kayb

Starving for Indian food now! Thanks for this wonderful travelogue!

My current public radio station doesn't carry her, but I periodically will stream the Memphis station, which does. I love her shows; unfortunately, I've never been impressed with her recipes. I never cooked one that I didn't think needed more spice.

I pulled a quart and a pint of tomatoes out of the pantry today with an eye toward putting vegetable beef soup in the Instant Pot after dinner tonight to have tomorrow. I don't know if the tomatoes are this past summer's or the previous summers. The seal is intact, but the tomatoes have turned a bit dark on top. I haven't opened them yet, but I can't see any obvious mold or anything of that nature. If they pass the smell test when opened, should I use them? Toss them? Haven't run across this problem before.

Thank you for this. You make me feel much better about myself. I think we might be related.

I suspect the dominant reason for the sale, beyond the previously-mentioned good quality and popular product that's beginning to gain name recognition, is what I've highlighted above. Retail is moving increasingly to direct sales -- if you have any investments in real estate that involve commercial property, I'd be looking to unload them. Latest figures I've seen show direct (read: online) sales growth to be about 10 times the growth rate of on-site sales. Anova has a proven track record in direct, online sales. Being able to add to that platform any new devices they may develop, or marketing their existing products, is easier than building your own platform from scratch. Personally, I do not give a rat for connectivity in my Anova. My model has bluetooth capability, but I've never used it, and cannot imagine I'd have any use for the wifi function. As someone mentioned upthread, if they upgrade it to the point it can get the package out of the fridge or put it back in the fridge or freezer, I might feel differently.

It is a successful day. I have learned something new. Thanks! (making a note to buy sweet potatoes if I ever have time to get to the grocery this week...)

Got in from a day on the road shortly before kickoff. Unpacked and repacked to leave at 6 tomorrow morning for a two-day trip. Expect I will be in bed by the time the fourth quarter starts. Given a late lunch at an all-you-can-eat buffet on the road, all of which was excellent save the banana pudding, which, sadly, was not, I let a single Dark and Stormy do it for me. The planned snacks can stay in the pantry, freezer and fridge, and I'll get to 'em when I get back later this week. Go, Falcons. Pitchers and catchers report in two weeks, by the way, and the REAL season can begin.

Just read through this thread, after following a link from the "air waffles" thread. My very favorite waffle recipe, which happens to be a yeasted waffle, is this one. I will halve the recipe if it's just two of us (but go ahead and use a whole egg). Had them first at a B&B in the Blue Ridge Mountains in western Maryland, fell in love and begged for the recipe. The host laughed, and pulled a copy out of a stack she had in a file folder. Apparently requests are frequent. I also like to put cornbread batter in the waffle iron, a trick I learned from @Kim Shook. A cornbread waffle with a healthy serving of beans atop it...now that's some good stuff.

Useful information, as I am likely to be traveling to Shandong province on business later this year! Fortunately, I am right-handed.

I use capers a lot, most recently chopped in a sauce with anchovy filets and olive oil, seasoned with Aleppo pepper, that I used on cauliflower I roasted (see recent post in Dinner thread). The vinegar ones are generally easier to find than the salted ones, but I agree with the above assessments on difference in taste. I like both. The vinegar ones, particularly used in a tuna salad, remind me of the taste of cornichons. @teonzo, thank you for the description/method of the cantaloupe risotto. I dearly love cantaloupe, so I will be trying this!

@rarerollingobject, I always love to see your breakfasts.

Never been a huge prune fan, but I will eat my weight in dates.

I don't know that my input will be of much help, as I don't NOW frequent Whole Foods, since there's not one nearby while there ARE two other natural grocers in town. But when I did, I often found bargains in two areas: the seafood, which was at worst no more expensive, and often quite a bit less expensive, than other grocery specialty seafood counters (particularly for shellfish, which was what I generally bought). I could routinely buy large shrimp for $12.99 a pound at Whole Foods when they were $14.99 at Kroger. Tuna and salmon were also about $1 to $2 a pound cheaper. The other bargain area was cheese. This was at a point when I was first beginning to explore the world of cheese outside the packaged and deli-sliced varieties, and Whole Foods always had a basket of small pieces of cheese priced at $3 or less. It was a wonderful way to sample all kinds of cheeses without sinking a lot of money into a cheese you might not like (not that there are many of those for me!), and they were just the right size to put two or three kinds on a cheese board for two and have no leftovers. I still head for the cheese basket when I visit a Whole Foods.

@liuzhou -- what a stunning array of food!

But ricotta is so easy to make! (Ravioli apparently not so much. I confess to using egg roll wrappers to do so.)

There's a town a couple of hours from me called Helena. I always wanted to start a catering service specializing in picnics, and call it "Helena Handbasket."

Truly reached in the freezer randomly today, and pulled out a package of tenderized round steaks, labeled cube steaks by the butcher, and always known to me from childhood as minute steaks. I believe they will get seared and then simmered in onion gravy, with a package of frozen c-for-cube caramelized onions. as well as m-for-minute mushrooms Berkeley (sans the peppers; sue me). And maybe some mashed potatoes for good measure. I shall report.

Looked at that yesterday. I wound up bookmarking the whole collection; going to definitely try the short ribs and the Thai pork. H'mmm. May go back to Aldi and pick up another couple of those $1.79 a pound small Boston butts for the freezer, since I'm working my way through it....

I LOVED Miss Shari and Lambchop! Oh, come on. Lambchop and Charlie Horse were cool. As were the Stooges. And perhaps my all-time fave, "Car 54, Where Are You?" Back on-topic -- has anyone used this tray for seed germinating? It appears to be reasonably priced and fairly convenient.

"Rooster dainties" used to be a common menu item in restaurants across Arkansas. Can't say I've ever tried them, or mountain oysters, either, but I'm certainly famliar with them. Can't say that I ever recall bull or any other male animal's penis being served, though. In general, I tend to lump all that with organ meats and other offal, which I don't tend to eat (though I did have sweetbreads at a restaurant once, and enjoyed them). Sort of like chitterlings, or tripe. I accept that they're a prized and well-loved food group for many. Those folks are welcome to my share of them.

@Dejah -- I kept the capers and anchovies!

Mea culpa. Mea maxima culpa. I went to Aldi today, and now my freezer is laden down with things that Were Not There Before. 1. A Boston butt roast. At least, given the Melissa Clark NYT column on the Instant Pot, there's a good chance of me cooking it in the near future. And it's a good size for me, a 2 1/2 pounder, which will make a nice dinner without enough leftovers for the next month. 2. A 12-oz bag of ahi tuna steaks (three of 'em). I really do like the 12-oz bag size; I can use them before they get old. Poke in my future. 3. A bag of green peas, because I was out. And one needs green peas in the freezer. On the other hand, dinner tonight got rid of things that had been in the refrigerator side of the house -- pork chops and a head of cauliflower that was nearing the end of its useful life. Oh, and a bunch of homemade ricotta. Do I at least get an "attagirl," if not points, for that???

Found a keeper of a recipe for cauliflower in the NYT Cooking section, here. Yeah, it says broccoli; I had cauliflower, a head that needed using. I went with the capers and anchovy filets and olive oil, and used garlic confit instead of minced garlic. I used Aleppo pepper instead of regular red pepper because I love the flavor of it. I didn't have fresh mozzarella, but I did have some homemade ricotta I needed to use. Kalamata olives, and parmigiano instead of pecorino because that's what I had. It's good. It's a keeper, if it is a strongly modified version of the NYT recipe. Baking time was 20 minutes on steam bake at 375 in the CSO, after the cauliflower had parboiled for 2 minutes. Had it with pork chops I had actually cooked Sunday and decided I didn't want. I'd seared them and then simmered them in hard cider. I warmed them back up, pulled them out and then reduced the remaining sauce. Cooked egg noodles and tossed them in the reduction, with a little added butter. Kinda monochromatic meal, but it was good. Broccoli would be good this way, too, and I'll try it.

Made a swing by Aldi today -- alas, no pork belly, nor any sign there ever was or would be any pork belly. I started checking when it was first mentioned on here. I did pick up a 2 1/2 pound boneless Boston butt, which went in the freezer, which of course did not win me any freezer clean out points, but it's a good size for me. We shall see how it manifests itself later on. Also found ahi tuna, 12 ounces for $5 and change, in the frozen foods, so I grabbed a bag of that; one four-ounce portion is enough to make a nice bit of poke, and I want to try to make the preserved tuna in oil that @ProfessionalHobbit referenced a few weeks back and I saved. Oh, and sea salt caramel chocolate covered almonds. Aka crack. I would seriously buy those things from a street corner dealer if it was the only way I could get them.

I've been eating them just sliced...with blue cheese. Haven't bothered to roast OR poach!