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Duck bacon from Hudson Valley Foie Gras, over-easy eggs, and a yeast roll from the Farmers' Market with fig jam. Broke one of the egg yolks, so I don't have the proper runniness factor....

Opening night of a long weekend brought with it surf and turf with balsamic truffle cream potatos and caprese salads: followed by pound cake with strawberries, creme fraiche and turbinado sugar.

Shrimp boil! Plain water with salt and Louisiana crab boil seasoning (the liquid kind), and use twice as much as the bottle says use. To avoid overcooking, add the new potatos first, cook for 15 minutes; add the corn, cook for five minutes; add the shrimp, cook just until done. I like to take my corn and potatos and toss them in a clean cooler, adding a stick of butter and some powdered crab boil seasoning. The shrimp cool just enough to be able to handle them. Homemade cocktail sauce is ketchup, horseradish, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce and Tabasco. Lots of cold beer. And preferably, a beach.

Your blog makes me want to move to Portland just to eat and shop!

Memorial Day is always a big cooking weekend for me; we usually have friends over at several different times over the weekend, maybe a houseguest or two for the whole thing. And our little hillside-on-the-lake gets together and cooks. I'm thinking Saturday I'm going to smoke duck breasts, which I must go home and brine tonight. I also have frozen lobster tails, and on a whim, I'm thinking those would go well with sliced duck breast, with a risotto featuring fresh spring peas. Am also making duck confit either Friday or Saturday, so it may be that I serve that with the lobster and delay the breasts until Sunday. Sunday will be the big joint cookout. I'm planning a pork loin, some burgers and some brats. Sides will include potato skins, potato salad, roast corn-on-the-cob, baked beans, vinegar-based cole slaw flavored with dry mustard and turmeric (my go-to slaw, have it in the fridge at all times), and sliced tomatos. We'll probably slice up the duck breasts, very thinly, and serve with cheese and crackers as a pre-dinner munchie. For dessert, I'm thinking pound cake with strawberries Romanoff. Monday, I have a nice tri-tip roast in the freezer I'd like to try on the grill. Never did a tri-tip on the grill before; any tips? Will grill some squash to go with that, and maybe some asparagus, and wild rice or a multi-grain salad. What are y'all thinking about for the holiday weekend menu?

I cook supermarket pork loin fairly often on the grill. My tried-and-true method is to coat it heavily in Rendezvous barbecue seasoning (or, if you're not in the part of the world that sells Rendezvous seasoning in the grocery, make up a rub of salt, black pepper, ancho chile powder, lots of paprika, garlic powder, and a little coriander), wrap it tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 24 hours. I cook it on a barrel grill, piles of coals on both ends, loin in the middle, to 150 degrees, pull it and tent it with foil for at least 30 minutes. I don't brine mine ahead of time. I serve it with a tomato-based barbecue sauce (here is one of my favorites). My sides of choice are roasted corn from the grill, potato salad, vinegar-based cole slaw (mayo-based slaw is an abomination, IMHO), and baked beans. And beer. Lots and lots o'beer.

Just out of sheer curiosity....what are you DOING with those produce bags? I always keep a handful of the plastic checkout bags in my car's console for trash bags, but the produce bags are too small and flimsy. They're convenient when I take the dog to the botanical gardens or somewhere else she needs to be cleaned up after, and if I think of it, I'll put one in my pocket before we head out. And I've used them to bag messy trash when it was going in the bin and not outside for a while, or until the next day. But checkout-sized bags work for that, too.

Thanks, folks.

Have ALWAYS wanted to go to Powell's. Now, if I ever get to Portland, I'll know some more places to go! Looking forward to the visit into your world.

Bumping this one up because I need to call on the collective expertise here. Having had my first duck confit and loved it, I've sucked it up and ordered duck legs and fat from Hudson Valley Foie Gras. While I was ordering, I decided to order the aged moulard breast as well. I want to try to smoke it. Can someone give me guidance? I do my smoking on a barrel grill, with indirect heat on either end and the meat in the middle; not ideal, but it works nicely. How hot a fire? How long? Particularly, can I put down a drip pan and save the fat that renders out, or will it taste too smoky for reuse?

Hate that. I loved the mead.

As usual, gorgeous meals, everyone! I've been on the road all week so no cooking, but I did have the absolute best meal I've had in years Friday night, at Murphy's in Atlanta -- my very first duck confit. I am now on a mission to learn to make duck confit. I will report.

Brisket braised in Guinness and onions; snow peas sauteed in sesame oil with ginger and sesame seeds; new potatos tossed with olive oil, seasoned salt and chopped fresh rosemary and roasted; and sliced tomatos from the Farmers Market. Brisket was one of the best I've ever done. I salted, peppered and browned it; took it out, caramelized three medium sliced onions and four cloves of garlic, added 2 tbsp tomato paste and cooked that a bit, added a 12-oz bottle of Guinness, two cups of beef stock, a little brown sugar, a little spicy brown mustard, and about 5 fresh sage leaves. Added the beef back in, clapped a lid on it, and into the oven at 325 for about 3 1/2 hours(it was about a 3-pound brisket).

Huevos rancheros. Over easy for me, scrambled for the teenager. And smoked gouda grits. Aaaannnnnddd....the money shot.

All day, every day. In the summer when there are lots of berries, I cook berries, water and sugar into a thin syrup, strain it, and keep it in the fridge. A half-cup of it gives iced tea a wonderful flavor. I also use a lot of the mint growing on my back porch.

Sheer brilliance! About six or eight inches of soil? Or more? I live on a rocky hillside and this sounds like it has definite possibilities! Traveling and reading only sporadically, but I'll sit down with your blog soon as I get back.

Bangers and mash? Bubble and squeak? Seriously....scones, clotted cream, cucumber sandwiches.

Bumping this thread up...I'm headed to Albuquerque, where I've never been, this weekend, there through next Tuesday. Got reservations at Zinc wine bar and bistro for Saturday. What are some killer places to take people?

Come to Arkansas. You can buy milk straight from the farm. Unpasteurized. Unhomogenized. With a layer of cream a quart thick. Makes hellacious cheese.

I pay four bucks a gallon for unpastuerized, single-farm milk via my CSA. That compares to $3, or thereabouts, for regular milk at the supermarket. I'm not sure why anyone buys or uses or drinks supermarket milk when they have access to the real thing. I wonder if the Blahnik cows wear high heels?

If you're not determined to cook it, here's a good recipe for marinating the raw version: http://www.food52.com/recipes/6999_marinated_cauliflower

dcarch, I love the way you used the jicama slices in the seafood salad; gorgeous! And I'm astounded at ripe tomatos this early -- local farmer grows them in "hoop houses," under plastic until it gets warm enough, and then open air. I have just joined a CSA that will guarantee me two pounds a week of them year-round! mgaretz, in what did you marinate that tenderloin? I have one reposing in the freezer I'd love to try that on. Bruce, those wings and asparagus...oh, my!

A year or so ago, I finished losing a total of about 40 pounds over a 12-month period. Part of it was working out, but part was changing eating habits. 1. I stopped keeping junk food at home. If I wanted junk food, I went out and got it, but only a single serving package (chips, candy, etc.) 2. I cut way back on cooking sweets, and keeping them around the house. 3. I cut way back on simple carbs (white bread, white potatos, etc. 4. I consciously worked on upping my intake of protein and fiber. 5. I all but stopped eating fast food (no great loss, as it's generally horrible anyway). What I did NOT do was alter my fat intake much at all, other than what I cut out by abandoning significant quantities of potato chips and French fries and the like. I determined early on I was going to cook with butter, and bacon drippings when called for, and I was not giving up half-and-half in my coffee. The two big keys to losing weight, I found, were eating breakfast -- something with protein -- and having some protein-filled snacks for midmorning and midafternoon. I found a graham cracker with peanut butter, some tuna salad on whole wheat crackers, or a handful of fruit-and-nut trail mix worked really well in those instances, as I could keep them in my office without much trouble. The midmorning and midafternoon snacks made portion control MUCH easier at lunch and dinner. If I got hungry after dinner, which didn't happen that often, a piece of fruit or a wedge of cheese was generally enough to handle it. A year or so later, I've gained five pounds or so back, mostly from increased alcohol intake (what used to be a glass of wine a night has become half a bottle...ok, maybe a little more) and edging back into candy (damn you, Christmas, Valentine's Day and Easter!). Part of it was the gym schedule going to hell in a handbasket. Now that there are no more candy-centric holidays until Halloween, and summer with its slower schedule is approaching, maybe I can work on both of those.

I used the Triple Rye Bread recipe from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads, and I added some caraway seed to the starter. Really good rye. I had a chunk for lunch yesterday and brought another one to work today. I think if I were making it for dinner, I'd do red cabbage, and German potato salad. Just because I love both of them!

Great blog, fascinating cuisine, and it was great to learn about all the Passover customs! Thanks!