blue_dolphin

@rotuts, I'm not Kim, but that recipe is on p14 in the Nov 2015 Cooks Illustrated. I was able to pull it up via my library's online magazine reader, perhaps you can do the same?

@Anna N posted a link to it on the Amazon.ca site here. It is still showing up there but it's listed as not currently available on Amazon.com.

Yes, yours is more curved than any I have seen. Perhaps that means it has a much more specialized use than carving.

I can certainly see something like that being used to carve fruits and vegetables into fancy shapes. Very much like the bird's beak knife I linked to above.

Looks similar to a bird's beak or tourné paring knife. Edited to add this link to a listing on Amazon

I'm so glad the okra worked out OK! This made me laugh so loud! I absolutely love this book's convention of giving the pepper measurements in BOTH teaspoon measurements and grinder turns. For example, in the Okra Oven Fries recipe, it calls for 10 turns of the pepper mill or 1/4 t black pepper. First time I cooked from the book, I tested out my grinder and learned that it puts out about 2X the volume that Vivian uses. As @Anna N commented, I now know that and have used that method going forward! - no more trying to eyeball 1/2 a teaspoon! That said, both spoon and grinder turn measurements are given throughout so the user can certainly choose which to use or to be annoyed by!

If anyone's on the TJ's email list or has been in the stores in the last few days, you know that pumpkin everything has returned in full force, including my personal favorite, the pumpkin Danish Kringle ! Of more interest to me was the return of the frozen all-butter puff pastry dough (made in France) and their reasonably priced organic sweetened condensed milk.

I did them in the CSO on convection bake at the specified 400°F and they took the full 25 min that was specified in the recipe. In addition to turning the pan, I also flipped the pieces around to get more even browning. The 6 oz of okra that I cooked is absolutely the max to maintain some separation in that small oven pan so I would certainly recommend using a larger pan in a full size oven if you are doing any more than that. And I'd use convection if you have it as I think it helps to crisp them up. The spicy mayo sounds like a great dip for these guys. Edited to add that the one change I've made to most Deep Run Roots recipes is to start out with half of the specified amount of salt and that usually works out well for me. I generally do with with most cookbooks. On the other hand, someone in another group said Vivian's recipes were under seasoned with respect to salt and she routinely doubles the salt!

Ha ha! You know, I started out thinking I'd just do a cup or two. I was mostly curious what they'd be like - it seems like such a decadent thing to do, like peeling grapes. But it wasn't as tedious as I thought so I went ahead with the full quart. I had a lunch scheduled where I was supposed to bring some pre-lunch nibbles and I thought these might be fun to put on a platter with some veggies and dip. The lunch got cancelled at the last minute so now I have more of the little cuties to play with!

Two recipes here. The Fancy Sandwiches p 245 from the cucumber chapter and the Cherry Tomatoes in Basil Vinegar p 275. The sandwiches layer a radish spread (radishes, butter, cream cheese, mayo and radish greens) with cucumber slices that have been salted, drained and tossed with lemon juice. I modified them to open face on thin slices from a small loaf of multigrain bread instead of the original white bread triangles with crusts trimmed. If I find myself in possession of some white sandwich bread in the next little while, I'll give that a try but I kinda like this version. I added a few radish slices and minced radish greens for garnish. The Cherry Tomatoes in Basil Vinegar provided a nice contrast to the buttery little sandwiches. They are rather a labor of love because the recipe asks you to PEEL the cherry tomatoes, not something I normally do. The first step is to make the basil vinegar with lots of basil, rice vinegar, peppercorns and a little salt and sugar and let it sit for 3 days - 2 weeks. Mine went a little over a week. In the photo below, I was short on the rice vinegar by about half a cup, once I got a new bottle and added the rest, all the leaves were submerged but I wanted to get the photo while the leaves were still pretty and green. Next, the basil and peppercorns are strained out and the PEELED cherry tomatoes are added. I used 3 different varieties of cherry tomatoes - one red, one gold/orange and one with green & red skins (I think they were called Jellybean) that came out a darker red after peeling. The recipe says they should sit for at least 2 days and will improve for slightly for up to 2 weeks in the fridge. She advises against water bath-canning them because the heat will damage the texture. They are quite nice and I look forward to playing around with them. A little of that basil vinegar and some olive oil should make a nice vinaigrette, Vivian suggests using them as part of a pickle plate and I'm afraid I'd want to put a little sigh on them that said, "Look here - I PEELED all of these dang little tomatoes for you!"

'Caesar' Brussels Sprouts from Josef Centeno's cookbook, Bäco. The recipe is available online here. I have plenty of the dressing, pickled red onions and caraway breadcrumbs leftover so I'll be happy to make this again soon.

Another thumbs up for the Dijon - both the regular smooth mustard and the whole grain versions.

Three things I am liking from TJ's these days...plus a few more I often keep on hand. No photo, but the spotlight cheese is a very nice Fourme D'Ambert at $8.99/lb. It's a rich, buttery French blue, described here on The Kitchn. Murray's Cheese sells a Fourme D'Ambert for $22.99/lb. I've been enjoying this one a lot. Lovely on some crusty bread with a glass of port. They've been getting this Brut North Coast Sparkling Wine in the fall, through the holidays for a few years and it was back at my TJ''s at the same $9.99 price as last year. I think it tastes like a much pricier bottle, but it's inexpensive enough that it's easy to use in cocktails or to top off a splash of a shrub. They usually have a Brut Rosé that I like as well but I haven't seen that one yet this year. On the non-luxury side of things, I'm liking the Kohlrabi Salad Blend, a mix of shredded kohlrabi, red cabbage, kale, golden beets that I've been turning into a quick slaw. Here's some of it in a slaw, sharing a plate with a few other TJ friends. I dressed this particular slaw with a little TJ's Sriracha Ranch dressing, thinned with juice from the TJ's bread & butter pickles, both of which I generally keep on hand. Clockwise from the slaw are TJ's Organic Baked Beans (nothing extraordinary but fine for beans from a can), TJ's ridge cut potato chips with sea salt, a pulled pork sandwich dressed with TJ's barbecue sauce on a TJ's par baked ciabatta roll and some of the bread & butter pickles on the side.

That Bäco Bread looks really good, @Anna N! I bet they will reheat from frozen very well on steam-bake in the CSO, though they may not be as wonderful as freshly made. I'll be interested in hearing how the frozen dough balls fare. Since that recipe makes 10 breads, it would be nice to freeze either the dough or the finished breads.

I'm so glad to hear that you got a good result from your first CSO chicken dinner! You won't mess up the cooking program by opening the door. Like @JoNorvelleWalker said, just pause a few seconds for the steam to escape before reaching in. It will cool off a little and take a bit to get back to temp so if you are in and out a lot to check temps, you may need to increase the overall cooking time to compensate. I generally get nice results with chicken thighs with steam-bake at 425°F for 20 - 30 min, depending on size. Those big leg quarters might take longer so I don't think you were too far off in your choice of cooking time.

Since the recipe that @Anna N linked to (authored by a woman from India, living in Dallas) chose to call for cilantro, it seems reasonable to continue to that usage in her comment. So yes, you are being a tiny bit pedantic. As am I by replying

Okra Oven Fries p 405 - a crispy and delicious snack. The recipe calls for 1 lb of okra to yield 4 servings. What you see in the photo is a small batch I cooked up with ~ 6 oz of raw okra and I'm pretty sure I could scarf up a pound's worth of these fries by myself. Vivian recommends serving the Kitchen Sink Mayo or Cilantro Buttermilk, either of which would have been delicious but I had some Cesar-type dressing on hand from another dish and it did the job admirably!

Well, it's unlikely that I'll be moving at a pace to generate a trail of dust ! I'll be very interested in hearing how the bread works out! I noticed the mix of allspice & peppercorns was recommended by others as a sub for cubebs. The recipe already included 1 tsp of allspice berries so I made my spoon a little more heaping than usual. I'll keep my eye out for them but I suspect that by the time I find them, I'll have forgotten what I wanted them for!

Berberé Chicken and Creamy Pecorino Rice from Josef Centeno's new cookbook, Bäco. Sugar snap peas and red bell peppers were steamed and tossed with preserved lemon rind. Lots going on in this dish! The short-grained sushi-type rice absorbed a lot of flavor and formed a bit of light crust on the rice at the bottom of the skillet. Left to my own devices, I would have served this with a dollop of yogurt rather than the rich garlic, pecorino cream sauce that turns this into a rather luxurious dish. I didn't have any of the cubeb pepper called for in the berberé spice blend so I subbed regular black peppercorns and used a bit less of them. Otherwise, I had everything else on hand and once the spice mixture is made, everything comes together quickly. I halved the recipe to make 2 servings instead of 4 and the recipe timing and amount of liquid were perfect to cook both the chicken and rice properly.

If I had that breakfast, I'd need to have a glass of champagne with it! @shain recently mentioned figs on pizza in response to a query on dessert pizza. Neither figs on pizza nor dessert pizza had ever occurred to me but with fresh figs on hand and a TJ's Tarte d'Alsace (ham, caramelized onion & gruyere) in the freezer, I was well equipped for this breakfast: I'm happy to join the figs on pizza club!

It's great that you were able to spend enough time with the book to determine that it's not for you and avoided making a purchase you wouldn't be happy with. I've been trying to do that more often. I find it interesting that this particular book features such a range of recipes from the comfort foods of her little area of Eastern North Carolina to things like the Deep Fried Chicken Livers with Balsamic Marinated Figs that she serves in her restaurant - I couldn't generalize about her cooking except that she seems to find a range of ways to feature her local ingredients. There are a lot of "comfort food" recipes in the book, for sure, but also a lot that offer Vivian's own twist to present the same ingredients in rather different ways. Her comfort food recipes don't tend to pique my cooking interest, although I've heard others rave about them and I might well like them if someone served them to me! On the other hand, it's the recipes that feature a different take on the traditional ingredients that make me wonder how it will taste and nudge me into the kitchen and that's what I want from a cookbook! That's an interesting observation. For someone who wasn't widely known until recently and never had much of an online presence, I actually thought she had quite a few recipes out there. Every episode of her TV program features a recipe that's available on the program site and on the PBS site and I've found any number of newspaper or TV show interview segments that offer 3, 4 or more recipes from the book or from her restaurant. No need to apologize for sharing an honest opinion, it's what makes this site interesting!

In a Facebook cookbook club I follow, a number of people posted about it. Some loved it as "comfort food" while a few others said it turned nice fresh corn into something that reminded them of their school cafeteria.

The lemon slices were under the tomatoes and they were really paper thin so it would be a pain to get them out. We should have decent tomatoes for another couple of months here but the heirloom varieties are expensive and I hate to waste them.

You can water bath can lemon curd though the pH should be sufficiently acidic so most safety-oriented preserving sites like this one will recommend using bottled lemon juice since the acidity of fresh lemons is so variable.

Tonight, I offer you a Tomato-Lemon Tart from the Sept 2017 Bon Appétit. Puff pastry gets brushed with garlic-olive oil, then topped with thin slices of lemon, torn basil, sliced heirloom tomatoes, sea salt, pepper and olive oil. The lemon slices (I cut them as thin as I could with a mandoline, as per the recipe) are overwhelmingly bitter and make this inedible. Maybe it would work better with Meyer lemons, but I'm not wasting 3 more lovely heirloom tomatoes to find out . Embarrassingly, I gave a visiting neighbor a few slices to take home BEFORE I'd actually tasted it. I had to text her to tell her not to eat it but she'd already tried it . Lesson learned!