blue_dolphin

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:

I've always thought of quick pickles as fruit or veg that's flavored with vinegar +/- other seasonings and intended for consumption in the short term but NOT a method of preservation for long term storage. In that scenario, it seems like you could just dilute the vinegar to suit your taste. I suppose the higher the acid, the longer they may keep but if you don't like the taste, that doesn't really matter!

Further down in that article, you will find: Perhaps a reason botulism is rare in fermented foods is due to people actually following recipes that reduce its ability to grow...you know... using appropriate amounts of salt! You are correct that the risks in fermented foods are very low, in part due to high salt and acid levels but they are not nil and the consequences (um, death) are so devastating that many here choose to follow guidelines. I can't believe I'm devoting keystrokes here but there is absolutely nothing correct in the assumptions below. Nothing. Choosing to incubate food stuffs in conditions (anaerobic, low salt, low acid) that allow C. botulinum growth and then cooking or adding acid, isn't a preventative as neither of those treatments will inactivate any botulinum toxin that might have been produced during your merry low-salt fermentation. But, do carry on!

If your ultimate goal is a notebook, then the 3-ring binder is going to be your most economical choice as they come in all thicknesses and cover colors with many page options from just punching holes in your printouts to using various protector sheets and dividers. The world of scrapbooking offers all sorts of fancier options but both the books and pages are going to be more expensive and some are rather cumbersome to add pages. Another way to organize them is in file folders, stored in hanging file boxes (eG-friendly Amazon.com link). They come in different sizes, colors, and patterns with and without lids. That doesn't suit your need for a notebook but it could be a good way to start organizing your collection before placing things into the notebook(s).

Two apricot pops from People's Pops that I don't think I've tried before. Both apricot with floral notes. Apricot & lavender These are sweetened with a lavender simple syrup. I used a drop of the leftover syrup to adhere a few lavender buds to each pop. Thinking back, I wish I would have dried the lavender buds that I use to make the syrup and crushed or ground them with sugar. It would have made a pretty and tasty sprinkle for the pops. Apricot & Orange Blossom These are just basic apricot pops with the addition of orange blossom water to taste.

Looks like croissant perfection! I still remember the wise pronouncement from the 6-year old daughter of my long-time French boss, "It's good if it leaves a lot of crumbs on the plate!" Renee Erickson's Getaway includes a recipe for Dates and Manchego where the dates are sautéed in olive oil to lightly caramelize the exterior and served with crumbled Manchego, a drizzle of olive oil and crunchy sea salt. We are instructed to serve with toothpicks. The contrast between the chewy/crisp, caramelized exterior and soft interior of the dates is lovely and I enjoyed eating this. But these are big, multiple bite dates and it's a good thing no one was watching. If I were to serve it to others, I'd either seek out smaller, bite-sized dates or maybe pit and quarter the dates after sautéing then skewer each piece on a toothpick with a chunk of cheese.

I have used them to make lazy person fish tacos. The fake fish doesn't appeal to me either but the whole fishing industry is so fraught with concerns, I can see why some people might want to give them a try.

Too funny! I wasn't going to say anything because you sounded quite pleased with the deal that I didn't think was much of a deal!

Ditto that. I wanted a quick slaw to put on a pulled pork sandwich. Shredded some cabbage, added chopped kimchi and a spoon of mayo. Voila, kimchi slaw!

This episode of the "This Is Taste" podcast features Wylie Dufresne and he gives a pretty good description of that salad. They are buying the kettle chips and putting their own vinegar powder on them so they're probably amped up over what we can buy in the grocery store. dressing the greens with lots of olive oil. Talk of the salad starts around 19:30 if you don't want to listen to the whole thing. Edited to add that vinegar powder can be purchased or you can make it yourself. Here's an article that sketches out some ways to go about it: Vinegar: Now in Powder Form

A little of this, a little of that. Tots, baked beans, scrambled egg, tomatoes, broccoli

Wow, it's been a while! We haven't had a lick of popsicle weather yet but I decided to get ready anyway. I made a Strawberry and Black Pepper Gin & Tonic from a cookbook recipe and decided to turn it into a poptail. I made a black pepper simple syrup, using tonic instead of water to dissolve the sugar and blended that with the berries. I added a bit of tonic syrup to up the flavor and a tot of gin. I gave them a sprinkle of black pepper after unmolding. Had to make a few classic strawberry & cream pops, too.

Sounds pretty grim!

That's good news! Maybe I'll pick up another bottle to last me 'til then!

For a while, Trader Joe's was selling a bagged salad mix that came with a packet of their dill pickle flavored potato chips and a creamy dill ranch dressing. Those chips were pretty much like salt & vinegar chips with a bit of extra seasoning. It was a limited item and no longer available but I tried it and it was pretty good. Kinda fun to put chips on a salad! Edited to add that they were a kettle-style chip, which I think helped them maintain their crunch better than some others might.

Very good price but probably not worth a cross-country trip to pick up!

I have one and find it so handy to use vs a stovetop pressure cooker. I don’t want to be without it. Not sure it was the fault of the manufacturer but it was over sold to many as some sort of instant dinner gadget. It’s great but it’s not that.

I’m so sorry it was a bust! I ran out of gochujang the other day and my first thought was, Oh no! What if I need Eric's noodles!

I think it's all about the temperature. In my experience, the Lite Ice Cream is one of the longer cycles and warms the mix up a good bit, especially with a re-spin. I've had it warm from -4° to 18° or 20°F. Back in the fridge, it's going to go back down to -4° and be much firmer and less scoop-able than it was at 18 or 20°F. Sounds like you're happy with the texture when it's warm but not when it's cool. You can add a tablespoon or so of vodka to your mix to get an end product that's softer and easier to scoop at your freezer temp. Or run a re-spin before serving, or put the container in the fridge or on the counter to warm up a while before serving.

Quoting myself here after yesterday's trip to TJ's. The Diamond Crystal salt is $8.99/3 lb box. The Golden Caramel Swirl Ice Cream is isn't bad but not a repeat buy for me. It has both chocolate and vanilla ice cream with a salted caramel swirl. The vanilla and the caramel are fine but the chocolate has that faint texture of cocoa powder that I dislike. My store did not have the Bucheron soft ripened goat's milk cheese yet. I picked up the Dorado, a Spanish cow/sheep cheese that's kind of like a Manchego and despite its name, does not taste like fish! I also got the French orange rind Saint Paulin, a semi-soft cheese. I tried the Mandarin Orange Chicken. Mixed together some of the sauce that came in the box with some sweet chili sauce and used that as a dip and it was OK. The coating was nice and crispy. Not really my kind of thing but it took care of my curiosity and I've got several more servings left in the bag so I can try some other sauces. I posted this photo of it over in the Lunch topic. @rotuts, did you confirm with the staff that TJ's is no longer carrying that Kalamata olive oil? It's gone missing for months at a time in my local stores but it's been back recently and I bought a bottle last week. I also have a bottle of the stuff you bought and I think it's nice as well.

Thanks! When you said it was a tube, I was puzzled but when I saw they meant it to look like an ear of corn, made sense. Between the farmers market, Trader Joes and local bakeries, I don't visit regular grocery stores very often but I'll keep an eye for this when I do. Speaking of Trader Joe's, I went there while hungry this morning, such a mistake 🙃, but I allowed myself a bag of their Mandarin Orange Chicken, long a customer favorite, but one I've never tried. Popped some right into the CSO to cook while I put stuff away and added some broccoli so I could call it a meal. That's their sauce. Not particularly good, as others have reported. I mixed in some sweet chili sauce and found the combo OK as a dipping sauce. I'm sure I could improve on it. A lot of those little pieces hardly had any chicken in them. I expected that. Nothing truly bad about it but no reason to get it again either. Unless the hangries strike again!

Yeah, my cat breeder friend got into it back in vet school when cat coat genetics were believed to be more simple and she thought there was more to it. She's been breeding American Shorthairs for decades, has written papers on the topic and still gets surprises popping up!

First, thank you for sharing this saga as I’ve found it very interesting. When you mentioned breeding for coat colors, I wondered how much of that had been worked out. That sent me down a whole 'nother rabbit hole of rabbit coat genetics where I learned how many variations exist (so many cute bunny photos included to demonstrate.) I was especially intrigued by your Mr. Blue Eyes as I had mistakenly assumed all white rabbits were albino though I'd never make that assumption with every species. I'll be interested to hear how the breeding for color goes, especially if you find any surprises!

Thanks! The business I’ve mentioned grows Litopenaeus vannamei in suborder Dendrobranchiata aka Pacific white-leg shrimp, "White Shrimp" or "King Prawns" on the prawn side of the illustration you shared.