blue_dolphin

With respect to the kitchen appliances, I'm afraid the manufacturers know their customers all too well. The house next door, built in the early 1960s, had still functioning original or '70s appliances when it was sold by the family of the original owner a couple of years ago. In 2 years, all the kitchen appliances have been replaced TWICE. Once with basic white models by someone doing a "mini-flip" of the property and again with stainless steel models installed immediately after closing by the current owners. Of course there are consumers who expect something that falls into the category of "durable goods" to be...well....durable but when there's no shortage of buyers with an itch to "update" on a regular basis, I can't fault only the manufacturers for substituting cheaper parts and pocketing higher profits.

I did a search for poultry shops in my area and came up with Whole Foods and Healthy Pet pet shop !

Also a small article on the NYT site: Dog Meat and Lychees: A Pairing Meant to Make You Feel Warm Inside Edited to add link to a longer 2015 article: Chinese City Defends Dog Meat Festival, Despite Scorn

Or maybe a ranchise owner(s) with McD stores (and the necessary distribution network) in both MA or CT AND the Albany area. VT's another landlocked area that's listed in the McD's lobster roll press release. I'm planning a trip that will involve flying into either ALB or BTV and will be on the lookout for McD lobster rolls.

@HungryChris tried one last year. Edited to add that I realize now that you were asking about the current incarnation, not last year's model. Also commenting that the Albany NY market seems a curious one for the lobster roll (from someone who was born there and grew up in northern NY with nary a lobster in sight)

@kayb, kudos to you for tackling dinner prep while you are stuck in a chair. Reminds me how inaccessible the average kitchen is to someone in a wheelchair. I think I'd be relying on my phone to order delivery - and in this area, that would be pretty much limited to pizza! Talk about pictures worth a thousand words - this one is hilarious and your daughter's expression is priceless!

Leftovers from a lunch I hosted yesterday. Pulled pork, spinach and caramelized onion quesadilla, TJ's mango-jicama slaw, TJ's mango salsa and my pickled onions. Once again, the Cuisi steam oven does an amazing job of reheating something that I would ordinarily have tossed out.

Two more mango mania items from TJ's. Both very good. I found the frozen mango salsa in the freezer section with frozen Mexican entrees. This is very good - way better than the jarred mango/pineapple "Island Salsa" that suffered from mealy textured mango. As a single eater, I really liked the way the ingredients are individually frozen so it's possible to remove just a portion and leave the rest frozen. Flavors are very fresh, the texture is good and it packs a nice little kick. It was $2.99. I can imagine using it in a lot of ways and it would be worth keeping on hand when good, fresh mangos are hard to come by. I also tried the mango jicama slaw from the refrigerated section. It was $4.99 for a 3-serving tub, sort of a racket for a slaw-type product but I'd heard good recommendations and thought I'd get some and see if it's worth trying to make my own version. The lime-mango vinaigrette is packed in a small pouch at the bottom of the container and the other ingredients layered on top. The vinaigrette is very tasty, much nicer (to me) than the bottled Sweet & Spicy Mango Vinaigrette that TJ is also selling. I liked it enough that I went back for a second container rather than making my own for lunch I hosted yesterday.

To be clear, this is certainly not Ricotta Infornato al Limone although it involves ricotta, limone and a forno (a Cuisinart toaster forno, to be specific ) A few weeks ago, I made some baked ricotta with lemon and rosemary, similar to this that was flavored with lemon zest, garlic and fresh rosemary. It got great reviews and a lot of recipe requests from my friends. I was wondering what a slightly sweet version would be like and was thinking of using lemon zest, rosemary and bit of honey, then remembered I had some lemon-rosemary marmalade in the fridge so I used a spoon of that and some fresh chopped rosemary. I'd ordinarily serve separate pots of ricotta and jam but combining the flavors like this does make it into something else, something a little special, especially when served warm from the toaster-forno! If you start with a nice ricotta, I think you could mix in most anything you fancy and end up with a good result.

This is great! I have taken much inspiration from your posts in the past. Especially with regard to scaling recipes down and treating myself to nice meals rather than always waiting until I was cooking for a bigger group to try anything new. I very much look forward to hearing about your new adventures!

A quick google search suggests that tender young kale pods are edible. Some of those in your photo look past that stage.

Another one: Martha Stewart gets into meal kit business Is there any well known "food personality" whose NOT getting into this movement? From the WSJ article discussed here last week, it seems the expansion of these services is not all that smooth.

Thanks for the link, @rotuts. I like rapini but if it's going to get all trendy, I may have to move on! "...Broccoli rabe is still looking for its avocado toast moment..."

As far as drop goes, for daily use, I'd avoid anything significantly longer than the tabletop-to-chair-seat distance, for the reasons that @Thanks for the Crepes mentions. In my dining room, that's 12 inches. I don't think the difference between 10.5 and 12.5 should be a functional problem but if you will often see the table from an angle that displays that inequality and are grossly offended by it, get something custom or that can be hemmed to avoid further offence. I have a square table in a bright room and those 2 inches would begin to annoy me at some point but I have gotten over worse things.

I'm not @Smithy, I but know the Santa Monica markets have been attracting vendors from 200+ miles away at least since the early 1990's when I shopped there regularly. It surprises me that it's worth the drive, but that Wednesday Santa Monica market (like some others in the area) is very large and busy and attracts a clientele willing to pay premium prices for premium produce and market stalls at that market are very much in demand among vendors. I'd imagine it's possible for a farmer from near Paso Robles to make more profit at that single market than setting up at 4 or 5 different markets closer to the farm.

I thought this LA Times op-ed piece offering an egg farmer's perspective on US egg-washing requirements was interesting: The case for the not-quite-pristine egg

No spectacular view here, no adorable Parisian baking pans and saddest of all, no drop-dead gorgeous poached egg atop a delectable looking crab cake. Sigh. From Serious Eats, Sweet-Sour Macerated Cherries With Marcona Almonds, Mint and Ricotta. I had regular almonds instead of Marcona and subbed in lemon verbena since I was lacking mint but the ricotta was freshly made and still warm. We're having some rare early morning sunshine in this month of June gloom so I took my tray outside to enjoy the sounds of birds singing......and trash trucks banging and clanging. Ahhhhh, Monday morning!

Zucchini noodles and red bell pepper with lemon-artichoke pesto, topped with feta:

Just finished a small portion of penne with chicken livers and mushrooms in a light cream sauce leftover from a dinner out last night. It was not photogenic, but very, very tasty.

The California regulations for Certified Farmers Markets are pretty detailed. If your market is a California Certified Farmers Market (link to the list here), then any vendor within the Certified Farmers Market Section has to file a certified producers certificate that lists the produce they’re growing on their land. It’s certified by county inspectors and sometimes by the farmers market managers as well. They're required to have that certificate posted and available to customers to review. Vendors in violation of those regulations (and market managers who don't enforce them) are fined or banned. The page I linked to above also has links to the violation listings. Certified markets can designate a separate area for non-ag vendors like those selling prepared foods, candles made from a honey vendor's beeswax, etc. and some markets allow produce vendors in their non-certified areas but the separate areas should be clearly marked. I don't think most counties or markets have the resources for rock solid enforcement but I know LA County stepped up enforcement a couple of years ago and others, in So Cal at least, look seriously at the situation.

I use both vanilla beans and extract. I especially like to store vanilla beans in sugar to flavor the sugar. That said, I have never made homemade ice cream, vanilla or other flavors so maybe an ice cream base that's freshly infused with those flavors could be both as rich and clear as you hope for and as true and authentic as I do! Lacking that homemade ideal, is there a commercial ice cream that you would recommend as far as having the flavor you like? I would be interested in trying and comparing to the TJ's.

Yes. TJ's Cinnamon Raisin Bread. As I mentioned over in the TJ's thread, it seems to differ from the Cinnamon Roll Bread that was recently discussed over there. Out here on the left coast, we have either Cinnamon Swirl bread (no raisins) or Cinnamon Raisin Bread.

Here's the rest of my TJ's mango mania haul: The mango & ginger crisps ( like the original raisin & rosemary crisps and the various other cranberry, pumpkin, whatever varieties) are lovely with bit of goat cheese. The frozen mango chunks are usually in my freezer for smoothies or adding to yogurt. Nothing new there but they're mango so they got to be in the picture. Next is a mango-tangerine candle. I don't light candles all that often (I fear the spectre of flaming cat tail torches but it smelled nice and was only $3.99 so I picked one up. As mentioned in my post above, I doctored the mango-pineapple salsa with some freshly chopped cilantro and jalapeño and served it with the shrimp nuggets. I think it would be nice with chicken or fish. I got a little piece of mango that was disappointingly mealy but I didn't really eat enough to know if that's common or not. Edited to add: I've now had more of the Island Salsa and more disappointingly mealy pieces of mango. Too bad, as the flavor is OK. I don't recommend it. The TJ's website mentions some frozen mango salsa but I didn't see it....possibly because I was trying not to see the shrimp nuggets. The sweet & spicy mango vinaigrette is OK, but nothing too special, in my opinion. If I want a mango-themed salad, I'd just as soon throw in some mango chunks and use a lime-ginger or other citrus vinaigrette. The mango doesn't add a lot here. Not shown, but sort of mango-related, I bought some chia seeds to try these Mango Coconut Chia Frozen Pops from the TJ's website. Completely unrelated to mango, I noticed TJ's has 2 pinot noir rosé wines under their VINTJS label this year. There's the Arroyo Grande Valley Pinot Noir Rosé ($7.99) they have sold for the last few years, with the 2015 vintage back in stock and a Monterey Pinot Noir Rosé ($6.99) that I haven't seen before. The Arroyo Grande Valley Rosé was my house rosé last year and makes a lovely methode rotuts so I was happy to see it again and tasted it alongside the Monterey wine. Both have a lot of berry flavors and enough acidity to balance the fruit. In the Monterey wine, strawberry flavors predominated, both fresh and a jammy, cooked-strawberry note with a tart citrus/apple finish. In the Arroyo Grande Valley wine, I taste fresh berries, with the raspberry flavor out in front. I find the finish a little less acidic than the Monterey but balanced with a tiny bit of tannin. I could be letting the brighter pink color of the Arroyo Grande Valley wine influence my taste buds with respect to the tannins but I think the difference is real. Bottom line: Both are nice. I think the Arroyo Grande Valley will be my house rosé once again but maybe I'll pick up another bottle of the Monterey so I can do a methode rotuts comparison as well.

I tried making French toast with some of the TJ's Cinnamon Raisin Bread we get out here. I didn't care for it. It was OK but I prefer French toast made from a lighter, non-sweet bread so I can enjoy the contrast between the slightly savory custardy bread and the sweet maple syrup. In this case, the maple syrup was entirely unnecessary and it still tasted too sweet to me. I'm not sure how the bread I used differs from the Cinnamon Roll Bread available on the East coast so perhaps that would be better. The cinnamon raisin bread we get is pretty heavy stuff - 62g/slice per the label (the slice I used weighed in at 72g) vs 42g/slice on the label in the photo above. The French vanilla ice cream gets 2 big thumbs up from me. A lot of vanilla ice creams have an overwhelming artificial vanilla flavor that I dislike but this one tastes true to me. Different strokes ! I tried very hard to un-see @rotuts's post about the shrimp nuggets. I was determined not to look for them so I zoomed past the frozen appetizer section entirely but wouldn't you know it - they were in with the regular frozen seafood entrees so I DID see them and I DID buy some. I used the same steam-bake settings to heat up a "serving" of 4 nuggets and had them with the mango-pineapple salsa (doctored with some fresh cilantro and jalapeño). As @rotuts reported, they are tasty little morsels!

Cinnamon raisin French toast and fresh cherries: