blue_dolphin

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.

This recipe, Palakoora Vepadu (Andhra-Style Sautéed Spinach, credited to the cookbook author, is quite similar to the one in the cookbook.

I'm in the same general geographic area as you are, @heidih, so I get the flyer, too. What surprised me about their mailing program was when they opened a Trader Joe's in Burlington, VT and my mother (who lived on the other side of the lake in northern NY) started receiving the flyer in the mail. It's at least a 3 hour round trip, involving a ferry, so it surprised me they were advertising that far away. Not sure if they're still following that strategy or not. I always read the flyer - usually there's a mixture of new and old items - and generally find a few things I'd like to try. In addition to the Bamba and jackfruit you mentioned, I'll probably pick up some of the frozen coconut chunks. I tried them and wouldn't recommend them. I'm not a fan of rice crackers to begin with but the flavor doesn't help either. Tastes like what you'd get from dehydrating the already "condensed" canned tomato soup. Now, I have fond memories of that soup, made with milk and served with a grilled cheese sandwich but the crackers aren't doing it for me. I'm debating whether to take them back or toss them. Edited to add: I thought these might be nice as a garnish on soup so I tried them. Yes, they do add a nice crunch when sprinkled on top of a bowl but they soak up the soup and get soggy very quickly - at least if you break them up like I did. As a snack, they're OK, but nothing I'd crave like a potato chip.

Nice one, @koen! That recipe for fried celeriac steaks with blood orange and fresh horseradish is one that I've been wanting to try.

The recipe called for an 11-inch tart pan. I used a 10-inch glass pie pan so I need to roll out the pie crust a bit bigger than the packaged size. I used an egg wash, applied after removing the pie weights, as I usually do with a custard pie. Since my pan was a bit smaller, I cut back a little on the filling. I used the full amount of garlic but just shy of 4 oz each of the hard and soft goat cheeses and ~ 5T each of the heavy cream and crème fraîche. Since some of the egg went into the egg wash, I didn't adjust that.

More kale talk....hmmmm. This is the Celery Salad with Dates, Almonds & Parmigiano from Six Seasons p 145. Nice combination of sweet-salty-tangy flavor elements in a crisp, crunchy salad. I subbed hazelnuts and Deglet Noor dates for the almonds and Medjool dates specified for the salad. Otherwise, it was per the book.

Caramelized Garlic Tart from Ottolenghi's Plenty p 38. @Chris Hennes posted about making this upthread here. I cheated and used a regular crust (and yes, full disclosure, it came from Pillsbury ) instead of puff pastry but the finished product is still very rich and delicious. For the hard goat cheese, I used a mix of goat gouda and goat cheddar. Silver Goat for the soft chèvre.

@Luis J - Time for me to re-read Like Water for Chocolate, one of my favorites, thanks for the reminder! I recently enjoyed two food-related books that I borrowed and just returned to the library. France is a Feast: The Photographic Journey of Paul and Julia Child. Great photos, all by Paul Child and mostly from their time in France in the late '40s - '50s, well before Julia Child became famous. It was co-written by Alex Prud'homme (who also co-wrote My Life in France with Julia Child) and Katie Pratt. The Beetlebung Farm Cookbook by Chris Fischer is subtitled, "A Year of Cooking on Martha's Vineyard" and it reads like a cross between a diary and a cookbook with stories about his own farm as well as other local farmers and fishermen. The author came to my attention a few years ago here on egullet when @SLB mentioned a Moth Radio Hour story by Chris Fischer. There are recipes I'd like to try but mostly I wanted to eat Chris Fischer's food - the dishes prepared with the local island ingredients that he uses. I doubt I could do them justice with supermarket fare. Edited to add the very important information that Chris Fisher, author of the book mentioned above, recently married comic Amy Schumer.

Apparently we are not having winter here this year. After a high of 92°F on Sunday, I decided to replenish my supply of popsicles. These are Paletas de Donají or mezcal-orange ice pops from Fany Gerson's Paletas. According to the book, the Donají cocktail is served in a glass rimmed with a mixture of salt, chile and some sort of roasted insect. I skipped the bugs and mixed up a salt:chile mix for dipping the pops just before serving.

Had some farmers market fennel that needed to be used up so I made the Spaghetti with Spiced Sausage & Fennel Sauce from Diana Henry's Simple. Nothing fancy, but it hit the spot and the fennel is no more To paraphrase @Tri2Cook, getting rid of leftovers something in the crisper drawer is always a good thing!

Can you describe your recipe a bit more - how do you stuff a fresh off the tree lime into the toast? My own lime tree is loaded!

One of the variations for the Cream of Celery Soup from Six Seasons p 150 that I posted above is to use it as the base for "a delicate seafood stew." I did that here, using a mix of shrimp, scallops and squid. I added a squeeze of lemon juice, a squirt of yuzu hot sauce and about 1/2 the specified amount of cream. I thought it was going to taste like celery soup with a few fishy bits floating in it but it actually came together as its own dish.

I read that article the other day. I was a little surprised how close many of the prices were. I expected the larger sizes at Costco would have much, much lower than the smaller TJ's sizes.

That looks delicious, @Anna N! I've got the Spicy Fish Sauce Sauce on hand so I'll make this recipe one of these days. The book says the Spicy Fish Sauce Sauce is good for a month or two. And yes, I do like saying Spicy Fish Sauce Sauce If you've got any leftover, it's also used in the Fried Cauliflower p 194 that I made with roasted cauliflower instead, the Grilled Wax Beans & Tomatoes, Basil & Spicy Fish Sauce Sauce, the Squash Ribbons with Tomatoes, Peanuts, Basil, Mint & Spicy Fish Sauce Sauce and optionally in the Sautéed Greens with Olives p 105. Several of them are also using fresh herbs, which I understand aren't in good supply at this time of year.

It's primarily an essay on the fearfulness, reluctance to read instructions and/or failure to follow them of US consumers than it is about the Instant Pot itself! Commenters fall into various camps: IP users and lovers, people who tried the IP once or twice with poor results and returned or tossed them, people who think all such appliances are "fads" , people who use conventional pressure cookers and don't see any advantage of the IP, people who see no value in any sort of pressure cooker, etc.

Sorry!

The Wall Street Journal had an article, dated yesterday, about the fears and imagined (and real) hazards of the Instant Pot that's garnered almost 200 comments: America’s Instant-Pot Anxiety: ‘I Said a Prayer and Stayed the Hell Away’ Not sure if there's a paywall. I was able to access the article via Google on a browser I've never used to log in to the WSJ by searching for the article title: America’s Instant-Pot Anxiety: ‘I Said a Prayer and Stayed the Hell Away’ so that may work.

Cream of Celery Soup from Six Seasons p 150. Not my favorite celery soup, but I enjoyed it. I used a very leafy celery the size of a baseball bat from the farmers market so I put the trimmings, a big bunch of leaves and part of an onion into the Instant Pot with half homemade chicken stock and half water to make a quick stock. Tasting the soup, after puréeing but before adding the cream, I thought it was a bit bland and needed a shot of acid so I added some white balsamic vinegar to the raisins and gave them a few minutes to sit before adding them to the rest of the garnish ingredients. The book allows for quite a generous amount of the garnish and I felt that the sweet-tart raisins, slightly bitter celery leaves and toasty walnuts really added a lot to the soup. Another celery dish: Celery, Apple & Peanut Salad from Six Seasons p 149. I thought this salad was fresh tasting and fun to eat with the crisp celery, sweet-crunchy apples, salty roasted peanuts and a nice level of fruity heat from the manzano pepper I used as the "medium-hot fresh chile" called for in the recipe. It's lightly dressed with just a bit of lemon juice and olive oil so the flavors of the individual ingredients really shine and each bite is a little different, depending on what's on your fork. I left the skin on the apple for color but otherwise made this according to the recipe.

Very interesting selection of bottles! Please do keep us updated on your experiments! You, too! Either in Drinks! or the Creme de Violette thread. I would welcome new ideas for using some of my Creme de Violette.

As I continue to try to get your minds off that dreadful kale, here is a variation on the Fontina-Stuffed Arancini from Six Seasons p 379. Edited to add that this uses the Winter Squash & Leek Risotto on p 378 that I posted yesterday. My modifications were to use a soft blue cheese instead of fontina and to use my usual method of flour -> egg -> panko -> olive oil spray -> bake instead of frying first, then baking. They are not as golden brown as they would be with frying. That can be helped by toasting the bread crumbs before dipping but I was too lazy . Served with Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce with Butter & Onion. I'm very happy with these. I love the combination of blue cheese with winter squash and the simple tomato sauce was the perfect partner .... with a glass of pinot noir

Today, I made the Winter Squash & Leek Risotto from Six Seasons p 378 for brunch/lunch. I wasn't sure I'd go for the sweetness of the squash here but it was pretty good. I made the made the broth with all the trimmings from the butternut squash and leeks in the Instant Pot but cooked up the risotto as written. Next time, I will adapt the rest of the recipe for the IP. I was hungry and scarfed up my bowl without taking a photo. This is my second helping and you can see that it's not as "brothy" anymore. Still tasty though. Looking forward to arancini!

Well, lucky for you two, I've finished my big bunch of kale so I, at least, won't be forcing you to look at any more kale dishes for a while There's a kale pasta sauce p 312 that will make an appearance when I get some more but it won't be for a while as I've got a couple of winter squash recipes on deck. Next up for me, after that, is another polarizing vegetable - CELERY !

Excellent connection! When Melissa Clark first wrote about that recipe in the NYT in 2007, she describes her experience with the dish at Fanny's, as prepared by Joshua McFadden, author of Six Seasons - full circle! Edited to add: In Six Seasons McFadden credits that write-up, "... But once it got written up in the New York Times, the world seemed to have an unending hunger for kale salads!"