blue_dolphin

I have not supported the Tovala Kickstarter campaign. If I didn't already have the Cuisi steam oven, I think I'd take a chance. The slightly larger capacity, if it can really accommodate a 1/4 sheet pan would be great, thought that's probably more for the convenience of using existing cookware than actually cooking more food. And it does look nice and sleek. A 30 day warranty would certainly give me pause. On one hand, I much prefer the tactic of using a mobile device app to control an appliance over building a complex user interface into the appliance itself. On the other hand, I'm not sure that this particular appliance is one that benefits from that sort of remote access. I'm concerned that the limited manual buttons will require excessive use of the remote user interface. If I check and decide that something needs 5 more minutes on convection or broil after the steam-bake time that I've entered, do I really need to get the phone and use my greasy, cooking fingers to add that setting to the little oven that's sitting right in front of me? My first thought was that it would be nice to program in cook cycle that would steam-bake for x minutes and then switch to broil for y minutes but the reality is that I'd prefer to check the food after the first phase and decide what additional cooking was most appropriate. I thought it was interesting that several photos and videos on the Tovala Kickstarter page show the Cuisi steam oven being used in their "test kitchen" and apparently in their prototype development. I'm really curious to see what they do with this. If you want to start your own, @rotuts-kickstarter to fund your continued participation in the Tavola scheme, I would contribute, knowing that you have a solid record in testing and reporting your carefully documented (lab notebook) results!

There are 2 SA stores out here in Ventura Co: Thousand Oaks (where I got these) and Oxnard. That store doesn't have the best selection or prices, but it's just across the parking lot from Smart & Final so I stop by for a quick look-see if I'm in the area.

Yes, the kind of glasses that make me feel like I'm at Downton Abbey!

Not exactly a big score, but I bought these 3 pretty little glasses at the Salvation Army store today for 75 cents. The one in the back is holding 1.5 oz of an unspecified beverage. Two of them will be an add on to a gift of homemade lime-cello or strawberry infused tequila. The third one has a little chip in the lip so I'll keep it to enjoy some little treats.

Yes, congratulations, @chappie! I'm so glad that you let us know how things came out. I'm not very familiar with cook-offs so if you have a moment sometime, I'd be interested to hear more about how your chowder cook-off works. How much do chowder do you have to make? How long is the "service" period. What sort of facilities (if any) are available for last-minute cooking? My only cook-off experience is limited to an annual chili cook-off at work where each entry (usually a group, working together.....in some cases, just barely ) had to make at least 12 gallons of chili but I've seen other events where people seem to bring crock-pot sized containers so I have no idea what is the norm for cook-off events.

Oh, I'm so sorry that I didn't see your post, Smithy, until I hit "submit". I must have been going back to the original thread to make the link.

Cook's Illustrated Pasta Frittata with Sausage (you can also find the recipe here) @Xilimmns posted this over on the dinner thread and I thought it looked so good that I stopped by Sprouts on my AM walk to pick up the sausage so I could make it.

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Those are beautiful! I would display the white one on the far right in the third row as a piece of abstract art!

Well, a search did identify another place on eGullet where that fish photo appears, but using a search engine instead of my brain to solve a puzzle seems like cheating, doesn't it?

Sounds promising that there's interest in this aspect of food and cooking from a number of publishers. Last week, I read a piece in the LA Times about Bauder and was hoping that you'll get some nice coverage like that to get the word out when your book is ready.

I agree, they do look like smaller, flatter fish than cod but it's hard to get a sense of scale without anything else in the picture.

LindaK of the great Salt Cod Diary thread?

Thanks for that link - I really liked Marjorie! I'm so glad to hear that she will be cooking with Amar in the finale, even if it's as his sous chef instead of being in the running herself. And with respect to part 1 of the finale, the choice of Amar as the winner HAD to be about the food since he did ZERO in the way of presentation or magic tricks! So even though my girl Marjorie was out, I figured the decision was probably fair.

I haven't tried it with gin, but @thirtyoneknots recommended the Culross with a Flor de Cana, Cocchi Americano and lemon back in this post and I found it quite tasty.

Ditto what TFTC said. I thought it was entirely fair to ask for confirmation about an ingredient called for in the US version of a cookbook written by a chef who grew up in Jerusalem, trained at Le Cordon Bleu in London and owns restaurants in the UK that feature flavors of the Middle East and beyond. Especially since that word can be used correctly in the US to refer to more than one food. What did I learn? I had no idea that the US banned farming of currants in 1911 due to concern about the role of blackcurrant plants in spreading white pine disease and the impact of that disease on the logging industry. Apparently, blackcurrants were popular in the US prior to that time. The ban is still in place in several states but has been overturned in others and currant growing is returning in some areas. The owner of this operation was responsible for overturning the ban in New York State is growing them there. I am curious to try some and see what they are like.

Very interesting! I do hope you'll report back to let us know what you decided to make and maybe share your observations on the other offerings. My own experiences with potlucks (work colleagues or neighborhood groups) has been generally positive and often resulted in much informal recipe and story sharing but I never heard of anyone documenting them in the form of a recipe book. Sounds like it could be fun, even if it only makes you exclaim, "THEY made THAT!

It's interesting that Andy Ricker used a reservation system with a non-refundable deposit when he opened Pok Pok in Los Angeles but ended up abandoning the system. From that Eater interview: Ricker said he dropped Tock because some diners mistakenly believed that "they could only eat at Pok if they purchased a ticket," as well as because servers were forgetting to apply Tock payments to bills, and because customers were not informing Pok Pok they made Tock reservations. "I think it is a good system, just not built for large scale, casual, mid-priced restaurants with almost unlimited seating (we have 230 chairs!). We still use it in Portland as we are only using it to manage about 24 seats and the demand is huge." Pok Pok now relies on OpenTable in Los Angles, Ricker says, adding that with Tock, "only the young tech and food-savvy crowd seem to get it."

I love the idea of that sushi cake, too, @Lisa Shock! Thinking of rice, I remember that @shain posted pictures of Maklouba, sort of an upside down rice and vegetable dish over in the Dinner thread the other day. That seems like something you could take in a number of directions. And if you really don't feel comfortable with the casserole concept, just bring whatever one-dish main course item appeals to you, like a lovely composed Niçoise salad or a platter of grilled vegetables and shrimp. I suspect any offering like that would be appreciated but if asked, you can always say that you couldn't bear to turn on the oven on such a lovely warm day.

I agree! That breakfast says "Springtime!"

Thanks, scubadoo97! Today, David Lebovitz posted a recipe for Za’atar Flatbread that looked delicious. I've seen some lovely examples of flatbreads around here and really should give it a try. But for today, I cheated. I anointed a TJ's whole wheat flatbread with olive oil and za'atar, toasted it up and added some other nibble-y bits to make breakfast: Flatbread, cara cara orange, feta, fresh tomato, kalamata olives.

TJ's crab cake, fresh tomato, mini Hasselback potatoes with garlic & parmesan and sugar snap peas with red bell pepper and a dab of tartar sauce:

Lemon Posset? Sounds like an old timey cough and cold remedy to me so I had to look it up. Interesting. If you've been researching, no doubt you have seen this "How to make the perfect lemon posset" but I thought I'd add it here as I usually enjoy reading that "How to cook the perfect...." series. And I thought the idea of making a syrup from the sugar and lemon juice sounded like a good way to avoid grainy sugar.

I think the key to success with that sort of policy is sufficient demand, which the referenced restaurants have in spades. I think it's also important to differentiate between the policy and the specific system that's used to implement it. Depending on the chosen system, it could be a barrier to folks who are less tech-savvy, particularly for a newer, lesser known restaurant. It would be important that the system worked smoothly as I'd be entirely frosted if my card was charged for the deposit but the restaurant couldn't find it on their side of the system. Also, if I knew a restaurant was using this sort of ticketed dining, I would assume that walk-ins or close-in reservations were unavailable so it could cut into that side of the business. I've visited a number of restaurants that require a deposit for reservations with close-in cancellation/refund restrictions so a ticketed dining policy (which I see as a step beyond the deposit system) would not deter me from visiting a special occasion restaurant with a friend or two. It would be lovely have the service charge included so the meal ends on a note that doesn't require arithmetic, signatures and deciphering small slips of paper in the dark. While I have no concerns with a $50 deposit, it would give me pause to put a reservation at Pineapple and Pearls on my credit card for a larger group, knowing that I could be on the line for a $250-500 charge if 2 of my party of 6 had to cancel inside of that 72-hour deadline. It's one thing that I'm comfortable with the policy and system like but I don't really want the responsibility of educating my friends to the ins and outs of it.

@gulfporter's post reminded me that I had a jar of TJ's Hot & Sweet Chili Jam that I'd intended to serve with baked brie over the holidays. This AM, I put a layer on a grilled cheese sandwich and thought it added a nice little kick. It is indeed very seedy and they do sort of stick in the teeth but with this thin layer, I didn't find it uncomfortable. I'd like to try it in a sweet & spicy vinaigrette on a salad with some berries, citrus and greens. Maybe thinned with a bit of apricot brandy and drizzled over a scoop of vanilla ice cream? I like to keep some sort of hot and sweet jam on hand and this will do but generally, there are more interesting options available, like the Red Bell Pepper and Ancho Chili Jam from Earth & Vine or the peach and red jalapeño jam that I made last summer!