blue_dolphin

Half-Steamed Turnips with Alla Diavola Butter from Six Seasons p 370. I used small white Hakurei turnips because that's what was available at the farmers market instead of the late season turnips specified but they worked fine. Probably not as peppery, but the butter makes up for that.Once that Alla Diavola Butter p 33 is made, this comes together very quickly. I loved the flavors here and am looking forward to trying it in other ways.

In another thread, @kayb said: There is indeed some delicious-sounding stuff in that "Go-To Recipes section. I spent some time going through the book and writing the names of the recipes that utilize these items underneath the condiment recipes so I can see where they are used. There are a few orphan condiment recipes (for example, the Artichoke Mayonnaise, Pickled Vegetable Mayonnaise, Lemon Cream and the Classic Salsa Verde). Not sure what's up with that. Maybe I was just careless and missed them. It's mildly annoying that info was not included somewhere in the book or the index and it's generally lacking from the Eat Your Books indexing as well. Below are a few things I've made from the "Go-To Recipes" section so far. The first thing I made was Frico p 31 (link in the first post). As I mentioned there, I'm not sure I needed a recipe for 1-ingredient snacks but they are very tasty. Next, was the Brined & Roasted Almonds p 30 Whole, raw almonds get a 30 min bath in salty water before being toasted. They are rather addictive. They are salty but there's no loose salt crystals sticking to the nuts so they make quite a pleasant nibble. So much so that I ate them all up without taking a photo. Next time. The Dry Breadcrumbs p 30 get used in 15 subsequent recipes, one of the most commonly used Go-To Recipes. They're just dry, unseasoned bread crumbs. I followed the author's suggestion to use a whole grain loaf. The bread cubes get dried thoroughly @ 250°F and are then to be ground in a food processor to a Grape-Nuts-like consistency. With this sturdy whole grain loaf, they seemed to go from large chunk to powder without making much in the way of intermediate-sized particles so I put them into a heavy weight bag and bashed them with a rolling pin. I think I will return to my more usual method of making the crumbs from dry bread and then toasting the crumbs to dry them out. Either that or I'll just use Grape-Nuts cereal instead ! The crumbs do look like Grape-Nuts, don't they? Next up is the Pistachio Butter p 37 that gets used in the recipe for Beet Slaw with Pistachios and Raisins that I made the other day. This came together nicely using the Blendtec Mini blend jar. Ingredients are just toasted pistachios, red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and a bit of water to loosen things. This stuff absolutely makes that beet salad. Not sure what else I will do with it. Maybe a dressing for some spicy noodles or something like that? Next up are ingredients for 2 of the compound butters, Cacio e Pepe Butter p 34: And Alla Diavola Butter p 33: And the finished products: The Cacio e Pepe Butter uses black pepper that's been toasted to bring out the flavor and then coarsely ground, plus Parm & Romano cheeses. It was delicious in the Pasta alla Gricia with Slivered Sugar Snap Peas that I made last night. I'll be happy to have this in the freezer so I can cut off a chunk to use on potatoes, steak or pasta. I only tasted the Alla Diavola Butter but haven't used it in any of the recipes. Seems pleasantly spicy.

Mai Tai French toast could be interesting!

Host's note: this cookbook can be found at Amazon: Six Season: A New Way with Vegetables A few of us have posted dishes from Six Seasons: A New Way with Vegetables and I'd very much like to cook from it a good bit more so I thought I'd give it a "Cooking with" thread in hopes of encouraging myself and hopefully attracting some cooking companions to the book. This is not a vegan cookbook, there's lots of cheese and butter and for a vegetable-centric cookbook, it includes quite a few recipes that contain meat. The author seems to love scallions as they appear almost everywhere and he may not care for cilantro as it makes an appearance in relatively few recipes. The book starts with a section of "Go-To Recipes" for compound butters, dressings and sauces, pickles, etc. I'd especially love to hear how people are using these condiments, even if they're being used in other applications. The full list of recipes can be viewed on Eat Your Books here. I'll start this off with links to existing posts using the book (this is what I could find easily, feel free to add anything I missed): @Anna N kicked things off back in May: Smashed Broccoli & Potatoes, Celery Salad with Dates, Almonds & Parmigiano Cream of Celery Soup Broccoli Rabe, Mozzarella, Anchovy & Spicy Tomato Fried Potato & Cheese Pancake Raw Brussels Sprouts with Lemon, Anchovy, Walnuts & Pecorino @koen posted about the Israeli-Spiced Tomatoes, Yogurt Sauce & Chickpeas @liamsaunt made the Rigatoni with Broccoli, Sausage and Whipped Ricotta and the Corn, Tomato, Scallion and Torn Crouton Salad Summer Squash Pickles Pasta with Eggplant alla Norma I started in with the book this year and so far, I've made: Frico - did I need a recipe for this? Apparently so, as I'd never made it before Raw Brussels Sprouts with Lemon, Anchovy, Walnuts & Pecorino Turnip Salad with Yogurt, Herbs & Poppy Seeds Beet Slaw with Pistachios and Raisins Pasta alla Gricia with Slivered Sugar Snap Peas Leeks with Anchovy and Soft Boiled Eggs Please join in!

@Shelby made them here

Leeks with Anchovy and Soft Boiled Eggs from Six Seasons. p 108. I started the leeks in the CSO on steam-bake @ the recipe temp of 425°F and they cooked more quickly than I expected (maybe they are smallish...) so I had to drop the temp so they could cook through without getting too black on top. That bit of crispy char on the outside turned out to be a nice contrast to the softer center of the leeks and that lemon & anchovy dressing brings brightness and depth at the same time - really delicious! After I took the photo, I realized I forgot to add the dry bread crumbs. They added a nice crunch but since I served this with crispy toast on the side, it wasn't absolutely necessary.

Pasta alla Gricia with Slivered Sugar Snap Peas from Six Seasons. Recipe available online here. A bit of a nuisance to sliver the sugar snaps but they're just right with the spaghetti - both perfectly al dente!

This is the Beet Slaw with Pistachios and Raisins from Six Seasons and it's absolutely delicious! The recipe is available online at this link. The beet slaw gets dressed, then served atop a layer of pistachio butter - one of the book's pantry recipes. If you try this, DO NOT skip the raisins!!! Even if you are not a raisin lover, you should give them a try. Once they get that hour long garlic/vinegar bath, they add the perfect note to this salad.

Excellent point. I should have thought of that! Ditto on the smartphone as they can do many of the same things. I've been such a voice-recognition-phobe that I haven't explored that option.

Interesting. Alexa and I haven't come to swear words yet. Then again, my expectations are low - I'm the one always screaming, "SPEAK TO AN AGENT" into every automated phone system

I can see how that would be annoying. Mine aren't really in hearing range of each other so I haven't had that problem yet. You may not need to actually put the device in the kitchen - I only have 2 duplex outlets in the kitchen and wouldn't want to dedicate one for this I put one Dot in the family room, where it's about 15 feet away from the kitchen, but Alexa can hear me (and vice versa) quite well. I put the other Dot in the master bathroom and I can ask Alexa to change the music without getting out from under the covers in the adjacent bedroom, about 17 feet away.

I picked up some Italian pasta at Trader Joe's yesterday and following up on a pasta cooking concern mentioned by @Thanks for the Crepes, I cooked up a serving for my breakfast this morning: Sauced with the last of some Mushroom Bourguignon, doctored with a spoon of sour cream into a sorta-Stroganoff.

I've had the same problem with pastas. There was one where the ruffly edge was thinner than the flat part of the noodle and broke off into tiny half-moon shapes before the rest of the noodle was done. I decided I should check these out before cooking up new recipes so I cooked up a serving. Happily, this particular gigli seems to be OK. They are a fairly small shape, smaller than others that have given me that problem: They retained their shape well after cooking: And on the plate with a mushroom sauce:

I'm wondering Alexa users are using it for kitchen or cooking-related tasks. I couldn't find a dedicated thread but found some comments from other threads: I am new to the Alexa party and jumped in late last year after Alexa got the Sonos skill, enabling me to control my sound system. I was mostly interested in being able to do that in the kitchen, so when I'm listening to a podcast and some noisy appliance makes me miss a sentence, I can just tell Alexa to "rewind 10 sec" and I can catch up. I paid $25 for a Dot, with a coupon from Sonos. After trying it out for a while, I spent $30 for a second Dot over the holidays. I already have speakers in every room, so I didn't need an Echo. I absolutely love using it to set timers - so much easier to use voice than need to dry off my hands to push timer buttons or fiddle with my phone. Unlike a timer, I don't have a display to check but Alexa will gladly tell me that I have 7 min left on the oven timer, 30 min on the laundry timer and 12 min on my dough timer and when time is up, she tells me which timer is up. For me, it's worth the $25 just as a multi-channel timer. I wish Alexa had a good measurement conversion skill so I could ask how much a tablespoon of something weighs in grams - she does OK with some things but not others. I also wish it had the ability to group devices so I'd be able to have the timer I set in the kitchen go off on the other Dot on the other end of the house. How about you? How are you using Alexa? Successes? Failures? What would you like to see added? Host's note: this topic was originally titled "Using Alexa in the Kitchen" but renamed when it quickly morphed into a broader range of speakers.

I'd suggest trying the same sideways arrangement that @Okanagancook suggested. I have mine in a similar corner (photo in this post upthread) and there is ample room for me to reach between the oven and the wall outlet so I would think you could access that switch OK. I'm OK with putting baby in the a corner but as my most used appliance she's earned a spot on the counter for sure !

I see more new Oreos are on the way this year. Two new flavors were reportedly released on Jan 1: Hazelnut Chocolate (looks like a vanilla cookie with a Nutella-like artificially flavored creme filling) and Hot and Spicy Cinnamon (looks like a chocolate cookie with bright red cinnamon candy filling) In May, 3 of the customer-proposed flavors from last year's "My Creation Contest" will be released: Cherry Cola Oreos Kettle Corn Oreos Piña Colada Oreo Thins News articles also report that Peeps will return for Easter and Firework Oreo will be back for July Fourth.

Trader Joe's sells something called "Soft Baked Snickerdoodles" but I have never tried them.

Three shapes of Italian pasta priced at $2.69/500g pkg. I haven't tried them yet, but they look good. I particularly like the look of the little ridges on the orecchiette as it looks like it might help prevent them from nesting together so much.

On the left, we have Oeufs à la Bourguignonne inspired by Mastering the Art of French Cooking but using leftover Mushroom Bourguignon from a different book. On the right is the Turnip Salad with Yogurt, Herbs & Poppy Seeds from Six Seasons. This did not turn out to be my favorite turnip salad nor a particularly good pairing with the oeufs but I very much like the idea of slicing the turnips vertically so you get a bit of stem on a lot of the pieces and soaking them in ice water to crisp them up. So I learned something, and that's good.

Well, if your distant, dumb friend is really set on the idea, Google could lead them to several recipes that put cheese either in the roll, under the sausage or on top of the rolls or both so it does seem to work. I was introduced to sausage rolls by a coworker from the UK who always brought them to our holiday pot-luck lunches so the non-cheese version is the only one I would call a sausage roll, particularly at this time of year. If you happen to be in the position of introducing anyone to the sausage roll, I strongly suggest you consider the power you wield and remember the power of tradition

The nice thing about sprout salads is that they are such good keepers. Yesterday, I had to dispose of 2 bags of sad green slime that never got a chance to become salads from the bottom of the vegetable drawer while the sprouts were still perky as ever! And I would disagree with respect to your creativity - you seem to have been pouring quite a bit of it into the Modernist Breads lately, while still posting a variety of interesting meals.

Raw Brussels Sprouts with Lemon, Anchovy, Walnuts & Pecorino from Six Seasons And I kicked up a serving of yesterday's potato & leek soup by blending in a big spoonful of the vinegary, garlicky, spicy, horseradish-y Cocktail Tomatoes from Deep Run Roots.

Wow, six years of dealing with that - what a pity it took so long. I know a lot of places have tried to replace those packets because they make such an awful mess when people step on them but this is something else entirely!

I haven't tried them, but that's what I thought of when I saw the description. I'll have to take a look and see if they could be broken up to use for some crunch on salads or soups. Or I could just get myself some of those Pik-Nik Shoestring Potatoes if they are still around!

Do you think you will explore opportunities for a more local Dolci di Franci in Miami?