blue_dolphin

Just returned from a late breakfast with my cousins - waffles, sausage, fresh raspberries, OJ and coffee, all served out on the patio while we watched the hummingbirds flit around in the sunshine. Temp ~ 75F. I'll spare you any photos.

I usually cook smaller volumes of rice (1 cup or less of raw rice) so I use the pot in pot method - no mess to clean.

Thank you so much for taking the time to pull all of this together and share it with us. I very much enjoyed it. I've always wanted to visit India, ideally with some of my Indian friends and you've provided me with further encouragement!

I wondered about that. I use it for cocoa and ground cinnamon so I thought it might be OK but I guess not. With Diamond Crystal Kosher salt, only the fine bits came through.

If you put fine salt into a small hinged tea infuser like this one, it's fairly easy to tap the handle with your finger and dispense a very light sprinkling of salt. I have the 1.5 inch diameter version and it worked OK when I tried it with salt.

I would like to clarify my comments about the font and text backgrounds for this book. The issue with the black text on a red background is confined to the introduction section and is used on half or 5 of the 10 text pages in that section. The rest of the book is all black on white and while on the small side, is generally readable. I stand by my comment about the fractions needing some scrutiny. I'm not sure if including my fingertip here helps provide any scale or not but here you go: And here is that pictured recipe as made by me: It's not summer but it is a lovely sunny day with temps in the mid-70s and it was a quick and easy recipe to try. Honestly, in these parts, arugula tends to bolt when it gets hot so I'd probably be more likely to use it to add a little sunshine whenever the arugula looks good. This one is from the River Café and appears in one or more of their cookbooks. Here's a version from a blogger that seems pretty close to the book. I used Trader Joe's lemon pepper pappardelle and it was a good choice. I wasn't sure about a creamy-lemon/lemony-cream sauce but the peppery arugula and pasta offer a good contrast. I enjoyed it and will make it again. No cooking, aside from the pasta - just mix everything in a bowl while the pasta cooks and then toss it all together. I think it would be great with some sautéed scallops or shrimp but it's nice as is.

Pasta with broccoli, spicy Italian sausage and lots of thinly sliced garlic, all topped with a blizzard of grated Romano cheese The photo was taken early in the storm, drifts did eventually build up in the bowl. There was also a glass of the Ghost Pines Zin I purchased on the recommendation of @JoNorvelleWalker, I believe. And repurchased based on my own enjoyment of it.

Perhaps I didn't use the correct ammunition, but I clearly hit my target !

Have you tried these yet? I saw them yesterday was was surprised that those are shelf-stable pouches. Although every palm heart I've had has come from a can, when I saw your photo, I wrongly assumed they were a refrigerated or freezer item. Link to TJ's info page.

I am back to report that I purchased a copy of Dorie's Waffles: from Morning to Midnight. It's out of print but there are a lot of used copies on Amazon for a penny. I picked a hardcover and it's the nice spiral-bound type that opens flat on the kitchen counter. I don't even have a waffle iron and fully expected to read through it for fun and then hand it off to my cousin who makes waffles often. No dice - the combination of so many interesting recipes, Dorie's recommendations that they freeze beautifully and my possession of the perfect tool for reheating them (my CSO , of course) means I am now in the market for a waffle iron. I will peruse the thrifts for a while before shelling out for a new one. What piqued my interest appetite? Curried waffle club sandwiches with chutney mayo! Smoked salmon and dill waffles with scallion cream cheese! Scallion waffles flavored with ginger, garlic, chili paste and sesame with sesame chicken salad! Mashed potato waffles with garlic-rosemary oil! New England clam-hash waffles! Polenta waffles with creamy goat cheese sauce! A list of the recipe titles and ingredients is here on EYB. Edited to add: Thank you, @Nancy in Pátzcuaro!

Please do share your thoughts on the book when you've had time to give it a good once over. I think there are several of us interested.

Yes, it's possible to read Kindle books in a browser window with Kindle Cloud Reader.

I was surprised by that as well, @FrogPrincesse. Particularly the part about drawing the juices out. Seems rather the reverse to me, sous vide really helps produce a moist tenderloin.

As a big fan of this book, I was delighted to read that Deep Run Roots was nominated for 4 IACP awards - nice! The categories in which the book was nominated are American, First Book, General and Chefs & Restaurants. The full announcement with all categories and nominees can be accessed here.

Not exactly your words, and not an ancient Chinese authority, but this is what Bruce Cost said in his Asian Ingredients book (1988), under Spice Mixtures:

I've had this book for a few days now and thought I would share a few comments. Not a true review. I haven't read though everything but I've enjoyed what I have read thus far. I haven't cooked anything from it yet either. Restaurant or "chef" cookbooks aren't really my thing so I didn't necessarily expect that I would cook from it but I'm pleasantly surprised that there are quite a few recipes that I intend to try. We didn't get off on the right foot, this book and I. Having happily selected it for some bedtime reading, I was thwarted by the rather small font and the choice to print half of the intro pages in black on red which forced me to alternate between reading a pleasurable page and struggling to hold the book in a way that avoided glare but was still close enough for me to read the small print. I made it through the ~ 10 page intro but was more annoyed than intrigued. I'm nearsighted and rarely have issues with small print but I will need to find a magnifying glass if I decide to attempt any of the recipes that call for fractional measures as I really can't make them out at all, even in bright daylight. For round 2, I decided to change tactics and start at the back of the book and check out the cocktails chapter. Maybe mix one up to enjoy. I was disappointed to find that the first 5 and overall, half of the cocktails are vodka drinks. I guess that's what people like. To be fair, the Super Bloody Mary from Andina contains at least 16 other ingredients beside the vodka (preferably oak smoked) so it's not uninteresting but nothing I could whip up quickly - not sure where to procure the birch sap for the Birch Sap Old Fashioned either. Unlike the other recipes, most of the cocktails lack much in the way of header notes which makes the chapter seem a bit of an afterthought. On to round 3. The book is organized more or less conventionally into sections for starters or "light fare," soups, starches (pasta, rice & grains), veg (more like vegetarian entrées than vegetable sides), fish, fowl, meat, 2 dessert chapters and a short cocktails chapter bringing up the rear. A number of the chefs/restaurant owners have already published their own cookbooks that include the same recipes and others appear in online newspaper columns and the like. That's not an issue for me, but if you are a collector of London restaurant cookbooks, you might be disappointed by the repetition. There isn't any intro text to the chapters but each recipe includes nicely written header notes. There's no particular pattern - some are lengthy, others short and they focus randomly on the restaurant, its neighborhood, the owner, the chef, an individual ingredient or one of the author's related memories. There are nice photos of some, but not all dishes and photos of various restaurant kitchens, interiors and neighborhoods. Measurements are in the conventional US cups and spoons. The author says she has indicated weights where it's important but there aren't many examples of that. Most but not all of the recipes serve 2-4 people so they are home-kitchen friendly. Most ingredients are accessible. Some could be specified more clearly. For example: "1 or 2 red chilies" OK. I can take a guess. The header notes say it's a "fiery winter soup" so it's probably a hot chile and the recipe says to dice it so it must be fresh but I'd like to know what's used in the original dish or, barring that, what was used in testing the recipe. A couple of recipes call for fresh Spanish chorizo which is removed from the casings and crumbled. That's not something I've seen before but there isn't any suggestion for sourcing or substitution. On the other hand, there's a very nice set of notes on possible substitutions for the 5 different cheeses used in the fondue recipe. I imagine it is quite a challenge to assemble recipes from so many sources, test them all and put them into a fairly consistent format. Very minor quibbles here but a bit more attention to detail might have been helpful. For example, there is a recipe for pasta with chicken livers from Giorgio Locatelli at Locanda Locatelli in which we are told that success depends on following the instructions precisely. After making and straining a butter sauce, we are told to set it aside someplace warm yet it is never specifically called for again. The next sentence tells us to warm oil "in a sauté pan over ." Over what? I can connect the dots but if I'm told to follow instructions precisely, then please give me precise instructions. Header notes in a dessert recipe refer to a lemon curd recipe on page 197. It's actually on page 254. Very minor, but it makes me wonder if other errors have slipped through. The author says the recipes are meant to be cooked with confidence and pleasure but those little errors will nibble at my confidence until I've tried a few recipes successfully. I will report back.

I'm sorry to hear that Lynne Rosetto Kasper is retiring from The Splendid Table. Sounds like she will go part-time from March through the end of 2017 so we'll get to hear her voice for a while longer. Not to mention the fact that they often re-run shows and segments. Still, kind of the end of an era Francis Lam is taking over as host of the show.

Leftovers from yesterday's Baked Romanesco Broccoli With Mozzarella and Olives topped with a poached egg

And there's this.....when I quizzed my friends about home automation: Wife: Oh it's great! We can turn up the heat or music or the lights Husband: Well, not the lights Wife: What do you mean, "not the lights"? Husband: Well, I forgot the password for the lightbulb.

Neither Amazon Fresh nor Instacart are available in my area yet. Amazon queried my address book when I logged in to see if Fresh was in my area so I learned it's available for my friends about 15 miles to the east of me and also 12 miles northwest, so perhaps there is hope. A while back, I was especially intrigued by the option of using Instacart to get items from Costco but no dice for me out here in suburbia-land.

What are SSB's? They have quite a bit of sodium but not as much as Tater Tots do They may be frozen and contain vegetables but they are a highly processed product. As are potato chips. I eat them but don't consider them a vegetable.

If the texture of the very well-cooked veg is off-putting, you might consider turning them into soup, using Gordon Ramsay's broccoli soup that was shared here a few years ago as a template. You just cook the veg in salted water and purée it in the blender with the amount of cooking liquid that you choose. I've done the same thing with a number of different vegetables and it's easy enough to whiz up just a single serving. If you are cooking veg for others, just scoop theirs out and let yours cook a bit longer, as you need. I like to finish off my bowl with a bit of goat cheese or a dollop of yogurt that would be out of bounds for you but you might add a sprinkle of smoked paprika and of course, have it with a crisp slice of toasted ciabatta or sourdough.

Host's note: this topic is broken into segments to improve server efficiency. The previous segment is here. This is the Baked Romanesco Broccoli With Mozzarella and Olives from the NY Times. @kayb recently posted her cauliflower adaptation over here on the dinner thread where she declared the recipe a keeper and I agree. I picked up a head of Romanesco broccoli at last week's farmers market for this purpose. I didn't add any additional salt but with the olives, anchovies, capers and pecorino Romano cheese, it was plenty salty enough to perk up a few slices of chicken breast. Edited to add that the other thing I did differently was to briefly microwave the broccoli (instead of blanching in salted water) then tossed it with the olive, anchovy, caper, red pepper, olive oil mixture instead of drizzling that over the top.

I confess that this thread makes me want a freezer. I have a side-by-side fridge with annoyingly narrow little shelves and a space-hog ice maker. Still, that should be plenty for someone who lives alone. More than plenty. And yet, I want more. Specifically, I'm looking for one pre-filled with ham bones, duck confit, smoked chicken legs, pork shoulder roasts and plenty of shrimp and scallops.....

The worst part of finding all that bacon stuff is that yesterday was my bacon-loving brother's birthday. If only I'd seen it a few days earlier! Oh well, there's always next year.....