blue_dolphin

I've also had good success with the pot-in-pot method for small amounts of rice. For a cup of rice, I use a glass pyrex bowl. Back in this post, I also tried a small volume (~1/4 cup) of TJ's brown rice medley in a small Corningware dish. Both containers were placed in the pot uncovered and in both cases, I rinsed, but did not soak the rice, and used an equal volume of rice and water (plus 2 cups of water in the pot) and the same cooking times I use for larger volumes (for this brown rice, I use 23 minutes, manual, high pressure.) Picture from the old post showing the 1/4 cup rice + water ready to go into the IP on the left and the 1 cup volume already cooked in the pyrex bowl on the right.

I think the percentage will vary depending on the heat stability of the nutrient being measured, the cooking time and temp and characteristics of the vegetable that would encourage plant fluids to either "leak" into the cooking liquid or be retained in the vegetable. Exactly. As this article concludes, "Vegetables, pretty much any way you prepare them, are good for you,..."

You're on the right track. Cooking with less water, for a shorter time will preserve more nutrients so steaming is better than boiling and microwaving (with little added water) is even better.

Did your emails to them bounce back? They have a Facebook page with recent posts that lists this phone #: (802) 365-1056

My understanding is that the benefits would accrue primarily to the food service industry as it would enable them to package those bagged sliced apples without relying on the more expensive inert gas packaging that @Lisa Shock mentioned. Cut apple slices for restaurant salads or buffets could be prepared hours ahead without the need to bathe them in acidulated water or the like that affects flavor. The slices will still dry out, shrivel, lose their fresh appearance and eventually rot so the benefit is likely in terms of hours to a day for restaurants and days to weeks for packaged sliced fruits. The company also says that the non-browning apples won't display the superficial bruising that occurs during picking and packing and they promote that as a benefit to farmers, wholesalers and stores who currently suffer losses due to blemished fruit. It's not going to prevent fruit damage caused by hail and harsh weather, insects, fungus, or other diseases. The company, Okanagan Specialty Fruits, already has varieties of these GMO non-browning apples approved for sale in the US, the "Arctic Golden" variety of Golden Delicious and the "Arctic Granny" variety of Granny Smith but there's been significant anti-GMO backlash against them resulting in several companies who sell lots of those pre-sliced apples (McDonalds, Wendy's, Gerber, others) pledging not to use them. Several apple growing groups have expressed concerns that if production of GMO apples becomes widespread, other countries may ban import of all US apples.

Reading @chefmd and @rotuts comments about dried kalamata olives over on the TJ's thread made me want to open up the packet I bought yesterday. So breakfast was this plate of nibbles: Grape tomatoes, toasted ciabatta, Greek sheep's milk feta and those olives.

A breakfast that just hits the spot is the very best kind! Case in point: : Po yegg.

There was a mention of the M&M flavors over in this thread where @BeeZee had the chance to taste and report back. I often look for them if I'm waiting in check-out lines but haven't seen any of the special flavors. I think I'd like the coffee version and the butterscotch would be fun to put in Halloween cookies. Perhaps a more thorough search is warranted in my area !

I can vouch for the Zuni Café recipe that @Anna N mentioned. I tried it on her recommendation a while back and I really liked the crisp texture of the onions and the sweet-sour flavor. It's a bit fiddly (plan your work-flow better than I did to avoid dripping sweet brine all over your kitchen ), but the end result is worth it. For something a bit quicker, I made this recipe for Yucatán-Style Pickled Red Onions in Sour-Orange Juice when it appeared on Serious Eats a few months ago and I really enjoyed the citrus flavors in pulled pork sandwiches and quesadillas.

Polenta crostini platter ! Three diamond shapes with tapenade and sharp cheddar cheese. Two little triangles with goat cheese and a dab of plum and ginger jam.

I'm not sure it's foraging, since I just went out my front door and snipped these off a plant in my front yard but here is my harvest of agave buds: About 1/3 of a cup. I will be following the recipe for pickled agave buds from @gfron1's book, Acorns & Cattails. These are from a plant that was sold to me as Agave celsii 'nova' (I believe Agave mitis is the current nomenclature). It started sending up a primary bloom stalk in Feb 2015 and has sent up a few smaller stalks since then. I'm surprised it has lived this long after blooming but I think it's on its last legs and I'm not expecting any of my other agaves to bloom for quite a few years so I figured I should give these guys a try while I have the chance.

Congratulations on your twins, @rotuts! It appears they are fraternal twins, not quite identical !

Pulled out the grill pan this AM for grilled polenta and farmers market O'Henry peaches: A little goat cheese, a tiny drizzle of warm maple syrup and fresh thyme.

I was a vegetarian (lacto-ovo) for around 30 years, mostly because I never cared much for making meat the center of a meal so a meat substitute would have had no appeal to me. Unless maybe it tasted like really, really good bacon !

Greens sautéed with a little garlic, topped with squares of baked polenta and blue cheese: I put a little prosciutto in the polenta when I cooked it up the other day.

Since I love fruit popsicles, I've gotten a lot out of that book and highly recommend it but I think there is much to be gained from seeking info from many sources and I'm glad that you've found a source that's most helpful to you. Do share your experiences if you try the Serious Eats fudgsicles that you posted about upthread. Fudgsicles aren't generally my thing but if I could make one that tasted like the old Swensen's Swiss Orange Chip ice cream.....mmmmm....that might be nice !

I added some coconut oil to the melted chocolate as described here, 1 oz/4 oz chocolate, so I'd get a thinner shell. After unmolding, I put the pops back in the freezer on a wax paper covered baking sheet. Then I dipped them in the chocolate, immediately into the chopped nuts. Once they were all dipped, they went back in the freezer. Edited to add that the recipe I linked to for the pops just calls for dipping into melted chocolate and I'm sure that would work fine as well.

Thanks for that reminder, @Anna N. I noticed my "savory" gasket, now fits rather loosely compared with the "sweet" gasket that I use infrequently. I should probably get another back-up.

Thank you! I'd been meaning to try that basil vinaigrette (I think you mentioned it not long ago) and wasn't sure that breakfast was the right time, but I enjoyed it.

Fried polenta, farmers market tomato and poached egg on baby greens, topped with basil vinaigrette (David Lebovitz version):

What sort of quantities of these iced desserts do you plan to produce? How will the project be held, distributed and served? Is your freezer access limited to freezing fruit or can you also hold finished product in it? I ask because, in my very limited experience, it takes a lot of processor or blender power to crank frozen fruits into "ice cream" like the popular frozen banana stuff and you could probably produce more product by blending the fruit with your planned flavoring a and then freezing it.

According to this local Gilroy news article, McDonald's is sourcing the garlic from Christopher Ranch, so it is local to the area. It says the recipe was offered as a Garlic Festival special at one McD's location in Gilroy, sold out and was eventually expanded to most of the Bay Area McD's. It also says the fries are made to order by tossing the cooked fries with a purée of garlic, olive oil, parmesan cheese, parsley and salt. I would expect them to get soggy quickly. A video of someone tasting them showed them being served with a fork. ETA: As @Shel_B said above

These are the plum, yogurt and tarragon pops from the people's pops cookbook made with Dapple Dandy pluots from the farmers market. After unmolding, I dipped some tarragon leaves into the tarragon-infused simple syrup used in the pops and stuck them on. If they turn black and look ugly, I'll have to peel them off.

A cooler morning today so Instant Pot polenta with slow roasted tomato sauce and parmesan cheese: There was going to be an egg on it but I decided this was sufficient.

@Franci, welcome to the CSO club - and congrats on getting a great price! One thing to consider if you decide on this route... ...is to keep an eye on the little drip drawer/tray that slides in underneath the oven to catch condensed steam. I've noticed that long cook times + steam, particularly at lower temps, can result in enough condensation to overflow the tray. No disaster occurs, it just leaks water out on to the counter but it can be a slip hazard if it drips on to the floor or ruin a nearby cookbook, so best to be aware.