blue_dolphin

Here's a "Summer Punch" plumcot and an "Emerald Beaut" pluot from the farmers market, brushed with a mix of ginger infused simple syrup and lemon juice, ready for the oven: The Emerald Beaut sort of fell apart during the last few minutes of broiling but still made it on to the plate: toasted multigrain bread, goat cheese and broiled fruit:

@savvysearch, I don't soak candied fruit for fruitcake, assuming it's relatively soft and pliable. If it's very hard and dried out, I would steam it to soften.

That looks really good, @Anna N! I got everything out the other day to make a flatbread with figs and blue cheese, a little prosciutto, maybe a drizzle of balsamic vinegar and handful of baby arugula to finish. Mmmmm. Then I started eating the figs and the cheese and prosciutto. And then the figs were all gone. I will have to try again.

Yes, indeed. My local Total Wine stocks it but @ $37.49 vs $29.99 at TJ's. BevMo is $39.99 and they don't tend to stock it at my local outlet. I see Hi-Time is offering a Sipsmith V.J.O.P. ("Very Junipery Over Proof") @ $51.99, the regular Sipsmith at $33.99 and a Sipsmith Sloe gin @ $45.99.

These are Pear Dark & Stormy pops - I made Dark & Stormy pops last year and thought they would be nice with the fruit base. I cooked and puréed the pear and added Goslings Black Seal rum (bought the 151 proof by mistake - yikes!), ginger beer, lime juice and some ginger-infused simple syrup. Made myself a Dark & Stormy cocktail to sip while I tasted the mixture to adjust the flavors . I had some thin strips of candied lime peel at the ready to represent the lime garnish but I forgot to add them as I was keen to finish my cocktail. A lesson there, I think.

Yes, although if an egg happened to explode, it could make for an annoying mess to clean out of the oven!

I was wondering about the 2/3 dust jacket and how that came to be. I noticed how the acorn and cattail embossing on the covers peek up above the dust jacket and your name stands out above it on the spine. The dust jacket photo is beautiful but the cover is very elegant by itself and I thought perhaps the 2/3 jacket was chosen to draw attention to it. We should probably start another thread for discussion of the book, since this is your thread about bringing it to being but I must say that the book is a feast for the eyes, like a piece of art. It does a beautiful job of communicating your passions for foraging sustainably and cooking with great imagination and exuberance. What a wonderful tribute to the whole community that enabled you to become the chef you are and make your restaurant the special place it was! Congrats!

I remember trying to decide what would be most similar to the "perforated pan" that the oven the linked manual came with and trying various steamer inserts that I had around. If I recall, I put the eggs on this steamer rack and placed it on the oven rack, no pan.

Eggs fresh from the fridge, 21 min on steam at 210 F. Posted here:

My copy just arrived. It's a beautiful, beautiful book. I can't wait to sit down and spend some time with it.

I think going with natural pressure release is probably key as that gives several more minutes at a high temp and pressure and that's all that's needed.

@Shelby, I'll try natural release next time. I suspect that bit of extra time will do the trick. @rotuts, I did chill them and they peeled OK. It probably doesn't show up in the picture, but the centers of the yolks were fairly liquid - maybe "pourable gel" would be correct. Even though I like them a little more cooked, they are nice deep gold colored yolks, aren't they ? I put the yolks in a custard cup, covered with foil and put them back in the IP for 2 min and they are now easier to mush up for my egg salad.

@rotuts breakfast post made me want some egg salad and I decided I should give the IP another try. Four farmers market large eggs, straight from the fridge. 1.5 cups of water in the IP. Eggs sitting on trivet. 5 min high pressure, quick release, chill in ice water: I prefer the yolks more cooked than this for "hard boiled" I may try one more time, but I can make great hard cooked eggs by steaming them on the stove top or in the Cuisi steam oven so perhaps I should be happy with those methods. I don't really need to cook everything in the IP !

Looks like another beautiful day! Since St. Pierre et Miquelon is a French colony, is there any sort of passport control when you get on/off the ferry?

Consider trying steam-bake instead of steam broil for your asparagus so they'll get heat from both top and bottom. I was happy with texture and flavor I got from asparagus cooked that way. Generally ~ 10 min steam-bake @ 425 F, no preheat for skinny spears, a bit longer for fat ones. I was going for good roasted flavor, there was some browning but I wasn't specifically looking for a lot of char, so it may not be what you want. I was impressed that I was able to get a nice roast on the skinny spears without turning them into jerky ! edited to add: you can see the "color" or lack thereof on skinny spears in this post

My local Total Wine only carries the regular Small Hand tonic syrup. I've used it with great success for the frozen G&T's that @rustwood mentioned - they are very refreshing! I'll keep an eye out for the other Small Hand tonic Have you tried it?

My new vocabulary words for today: touton and (from the menu) brewis Also, it's 85 F inside but I'm too lazy to go around and close the windows and crank up the AC when I know it's already cooling down, so I am virtually dipping my toes in some of that 5-6 C Newfoundland water. Thank you, @ElsieD!

Yes.....and put lots of bacon in your spinach salad.

It's just the other side of the media hype that certain foods (red meat, butter, fat, sugar, fill-in-the-blank) will kill you.

I have hard water too. I've gotten stuff burned on but so far nothing an overnight soak and a final scrub with Barkeepers Friend couldn't fix.

And yet, you lived to tell the tale !

I usually use a spouted measuring cup or the blender jar (the Blendtec small Twister jar is perfect as it has an elongated spout that almost perfectly matches the width of the molds) unless the mixture is quite viscous, in which case I scoop it into a zip-top freezer bag and cut off a corner to use it like a piping bag, as @Tri2Cook suggested. I have the same 10-pop mold that you do, @MelissaH. I found it sometimes difficult to remove the lid, especially if I accidentally nudged the sticks in a way that they were no longer parallel and frozen in slightly different directions. So I skip the lid and freeze until the mixture is slushy enough to support the sticks (usually 30 - 45 min or so) before sticking them in. This method does run the risk of having the mixture frozen solid with no sticks if you forget. So far, that hasn't happened to me, although there was a very close call with last night's peanut butter and banana pops - timers are good! I keep a small cookie sheet in the freezer because it helps keep the mold level on the wire shelf and then it's pre-chilled and ready to place the unmolded pops on. When I remove the mold from the freezer, the cookie sheet comes along and gets a fresh sheet of waxed paper on top. I have a rectangular plastic container about the size of the mold that I fill with tepid tap water so that the filled mold parts can be immersed until I can pull a pop out. Usually 10-20 sec, though it varies a lot. Boozy pops thaw quick. I used to run hot water over the molds but I was afraid I was using too much water so I switched to this method, then I can take the water outside and water plants. As soon as I can get a pop to move, I put the mold on the counter next to the chilled, waxed paper topped cookie sheet, quickly remove all the pops and put them on the waxed paper and put them back into the freezer. After they've firmed back up, I transfer the individual pops to snack-sized zip-top bags and toss them into a bigger freezer bag. I used to do sort of the same thing you did, folding the waxed paper over the pops and then folding the pops up accordion-style and placing the package in a larger bag. I hate the waste of the individual bags but it's easier for giving them away or serving to a group and results in less freezer-burn. When I eat one at home, I rinse out the bags, dry and reuse them. I usually give the sticks a quick rinse before I use them and check for loose splinters but I haven't done any soaking comparisons.

What kind of pluots did you get, @ProfessionalHobbit? And what do you plan to do with your stone fruits? I bought "Emerald Beaut" pluots and "Summer Punch" plumcots at the farmers market this week. Not a ton, just 6 of each. Plus a few "Oh Henry" peaches. Haven't decided how to use them yet. Also got strawberries, lemons, limes, eggs and avocados.

The recipe I linked to calls for 7 bananas to make 10 pops. I used 4 bananas and got 7 pops. You could easily start with 2 bananas and make a few pops to play with the recipe.

Banana popsicles would be fun to play with. I was thinking mango and coconut would be a good addition instead of the peanut butter. Or strawberries....or Nutella....