blue_dolphin

This is the breakfast I still refer to by the name I used for it as a little kid - Po Yeg: This TJ's sourdough toast is not bad, but if only I had some of Ann_T's homemade bread. Sigh.... my life would be complete

Basil is always a bad boy for me with it's tendency to turn brown. This is probably not the flavor profile you are looking for, but the green chile adobo in More Mexican Everyday is a brilliant green, stays that way (in the fridge, my jar is a little over 2 weeks old) and would be lovely on fish. It calls for half a head of garlic and 4-5 serrano chiles that are both dry roasted and peeled, a big bunch each of cilantro and parsley, a cup of olive oil and 2 t salt, all whizzed in the blender. Let me see if I can find a picture. Edited to add: You can see the jar in this photo on the breakfast thread. And here it is stirred into some rice and beans with shrimp.

I appreciate that recommendation, @heidih. I am in Ventura county, so a couple of the Tomatomania events (Ojai, Fillmore or even Encino) are fairly close by. But Laurel's could be a good option if I miss those dates. I do want to get some good advice on choosing plants to grow. I used to live steps from the beach and the tomatoes I tried to grow in containers struggled and rarely recovered from the heavy June gloom weeks (months, sometimes!) in that area. I'm now about 20 miles inland and should shake off that defeat and give it another try!

I am so not a gardener (just the sorts of herbs that grow well in the ground with neglect) but this year, I resolve to go to Tomatomania and pick up some plants to try in a few spots.

Ham salad on sourdough toast. Bread & butter pickles and farmer's market tomato. I know people think ham salad is ick, but it's a childhood comfort food for me. I made soup with the bone and some of the trimmings from the holiday ham but stashed some bits and pieces in the freezer. A query about how to use overcooked pork brought this to mind so I pulled some out, ground it up, mixed in some mustard and mayo and became 6 years old for lunch!

That makes sense. In LCK, Tom Colicchio said something to Chad like, "You should have cooked that at the Beefsteak." Umm yes, and which Whole Foods counter is stocked with all the bovine heads he would have needed?????

I'm not sure what you are defining as "muscle" but the capsule that surrounds the spleen is a rather tough fibrous layer that includes smooth muscle cells. In some species the smooth muscle in the splenic capsule contracts in response to stress.

Not to take this too far sideways with Beefsteak discussions, but here's an eG thread with great descriptions of the Beacon Beefsteak in NY by Fat Guy and a link to the text of the1939 New Yorker piece, "All You Can Hold for Five Bucks," that Fat Guy mentions. Both good reading.

@liuzhou, I noticed that you posted a nice dinner using a special cured pork over in the dinner thread. That made me wonder how your pig face is faring these days. Anything new to report?

For what it's worth, I used this recipe for a pressure cooker version that andiesenji linked to in another thread. I used 1/2 a head of cabbage, 1 jonagold apple, one yellow onion, 1 t caraway seeds, 2 T sherry vinegar, salt pepper and added couple spoons of cabernet jelly instead of the raisins. All went into the Instant-Pot for 6 min at high pressure, quick release. I thought the cooking time was right for the cabbage, still some crunch in the denser bits but the thinner outside leaves were soft so there was a nice contrast in texture. I didn't use mustard seeds but served it with sausage and grainy mustard and I think it would be a good inclusion. Overall, it was a bit sweet for my taste. Next time, I will include the mustard seeds, leave out the jelly, use a tarter apple like the Granny Smith recommend in this thread and I absolutely need a new batch of caraway seeds - even after following shain's suggestion with a mortar and pestle, the flavor was not as strong as I would like. I might try the tarter apple cider vinegar instead of the softer sherry vinegar used here and maybe throw in a handful of tart dried cherries instead of the raisins called for in the recipe I used. Very nice winter-y side dish. I'm glad that it was brought up at this time. Yesterday was chilly, rainy and windy and I was happy to have the leftovers on hand. I posted a picture over in the Dinner thread the other day.

If it's flavorful, I think you could grind it and mix it with some mayo, a flavorful mustard, maybe some caramelized onions or other seasonings to make a spread for toast or crackers. If you grind it and it's more like cotton, I'd bin it, too!

I agree, @Shelby, I thought big loaves would have been the ticket. I gave Marjorie a pass as I realize big crusty loaves could have been hard to pull off in the given time frame and with unfamiliar ovens but she could have done some big loaves of focaccia or something like that. Those rolls are another example of the catering kitchen mindset. Nicely done, but nothing out of the box. Also surprised by the lack of ribs. I think the chefs were told that the meal was to be "decadent" and maybe they didn't think ribs fit that definition but I disagree! Edited to add that I'm curious to see restaurant wars and whether we'll get to see any imagination there.

Looks like a spleen to me. I know nothing of large animals so it's just a guess but it makes some sense given the anatomy.

I just caught up on the last episode and the last 2 LCKs last night and agree with all your comments, @huiray, particularly the last one about the irony of that gluttony-centered event featuring rude behavior as a fund raiser for a food bank. The QF was so random, they might as well have picked a name out of a hat to award immunity. And what a contrast to move from a QF where appearance was everything to the Beefsteak EC where appearance and plating mattered not at all, except as a negative! I was also mystified by their choices and lack of imagination. A bunch of catering kitchen box-thinkers! I thought Kwame made a good choice with peel & eat shrimp but it didn't go over well. I'm really not sure what sort of fish preparation would have suited this dinner. Particularly since they were sourcing food for 100 servings from the Whole Foods retail counters. The so-called "stuffed" crab claws served at dim sum might be viewed as too dainty, even though they offer a bone-like handle and the eater gets to pull the crab meat out of the shell after eating the fried shrimp paste "filling." There's a Chinese restaurant I go to that features lobster (huge ones) steamed with black bean sauce. They're hacked up and heaped into a big bowl and we always end up using our hands to eat them. Something like that would be my choice for a fish dish. Aside from Marjorie's suggestion of bread, I was disappointed that no one took the opportunity to craft sides that could be used to hold or dip into a sauce or scoop up the proteins. Someone could have had fun with that.

Thanks, @ananth, for sharing that. I find rums to be particularly confusing with respect to substitutions. This is very helpful.

I can't remember if I posted this one or not but much like @kayb, I opened the freezer, grabbed 3 cubes of what I thought was sun dried tomato purée and plopped them into my sauce. Oops. Chipotle chile purée. Both handy to keep on hand but not interchangeable. That was one spicy pasta dish!

Red cabbage with apples, onion and caraway seeds and spicy chicken sausage: This was inspired by the recent thread about red cabbage with apples and caraway seeds and a previous discussion on the Instant-Pot thread.

Thanks for mentioning this. Last year, there was some discussion of cabbage-apple dishes in the Instant-Pot thread by @andiesenji in this post and @Anna N in this post that piqued my interest but the warm September So Cal weather made me defer trying it. It's supposed to rain here tomorrow and I have a red cabbage rolling around in the bottom of the veg drawer so I should give this a try, too.

I should have just put this nice poached egg on toast or an English muffin as @Anna N did but I wanted to try one of the rosemary rolls I bought at TJ's yesterday. Bacon, egg and Swiss on a rosemary parmesan roll. I'm not sure how I thought I was going to eat this soft, runny egg on a very crusty roll as a sandwich, but be assured that it was all consumed and delicious.

@Anna N, your poached eggs look beautiful, especially on that pretty red plate! Also motivated by fresh eggs I picked up at the farmer's market yesterday, I made myself a repeat of a breakfast from earlier in the week. Half a leftover chicken tamale and herby green chile rice and beans topped with a poached egg: The last egg that I poached was so old that the white almost completely separated from the yolk in the water but this one was perfect.

liamsaunt, I've been admiring that colorful, jewel-like wheatberry salad and delicious looking vegetable soup AND those beautiful bowls all week. I hope they tasted as good as they look in your photos!

Beans on toast again: RG alubia beans mixed with some of that lovely green chile adobo from More Mexican Everyday on toasted ciabatta, topped with cheese. Apple slices alongside. I am loving that green chile adobo and want to put it on everything. I included the jar in the photo so you can see the lovely green color.

That Hungarian Grüner Veltliner is one I like, too. I just picked up a few bottles and it is $4.99 at TJ's here in So Cal. It's dry with a nice crisp acidity and I think it tastes a bit more interesting than some of the inexpensive sauv blancs that seem mostly like lemon-water. TJ's is carrying some boxed Australian wines at $11.99/3 liters. I've only tried the Shiraz and it was drinkable although not terribly interesting. I've recently been drinking some older bottles that I purchased at various winery visits over the years and was "saving for special." I decided I was special enough to drink them but it does make younger, inexpensive wines seem lacking in contrast to the older bottles. Scanning the bottom shelves, I picked up two $3.99 reds at TJ's that I've had in years past to see how they are. I'll report back on them.

Egg salad on toasted whole wheat bread and some purple carrots:

on the rolling abilities! You will notice that there are only 3 slices of each in my pictures ! For the ham and cheese version, I spread the pounded chicken with a bit of dijon mustard and used swiss cheese. It was quite tasty. I bet the Boursin that @rotuts mentioned in the other thread would be excellent here, too.