blue_dolphin

No complaints here. I enjoyed my meal of this salad, accompanied by some extra sharp cheddar and crusty bread. I have enjoyed many more successes than failures from this book. I also appreciate the fresh produce I can access and have been having great fun using it in new recipes.

Grilled Radishes with Dates, Apples and Radish Tops from Six Seasons p 115 Not my favorite thing. Maybe my fault for using French breakfast radishes, maybe I just don't like cooked radishes. I'm not the biggest radish lover but they have their charms which include a fresh crunch and a mildly spicy bite. In this recipe, they are to be grilled or roasted whole and dry in the oven. Since I am grill-less, I used the oven option and the radishes started to shrivel before they softened. I gave them some extra time but in the end, this cooking method took away their charms (to me) and left some rather soft and tasteless little vegetables. I mainly chose this recipe because of its use of the radish tops. My bunch of radishes came with an impressive collection of perky leaves. Shown below going into the pan: Yes, that's a 12-inch skillet with the leaves from just one bunch of radishes! Now, I usually blanch the leaves for a couple of minutes first, drain, roughly chop and THEN sauté them but I followed the recipe and wilted them directly in the olive oil and they ended more bitter than I, a lover of bitter greens, like. I really loved the recipe for Radishes, Tonnato and Sunflower Seeds and I'll probably try the recipe for Roasted Radishes with Brown Butter, Chile and Lemon, but I won't make this one again.

I'd say the contents of your refrigerator make for a very happy catfish ! My breakfast was also leftovers, Sugar Snap Pea and New Potato Salad with Crumbled Egg and Sardines from Six Seasons. Once again, I used the CSO's plate warming setting (125°F) to take the chill off the leftover salad while I boiled the egg.

I can't say I found it depressing. At every stage of life, there are individuals who view food as fuel or a necessary requirement of living and others, like most of us here, who are happy to take advantage of the resources available to us to make the most of our meals. The last posts, in particular, made me smile in thinking of my parents and I thank @Anna N for sharing it. My folks were active and independent into their 80s and 90s and my dad always loved the idea of getting a good deal so he signed them up for a luncheon put on by the local senior citizens council. As soon as they walked in and looked around, he turned to my mother and said, "Mary, these aren't my people. We can't stay here." They went on to have a discussion about leaving, that sounded much like the text messages in @Anna N's post. I can't remember whether they stayed or left but the rest of the story came back to me and brought a smile to my face. I need to keep that smile in place as I edge closer to that age range myself!

Strawberry Fix from Sasha Petraske's Regarding Cocktails was delicious with some spectacularly sweet and fragrant strawberries from Harry's Berries. Muddled strawberries, lemon juice, simple syrup and mostly, bourbon.

One more recipe from the sugar snap pea section in Six Seasons. Sugar Snap Pea and New Potato Salad with Crumbled Egg and Sardines p 121. Very delicious, lemony, pleasantly fishy dish along the lines of a Niçoise salad. The radishes weren't called for in the recipe but did appear in the photo in the book AND in my crisper drawer so I threw one in. My sardines were packed in olive oil so I used some of that. As is my custom, I used half the specified amount of salt and less olive oil. Since the recipe calls for soft boiled eggs, I didn't try to "crumble" them but used a knife. The portion above is one serving per the recipe. I'd say that's generous for a first course but not quite enough for a main. Thanks for taking the time to explain your rant. I've never seen pan temps indicated in any of my cookbooks, whether written by professional chefs or not, so I wasn't sure that was your gripe.

Sugar Snap Peas with Pickled Cherries and Peanuts from Six Seasons p 119 Another one of Joshua McFadden's combinations that I never would have come up with on my own but which combine to make an interesting salad. The pickled cherries are the star of the show, and the main source of tartness so it's good to have a piece in almost every bite. Edited to add that the pickled cherries are also from Six Seasons p 58. I mentioned them over here in the preserving topic and gave them a week in brine before using them.

I picked up these turnips at my local farmers market yesterday and figured I should use them while the greens were still perky!

From the LA Times: Mario Batali's three Las Vegas restaurants are closing in light of sexual misconduct allegations The restaurants are located in hotels owned by the Las Vegas Sands Corp - B&B Ristorante and Otto in the Venetian and CarneVino in the Palazzo - and it's the Las Vegas Sands Corp that wants to end the partnership. The article says most of the 298 employees will be laid off. Hopefully they'll find other positions and I know it happens all the time but it's disappointing that lots of lower level employees will be affected by the offenses of a company leader. Edited to add: Ditto the staff of The Chew: ABC Cancels ‘The Chew’ After Seven Seasons

Sautéed Turnips with Prunes and Radicchio from Six Seasons Topped with an egg, not part of the recipe.

Sautéed Turnips with Prunes and Radicchio from Six Seasons p 168 Nice flavor contrasts between the sweet, earthy turnips, sweet-tart prunes (they are marinated briefly in balsamic vinegar) and slightly bitter radicchio and turnip greens. Is your rant because there is no temperature given for the pan in which the flatbread is cooked? I don't think I've seen pan temperatures given in cookbooks aimed at the home cook. I'd suspect that most home cooks, present company excepted , don't have a way to either set or measure the temperature of a pan. Is pan temp commonly specified in your cookbooks?

I came home from the farmers market and quickly made an Instant Pot steamed artichoke with preserved lemon aioli for my lunch. Sorry, I was too hungry for a "before" photo

Thank you! That sausage recipe uses bacon instead of additional pork fat so it's kind of like getting sausage and bacon all in one!

I'm not @DiggingDogFarm, but here's what I do: My oven has vent holes on both sides of the convection fan cover that's part of the back wall of the oven. I believe they function as air returns for the convection fan. I was able to put one of the grate clips in one of those holes. It's easy to remove just the probe or both the clip and probe. It would be more ideal to have the probe closer to the food and I did that for a while but I had to move it about all the time depending on what I was putting in the oven. The readings I get from the probe in this position track well with the little analog oven thermometer that I move around. Embarrassing dirty oven photo: Edited to add this photo of the Dot on the outside of the oven and to add that the self-clean cycle is now running to remedy the above situation :

Sausage & egg on a roll Maple-sage breakfast sausage from The Food Lab

I'd say a week to 10 days or so.

Second sandwich of the day. Duck confit grilled cheese with onions caramelized in duck fat and melty Tallegio cheese.

Ditto here

Smoked tuna salad on thin-sliced Dave's Killer Bread "Good Seed" Bread & butter pickles and fresh tomato

I mentioned that I can make excellent IP polenta but I've failed completely with the Barkely's Mill grits. I took a look at their website to see if they had any suggestions and indeed, they give two methods: Basic Pressure Cooker Grits. They say that with the first method, "The grits retain a bit of toothsome texture. It takes a few minutes for the grits to smooth out and thicken once they're done." That sounds like a sub-optimal result to me. Maybe adding a pre-soak step as @weinoo referenced from Sean Brock might help with that. The second method requires par-boiling on the stove top for long enough that the grits get suspended in the cooking liquid and don't sink to the bottom. Sounds like that should solve the issue I had but also negates the "set and forget" charm of the IP.

Greek yogurt and strawberries from Harry's Berries at the local farmers market.

Quoting myself here to report that I made a big batch of these for a gathering with friends over the weekend. They were a big hit!

I haven't tried Anson Mills quick grits but I believe it depends on the grind. For me, coarse grind works in the IP. Finer grinds, which would include quick grits, really need to be stirred occasionally and don't work well in the IP, at least for me. I've had good success with Bob's Red Mill grits (also labeled polenta) and with stone ground corn polenta/grits from a local place, Roan Mills. Both these products have a relatively coarse, fairly uniform grind. I generally use the pot-in-pot method, 1 part grits + 4 parts water, 15 min high pressure followed by 10 min natural release. I have NOT had success with grits purchased from Barkley's Mill that are a finer and somewhat more uneven grind, with some small hull particles that need to be skimmed off. These cook up to be delicious, creamy grits when I make them on the stove top but in the IP, I get a result similar to what you described - excess liquid on top, a gluey middle layer and undercooked grits on the bottom. I concluded that these finer grits really need to be stirred, at least occasionally during cooking so the IP's not going to work. I'll be interested to hear what other's experiences are.

Duck confit quesadilla

If things start to sound worse, I'd recommend covering all bases and lighting a candle to St. Jude as well. Patron of hopeless cases and impossible causes. My local grocery store carries St. Jude in 2 sizes, several colors, scented and unscented