blue_dolphin

@shain, what are the little circular things? Is that the pasta? Looks like Cheerios, but I'm pretty sure it's not

That country ham section is interesting. Not something we see around here. Always fun to see regional differences. On the most recent episode of A Chef's Life, "Heavenly Hocks," Vivian takes us to her local Piggly Wiggly where there is an entire aisle of cryovac packets of smoked, salted or dried pig parts - aka "seasoning meat." We get a few such bits and pieces but nothing like the selection they have. Thanks for sharing your finds!

Walking through my local farmers market today, I recall seeing Asian pears, apples, persimmons, pomegranates fresh ginger and several types of guava. I bought some figs and there were some blueberries and raspberries, but expensive. I would think you could source local herbs for things like rosemary, sage or lemon verbena jellies. Not local, but certainly seasonal through the holidays and pretty are cranberries.

You are right, they are small - half the size of the 8 ounce jars that I use for my jam-eating friends - though I don't know anyone who's used a full 4 oz of jam on one piece of toast! If I'm not sure they will like it or I want to give a variety of flavors, especially with more unusual flavor combinations, I find these handy. I have some friends who don't eat much jam but appreciate having some of my little jars on hand to put out when they have house guests.

The little 4 oz quilted jars are a little more expensive ($9.87/dozen currently on Amazon) but you'd be able to make twice as many jars. I like using these little guys for gifts as I can put several flavors into a gift bag.

Should you decide to do this on your return flight, the food at SEA is not as overpriced as many airports - the airport outposts of local restaurants charge the same prices as in town. You can grab something to go from Beecher's, Ivar's or Dish D'Dlish or if you have time to kill, Anthony's has a sit-down restaurant where you can enjoy a local brew, fish & chips or something from their menu (the salmon burger used to be my guilty pleasure) with a view of the runways. Not food-related, but fun is the Fireworks location in the airport if you need last minute gifts to haul home.

I use the Unicorn Magnum as well. I agree with what @Toliver said upthread about needing to re-tighten the screw to maintain the finest grind but I've gotten used to that.

I bought the Cambazola for those Gabrielle Hamilton celery cocktail toasts we both made. Not one of my usual cheeses but it gets all buttery-melty on a piece of warm, toasted bread in the nicest way! That Elbow Lick Tomato Sandwich from Deep Run Roots called for a quick pickled red onion and I've been making tiny little amounts (a few thin slices of onion and just enough brine to cover) but I really should take the time for a bigger batch of the Zuni Café onions that you recommended. A bit fiddly, but worth it.

Toasted ciabatta, Cambazola cheese, cubes of roasted delicata squash, pickled red onion and a drizzle of maple syrup.

I'm not much of a dinner eater but I needed something to go with all my wine and whining. A salad with roasted delicata squash, fresh apple, dried tart cherries, pickled red onion, sweet-spicy pecans, blue cheese and sliced sous vide chicken breast. Dressing was a maple Dijon vinaigrette. And there was wine.

Here in California as well. Nevada, too, but not AZ. Sounds like Maine is a toss up.

I'm delighted the new iteration of the Princessmobile is on the road and I look forward to whatever you can share of your adventures. Save travels!

In the chapter on oysters, there's a recipe for Fried Popcorn Oysters and Kitchen-Sink Mayo. The oysters get a panko and cornmeal coating and are served with a mayo with more ingredients than you can shake a stick at. I don't see any oysters in my near future but decided the panko breaded calamari I picked up at Trader Joe's yesterday would be a fine alternate. First, I prepared the garlic confit. Only a tablespoon of this confit was needed for the mayo but I have plans for the rest. Next, I assembled the rest of the ingredients. The little measuring cup contains lemon juice and the blue-topped container has anchovies. The kitchen sink is just out of the frame to the left Edited to add that while I was assembling the above, I was joined in my small kitchen by 3 playful kittens and 2 adult cats, all circling my feet, no doubt attracted by the alluring aroma of anchovy! Also, the recipe instructs to blend everything except the vegetable oil in the blender and then transfer to a food processor to slowly add the oil. I understand the rationale as the initial small volume would not blend to smoothness in a larger food processor but the processor is excellent at adding oil slowly. My small processor bowl is usually my choice for a one-egg mayo but I've made good mayo in my Blendtec Twister jar so that's what I used. The result is thick and silky smooth. The recipe says it makes 1.5 cups, my yield was a little over 2 cups. And the finished product: That mayo is tasty stuff. I would like to try it with oysters but I'm not complaining about the calamari. Edited to add that I'd also like to try it on French fries. Or maybe anything fried.. Or maybe anything....there are more calamari in the fridge, but really? No!

@FrogPrincesse recently posted about the tiny Two Bite One Chip cookies from the book. Today, David Lebovitz covers the other end of the size spectrum and features the giant Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie Bars, baked in a cast iron skillet. I still haven't baked any cookies from the book. I need a clear plan for getting them out of my house fairly soon after baking. When I was working, that was easy but now, I need to strategize .

I also don't think 60C for 60 min was too much. I've done some stuffed, rolled chicken breasts. After measuring the diameter of the cylinders at their widest, consulting the pasteurization tables from Baldwin, and adding a little extra time in case I'd left any air pockets in the rolls that would slow temp transfer, I came up with a cook time of around 3.5 hrs @ 60C. I just browned the outside in a bit of butter or sliced them to use on sandwiches. Either way, the chicken wasn't dry. Ham & cheese here: Pesto here:

Do post back with your opinion, @NWKate. I say they're not as good as deep fried, perfectly coated with a light batter but they're not chewy old rubber bands, either.

Yes, one and the same. Mine turned red earlier than usual this year. I used a recipe from Kevin West's "Saving the Season" and posted about it over on the preserving thread: Click

I spotted a new TJ's item today and decided to check it out. Panko Breaded Calamari from the freezer case. I believe the price was $3.99 for the 1 lb box. On the plate with limes and some of TJ's Sriracha Ranch Dressing as a dipping sauce. I was going to mix up something more interesting but I was getting hangry so I went with what was at hand and rather messily squirted it into the dish. I gave them 9 min @ 450F on steam bake in the CSO, flipped them over for 2 more min @ 450F, convection bake. They are quite nice. The breading is very crunchy and the calamari has the appropriate chewy but tender texture. I tried to pick out a representative sampling for my first round. Some rings are sort of squished together, rather than open rings but they tasted fine, no doughy globs in the middle or anything like that. The main difference between the photo on the box and the actual product is the tentacle pieces, which are understandably difficult to coat with a breading vs a batter so some are splayed out but don't have much coating like the specimen at 6 o'clock on my plate and others are folded up like a hand with fingers together, as you can see in the piece at 5 o'clock. The splayed out but uncoated tentacles did get a bit chewy. The other one was less aesthetically pleasing but didn't get over cooked and had good texture. The box says there are five 85g servings. What you see on my plate was closer to 120g and I could probably eat twice that amount. And I may, as I'm tempted to put some more into the oven. I can't find these on the TJ's website so here's the label info:

This thread got me thinking of making some scones so I pulled up my go-to recipe from Luna Cafe: The best scones in the entire universe, and noticed that it includes some storage suggestions that may be useful, depending on what kitchen facilities you will have at your disposal. This last bit, from the same source, won't help you with your query but it beautifully encapsulates my ideal scone experience:

Here's a review of Deep Run Roots from the Washington Post. The reviewer discusses and includes recipes for Apple, Scallion and Oyster Ceviche, Blueberry-Rosemary Breakfast Pudding, Marinated Turnips With Orange and Pumpkin Seeds and Scarlett’s Chicken and Rice.

I say the presence of fresh duck eggs suggests you need to delete one "sad" from that abode rating. Small slice of toasted multigrain bread with vanilla pecan butter and sliced apple. More apple & pecan butter for dipping.

Sounds like the OP should have no problems with baking a day ahead if his scones are also such good keepers - and plenty of time to pilot out the storage conditions to verify it. My experience is that the charm of a freshly baked scone diminishes more significantly over the course of a day than something like a quick bread.

Painfull, indeed. But just to clarify a bit, the one that I linked to is priced at $9.22 on .com and $13.66 on .ca. That's a increase beyond the straight exchange rate, which would be $12.36, but not quite double. The JB Prince version that @gfweb linked was priced lower at $7.60 but there was an additional $7.50 shipping charge and I couldn't find it on .ca. At this point, I have the corn peeler, 2 aluminum sizzle platters, an iSi "scraper" dealie and a Joseph Joseph scoop colander in my cart. I'm waffling on the Swiss star peeler. Thank you @gfweb, for my holiday gifts to me !

In my opinion, scones become sad shadows of themselves within a day. I'd go with a muffin or quick bread