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Another grazing plate: The middle of the plate is the Grilled Zucchini Planks w/White Beans, Olive Oil and Rosemary from Ruffage. Around the edges are dried olives, cherry tomatoes and TJ's quinoa dolmas.

That sounds really good and looks so pretty. I really like blueberries in popsicles and should make a batch!

A fruit new to me - Rio Grande cherries or cherries of the Rio Grande or a bunch of other names that can be found here. They taste similar to a cherry but more juicy with softer flesh and very thin skins. They are extremely fragile. Got them at the farmer's market today and will have to gobble them up in the next day or so.

Kind of a pan-Med grazing plate. Big White Beans (Rancho Gordo Royal Coronas), Agrumato Oil and Black Pepper and Crispy Zucchini with Parmigiano-Reggiano, Lemon and Mint, both from Getaway, quinoa dolmas from Trader Joe's and a little salad of cherry tomatoes, feta and dried olives. Edited to add that the zucchini is kind of interesting. You put the zuke slices in an oiled pan, salt and top each one with a little pile of grated parm. In the few minutes it takes the first side to brown, the parm kind of melts onto the zucchini slices so they are very easy to flip and brown the cheese on the second side and each little slice has its own frico coating.

I'm sorry you are back in the hospital but am so glad that you're feeling positive about the care you're receiving this time around. Wishing you continued improvement even if it comes at the cost of some under seasoned food for a while. It looks nutritious, at least.

From what I can see Momofuku doesn’t label their product as ramen noodles. Or am I missing something?

Fresh Chèvre Tartine with Shredded Carrots, Currants and Dukkah from Getaway Basically a carrot/raisin salad dressed with lime juice and olive oil and spiced up with dukkah and served on toast spread with goat cheese.

I had a very leafy bunch of celery so I decided to try the Celery Leaf Soup from Hetty Liu McKinnon's Tenderheart. Garlic, green onion, ginger and potatoes are cooking in stock while the celery leaves go in at the end. After blending and garnishing with more green onions and TJ's jalapeño, lime & onion chili crisp.

Based on a previous comment: Perhaps the coffee wanted to get back at you?

I'm also confused by the OP but your olive story reminded me of some good memories. The building that I worked in at UCLA was slightly apart from the main campus on a hill that was planted with dozens of olive trees. Most years, we picked buckets full of olives and cured them in the break room. After curing, we enjoyed some as is and brined the rest, playing around with different flavors, as you've described. I haven't driven by there in ages so I took a look at Google maps and found the area unrecognizable - the trees, the hill and the whole building are gone and replaced with 8 and 9-story student apartment buildings. I had no idea!

Flashbacks to a couple of years ago when a liter bottle of homemade elderflower cordial spewed all over everything. It was on the top shelf in the back and even seemed to travel into the freezer. Took me a little while to figure it out. I kept wondering, "Why is this sticky?" then, "Why is EVERYTHING sticky?" After all the rain we had this year, I figured there would be an excellent bloom but I didn't give more than a passing thought to the notion of making more 🙃

Well, at least the thing is still working so you can get food back in after a cleaning. My fridge getting on in years. Early 1990's I believe. Very tempted to buy a spare for the garage or hall closet to avoid having to throw everything out when the inevitable happens. Not something available in an NYC apartment but I probably should do it.

Simple sando: smoked tuna salad with sliced avocado and celery leaves on a toasted bun, tomatoes and cornichons.

Thanks for that review. TJ's used to sell some nice rice-stuffed dolmas in the refrigerator section. I used to like making up a little plate with them, Kalamata olives, tomatoes, feta, red bell pepper strips, pita or crusty bread for an easy summer meal. They’ve been long gone and I always assumed the canned version wouldn’t be as good but should give them a try.

Yes, I have. Although it depends. I've had good success with farmers market peaches that were very close to ripe when picked and just needed a day or so in a paper bag. I have NOT had success "ripening" rock hard peaches. Sometimes they soften, sometimes they just get mealy but they don't really ripen. I think they need to get to a certain point on the tree.

Never discard! I either blitz it with the immersion blender or, for something less smooth, chop it up and return to the sauce.

After what seems like months of gloom, the sun is out this morning! Still only 62°F in the house so I'm wearing a fleece jacket but in celebration of the sunshine, I had an apricot and orange blossom popsicle for breakfast. Now for some coffee to warm up!

That’s what I aimed for but may not have achieved. I believe these guys have been purged or fasted as there is just the tiniest thread of vein but I still thought it might help get more even cooking. And it was noticeably better than the grilled ones where I just slit the shell and looked for the vein but I still overcooked the tails both times. Still an interesting experiment!

I got no picnic table, no sprinklers and no kids here and it's gloomy and in the 60's so I gotta go with it as the shrimp aren't waiting around for me to create a better setting!

Both deep fried and grilled had deliciously crispy shells and sweet flesh. It was just a bit tough towards the tail because of my inept overcooking. But speaking of good bread for dunking, I used some of the shrimp to make Kenji's Sous Vide Shrimp With Garlic, Sherry, and Smoked Paprika from Serious Eats. I cooked these at 125°F and they were delicious. Clearly, these guys were beheaded before I cooked them so it's not quite on topic but from tasting the earlier preps, I knew they were nice and shrimpy and could stand up to the garlic and paprika. I find peel & eat shrimp to be awfully messy and I feel like I need to go take a shower and change my clothes

I was listening to a podcast the other day and Eric Kim mentioned this weird toast so of course, I had to try it. He described it as toasted milk bread, spread with peanut butter, sprinkled with flaky sea salt, drizzled with honey and then sprinkled generously with nutritional yeast. The jury is out. I think it needed more honey. If you make this, be careful not to exhale while taking a bite or you will send a shower of nutritional yeast all over yourself and the room.

This Is Taste, a podcast from the people at tastecooking.com has been around since 2018 but was new to me. I listened to an interview with Eric Kim and Ali Slagle recorded recently at Rizzoli Bookstore and an episode with Wylie Dufresne and enjoyed both.

Me, too. I just hope the review didn't spill all the beans and there is still more to learn!

Here's one of my little critters: So far, I have not done well with cooking them Or maybe I should say that I did them too well! I tried grilling them (Philips Avance indoor grill) and deep frying and have overcooked the tail end both times though the head end has been good. Here they are grilled per the recipe for salt grilled shrimp in The Japanese Grill. I cut down the back but not too deep for these. The cook time recommendation was 1.5 min/side. I shortened that up to a little over 1 min but that was still too much for the tails. I was a little surprised as the photo in the book shows very charred looking shrimp and mine were barely colored but still too cooked at the tail. Temp near the head was ~ 125°F, near the tail ~ 150°F. I cooked these as soon as I got them so they were only off the ice for as long as it took me to trim their spears and slit the backs. The second round was deep frying and I cut about 1/2-3/4 the way through the back of the shrimp in hopes of more even cooking. Heads good (temp ~120°F) tails over cooked (temp ~150°F). These were fridge temp when I cooked them so maybe letting them warm up might make it easier to get a more even cook. I did peel and sauté one in butter as I would normally do and they were very nice. Next up is sous vide and an aguachile. For the sous vide, I plan to take off the heads and reserve them for stock. I'll also take the heads off for the aguachile but will deep fry them and serve them along with the marinated bodies.

National Dish: Around the World in Search of Food, History, and the Meaning of Home (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) by Anya von Bremzen (author or co-author of multiple cookbooks) sounds like a book I'd enjoy reading. It's out next week on June 20. Here's a gift link to the NYT Book Review piece on the book: How Do Certain Foods Become National Dishes? Excerpt from the linked review: