blue_dolphin

The Kindle version of The Rye Baker: Classic Breads from Europe and America is currently $1.99 on Amazon.com but not on Amazon.ca

Pan-Roasted Carrots with Carrot-Top Salsa Verde, Avocado and Seared Squid from Six Seasons p 140. This recipe is in the Early Summer section of the book but I had nice carrots with fresh tops from the local farmers market so I decided to give this one a try. I'm very happy that I did. This dish has a lot of ingredients that I don't regularly use together so I really didn't know what it would taste like. There's a carrot-top salsa verde (some tasty stuff!) made with carrot tops, mint, parsley, scallions, lemon zest, a little hot sauce, salt & pepper and olive oil. I have some leftover and will follow the suggestion in the recipe header to use it as a condiment with simple roasted carrots. In addition to the carrots and squid, there's also pickled pepperoncini and pickling liquid, avocado and roasted pistachios. I thought pan-roasting the carrots was a bit fiddly but I did it. May try just roasting them in the oven next time.

Did you review the tables on Douglas Baldwin's site? @Okanagancook linked to it in the second post in this thread.

While there are many ingredients that complement each other well, I think it's pretty clear that one cook's rule is another's abomination ! I also take exception to the notion that a protein of some sort should be at the center of the plate and accompanied by "sides," whether they are "normal" or not!

Thank you! I was quite pleased with myself for thinking of it before the mayo went off entirely! It would probably make a nice chicken salad, too, but it absolutely shines with seafood, especially since I added extra lemon juice. I may try crab next....

Mixed up a shrimp salad using the artichoke mayonnaise from Six Seasons and put it on some little whole grain toasts I was bemoaning the fact that I didn't have a croissant ready for this but the crunchy toast turned out to be a good partner.

Romanesco. I love the fractal shape!

As you can see from these photos, it's peak season here from cauliflower and other Brassicas I went with the basic white. The one I picked was about average sized from this pile and weighed ~ 4.5 lbs. I used a lot of the fresh leaves in the "couscous" I posted just above. I used the big center slabs to make a version of the Cauliflower Steak with Provolone and Pickled Peppers from Six Seasons p 191. Love the bursts of salty-savory-sweet-hot flavors from the olives, capers and pickled peppers and would certainly make it again. I subbed Gruyère for the provolone and Pecorino Romano for the aged provolone because that's what I have on hand. The recipe calls for a "large head cauliflower, 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 lbs." Since mine was much bigger, I was a bit worried they wouldn't cook through but they came out fine. This recipe is delicious as is, but I had a hot Italian sausage leftover from the rigatoni so I crumbled, browned & drained it and added it to the topping. Makes it into a more substantial meal, especially if you are serving meat-lovers. Looking forward to using a bit of leftover topping to make stuffed mushrooms for cocktail hour

Raw "Couscous" Cauliflower with Almonds, Dried Cherries & Sumac from Six Seasons p 186. There's plenty of texture going on here - crunchy toasted nuts, chewy dried cherries, fresh greens and cauliflower that really does have a couscous-like texture. A lot of flavor, too, much of it sour - tart dried cherries, red wine vinegar and sumac. I'm usually adding acid to things but this was a bit sour for me. I had it as a main course, though I can see it working as a bracing side with other dishes. Maybe I was off in measuring out the vinegar? If I make it again, I'll drain the vinegar from the cherries and hold some of it back instead of tossing it all in along with the cherries.

Apologies in advance for my crappy photos. Yesterday's lunch was a recon mission with my cousin for an upcoming ladies lunch with a larger group. Last week, we went to a Korean restaurant that had good food but the staff were not particularly communicative so we vetoed it since a number of the group would be unfamiliar with the menu offerings. So we checked out the local branch of the Gyu-Kaku chain that's all over the place. I chose the Signature Cut Set from the lunch menu. Mostly slurped miso soup and half-eaten salad - greens, daikon, tomato, cucumber and hard boiled egg. Out of frame is a bowl of edamame and a bowl of steamed rice. Left to right below: garlic-marinated shrimp, thin sliced spicy yaki-shabu beef, harami miso skirt steak and kalbi beef short rib Sauces on the table were labeled: sweet-soy, spicy and ponzu I've never done this before and enjoyed it. We will go back with the other 6 ladies next week.

Now that's a toastie!

A version of the Rigatoni with Broccoli and Sausage from Six Seasons p 179. Rigatoni isn't my favorite pasta shape so I substituted cavatappi. Also, I was a little short on the broccoli so I sliced up the leaves off a head of cauliflower to make up the difference. For this dish, I made Instant Pot ricotta yesterday and whipped up the Whipped Ricotta p 37 - ricotta blended with olive oil, salt & pepper. I wasn't sure about this. Tasted on it's own, it seemed to take the nice fresh cheese and make it heavy and tasting of olive oil but just a little of it and the pasta water make a lovely creamy sauce. I enjoyed it. My first choice for a broccoli-sausage pasta would be to omit the cream but I appreciate the variety.

The links took me to my local Total Wine, where the liter of Cointreau is $40.99. It's 2 bucks cheaper at Hi-Time.

Interesting. Cointreau 750 ml is $28.99 at my Total Wine. The 375 ml size is $17.99.

I got them from a hydroponic grower who sells at the local farmers market. They aren't summer tomatoes but at least they are picked and brought to market ripe so they're pretty good.

Coquilles St. Jacques à la Parisienne from Mastering the Art of French Cooking with a version of the Pan-Steamed Broccoli from Six Seasons I once again demonstrate that I don't know what Julia means by a moderately hot broiler - something for me to work on! Luckily, the over browning was limited to the cheese and the scallops were tender and delicious.

Most dishes air dry but I use dish towels to dry wine glasses and other crystal. We have hard water so air drying always leaves water spots.

That looks amazing, @liamsaunt! I picked up some nice beets with fresh greens at the local farmers market: So today, I made the Roasted Beets, Avocado & Sunflower Seeds, p 134. I subbed toasted slivered almonds for the sunflower seeds. Had a mix of red, gold and candy beets but the red ones turned the others pink on the outside. This is an interesting cross between a warm side dish and a salad. The beet greens get sautéed in olive oil, then marinated with vinegar along with the warm beets. I added a sprinkle of feta because I thought it needed a little something and didn't want to turn the avocado to mush by mixing too much more.

I was going to make this for dinner last night but I didn't so...Coquilles St. Jacques à la Provençale from Mastering the Art of French Cooking With crusty bread to dip into the buttery sauce.

I have one drawer full. It's a big drawer. The formerly colorfully printed linen calendar towels that are now entirely white are used for straining things as are some of the blue and white check collection that must be 30+ years old. After that, they range in age. Once they get so many holes that I can't even find a few inches to line a strainer....that's when they become dust cloths! Two other factors prevent new additions from earning admittance to the towel drawer: non-absorbancy - why would anyone make towels that repel water? I don't know, but they do. I give them a couple of rounds through the washer. Then, they are OUT! The other issue is towels that aren't cut on the straight grain of the fabric so the hems twist and wrinkle and prevent me from folding them into tidy stacks. Again, I give them a few washer rounds to see if they will relax. If not - OUT! Both of those flaws are usually recognized early, while the towels are still presentable so I use them for lining gift baskets or wrapping other food gifts.

Is this product actually labeled "soy milk"? I ask because it sounds like one of the "Better Than Milk" soy powders that are about as close to true soy milk as coffee creamers are to powdered milk.

I'll look forward to hearing your thoughts if you try it. It wasn't bad at all. I'm certainly not binning it and I expect it may improve on sitting a bit longer. Just didn't quite knock my socks off today.

I was having a bit of a calamari craving and decided to mix up some of the Artichoke Mayonnaise from Six Seasons p 42 to use as a dip. This is one of the "orphan" condiment recipes in the book in that it's not specifically called for in any of the other recipes. So like many orphans, these recipes have to make their own way! I used frozen artichoke hearts and found the flavor bland. Perhaps marinated artichoke hearts should have been specified? Or I had unreasonable expectations? To adjust, I tripled the lemon juice, added the zest of a lemon, more salt, a squirt of hot sauce and a little fish sauce. I enjoyed it, especially after squirting the calamari with fresh lemon juice. I also used the Artichoke Mayo to make some cheesy toasts. I added some grated Parm & Romano to the artichoke mayo, spread it on sourdough toast, topped with a bit more cheese and broiled. Very tasty. A few of these would turn a soup or salad into a meal but so would a lot of things so still not sure this one is a winner for me. I'm looking forward to trying it on fish (as suggested in the recipe) but, at this point, I'm not sure I would make it again.

I bought the Peche after a recent Cocktail Virgin Slut blog post about a negroni-like cocktail with a bit of the peach liqueur. Sounded interesting. I don't have anything planned for the Strawberry Brandy, other than when having friends over for brunch, I like to put out a variety of liqueurs that can be used to make Kir-type champagne cocktails or added to sparkling water for something light. By Jove, I think you've got it! Thank you!

I've been thinking of posting a photo of my rums over in that very long Mai Tai thread and asking @JoNorvelleWalker to "make" me a Mai Tai!