Anna N

Yes. You have hit the nail on the head. She leaves me awestruck and guilt-ridden.

Click. The Canadian version of Trader Joe's which existed on the West Coast for five years is closed for good. Facing a lengthy court case, the owner decided to throw in the towel.

Nudged/inspired by @blue_dolphin once again, I knew I should make better use of my copies of all of the Ottolenghi books in my Kindle collection. This is from Jerusalem. Tomatoes are fried, topped with a mixture of chopped parsley, garlic and fresh chilli, turned over for a minute and then served with some bread. Definitely will wake up your taste buds first thing in the morning and probably give you some solitude for the rest of the day.

Today Kerry had business to take care of in Toronto so we dropped into a favourite eatery for lunch. Pho Phuong on Dundas Street serves bahn xeo (savoury fried pancake), a favourite of both of us. As is our wont these days, we shared a slection of appetizers. Deep fried shrimp and squid platter. Beef rolls wrapped in tropical leaves. Cubes of rib eye steak. And the pièce de résistace banh xeo.

Just gorgeous. Love those bride & groom oreos!

@gfron1 I love my kitchen toys but if anyone epitomises how unimportant they are to producing amazing food it has to be you! I still recall a photograph you posted of your range at The Curious Kumquat. You do keep me humble.

I cannot point you to any studies but I know from personal experience that a dull knife will slip before it grabs and I have a few scars to prove it.

After all these years I can still picture my grandmother's thumb with its multiple vertical lines. And I know there are still people who trap a loaf of bread under their arm and slice it that way!

Under most circumstances I wouldn't argue with you. But I sharpened some paring knives without telling the person who often used them and she cut herself. And this was someone who prides herself on keeping her chef's knife sharp. So it depends. Most of us cut on the cutting board but not all of us! Some will still peel a potato or other vegetable using nothing but their hands and a knife. I guess I am just saying it is worth consulting before assuming. @rotuts Wouldn't be without my ceramic "steels".

Though I stood on the shoulders of giants, this was strictly my own concoction. It was based on what I wanted to eat, what I wanted to cook, how I want to cook it and what ingredients were available. (And my guilt about hardly ever using my Cuisinart Griddler that I couldn't possibly live without.)

I think the appeal of vegetarian meals to me is the variety that lands up on the plate. If you belong to the old "meat and 2/3 sides" mind set, one needs to be on one's toes to incorporate much variety on the plate. Remove that "hunk of protein" as my friend would call it and there is much more room for a variety of interesting ingredients.

I am much more concerned about reheating it on a "warm" setting than about cooking it! Rice is supposedly notoriously subject to incubating "nasties". While I am aware that many Asian folks will scoff at my paranoia you will be feeding a lot of people and you would not like to discover any disastrous aftermath of your generous feast. Here's a brief discussion.

Somewhat adapted from a recipe in Duck soup: The Wisdom of Simple Cooking.

Yeah. Don't even want to inquire about cost so my dreams are not smashed to smithereens.

I too have the Bosch and have not used my Kitchen Aid I got it!

Ouch!

@JoNorvelleWalker I am always inordinately pleased when your dinner is successful. I was so tired yesterday evening that I reached for the takeout menu for our local Chinese place then knew that I couldn't really be bothered dealing with leftovers. I heated a cast iron pan with a mixture of butter and oil and lots of garlic, tossed in some Campari tomatoes and a few frozen shrimp. Dinner almost a la minute. A couple of slices of bread, a glass of wine and I saved myself half a week's worth of grocery money. No leftovers.

I am with Jo. Borrow a couple of big rice cookers if you can.

Store bought. They are a President's Choice product and not bad at all. I have recently discovered their Italian Piadina and although I suspect Italians would be horrified I quite like it. I find it much less like cardboard than most of the wraps that I can get.

I foolishly volunteered to make three appetizers for my daughter's family and friends. Look! Look! One dozen peeled hard-boiled eggs and not a nick on any one of them! They are a little overcooked for my liking but since they are going to make devilled eggs they just got a little more mayo than they normally would. You can't do anything interesting for them because the friends don't eat onions or spicy things and that's just the beginning of their list of likes and dislikes. So terribly boring egg yolk, mayo mustard salt and pepper and a pinch of sweet unsmoked paprika. For Instant Pot users this was my standard hard boiled egg modus operandi Refrigerator cold eggs, 1 cup of water for steam, trivet, five minutes low pressure and let the pressure drop on its own, eggs straight into ice bath. The mushrooms are stuffed (nothing to do with the instant pot) and I'm now going to make some cheese straws with store-bought puff pastry and then I will likely collapse into a quivering heap. Host's note: this topic is continued in Instant Pot. Multi-function cooker (Part 5).

Thank you!