blue_dolphin

Oyster Fest! The other day, I was looking to see where I might have neglected this book. The oyster chapter popped out because local Pacific oysters were an alternate selection for my fish share this week so I signed on and got my oysters yesterday. I've only ever had oysters in restaurants so figuring out how to shuck them is a learning experience. These guys, farmed off of Santa Barbara, are pretty big. Definitely 2-or 3-biters, at least for me. First up was the most minimal. Oysters on the Half Shell with Mignonette-Marinated Orange p 112. Just a sliver of an icy cold orange supreme and a teaspoon of its mignonette marinade is added to the oyster and its liquor. The marinade is orange juice, rice vinegar, lemon juice, grated shallot, tarragon and black pepper. Quite nice but would be better with a smaller oyster. I also made the Apple and Scallion Oyster Ceviche p 115. The cure starts with charred scallions and finely chopped cilantro stems and adds both lemon and lime juice and zest, garlic, hot sauce and diced, crisp apple. In the header notes, Vivian suggests small to medium oysters or cutting larger ones in half. I guess I should have done that but since it was just me, I could fork one up, take a bite, slurp half of the cure, then repeat. Very good. Finally, I made the Roasted Oysters with Brown-Butter Hot Sauce and Bacon p 116 with the most added flavors. This was excellent with tender oysters in a bath of browned butter, hot sauce, lemon juice and zest, topped with parsley and crispy bacon. Had some crusty toasts with this one.

I do have a Sprouts near me and I do go often. It's only about a mile away so I can easily walk there for a bit of functional exercise. Never seen any markdowns like that but I usually just pop in, get what I need and leave. I'll have to spend a little more time looking around! My Aldi opened mid-pandemic and was very understocked for a long time. Like the freezer cases were only ~ 1/4 full and lots of empty space on shelves. They are better now. Maybe they were figuring out the market? Produce quality is very hit or miss and they don't offer a very wide selection of organics. I've bought a few things that seemed to go bad very quickly so I rarely take a chance on it. I still go for the cheap mayo, heavy cream for baking, fake Triscuits, lemon and lime cookie thins and the brioche buns that must be loaded with preservatives because they keep forever at room temp.

I don't need a second fridge either, but I agree that's it's a pretty nice luxury, especially these days when the fridges don't last like they used to and delivery times are all over the place! In my case, it could be quite functional as well. Not sure what I'll get with a new side-by-side, but in the one I have now, the freezer shelves are only about 12 inches wide and the fridge side about 17 inches so putting trays of anything in to freeze or chill is always a challenge. The new one isn't big, more or less apartment-sized but the shelves are 24-25 inches wide so I can see making use of for baking, etc. Reporting back to say that I transferred all the fridge stuff and it fits fine, though there was quite a bit of culling involved in the transfer Things aren't terribly well organized and the produce bins are very petite. While I'm not a big fan of the side-by-side, having many small shelves allows for easy organization so I need to get some bins or tubs. That process warmed up the fridge quite a bit so I'm going to give it some time before I tackle the freezer. Maybe I'll run to Target for some plastic bins while I wait for it to catch up.

The delivery guy said it would take about 6 hrs for the temps to stabilize so I haven't put anything in yet. It's been holding -5 to -7Ï in the freezer and 35°F in the fridge for a while now so I think I'll put some ice cube trays in the freezer and start moving fridge stuff in. Given what I tossed, I believe the fridge part will handle most of what's left. I didn't lose anything from the freezer so that's going to be more of a crunch and I'll probably have to toss some stuff. The new fridge just has one shelf so I need to get some little tubs or shoe boxes to organize things. They would have removed the old fridge but since the freezer never warmed up and the fridge is still maintaining 50°F which is OK for fruits and veg in the short term, I didn't take them up on it. Lord only knows what's behind there but once it's emptied, I'll be able to wiggle it out and see!

It was a first for me, too. Seems like most deliveries I get are way late. Then they say that I need to pay them an extra $45 for some little plumbing connection that I could get for 75 cents but it's so late that all the stores are closed so I have no choice but to pay up. Then the new dishwasher leaks all over the floor anyway!

Good news - the fridge has arrived, is plugged in and is humming along with a Spot in the fridge and one in the freezer. Last night, they sent me a delivery window of 8AM - Noon. A little after 7, I heard a truck pull up out in front. Thought it was probably my neighbors construction delivery so I paid no attention. I was bustling about, emptying the closet, mopping the dusty floor in there, moving furniture so there was a clear path, etc. when the doorbell rang. That was indeed my fridge truck, an hour early - good thing I'd changed out of my PJs and brushed my teeth!

Excellent idea. Not that it would have helped me here as the freezer temps have remained within an acceptable range (based on the min-max display on the little Thermoworks Spot that lives in there) though a fridge alarm might have helpfully woken me up in the middle of the night and provided me a bit more time for online fridge shopping!

Yes, I've certainly been thinking of your ordeal. Thankfully, I didn't have to resort to bribery....yet! And, I'm very, very lucky that I can afford to replace it and was able to find one I could get delivered on short notice!

Well, I failed to heed my own advice and my fridge is giving up the ghost. It was hovering around 40°F yesterday. Freezer was at -1°F, a few degrees above normal. I thought I might not have closed the fridge door properly and hoped that a nice long overnight with no opening it would give it time to recover. Alas, it was 50°F this morning and the freezer up to 1°F. Went to Lowes and bought a small, but full-sized one that will be delivered tomorrow. It will fit into what used to be a laundry closet, right around the corner from the kitchen and could eventually become a garage fridge. A previous owner built the kitchen cabinets very closely around the now dying fridge. It's a side-by-side with panels that match the cabinets and I'm going to need a bit of time to figure out what to replace it with. My preference is no ice maker and that ruled out anything available quickly. While I was at Lowes, I bought a cooler and stopped for ice on the way home. I put enough dry ice into the freezer to keep everything in frozen. Now I need to start the fridge clean out, toss anything perishable and use the cooler for stuff like fruit, veg, cheese, mustard, pickles, jams, etc. that I'd still eat. Shouldn't be anything stinky yet but I'm not really looking forward to it! And even if it doesn't stink now, it surely will by the time the trash gets picked up on Friday!

What a nice find! If you should find yourself with more, I can recommend the recipe for Sand Dabs with Shallots, Sea Beans and Sherry Vinegar from the Zuni Cafe Cookbook. I haven't had the pleasure of foraging it myself but Murray Family Farms was offering it regularly at their farmers market stand. They said it grows on their property near Bakersfield. Go figure! I tried that Zuni fish recipe (posted here) and an easy, briny anchovy and samphire pasta recipe from Ottolenghi's Simple (posted here) which was also very good. I need to get some more to play around with!

Oh, one more possible addition for you. Their uncured, raw Spanish-style ground chorizo is a great pre-seasoned ground pork that you might enjoy playing with. $4.48/lb so certainly a premium over what you'd pay for ground pork but reasonable in the sausage realm and very tasty stuff. I like to make it into little patties for breakfast sandwiches. Would probably be great mixed into burger meat. This isn't Mexican chorizo, lots of smoked paprika, etc, like in Spanish chorizo.

Not sure where you are but here in SoCal, grouper isn't common so I always order a grilled grouper sandwich if I'm in Florida. Happily, WildFork offers excellent grouper that's nicely packaged in individual pieces.

That looks amazing but I am shocked, so shocked to see you post a breakfast without chorizo.....perhaps I can't make it out....or maybe it's on the side? 🙃

In a nood mood this morning so Eric Kim's gochujang buttered noodles Sugar snap peas not part of the recipe but I like them.

I donated to a church fair for their penny pitch booth!

A while back, I received this large wine glass which is also large enough to hold an entire 750 ml bottle of wine. Pretty sure it was taller than 9 1/2 inches!

You weren’t kidding about the length of their menu - wow! I was curious about: so I looked it up on their website to see if it explained. I learned that momo are dumplings and these must be breaded or battered and fried but what was inside? Duh. I was over thinking. These must be chicken filled momo that are fried rather than steamed, not chicken-fried momo 🤣🤣🤣

We need a photo of this one!

Two fish lunches. This week's fish share was black cod so I followed a recipe from Kenji for miso-marinated broiled black cod: with scallions, steamed rice, cucumbers and pickled ginger. Last week, I got fresh halibut and subbed it into a recipe from NOPI for Lemon Sole with burnt butter, nori and fried capers: with brown rice and sugar snap peas. Kind of a murky looking sauce but it tasted good!

I perused this thread recently and noted a few recommendations for the Chicken Braised with Figs, Honey and Vinegar on p 350. Figs in season and a pack of leg quarters at $0.99/lb sealed the deal. This is an excellent chicken recipe. These leg quarters were huge so the braise was a great way to cook them. Header notes talk about identifying perfect figs, but I think the brief sauté they get in the reduced braising liquid, brightened with honey and vinegar will make even a so-so fig taste pretty great. Header notes say the restaurant serves this with a salad of raw fennel ribbons and arugula with wedges of fried pizza dough to sop up the sauce. My mind went to polenta but I did add a pile of arugula. Edited to add that the recipe calls for a single onion, cut into 8 wedges to go into the braising pan for 4 servings. The braised onion is quite delicious, so if you like onion, I’d increase that.

Yes, freezing is almost always a safe alternative. No risk there.

Yeah, it's not something I'd buy for making burgers or any sort of volume use but when I'm making Marcella's chicken liver sauce for pasta that only calls for 1/4 lb ground beef for 4-6 servings and I'm scaling that down, it's pretty handy!

I bought a bunch of those at Daiso a while back. I think they were about a dollar each in the store. $1.75 online. Packaged them up in a little bag with a nutmeg and tied it on to a bottle of homemade eggnog that I give for holiday gifts. Should go back and pick up one for myself! It's really handy. I like that you can "name" your timers when you tell Alexa to set them. When I'm juggling a bunch of tasks, it's nice to be told, "Your laundry timer is done," or your cookie timer or farro timer or whatever. I'm so used to it that when a temp alarm I'd set when making ricotta started beeping, I immediately called out, "Alexa, stop alarm," forgetting it was a completely unconnected Thermoworks device!

I've mentioned this before but I also have a local Wild Fork store. I've been doing a local fish share so haven't used them much lately but I really like that the fish portions are individually vac-packed. I also like their ground beef that comes in a bag of individually frozen bits so you can just shake out a small amount. Wish they offered ground pork in the same format.

For cookbooks, I generally use the Kindle app on my iPad and photos usually display very nicely. I assume there's a Kindle app for other tablets. I have a small Kindle device (Paperwhite) that has a small, monochrome display that I use for reading other books and it’s not so great for photos. It’s like reading a small paperback. I've also noticed there are things about the way individual books are formatted that makes them more or less pleasing to navigate and use. Some of that is the dependent on the e-reader software but some is on the publisher and how they’ve formatted tables of contents, etc.