blue_dolphin

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.

We have warmer weather predicted for the next few days and I've had a lot of melons in my CSA box so to use them up I've stocked my freezer with melon popsicles: Round 1 was Saticoy melon (similar to canteloupe but sweeter) and lime: 4 cups Saticoy melon, ~1/3 cup lime juice, 1/4 cup homemade lime cordial and 1/4 cup homemade melon liqueur The mixture was rather foamy coming out of the blender and I noticed that it separated a bit. I sort of tried to hide it in the picture by putting the tops down in the glass, but you can see the separation. For the other batches, I stirred the mix a bit to de-aerate it and used a gravy separator to leave the top layer of foam behind. Round 2 was yellow watermelon-margarita popsicles: I used 4 cups of yellow watermelon, 2 oz tequila, 1 oz Cointreau, 2 oz homemade lime cordial. I tossed in a few cubes of pink watermelon for color. Round 3 was pink watermelon and rosé wine with sort of a sangria-twist. I intended to just use the watermelon and wine but I decided to add a little more fruit. I ended up using about 4 cups of pink watermelon, 1 and a half cup of rosé wine and the juice of 2 smallish oranges and half a lime. I added diced orange, yellow watermelon and cranberry. Cherry would have been nice but I didn't have any. Now, here's the sad part. I started this post around 8 this AM, right after I unmolded the last batch and took them out for their photo. My post was interrupted when the power went out. Ah, I forgot, planned outage from 8 - 4. Really not the best day for this since it was 97 by 10:30 AM. I came home from some errands around 3 PM and decided to risk a quick reach into the freezer for a popsicle. I had to eat it REALLY fast as they were almost melted already - they were on the top shelf in a rather elderly side-by-side. And the power didn't come back un until after 7 PM. I haven't opened the fridge or freezer since and I'm wondering if I will have any popsicles left or just big blobs of frozen fruity ice! Anyone else making popsicles? I want to try to recipe from the Paletas cookbook with cherries and sour cream next. Depending on how warm things got and how my fridge recovers, I may have plenty of room in the freezer for more!

My dinners are not worthy of this thread but I snapped a picture tonight so you shall see it. Missing my mom, who passed away recently, I made one of her favorite summer suppers: Chicken macaroni salad (elbows, leftover Zuni Cafe recipe roasted chicken tossed with mayo, onions, celery, bell pepper and olives), corn on the cob and a slice of bread subbing for the Parker House roll that should be with this meal. Simple food and good memories!

Second course: refreshing melon drink with newspaper on the patio: I made lime-melon popsicles (4 cups Saticoy melon, ~1/3 cup lime juice, 1/4 cup homemade lime cordial and 1/4 cup homemade melon liqueur) After filling the molds, I had some left over so I added some ice cubes and gave it another wiz in the blender. Very nice!

Another fan of thin, crispy bacon here. Usually cheap, too. Today's breakfast had a little bacon but it was really about the lovely Celebrity tomato from my CSA box: Also, from the box is some supers sweet and fragrant Saticoy melon.

Just wanted to thank you for this reminder about tagging and making notes in EYB. I do take my time going through new cookbooks but tend to make only mental notes that are increasingly fleeting! I'm not sure I can approach your impressive level of organization but I can certainly make a start with better use of these features.