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That was my first theory upon reading that instruction but elsewhere in the book, in the section on separating eggs, she says, "The fresher and colder the eggs, the easier they will be to separate." It's hard to square the two.

I really wish I could join but like @TdeV, I'm not completely comfortable with indoor gatherings, though that could change. In addition to the opportunity to dine at Bulrush, another event that nudges me in the direction of paying a visit to St. Louis this spring/summer/fall is the Chihuly in the Garden exhibit at the Missouri Botanical Garden. I've seen those Chihuly garden shows in multiple places and loved them all. They're especially spectacular when illuminated in the evening, though I always like seeing them both in the daytime and at night.

I've been seeing a lot of brownies in the main baking topic and it got me thinking about my favorite brownies, made from a recipe that used to be printed on the back of Nestle's chocolate chip bag in which half of the chips are melted and go into the batter and the other half get stirred into the batter. I started making these when I was a teenager! The recipe has been absent from the bag for years but I found it online and scaled it in half for a 6-inch square pan. Here's a link to the full recipe and here's my half-scale version. I'm sure I could round those flour and butter gram amounts but I just did a straight conversion for the first pass. Nestle Double Chocolate Brownie Recipe (half recipe for 6-inch pan) 47 g unsifted flour 1⁄8 teaspoon baking soda 1⁄8 teaspoon salt 57 g butter 75 g sugar 1 T (15 ml) water 170 g (6 oz, 1 cup) semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used Trader Joe's 72% cacao dark chocolate chips) 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 egg 1/4 cup nuts, chopped Preheat oven to 325 degrees. In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. In a small saucepan, combine butter, sugar, and water. Bring just to a boil, then remove from heat. Add 85g (1/2 cup) chocolate morsels and vanilla extract. Stir until morsels melt and mixture is smooth then transfer to a bowl. Add the egg and beat well then blend in flour mixture. Stir in remaining 85g (1/2 cup) of chocolate morsels and the nuts. Spread into a greased 6-inch square baking pan. Bake 30 minutes. Cool completely before cutting. The look like I remember, with that shiny surface. They're not quite cool yet. I'll come back and add another photo when they're ready to cut. Edited to add: Ta da! Very chocolatey and those 72% dark chocolate chips make them pretty decadent.

That's what I did with this book and what I recommend. For this one, especially. It's a big, beautifully photographed book and expensive, though used copies are available. I borrowed it from the library years ago, decided it wasn't a book I needed, then sometime later, I picked up the Kindle version for $2.99. I'm revisiting it this month for a cookbook club.

Yes, it's a black garlic hollandaise. I'm curious to try that, too. Though I've seen some photos and the gray-ish sauce didn't look all that appealing. I don't know what she's doing now either. She closed Beast at the beginning of the pandemic and opened Ripe Cooperative which offered both pre-made meals and dine-in service. I thought that sounded like a smart idea but it closed this past October: Naomi Pomeroy’s Ripe Cooperative Will Close This Week

Thanks for this recommendation! I just put a query in to see if I can order a combo of 2 different vegetarian soups. I like the fact that the soups can be frozen if the recipient isn’t ready to eat them right away.

Made a half recipe of the Swirled Jam Cake from Snacking Cakes in a 6-inch pan with Trader Joe's ginger spread which is full of crystalized ginger - love the way they sparkle on top!

Nice interview with Farokh Talati, author of Parsi on Evan Kleiman's Good Food radio show/podcast today: Born of persecution, Parsi cooking melds Persian and Indian cuisines. Also at that link are recipes for Mutton Dhansak and his 20-ingredient Dhansak Masala, which he said was the one recipe he most wanted home cooks to make. I have to say the addition of a whole black lime to what otherwise sounds like a typical masala mix sounds quite brilliant!

Kale with quick-pickled apple, Gruyère crisps, and creamy Dijon vinaigrette from Taste & Technique This is one of the simpler recipes in the book and a good mix of flavors and textures. Should have made more of that Gruyère frico!

I can vouch for the recipe for queso flameado con chorizo y nopales (hot Oaxacan and Jack cheese dip with chorizo and cactus) from Nopalito. Not something one should be eating every day but at least the nopales count as a vegetable so it's a tiny step up from plain old queso dip!

Yeah, I could only think of the cerebellar peduncles and it wasn't helping either!

Perhaps so. In other publications, they refer to the peduncular end of the fruit.

A thousand bucks!

Probably the recipe just means to cut off both ends

Maybe those little protuberances at the polar end of the lemons? Would make sense from @liuzhou's definition as it forms at the stalk or stem end. In this photo from an article on fruit drop in HLB, they are using “peduncle” to describe that bulbous spot where the fruit connects to the stem.

It seems there's quite a variety of lemon confit recipes out there. Is this one anything like the Ripert recipe you used? It's reminiscent of a salt-preserved lemon but with sugar added and just a 2-week sit in the fridge with no room temp fermentation time. No oil. Edited to add that I see we actually have a Lemon Confit topic and @KennethT already described his method in this post so I should probably take myself over there, though it seems that most of the discussion is around what I'd call salt-preserved lemons. I did wonder about that. Though in a 250°F oven for 2 hrs, you might expect to drive off some of the moisture in the lemon pulp and that wouldn't happen in a bag at lower temp. My lemons are pretty much baseball-size so 2 cups for 6 lemons may not be a great excess 🤣 The Taste & Technique confit also used 2 cups of olive oil for just 3 lemons, skin only, no pulp. Preciously, the skin was to be removed with 1/16th of an inch of pith remaining, sliced into strips 1/8 inch by 1 inch and heated in the olive oil "at a very gentle simmer, with tiny bubbles no bigger than those in Champagne," for 20 min. I checked the temp and it was only ~ 180F so that would work with SV. The recipe includes similar quantities of salt & sugar to the Master Chef recipe and adds, preciously, fennel pollen. I think I will decant most of the oil from the T&T confit that I made yesterday and use that for a smaller batch of the Master Chef confit with rosemary and then maybe try another small batch of a sweet version with Meyer lemons and vanilla.

Yes, it does. There is a recipe for lemon confit in Taste & Technique and I made some yesterday before coming upon this more interesting one. I have a pile of 25 cent lemons from the farmers market on hand but am at now risk of investing 25 dollars worth of olive oil in the cause of using them up!

This sounds interesting: Lemon Confit

Leftover, re-heated Lasagna with Gochugaru Oil from Korean American

I believe they are still available but this part is pretty funny: from The Times of Israel: Why American Jews love Stella D’Oro cookies

Don’t worry about it. I think the humor comes across better when one can read the whole poster. I got a good chuckle of how we went all over the place In trying to explain the humor to each other. I’m still laughing about trying to figure out how the cookies fit into the joke 🙃.

A little? Sorry, not helpful 🙄 Take a look at the photo in this post about the grapefruit cake and see if it gives you enough of an idea.

Taste & Technique is the March book for the Food52 Cookbook group so I’m having another look at it. The pouring of boiling water over the egg in the aioli recipe has already been mentioned but still puzzles me. Why am I interested in setting the protein in the whites and how can that help the emulsification process when the white is promptly discarded? Edited to add that I agree with @Okanagancook that using a squeeze bottle to add the oil is very smart.

You've got some pretty special rats - I’ve never seen one use chopsticks!

I know that it means non-kosher but I don't get it either 🙃