blue_dolphin

The Negroni popsicles are very refreshing. At first, they seemed more grapefruit-y than Negroni-y so I mixed up a Negroni for a side-by-side comparison. I forgot to get out a plate for the popsicle so they didn't stay side-by side for long: Indeed, they do have a nice Negroni flavor. More research may be necessary

I'm sure I would never be allowed on the island to begin with - I just put a batch of Negroni popsicles in the freezer!

Here's a link to the NPR story on egg prices that I heard last week. They quote a McDonald's spokesperson as saying, "Our ability to provide our customers eggs is not impacted," so I'm glad my airport breakfast habits won't be impacted, even if the price is!

I like all of the TJ's frozen croissant variations I've tried. Very light and crisp and make the house smell divine! Thanks for reporting on the truffle almonds. I love the version with rosemary and try to keep some on hand to put out for unexpected guests but if I spy them in the cupboard, I end up treating myself to a nibble and soon enough, they are gone!

Thanks Nancy, for asking this question. I have a lime tree and tend to use them for most recipes calling for lemons. I had a hollandaise failure recently and thought it might have been due to lower acid in the limes but I think it was just operator error. And thanks Shel for pointing to the Bayless ricotta with lime. I'd like to give it a try.

I remember listening to something about this on a Good Food podcast a couple of years ago where the physician who was interviewed identified psoralens as the family of chemical compounds responsible for "margarita dermatitis." She mentioned celery pickers as being at risk of a similar reaction.

I wouldn't think so since the jar isn't porous but I haven't made any incendiary pastes so I haven't needed special cleaning - just a twirl with regular dish soap and water . I have a some recipes that call for a few ancho or pasillas made into a paste where I find that smaller container very helpful. I've also made the paste that Kenji described on Serious Eats which could go into the larger jar but they seem to get more evenly pureed in the smaller Twister jar.

Ditto that. Also, chili pastes. The spatula that came with the Twister jar is very handy with the big jars, too.

This is more of an wintery cocktail and it is on the sweet side, but I enjoyed spiced rum in this Sidecar variation called the Cable Car, that I found on Chuck Taggart's website years ago. He credits Cory Reistad of the Drake Hotel in San Francisco, though Difford's Guide credits Tony Abou-Ganim of the same establishment. I don't think anyone should drink alcoholic beverages that they don't like. If it was a gift from someone who knows your taste, you might ask the giver to recommend some uses for it.

I'm with you on the very pretty but tasteless strawberries. So disappointing ! But I am I am intrigued that these guys are distilling locally sourced materials. I can't imagine that's an easy road. I know that my area, Ventura County, produces lovely ripe, tasty berries that I buy in our local farmer's markets and vastly more tasteless berries selected for their firmness and shipping characteristics. I don't know which ones ended up in Ventura Spirit's California Vodka. According to the LA Times article, they got a "rock bottom price" on "500,000 pounds of frozen strawberries abandoned in a contract dispute." Once that's gone, I can't imagine they can continue to produce vodka from strawberries but who knows? Having tasted this, I'll try their gin infused with local botanicals (purple sage, sagebrush, bay leaf and yerba santa) because it sounds interesting and their maybe their Opuntia, distilled from a local prickly pear fruit.

I don't usually drink vodka but was curious and picked this up at Whole Foods after reading a note in the LA Times ( Ventura distillers make vodka -- from local strawberries ): Since it's a neutral spirit, there is no strawberry taste on the tongue (no sweet or tartness) and the aroma is very subtly fruity but the strawberry essence comes through after you take a sip. It added a little something special to a vodka tonic and I think I'll try a gimlet. Not sure what else I will do with it but now I know what distilled strawberries taste like!

I second Darienne's request for a little more info on that Tequila Chicken. Please. I buy Alta Dena manufacturing cream at Smart & Final but I've never seen it anywhere else. Schlepping around in an RV has never really appealed to me but I'm very much enjoying the opportunity to go along with you!

You've reminded me that I have a bottle of Angel's Envy Rye that I hid from my visiting brother. I must retrieve it and pour myself a portion as I thought it was lovely stuff.

Thank you, MSRadell! It was very tasty indeed. The strongest flavor came from the leeks, the cooked radishes added a sweet earthiness and the crisp fresh radish garnish was a nice contrast. It certainly didn't scream, "RADISH!" although I might have gone a little too Pepto-Bismol with the pink color from the beet juice and would probably dial that back a bit next time!

I am regularly vexed by the frequent presence of radishes in my weekly CSA box. There are lovely French breakfast radishes, multicolored Easter radishes and slender white icicle radishes. All are delightfully fresh, with lively, peppery greens and I enjoy a few in salads, with bread and butter, etc. but more often than not, they sink to the bottom of the vegetable drawer until they are tossed and replaced by a fresher radish contingent. The other day, I modified my usual recipe for turnip soup from Deborah Madison's Greens Cookbook and made this pretty radish and leek soup garnished with a juilenne of radish leaves and slivered fresh radishes: I trimmed 3 bunches of radishes (reserving the greens from the freshest bunch for the garnish, along with 3 of the nicest looking radishes), soaked them in cool water, scrubbed them well with a brush to remove any dirt and halved the bigger ones. I had about 1.25 lbs after trimming. I also trimmed, washed and thinly sliced 2 leeks. I melted 3 tablespoons of butter in a pot with 1/2 cup water. Added the leeks, radishes, a few branches of fresh thyme, and 1/2 teaspoon salt. I stewed them, covered, over medium-low heat for 5 minutes, and then added a can of evaporated milk and about 2 cups of low fat milk. That gets heated gently and cooked until the radishes are completely tender. I puréed the soup my Blendtec and seasoned with freshly ground pepper. At this point, the soup was tasty, but didn't look any different from other cream soups so I used a bit of cooked beet to add some color and garnished the bowls with finely chopped radish greens and fresh radish. If I had 3 very fresh bunches of radishes (rather than one fresh, one week old and one even older), I might have followed the original turnip soup recipe, cooked the greens and added them to the soup, but I would have missed the contrast the fresh greens bring here. No doubt the radishes that Liuzhou asked about in this thread are long gone and I'm sure this isn't the sort of dish one would choose for a few fresh radishes, but I thought I'd post this in a thread where others seeking radish recipes might find it. I know I'm looking forward to making it again when the radishes pile up in the vegetable drawer, particularly in cooler weather.

Dorie Greenspan's All-in-One Holiday cake has pumpkin puree, fresh apple and cranberries and pecans and is baked in a Bundt pan but could easily be baked in a couple of loaf pans instead. I realize that some of these ingredients aren't commonly available outside of North America but it's on my mind as I'm going to make one later in the week to have on hand for weekend house guests .

Thank you so much for correcting me, Anna. I actully pulled up an old thread to check the title and then botched Katie's name. So sorry. But very happy to give credit to the book. It's a great resource.

Shelby, thanks for the reminder to get started on some gift planning before things get too crazy. Which I think will happen next week! Last year, I ended up pulling together some very, very last minute gifts by rummaging through my bookshelves and pantry. A pasta cookbook was wrapped up with a couple of packages of fancy pasta and some sun-dried tomatos. My homemade limoncello went out with Kathy Casey's Sips and Apps or Lisa Loeb's Shake, Stir, Pour and a few pounds of Rancho Gordo beans accompanied my Heirloom Beans cookbook. The books were all in like-new condition and I put them together in pretty baskets so I don't think it was too obvious but I should do some better advance planning this year! Yesterday, I ordered a copy of Dorie Greenspan's new Baking Chez Moi: Recipes from My Paris Home to Your Home Anywhere with the intention of getting a peek at it before giving it to a friend. Hopefully I'll identify some sort of speciality bakeware that can accompany the book. Edited to add: This is on the silly side, but I forgot to mention that I recently gifted copies of the little Will it Waffle cookbook to a couple of waffle-iron-owning friends who have reported having fun with it and getting more use out of their waffle irons.

An unintentional cauliflower breakfast happened to me this morning. I'd been wanting to make some roasted cauliflower to toss with pasta but of late, it's been too hot to crank up the oven at dinner time. I decided to take advantage of today's cooler weather and get the cauliflower preped first thing. A pretty colored cauliflower from my CSA box: Made two nice pans of roasted cauliflower: Ooops! Breakfast was on that now-empty pan. I think there's still enough left to toss with my pasta for dinner. If I can stay away from it between now and then!

As Hassouni said, you can certainly infuse flavors into any sort of alcoholic base. I've followed the recipe here for tequila por mi amante (strawberry infused tequila) and it is delightful to sip or mix with. Although with all those perfect berries giving their all, I usually sip it rather than mix and dilute their effort. I bet the blackberries would make a beautifully colored infusion. If I had a wealth of blackberries, I think I'd try Katie Loeb's suggestions for Blackberry Shrub. I think the sweetness of the berries would appreciate the hit of tartness from the vinegar in a shrub. If you decide to go with a straight infusion, I think I'd include the zest of a lemon for a bit of brightness.

Ditto Craig E's thanks for posting these tasting notes, Chris. I have been greatly enjoying both your prose and photos and am remiss in posting my own thanks. I've never had sake and never had any desire to explore it as I had a notion that "good" sake was extremely expensive and beyond my budget. I'm not sure I will embark on anything approaching your own efforts but, I'll certainly be open to sake tasting opportunities that come my way.

Theo in Seattle makes a Bread and Dark Chocolate bar that I quite enjoy so I'd bet there are possibilities in that direction.

I don't think this really qualifies as "making a drink" but I like a warm mug of Trader Joe's spicy cider with a couple of glugs of Laird's bonded apple brandy. A wedge of orange peel spritzed over the top if I'm being fancy.

Hi Darienne - I'm not Deryn and the recipe I use is not from Rick Bayless but from Jaz here on egullet. I use her recipe for Spicy Sweet Walnuts with pecans and substitute chipotle for some or all of the cayenne. I was going to suggest this recipe to the OP as I think it work out fine in an oven with uneven heat (assuming it does heat ) I'll also note that the version of the recipe that I saved indicates a wider range of cayenne and I usually use between one and one-and-a-half teaspoons for a pound of nuts.

Sounds like snow apple is also called the Fameuse apple and has a long history in Canada. I wonder if that name is used more commonly. I have never heard of either one. Then again, I've never heard of most of the apples listed on the OrangePippin website that I linked to. What a pity so few of them are widely available. But I guess it's the same with most of our industrial produce these days. One kind of banana. Just a few types of cherries. So sad.