JoNorvelleWalker

As staff were leaving the building tonight, one librarian* wondered aloud how much longer before things returned to normal. I said I doubted things would ever return to normal -- "not in my lifetime, maybe in yours." (This woman is a young thing who still lives with her mother.) She clarified, just until we didn't have to sanitize so much. "My idea of sanitizing is to go home and drink rum." Same with her mother, she exclaimed! "Except for her it's gin." Her mother claims gin sanitizes and thins the blood. The gins I have on hand are Bombay (original), Tanqueray Malacca, Magellan, and Diep 9 Old Genever. The Genever I reserve for Hemmingway's Death in the Gulfstream. Highly recommended. Magellan makes a mean Aviation. More so if your traditional creme de violette is made from little bugs. *"Of course it's alright for librarians to smell of drink." -- Barbara Pym Hogarth Gin Lane 1751, Public Domain. As much as things change they always stay the same.

Why don't miners eat socially?

Does one pick that up to eat it? Or do you use chopsticks?

Sorry, I cannot find any more information on the pan. It came with instructions, however I've not seen the instructions since about 1995. I bought the pan from KAF (which is now KAB).

As I said, it wasn't on the restaurant's menu. I had to ask what the other table was having.

Yes.

Chicken Marengo?

Looks a lot like a manual version of my Ankarsrum cookie press attachment.

No experience with fish from Asian markets, however I've been impressed with the freshness of fish in Chinese seafood restaurants where you select your dinner from the aquaria. There is/was such a place in Philadelphia that served till 4:00am. (I tend to eat late.) Don't quote me, but I believe the name of the establishment was North China Seafood Restaurant. After a nearby Dylan concert at the late lamented Troc, I espied a dish not on the menu that was served to a neighboring table. Turned out to be black beans and clams. One of the finest dishes I have eaten. The concert wasn't half bad either.

Cookie press?

A Bean Club shipment on the way calls for desperate measures.

Tasty. So far no phase separation.

Batch 7... 90g almonds (blanched Spanish almonds this time) 90g apricot kernels 400ml water 300g sugar 20ml orange flower water This was a single batch. Easier for me to work with, even if I may have to perform the work more often. I blended the nuts with 350ml of the water only enough to break up the kernels, not enough to form a thick slurry. After running the nut/water mixture through the Kuvings juicer I added the additional 50ml of water to the pulp, and ran the pulp through the Kuvings a second time. Filtered through muslin and chinois. Last batch I cooked the almond milk and sugar to a thicker consistency than I intended. This time I used my Paragon induction mat so that I could control the temperature. After the sugar had dissolved and the solution had cooled down, I homogenized as usual, adding the orange flower water at the end. One step that helped: I filtered the almond milk into a hotel pan. I used the same hotel pan for cooking the sugar solution and for homogenizing. Much less mess. The batch did not fit in the jar. Oops.

Ice crystals.

This is the peel I use for loading pizza... https://superpeel.com/exo-long-handled-non-stick-super-peel-wood-fired-oven-peel/ There is a better picture of it in Modernist Bread. For turning and retrieving pizza the peel I use is thin stainless steel.

APO chicken, wild rice, 30 second green beans.

That is beautiful! I almost wish I could bring myself to taste raw fish.

I have two pastes: http://amzn.com/B01M31VHNZ http://amzn.com/B00A9OF6NS Could you (or anyone) say if either or both would be considered traditional for ma po tofu?

My mother used to give me paregoric, more fun and it tastes better.

I always thought Scotch tasted like medicine.

Recently I ordered shad and littlenecks from Citarella. I was very pleased (except for the price) and they have flat rate ice packed shipping in the US. https://www.citarella.com/shop/seafood/specialty-seafood/wild-cleaned-squid-whole.html

Mai tai's, the occasional Mississippi punch. I brought twelve limes home this afternoon. Did you really need to hear that?

I had not been, thanks. It is not much different from what I did. Which reminds me, I have at least one more meal of leftovers.

Just a data point... Tonight I finished a bag of tortilla chips that had been open the better part of a year. So good were they and not in the least bit rancid, I checked the ingredients: "organic sunflower oil and/or organic safflower oil."

Thank you Ann. I have more Ma Po tofu recipes than I can shake a stick at. This one from Hsiao-Ching Chou was good but not my finest. She calls for cornstarch which is not my favorite thickener. I used potato starch. (The tapioca starch I took from the freezer turned out to be almond flour.) That the sauce was over thickened was my fault entirely, not hers. She says to add only as much thickener as necessary. To my taste buds the dish was not hot enough. For the leftovers I remedied this. I think I over did it. Nothing that lots of rice can't fix.