blue_dolphin

Has your friend tried any of the recipes available online that make this in a blender?

Wow - you must have been starving, first to order pizza and then to eat what arrived! What's that brown condiment swirled on top?

French Onion White Bean Bake from I Dream of Dinner: In truth, this was my first meal of the day but I was out running errands so it didn't happen until after 1 and I'm putting it here even though it did break my fast. I cheated a bit by using caramelized onions from the freezer instead of cooking them up special so it was also super quick.

Do share your thoughts. I've been hearing good things about that one.

Ditto this. I do a few rinses after the bleach. I have under-cabinet lighting that was nicely illuminating the water tank and the towel prevented the algae from coming back. The light above the CSO burned out a while back. I elected not to replace it and now I don't need the towel!

The garlicky aroma that escapes the oven while it's baking is quite intoxicating!

Thanks! The book specifies grapefruit in the salad and lime juice to squeeze over. Tangerines, mango, pineapple or a mix of fruits are listed as alternates. It suggests serving with tortilla chip or as a tostada, over rice, quinoa, rice noodles or soba and adding mint, cilantro or corn nuts. As to the book itself, I'd say it's worth trying to get a look at and ideally, cooking a recipe or two to see if it suits you. The Eat Your Books digital preview has a few recipes and Amazon's "Look Inside Feature" for I Dream of Dinner (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) has a generous sample that includes the table of contents listing all the recipes, the whole egg chapter and a few other bits.... I went on from there to write an entire book review which doesn't belong here in the lunch topic so if anyone is interested in my thoughts on the book, read on over here.

Ali Slagle'sI Dream of Dinner (so you don't have to) (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) is the book of the month in an online cookbook club I participate in. In the Lunch topic, @Smithy mentioned an interest in the book and I wrote what turned into a book review so I though I'd best post it here rather than over there. This isn't a book that draws me in with captivating stories and charming header notes that inspire me to cook up a storm. I won't be curling up under a blanket to read it for literary pleasure. It's a book of simple, straightforward recipes to put together a meal in a modest amount of time. Each recipe includes alternate options as I indicated for my lunch dish which makes it pantry/freezer friendly. Everything I've made per the book has been quite good but the recipes are simple enough that you can easily see your way to adding your own twists if so inclined. This is the book of the month in an online cookbook club I participate in and if there's a common thread in the posts, it's that people are pleasantly surprised by how flavorful or pretty or satisfying these simple recipes are. I love contrasting textures in a dish and the book is very good at delivering there. As to the book itself, I'd say it's worth trying to get a look at and ideally, cooking a recipe or two. The Eat Your Books digital preview has a few recipes and Amazon's "Look Inside Feature" for I Dream of Dinner (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)has a generous sample that includes the table of contents listing all the recipes, the whole egg chapter and a few other bits. There's a cute little section in the back (you can see it in the Amazon view) called Recipes by Cravings, Mood and Realities that makes for easy browsing to find something to suit the moment. In an author interview, Ali Slagle said that she'd had to cut that section by like 75% which is too bad as we've discussed how hard it can be to figure out what to have once you get hangry and this seems like a great tool for those situations. I'm not wild about the way the recipes are formatted. If you look at one of the previews, you'll see the ingredient names listed down the side of the page while the quantities are embedded in the text of the recipes. It's not awful. The numbered step-wise instructions are efficient, there's no need for mise en place here and the ingredients and quantities are bolded and easy to find but it annoys me a bit when mid-cook, I want to double check a quantity which requires me to scan through the text rather than just glance over. In that same interview, it was mentioned that this style avoids "hidden prep" that can be buried in an ingredients list. Like a cup of hazelnuts, blanched, peeled and chopped. All the work is in the recipe text and that's a plus. People have also called out some anomalous serving sizes. She encourages people to sense check the recipes with respect to individual appetites and preferences, something I generally do anyway, though it can be easy to just follow the recipe when trying something new.

The book is a treasure! The oxtail terrine is simple perfection. Did you watch the recent NYT documentary?

Turmeric Shrimp with Citrus & Avocado from I Dream of Dinner: The recipe does not mention greens but I was in a salad mood so I served it on a bed of arugula. Love the contrasting textures and flavors of these ingredients. For something so easy, it's a very pretty dish. I can see why it was chosen for the cover of this book.

Cooked up a batch of Royal Coronas yesterday and used some to make the Smoky Confit'd Beans with Olives that appears in the most recent Bean Club newsletter and is from Lukas Volger's book, Snacks for Dinner. Recipe also available online here. Had some for breakfast. Very good. I'll make it again. Maybe reduce the smoked paprika a bit and try adding sun dried tomatoes. Good recipe to play around with.

Smoky Confit'd Royal Corona Beans with Olives from Lukas Volger's Snacks for Dinner, chapati, poached egg, & tomato on a bed of greens dressed with olive oil and lemon juice

Big Beans with Breadcrumbs from I Dream of Dinner In honor of the Queen's funeral (and the fact that it's cool enough to turn on the oven, my preferred cooking method for these beans) I cooked up a batch of Rancho Gordo Royal Coronas. This recipe is quick and easy. The beans get cooked on both sides in olive oil before a bit of butter and shower of panko are added to the pan, resulting in beans that are crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside with a buttery crunch from the panko. Fresh, slightly bitter greens dressed with lemon and olive oil and cool yogurt flavored with lemon and salt add contrast to the plate.

I got up early and baked a little 1/3 scale Queen Elizabeth cake using a recipe from a friends mum. This photo is a tea towel that my friend had printed with her mother’s recipe: No photo because I managed to ignite the topping under the broiler 🔥🧯🙄but I had a slice for my breakfast and it didn’t taste bad.

Last week, an LA Times columnist reminisced about Queen Elizabeth's visits to California, ending this column Unexpected humor and ‘a spot of gin’: Queen Elizabeth II’s Sacramento visit remembered thusly: In the unlikely event that I decide to get up at 3 AM tomorrow to watch her funeral on TV, I thought I'd practice with one of those gin and Dubonnet cocktails: Using the proportions David Lebovitz gives for the Reine Rouge in his book, Drinking French. Two parts Dubonnet rouge, 1 part gin with a lemon twist. Served over ice, as I did, or up. It does go down quite easily!

Taking a break from the egg sandwiches but still had a brioche bun left so I turned to a recipe for "Sloppy Lennys" in I Dream of Dinner. Basically a Sloppy Joe, made with lentils instead of ground beef. Onion rings and tomatoes on the slide. I have zero fond memories of Sloppy Joes but this was surprisingly flavorful. I did put a generous smear of Dijon on the bottom bun. Topped with pickled jalapeños and crispy fried onions. These may be called Sloppy Lennys but I am not a sloppy dolphin so after taking the photo, I added more lentils to the top bun and ate everything with a knife and fork! Edited to add that I can’t imagine anyone here would want to make this, but just in case, the recipe can be found online here. I omitted the sugar.

Vietnamese watermelon & tomato salad from Susan Spungen's Open Kitchen (recipe available online here in her newsletter - scroll down) Lots of watermelon & feta salads around so this was a nice change with the saltiness coming from fish sauce, miso and soy sauce in a lime vinaigrette dressing. Red chili peppers and fried scallions add contrast. In the book, she recommends serving this salad with a Vietnamese pork tenderloin. Found a loin pork chop in the freezer that I'd cooked sous vide, gave it a sear and added a bit of her tenderloin marinade to the pan to drizzle over. Made some coconut brown rice in the Instant Pot.

Personally, I don’t see the 3-cup containers as a big selling feature, though the 1 pint capacity is called out as a negative in a lot of reviews. Most ice cream recipes for home cooks make around a quart. It’s so easy to make a half recipe or make a full recipe and split evenly between 2 containers. Three cups is neither here nor there.

The Salt + Spine podcast has been around for a while but is new to me. Its focus is on cookbooks so lots of author interviews but also some "behind the scenes" episodes on recipe testing, photography, cookbook design and publishing. The author interviews are generally one per episode so they're longer than most I hear on other shows. Some of their content, like the recipes they feature from the books, is behind a paywall but the podcast episodes are free and can be found in a variety of podcast places. Good for someone like me who enjoys cookbooks, probably not for those who just want to cook. Or eat 🙃

Another of the emergency fried egg sandwich ideas from I Dream of Dinner is "griddled red onion and chili crisp." I grilled the onion on the Phillips and while it was still warm, tossed it with an ample amount of chili crisp. Layered that on a grilled brioche bun smeared with a dab of chili crisp-rice vinegar-mayo and piled with arugula. Topped off with a crispy fried egg.

Charcuterie, oysters, homegrown tomatoes, cioppino - wow, wow, wow! With some of your homemade bread, I would happily make a meal out of any one of those four!

Gochujang Shrimp & Shishitos from I Dream of Dinner. Quick and tasty. The shrimp, edamame and shishito get cooked together on a sheet pan under the broiler. I used regular Chinese dried noodles instead of the glass noodles specified.

See, we all have our own opinions. The fanciful but detailed style of the illustrations captivated several of the kids I gave it to. A serious anthropology text, it's not but the 4-year old, especially, loved poring over the pages, noticing all sorts of little details, recognizing some things and asking about others. We spent tons of time on each page, far more than it took to read the very brief text. I was worried the 8 year old might find it too young for her advanced self but that was not the case. She could read most of it but enjoyed sounding out unfamiliar words and answering her younger sisters questions where she could.

I purchased a package of frozen, ground chorizo from Wild Fork and it's been in my freezer for a while. It's uncooked and says "Spanish-style ground chorizo" so I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I just pulled off a piece, shaped it into a patty and cooked it in a pan. The seasoning is different (flavorful but not spicy-hot, paprika-forward) and it's less fatty than most Mexican-style chorizo I've purchased or made myself. I'll shape up more patties and freeze them for future use. The baby kale is pretty tender. I did run a knife very roughly through the greens after I sautéed them.

Another of the "emergency fried egg sandwich" suggestions in I Dream of Dinner was a chorizo patty + kale I mixed up a mayo from Max's Sandwich Book with sweet smoked paprika, cumin, coriander, garlic and lemon juice and applied that to both sides of a toasted brioche bun, sautéed some baby kale and other greens with garlic, cooked up a chorizo patty and fried an egg. Quite good. I started out with a thinner patty but it contracted during cooking. I think I'll shape some of the chorizo into thinner patties that I can cook directly from frozen for this purpose.