TicTac

Kind of like my Oct-Jan Lee Valley Catalogue obsession

I am like you and enjoy to strike up conversation with strangers while shopping for food (its pretty much the only form of shopping that my brain will tolerate...lol!). It's so enjoyable to run into another foodie and learn about a new method to prepare something or another. Not to mention the overall health benefits that talking to strangers offers! - https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/insight-therapy/202109/why-you-should-talk-strangers

When temps hit about 15+ out I take her outside to full sun, once temps go below 5, she comes in and sits in a South facing window. Indirect light for a couple hours a day, she definitely sheds a lot of her weight over the winter and I collect lots of leaves, summer bulks up, etc. They liked to be starved of water, just like my bay leave, so they sit together. Maybe a newly found symbiosis!? So far, just saved and admired them. I have not looked up uses, besides further germination which we might try this summer.

Second time this winter that the curry leaf plant is flowering. Produces the most amazingly intense seeds!

Wife’s 40th bday dinner party - 6hr black peppercorn gravlax tuna duel bone marrow fat duck style grapefruit/lime/bourbon ice corn/black truffle risotto - smoked duck 8 week aged rib eye deckle end

Then you might need to add some soap into the equation

1 pot 1 tray dinner: oven roasted bbq chicken - sweet n sour cabbage w dried blueberries, roasted zucchini. Kids wanted it fancy….so I let them paint with the remaining sauce! said leftover cabbage as a pizza topping = highly recommended! If I had some blue cheese it would have thrown it over the edge!

@Senior Sea Kayaker - do you keep those plastic soil bags closed until germ? I do something similar in a self watering sprouter with plastic wrap on top. Little late to the game, I still want to order some new orange cherry variety. Will most likely start seeds of Toms/Peppers in the next 2 weeks. Cloth pots are amazing. I have 100gallon ones made out of recycled bpa free water bottles, they drain and breath really well. I'm working on going full LSO in them.

Have fun! Peppers I get, tomatoes seem a bit early though (I learned that lesson the hard way last year having to transplant 64 plants......TWICE!)...

Realizing your innate artistic flare, my imagination goes in various directions with those potato 'buns' and whatever is coming out from between them! 🤣

B³ bogus beef Bourgogne I hope Julia would approve!

Smart idea, just make sure you create some drainage - only concern with plastic containers is lack of oxygen to the roots. Also good for seed starting are egg cartons which you can theoretically plant into the ground as it will degrade and roots will penetrate through.

Boston scallops, caper/lemon beurre blanc, blood orange fennel salad. Haiga rice. Greens.

It is critical more people start thinking along these lines - reducing plastic consumption, but for when we need to use it, how can we re-use it (safely, etc). Like @heidih mentioned, I keep ziplock freezer bags in the freezer and continue to put things into them (as I take them out) - and if it looks like a little worse for wear, I will flip it inside out, wash under warm water with some soap and then air dry and re-use. Though a bit extreme, I will also save plastic wrap that I have used (which has not touched food) and reserve it for future use.

Add some raisins into the cabbage for a nice sweet counter to the vinegar. My grandmother sometimes cubed small potatoes into hers as well. Love sweet and sour cabbage recipes. Caraway / cumin work so nicely in them, and tons of associated health benefits!

Perfect sear on those scallops! What type of fat did you cook it in? Pickled ramps would have worked and complimented the rest of the dish nicely.

It certainly is. I was more curious as to why you believe my version is a 'stew' as opposed to beef bourg. If you do not wish to indulge me, that is certainly your prerogative. And so long as I include the proper (good quality) wine, the cooking of onions/mushrooms in a different pot, is moot. Consider me doing a service for the environment by using the same pot to sear and cook everything and having to waste less water on clean-up! A Frenchman would not tell the difference, rest assured.

If you do not find the cultivation of the raw ingredients going into your body interesting, or worthy of merit as a way to spend your 'warm season' - then certainly this thread is not for you (your 4th post was to share this shining beacon of insight?!) and perhaps your time would be better spent on https://www.reddit.com/r/storeboughtprecookedmeals/.....?

Curious then - what differentiates what I do/include, to your vision 'beef bourg'? There are lardons, onions, mushrooms - all seared, but benefiting from a braise in red wine and demiglace, as opposed to just reducing in stock. Far superior, IMO. What am I missing here? Edit - seems Julia did it somewhat similarly as well, besides that she cooked her onions and mushrooms separately. No such thing as an over-braised onion, in my book! http://juliachildsrecipes.com/beef/julia-childs-beef-bourguignon/ So does cooking those 2 variables in a different pot and combining at the end, not make it a beef stew?!

Really? I love them braising in the demi/wine reduction and soaking up all those flavours! I suppose the rendering of the bacon, searing of beef and then assembling is a bit of a process, but like Ken said, it is typically a two pot meal (least in this house - potatoes go separately, but sometimes I want some counter texture to the soft beef so they become roasted and it reverts back to 1 pot!).

'Sushi terrorism' is a horrible term for this. Me thinks more like corporate sabotage....

Was going to offer to ship you some after my next trip to Kensington market, as they often have them in non summer months - but looks like you scored. Enjoy, one of my favourite peppers beside Serrano's!

Gorgeous photos as always. Nice to see some blue skies, as we prepare for yet another snow storm on the east coast! So scary to hear the stories of kids and near drowning experiences. I got lucky and my wife was a lifeguard and swim instructor in her teens, and when each of our kids were about 4-6 months old, first thing she did was dunk em in the pool and start them getting comfortable in the water. Bunch of little fishys now.

Given the peels are not treated, perhaps try a lemon marmalade type of concoction? I cannot imagine eating a whole lemon, raw. Gives me the heebies.

Leek/Cream/Pancetta looks great - my mom made something growing up similar, subbed the pancetta for bacon and added blue cheese. Killer.