blue_dolphin

No offense taken and probably no reason for you to mess with perfection!

You can blame me for the direction of the discussion. I bought myself a jar of liverwurst from my farmers market German sausage peeps. Tried it with the some of the accoutrement previously mentioned in this thread and quite liked it. For me, even on sourdough rye, the richness calls for an acidic condiment of some sort - mustard, or something pickle-y and the chewy bread and smooth sausage benefits from the crispness of those pickles or fresh onions. Like @Anna N, perhaps I would not feel the same if I'd had proper German Leberwurst or maybe I just have no taste! Having enjoyed the basics, I was curious if there were other things I should try with the jar in my fridge and I decided to share what I found, some of it quite regrettable. I apologize for offending purists who know much more than I do!

I made the Green Eggs & Ham Quesadilla from I Dream of Dinner twice because I had 2 tortillas in the freezer to use up. Though if I'd seen @Ann_T's poached eggs, I might have had to do the same, although it would have been without her stunning bread. Ah well! Yesterday, I used some of Vivian's Little Green Dress herby tapenade as the green sauce that gets beaten with the eggs, diced country ham and the 2 oz of sharp cheddar the recipe called for. It was OK but a bit too much salt & cheese. Today, I mixed up some tomatillo & jalapeño salsa to use as the green sauce and cut back on the ham & cheese. Also had a bowl of Rancho Gordo Rio Zape beans tarted up with Vivian's Red Weapons. Both versions served with some guacamole, sour cream, grape tomatoes and Inner Beauty hot sauce.

I'd consider trying that one, too! To find it, I went to the wayback machine, entered that link and chose a date in Sept 2106 to view an archived version of the page. If that doesn’t work for you, let me know and I can send you the screen cap that I saved. She credits the recipe to a 1952 pamphlet, “Meat Recipes You'll Talk About” produced by the National Livestock & Meat Board, Chicago and apparently distributed through local butchers or meat sellers, and made some minor adjustments.

I’ve only used the mix-in function a few times and haven’t tried any that could very readily be reduced to crumbs. I tend to agree they might be best mixed in by hand. Diced candied ginger and Amarena cherries were fairly evenly dispersed. Chopped chocolate (that I prepared per Hello, My Name is Ice Cream) yielded some very small bits and some bigger chunks, fairly evenly dispersed. That was my desired result. See photo I posted above on August 30. I mixed in a swirl of lemon curd by hand as I assumed it would get completely blended.

Wait, I’m sure we need a “Savory Trifle” topic…if we don’t already have one! Maybe a Pigs in Blankets Savoury Trifle for the holidays? I think a little Dijon would be perfect in that. kidding, just kidding

Yep, same recipe.

I agree. When I read the recipe, I assumed it was a soup.

Yeah, I thought it might choke up at the corners but it just happily twirls right around them!

Not sure exactly what you have in mind but @CanadianHomeChef has a nice compilation that I’ve found quite helpful. You can find it here, on his website.

I agree. The seasoning on those cashews can be a bit much but it melted out into the butter and added a nice bit of heat. Knowing this, I'd add some red chile flakes to the butter if I were using unspiced nuts.

Fresh corn polenta with lime butter topped with a crispy fried egg from Ali Slagle's I Dream of Dinner. There were supposed to be pepitas here but they were not to be found so I used some chile lime cashews instead.

The recipe I saw included herbs, lemon zest, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil and the accompanying article suggested olive oil, chile flakes, lemon zest and furikake in addition to the butter and cheese. Didn’t sound bad, though I’d omit the peas 🤣

That was exactly my issue. I find the side-cutter opener preferable to pliers but clearly, there’s more than one way to skin a tin of sardines 🙃

Yes, the side-cutter, aka safety openers work very nicely and I recommend them for this type of can if your hand strength allows. Apologies for the crappy photo. The tin on the left was opened with a can opener. The tin on the right was my pull-tab effort. I can always get them started but that's about the best I can do. The lid removed by the can opener can be placed back on the can. It's not going to seal it or prevent leaks if the can tips but it will foil a cat!

You are most welcome here but given a choice, I’d recommend breakfast with Moe and @Ann_T!

Some of yesterday's creamed spinach on toast, topped with soft scrambled egg

Yeah, that's why I thought it was the wrong one!

That one looks very similar to the ones I've seen on the Rainbow Tomatoes Garden but if you want to fall down a rabbit hole, there are all sorts of vintage porcelain and pottery sardine pots and boxes out there. One could put together quite a collection if so inclined!

I found this on The Kitchn: I Tried the Viral Pillsbury Hack and Will Never Bake Cinnamon Rolls Any Other Way Ooops. That seems to be a different hack!

Could any of these be right?

I've always thought the better advice would be to salt the pasta water to the level of a nice broth. That will be less than sea water but also allows for individual taste. My mom taught us that reaching for salt or pepper before tasting was an unforgivable insult to whoever prepared the meal. Pepper on eggs excepted.

I don't have a go-to recipe but found this online and used it as a general guideline. I used Crystal hot sauce instead of cayenne and grated in a bit of nutmeg. I thawed what was left in a bag of frozen spinach rather than use fresh and left it on the saucy side instead of opening another package. Edited to add that when I was getting the onion rings, I considered buying a package of frozen creamed spinach but I figured I ought to cook something!

Yeah, not sure I understood that either. I went with stacking two rings (I selected the bigger ones) and spooning the quartered artichoke hearts and diced ham into the ‘hole’ in the middle before putting a poached egg on top. I’ll report back if I manage to get to the cafe to try the real thing!

Last night, it cooled down to 74°F. Still about 10 degrees higher than I'd like but so much better than recent nights that I slept well and after reading @Senior Sea Kayaker's post, I decided a celebratory breakfast was in order here as well. A couple of weeks ago, a local woman I follow on Instagram posted about an Onion Ring Benedict she ordered at a breakfast spot in Ventura. It swaps out the usual English muffin for onion rings stuffed with bacon and artichokes, topped with poached eggs and a cream of spinach sauce. Shades of Jessica's Trashy Benedict that @Kim Shook's shared here, no? I've been torn between trying to recreate it at home or heading over and ordering it for "research" purposes 🙃. Since I now had an occasion to celebrate, I decided to give it a go. While I might be ready to crank up a few stovetop burners, homemade, fried onion rings for breakfast weren't happening so I reviewed expert opinions here on eG which supported the use of Nathans's (battered) or Alexia (breaded) frozen onion rings. I considered buying both to compare but they were each $6.50/bag so I went with Nathan's. In retrospect, I think the panko breading on the Alexia rings might have been a better choice for this purpose but the crispness of Nathan's batter held up admirably. Instead of bacon, I diced up some country ham and sautéed it with some of the TJ's frozen artichoke quarters in order to infuse some flavor into them. Otherwise, I pretty much followed the description so there's a little pile of artichokes and ham under each egg. . @Kim Shook, tell Jessica I have Trashy Benedict competition for her 😉