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Not sure this is a remarkable deal but if anyone's in the market for a pair of kitchen shears, the Amazon price on the Kershaw Taskmaster Shears (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) has been bouncing around between $16-19 dollars for a while now - a fair price for a sturdy pair of shears that come apart easily for cleaning by hand or in the dishwasher. They are identical to the Shun Multi Purpose Shears (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) priced at $54.95. I purchased a pair of the Kershaw shears in 2011 @ $39.99 and they've served me well. I thought I lost them and was surprised to be able to replace them at less than half the original cost. Of course, the old pair resurfaced the very day the new ones arrived. No complaints though, a second pair will be handy.

I recently purchased 2 fish and seafood cookbooks and this older topic seems like a good place to mention them. Eric Ripert's Seafood Simple: A Cookbook (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) came out in October 2023. I think simple is the key word to describe this book. The recipes are fairly simple, elegantly plated with spare, zoomed-in photos and the background information on fish and seafood species and sustainability is scant and superficial. This book makes me want to go out to a fine-dining restaurant. The second book, The Hog Island Book of Fish & Seafood: Culinary Treasures from Our Waters (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) by John Ash came out in May 2023 and is almost encyclopedic by comparison in terms of the number of species used and the space given to describing them. Photos are more zoomed-out images of casually-plated fare printed on matte paper. This book makes me want to cook. Seafood Simple: A Cookbook (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) is full of beautiful photos of artfully plated food, printed on glossy paper and there are lots of great reviews for it on Amazon. There are photos of most, if not all recipes. It's 286 pages long and Eat Your Books tells me there are 99 recipes, 8 of which are "how-tos" like how to clean shrimp or remove pin bones. Recipes are organized by cooking method: Raw, Steamed, Poached, Fried, Baked, Sautéed, Broiled, Broiled, Grilled and a very brief section on Preserved fish. He doesn't use a huge variety of fish. Salmon shows up in every chapter. I'm not sure how good the index is. Neither black cod nor sablefish are listed in the index although the recipe for Miso Cod "Nobu" lists black cod in the ingredients. He gives a brief nod to sustainability and recommends consulting the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) for US readers but doesn't go much deeper than that. While the recipes generally recommend similar fish that would work well, he doesn't go into the admittedly confusing area of fish names and where they might be sourced from. I suppose that's quite appropriate for a book trying to appeal to an audience looking for something simple. The recipes themselves are pretty straightforward, though a certain amount of skill and razor sharp knives will be needed to produce results similar to the photos. For example this dish of Salmon Wrapped in Collard Greens with Beurre Rouge consists of salmon filets, topped with thin slices of raw button mushrooms, wrapped in blanched collard greens, steamed, cut in half and plated atop a beurre rouge. I think he's actually used the suggested alternate of Swiss chard in the photo in the book. He doesn't say anything about trimming the thickness of the central stalk, though it looks like that has been done. Photo above included for review purposes to demonstrate the sort of zoomed in photos used throughout the book and how beautifully this simple dish can be presented by someone who knows what they are doing with a sharp knife. I'm sure I'd have mushroom slices sliding out, squashed fish and raggedy collard fibers. I thought the chapter introductions might offer some helpful tips and tricks for the different cooking methods, but they really don't. Throughout the book, he says to gauge doneness by sticking a skewer into the fish and holding it to your wrist (though the photo in the baking section shows the chef holding the skewer to his hand, not wrist) but I couldn't find any tips on how one might educate themselves on this method. The Hog Island Book of Fish & Seafood: Culinary Treasures from Our Waters (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) by John Ash was recommended by one of the co-owners of the fish share service I've been using. She received it as a gift last year and has enjoyed using it. There are relatively few reviews for it on Amazon and they all seem pretty brief but they're positive. At 351 pages, it's quite a tome. Eat Your Books tells me the book contains 306 recipes, 32 of which are "how tos" like clam and oyster shucking. I'd say somewhat less than half of the recipes appear in photographs which are printed on matte paper, something I know annoys some people, though not me. The recipes are organized by fish type: Mollusks, Cephalopods, Crustaceans, the Salmon Family, Other Finned Fish, Halibut and Other Flatfish, Big Meaty Fish, Little Fish, Canned, Tinned and Jarred Fish, and Other Gifts from the Sea (caviar and roe, sea urchins, seaweed and sea vegetables). As one might expect from a book named for a business (Hog Island Oyster Co) that's on the supply-side and well-known for its sustainable practices and environmentalism, there's a lot more background on choosing and purchasing fish and seafood with sustainability in mind. Each chapter includes background information on the species covered, and does a good job parsing out the often confusing nomenclature. It uses clear, simple pen & ink diagrams to demonstrate prep techniques used for the species covered in each chapter. The recipes themselves are clearly written and include a good mix of soups, salads, pastas, risotto, etc. as compared with Seafood Simple, where a majority of the recipes seem to be a fish plus a sauce. As mentioned, the photos are zoomed-out images of casually (even messily) plated food. The image below accompanies the recipe for Ginger-Soy Salmon with Soba Noodle Salad. Photo above included for review purposes to demonstrate the photography style in The Hog Island Book of Fish & Seafood. I expect this book will be an excellent reference for me and the casual recipes are a better fit for my style of cooking. I'd highly recommend it to someone wanting to get into fish or seafood cookery with something a bit fresher and maybe less intimidating than Peterson. I'm debating returning Seafood Simple but The Hog Island Book of Fish & Seafood is a keeper for me. Edited to add that I just saw how long this post is 🫢. Sorry for going on and on!

Sausage, egg & cheese on a toasted English muffin: The cheese is Jasper Hill Farms clothbound mature Cheddar, perhaps overkill for a breakfast sandwich but I ran out of the cheap stuff!

Thanks! The recipe calls for 2/3 red beets and 1/3 golden beets and I think that would look really stunning. The flavors were still great.

Check out the recipes on Pasta Grammar and watch their YouTube videos. Here's their Lasagna alla Napoletana. As far as tips go, if you'd like to test out a lasagna recipe in advance of your friends gathering and without making a ton of it, you can easily make a 1/3 or 1/4 scale recipe in an average loaf-size pan in the 9 x 5" or 8 x 4" range. Just one strip of noodles at the bottom, maybe a little more at the top if the sides are very sloped. Makes 2-3 servings and is a fun way to play around with variations.

I have that Lodge and while it's heavy, you can usually handle either the bottom or the lid separately, which cuts down on the weight. Both pieces have a both a main handle and a small helper handle on the other side so you get pretty good control, especially with a good pair of oven mitts.

Beetroot and feta galette with za'atar and honey from Falastin. Recipe available online here. Another tangelo on the side.

Beetroot and feta galette with za'atar and honey from Falastin. Recipe available online here. This is very good with layers of flavor throughout. Lots of fresh thyme and oregano in the buttery crust, a base of ricotta mixed with garlic (I doubled that after a comment that it didn't stand out and I had really nice homemade whole milk ricotta to use), slow cooked onions with sugar and apple cider vinegar making an agrodolce, tossed with parsley, more oregano and za'atar, slices of roasted beets, topped with feta, drizzles of olive oil and honey, more za'atar and thyme .

Well, Happy Birthday, @Vapre 🎂🎉🎁! What a great gift!

What vendor did you order from?

Made a breakfast sandwich by splitting and toasting a piece of yesterday's cheesy jalapeño cornbread to surround an egg and country ham biscuit slice. Not bad, I might try again with sausage to see if that works better with the cornbread. On the side are a tangelo and the Sweet + Sticky Brussels Sprouts from Nik Sharma's Veg-Table, which were excellent. After roasting, they're lightly dressed with a sauce that's made with mirin, honey or maple syrup, miso, rice vinegar, soy sauce, and sesame oil.

@rotuts, if you are ever interested in trying something different with your fish sticks/nuggets, you might consider Nigella's Fish Finger Bhorta. The recipe is in her book, Cook, Eat, Repeat, and a lot of folks in the cookbook group I participate in thought it was surprisingly good. It's on my list to try one of these days.

Cheesy Jalapeño Corn Bread from Snacking Bakes by Yossy Arefi. There aren't a lot of savory recipes in this book, but I found one and made a little half recipe in a 6-inch pan so I could check it out. I was worried it was going to look pale because I used white cornmeal and a sharp white cheddar but the cheese topping browned nicely and it came out fine. Half the jalapeños get chopped and mixed into the batter so you get a little heat throughout. At first bite, I thought it was a little sweet but the salty cheese and chile heat balances out the honey used in the batter so I was happy to have it with my breakfast this morning and would probably make it again.

Clockwise from lower left, scrambled egg, cherry tomatoes, roasted Brussels sprouts tossed with hot sauce, manzano chile salsa and queso fresco, cheesy jalapeño cornbread from Snacking Bakes, and pinto beans with more salsa.

Years ago, a chemist friend of mine worked for one of the big meat curing/processing companies in the US doing testing of their raw materials and he said that the spice business was the dirtiest business in the world. Vendors would present clean samples for approval of an order and deliver all sorts of adulterated crap. It required constant testing to prevent tainting their products. Yes, I remember when I read that Consumer Reports spice/metals article when it came out that the folks drinking mass quantities of turmeric chai for their health might want to at least vary their spice usage.

There's a bunch of stuff out there like this: 18 Surprising Things You Can Make In A Panini Press. Most of them aren't things I'd necessarily want to do - that omelet looks weird - but I liked the idea of the smashed little potatoes (boiled first, then smashed) and the grilled vegetables. Also, 10 Unexpected Things to Make in a Panini Press where I liked the idea of the grilled romaine lettuce, grilled fruit and grilled flatbreads

Yes, that's why I included the Garden Betty link as her photos show that the base needs to be intact.

You could try rooting some to grow outside in the summer or in a pot indoors. Luckily, I can buy them by them individually, priced per lb but I might try this anyway.

Lobster Green Curry from Shaya was a treat! I upgraded my fish share this week and got a live spiny lobster caught by this guy: I par-cooked it as soon as I got home, put the meat in the fridge, shells in the freezer and pulled them out to make the lobster stock this morning: I've got a lot of stock leftover so I can make this again with shrimp or crab. Here's the curry at the end of cooking when I've put the lobster in to finish cooking.

I really can't imagine what it would taste like but all this conversation has made me curious. I looked it up at Total Wine and the stuff has an amazing number of positive reviews. My store has the mini bottles available for a fairly nominal cost so maybe I'll spring for one and find out. If I do, I'll be sure to let you know!

I noticed Modernist Cuisine is going to offer a series of email Bread School courses. They said they will make an announcement when it's available for sign-up, sometime in early March. In response to questions when they posted this on Facebook, they said that it's not necessary to have either this "At Home" book or the original Modernist Bread in order to follow along. Even though the emails don't require the book, it kind of piques my interest in getting it and might serve as a nudge to actually bake from it! I figure I'll sign up for the emails when they become available and if they seem engaging, I'll order the book.

I'm very sorry about your broken hip, @Katie Meadow and happy you are home, complete with titanium body parts and sense of humor intact! Couldn't pick a single "reaction" emoji to encapsulate that so I had to post!

I've never heard of a rock cake but your Fat Rascal description reminds of pane del pescatore aka fisherman's bread, also called an Italian scone. The recipe I have from the Il Fornaio Baking Book (available online here) includes the ingredients you mention, including raisins, candied lemon and orange peel in addition to fennel seeds and a splash of Marsala. They often have almonds on top, although my recipe doesn't do that. I think this was the last time I made them. Thanks for the reminder to make them again!

I tend to prefer to chew my calories rather than drink them. Unless there's alcohol involved, that is 🤣 And I love that you often include vegetables in your breakfasts. Years ago, I participated in a research study where we had to eat a LOT of fruit and veg. I soon learned that adding some to my breakfast could help prevent getting to dinner time and needing to eat 4 servings of fruit and 5 vegetables. I need to get back into that breakfast habit! Toasted fruit-nut bread (has dried apricots, figs, cranberries, pecans, hazelnuts and walnuts) spread with homemade whole milk ricotta and topped with beet stems and cranberries pickled in a sweet red wine vinegar brine. Plus a handful of kumquats to ward off scurvy.