blue_dolphin

Yes, a homemade or purchased (TJ's) cold-brewed coffee concentrate were options I considered and I think they'd be good. I was sort of using up leftovers with my brewed coffee and instant packets……as my grandmother used to say, "trying to make a dollar out of 98 cents." Edited to fix grammar

Those Vietnamese iced coffee pops are good and it would be easy to scale the recipe to make just a few. I wanted to make a swirl or layer that would be milkier, like it is in a glass of the real thing but I had to run out to meet a friend and ended up just pouring it all in the molds. I do have the rest of the can of condensed milk in the fridge so further experiments could happen. And I think the leftover Negroni "marinade" will find its way into a popsicle some day .

I think btbyrd captured the essence of the place and as Lisa pointed out, there's likely a lot of frozen, pre-cooked food. Sadly, I live in a land of chain restaurants and have a Lazy Dog outlet very close by. I have friends who like it because they can bring their dogs (patio only). I haven't eaten there. I assumed it's like the Applebees that I visited while traveling with family. My quesadilla was delivered without guacamole and the server told me that they could get me some but that it would take "a really long time to thaw out the paste." Yeah, I know that's what I get for going there but still, no thank you to "the paste!"

Hot here again. 103 deg F today so 2 more popsicle variations. First up are the Vietnamese Iced Coffee pops for Anna N. These are good and very easy. Just 2 ingredients: 2 cups (500 ml) extra strong coffee plus 2/3 cup (160 ml) sweetened condensed milk. I used leftover regular drip brewed coffee which was fairly strong but David said the coffee "should be chest hair-raisingly strong" so I supplemented with 2 packets of Starbucks instant Italian roast coffee - free samples that had been hanging around in my cupboard for some time (best by date = Aug 2010 ). I was lazy and just weighed 160 gm of the sweetened condensed milk into the coffee without bothering to look up the density (1.29 g/ml) and calculating that I should have weighed 206 gm so they are a bit less sweet (29% less) than they should have been. However, they taste fine and pack a serious caffeine hit. I'm feeling pretty hyper at the moment and will ration them to 1 per day. Next, I tried a recipe for Negroni Orange Popsicles from the LA Times. Basically, orange slices are soaked in a sweetened Negroni and then frozen on a stick. The picture online looked appealing but my result was less so. Here are the orange slices in their Negroni bath: Drained and sticks inserted, ready for the freezer: The 3 slices with the holes in the center are from a large navel orange. The other is from a smaller Valencia orange. And after freezing: These taste OK but I suspect a longer time or maybe a vacuum infusion would get more Negroni into the slices as the flavor was much stronger on the periphery of the slices compared with the centers. The frozen orange slices were hard (not surprising really ) and the navel oranges tended to break apart along the membranes. The frozen membranes were unpleasantly chewy, more pronounced in the navel oranges. I don't think I will bother to perfect these.

I don't drink milk either and find evaporated milk a useful pantry staple to keep on hand. Many brands of evaporated milk in the US also contain a bit of carrageenan that adds useful thickening properties in a dish like this.

Oh yes, please do continue. I loved reading along last time. I really enjoy visiting markets and I sadly plan lovely meals I can't possibly cook in a hotel so it was a treat to read about your experiences in Venice that incorporate the meals you prepared with local produce and dining with a "local" perspective as well.

Oh dear, Condolences on your dearly departed Eva Zeisel plate. I love her work and the Harlequin pieces are lovely. Good luck in sleuthing down a replacement!

A recent NYT article might be relevant to this discussion: Restaurants Take the Din Out of Dining From the article, "...Some diners will always be drawn to places where the music seems to be coming from the main stage at Coachella and dialogue proceeds at the sore-throat volume one would expect on a battlefield…." "This seems to be a real trend with the restaurant people we’re talking to,” Ms. Meyer (co-owner of Meyer Sound, which develops systems to fine tune acoustic environments) said. “The idea is to make a really comfortable environment.” "...Bay Area restaurants have noticed that such a granular level of acoustic comfort entices diners to stay longer, drink more and spend extra money…" The article says acoustic treatments can, "cost anywhere from the high five figures to half a million dollars," but they also refer to more low tech solutions such as an observation that a particular knife had a tendency to fall off plates being cleared and generated significant clatter. Solution - train servers not to drop knives Really! In reference to Ken Friedman of the Spotted Pig, "Originally, he wanted to lure people through the front door with the promise of a high-volume happening; now he’s more concerned with making sure they come back, and acoustic restraint plays a part in that. Toning down the din, he has discovered, has its pleasures. “It just gets to the point where I’m sick of yelling,” he said."

This thread has been making me crazy trying to figure out what I did with this thing as I'd sort of like to give it another try. I recall (and Amazon confirms) that I bought the Fasta Pasta back in early 2009. At the time, my stove was very underpowered and it took forever to boil a pot of water so I thought this might be handy. My recollection is that it worked OK however my microwave was as underpowered as the stove and it took a lot longer than the time estimated. The bigger issue was that I found it much more cumbersome to open the microwave, get the thing out, fish out a piece of pasta to taste and repeat those steps until it's right than it is to do the same on the stovetop. I'm sure if I was willing to go through the learning curve (and record my data in an appropriate laboratory notebook ), I'd find times that would work for some common shapes and develop enough familiarity to get the time right without as much trial and error. However, I really enjoy trying different brands and shapes and found a lot of variability in cooking times so this seemed like too much of a nuisance. Also, when preparing a pasta dish, I often use the microwave to steam vegetables, defrost a cube of pesto or sun dried tomato paste, etc. so having it occupied by the pasta wasn't helpful. I'm now living in a different house, with a different microwave and would consider giving it another go…..if only I could find it . I suspect I utilized the handy rectangular shape and it's being used as a drawer organizer somewhere! Edited to add: My microwave was one of the above the stove units so the above pasta testing steps involved reaching up to remove and replace a steaming and boiling water-filled unit from almost above my head so that contributed to my opinion. That said, I can certainly understand it being worth the time investment to become comfortable with its use in better ergonomic situations like the one that Andie described.

Ditto the above! It's fun to see and I can only imagine how glorious all of this must smell!

Pumpkin walnut cookies are one of my favorites. And that Dorie Greenspan holiday bundt cake (includes an optional maple glaze) is nice, even if Labor Day isn't quite the holiday for it! I like pumpkin smoothies too but they're not baked ! Edited to fix typo

Trader Joe's Brownie Crisp. This is a new item advertised in the last Frequent Flyer. Described as, "a rich brownie taste with a crisp cookie crunch." Note that the package states they are vegan and gluten free. I'm not an expert on the vegan/gluten free market but I'd say this product is for those people. In my bag, there were an assortment of sizes, relatively more of the small crumbles and fewer of the full size pieces The bag is made of a material very similar to the cat treat packaging so every time I open it, I have 2 very expectant furry faces looking up at me. You may note evidence of this above. The taste is OK. There are "vegan chocolate chips and chunks." I would crumble them up on some ice cream or try including them in some of my homemade popsicles , though if I was after a brownie with ice cream, I'd want something with some chew. I wouldn't go out of my way for these unless I needed vegan/gluten free treats.

Following up on Alex's comment, I'll throw out another cost-saving idea, even though I suspect you may be too far into things to use it. Some years ago, during her kitchen reno, my mom balked at the cost of the double microwave/oven models like the one that you described in the original post. Instead, she had the cabinet guys frame out an open, microwave-sized box just above the wall oven with an electrical outlet at the back. Her microwave oven slid nicely into that space. It's not as sleek looking as the built in doubles and there was a small additional cost for carpentry and electrical for the framing and outlet but it was still a lot cheaper than the alternative. I thought it was a good idea as the space could be used for a toaster oven or the like in the event a future user was anti-microwave. Edited to add that I replaced a busted double wall oven with the same when I moved into this house. If I'd given it more thought, I'd have gone with a single oven with space above for a countertop micro/convection oven and a warming drawer below the main oven. Hindsight - it's good!

I keep a spare sewing gauge in my knife drawer: I find it very handy for measuring the thickness of a piece of fish or meat and as a sense-check when slicing and dicing. I have a plain old ruler and a variety of implements with a ruler etched or printed on them but I find the little slider on this gadget and the mm/inch markings useful to gauge things. Indispensible? I dunno. But very handy!

Well, since I don't have an Instant Pot, I have to make up easier experiments with my popsicle molds ! I am also tempted to try some Vietnamese iced coffee pops but I didn't have another use in mind for the rest of the can of sweetened condensed milk so I tabled that idea until I have enough limes on my tree to make another batch of the lime pie pops. Also until my freezer is less full of popsicles - I need to have people over an serve them popsicles for dessert!

I can imagine this experience has been very frustrating - after spending a good chunk of money, it's reasonable to expect a quality product. I agree with you that the Blendtec doesn't function well with small volumes and I was frustrated by this as well. I am pleased that that they introduced the smaller Twister jar that does a much better job handling small volumes of chili pastes, etc. and I think it should be a part of any standard package Blendtec sells. That said, I'm happy with my Blendtec. I've never had the base "jump around" on the counter in any way. If I run a jar full of ice, the jar itself will jolt a bit for the first few revolutions but the base stays solid. I use it for a lot of vegetable purees and soups and find they come out perfectly smooth. As daveb said, I hope you will find a blender that works for you.

My last effort on the sour cream/strawberry/brown sugar combo (sweetening the sour cream with a bit more brown sugar - still significantly less than the original recipe - and including some crushed ginger snaps into the dark brown sugar mix for crunch) was OK but still not exactly what I wanted with respect to that sugar crunch. I could experiment with some larger sugar crystals or making some brown sugar brittle but I think dipping the tops of the pops into some turbinado sugar before serving will be good enough for this round of experiments: Next up is a test of an iced coffee pop. I wanted this to be like an icy iced coffee, not a coffee ice cream, although that certainly has its charm! I used approximately equal parts of coffee and whole milk plus a bit of simple syrup to sweeten it just a little. I piped a little bit of Trader Joe's Nutella-like Cocoa Almond Spread into the molds, alternately with the cold coffee mixture and was pleasantly surprised that it didn't all sink to the bottom but stayed distributed in the pops. I did chill the coffee mixture until it was almost frozen before filling the molds. Without much fat or sugar, these are on the icy side. Not sure others would like them but I'll probably make a few from time to time when I have leftover coffee. Perfect for those days when it's just too hot for a second cup of coffee! Last up are some yogurt pops. One of my favorite combos is mango, blueberries and yogurt, lightly sweetened with maple syrup so I made these: I used 2 cups of Greek-style yogurt, 3 T maple syrup and alternated that in the molds with diced mango (Trader Joe's frozen mango chunks, thawed and diced) and fresh blueberries (cut in half). I'm happy with these, too. Not too sweet, something I'd feel comfortable having for a snack. For comparison, the Paletas recipe for yogurt and berry pops uses a 1/2 c sugar + 1/2 c water syrup to sweeten 1 1/2 c yogurt and adds an additional 2T honey, which would make a much sweeter treat. I don't think the mouthfeel of my pops suffered from the reduced sugar but someone accustomed to commercially sweetened yogurts might not like the yogurt tang that comes through on these.

Pasta again. I added some zucchini from today's CSA box to the slow roasted tomato sauce I made last week:

There are silicone pop molds available. The Zoku molds like this seem to be popular. Upthread, disposable paper cups were proposed. The Paletas book suggests using shot glasses or any vessel that isn't too wide and has smooth sides.

Here we have strawberry, sour cream and brown sugar pops. As mentioned above, I thought a sour cream-strawberry combination sounded good. I remember the first time a friend served a bowl of perfect strawberries with small dishes of sour cream and brown sugar for dipping. So simple and so good! I tried making this combo into a popsicle, using the cherry, sour cream, tequila pops from Paletas as a starting point: I wanted the three components to stay separate but still have a bit of each in every bite. I reduced the sugar in the sour cream mix from 1/2 cup to 1/8 cup. I was concerned this might make it too icy. The texture was a little firmer, but still good however reducing the sugar that much made this component a bit bland. For the berries, I chopped them a bit and used about 1/3 of the original amount of sugar, plus 1/4 t balsamic vinegar and heated them just until they barely began to soften. That worked out very well, and yielded firm, flavorful bits in the pops. For the sugar, I used a mix of mostly dark brown sugar and a little turbinado sugar, thinking some of those larger crystals might retain some crunch. I tried 2 variations, stirring the sugar into the sour cream mix (on the right above) and layering it separately in the molds (pictured on the left). The separately layered sugar had a slightly more distinct flavors but the sour cream base tasted bland due to the reduced sugar. The mixed-in sugar compensated for the reduced sugar in the sour cream mix and made for a tastier pop, even if the flavors were less distinct. I'll give this one more go, using a combination of stirring in a bit of brown sugar and layering a bit more in with the berries. I might try adding some ginger snap or molasses cookie crumbs with the added sugar to see if it might add that little bit of crunch you get when dipping the fresh berries themselves.

Roasted chicken (Zuni cafe recipe), potato salad (Red Norland potatoes from my CSA box, cooked in the pressure cooker as inspired by recent egullet discussions) with tomato and fresh corn (also from the CSA box).

I can't say I'll make a linzer torte any time soon but thank you for posting this and providing me with a lovely bit of Sunday morning reading: With a flair for music making and baking from the NYT in 1991 and Richard Stoltzman's Linzer Torte from The Splendid Table. Queued up some nice clairnet duets to listen to as well!

It's been unusually hot here and I've been reluctant to run the oven and the AC at the same time but I really wanted to try the recipe for slow roasted tomato sauce that ElainaA posted in the gardening thread and Okanagancook mentioned during Shelby's recent blog. I had a bunch of little tomatoes from my CSA box so I got them into the oven early this AM and was able to enjoy some pasta for lunch. Ready for the oven: Finished roasting: Ready for lunch: Some of the tomatoes fell apart in the oven and I thought maybe I should smoosh the rest to make more of a sauce. I'm glad I didn't as each bite of one released a burst of fresh, hot, acidic tomato flavor. Given the 3 hr roasting time, my whole house smells like garlic and now, I do too!

Sour cream, cherry and tequila ice pops from Fany Gerson's "Paletas" These are very tasty. A little tang from the sour cream balancing the sweet cherries. I love to sneak frozen cherries direct from the freezer as a sweet treat and I was a little disappointed that they were cooked down with sugar to almost a jam-like consistency and marinated in the tequila. It absolutely works in this combination but I missed the firm texture and fresher flavor of the plain fruit. I think this sour cream pop would pair very well with strawberries, using some of the berry-infused tequila por mi amante instead of plain tequila. Mmmmm!

Anna N, If you make any of the Paletas book recipes, please do share. The lime pie pops are very good. I've made them several times. Another recipe that intrigues me (not in the book) is the Mexican Street-Corn Paletas that Francis Lam wrote up after an afternoon with Fany Gerson. My popsicles, well, last batch that I'd just unmolded and left on the top shelf don't look as pretty but I think a few can be salvaged. Thankfully, the melted stuff stayed confined to the waxed paper lined baking sheet and didn't decorate everything on the shelves below. And the other pops had been packed up into freezer bags on the lower shelves and were fine. Sort of silly to complain about melted ice pops when there were several crews on my street working up on the poles all that time! I will make more careful note of these outages in the future and on hot days, I'll consider getting some dry ice for the freezer in case the outage runs longer than anticipated.