blue_dolphin

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I've been following along with this story and I was very sorry to see the Six Seasons awards rescinded.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.

Tahini Cookies from Ottolenghi's Jerusalem. Not too sweet, sort of a tahini shortbread cookie. My deviations: Most obviously, I used a cookie press instead of rolling balls and flattening with a fork. I substituted an egg for 3 of the 5 tablespoons of cream because all my pressed cookie recipes have an egg & I thought it might help them hold together. I added 1/4 t toasted sesame oil because my tahini seemed quite mild. Finally, I added the cinnamon to the dough instead of sprinkling it on top. I did sprinkle some of them with a bit of turbinado sugar but most of it fell off anyway. A bit overbaked because I wasn't paying attention but still edible.

Another egg & sausage on a roll

My preference for the end of the meal is to sip a small glass of port or dessert wine. If mignardises or petit fours are offered, they're usually about the right size for me to nibble along with my port.

Kohlrabi Brandade from Six Seasons p 350. I baked some of the brandade in ramekins, topped with breadcrumbs and Parmesan and served it on toasts rubbed with garlic. I liked the sound of the recipe, where the kohlrabi, potato garlic and salt cod are simmered together gently in milk as I thought it would meld the flavors and provide a lighter alternative to other brandades that contain a lot of oil. I didn't love the result. I think there was too much vegetable (kohlrabi & potato) for the amount of salt cod and the milk didn't really provide the richness you get from olive oil. Baking with it with the crispy topping helped but it still seemed sort of watered down or diluted. Not a winner for me. The bread, however, was stupendous. I picked up a loaf of Glenn country rosemary bread from Roan Mills - they grow heritage wheat locally, grind the flour daily and bake it up into delicious breads. If only I could bake bread like that!

Rainbow Chard with Garlic & Jalapeños (I subbed orange manzano peppers for the jalapeños) from Six Seasons p 298. After the chard is sautéed with garlic and the peppers, red wine vinegar is added and everything marinates for a few hours or overnight so the topping has a slightly pickled quality.

Parsnip Soup with Pine Nut, Currant and Celery Leaf Relish from Six Seasons p 360. No cream here, just parsnips, celery and onion, cooked until almost tender with just a little olive oil and butter before adding water, simmering further and blending until smooth. The "relish" topping makes this soup special. It's currants (I used raisins, given a rough chop) soaked in red wine vinegar, toasted pine nuts, chopped celery and parsley leaves, red chile flakes, lemon zest and juice.

Spaghetti with Swiss Chard, Pine Nuts, Raisins and Chiles from Six Seasons p 301. A solid pasta dish that I enjoyed very much. No big revelations, although the idea of plumping raisins in wine vinegar, as done throughout this book, is one I will certainly use where dried fruits are used in savory dishes.

An Instant Pot baked egg with spinach & mushrooms. The method was inspired by a couple of recipes in Melissa Clark's Instant Pot cookbook, Dinner in an Instant. The ingredients were inspired by leftovers