blue_dolphin

Nice Gaviota strawberries from Harry's Berries at yesterday's farmer's market. I usually go for Seascape but they didn't seem as ripe. I gave these guys the luxury treatment with some TJ's vanilla ice cream and a drizzle of good balsamic vinegar: and they were lovely!

@Shelby, I also have a very slow internet connection but luckily no fines! Just in case anyone else has similar constraints, I'll post my LCK observations. There's only a spoiler (that I already mentioned in my last post) on the first of the 2 LCK episodes and they didn't reveal the winner of the second one. For the first of the 2 LCK episodes, Amar and Carl join Jason for a 3-chef competition where one of them will be out. The challenge is to use sourdough and they have many sorts of sourdough bread and fresh dough to work with in 30 min. Amar made a Beef Wellington wrapped in sourdough with asparagus and bernaise. Carl made a gazpacho with apple, green tomato, grilled shrimp, and sourdough croutons. Jason made a bruscetta with smoked salmon, artichoke fritatta served on top. Tom commented that the radish and turnip garnish on Jason’s was underseasoned - dum, dum dum, dum…. Jason's out. On his way out the door, Tom mentions that his eggs were overcooked as well. I was sorry to have him leave. That left Amar and Carl to duke it out in the second LCK challenge - fish! Sort of a redux of their quick fire elimination but this time it has to be cooked, so no crudo! Tom set the starting time at 20 min and challenged them to bid it down, leaving them with 12 minutes at the end. Yikes! I’m pretty sure it will take me more than 12 min to make my tuna salad sandwich for lunch! Unlike all the other LKC episodes, they did NOT reveal the winner at the end although Tom says both were technically excellent and it came down to a few grains of salt. Tom and his salt! The segment ended with quick clips from Vegas (same as at the end of the full episode last night) that didn’t reveal any thing more than Padma hosting whilst wearing a red slip. Not sure what happened to her dress. Maybe a lost luggage issue, not sure.

Yes! Especially after they featured him in that emo-family-phone-call segment in the beginning of the show. It seems like those little up close and personal segments are a harbinger of doom for the featured chef! I'm still rooting for Marjorie but she seems to be self-destructing. They did a good job of editing that elimination challenge to feel very nerve wracking. I was going to make some popcorn but I was afraid it wouldn't be Fleur-worthy! The toast quick fire was one of my favorites - I love stuff on toast! And for once, I agreed with the judges on the bottom 2. Not sure about the winner, sounds like there was too much going on (chicken liver mousse with pickled cherries, white raspberry, and arugula on ciabatta) but I'd love to try them all! Two LCK episodes to watch but they didn't reveal who would be going on to Las Vegas. I was sorry to see that Jason went out in the first of those 2 LCK episodes and would have liked to see him rewarded for that long string of LCK wins.

Interesting. I have smoked tuna salad sandwiches planned for lunch but intend to take a much less exciting approach

Ramen, ramen everywhere! Ramen isn't something I usually think about. Now that we have this cook-off, I am noticing ramen everywhere! Last week, the LA Times ran a note about a food blogger who's produced a poster guide to 42 types of ramen and funded it via a Kickstarter campaign. And just yesterday, I read a great piece on Serious Eats, "Don't Put Your Hand in the Noodle Machine: Notes From Ramen School in Osaka" by Mathew Amster-Burton (aka @mamster ) I confess with embarrassment that the only time I've used ramen is in that ubiquitous pot-luck broccoli slaw/ramen salad where the dried noodles add crunch so I obviously have much to learn this cook-off!

I usually only buy cold cereal when I have house guests but thread is making me want to buy a box of Grape Nuts and some milk.

Like ElainaA said, a fresh fruit plate was my first thought, along with something like banana bread or coffee cake - although I now know it's too hot to bake, is it too hot to shop, too? The stuffed dates really appeal to me because they sort of bridge the sweet/savory divide.

I see A2 milk advertised on TV but have never actually looked for it to try.

I saw a Pesto and Egg Baguette Sandwich on the kitchn the other day and thought it sounded good. My variation - toasted ciabatta with green chile adobo and egg:

Thanks for taking us along on this trip! This looks like the sort of place where one could spend a bunch on some very lovely, high quality products. What a wonderful resource to be able to buy things from local suppliers. I suspect this is the case. Their website lists some specials from Welsh suppliers for the day.

Maybe they were featuring some Welsh foods around the St. David's Day (March 1) holiday? Or someone was feeling Welsh !

It's nice to be back home after another week in Houston as wheelchair pusher/prescription fetcher/medical scribe/hotel kitchenette chef/cheerleader/etc. for a dear relative of mine. I seem to be lacking a few pantry staples but there were 2 slices of sourdough in the freezer that I toasted and slathered with some of the ginger butter that Anna N called out in the Recipes That Rock thread. Found a cara cara orange in the fridge to go with. No photo because I overly blackened the toast but that ginger butter is a keeper!

No, the chefs can't bring recipes. I believe the reasoning was that they should have the techniques down to the point that individual recipes wouldn't be needed. I read this in a Gail Simmons interview where she said that this rule proved to be a disaster in the first season of the Top Chef Just Desserts competition where they used the same rule but ended up having to change that for subsequent seasons due to the importance of exact measurements in baking.

Me, too! Money well spent! It's also handy for searching foodblogs. There are a handful that I follow and sometimes I can't remember where I saw a recipe.

Can you watch online? I think you just log in with your cable or satellite provider info. Sometimes it tells me an episode isn't available but it comes up OK when I refresh the page or open a new window. I thought the last episode was really good. Martin Yan is such an icon, it was a treat to watch him judge the quick fire. The fast casual elimination round was an excellent challenge for these chefs, both creatively for the concepts and production-wise in having to put out 150 servings. Aside from the little "anyone but Phillip" comments, I didn't feel there was excessive editorial injection of faux drama. Also sad to see Kwame go but when they included the frozen waffle choice in the previews at the end of the previous episode, it was clear he was a marked man! Great choice to have them make breakfast in LCK, too. In the previous episode, I thought the historical-research based elimination challenge was very interesting and I would have preferred to hear more about it vs. the MC Hammer quick fire. That part was pretty funny and this is Bravo and not PBS after all!

I also hope @HST will report back. Earlier this week, I read an article in the WSJ about assigning 1 year engineering and design students to solve problems that don't have clear solutions . It was headlined: Why Solve the Unsolvable? and it reminded me of this thread. In such a course at Northwestern, according to the article, "Students aren’t graded on whether they solve the problem. Instead, they are graded on how well they communicate and work with patients, therapists and teammates, and on how well they execute the design process, approach problems and present their results at an end-of-term design expo." So I'm keen to know how HST's project is graded and assessed and what HST learned from doing it. I certainly applaud students being encouraged to think outside of the box and I believe there is much that can be learned from such efforts The only way I can fathom this concept being even remotely financially viable would be to identify an existing restaurant with a very broad menu that is also quite popular with the target audience and partner with that business to offer this concept as a pop-up or weekly special or the like. Presumably, the existing business could provide infrastructure support and if this concept was actually popular, it might draw in some business on an otherwise slow night. I can't imagine who on earth this would appeal to but I'm not the target audience.

That is my understanding as well. The IP cup is almost identical to the one that came with my rice cooker.

Wow, toast has a day? Oh man, and I'm staying in a Houston hotel with a crappy toaster when I should be home celebrating with my Cuisi steam oven - my maker of sublime toast! On the other hand, yesterday was National Margarita Day and I was able to partake. Not for breakfast though

I can imagine this appealing to an individual or group with challenging dietary restrictions or the extremely picky eaters who ask to have dishes customized up the wahzoo. I think it could be exceedingly difficult to make it work - say I request pot roast, chili and rice pudding and what I really have in mind is my mom's pot roast, Uncle Andy's chili and my grandmother's rice pudding. Even if I provide the recipes, it would take a lot of tweaking to have the food match the memory and if it's nothing like what I had in mind, I'm going to be a disappointed customer.

I love the combination of beets and citrus in a salad!

They certainly look very tasty! What is the filling?

Last week, chicken drumsticks and bone-in, skin-on thighs were on sale for $0.99/lb so I bought 2 lbs of each and used them to make chicken stock in the IP. Never made stock with just legs and thighs (more meat, less bone than usual) but why not? I saved one thigh to roast for supper, hacked the rest up a bit with a cleaver and after 55 min in the IP, I had about 3.5 qts of flavorful, jellied chicken stock. Now I'm all stocked up ! Also last week, I converted the rice cooker recipe for Chipotle Rice and Shrimp found in More Mexican Everyday to an IP version. I used my usual IP 1:1 ratio of rice to liquid and cooking time of 6 min on high pressure for white rice. Then I added the shrimp and set it on "steam" for 5 minutes to cook them. I ended up with some rice stuck to the bottom of the pot, but it came off pretty easily and the dish was very tasty - picture over on the Dinner thread. This morning, I wanted to try a rice and tofu bowl, cooking the rice and tofu together so they would both be infused with the seasonings. I used a brown rice mix that usually takes 23 min to cook and was worried the tofu might fall apart but it was fine. I cooked them together for 23 min, let the pressure come down for 10 min and then did a manual release. I was going to steam my vegetables separately but decided to toss them in the IP, put the lid back on and set the timer for 1 min, then quick release. I had yellow summer squash, sugar snap peas and red bell pepper and they were nicely cooked.

While I prefer other olives for most things, I kinda like black olives from a can on pizza. And bell peppers, too!

Chipotle brown rice medley (brown rice, black barley & daikon radish seeds) with tofu and vegetables: Edited to add that I have been eating bowl-o-chipotle-rice for quite a few meals recently. I was excited to try this tofu version and it was good but I think I'm finally getting tired of it. I think it's time to move on

@Darienne - Oh, the pain of that annoying cleaning operation, performed in a pre-caffeinated state. Ouch! I also must confess that I once did the same thing, with no one to blame but myself