blue_dolphin

Amazon has the Instant Pot silicone sealing ring on sale today for $6.99

I find most value judgements to be very individual and subjective but if one wishes to pay to read the Cooks Illustrated article on these jar spatulas, one can see they tested a bunch of similar offerings and found some too long, too short, too rigid, too flimsy, with handles that separated or were too slippery, some were good for jar corners but not sides and the reverse and some were permanently discolored by red sauce - one reason to buy red ones ! Sadly, they didn't test the brand that you mentioned but I think it pretty much covers what factors differentiate the many similar offerings. I'll also note that when the article was published (March 2015), the top rated jar spatula that @lindag mentioned was $12.95. A $5.95 OXO model and the iSi Basics model ($11.20) were also highly recommended.

Also available from Amazon:link

I bought this one when @Smithy recommended it and it is indeed a keeper. A new-to-me gadget is the wide-mouth canning funnel. I never thought I did enough preserving to warrant the purchase of specialized gear but after another round of painfully cleaning jar tops before sealing, I picked one up at Target. I use that danged thing all the time for transferring dry goods of all sorts from one container to another, etc. I'm sure any sort of wide-mouth funnel would be equally useful. I've only had skinnier ones for liquids.

I misread it the same way last night and had a good laugh!

If you want a hit of fresh jalapeño flavor, you could infuse the vinegar or lemon juice with fresh chopped chilies and strain it before using. I'd be inclined to make a regular mayo and then flavor it as I think that would give you more control of flavor and color. Roast up some fresh jalapeños, peel them to remove the blackened skins, puree then strain or sieve to the smoothness you need and blend that into the finished mayo to get the flavor and color you want.

Yes, this is dessert for breakfast: A small wedge of fig torte, blue cheese, spicy walnuts and black coffee. For dessert, I'd add a little glass of port but that might be a bit much for breakfast, even for me ! Edited to add that the torte was still warm from the oven but I put the plate with torte and cheese in the Cuisi oven on "warm" @ 125F while the coffee brewed - just perfect to take the fridge chill off the cheese.

On a much more homely note... the ubiquitous Marian Burros Torte recipe with little fresh figs instead of plums and a sprinkle of toast dope.

Another recipe from the people's pops cookbook. I used Dapple Dandy pluots from the farmer's market to make the roasted red plum pops. Roasting the fruit makes for a concentrated flavor that is incredibly intense and a texture that is more soft and creamy rather than hard and icy.

Perhaps a few cucumber popsicles ??? Cucumber lime paletas Watermelon & cucumber pops Lemonade cucumber spa pops Cucumber, agave & mint pops Cucumber ice pops with lime and chile Cucumber lime pops with gin Cucumber gin & tonic pops Cucumber coconut lime pops

This morning I halved some Honey Punch pluots from the farmers market, brushed them with honey and lemon juice and broiled them. Toasted ciabatta topped with homemade whole milk ricotta and slices of those still-warm broiled pluots: Summer on toast!

Popsicles are fun and enjoying one or two of them have gotten me through several hot afternoons without turning on the AC but I don't believe they are in any way guilt-worthy ! Today's pops - watermelon & parsley: These are very refreshing. The super sweet yellow watermelon was from the farmers market. The parsley was just chopped and stirred in right before freezing so I was surprised how clearly it came through and the fresh green and slightly bitter flavor was a nice counterpoint to the very sweet watermelon. I've been cutting these recipes in half to make five of these ~2.5oz pops instead of 10. I had almost enough mixture for 6, so I chopped up a bit more watermelon and dropped a few cubes into each mold to bring up the volume.

I understand that corn can be classified as a fruit and would therefore be appropriate to this cook-off so I give you some blackberry & sweet corn popsicles: Sweet silver corn and blackberries from the farmer's market. The recipe is from the people's pops cookbook that I reviewed over in the popsicle thread. Nice contrast between the intense sweet-tart blackberry top layer and the sweet, creamy, more subtle corn flavor in the bottom layer. I will be interested whether or not someone would identify it as corn without knowing in advance. They are cosmetically impared because I got distracted while I had the molds sitting in warm water prior to unfolding so they got sort of melty.

There are still some recipes in Fany Gerson’s Paletas that I haven’t tried and I’ve got lots of other ideas and yet, I bought another popsicle cookbook: people’s pops: 55 recipes for ice pops, shave ice and boozy pops from Brooklyn’s coolest pop shop. A quick search didn’t turn up another mention of this book, so this seems like as good a place as any for my review. Bottom line: It’s a great book for someone looking to explore new, fresh flavors of frozen pops. The subtitle indicates 55 recipes but the book actually includes ideas for many, many more options. I think it’s a book I’ll turn to as much for ideas as for actual recipes. It begins with a bit of background on the people’s pops business, based on using the best fresh, seasonal fruit from local farmer’s markets. They’re in New York City, so there won’t be any recipes for tropical lime-coconut-avocado-pineapple pops. That also means no real overlap with the Mexican flavors in Paletas. Next up are a few pages of "fundamentals” - basics, tips, suggestions for flavor combinations and guidelines for including alcoholic ingredients. I’m not 100% on board with their classification of fruits and other ingredients as “cool” or “warm” and the recommendation to combine cool with cool and warm with warm. I don’t think of ginger as a “cool” ingredient and often find contrasting flavors to be more interesting than similar ones but I like that the authors actively encourage readers to experiment beyond the recipes given. Chapters are organized by season according to the main ingredient and each chapter begins with an intro section that includes a few paragraphs on each fruit with recommendations for choosing and handling that item and suggestions for other ingredients that would work well with it. Likewise, the header text for each recipe often suggests other substitutions or pairings. Every recipe emphasizes the variability of fresh fruit and encourages the cook to taste mixtures for sweetness before freezing. Obviously, the first time through with any recipe, you don’t really know what you are tasting for since the final frozen product usually tastes less sweet than the same ingredients at room temperature but I like the emphasis on tasting rather than just relying on a recipe. Personally, I find it helpful to chill the mixtures down as much as possible before tasting to get a better sense of how the frozen product will taste. While most of the recipes are for frozen pops, there’s also a short section at the end with recipes for shaved ices and syrups. I like the way flavors are combined, infusing herbs or spices into simple syrup or roasting stone fruits to intensify flavor. Some of the recipes that I’d like to try are blueberry & buttermilk, blackberry & lemon verbena, peach & jalapeño, watermelon & parsley, pear, cream & ginger and pumpkin pie with whipped cream. Here’s the result of the first recipe I tried, corn & blackberry pops: They are cosmetically impared because I got distracted while I had the molds sitting in warm water prior to unmolding. Nice contrast between the intense sweet-tart blackberries in the top layer and the sweet, creamy, more subtle corn flavor in the bottom layer. I will be interested whether or not someone would identify it as corn without knowing in advance.

Ahhh, figs and blue cheese - a match made in heaven!

You are correct, the chemical reaction between chlorine and sodium hydroxide produces sodium hypochlorite, sodium chloride and water: Cl2 + 2 NaOH → NaCl + NaClO + H2O Is the presence of NaCl in household bleach a concern for you? From a scientific perspective, I think it's sloppily written. For example, the paragraph that you quoted from has the header, "There is no free chlorine in household bleach." Writing as a scientist, I would never write, "there is no X in Y," when all I really know is that the level of X in Y is below the detection limits of whatever method was used to measure it. That said, I wouldn't automatically conclude dishonesty either. They chose simple language that illustrated their main point that household bleach is not actually "chlorine" bleach - the active ingredient is sodium hypochlorite and while chlorine is used in the manufacturing process, it's not present in the final product. I suppose they could have been more complete by saying, "During this process, all of the chlorine is converted to a sodium hypochlorite solution that also includes water and sodium chloride but it's still going to be a simplification of a single step in the manufacturing process.

Poached eggs on whole wheat English muffins: I don't know why I keep trying whole wheat English muffins. I'm glad there is only one more left.

No need to hang your head if that's the case. This thread is a place to share rockin' recipes and you did exactly that, and inspired a bit of lively discussion as well. I must say that bread sounds very intriguing and the photo on the page that Anna N linked to looks very appealing. I'm interested in giving it a try and seeing if it makes nice toast.

Shrimp roll on a toasted split-top King's Hawaiian roll: Could have gone a little lighter on the mayo-lemon juice dressing but I'm not complaining about the result!

Thanks for mentioning pineapple. I never would have thought to try that. I like the lemon version a lot and plan to mix up another batch after I zest up a bunch of lemons for homemade limoncello tomorrow. Orange was less successful for me, as I mentioned over in the sweets thread. Could have been the oranges I used. They were fresh from my tree but perhaps lacking in some way. The yield was low, the flavor wasn't particularly strong and it tended to separate with an oily top layer after a little time in the fridge. I'm also interested in hearing the experiences of others.

Back in the day, when I worked at McD's - this was quite a while back as we had to use actual arithmetic to add up all the prices, look up the tax on a table (usually memorized) add that in and then count out the change to each customer, figuring in the exchange rate if the customer was paying in Canadian dollars - phew, that was long segue! Anyway, at that time there was no lettuce or tomato on the fish sandwiches. Clearly, that was long, long ago and very far away from where I live now but I've never been served any since at any of the airport locations I've visited. Of course individual franchisees always had a certain amount of flexibility to modify. Back in those dark ages, we always used 1/2 a slice of cheese on each fish sandwich but because of the way the cheese slices broke, it was usually more like 1/3 on some and 2/3 on others. The tartar sauce was dispensed in the same sort of "caulking gun" (remember we're talking way back) as the Big Mac sauce but it was chunkier so the amounts dispensed tended to be more random. The randomness of tartar sauce delivery seems to continue to this day. Edited to add that I restrict my McD's to airports and even then only with significant delays but this is making me want one of their fish sandwiches. And it's not even Lent!

Interesting. I have never been served lettuce or tomato on a McDonald's fish sandwich. The quart of tartar sauce, yes indeed - and usually all applied to one half of the sandwich !

Great idea! I know both @ElsieD and @MetsFan5 mentioned have these and they sounded good but this is a way that I'd actually eat them!

Lunch out with a friend yesterday. I had a panino with grilled salmon, pesto, grilled zucchini ribbons and caramelized onion on focaccia. It was really good. Sorry the blurry phone photo doesn't do it justice. Limoncello gelato for dessert. They make their own. The restaurant is primarily an Italian pastry shop and their pastries are both beautiful and delicious. It is owned by 2 brothers from Tuscany, one of whom recently went to the final round on the "Next Food Network Star" or whatever that silly show is called. I didn't know that until after lunch, which is probably a good thing. In any case, I felt very noble for limiting myself to the gelato but I should at least have taken some photos of the pastry case to share with you. Next time.

@shain, what a perfect meal for a hot summer day - I feel cooler just looking at it!