkin, etc.) are made without milk and get most of their hydration from the fruits or veg, some adding water. Other quick bread recipes I make, like Irish Soda Bread, use buttermilk. Since I read the comment below from Stella Park's Why Buttermilk Substitutes Are a Bum Deal article on Serious Eats, I've been using rather ancient buttermilk in baking with no ill effects. If ancient buttermilk isn't your thing, there's also this suggestion from the same article which could set you up for some time if you can manage to get your hands on a container.

Herbed Baked Eggs from the Moosewood Restaurant Table with dill, parsley and garlic chives as the herbs and a bit of prosciutto, too. I put some of the Alla Diavola Butter from Six Seasons on my toast and it spiced things up nicely.

Not sure which is cuter.....cake Momo or furry Momo....both adorable! Espresso Shortbread from the Moosewood Restaurant Table cookbook.

Me, too. The non-stick foil, that is!

He has a gift for translating both food and the personalities of those who cook and eat into prose

Last night, I streamed the CNN tribute piece that originally aired on Friday night. The bits where he gets Anderson Cooper (self-described as having the palate of a 5-yr old) to try various offal dishes brought a smile to my face. Then I watched episode after episode of Parts Unknown as they kept spooling up, one after the other. My library has most of his shows on DVD and I noted that everything Bourdain, books, audible tapes, DVDs, etc. has been checked out in the last day or two.

That cake looks gorgeous and sounds absolutely amazing! Today is my birthday so I'm going to appropriate this as "my" cake for today - thank you for sharing it!

Gingerbread pancakes with sliced banana and walnuts. Maple-sage breakfast sausage. Big mug of black coffee, not pictured.

Not sure about what's in your supermarket but blueberries are in season in So Cal. Underwood Family Farms, not far from me here in Ventura county., has U-pick blueberries from the end of May through early-mid July. Pudwill Berry Farms in Nipomo, up in San Luis Obispo county bring blueberries to our local farmers market through the spring, using hoop houses to extend their season.

Just finishing The Food Explorer: The True Adventures of the Globe-Trotting Botanist Who Transformed What America Eats by Daniel Stone. I heard about the book through the Gastropod podcast episode that I linked below but the book contains much more information. I've known of David Fairchild and have visited the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden many, many times but I found the details of his life shared in this book to be a great read. Fairchild was apparently as prolific in his note-taking and letter writing as he was in plant collecting so the author had much to draw on in creating this written portrait of a fascinating man. I recommend it.

I happened on this recipe for a Grilled Aged Cheddar Cheese Sandwich with Pistachio Sage Pesto and instead made a grilled aged-Havarti cheese sandwich with dill-walnut pesto. Up front is the the Cucumbers, Scallions, Mint & Dried Chiles from Six Seasons. The original sandwich recipe adds a smear of applesauce to the sandwich. Since I switched everything up, I considered leaving it out but decided to go with the Apple Mustard from Deep Run Roots. It sort of mixed with the pesto and made it browner than would be most appealing but the flavor was good.

Thanks to @Anna N and @JoNorvelleWalker for the comments. I've been enjoying this book a lot. Although it's not cucumber season yet, I had half an organic hot-house cucumber in the fridge so I mixed up the Cucumbers, Scallions, Mint & Dried Chiles p 201 to go with my lunch. No great revelation here. I often make a similar cucumber salad, but without the mint and scallions and using rice vinegar instead of the white wine vinegar used here. The rice vinegar makes my usual salad skew towards Asian flavors and this one does not so it may pair well with other dishes. I'll certainly try this again once cucumbers are in season and I can get a variety to play with. On the vinegar, the header notes say that it's key to this dish and Katz late-harvest Sauvignon Blanc vinegar is recommended. Such recommendations usually make me roll my eyes, though the Katz vinegars are recommended upfront in the Larder section and since my favorite red wine vinegar is no longer carried locally, I recently ordered both red and white wine vinegars from Katz. The red is a late-harvest zinfandel and both it and the white are lightly sweet and have clean, fruity flavors.

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: