blue_dolphin

Egg & sausage on a toasted English muffin I made the Deli Rye English Muffins from Smitten Kitchen Every Day, added one of the Maple-Sage Breakfast Sausage patties from The Food Lab and an egg from the farmers market.

I happen to like a margarita made with reposado tequila. Maybe I haven't found the right blanco. Or maybe I just found what I like

Parsnips with Citrus and Orange from Six Seasons p 358. I thought raw parsnips might have a very strong flavor, but they were just pleasantly pars-nippy in this fresh-tasting winter salad. I used sweet and very juicy Cara Cara oranges and my favorite oil-cured olives, both from the local farmers market. The recipe has an instruction to use half the vinegar but never tells you what to do with the rest. I added it when mixing everything to macerate for 15 min, before adding the olive oil. During that time, my parsnips started picking up color from the olives so they don't look as snow-y white as in the book. Next time I would add the olives last.

I hope the stove will work out, @TechieTechie. I had an old stove, not as lovely as yours, in an apartment I rented for quite some time. I loved that thing. The burners were way more powerful than my current Wolf, although the new one handles a low simmer better than the old behemoth. A number of members here shared their kitchen renovation tales (@weinoo, most recently here) and it's always interesting to follow along. If you're interested in taking us along on your saga, I'm sure there would be interest.

I pounded mine to ~ 1/8" thick, although they look thicker in the photo I posted.

Welcome to eG, @TechieTechie! I love your stove. Is it one that you were using prior to the kitchen problems or did you purchase it for the remodel? And if you used it before, how did you like cooking with it?

I was happy with the result, but would have been happy to see any of the last 6 or 8 contestants win. Excellent, though predictable, fan favorite, too. Even if she hadn't gotten sick, she would have deserved it because of her hilarious quotes. Overall, seemed like relatively little drama between the contestants this season. I used to think much of that was done in editing but if that was the case, they might have manufactured more of it this year. Either everyone really was that nice or they wanted a kinder, gentler Top Chef season? And while the dishes in the finale looked and sounded great, I might love the Tiny Kitchen versions even better. Here are links to the Tiny Kitchen videos on the Bravo site: Joe Flamm's Ribeye Adrienne's Appetizer

@liamsaunt - your beautiful photography makes every dish looks its best but this stuff looks amazing! Thanks for sharing!

I didn't like having that kettle challenge so late in the season. I guess making the very act of cooking so difficult can inspire creativity but I don't care for them, especially this late in the game. Preparing 200 portions of a vegetable centered dish, outside, for that crowd of chefs was enough of a challenge without throwing in the kettles. I also missed having Gail at judges table in so many episodes this season. She always seems to come up with nicely verbalized summary comments about the dishes.

It's good to know that @Anna N is starting her day appropriately fortified Me, too: Bacon & parsnip fried rice topped with a crispy fried egg inspired by a riff on kimchi fried rice in Julia Turshen's Small Victories. Crisp up some diced bacon and reserve, brown diced parsnips in the bacon fat then add cooked rice (TJ's brown rice medley), the reserved bacon and a handful of parsley. I added a crispy fried egg,

No, I don't think you've been rude. From my understanding, and consistent with @chromedome's small survey (n=1) many, maybe most hotel guests don't tip the housekeeping staff. I tip, in part because that's what my parents did on the rare occasions when we stayed in hotels, but mostly because I know they work very hard in an environment where many of their colleagues (bell staff, parking attendants, room service, restaurant wait staff, etc) are regularly tipped and it's an opportunity for me to offer a small token of thanks.

Fritters from leftovers: I had leftover filling from the Cabbage & Mushroom Hand Pies I made yesterday and leftover brown rice medley from the Broccoli & Wild Rice Fritters from lunch the other day so I mashed up the recipes and made Cabbage, Mushroom and Wild Rice Fritters. Served with sour cream and apple mustard.

Made a version of the Peach Melba Popsicles from Smitten Kitchen Everyday. I've been wanting to make these since they appeared on the Smitten Kitchen blog a couple of years ago and finally got around to it. I'm not good at softening ice cream - I usually forget about it until it's become entirely liquid - so I used Greek yogurt instead of the called-for vanilla ice cream. I added a little of the simple syrup to the fruit and mixed the rest, along with a little vanilla extract, into the yogurt.

Since we're talking about tipping, how about tips for the housekeeping staff? Do you tip more in a suite? When traveling with a pet? I'm pretty tidy and don't make a big mess so I generally leave $5 - 10/day. I make sure to leave a tip each day. I double it if there's anything extra to clean up or if I've made a request for more towels or something. Still doesn't seem like much given how hard they work. I've been leaving that same amount for years and years and it used to seem OK to me but now I'm thinking that I'm being too cheap.

I don't perceive any slam against Sqirl in the LA Times comments that you quoted. The place was indeed new and innovative 5 or 6 years ago when Jonathan Gold wrote his first review of Sqirl. The fact that it's still on his list of the top restaurants in LA suggests some regard, even though there are a lot of wannabes around town these days. I'm looking forward to hearing more about what you're cooking from the cookbook. I have it on request from my library so when I get it, I hope I can try some of your top favorites.

Cabbage & Mushroom Hand Pies from Six Seasons p 338, served with some of the Apple Mustard from Deep Run Roots and lightly dressed baby greens. I used the cheddar cheese dough from Art of The Pie and used an egg wash. I inadvertently let the mushrooms, leeks and cabbage get a bit brown and having read that some people found these lacking in flavor, I may have been generous in measuring out the seasoning ingredients - balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard and hot sauce. In any case, I thought the results were tasty and I'd make them again.

I bought the book because it's this month's book in the Food52 Cookbook Club. I enjoy Deb Perelman's writing and have tried enough of her recipes from the blog that I figured it wouldn't be a complete bust. Neither did I expect to be overwhelmed with inspiration. So far, I've been pleasantly surprised. I've got a list of recipes that I'm looking forward to trying and I'm adding to that list as I see recommendations from other group members. It's a very accessible book, no particularly difficult-to-source ingredients or complicated preps. In spite of that ease, the recipes I've tried deliver pretty well in the flavor/texture/interest department. It's not a cookbook that absolutely inspires me to cook but so far, I've found easy (and easily adaptable) recipes that are different from my usual same-old preps so I don't regret buying it. Stay tuned throughout the month and you'll see more as I'll be using it often.

Broccoli, Cheddar, Wild Rice Fritters from Smitten Kitchen Every Day. I used broccolini and Trader Joe's Brown Rice Medley with a handful of wild rice thrown in. Served with a kimchi mayo sauce (~ equal parts chopped kimchi & mayo) that I learned from @HungryChris With the brown rice, they have a great crunchy on the outside/chewy on the inside texture. Should be a fun recipe to play around with different vegetables and rice/grain blends.

Broccoli Melts from Smitten Kitchen Everyday. Broccolini, garlic, red chile flakes, melted anchovy, sautéed in olive oil, tossed with pecorino, lemon juice and zest, piled on toast and topped with grated gruyere. I made this as a light supper while watching the Oscars last night and repeated it for breakfast.

My thoughts as well. I don't question the Popeye's indulgence, but the blurry photo made me suspect fowl play!

Many cookbooks include what might be called "pantry" recipes, compound recipes or "recipes-within-recipes" for things like sauces, spice mixtures, pickles and the like that are used throughout the book in several other recipes. Or maybe they're only called for once or twice. I want to see that information clearly spelled out so I can gauge whether I want to double or triple that spice mixture to have enough for other recipes or cut it down. Or whether I want to plan ahead to make several dishes that all use a common pantry recipe. Ideally, I want to see a list of related recipes right on the page with that "pantry" recipe. They could also be listed clearly in the index. Rick Bayless or his editors do this very well in More Mexican Everyday where each of the four "secret weapon" sauces is followed by ideas for using them and a list of all the other recipes (with page numbers) in the book that utilize those sauces. I'm sure there are other good examples of this but many of my cookbooks fail in this regard. Six Seasons has an extensive section of "Go-To" recipes in the front of the book but no way to see where they are used. I plan to cook a lot from that book so I took the time to go through and wrote the related recipes under each of the "Go-To" recipes but I shouldn't have to do that. Here's the list of Six Seasons that use the Dried Breadcrumbs. Would it have been so hard to include that info?

I took these to a brunch yesterday and was advised by the friend who got the leftovers that they go very well with a small glass of port. I need to make more so I can test that out!

Wow! I believe everyone here knows this, but you are so swift!

Certainly not as cute as cute as @patris's baby shower cookies or as decadent as @jmacnaughtan's truffles or as gorgeous as @rarerollingobject's cupcakes, this is Olive Oil Shortbread with Rosemary & Chocolate Chunks from Smitten Kitchen Everyday. Last year, when I was in France, I visited L'Espérantine Chocolates in Marseille where they make artisan chocolates with local ingredients: olive oil, almonds and orange. That memory inspired me to play with this recipe by adding the zest of an orange and some chopped, slivered almonds.

@Smithy, for the 6 qt Duo, lid off but inner pot in place, I get 9 1/2"