blue_dolphin

I posted over in the gardening topic about the teeny tiny oranges my Valencia tree has produced this year. I squeezed some for juice and made these Orange Coconut Yogurt Pops: I was intrigued by a Fany Gerson recipe from Paletas for Mezcal-Orange Ice Pops, dipped in a salt-ground chile mixture. She describes them as reminiscent of Donaji, a traditional Oaxacan drink with mescal and OJ, served in salt and chile rimmed glasses. However, I also had some yogurt to use up so I went in that direction but I used hot honey instead of the called-for maple syrup to get a little chile action going. I also added a few tablespoons of Clement Creole Shrubb for some extra orange flavor. I thought the yogurt might completely mask the chile flavor but it comes through nicely - a surprising little afterburn in the cool pop. The mezcal version is on my list of coming attractions.

I have loads of tiny oranges on my Valencia orange tree. Poor tree. Small fruit is a sign of stress. Partly drought, partly not being fed properly. I'm responsible for the latter but not the former and I partially blame the drought for the lack of feeding as I usually get started when there's a big rain forecast. No big rains around here in years. This one apparently went into a frenzy of trying to reproduce itself before I kill it and is absolutely loaded with these little guys. I thought they'd fall off before they ripened but they hung on. The poor navel tree had hardly any oranges at all. They are around 1.5 - 2 inches in diameter: I picked a bunch and juiced them yesterday. I think I got about 1.5 cups of juice out of 16 oranges. It was fine and orange-y, not bitter. Not as super sweet as some, but the same as the big oranges from the same tree in years past. If they weren't so seedy, I'd try to candy some. They make cute cocktail garnishes. I can make marmalade, though picking out the seeds will annoy me. Anyone have any ideas for fun things to do with tiny oranges?

Wow, @liamsaunt! Those are magnificent photographs of some spectacular-looking food - I certainly hope it tasted as good as it looks! Thanks for sharing.

CSO Story: Recently, I was at a gathering at a friend's home. We were admiring her collection of antique toasters. I mentioned that I didn't have even ONE toaster anymore since I replaced it with the CSO. Another guest perked right up and said, "Did you say CSO? You have one? We just got one, too!" He called over to his wife, "Hey, blue_dolphin has a CSO!" She came right over and the three of us had a long discussion of its marvels. It was like we'd exchanged the secret handshake and recognized each other as fellow members of the CSO society! The others could not comprehend and weren't interested. Their loss. But I will continue to promote membership in the CSO society in hopes that Cuisinart continues to manufacture them. Should I ever need another, I want them readily available!

Two things: Condensation from the steam collects in a small plastic tray that slides in beneath the oven, right under the door. If it's not emptied, it can overflow and leak onto the surface below. I've never seen a microwave with vents on the top, but something to keep in mind. Steam exits from vents that run along the rear of the oven so anything directly above ~ the left half of the oven (cupboards, shelves, hanging storage items) will get a bit of a steam treatment when using that function.

I am looking forward to seeing those molds in use !

Great looking clams and the marrow looks sublime! Bacon, avocado and tomato on toasted sourdough, potato salad and corn. Avocado, corn and tomato all from the local farmers market and all were excellent. True confession: After the photo, the sandwich returned to the kitchen to be cut in half, causing much rearrangement of ingredients with both avocado and mayo squishing through the holes in the toast. A very messy but tasty sandwich was consumed.

I must say that "Bruschetta Bus" conjured offerings rather different from those listed beneath the name. What are Pogos?

Is the corn steamed in the husk or do you peel it off before cooking? When just cooking a few, I usually microwave in the husk for 3 min/ear.

It was just such an appropriate typo for the topic that I had to comment - thanks for the chuckle!

I'm not sure I qualify as a creator of "unique recipes" but if I come up with something different, it's usually driven by a specific special ingredient (fresh seasonal fruit, a special chocolate, etc.) or a flavor combination that I want to highlight. I usually refer first to my cookbook collection, via Eat Your Books, then to the internet to see what looks similar. I evaluate these recipes for technique and scan the rough ratios of the ingredients used. Then I'll either pick one recipe to modify or sometimes a mash-up of several, using simple arithmetic or maybe the "Units" app on my phone to calculate any adjustments. It's pretty rare that I would pull something entirely "unique" out of thin air. I'm more of an editor than an inventor and perhaps that is why I don't quite understand how I would use this tool. Here's an example. You mentioned scones, so I assume they are in scope of the tool. I have some lovely white peaches and would like to make some scones that showcase the peaches and are flavored with fresh rosemary. Would your tool help in this sort of situation? It seems that you are looking for some feedback, some "tough hard questions" but you have been unwilling to define your target audience, a piece of information that would be helpful to to anyone who might test the system. In order to determine if any "bad results" were produced from the tool, it's rather necessary that the tester know what a "good" or "desired" result actually is. If my example above wasn't a good one, would you be willing to take us through your process of creating a recipe so we can understand how your find it useful?

Beautiful garden, @Wayne - love the garlic! I my garden, I'm usually more than two weeds late !

Oh man, I want to eat this sandwich right NOW!

Yes! The ability of that steam-bake function to revive bread is incredible. Ditto for any leftovers with a pastry crust like quiche.

I could do that. I'd avoided it due to the reported long lines but that Shake Shack is less than half a mile from where I get my hair cut so I'll keep that in mind for my next visit.

This thread is making me crave a burger, something that doesn't happen often. When it does, I go to Umami Burger. It's a chain, but a small one and out of scope for this thread because it's not fast either but I like the burgers and I can have a beer, too.

You can refer to the hot honey as "faff" all you want but lay off my PB - no way am I giving that up!

Modifying @liuzhou's breakfast recipe:

Leftover roasted chicken and potato salad with fresh tomato and corn from today's local farmers market. I didn't set out to cut the corn out of the photo, but unfortunately, it deserved it - it was sweet but tough, very disappointing.

A rice salad from leftover coconut brown rice and black beans + TJ's mango salsa, broccoli and lime vinaigrette. Leftover roast chicken thigh. The salad was OK but lacking something. Not sure what, but lacking.

Ahhhh! My favorite time of the year! I am very much looking forward to the resolution of technical difficulties and your reports!

Egg salad on multigrain toast with crumbled bacon. Fresh veg.

Yep, your post is one of several here that I looked to for the method. So nice that it works for you!

Nice looking potatoes! Do you think your helper was digging for the mole, the potatoes or just the love of dirt !

Oh, it was fine. I learned something - preliminary evidence (N = 1 potato and 1 egg) suggests that I can cook the potatoes and eggs together. That should be a time saver. And nothing was wasted, the un-pretty eggs will make me some lovely egg salad sandwiches. It was just sort of comical, going through all these machinations to make few hard cooked eggs for my danged lunch ! Two observations: I put the eggs in a steamer basket instead of the trivet, so maybe that had some effect, keeping them closer together or something. Secondly, in my post, I wrote that the eggs weighed 63 - 67g, suggesting there was a range. Actually, 2 of the eggs were 63 g and 3 + the singleton cooked with the potato were all 67g.