JAZ

@Smithy, glad we inspired you! @BeeZee, I forgot that we also tried the chicken mole (I didn't take a picture, so it slipped my mind). We had it over rice, and it was good, but I think it would be much better in a taco with something crunchy -- maybe pickled vegetables, or lettuce and radish slices.

We were in the mood for Southwest/Mexican food but didn't want to cook, so I picked up a few of TJ's entrees to try. Chicken chile verde enchiladas: Chiles Rellenos: The enchiladas were okay, but we didn't think they were worth buying again. The chiles rellenos were surprisingly good -- light, fluffy batter; nice sized, fresh poblanos; and plenty of cheese. We heated them in the oven, but I'd recommend the air fryer directions -- the batter wasn't very crisp out of the oven. The only negative was the sauce. It was a very thin, tomato-based sauce without much flavor. I added a half cup of good jarred salsa and it was much improved. Definitely worth buying again.

it's definitely true that recipe plagiarism is nothing new. Back in 2018, I had just written a book for the then brand new Ninja Foodi (the first pressure cooker/air fryer combo). I was looking around on Amazon to see what other books were out for that appliance, and I stumbled across a couple of books that had stolen dozens of my recipes. The weird thing was that the stolen recipes were from my first pressure cooker cookbook. In some cases, the recipe titles were changed, but the recipes themselves were copied verbatim. I let my editor know, and my publisher got Amazon to delete the books, but new books kept springing up with the same recipes copied. it turned out that someone had printed the whole text of my book online, so it was easy for anyone to steal from it. Once my publisher got that taken down, the problems stopped. In a way, I was lucky that the idiots stealing the recipes didn't change them, so it was relatively easy to prove they were stolen. With so many food blogs out there now, it's sad but not terribly surprising that unscrupulous authors steal content. It does surprise me that the publisher (Penguin in this case) didn't respond better to the accusation.

Not sure these count as "fun," but we replaced our old sheet pans and racks with new ones for Christmas. Out with the old: In with the new:

Actually, I did take a picture of the apple crumble when it came out of the oven. So now that's everything.

As usual, I got a photo of one of the appetizers, and then completely forgot about taking pictures until after dinner. So, deviled eggs with fried capers (some with shards of country ham as well): Maybe next year I'll do better.

Most of the ingredients in tapenade are preserved (olives, capers and jarred piquillo peppers, for instance) so what you need to worry most about would be fresh garlic, assuming that's an ingredient. Two weeks seems quite reasonable.

Regarding the amount of liquid in the pressure cooker, you rarely need a full cup of liquid to start. If you're not cooking something that absorbs water (like rice or pasta), you can get by with as little as 1/4 cup, because most foods contain a fair amount of water, which is released on cooking (and since you're using a pressure cooker, it doesn't evaporate). A pound of mushrooms, for instance, will release about 1/2 cup water. Meats release both water and fat, so you'll end up with a lot more liquid than you started with.

Some years back, Kenji Lopez-Alt wrote about measuring by mass v. volume, using onions as one specific example. While he didn't discuss onion size, he made some interesting points about using onions in recipes. This is part of what he said: I'm currently working on an onion soup recipe. In my final recipe, I'm going to be calling for "4 large onions, finely diced (about 6 cups)"—a relatively imprecise measure. A quick search for onion soup recipes in the UK reveals this one from the BBC, which calls for "1kg onions," a far more precise measure. So precise, in fact, that unless you're really lucky, you're going to have to use some fraction of a whole onion in order to land right at one kilogram. What does this level of precision get you? I'd argue that it doesn't get you better food, and in fact gives users a false sense of precision, which, in reality, doesn't even exist." He goes on to point out that in some recipes, a difference in the amount of onions of 20% (by weight) doesn't actually make much difference in taste. I'm not sure he's right, mind you, but it's an interesting view. (Scroll down about halfway for the onion discussion.) https://www.seriouseats.com/why-mass-weight-is-not-better-than-volume-cooking-recipe

Thanks, @PatrickT. The crumb is exactly what I wanted; I just meant that I sliced into the bread when it was still a bit too warm, so that slice tore a bit. The taste is good, not terribly complex, but perfect for toast, which was my main goal.

I haven't baked bread in decades, but I decided to try my hand at pain de mie. I used a recipe from King Arthur's site and was pretty pleased with it. I was probably too impatient to slice it, so the crumb is a bit mangled, but I think it's going to be fine.

Or (as is the case with us currently) if your dishwasher is broken. Seriously, some one-pot recipes seem to go through so many hoops to stick with one pot that they take forever. In my one-pot Dutch oven cookbook, for instance, my editor was adamant that I only use the Dutch oven, so some of my recipes there are a bit convoluted -- I have pasta recipes where I call for cooking the pasta, then draining, then finishing the sauce. Of course it's faster if you cook the pasta at the same time you're making the sauce, and I made sure to note that, just so readers were aware of possible shortcuts. But it was kind of fun to see just what I could do with only a Dutch oven.

And now for something completely different . . . We've discovered that we really like deep fried lobster; in fact, that's about the only way we prepare it anymore. These chunks were served with remoulade (which looks oddly green in the photo; I think I added too much parsley) and Gruet Brut rose sparkling wine.

Thanks. This is a very specific question, which you may or may not be able to answer. Apparently, my bother-in-law wants this mostly to open cans of coconut milk. In my experience, some brands of coconut milk don't work well with safety openers. Do you have any experience with your opener on coconut milk cans? (I know, weird question.)

Any updates on safety can openers? My brother in law has asked for one for Christmas. My Rosle is still working fine, but they apparently doesn't make them anymore. I usually have good luck with OXO products, so I feel confident with that choice, but is there something better?