blue_dolphin

Oh man, @Ashen, I want to plant my face in that picture of your breakfast. I hope it's OK if I also request a small side order of @HungryChris's zucchini. Today's eggs-periment. See previous post and following comments for background. Materials: Method: Toasted bread round in the bottom of a buttered muffin cup, topped with a bit of cheese and some sautéed mushroom, onion and spinach (that mixture to go into a quiche, to be described elsewhere). Steam-bake at 400 F for 5 min before adding the egg, then another ~ 8 min. Results. Crispy bacon, toast crispy on the bottom, soft yolk. Discussion: The CI eggs Florentine article suggested mounding the spinach in the center of the cup so the yolk would sit up in the middle and the white would spread out. That didn't really work in these small muffin cups - the yolk slid off to the side of the little veg pile so it had rather the reverse effect, with the yolk along the edge cooking more rapidly than the white in the center. The yolk could be a bit runnier but unless additional toast is served alongside, there would be no way to contain it so this is deemed acceptable from the perspective of this reviewer. This reviewer acknowledges a significant improvement but recommends an additional eggs-periment to obtain a more centered yolk.

Thanks for the update. Sounds like a great visit. I was thinking of you on Thursday as I think that's when you said your foraging session would take place and it was hot, hot, hot. I hope you went out early!

What fun popsicles, Shelby! I love the kiwi in there, too! If you google Baileys coffee popsicles or just Baileys popsicles, you'll get some good ideas, including some two layer versions. Some used regular brewed coffee and some used instant coffee or espresso powder. One of them mixed Bailey's, nutella and milk - no coffee, but sounds pretty decadent! I read a guideline that recommended keeping the total alcohol content of the pops at or below the 8-10% range to avoid freezing issues. So for hard liquors in the 80-100 proof range (40-50% alcohol), you can add ~ 1/5 or 20% of those beverages to your mix. Bailey's is 17% alcohol so you could add more and with wine, you can go up to 1/3 to 1/2 of your mix, depending on the alcohol content of the wine. I tend to stay below the maximum recommended amounts because not only do the high test versions take longer to freeze, they also melt very quickly so you have to eat them fast or risk wearing them on your shirt ! In lieu of making coffee this AM, I had a Vietnamese iced coffee pop. I might have another......

Creamy corn pasta with basil from the NYT. The creamy sauce is pretty much just sautéed corn and green onion whizzed up in the blender. My fresh corn was a very sweet, white kernel variety so not much visual contrast and the dish certainly needed the flavor contrast from the dried chili flakes and lemon juice but the fresh corn flavor really shines through.

Per the recipe, the bacon is pre-cooked to the point that you describe. I usually cook a full lb of bacon at a time in the oven and warm up leftovers in the MW. Knowing that I wanted to try this, the last time I cooked a batch, I cooked some less than my usual super crispy so it was in the fridge, ready to go. 20 sec in the MW made them nicely pliable, though I did need to shape them in the cups quickly as they firmed up rapidly as they cooled. Thanks for the link. I see they recommend the pre-cook step like @robirdstx suggested so that seems like a wise suggestion and I will follow it. Absolutely. All the variables of egg size and temp, bacon thickness and doneness, the exact volume and shape of any additional fillings (as described in the CI eggs florentine article), may make it entirely too much trouble. But they're so dang cute, I've got to play around with it just a bit !

Don't they look cute! I'm a little concerned that the bacon wouldn't stay in the "cup" shape without the egg but if you used the mushrooms or tomato on top of the bread, that might do it. Because of all the cautions about burning the bacon I was afraid it would burn before the egg was cooked so I put the eggs in a cup of warm water to take the chill off before breaking them into the muffin tins. It's possible that just using a fridge-temp egg, plus the extra volume of some mushrooms or other veg may slow down the egg cooking enough. I can try both for my next experiment. The other thing I did differently was using only one slice of bacon. It was long enough to overlap nicely and I think two full slices of the particular bacon I used would have been too much. But having the extra volume might slow down the egg cooking.

A while back, I saw these cute little Bacon & Egg Muffins online. Aware of the folly of someone who is a fiend for crispy bacon, runny yolks and perfect toast attempting to cook all three items together, the cuteness factor overruled common sense and I decided to give them a try. First pass here: The recipe had strong cautions about over cooking the bacon so I kept a close eye on them through the glass but should have pulled them out to check the eggs as they are sadly overcooked. The recipe called for 15 - 20 min at 400 degF. This was 15 min, 400 degF, steam-bake in the Cuisi steam oven. The bacon was perfect and crispy. I pre-toasted the bread rounds and put a thin layer of Boursin on top to try to prevent it from getting too soggy and I think that was a good idea. The bread wasn't super crisp but not soggy either. The recipe recommended medium eggs so I bought a half dozen at the farmers market yesterday so I can give this 2 more tries to see if I can do better with the eggs. The recipe suggested a layer of sautéed mushrooms or a slice of tomato under the egg so I'll try something along those lines for the next one.

This is good to know. My CSO doesn't have that plug, so I assume there is no way to drain off any accumulated sediment or particulates. I wonder if they added it because that could be an issue? My water is not as bad as some places but is still on the hard side so perhaps I should follow @rotuts and use filtered water to fill the reservoir.

I know what you mean - I'm mostly cooking just for myself so I struggle to scale back and avoid over buying. And honestly, while I said the local market is smaller than the big guys, there is still a very good variety here, just not as overwhelming. I'll also try to take some photos next week. Tomatoes are really magnificent now. Melons and stone fruits, too.

My local market haul is relatively pedestrian compared with the variety found at places like the big Santa Monica markets or ProfessionalHobbit's Ferry building market. When I used to travel to SF for work, I'd try to schedule my meetings on Friday, hit the Ferry building market first thing on Saturday AM, shop until my carry-on was full, then BART to the airport and home. Always nice to get a little pleasure out of a business trip! Back to today - clockwise from center front, eggs, tomatoes, summer squash, a bottle of "Down to Earth" rosé wine, sweet corn, lemons, partially out of frame avocados on the far right. Dapple Dandy and Honey Punch pluots in the center. Also peaches that were apparently to shy to pose.

Maybe. I know Trader Joe's has a pub cheese spread with cheddar & jalapeños but it's sort of whipped up, not sure how it would do in the oven. I've got a little Velveeta leftover from Super Bowl season (yes, I do!) and I can use the Rotel in a black bean salad, so I might do that. It would make that top layer a distinct color from the bottom, which might look nice....or not! We'll see.

Thank you, @Shelby! That makes sense. I'm planning to make it on Saturday and will report back.

I've also been wanting an IP-friendly springform pan and succumbed to the Prime Day special, kindly brought to my attention by @Shelby. I noted the recipe on the backside of the pan label and thought it might make an easy make-ahead dish to bring to happy hour-type gatherings. However, in reading the recipe, I'm thinking it might be more suited to the Cuisi steam oven than the IP because of the 2-step baking process but I wanted to seek advice from my experts here. What do you experts think? Would you make this entirely in the IP? Go with the Cuisi? Do the first bake in the IP and then into the Cuisi for 15 min after adding the sour cream topping? Apologies for the crappy photo. The font is extremely tiny and the glue blob refused my attempts to remove it. Also, I have no idea what the called-for spicy cheddar cheese dip is but I figured I'd use a Velveeta/Rotel mixture.

For a first course, you could use the peaches, cherries, leaf lettuce and almonds or hazelnuts to make a variation of this CHEF CORINA WEIBEL’S BURRATA WITH ROASTED STONE FRUITS AND BLACK CHERRY AGRODOLCE. Sub some of your ricotta for the burrata. I'd rub the country-style ribs with smoked salt and cook them in the Instant Pot with a quick broil in the Cuisi or on your grill. You could cook down a few of those berries or other fruit with honey or sugar and some fresh jalapeño or dried chili flakes to make a sweet-hot glaze to brush on before broiling. Or grab some preserves from your pantry. I'd make a slaw with the cabbage, kohlrabi and sugar snap peas (I'm assuming the sugar peas are of the edible pod variety) and some grated onion. Cook some of the new potatoes in the IP and roast some green beans and sliced onions in the Cuisi and make a potato salad in a dressing that includes whole grain mustard if you have it. If you don't do that first course, you could make some honey broiled peaches in the Cuisi steam oven like these nectarines I made for breakfast the other day and serve for dessert. Top with a little ricotta and a drizzle of honey or serve them with some vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of good balsamic vinegar.

I used purchased canned smoked albacore (from here) but @shain posted about a method for smoking cans of oil packed tuna back in March in an earlier version of the Lunch topic.

Smoked tuna salad on toasted multigrain bread:

Back home. No lake view. Po yegg to cheer me up: Notice the buttered toast under the egg. Gilding the lily!

I have not tried the plate tongs but will be interested in hearing from anyone who has. I bought the silicone mini mitts and have found them helpful for pot in pot cooking or to remove the inner pot when it's hot and full. Also useful for retrieving items from the Cuisi steam oven. At 12 bucks, they are probably overpriced and one of the less expensive options would probably work just as well.

Showers and thunderstorms on and off all day yesterday so I wasn't sure what my AM coffee spot would bring... The last English muffin, peanut butter and banana, blueberries and iced coffee on a cloudy porch: Thus fortified, I'm heading to the airport and home so I will stop spamming the breakfast topic with my off-topic sunrises . Though they do add a lot to my morning coffee!

I know this is the gardening thread and not the cooking thread but I see many zucchinis amongst the daily pickage so I thought I'd pop in to offer an enthusiastic two thumbs up and add a link to the recipe which also appears in Sara Moulton's book Home Cooking 101. The recipe says to grate the zucchini with a food processor or box grater. I had neither available so I julienned them with a knife but I think it would also adapt perfectly to spiralized zukes or other tender-skinned summer squashes. As I mentioned over in the breakfast thread, the salting/draining step concentrates flavor and removes enough water that the squash retains a nice crunch but doesn't get watery at all after cooking. Since I am in fridge clean-out mode, I was tempted to throw in kalamata olives, feta, roasted tomatoes, whatever but I suspect the simple seasonings of lemon, thyme and sautéed onion are probably all this dish needs. Good stuff!

First course - a mostly monochrome Monday morning view with my coffee: Followed by breakfast on the porch: Scrambled eggs, cherry tomatoes, the Sara Moulton zucchini with onion, lemon and thyme that @Anna N mentioned over on the garden thread, flatbread bushed with olive oil, garlic and thyme. That zucchini is really great. The salting/draining step removes enough water that the zucchini retain a nice texture after cooking and the lemon and thyme add flavor but don't overpower the squash. That's a keeper!

My practice is to remove the silicone gasket and give both the lid and gasket a scrub with a soapy brush or blue scrubby sponge, a rinse in hot water and air dry after each use. If the lid is very greasy or spattered (like when I followed the Serious Eats recommendation for baking soda in garbanzo beans for hummus and every part was coated with liquified beans ) then I do what I read over on hip pressure cooking and put it in the dishwasher. I bought an extra gasket to avoid transfer of garlicky flavors. So far, I've been able to temper the most of the garlic smells with a soak in baking soda and water, rinse and a few hours out in the sun but the spare is still nice to have on hand.

Thanks! The combination of textures and flavors in that birthday dessert is delightful - with or without nut spikes!

OK. I give up. Google is not helping. What's a nut spike?

Excellent use of 2 of my current top 3 favorite small kitchen appliances: Cuisi steam oven, Instant Pot and Anova - eG-inspired purchases all 3 !