Anna N

When I was in university and occasionally ate in the student pub, The Downstairs John, I would ask for gravy on my salad. Everyone but me freaked out. To each their own.

Loaded baked potato soup.

The Kindle edition appears to have been fixed. I haven’t read the whole thing but I see amounts for the recipes I have looked at.

All too easy to confuse them. I own both and they are very different books

For those who might not know Diana Henry’s work this is a different book from her more recent Simple.

I am the queen of rationalization.

And me. Even if I never make a single dish from it the reading is cheap entertainment and I guarantee I will learn something I didn’t know before.

Of course you have. It’s any seasoning you use so long as you apologize to the meat while you’re cooking it, eh?

Salad with the remaining half of a smoked duck breast. Two little gem lettuces (I prepared these in the manner of Jamie Oliver. Slice through the lettuce to separate about a half of the top from the bottom, separate the top part into individual petals and julienne the remainder), Campari tomatoes, the green part of two scallions, cut diagonally, and the duck breast with the skin crisped. The dressing was a homemade creamy garlic. Might have benefitted from a few crispy croutons.

Small savoury bread pudding. I winged this one. Sausage meat, a shallot, a couple of cremini mushrooms, a torn up ciabatta bun and a custard of one cup of cream and two eggs. Forgot to mention some cheese both cheddar and gruyere.

Classic Brownies from The Artful Baker for my granddaughter to share with her colleagues. This is the second batch she has tasted and declared “the best brownies ever”.

I suspect it was on my computer which is long gone but I also suspect one needed a copy of Inkling in order to use it. It is quite possible I could still get access to it if I was so inclined.

I bet it is @Shelby‘s jalapeño mustard.

Since Taste of Oakville is still going strong for a little while longer we decided to go here for lunch today. They offered craft beers so I ordered the Nickel Brook blonde that I had tried to get at another restaurant. Sorry we forgot to take a photograph. It’s a beer. In a glass. It’s pale. We both elected to order from the tasting menu. Kerry’s beef tartar Smoked cauliflower soup for me. Braised short ribs for Kerry. Rainbow trout for me. And then because Kerry was intrigued by the cauliflower on the main menu we shared this.

http://modernistcuisine.com/2013/11/introducing-the-modernist-cuisine-at-home-ebook-edition/ This in fact is the version that I downloaded. I can’t account for copyright issues with a recognized and still available application sold by iTunes. Though I seriously doubt that the team would tolerate copyright infringement. I was merely trying to confirm that I had an electronic copy at one point.

If you found it by googling check the ingredient list. It contains garbanzo/chickpeas.

I am not sure why you would think it was pirated. The application is available on iTunes and I believe at the time that I purchased it The Modernist Team promoted it.

I believe this is where I purchased my copy (which I no longer have). I might still be able to access it but I haven’t tried.

I was quite pleased with myself when I was able to grab a couple of duck breasts from the supermarket last week. I was quickly cut down to size when I went to cook one and discovered they were smoked duck breasts! So tonight a very simple salad with smoked duck breast.

Snickerdoodles were on my mind but when I checked my supply of cream of tartar I had to move to Plan B! Oatmeal Scotchies from the book Cookie Love. The cookies I like; the book raises my ire! Even if the author, Mindy Segal, thought it was a great idea to use volume measurements, how hard would it have been to give a simple weight conversion chart indicating her weight of 1 cup of flour using the scoop and level method. GRRRRR Edited to add Yeah. I know. It’s the publisher.

Hmmm. But he hasn’t visited for almost four years.

Over here onion soubise was brought to the forefront of my mind. It has been on my radar screen for decades but I have never attempted it. Today was as good a day as any. I vaguely followed the Serious Eats version which uses cream rather than a Bechamel and no rice. Two 8 minute - 90°C eggs were ravaged and slipped into the creamy sauce. I think this could make eggs Benedict look like health food. It requires a lot of patience to cook down the onions without colouring them and it occurred to me as I stood there that these ought to lend themselves to a sous vide treatment. No doubt I shall discover someone else has already thought about this. I think I would also like to attempt version using rice.

Soubise has flashed on and off my radar screen for decades. Perhaps this is the push I need to give it a go.

I had about 300 g of beef bottom blade left over from a couple of projects. Beef, barley and mushroom soup made in the mini Instant Pot. Comfort food.