weinoo

Indeed, with two thoughts. 1. - Sage can often be a brute; it needs to be used in proper quantities. 2. Southern Italy will often not be afraid of heat from chilies ( @Franci?). The food of affliction. But whoever first decided that margarine was better for us than duck or chicken or goose fat, needs to be thrashed with a head of cabbage.

I'm pretty bored these days, but I don't know if I'm yet at the stage where watching my toast reheat is gonna be the highlight of my day!

Times Square was so great back then...maybe even better in the 70's, when I was driving a cab!

You're kidding - she knows I was eating donuts.

With the heat wave looming, I made one of Significant Eater's favorite dishes for lunch... Ma Po Tofu - nice and spicy and delicious too. Stir-fried Shanghai bok choy. Jasmine rice.

The other night we had a zoom call with some friends; by the time it was finished, we were well into our 2nd(!) bottle of wine, and even a wine with a fairly low ABV means we were schnookered. Therefore, dinner was snacks. Crudite with hummus. Olives. Stuff like that. I did put this on a plate, however: Some ventresca from Spain, pimentos from Spain, Piparras from Spain. Crackers from the UK! Last night very little wine. And I like having the nice batch of pesto both in the fridge as well as in the freezer. Then this becomes easy... Linguini, potatoes, pesto. Veg on the side - roasted broccoli and carrots.

Good cherries ain't cheap.

Yeah, bagels were smaller back when this toaster was first released. This is a rather ridiculous statement.

Not only in malls - plenty of freestanding ones, including in Times Square (which, back then, wasn't yet a mall). It's been around since the 1920s!

I like that idea of pick up for compost. Our buildings have similar, but they've been put on hold during the current "situation."

I really like those turnips - they make awesome pickles. But what is in the background behind the CSA haul? Looks almost like a samovar. How about daikon and carrots together, when making them into pickles?

How are you gonna be able to drink wine by yourself?!

I dunno why, I've just had good results with this method and it makes for a quick cleanup.

Also it certainly holds true that some pasta shapes expand practically exponentially; I find that rigatoni (as above), fusilli and other larger shapes just grow and grow. Like I can make 1/2 lb. of uncooked spaghetti and we can practically eat it all; if I make 1/2 lb. of rigatoni, we'll also be having it for breakfast and lunch the following day.

It definitely doesn't look overly saucy; I was just wondering about the quantity of tomato product. But I bet the cherries really wilt down. As they like giant pasta portions, plenty of Americans seem to like their pasta buried in sauce...I'm kind of a less is more person with pasta. Though obviously when it's the main course, gotta be more than 56 grams pp!

This is exactly the same as my last order from Geechie.

Sounds as if @shain is serving Italian primi-sized portions (if not just a little bigger than a primi). Also sounds as if that much sauce might be enough to dress 650 grams or more of pasta, but that’s just me.

Silvia is still doing yeowoman's work for me. George Howell Alchemy espresso blend. 2 1 oz. shots in 27 seconds.

Almost forgot - also made a batch of hummus. Significant Eater helping herself to heaps of hummus hardly hurts.

You had to remind me!!

\ Very slow steam-roasted fresh, wild sockeye salmon, with three of the salads made earlier in the day.

I received a fairly humongous delivery the other day: Let's just say this was part of it; the counter on the opposite side was covered with stuff as well. Shopping during these times is much different than I was used to, where I'd go out 4 or 5 times a week to different places, bring home a little from here, a little from there, etc. Now I deal with practically a week's worth of groceries at one time - and it's a pain in the ass, as I've basically been prepping and cooking for 2 days; I feel like a caterer, and I thought I gave that career up! Any way, where was I? Oh right - it's also so damn hot here, and the hottest room in our small apartment is, of course, the kitchen. So I wanted to move into some Middle Eastern/Med salads, cold soups, etc. - stuff that I can pull out of the fridge and put it on a plate with very little other work, once it's all been prepared. To help, I pulled a few books off the shelf: Simply for inspiration. And I started cleaning, prepping and cooking. Always lots of trimmings, so vegetable stock was made right off the bat. I'm not a huge fan of lentils, but Rancho Gordo's were calling to me from the pantry, hence the lentil salad above was made - and it's not bad. Not much unusual going on in the salad; dressed while warm with vinaigrette. (I did make a garlic oil, by heating up some EVOO with a lot of minced garlic in it; it almost burned, because I walked away, but then smelled garlic cooking and ran back to the kitchen and caught it just in time.) Anyway, lentils are more to my liking when they're served cold (or tepid), as opposed to hot or as soup. And Significant Eater loves lentils lots, so there! Next: Sort of a faux tabouli - no tomatoes, and probably more bulgur than in a classic tabouli. As Claudia calls it, a bulgur salad. Good. Next: Was gonna go with a classic macaroni salad, the picnic staple of my youth, had my youth included picnics - it didn't. Anyway, this non-classic macaroni salad is a little more developed than one with tons of mayo; there's a little mayo (Duke's!), that garlic oil, some lovely white wine vinegar, mustard, herbs, pimentos, etc. etc. To Significant Eater, macaroni salad memories mean much more. Not shown - a pint of pesto, made sans cheese. I think I learned this from Marcella - to make the pesto in the food processor, and add the cheese after, for better texture. Also, I froze the pre-cheese pesto in large cube trays, and I think it freezes better without the cheese, and it's not hard to add the cheese when throwing the pasta together (with potatoes, for that authentic feel). To Significant Eater, pasta, potatoes, pesto - perfect. Not shown - a big batch or borscht, as 2 lbs. of beets came along with the delivery. Steam-girl roasted in foil till well cooked (these were big beets, and they took a good hour). I grated one (for textural appeal), and the rest went into the blender with some full-fat yogurt, some less fat kefir, dill, a few house pickled red onions, etc. etc. To Significant Eater, (cold) beet borscht be best.

Yes - even though the instructions may say otherwise, I do the same. It's nice to get all the parts good and hot before bread or pizza, especially if I'm putting the small pizza stone in there.

I guess when I learned about, and even took cooking classes about "Chinese" cooking (as if there's any one Chinese cooking), it was always garlic, ginger and scallions. Since I cook a fair amount of Spanish rice based dishes, the sofregits/sofritos are often trinities of garlic, peppers, and tomato. Surprisingly, onions are often not considered essential to paellas. Italy, for me, is onion, carrots, and celery. Garlic makes an appearance when necessary, but probably less called for than Americans think (see Marcella).

The holy grail! And so lovely to be able to cook it outside on the BGE...great job! And great minds... Not paella, but a close cousin - soupy rice with chicken and duck and a little chorizo. Gotta have some greens...