blue_dolphin

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

Roasted poblano cream soup from More Mexican Everyday. Garnished with roasted corn, red bell pepper and crema: Along side is a piece of TJ's whole wheat flatbread smeared with green chile adobo, sprinkled with queso fresco and toasted.

@Saren salma, would it be possible for you to post some photographs of the ingredients you use and the cooking process and finished dish? I'd love to see a little tutorial like that sometime.

I know! The only time I get a wine slushy is when I put a bottle in the freezer for a quick chill and leave it a bit too long ! Today's breakfast: I scrambled an egg into some leftover chipotle rice and veg:

Chipotle rice with shrimp from More Mexican Everyday. I planned to saute the summer squash, sugar snap peas and red peppers as a side dish but the rice was salty to my taste so I tossed them in to steam as the rice finished cooking and mixed everything together. I didn't like the cooking directions for this recipe which would have had the shrimp cooking in with the rice for 25 + minutes. It also used 2 tablespoons of oil and 1 to 1.5 t of salt for one cup of rice, both of which I thought were on the high side and I failed to find any direction as to when the rice was to be added to the cooker. But cooking the rice with the garlic, chipotles and a bit of oil was a super easy way infuse the rice with a ton of flavor. I will certainly riff on that part of the recipe again.

I'm in LOVE with that flavor combination !

Here's the last of the Creamy Zucchini, Corn and Roasted Poblanos from More Mexican Everyday (posted above under an egg and on the dinner thread with roasted chicken). I warmed a TJ's whole wheat flatbread, smeared it with green chile adobo, added the leftovers, topped it with queso fresco, heated again to melt the cheese and served with a cara cara orange.

That looks great! I'd been waiting with bated breath to learn how the salmon and pecans were going to work out - looks like they got along splendidly!

I also cook my bacon in the oven but who can resist that name? The Bacon Nation Bacon Master - gotta love it!

I ate a vegetarian diet (with the exception of an annual Dodger dog or 2) for 20+ years and still don't eat meat all that often so meatless Fridays aren't really an issue. I like to make a simple vegetable soup for Lenten Friday suppers. I think I've made the super simple Gordon Ramsay broccoli soup with every cruciferous vegetable and some others and used to refer to it as "Purée of CSA Box." Almost all of them were simple, warming and delicious and if not well, it's Lent so I'd just offer it up! My mother always told us that if you're Irish, then St. Patrick's Day isn't part of Lent

The Creamy Zucchini, Corn and Roasted Poblanos from More Mexican Everyday, topped with a bit of queso fresco and served with a Cuisi-oven steam-roasted chicken thigh: