kayb

Mamma Maria's. Very good.

Please put me on the list of people who want to have dinner at your house. That is absolutely gorgeous. And the cow pea shakshuka over labneh was inspired!

Saved that one myself. Will be making some next summer.

Didn't make it to Cape Cod. Decided to go north instead. Kids wanted a report on the witches, from Salem.

@rotuts -- We did indeed. Swampscott, Marblehead, Salem. Walked some five miles that day.

Lovely meals, all. I wish it would get cool enough to braise something here. One of the two exceptional dinners I had while in Boston -- lobster we bought off the boat, split and baked with buttered bread crumbs. Tomatoes with mozzarella in a balsamic viniagrette with added olive oil. The other dinner was pasta Bolognese at an Italian restaurant in the North End. Very, very good. No pictures.

Local battered cod sandwich with pickle spear and steak fries, at a restaurant in Marblehead Harbor, Mass. We were sitting by the deck railing, so I had to perch my plate on top of it to take advantage of the background. The day before, a Reuben from a stand at the Boston Public Market. With REALLY good spicy pickle chips!

How fun to come back from a trip out of town and get to go to Manitoulin! Now placing hairy melon on my list of things with which not to bother. Not that I had considered it.

Yes. I buy a quarter of a steer and a quarter of a pig every year; I get about 150 pounds of beef, ranging from soup bones and ground beef to steaks, roasts and stew meat; about 30 pounds of pork, which I can to some extent specify how I want it -- I get sausage, shoulder roasts, loin roasts, tenderloin, and pork belly. Then I buy chickens about four, whole, at a time from a local farmer. I have a storage room in which I keep a 10-foot freezer. I suspect the practice saves me money, but I KNOW it provides me better quality meat. What I DON'T know is if my beef qualifies as "single origin." It is, in that it's all from the same farm, but whether it's all from the same critter, I have no idea; ditto the pork. These are small farmers that generally take in eight to 10 animals at a time to be processed.

Aha! Thanks! I am noting on that file that it came from you, so if I ever pass it on to someone else, I can attribute it. I cannot tell you how grateful I've been for those instructions!

Y'all put me in the quiche mood. Actually, this one was something of a hybrid quiche/tortilla, or a quiche-tilla, I guess, as it had three medium grated Yukon Golds and half a grated onion in it, along with diced Black Forest ham and a sizeable portion of grated Gruyere. I tossed the cherry tomatoes on top as an afterthought; they were the morning's harvest, likely about the last I'll get this season. Made a fine lunch.

I cut mine in wedges, skin still on, then toss them in olive oil and put them on the pan skin side down; sprinkle with whatever seasoning, and into the oven. I tend to start them at 375 for 20 minutes or so, then crank it up to 425-450 to finish them off and brown them.

Have to confess I make crustless quiches. Got in that habit on behalf of my child who has celiac disease, and never broke it.

I love quiche of all kinds, and make it at any provocation. One of my favorites is Southwestern -- with diced potatoes, lightly browned in oil and drained; black beans; whole kernel corn; and queso fresco, along with some ground red pepper, chili powder and a bit of cumin. I sprinkle some grated cheese on top, along with some chopped, drained tomato and diced avocado, to serve. I find that about two ounces of goat cheese beaten into the egg-and-cream add a luscious degree of extra creaminess.

Made vegetable soup earlier this week with the leftovers from the pot roast. RG beans cooking now, with some diced Black Forest ham from Aldi.

While my mother was a respectable cook, she was not an outstanding one. It was something she did because we had to eat, not because she loved to do it. Oddly, the one exception was sweets (odd because she was a severe Type 1 diabetic); she made petit fours for every wedding shower that happened, and batches and batches of candy at Christmas, popcorn balls for Halloween, and potato doughnuts whenever I could talk her into it. I still make candy every Christmas because it seems like the right thing to do.

Am putting RG Mayacoba beans on to soak in a minute. It'll be my first time to try them. Think I'll cook them with some diced up bacon, salt and a little pepper.

Chicken pot pie is one of the things I make myself, but in a "semi-homemade" fashion. I use the readymade rolled pie crusts in the cooler section at the grocery (Pillsbury is better, if more expensive, than store brand); frozen mixed veggies; either canned (if I'm REALLY in a hurry), or poachedc chicken breast mea;t cream of chicken soup, and grated cheddar cheese. It's about three ounces of cheese, or, if you're using the pre-grated in the bag stuff, as much as you can reach in the bag and grab in one big handful. One pie crust in the pan. Mix chicken, cooked and mostly drained veggies, cheese and soup. Dump in bottom crust. Top with top crust. Cut slits in top, and bake at 325 for about 40 minutes, until crust is golden. I've made these from scratch, and they're not enough better than the open-and-dump-it-together variety to warrant the extra effort.

After giving up on my attempt at sourdough, it was back to basics for me yesterday. This loaf, oatmeal honey whole wheat bread from the King Arthur Flour website, is soft, pliable, makes damn fine toast, and I think will make most excellent pimiento cheese sandwiches to go with my vegetable soup. @Anna N, I'm confused as to why you're having trouble with your loaves hitting the top element of your CSO. When I have my rack in the lower position, with loaves crowned an inch above the pan to start, I have plenty of room. This recipe calls for 30 minutes at 350; I had the door open for a few minutes to cover them with foil for the last 15, and I guess let it cool off too much; I had to add another 5 minutes on convection bake, without foil, at the end to get the temp where it needed to be. I cut the sugar in half because I didn't want a sweet bread, and left out the cinnamon. Good loaf. I'll make it again.

@Doofa-- Below is the method some kind soul posted on eGullet (I failed to note the name, so my apologies; you, I hope, know who you are, because I don't!). Worked like a charm for me. Roll the scallops in a couple of layers of plastic wrap (don't use the commercial PVC type that stinks). Cook at 50°C. Time varies by size of the scallops. Chill in an ice water bath (still wrapped). this improves texture and keeps scallops from overcooking when you sear. Dry them. Optionally, dust very lightly with a 1:1.5 baking soda/glucose mix to speed browning. Get a pan very hot. Right before searing dust scallops lightly in wondra flour (also optional). Browning should take 15 to 20 seconds per side. Here's a good starting point for time: 1” diameter: 40 minutes 1.5” diameter: 80 minutes 2” diameter: 120 minutes 2.5” diameter: 40 minutes (don’t roll. ziploc bag with space between scallops) Here's a more exact formula for the brine: Water 100% ice 20% salt 6% (will be 5% after ice melts) sugar 4.2% (will be 3.5% after ice melts) -disolve sugar and salt into room temperature water in a plastic container -stir in ice and add scallops -cover and hold in refrigerator for 30 minutes -drain and replace brine with plain icewater -soak for 10 minutes The brining, obviously, happens before the wrapping and cooking. As I recall, it was in two separate posts, and I just copied and pasted into a word file.

Those eggs are things of beauty. Time/temp details on how you cooked them, and then the soy sauce bath??? No photos, but a decent dinner tonight. I am leading a "Cooking Matters" class at my church; the class is aimed at teaching low-income people to cook healthy meals on a SNAP-sized budget. Tonight we did a recipe from the book provided to participants, "Chicken with Apples and Onions." Essentially, one sautees a mix of onions, carrots and apples (we used Granny Smiths); takes bone-in chicken pieces, spices them with a mix of cinnamon, cumin and coriander, along with salt and pepper, and pan-sautes in the same skillet; add veggies back in, add chicken broth and raisins (I used Craisins, because, well, I don't like raisins) and simmer until the chicken's done. Served with a mixed veggies (frozen, in a bag, nuked with some butter, salt and pepper), and topped with toasted slivered almonds. No one (but me) had tried that spice combo before. Most were doubters. Everyone cleaned their plates. This was really pretty damn good, as opposed to some of the recipes from the book, which have been OK but not, well, exceptional, and some that have been just downright awful (the "Cheesy Hamburger Skillet" has WAY too much thyme; does no one vet these things?). I highly recommend to any of you looking for a volunteer project for your church or civic group to give this a whirl. We've had a great time, and made lots of new friends in the process. Here's a link.

I, for one, would love to see pictures! I've envied your garden all summer. I had a weird thing happen with herbs this year. When it got hot and dry, my herbs (basil, cilantro, tarragon, chives, parsley, rosemary, sage, lemon verbena, a few others that escape memory right now), they all up and died on me. ALL of them, including the rosemary (which I am MOURNING, as I am used to being able to harvest it all winter). I am not certain if it was the uber-hot spell we had in July and early August, or if the lawn guy got enthusiastic with his weed treatment and it drifted into my herbs (which are pot-grown, and lined up along the sidewalk that no one uses, leading to the front door, which no one uses). I suspect the latter. But for future reference, in climes where midsummer daytime temps hover in the upper 90s for two months or more, should my herbs be in pots that have full sun exposure from about 11 a.m. until late-late afternoon (easily 6 p.m., maybe later)?

Welcome aboard. Anxious to learn about some of your Greek cuisine! That's an area about which I'd like to know more.

I have, in the past, cut up okra, tossed with cornmeal, and frozen on cookie sheets from that point, moving to bags after it's frozen. Does it work better to bake it first? I've been pretty pleased with the freeze-raw method, but always open to improving!

Given that I picked up four frozen broilers from my local farmer today, I believe this will be on my agenda in the next week or so. Thanks, @mgaretz, in advance for the recipe! **95** of 'em? Dear Sweet Baby Jesus. My fingers ache in sympathy for you. That said, I'm stopping by the newly opened Asian market here in my town (YAY! Don't have to drive an hour to Memph) is any more!), and in hopes they'll have quail eggs. Because I picked up fresh farm sausage at the farmers' market last weekend!