blue_dolphin

Merguez with sweet potatoes and dates from I Dream of Dinner. I was going to fry an egg to top this off but I decided to dig right in and have no regrets. Sweet potatoes, sausage, dates and lemon slices get tossed with olive oil and go into the oven together while you make a quick chermoula-ish sauce. I've made other versions of this sort of thing but the combo of charred lemon slices and dates is excellent.

It's been a while! Grains for Every Season: Super Grain and Veggie Burgers p 43. Had this one on a toasted brioche bun with arugula and kimchi mayo. These guys are rather a project, though you do get 12 burgers for your effort. You've gotta cook barley (or in my case, farro) and quinoa, soak cashews, finely chop and cook mushrooms, carrots, onion and garlic, partially mash chickpeas, and, in my case, make panko because I couldn't find the extra package I swore I bought. These guys are all in the freezer: The recipe calls for half a cup of soy sauce. I reduced that to 2T, then ended up adding a little TJ's mushroom umami salt to tweak it. The oats look especially pale in those burgers above because I realized at the end that I'd left them out and by that time, the soy sauce, hot sauce and sherry vinegar mixture had already soaked into everything else. Tasted fine. Not sure I needed 11 veggie burgers in the freezer, but there you go 🙃

Yeah, there was an article in the NYT as well. The Last, Painful Days of Anthony Bourdain (unlocked link) Very sad.

The berry bits are kinda little tooth pullers but I still like them. Had one of the sea salt caramel ones with a cup of coffee and they're very nice, too. I'll see if I can get more this morning. Keep looking at your store, I'm often seeing items listed in their "Aldi Finds" add not showing up in my store until weeks after the ad dates. I also love those St. Michel cookies, too. Maybe a good thing I don't have Costco membership!

I had to look up Bermuda fish sandwich. Interesting sweet/savory combo with the fish, cheese and raisin bread. I can't say it appeals to me but I'll always try a fish sandwich with local fish so I'd surely give it a try! You didn't ask me, but it looks pretty good for Bermuda at the moment.

Saw these French butter cookies at Aldi the other day and picked up 3 flavors. Sixteen cookies/box @ $2.49/box with 4 little packs of 4 cookies. I've only tried the berry flavor and liked them. In my store, they were in the aisle with seasonal-type foods, not the main cookie area so I'm assuming they won't be around for long.

Fried egg, rice & beans Chipotle-tomato baked rice from I Dream of Dinner, Rancho Gordo Negro Santananero beans from Oaxaca

I’m sorry, that is hardly “just toast.” It is the pinnacle of toast perfection, that which all other toast aspires to!

First meal of the day was this pan of Harissa Chickpeas with Feta from I Dream of Dinner: Paratha from Trader Joe's that I excavated from the freezer and a bowl of celery sticks and raw sugar snap peas.

This recipe on the ANOVA site is for Savoy cabbage wedges (not red) and they SV 4 hours @183°F with butter and salt, then sear on the stovetop.

Thanks! I think these were in the fridge for 2 days. They tasted good after just overnight.

Still using my Red Weapons. I marinated some Royal Corona beans, following Vivian's recipe for pickled shrimp in the book. I put them in a salad for my lunch but would be happy to just spear them up with a toothpick if they were offered on their own.

@BonVivant, beautiful food memories of a beautiful place. I've experienced a few earthquakes here in So Cal, one of which was fairly destructive and I still remember all the aftershocks, never knowing for sure if it was going to be an even bigger quake. I was at home and surrounded by friends and neighbors (several of whom spent a couple of nights in my apartment because they didn't want to be alone and I was glad of their company. I can't imagine going through all that away from home. Take care! My lunch today: Marinated Beans with Crunchy Vegetables from I Dream of Dinner. I marinated the beans per Vivian Howard's recipe for pickled shrimp in This Will Make It Taste Good.

Probably try at least one on its own but I love all sorts of sardine crostini. Here's one:

Pork & Beans alla Gricia from I Dream of Dinner, otherwise known as beans on toast 🙃 I used Rancho Gordo Royal Coronas and country ham as the porky part. Lots of black pepper to make my tongue tingle!

Shared on Facebook by Jacques Pepin who said his daughter sent it to him… Apologies if it’s a repeat

Indeed - not a fruit or vegetable in sight! It looks like the kind of thing they might throw together when you've been admitted after meal service is over but you need a little something to tide you over for a few hours.

That's really good to know! I was going to suggest something like that because I've seen people mention it but didn't have any specifics. RCs are such great beans!

Eggs with Smoky Scallion Oil from I Dream of Dinner I've never been a fan of the "egg on yogurt" dishes. Even when I let the yogurt come to room temp, it seems to cool things off too much but I noticed that Nigella Lawson recommends warming the yogurt to around body temperature and that made all the difference! The recipe called for asparagus, I subbed a sliced portobello mushroom and it made a nice bed for this fresh farmers market duck egg.

You could give it a try. I only soak these and the Christmas Limas. The big guys have cooked unevenly when I didn’t soak.

The beans do need to be cooked first but I didn’t pressure cook. With Royal Coronas, I soak over night, bring to a boil on the stovetop and put the pot into the oven to maintain the gentlest simmer.

That sounds absolutely marvelous! I must say that the crouton application that I've enjoyed is quite compatible with that outcome. The restaurant where I was introduced to FOS served the soup pretty much covered with toasted croutons, piled high with Gruyere with that same caramelization and dripping, molten cheese. It's just that the croutons (probably 2" square) formed more of a craggy mountainscape than a flatter geography.

I enjoyed my breakfast immensely but the stars of the show were a spectacularly flavorful tomato and the lightly toasted ciabatta. The egg salad was an acceptable condiment that I'm glad I tried but won't make again. Glad I tried because it doesn't use any mayo, just mixes the broken up, cooked eggs with some olive oil to emulsify the yolks and I was curious how that would work. Fine, though I prefer mayo. Won't make again because I don't like onions in egg salad. These were briefly pickled in red wine vinegar and oregano so I was curious if that would be more appealing. No. Though I might try adding some of that chopped salami. I'm debating what to do with the rest of the egg salad. The author suggests spooning it over boiled potatoes so I think potato salad is not a far stretch.

I like it better that way, too. The toasted croutons keep their crispness longer while the middle of the bread can entirely soggy really fast.

Godmother's Egg Salad in I Dream of Dinner is named for the flagship sandwich at Bay Cities Deli in Santa Monica. Both the sandwich and this egg salad include prosciutto, salami, pickled peppers, onion, and mustard, among other things.