Anna N

Will have to wait until I can get some basil and mint but they are on my shopping list as of now. If I can just remember why they are on my shopping list we will be good to go.

Thanks for sharing your experience with this. I still think I might give it a go since our tastes are not necessarily identical. I am especially enamoured of James Beard’s iconic onion sandwich and one of the options for using this mayo is with spring onions to make the sandwich.

I am afraid so. You caught me right in the middle of writing up my report about your miscreant behaviour. Hopefully you will just get Community Service and then you will be able to bake baguettes for all of us.

Sorry I forgot the link! Here.

"When I see the quality of bread in supermarkets, it is impossible not to get angry," Dominique Anract, president of the National Confederation of French Patisseries and Bakeries (CNPBF), told food website Atabula. "The bread is frozen, some of it comes from Romania or who knows where, nothing is carried out in accordance of the rules of the art."

Sourdough bâtard. Mixed up yesterday and cold proofed in the refrigerator overnight. Baked in the CSO ( Cuisinart steam oven). Oven was preheated for 30 minutes on convection 450°F and then baked on the steam function at 450°F until done. Because I had had a couple of days of total failures of my breads I decided to cheat just a little and used 1/8 of a teaspoon of instant yeast. Consider it a pre-mental break down prophylactic.

Tartiflette toastie. Toast, bacon, leftover potatoes, cream and Jarlsberg. Adapted from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

“Doggy bag” Nando’s chicken re-heated in the CSO ( Cuisinart Steam Oven) and broccoli cooked in the Mini for 0 minutes —quick release. Thanks, @Shelby.

Pressed seams are highly overrated!

May I offer another view? I frequently see plates bowls etc. that I find quite attractive. But not only do I not need eight of them as I live alone, carrying eight of them would challenge my physical abilities! I would like to see them priced such that if I only buy two of them I will pay more than if I buy four of them and my best bargain will be eight of them. I can certainly understand not selling a singleton.

I am very tempted because I’m constantly looking up conversion amounts. I have a few tables that I have copied at various times but it would be nice to have everything together.

Love that oval plate!

Gorgeous looking chocolates. There is no end to your talent.

Lucky me. If I ever get the urge or the need for a Bundt pan I’m pretty sure I will be able to borrow @Kerry Beal‘s.

Sous vide scrambled eggs with no additions other than some salt and lots of pepper. They may be healthy but they sure were boring! And of course the texture was very different from the ones made using cream, milk and butter.

Inspired by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and executed in my mini Instant Pot. Potatoes, green beans and canned sardines. And for dessert, a Portuguese custard tart that was forgotten at lunchtime.

Well I miss my Dustbuster. I no longer have space for it nor even an outlet where it could be plugged in but many a day I wish it were not so.

I don’t think avocado oil is supposed to taste of anything much. Most research that I’ve done suggests that it has a nutty, buttery flavor but nothing to suggest avocado. I think for most people this is its appeal. But I can understand disappointment if it does not taste like avocados and that is what you were expecting.

Not too often that Kerry and I manage two days in a row to meet up for lunch. Today we had haircuts and then wanted to get back to my house in order to mount my new TV on its swivel bracket. But we still needed lunch! Kerry suggested that we grab something from Nando‘s and take it back to my place. While I love going out to a restaurant once week there’s also something special about relaxing at home with food you have picked up! Hard to complain about the service under those circumstances. Kerry’s plate with breast meat, vegetables but no garlic bread. And my plate with the chicken Maryland, vegetables and garlic bread. How could we forget dessert? But we did until Kerry was almost out the door. Trust me, they will not be wasted. I like to say that I am not a dessert person but obviously it all depends on the dessert.

This must surely qualify as cruel and unusual punishment. I am lucky if I get carrots with tops that appear to have been alive at some point. For the most part I’m faced with plastic bags of large, woody, old and tasteless orange things. Oh well. You’ll never know the pleasure of stepping out into minus degree weather and taking that first breath that sears your lungs and burns your nostrils. So there.

Very tasty.

One small perk of adulting. Parsnip, date and hazelnut quick bread with ricotta. Washed down with a Hole-in-One cocktail.

I completely forgot to explain that we did make it as far as The Butcher and the Vegan but it too was closed and this was well after noon!