blue_dolphin

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

I thought of you, @Anna N, and your potential reaction to the cheese when I wrote this and should have included a sausage roll disclaimer . No, sausage rolls, they are not. Still tasty, though!

In the category of things I never knew existed and really shouldn't be eating, I give you the Sausage Balls from Deep Run Roots p 372 with the suggested accompaniment of the Apple Mustard on p 502. Vivian says sausage balls are a clichéd party food and often disappointing. Completely unaware of sausage balls over here so I had to try these to catch up with the rest of the planet. I used the Maple & Sage Breakfast Sausage from The Food Lab plus a nice Cabot extra sharp cheddar and followed Vivian's recipe except for making them slightly smaller ~ 3/4oz instead of 1 oz. They are very tasty. Just enough cornmeal to hold them together. Most of the fat drains off so they don't seem greasy at all. Vivian says the Apple Mustard is like an apple butter with an edge. Excellent description. It's kicked up with onion, Dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar, cayenne, star anise, cloves, thyme and orange slices. I only made a half recipe but I think I'll still pack it up in some little jars and waterbath process them.

My house was already immersed in the Sonos system so that's what I use for listening. By adding an Alexa Dot (two of them actually), I gain basic voice control over my Sonos system plus the limited smart features that I use - mostly timers at this point. Alexa has been relatively well behaved but the other night she got into a rather involved conversation with my TV involving the Australian woman who's providing the "enhanced" Olympic ice skating commentary on the NBC app. Not sure how it got started but it went on for some time. I had a hard time getting Alexa to shut up.

I agree. Though It is very pungent stuff. I keep mine in a jar, in a ziplock bag, in another jar, in the garage.

Sweet Potato Pancakes with Yogurt and Date Syrup from Ottolenghi's cookbook, Nopi. Recipe found online at this link. If only I'd checked this thread before I took the photo, there could have been radishes on my plate, too

That makes sense. It's interesting that, as @gfweb mentioned, Wylie told Chris that deep fried foods take LONGER at altitude. I suppose that could be true IF the oil temp was lowered significantly. On the last episode - spoiler alert - - Chris seemed to follow that suggestion, overcooked his quail and went home. Since they cook so quickly, it seems like he could have done a test bird or two and worked that out. On the other hand, they're so small that I'd imagine it would be very easy to overcook them whatever you do. I was sorry to see him go as he was one of my favorites.

Earlier this week, the Smitten Kitchen blog gave a shout-out to The Essential Instant Pot Cookbook: Fresh and Foolproof Recipes for Your Electric Pressure Cooker. Since the Kindle edition is currently $2.99 on Amazon.com (not on Amazon.ca), I bought it. I haven't cooked anything from it yet but it seems like a solid Instant Pot cookbook - uses the IP for what it does well, doesn't try to make it do everything, has a good section of Instant Pot basics/FAQs and a section on adapting recipes for the IP. Personally, I found some of the recipes in Melissa Clark's Dinner in an Instant (NOT on sale!) more interesting to me, but think my $2.99 was well spent on this one.

Potage Velouté Aux Champignons (Cream of Mushroom Soup) from Mastering the Art of French Cooking. In addition to the fresh mushrooms, I added some dried porcini. Not sure that was necessary but the soup was rich, mushroom-y and delicious.

I asked my TJ's wine guy about the white French Burgundy that @rotuts mentioned above. He said it's not something that's available for him to order. He agreed that it sounded nice and said that if he sees it come through, he will order some. And if I see it, I will buy some

Well, part of the deep fry process is surface boiling, where the water contained in the outer surface boils away rapidly. I'd imagine that at altitude, that could happen at a lower temp and if one were to use a normal temp, you might get darker surface browning.

Kinda the best of the breakfast meat world - bacon & sausage all in one! On its own, the sausage was a little salty for my taste but it was fine on the sandwich. I suspect that saltiness will vary depending on the bacon used.

I made up a batch of the Maple-Sage Breakfast Sausage from The Food Lab and treated myself to an egg and sausage on a roll to test it out. This sausage is some tasty stuff - you actually grind up some slab bacon (instead of pork fat) along with the fresh pork so the result is almost a cross between sausage & bacon. I shaped it into some 2 oz patties, perfect for breakfast sandwiches and some 4 oz portions that I can pull out of the freezer for other uses. Sausage rolls, anyone?

They are very pretty and the fresh cut slices have a lovely star pattern. I love to use slices of Fuyu persimmons in salads. Google "persimmon slices" and look at the images.

You say potato.....

Thanks for that tip! I usually blend the canned chipotles and freeze in ice cube trays so they are always handy. Never thought of mixing them with preserves!

Avocado & Kimchi Toast from Julia Turshen's Small Victories Topped with a crispy olive oil-fried egg

At Thursday''s farmers market, I splurged on a basket of beautiful strawberries from Harry's Berries. Then, I used the recipe for Light and Flaky Buttermilk Biscuits from Salt Fat Acid Heat and treated myself to a shortcake. I added a just a little sugar and a dribble of artisanal balsamic vinegar to the berries. Plain, unsweetened whipped cream.

Celery Salad with Feta and Soft-Boiled Egg from Ottolenghi's Plenty More. Of course, I love a recipe that asks me to put an egg on it! Cutting the supremes from a very, very seedy lemon was the only annoying part of the prep. I had reservations about the green bell pepper, it was fine. I subbed a yellow manzano pepper for the green chile called for because I am in love with them at the moment. Otherwise, it was by the book.

Pappardelle with Chicken Livers & Rosemary from Melissa Clark's Dinner Changing the Game. My neighborhood Italian restaurant recently took their pasta with chicken liver, one of my favorites, off their menu so I have to learn to make it myself. The book calls for a whole pound of chicken livers for 2 servings. I used about half that and it still seems like plenty o' liver to me. Lots of flavor from the shallots, rosemary, sherry, balsamic vinegar and, of course, the liver.

That looks amazing, @Nicolai The first time I had salt-baked fish was in Istanbul. The friends I was traveling with made some serious rug purchases so the rug merchants took us out to a lovely restaurant with outdoor seating right next to the Bosphorus and everything was marvelous. Thanks for rekindling a great memory! Salmon & asparagus bruschetta from Ottolenghi. I love all things on toast and thought this sounded great - crusty bread, toasted and rubbed with garlic, cream cheese, lightly cooked fresh asparagus and salmon, oven-poached in wine with lemon, juniper berries and bay leaves. I followed the recipe, except for substituting fennel greens for the requested chervil in the garnish. It was OK but needed a little somethin' somethin' so I ended up adding some thinly sliced preserved lemon - perfect!

It is something like this?

I have never heard the term "happy" flatware.