Anna N

I thought truffles were supposed to look like the ones the pigs dig up in France! So they are not supposed to be round.

I was challenged to experiment with them so I’m not afraid to risk another one. But I am curious. What shelf position did you use? I somehow don’t think it matters. For my first experiment which was not too successful the rack or shelf was in the toast position.

That is the model I have and I adore it!

I was not complaining that there were no leftovers. I was pointing out that we managed to down rather a lot of lunch! Brontë is a lovely little village or at least it was but it is being destroyed by high-rise condos as so many places are. I’ve spent a great deal of my time enjoying the view in Brontë Harbour.

Yesterday I was given a dozen duck eggs for “experimental purposes”. This was my first experiment. This duck egg was steamed in the CSO — 210°F for 30 minutes. I based the time on postings by others who were cooking chicken eggs. If I expected anything it was that I would’ve erred on the side of caution and that the egg would not be cooked enough. In truth I felt this egg was overcooked. The yolk was chalky and the white was verging on rubbery. Since these duck eggs weigh give or take 90 something grams I thought an extra five minutes was hardly pushing it. But perhaps it continued to cook a lot more than expected since I did not plunge it into ice water. Oh well 11 more to go.

Yesterday, @Kerry Beal and I were able to escape the confines of my four walls and have lunch out. I did a little bit of research and found a restaurant in Brontë that looked very interesting. Plank is right down by Lake Ontario. I could just see the water from where I was sitting. The menu is presented on (antique reproduction) clipboards. Cute but a bit heavy and awkward. Tea for Kerry. I had a very small glass of Sauvignon Blanc which tasted for all the world like little green apples. I quite enjoyed it so that is not a complaint. All I know about wine tasting is that some tastes I like and some I don’t. We shared appetizers which seems to be one of our favourite ways of checking out a new restaurant. But it is also one of our favourite ways to dine. Duck poutine. Tempura shrimp. Pork buns. Octopus. there were no leftovers.

The loss of bio diversity concerns me a great deal. The end of hummus not so much.

Me too but mine is reaching the end of its life. Now I must do most baking and roasting in 38 minute intervals because I cannot get the clock to go beyond 38 minutes.

I, too, noticed the bun at least looked highly photogenic.

Damned hard to believe it’s that time of year again.

Me too. I think I ate 2/3 of a cup while I chopped up 1/3 of a cup.

They are really crunchy.

The best darn ginger snaps I have ever made. The recipe is from the King Arthur flour site and uses shortening instead of butter. You can stop shuddering now. I rarely use shortening but this time it was specified as essential to capture the texture I associate with gingersnaps. The only change I made to the recipe was to add 1/3 of a cup (give or take) Of finely chopped crystallized ginger. I have made a note on the recipe to up the spices somewhat next time. Perhaps mine are getting old and flavourless just like me.

But I can’t find any smoked cheddar in the recipe.

Went out for a quick road trip with my Granddaughter. We decided we needed some fast food to wrap it up properly. It’s been years I’m sure since I was into a McDonald’s for anything other than breakfast when traveling. She had a quarter pounder with cheese and I had the brilliantly named and poorly executed Mighty Original Angus burger with large fries. I immediately shared the fries because they were far too many for me. I took a bite of the burger and should’ve stopped right there but I was hungry. Any beef flavour that might have resided within that bun was totally overwhelmed by the smoky bacon. I am not opposed to smoky bacon but this didn’t taste like real smoked bacon by any means. Anyway I think I’m over my McDonald’s thing for another five years.

This box gets so hot I don’t think I even envy @JoNorvelleWalker her Phillip’s grill. The meat was a gift and I’m very grateful for it. It will keep on giving for at least a couple of days. but tonight it’s what’s for dinner doncha know. And because I need to please no one but me it will be served with nothing but a little horseradish on the side. I suppose I should point out that it was cooked sous vide before I put it on the grill. I did four hours from frozen solid at 54.5°C.

Been there. You have my sympathy. Late hubby put in extra power to my kitchen. But trust me the rest of the house is a pain in the ass. If my air conditioner is running and my cleaning angel plugs in a vacuum cleaner she has to run downstairs to throw the circuit breaker. I have no idea what they were thinking when they wired these houses which are not even 20 years old. I have a long hallway without a single outlet.

With two sweet potatoes staring at me and pulling on my guilt strings I knew I had to do something. I added two large carrots, a drizzle of oil and roasted them. Please admire my carefully nurtured patina on both my oven and my pan. While that was happening I dug up a cut a leek from the freezer, added some chopped onion and a couple of cloves of garlic and sautéed them. Threw in some Thai red curry paste, some fish sauce and stirred that around for a while while I reminisced about my first encounter with fish sauce. (I thought it was the most disgusting thing I have ever smelled in my life and there was not a chance in hell that I would ever eat it. Today I was tasting, adding a little more fish sauce, tasting adding a little more fish sauce. Can’t think of too many things that smell more appetizing than some excellent fish sauce. This was Red Boat.) Pullef myself back into the real world and added some broth and some coconut milk. Let that cook for a while then transferred everything to the Thermomix to purée it. Had a very satisfying lunch. Bowl of spicy soup and a small ciabatta bun with rotisserie chicken and soupçon of salsa. And there is an enough soup to feed the freezer. Love my A4 Box.

Because you’re totally missing the point. If you remove the blue cheese from a bleu cheeseburger you no longer have a blue cheeseburger. It is that simple. Doesn’t matter if it’s hard to remove or easy to remove. Once you do it it’s no longer a bleu cheeseburger. April Bloomfield offers the bleu cheeseburger. That’s my last word.

Hmmm. And I thought she was just being logical. When you remove the blue cheese from a bleu cheeseburger you’ve got a different beast altogether. Can I have a bleu cheeseburger but without the blue cheese? Can I please have a bleu cheeseburger but with cheddar? See how the logic somehow fails?😂

Once again @Kerry Bealand I enjoyed lunch in my humble home. Kerry picked up food from our local Vietnamese restaurant and brought it back to my house. Wonton pho for Kerry. Pork wreck banh mi for me. so good.

I did not know that. Another myth busted. Thank you for enlightening me.

What? No tea?

Nothing too challenging today but I was happy with the way they turned out and this recipe made a lot of cookies. These are snickerdoodles from the book Flour by Joanne Chang.

Hate to disappoint you but these days I let Crosse and Blackwell do that job! Once upon a time I would’ve taken fresh mint, a good pinch of salt, a good pinch of sugar and sprinkled them onto the cutting board with the mint before chopping the mint finely. I would’ve scraped it into a small cruet, added a smidge of hot water and a soupçon of malt vinegar and let it steep until I needed it at dinner time.