blue_dolphin

@rotuts, have you opened up any of those bacon seasoning packs yet? I'm wondering if it's like what I sometimes get as "ends & pieces," although some of the pieces look pretty big in your photo.

Loaded breakfast potato skins from Smitten Kitchen Every Day There's an egg in there, trust me. Grapefruit & avocado salad with pickled spring onions.

I certainly loved the baked eggs with stewed tomatoes and prosciutto chips from Deep Run Roots and I can imagine that putting that on top of polenta would be delicious! I am committed to making those stewed tomatoes on a large scale this year!

@Ann_T, I just ate and you're still killing me with those cheddar & bacon toasts on your glorious homemade bread. Sigh. A riff on the Polenta Baked Eggs with Corn, Tomato and Fontina from Smitten Kitchen Every Day I made the polenta in the Instant Pot - pot-in-pot method, using the same little oven-proof dish that I baked and served in.

Thanks for posting about this, @ElsieD. My mom had one when I was growing up and it was great for shallow frying and did a good job of maintaining temp. It was also great for pancakes. I've never had one myself but was thinking it might be handy. The ones she had did have the "heat ring" that @lindag mentions but must have distributed the heat fairly well as there wasn't a problem with even cooking. Edited to add that this is the one I was considering. The base can fit inside the pan to save storage space (though that can apparently scratch the non-stick coating) and has pretty good reviews. It's rectangular, so it doesn't fit your need for a square pan.

Evan Kleiman recently interviewed filmmaker Thomas Lennon and the founder of the training program, Brandon Chrostowski on her Good Food radio show/podcast. Here's a link to that interview on KCRW. And the movie trailer

This is the Sausage & Apple Pie from Kate McDermott's Art of the Pie. Recipe available online at this link. What's not to like - a flaky and delicious cheddar cheese crust, pleasantly spicy sausage (I used the Maple-Sage Breakfast Sausage from The Food Lab) and the herbs and cider cooked into the filling are just perfect with the sweet-tart apples. I made extra filling and turned them into a few little hand pies:

They've been doing it for some time and update the list often, as things change. It's my regular resource.

Popsicles! When it's really hot, I don't have much of an appetite and am happy to eat fresh fruits and vegetables - cut up or not, in smoothies, salads and ....yes....popsicles! Edited to add that I remember visiting Venezuela for a scientific meeting some years ago. It was very warm and humid and I believe I subsisted on the hotel's platos de frutas, three meals/day for most of the week!

I've been following along with this story and I was very sorry to see the Six Seasons awards rescinded. Someone at IACP should have recognized the potential for apparent conflict of interest and addressed it much earlier in the process. As is evident from the name of the organization, they have directors and officers who are active culinary professionals and could potentially receive award nominations in various categories - cookbook and non-cookbook. Many professional societies confer awards that may go to members and spell out the procedures they take to ensure fairness. Shame on IACP for not having procedures in place to deal up-front with this apparent conflict and having to rescind the awards.

@FauxPas, thanks for taking the time to share all the details of these meal kits with us. I'm looking forward to hearing what you think of the finished product. I thought the packaging you showed looked fit for purpose. I've not seen any meal kits locally but I remember seeing some when I was visiting in Houston and it seemed like they were using relatively large boxes - big enough to hold a large platter of the finished dish - perhaps to make it seem more valuable, or at least as valuable as take-out? Unless you had a pretty empty fridge, you'd need to unpack the boxes and store everything separately.

Thank you for this suggestion! Got home very late, tired and hangry after a funeral and a long car ride home. I really wanted kimchi & avocado toast for breakfast this AM but resisted because I didn't want to be kissing all the funeral people with kimchi breath. My almost-midnight supper consisted of putting some TJ's frozen calamari in the CSO, opening a bottle of wine and giving this kimchi tartar sauce a test drive. Excellent. I've had my kimchi fix and can see using it on sandwiches and other applications, too. Thank you.

Up until recently, I was able to stream all episodes from all seasons of "A Chef's Life" either on the PBS website or the show's website. It was one of relatively few shows that had such access. Now, I get a "not available in your area" message. So sad!

I posted this meal over in the schnitzel topic but since two of the dishes are from Deep Run Roots, I thought I'd add it here as well. Vivian serves these two sides, Apple Mustard and Charred Cabbage Apple Slaw p 503 with whole trout. Recipe are available online at this link. I had some whole fish caught by friends that I planned to use here but I decided they would be better companions to some pork. They'd also be good with chicken. The Apple Mustard is a kicked up apple butter. I posted about it above as Vivian also recommends it as a condiment with the sausage balls. I highly recommend it. The recipe calls for a modest amount of dijon mustard. I might up that or add some dry mustard to increase the mustard flavor but it's very nice as is. I'm glad I tried the charred cabbage slaw. It's got an interesting mix of flavors and textures. The the charred edges are pleasantly sweet and the rest of the cabbage is partially cooked but not completely tender. That's going to vary depending on how hot your pan is (she says "medium high") and how thick the wedges are. The red onions are lightly pickled in a mix of apple cider vinegar and honey that dresses the salad at the end. I'm not sure I'd make it again - certainly not for a crowd as it's a bit of a nuisance to char all that cabbage - and I don't think it looks all that attractive. Still, it was a good side dish for the pork.

I use of of these microfiber dish drying mats. The one I have is 14" x 21" It folds in half and gets stored under the sink when not in use.

Nice cookbook collection! You mentioned stealing from Mr. Smokey's collection. Does Mr. Smokey cook? How did you get from Las Vegas to East Hollywood in 15 min? I need that transport system!

Shelf by shelf - top. The plastic tub has various dried chiles and chile powders. The large black pouch on the far right is gochugaru. And yes, that's a 1 pound bag of coriander seeds in the back so I can make lots of Dave Arnold's coriander syrup. Middle. In the right rear, there's similar plastic tub with whole spices Bottom:

@timotb - where do you live? Larger cities in the US generally have a range of meal delivery services that cater to a range of different diets. My brother, who is of the eat-to-live persuasion, has used a number of them that provide daily delivery of re-heatable meals and snacks and suit his paleo and gluten-free notions. There is a cost associated with those services but he found it much more economical than ordering from or dining out in restaurants and I was surprised that the cost wasn't higher than it was. The pill thing isn't happening for a long time, unless it's a bunch of massive pills. Too many health benefits from having real food processed in the usual way. Patients forced to use total parenteral (IV) nutrition really struggle in the long term and I suspect a tiny pill meal replacement would result in some of the same issues.

I made the pork schnitzel from Samin Nosrat's Salt Fat Acid Heat, which she fries in clarified butter. The crispy crust on the pork was delightful. I now want to fry all the things in clarified butter. I served the pork with the Apple Mustard and Charred Cabbage Apple Slaw from Deep Run Roots. The Apple Mustard is a kicked up apple butter and I highly recommend it. The charred cabbage slaw has an interesting mix of flavors and textures but I'm not sure I'd make it again - certainly not for a crowd as it's a bit of a nuisance to char all that cabbage and it doesn't look all that attractive.

Cheese, please!

Two lovely eggs from the farmers market and a slice of rustic country bread from a local business that grows and grinds their own grain and bakes it into bread. Should be perfection, no? No. One yolk willfully decided to swim away from its white. Or vice versa. Ah well. Still delicious.

I think a certain amount of scene-setting is always appropriate. Please carry on and thank you for taking us along!

Interesting. From this page: Since laboratory equip (and its required precision) commands a premium price, it seems reasonable that they should attempt to capitalize on it. When I was working in labs, these prices would have been bargains for immersion circulators.

That looks like a nice spread, @chefmd! Some of the salted olive crisps I baked yesterday with Silver Goat Chèvre and a cara cara orange

Salted Olive Crisps from David Lebovitz's My Paris Kitchen Kinda, sorta savory biscotti. Nice with some softened goat cheese and a glass of wine.