NadyaDuke

I think this is so smart! I really like having a treasure trove of leftovers in the fridge when I need a break from cooking. I'll sometimes intentionally throw in extras to a delivery order just to have leftovers My husband was out last night so I tried my hand at cooking mussels for the first time, using the recipe that came with my built-in CSO. They were fine - not great but definitely not the worst I've had. I don't know how much of that was me and how much was the product. What surprised me was that the cooking process watered down the broth - I'm not sure if that was the steam (it was cooked on 100% steam) or juices from the mussels?

A few miscellaneous dinners from this month. I've been trying to batch up the photos I actually remember to take - so of course this happened: I have no memory of this. Clearly, I made tacos, I think from flank steak? Definitely with salsa fresca and guacamole. But why did I serve it with couscous? No idea. This I remember better and actually have it in my meal plan in Paprika: Greek orzo chicken salad. a Some friends recommended a place that sells beef and pork directly from ranch to consumer. I love beef ribs and they actually had the beefy "Dino ribs" which we smoked. As you can see - they're huge. I did not finish this in one meal. Served with a green chile corn salad. Ribs call for paper towels in lieu of napkins. Several days later, we tried their pork chops. After reading a bunch of recipes in America's Test Kitchen cookbook, we went for a reverse sear and garlic, thyme, shallot, wine sauce and were pleased with the results. Served with a fresh vegetable succotash - that's pretty much what we call any combination of vegetables, especially if it includes corn. It's probably not correct but there you go. This one had corn, green beans, red bell pepper, green onion, and parsley. Garnished with an exceptionally large piece of parsley. n

I've been a fan of hers for so long. I was lucky enough to eat at Beast on multiple special occasions. I once was in a local jewelers when she popped in to return the necklace she'd borrowed to wear to the James Beard awards. I've bought Thanksgiving centerpieces from the florist she cofounded. This breaks my heart. She turned Beast into a market/cafe called Ripe during the pandemic. After lockdown was lifted, I was lucky enough to be part of a ten person private dinner there that was like the old Beast that also incorporated produce from her personal garden. As part of the event she also gave a cooking demonstration of how to make stuffed zucchini blossom tempura, hung out and chatted with us, and signed copies of her book. I already had the book, being a huge fangirl, but I kept the signed one of course and gave the other one to my sister.

@Ann_T Here's the rough formula. Black sesame seeds are not a must, they're just fun. What I've found is getting the salt and garlic right to your taste is key and the rest is more flexible - i.e. I might swap some sesame seeds for poppy seeds or add a bit more of one or the other based on what I have. It may be obvious but just in case: minced onion and garlic are not the same as granulated onion and garlic, which are finer and more powdery. Minced looks like small dried pieces. 2 tbs poppy seeds (white, black or a mix) 2 tbs black sesame seeds 2 tbs sesame seeds 1 tbs minced onion 1.5 tbs minced garlic 1T + 1 tsp flakey kosher salt

A few recent dishes. A vendor at our farmers market sells a great chicken chorizo (Mexican/fresh style). I found a Serious Eats recipe for chorizo and potato tacos. One night we had tacos, and another night we had the rest of it with eggs. We did a one night camping trip as a shakedown cruise as we’re starting up again after several years off. I kept it easy with some bratwurst in an improvised rosé glaze (since that’s what we were drinking), some cooked RG beans from the freezer, and a bag of salad. Ancient Tupperware plate. Keeping it real, the night we got back from camping we had spaghetti with Rao’s and frozen turkey meatballs. Our go to lazy meal. For the Fourth we had family over. We grilled hot dogs and brats, my SIL made deviled eggs, I made a couple salads, and my husband and I made this strawberry cake. It’s served with a whipped cream with a bit of sour cream added, which is a neat trick I’ll use again.

My husband makes bagels, which we slice and freeze after eating the first couple. My job is to help shape and dip in seasoning after they come out of the water bath. I also mix up our “everything” blend. Last week he made sourdough bagels and they have now supplanted his previous best bagel recipe. These keep their height better, and have a great flavor and texture. Yum. I had this one with eggs. Next time he’s not around some lox will find its way home.

My mother and grandmother always hid their emergency chocolate behind the spices, knowing their husbands would never go there.

A bag clip?

A few recents when I remembered to take pictures! Curried chicken salad. I was looking at various recipes for ideas to zhuzh mine up and saw that Ina Garten blends her dressing with some mango chutney, so I did that and liked the result. A solo dinner so I cooked salmon which my husband doesn’t care for. I don’t cook fish enough to be proficient. My oven got a software update to give it an air fryer mode so I tried that. I got the doneness spot on due to the numerous temperature probes I took, as you can see. But the “air fryer” mode didn’t give crispy skin so next time I think I’m back to cast iron. And tonight we smoked ribs, served with asparagus salad and some focaccia from the farmers market.

“Frikadellen” always reminds me of the book “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” which is where I learned the word. “These meat balls had a name, frikadellen, which was a great joke with Francie and Neeley.” Looks delicious!

We went traveling and I’m still catching up around here. We had a lovely two weeks in France. (My easiest culinary takeaway is to use more mustard in my salad dressing.) I’ve been back long enough to hit up our farmers market but am still spotty about capturing dinners. A few things: I had some store bought peaches (they won’t hit our farmers market until August or so) that all got ripe the same day so I made a peach crisp for two. I bought this cute vintage Corning Ware casserole on impulse many years ago and I think this is the first time I’ve used it. Hurray for surviving a few purges! Looking up something to do with turnips from the farmers market I found the Miso-maple sugar-snap, turnip and strawberry salad recipe from Tenderheart which conveniently called for snap peas and strawberries, which I’d also brought home. I served that with pasta with sausage, beans and spinach. Yesterday, I tried Tyler Florance’s reverse seared grilled chicken. You rub the chicken with spices and olive oil, then cook it in a low oven until it’s almost done, then finish it on the grill. His pitch is this takes the stress out of grilling chicken and making sure it’s cooked without burning it. This turned out really well, the chicken was moist and flavorful. Will definitely use this technique again. That was served olive oil/lemon/mustard/dill potato salad and snap peas, not photographed. Great trip AND good to be home.

@blue_dolphin I've been traveling for a couple weeks so just getting back into the swing of things around here. I love your board - how's it going? Many years ago we used to keep two whiteboards on the fridge - one for what was in the freezer and one for groceries. When we remodeled the kitchen at our last house, our kitchen designer saw the "5 pheasants" on the freezer whiteboard and said, "OK, so you two really do cook!" Well, also my husband occasionally hunts which is why we had the pheasants. In the remodel she put a chalkboard insert on the new fridge but it turned out our favorite thing for that was using it to post menus for when we had company. (Secondary benefit, instant activity for visiting children.) When we moved to our current house several years ago we did the chalkboard paint on the pantry door and use it for menus, and things like this, and the occasional "let's figure out a problem unrelated to cooking." I also sometimes just post the weeks dinners there though I often have them in Paprika now instead. We also got a big freezer for the garage recently and I added a whiteboard and pens for that so I can keep track of what's there, as well. Today I'll replenish the fridge after our 2+week vacation and I'm looking forward to going to the farmer's market Saturday!

Well I'm making headway and am loving your suggestions. Monday night I made a big spinach salad with lots of veggies, manchego and some leftover linguica and made the Green Garlic dressing @FauxPas shared - that was delicious! Last night I made the asparagus salad with breadcrumbs etc that @blue_dolphin recommended. I wasn't convinced my asparagus were up to "eat them raw" so I quickly blanched them, iced them and dried them off. We loved it and I'm making it for dinner again tonight! As my board noted, I made a bean dip that used mint, and have been eating that with various veggies during the week, as well. And we've been having BLTs for lunch as a local grocery has some good local greenhouse tomatoes, so that's tackling the lettuce. I also made the rhubarb galette which was tasty but looked fairly beaten up as I'm not the pastry chef in the family but my husband wasn't available - so no photos of that to share! Now I have to figure out what to do with the radish and turnip greens. I think I'm going to dig into Tamar Adler's books for inspiration.

@Smithy My parents bought some of this company’s pasta at the farmers market when they were visiting a few years ago and now order it online. I went to look it up and found out they’re not local after all - just “Western!” But here you go if you want to order. https://pappardellespasta.com/collections/all-product-categories Some of our repeats are the lemon-pepper (both this shape and pappardelle), the Calabrian chile and honey pappardelle, the gourmet five blend, and the southwestern blend.

Bavette steak with leftover green sauce from the Peruvian grilled chicken. With it I served pasta with asparagus, loosely inspired by @blue_dolphin's suggestion to make Pasta alla Gricia with Slivered Sugar Snap Peas in the Farmers Market thread. I cooked some locally made lemon parsley pasta (from last year's Farmers Market), and threw in the asparagus at the end to cook it briefly. Drained then mixed it all together butter, parmesan, a bit of pasta cooking water, and a lot of black pepper. We liked and it's something I'd do again, especially with a pasta like this that has its own thing going on.