blue_dolphin

I've never cooked a Cornish hen and I suspect many others are in that situation so it might be fun for your class. I picked up one recently to make a recipe for Brick Hens with Charred Lemon from Smitten Kitchen Every Day. Simple spatchcocked bird pan roasted under a weight. The given cooking time is 15 min or less so very quick. My bird is thawing and will experience this treatment later today.

I also love an Aperol spritz - such a great warm weather sipper! I will have to try @Craig E's suggestion and add an olive to my usual garnish, which is an orange wedge that I squeeze into the drink. I can imagine it would add just a bit of salt balance to the mix. I suspect you've already found the thread on Suze and other gentian liqueurs. I've been using Salers for White Negronis and the like. Just recently acquired a bottle of Suze. I'll have to try both of them in a spritz and see what I think.

Thanks, guys! I'll be interested to hear what you think if you try it. I roasted the Savoy cabbage wedges in the CSO and turned them a couple of times as the parts closest to the top element browned fairly quickly. For an Easter brunch, I made the Swiss Chard Leek, Herb and Ricotta Crostata from Six Seasons p 302. Leeks and colorful chard stems being sautéed: Out of the oven: Sliced: This is the same walnut pastry called for in the Onion and Pancetta Tart that I made earlier. I reduced the sugar from 5T to 1T, similar to what I did last time. I debated baking this in a tart pan so I could blind bake the crust but I figured I'd go with the recipe for the first time. Indeed, the bottom crust isn't as nicely crisp and brown in the very center. It's not bad, and the crisp upper crust kind of makes up for it, but next time, I'll try a tart or pie pan version. The filling is a bunch of chard, a couple of leeks, ricotta cheese, fresh parsley, dill, cilantro and mint, lemon zest, grated Parmesan and a couple of eggs. Aside from using an egg wash on the crust, I followed the recipe as written. My finished crostata came out at ~ 11" diameter. I make quiche a lot and never really measure anything. Here, I was measuring everything and felt like I generated a ton of dirty dishes but it was nice for a change.

@JAZ, I've never seen "burn" but I have had the overheat or "ovht" message pop up a number of times. It's happened only when using the sauté function and I was either searing a piece of meat or browning a small amount of onions or veg. Every time it happened, it seamed reasonable to me that there might be a hot spot that could have triggered the warning. Generally, I hit cancel, stir things around in an attempt to even out the heat in the pan and then restart. I think there have been some occasions when I just stirred things around and the message went away without me pushing any buttons but I'm afraid I didn't keep any records. I've never gotten that message when I had a full pot and I've never been unable to resume the sauté function in short order.

Cauliflower is in season now at my local farmers market here in So Cal. I usually pay $4.00 for a nice big head of organic cauliflower, over 4 lbs with some leaves. Yellow and purple are usually the same price but slightly smaller heads. Romanesco is usually $1 more per head.

Thanks for mentioning that 8-inch pan. I could use a new one in that size. I'm happy with the Tramontana brand that I recently got in the 12" size, but the T-fal is ten bucks cheaper for the 8". Currently on Amazon.com, the T-fal E93802 Professional Total Nonstick, 8-Inch is listing at $14.00, one of its lower prices according to camelcamelcamel.com:

In the circumstances you described, I'd probably bring a bottle of wine. It's kind of the standard hostess gift around here and I've never thought it conveyed any message that the gathering might be lacking in quantity or quality. Who knows, they could have a severe nut allergy

Leftovers here as well. Yesterday's Comforting Cabbage, Onion and Farro Soup from Six Seasons becomes today's breakfast. The already thick soup absorbed most of the broth overnight so instead of adding more, I just topped it with a crispy fried egg, green onions and a nice big spoonful of Sambal Oelek

Well, I'm sorry that you're going to step away for a while. I finally picked up the Kindle edition of the book when it was on sale. May I ask what three recipes you liked enough to want to perfect them? I don't think using Costco rotisserie chicken in a salad recipe instead of roasting the chicken per the recipe would detract from the result in any way. Sounds like good idea to me! Unfortunately, I'm out of black mustard seeds but I'll put that salad on my list to try.

I'm another fan of the "set and forget" convenience of an electric pressure cooker. I appreciate that a stove that you can easily set as you describe would be a big help with a stovetop pressure cooker. Others have posted about using a stovetop pressure cooker with an induction cooktop with similar ease. I have gas burners with no discrete settings so it's always listen, listen, listen, fiddle, fiddle, fiddle. Listen, listen, come back 10 min later and fiddle some more. And there's still the highly variable time to get up to pressure, depending on the volume and starting temp of the contents. So for me, the set and forget convenience is very much worth the small amount of additional clean up time (maybe 1-3 min at most) and learning how best to use the little silicone mitts to grip and pour from the pot on the occasions that's needed. I do a lot of pot-in-pot cooking so that's not a regular issue. Different strokes ...

I have a bottle in the pantry. So far, I've used it to pep up some soups, like a cream of celery where I wanted a little heat and tartness but didn't want to turn it a murky brown by adding a red sauce. I liked it there but haven't used it on its own.

We'll be moving on from cabbage season but there was still a head of Savoy in the fridge, enough to try a couple more Six Seasons recipes. Roasted Cabbage with Walnuts, Parmigiano and Saba from Six Seasons p 333. The great flavor and texture exceeded my expectations for such an easy recipe - quarter a cabbage, rub with butter, roast, toss with saba and sprinkle the topping on. That topping (toasted walnuts, breadcrumbs, lemon juice, Parmesan cheese) is very similar to what's used in the Six Seasons asparagus salad that I made the other day but the dishes couldn't be more different. The crisp asparagus salad was bright, fresh and sharp with a bit of heat from the dried chile flakes while this warm, tender cabbage dish gets some garlic that added to the earthy, roasted flavors. The rest of the cabbage went into the Comforting Cabbage, Onion and Farro Soup from Six Seasons p 337. @liamsaunt posted about this upthread and gave it a thumbs up. This was fine, but didn't knock my socks off. Pan-roasting the farro before adding gives it a nice toasty flavor and the vinegar and lemon juice balance out the sweetness of the cabbage and onions. I added quite a bit of extra liquid but it's still more of a stew than a soup. I suspect the Savoy cabbage gives off less liquid than a regular green cabbage. I may add more to the leftovers and see if I like it better that way. Or maybe it's just not wintery enough here. I'll go have a popsicle for dessert

@FrogPrincesse mentioned them in this post, earlier in this thread.

I don't think you will regret that decision. It's a lovely book. Even if you don't try the recipes, the time one can spend pouring over the photos and reading the stories makes it worthwhile. Thank you so much @Hassouni, for sharing your suggestions and experiences. Your photos look amazing!

This is a version of the Pasta alla Gricia with Slivered Sugar Snap Peas from Six Seasons p 123 where I used slivered asparagus instead of snap peas. I sliced the asparagus very thinly on a sharp angle, as recommended for the Raw Asparagus Salad recipe I posted above and tossed it in with the pasta for just the last minute so they were tender but still crisp and contrasted nicely with the slightly chewy pasta. Topped the pasta with garlic-rosemary breadcrumbs instead of cheese.

I had some leftover coconut milk with no other use in mind so.... Coconut-lime popsicles with just a bit of Kōloa Kaua'i coconut rum.

I was thinking egg salad sandwich but with only 2 eggs, I decided not to make the effort. Instead: There was more toasted rosemary bread, staying warm in the CSO....

Recently, over in the Pastry & Baking forum, @Hassouni asked a question about the best flour to use to make a traditional Lebanese bread. I have no experience with the breads he asked about but I want to thank him for starting the thread. Like many eGullet topics, it led me to want to learn more about something I knew absolutely nothing about. First, I watched a number of Anthony Rahayel videos like the one he linked to (الترويقة اللبنانية الشهية : مناقيش عالصاج) and this one, MANOUSHE: Lebanese World Renowned Traditional Breakfast. Of course I couldn't understand them and a search took me to this cookbook, Man'oushé, Inside the Lebanese Street Corner Bakery by Barbara Abdeni Massaad. It's not new, I think it was originally published in 2009. The author also wrote Mouneh: Preserving Foods for the Lebanese Pantry and Soup for Syria: Recipes to Celebrate our Shared Humanity. I haven't tried to cook from this book so I can't speak to how well the recipes work, but I feel like I've spent time visiting many towns in Lebanon, meeting the people and learning about the breads as the author did for this project. The soft-bound version was $16 when I ordered it, which I thought was very fair for this large, photo-filled book. I generally hate it when people review a cookbook without cooking from it but I think this is a lovely book and I wanted to mention it here in case anyone else is interested. Instructions are provided for both traditional methods and a conventional oven or stove-top skillets so I should be able to try some of them. I'll come back and update this when I do. Sadly, there's no look-inside feature for this book on Amazon, so I'm sharing a couple of photos to give you an idea of the book. I most likely will NOT choose as my first recipe from the book this paper-thin bread that's stretched on a cushion and baked on a convex saj. Something like these flat breads may be more within my reach:

Spaghetti with @ElainaA's slow roasted tomatoes. Love that stuff. Still a few more packets in the freezer from last summer. I added a few kalamata olives and a sprinkle of cheese.

Lazy here today Parsnip, date, hazelnut loaf from Six Seasons spread with cream cheese. Big mug of black coffee.

Any chance of a photo or 2? I do like the idea of color-coding the lids and wonder if that might help me in some way. Must ponder that. With whine, of course!

Can we get a WOW! emoji in the "reaction menu"? I need one for all of @Ann_T's posts!

I'm out of space in the cabinet (seen here) that is most convenient for spice and seasoning storage so I would like to find something more space-efficient. I have wondered if I could go to transferring everything into resealable bags that I would store in bins that would be organized like a card file but would sit on the cupboard shelves. It could be one of the most space-efficient options. It would accommodate measuring spoons though not shakers. The bins could be labeled on the front with the range of spices - either alphabetical or types like "baking" or "chiles". Individual bags would be labeled and could be separated by labeled, tabbed cards so there would be a labeled "spot" to put things back. The downside is that for commonly used spices, retrieval and return would become multi-step operations, likely requiring removal of multiple bins from the cabinet to select the spices, instead of just "reach & grab." Also, most of those zip-top bags only tolerate so many openings before they refuse to re-close securely. Maybe I am unrealistic in my wish for a single system and should do as @DiggingDogFarm does: Choose an easy "reach & grab" system for the most commonly used items and use another "organized and efficient" system for the rest? I dunno. Maybe just leave them the way they are and continue to whine? I see that I could free up a little space by removing the liquid baking extracts and storing them elsewhere. But it's not prime real estate - I can reach up and grab a bottle by shape but can't see the labels without a stool. Where's my glass of whine?

Last year, Sqirl was a bargain price on Amazon.ca but NOT on Amazon.com, a rare occurrence, I know. So when I saw the bargain price yesterday, I jumped on it. I still see the $2.99 price on Amazon.com but not on Amazon.ca. Poole's: Recipes and Stories from a Modern Diner is another one that was on sale last year and is listed again at $1.99 on Amazon.com. Sadly, not on Amazon.ca.

A sortta frittata I crisped up one very thin slice of bacon from a package of bacon ends then tossed the leftover raw asparagus salad I posted about from Six Seasons (I had set the salad aside before adding the mint leaves) into the pan long enough to take the chill off it, added 2 beaten eggs and some of that nice Vault No5 cheese from TJ's . The salad had breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese and walnuts that I thought might stick so I didn't try to flip, just put the pan Into the CSO long enough to set the eggs then sprinkled the crispy bacon on top.