blue_dolphin

kayb, I saw your post in the dinner thread so I will report my similar lunch. I had ice cream. TJ's Peppermint Joe Joe's ice cream, to be specific. I went out to do some errands, including picking up some broccoli for a nice salad for lunch. Bought the broccoli and the ice cream, amongst other things. Got home almost 3 PM. Starving. Ice cream. Maybe wine for dinner.

Sorry, I have no special menu suggestions you. Coincidentally, a few years ago, I spent Christmas and New Year's hiking in New Zealand - great memories of a beautiful country! Our group included a Jewish family from NYC and I remember at the lodge where we celebrated Christmas they reported that if they are at home, they always participate in the traditional Jewish Christmas meal of Chinese food. Edited to fix link

I would think you would be OK if you can put your bird in the fridge on a wire rack above a plate or tray to catch any juices.

I know! I was wondering if she had another statement prepared to ask the council to address the Christmas snow issue, too. Maybe that's for the next council meeting! Never had a McRib either but the McRib Locator doesn't show any sightings in my area even if I were so inclined.

That baguette sandwich looks very tasty, Liamsaunt! Ham, egg and cheese breakfast sandwich: The cheese is the Trappist Vieux Chimay from Belgium that was TJ's spotlight cheese last month - very melty-making, Black Forest ham, farmers' market egg on an onion poppy seed ciabatta roll from the day-old shelf at Walmart !

Reporting my Instant Pot curriculum progress. Not too much to glean here, as the heavy lifting has already been done by earlier posters. The only thing that might be new is my test of a single serving of brown rice, using a dish inside the IP. ​Rice - based on this post that Anna N pointed to on the IP blog, I used the little rice cup that comes with the IP, measured 1 cup of jasmine rice, washed the rice and added it to the IP with 1 cup of water. Same ratio as I use with my ancient rice cooker, which came with a similar cup. Pushed the "rice" button and allowed the pressure to release naturally. RESULT: perfectly acceptable white rice. I was initially concerned as the IP is a good bit wider at the base than my rice cooker, which has a more tapered bowl so the rice was barely covered by the water but the result was fine, although there was a layer of rice stuck to the bottom of the pot.Grains test 1- This is sort of a cheat because instead of the planned wheat berries, I used TJ's Brown Rice Medley (brown rice, black barley, daikon radish seeds) so it's still sort of rice. To avoid the sticking issue I had with the plain rice, I placed the rice and water (same 1:1 ratio and volumes as above) into a pyrex bowl. I put the bowl, uncovered, on the trivet in the IP and poured 2 cups of water into the bottom of the IP. This time, I used the manual setting, high pressure, 23 minutes at pressure, followed by slow release. RESULT: Perfectly satisfactory. Like most brown rice products, it has a bit of a "chew" but that's to be expected. Handy to be able to take the dish out of the IP, all ready for serving.Grains test 2- small volume. I decided to test making just a single serving of the same product. I measured 40ml of the TJ's brown rice medley, washed the rice and placed it into a small Corningware dish with 40ml of water. I placed the dish on the trivet in the IP and poured about 2 cups of water into the bottom of the IP. Same cooking parameters as above. RESULT: Perfectly satisfactory. Would I do this often? I dunno. I usually cook 1 cup of rice and do something with the leftovers but it's good to know I could go with a single serving if I want. Below, on the right is the full cup of brown rice medley cooked in a pyrex bowl. On the left is the small volume test (40ml rice + 40ml water) ready to be placed on the IP trivet for cooking. The small volume cooked up perfectly. mac & cheese that Anna N made from this site. I made 1/4 of the posted recipe. With the smaller volume, I put the ingredients into a pyrex bowl as I did above. As Anna N reported, the macaroni was not cooked after 4 min at high pressure so I gave it 2 more min at pressure. The cheese melted fine when I switched to the sauté function although I was working with more of a double-boiler situation than direct heat. Once the cheese was melted, I removed the pyrex dish from the pot, added the panko and broiled it in the Cuisi toaster oven. RESULT: I'm not a big mac and cheese hound, but this was fine. I might play around with it to make a broccoli mac and cheese sometime. Beans - Earlier in this thread, Rancho Gordo passed along a Deborah Madison suggestion to cook unsoaked beans 20' in the PC and then 20' without pressure so I thought I'd try it. I usually cook unsoaked beans in a low oven, after bringing them to a boil on the stove top. I'm happy with that method but there have been times during the summer when I wanted beans without running the oven for hours. In previous tests, I thought PC beans tasted like canned and I didn't like them much. For today's test, I used 1 lb of Rancho Gordo Yellow Indian Woman beans with my usual amount of water, salt, bay leaf, garlic and del arbol chile. These were cooked for 20 min at high pressure. I did a fast pressure release, although that was a mistake, should have been slow. Then I had to play around with the settings to get a nice slow simmer and found that the slow cooker setting, adjusted to "More" with a regular lid on the pot was just right. This batch ended up getting more than the intended 20 min simmer as I was fussing with the settings. RESULT: They are a bit overcooked but really just fine beans and most important, they taste nice and bean-y, much better than canned! Good to have this method available for summertime bean salad making. Next up on my curriculum are the following lessons, though I may switch things up. the whole pumpkin à la hummingbirdkissKenji's Pressure Cooker Ragù Bolognese - this one will require some shopping so not sure how long it will take me to get to it

I'm not such a minimalist that I could maintain that kitchen as it's styled for the photos but it certainly suits the home and presumably, the owners. The island pop-up appliance garage is sort of gee-whiz but the pantry-type space next to the fridge seems to have ample space for various countertop appliances. Aside from needing to completely clear the decks to maintain the look, it seems fairly functional. Interesting to look at the other entries and read what sort of requirements these designers were asked to fulfill.

Thanksgiving leftovers, revamped. Spicy Sweet Potato Soup, toasted ciabatta topped with goat cheese and cranberry-lime relish: I had some leftover sweet potatoes that included coconut milk and ginger and were topped with coconut and macadamia nuts. Also a couple of spare roasted sweet potatoes. Made a variation of this Spicy Sweet Potato soup. I left out the peanut butter and threw in an extra handful of macadamia nuts instead. The soup was finished with fresh lime juice and garnished with cilantro.

I just did the same - what a wealth of helpful information! A big thank you to all contributors! My IP starter list (after plain water): RiceThe mac & cheese that Anna N made from this siteBeans - I saved the handy Rancho Gordo bean list. I have not been a fan of PC beans in the past, but I liked the Deborah Madison suggestion that RG passed along to cook unsoaked beans 20' in the PC and then 20' with the lid off.Grains - I made some wheat berries recently that took a long time to cook and would like to replicate that recipe in the IPEdited to add: the whole pumpkin à la hummingbirdkissKenji's Pressure Cooker Ragù Bolognese - this one will require some shopping so not sure how long it will take me to get to itAnd of course, RIBS!

I like Total Wine. I find them head and shoulders above BevMo, the other big box store in this area. Like gfweb said, the selection is huge and prices are good. Always 10% off for 6 bottles of regular priced wine and frequent coupons for $15 or $20 off a $100 wine purchase. Their checkout system seems to do a good job of calculating the best discount if multiple offers apply. I like that I can search their website and find out if something is in stock and which aisle it's in. The selection of liquors I buy for cocktails, while not perfect, is still the best in this area. For a big box store, the staff expertise is pretty good, they are generally quite helpful and usually staffed appropriately. I still buy more wine at TJ's because it's convenient for me to pick up a few veg, milk, bread, cheese AND wine in one stop.

The LA Times included this oyster knife in their 2015 list of holiday gifts for foodies. Reportedly, it's designed by Dutch champion oyster shucker Marcel Schouwenaar. At $70, it's clearly in the gift/splurge category but it looks like it would be nice to hold. Though, at that price, I wouldn't be able to afford any oysters! This does not address liuzhou's queries but I thought I'd add it to the discussion, as I might if we were enjoying some pleasant dinner party conversation

The Instant Pot ordered yesterday was delivered already. I requested a partial refund. Hope that works so I can apply the price drop difference to my Weber grill fund Edited to add that I got an email from Amazon customer service saying that they would process a partial refund for the price difference. Good news!

I used to do this all the time. Usually discovered when the forgotten toast sets off the smoke alarm when I drop in fresh bread the following morning and the abandoned slice is incinerated while the new one gets toasted on only one side. Thankful for my new Cuisi steam/toaster oven - I can still forget the toast but at least I can easily see it through the window before I inadvertently turn it into charcoal!

I had told myself that the next cooking-related purchase was to be a gas grill. I justified this as a way to cook w/o electricity or gas (earthquake), assuming I keep LP tanks ready and the house doesn't topple over and crush the thing. The price history tools tell me that prices on Weber gas grills, at least on Amazon, are pretty stable so I ignored my plan and bought the $104 Instant Pot. Won't be much help if the power is out, but it looks pretty sturdy so maybe I can store some valuables inside it !

A repeat breakfast: roasted butternut squash and blue cheese warmed on a slice of toasted ciabatta. A little drizzle of honey this time. Plus a cup of coffee and a few walnuts.

Oh no. During my few trips to China, silk purses were everywhere, pretty much a dime a dozen. But this? No, I did not see whole pig faces in every shop. This is much more interesting!

That looks absolutely delicious, Smithy! I have that cookbook but have never tried that particular recipe and put it on my list when Nancy posted about it. I'm now putting a star next to it to move it up the list! If anyone else is looking for the recipe, in addition to the Greens Cookbook, you can find it here and other places on the inter webs.

The idea of eating a face is a bit disconcerting but so far, the pictures look more like a shoe or a purse than a living face. Doesn't make it more appetizing, but not so disturbing. I do look forward to learning about its preparation and consumption in future posts.

Salad for lunch: Romaine and red leaf lettuce, pickled butternut squash, dried cranberries, grape tomatoes, goat cheese, spicy pecans. Dressed with a cranberry apple cider vinaigrette I made by subbing some of the cranberry shrub I made the other day for half of the vinegar.

Nice article. Thanks for the link.

There seem to be plenty of them here in SoCal. I got one at Trader Joe's last week and saw both green and orange kabochas at my local farmer's market as well. Edited to add: TeakettleSlim, I'm not ChocoMom but if I get a super hard squash, I put it in the microwave for a couple of minutes and that seems to help with cutting it. Now if you've got a monster Hubbard that's bigger than your microwave, the sidewalk may be the best route !

liuzhou - I like seeing your local paper along with that nice breakfast and love your new avatar! Ann_T - The food you prepare and the photographs you make are equally gorgeous to look at. Your homemade, crusty breads in particular make me want to reach through the screen and steal a bite! I used the leftover cilantro lime sweet potatoes from yesterday's lunch and some roasted corn kernels from the freezer to make some little fritters for breakfast. Served with a little peach-jalapeño jam and a scoop of ricotta on the right and a taste of lime-ginger marmalade on the left. Would have been good with some guacamole and sour cream, too, but I didn't have any!

Here it is, as I described in some detail upthread: caramelized winter squash with wheat berries, dried cherry relish and roasted onions. Sorry for the crappy iPad picture. It looked a lot better. So we've got roasted butternut squash, fried in butter - what's not to like? It's sitting on a bed of wheat berries and topped with a dried cherry relish, served with roasted onions and finished with an onion jus. Served with some garlicky kale. Rather a lot of work, particularly the onion jus that required multiple pans and many hours to convert 3 lbs of onions and a stick of butter into 3/4 cup of sauce. But the result was very tasty and I'm glad I tried it.

I made 2 cranberry shrubs recently. I chose this cranberry-lime shrub from Fine Cooking because I love the combination of citrus with cranberry and my lime tree is absolutely loaded with fruit. Alas, the recipe only calls for the zest of one lime so it's not a big help in that department but it is very tasty stuff. It's made with white wine (or champagne) vinegar so the cranberry flavor takes the lead. I haven't tried it in any cocktails (maybe something with tequila and fresh lime juice??) but an ounce and a half in a tall glass of sparkling water and ice made a very refreshing drink that I'd be happy to drink any time of the year. It was very pretty - too bad I slurped it down without taking a picture! I think it would be great with tonic and a squeeze of fresh time, too. The other shrub is a little more similar to the one that David Lebowitz wrote up on his blog recently, using apple cider vinegar and flavoring the shrub with allspice. I followed a recipe for pickled cranberries that included ginger, cinnamon, cloves and black peppercorns along with the allspice and the resulting shrub is full of holiday flavors. I enjoyed this shrub in the cocktail that David had on his blog, sort of a bourbon sour. Because of all the spices and the apple cider vinegar background, I don't think I'd want to drink it in the summer but I bet this shrub would be a great to punch up an apple cider vinaigrette. Cranberry shrub cocktail garnished with pickled cranberries.

I tried the Lime Cilantro Sweet Potatoes that cakewalk mentioned over here in the Thanksgiving thread and served them with a TJ's crab cake and TJ's dill and jalapeño tartar sauce. I used half orange sweet potatoes and half white murasaki sweet potatoes. Should have pulled the orange guys out of the oven earlier as they got a bit overcooked but that recipe is a keeper. Very tasty.