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I just ordered a copy of Tamar Adler's new book, An Everlasting Meal Cookbook: Recipes for Leftovers A-Z (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) from local cookbook shop Nowserving LA. I knew the book was coming out and have been resisting ordering it until I could get it from the library. Then I saw the lovely illustrations that Nowserving shared in this Instagram post. And that post also pointed me to Tejal Rao's NYT article, The Joy of Zero-Waste Cooking (gift link) that talks about this book and others, all the way back to M.F.K. Fisher's How to Cook a Wolf. I always try to repurpose leftovers in different ways so this sounds right up my alley. I'll report back on the book when I receive it.

Welcome to eG, @Yulsam! I've never done any chocolate work but I often read the topics here out of general interest and curiosity and I have to say the chocolate experts in these forums are incredibly knowledgeable and helpful.

It is very interesting, isn't it? Can't say I'll get to try it as by the time our local cantaloupes turn up, the asparagus is long gone!

Asparagus has appeared at the local farmers market and I've been enjoying it. I was going to try a recipe in Taste & Technique for asparagus with black garlic hollandaise until I saw a photo someone posted of it on EYB and I just couldn't bring myself to dress these lovely stalks in a gray goo. I turned to this recipe for pan roasted asparagus with yogurt and radish from Ruffage and it really pleased me with its simplicity, flavor and pretty spring-y appearance. I usually roast them in the oven so the stove-top method was different. The spears were a bit wayward so I put another pan on top of them to ensure even contact at first. That wasn't necessary for the second side so it was easy to monitor doneness. Ruffage offers four serving suggestions and this one was easy and didn't require any shopping nor advance prep. Just plain yogurt, shaved radishes and a sprinkle of sea salt. Tasted as good as any fancy sauce I could have slaved over! The other suggestions are an anchovy-caper compound butter with fresh herbs; brown butter vinaigrette + mint; or lemon juice + zest, dill and Parmesan.

Spring veg: grilled asparagus with pickled beets and feta, roasted radishes with their greens with white wine, both recipes from Ruffage, and a slice of escarole pie, from Delectable. There's no recipe for pickled beets in Ruffage so I used the gingery quick-pickled beets from Snacks for Dinner and they're delightful.

That's how I cut them as well.

I haven’t tried other recipes to test it out but the description on the Wilton website says it takes half a standard mix so I’d think it would be OK.

Thanks! I got some nice asparagus at the farmers market so that was dictating the recipes I wanted to try. I often choose recipes from the cookbooks being covered by an online Facebook cookbook group, but not always. I was mostly kidding about the beans, though I did consider it!

I resisted the urge to clap back with a bean salad of some sort but decided to continue with my regularly scheduled programming... Salad of asparagus, arugula, egg and radish with a mustard vinaigrette from Ruffage Very nice, though I kinda wish I'd gone with a jammy egg instead of the hard boiled that the recipe specified.

Burrata with Dandelion-Golden Raisin-Pistachio-Pistou from Taste & Technique Nice bitter/sweet/tart/creamy/crunchy contrasts

Polenta, asparagus, burrata with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar A riff on a Melissa Clark recipe from Dinner Changing the Game except I cooked the polenta in the Instant Pot (right in this little dish) and pan roasted the asparagus instead of using the oven.

I bought some fresh ones when they were specifically called for in a recipe. I thought they tasted fine but not significantly different from the dried ones. I wanted to plant a tree when I had my lawn removed. My landscape designer rolled her eyes and told me they get too big. In reality, nothing I plant tends to get very big so I may look into it again!

About half that amount or 3/4 cup. That's plenty unless I'm specifically planning some of the recipes in the book where she uses a fair amount of the Red Weapons oil.

Thanks! Red Weapons are a marinated tomato/jalapeño condiment from Vivian Howard's book, This Will Make It Taste Good. You can see the recipe online at this link. I double the jalapeños and reduce the olive oil. It's great for livening up a bowl of beans, eggs, most anything and is something I keep it on hand regularly.

Mixed Chicories with Grapes, Candied Walnuts and Aged Balsamic Vinaigrette from Taste & Technique: The sweet, juicy, grapes, crunchy candied walnuts, sweet/tangy dressing and nutty Parmesan all contrast nicely with the bitter greens. I used radicchio, escarole, curly endive and arugula.

Great reviews! Thank you so much for taking the time to write all this up. I sat myself down and told myself that I’m not to order Parsi until I dust off My Bombay Kitchen and actually cook a bunch from it. You've weakened my position but I was likely to weaken at some point anyway!

Midnight black beans with farro, roasted sweet potato & pepperonata livened up with Red Weapons

Or, as I learned when visiting New Zealand, a kumara short of a hangi! Welcome, @Not The Full Shilling! I also love books on food and cooking and also enjoy Ottolenghi's take on things. Do you have his most recent Ottolenghi Test Kitchen book, Extra Good Things? Not grand masterpiece recipes but full of good ideas to play with.

Yes, any cheese that you can incorporate into a dressing with a bit of whisking would work. Or just skip the cheese entirely and choose your favorite vinaigrette. As to the beets, perhaps I worded that poorly. I roasted them and they tasted quite sweet. Edited to add that I probably should have written sweet, roasted beets.

Either my local farmers market or Underwood Family Farms market stand. With all the rain and cool weather we've been having, the escarole and and other greens are looking quite nice. I haven't checked supermarkets for it lately.

Farro w/Beets + Radicchio w/Goat Cheese Vinaigrette from Grist Very good. Chewy farro, sweet roasted beets, bitter radicchio, and crunchy pepitas, all dressed in a tangy goat cheese vinaigrette

Mrs. Stasi's Escarole Pie from Claudia Fleming's Delectable. The filling includes long-cooked escarole, a green that's sturdy enough to retain some texture, savory anchovies, tart olives and pecorino Romano. The dough is a rich crostata pastry that also includes pecorino Romano. Watching a vast amount of escarole cook down into an amount that could fit into this pie was quite fun. I should have taken a picture as the washing and spin drying made my kitchen look like escarole laundry day! Here's the finished pie: Cut: Slice From the last 2 photos, you can see there's some dough in the outside crust that's not as well cooked as it could be. The recipe says to brush the egg wash on a 2-inch border around the 12-inch bottom crust. Once the top crust has been added and the edges pressed together, that leaves quite a bit of dough to roll and crimp. I think an inch and a half, or maybe even an inch would still leave enough dough to seal and roll up and it would cook through better. Or maybe trying to to roll it more loosely? With a 40-min bake time @ 400°F, it certainly wasn't raw and doughy, just a bit soft. Per the header notes, Mrs. Stasi's family enjoyed this at room temp on Christmas morning. I've tested and it is indeed very good both right out of the oven and the next day at room temp.

Of course that is the sensible way and I aspire to be as sensible! This only happened once when I accidentally juiced the last lemon for one recipe, thinking there were plenty more about, then later realized that I wanted a piece of zest to garnish a cocktail. Learned my lesson there!

I'm also curious about the best way to freeze zest so I'm no help there but I've tried to zest citrus (using a microplane or a peeler) that I've halved and juiced and it was a pain in the butt with both tools.

Oooh! Never heard of Dublin Coddle but Google showed me some delicious looking photos of it - looks and sounds very good!