Jacksoup

@Anna Nlove the plating/dishing of the green beans. I'd send you wine from CA if I could, my daughter works in Napa, I have access to lots and lots

This weekend, due to an over abundance of squash I made the squash and pistachio crumble. I had pecans but my goodness it was amazing. Was confused by the amounts of 1 cup chopped pistachios and 2 cups roughly chopped pistachios when the recipe said to add them all at once like I believe @Shelby noted somewhere. But it tasted great. Also made the squash and fontina casserole pudding. Only had Jarlsburg but again it was great. Need to explore more in this book.

@Toliver Stop Stop Stop you enabler. I bought them all. Haven't even peeked at the last ones you made me buy.

I've had a ziploc with 3 big abalone in it for about two years. They were frozen in water/ice so never got freezer burn, but due to that they took up a lot of room. With all the pesto and @ElainaA's roasted tomato sauce I'm freezing, I needed to free up some room. Abalone is a lot of work, but I gave my son the meat tenderizer and he went to town. Then I dipped in egg and Ritz cracker crumbs and fried it. The Ritz crumbs are a thing an abalone diver told me about years ago. I only cooked one and it was so rich, my son, his girlfriend and I were done. It was good but messy to cook.

This is likely most of the last squash out of the garden. It's just been too hot here for anything to really grow. Had a poor crop of tomatos this year, last year I had my hands full. It's predicted to be over 100 degrees for at least the next 7 days, 110 on Friday and Saturday, ugh. I can't remember what the big pale yellow ones are but they are destined for the squash and pistachio crumble from Deep Run Roots.

@SJMitch yes I should have said The Spice Companion. Shouldn't multi-task:)

@Porthos @Toliver I bought the Campinile book and The Spice Bible. Thanks again for enabling:)

Thank you for sharing your adventures once again. I always look forward to these trips.

My boyfriend, the Italian gardener, has 15 chickens and we usually have 6 dozen or so eggs hanging around. They're fed on organic food and vegetables from the garden. Wish you were closer @Anna N, I'd keep you supplied. When I leave his house on Monday morning I have a couple dozen to deliver to friends. Just have to keep reminding folks that we need the empty cartons back for refills.

Thank you so much. This has been fascinating.

I also bought the Ted Allen book for Kindle and while I was there also bought Behind The Great Wall Kindle version for $2.51

It had to check the current time in Hong Kong so I could determine approximately when the next posts will show up. This is fascinating. Thank you for all the photos

Amazon says my Anova was delivered July 17th at 10:08 PM and left in a secure location. Apparently one that I'm not aware of. I called customer service yesterday and they said I was one day too early to make a claim. I called tonight and they promise I will have the replacement Saturday. I get at least a package a week from Amazon and this is the first that has gone missing. Pretty easy to reach customer service and get a live person.

Today's haul. The gardener thinks bigger is better so he lets a lot of squash get over large. The extra large one pictured with the basil was a complete oversight. I also have 3 large zip locks full of frozen yellow cherry tomatos which ripened while I was on vacation. Making the roasted tomato sauce today. Also some fennel fronds with pollen which I'm going to try to harvest.

I just used my Cuisinart spiralizer for the first time two days ago. After I mutilated a zucchini, I finally got out the instruction book and got zoodles. I was too verklempt to do anything but sauté them with onions, but now that I think I can make zoodles, more fun is on the way. The zucchini ribbons were easier.

It's only my son and me, but I do keep a running list of what I need from Costco in the Notes app in my iPhone. When there is a certain recipe I want to make, I write out a full list. Otherwise I wing it, which probably leads to me having ingredients that I think I need for a recipe I liked but can't find anymore. Eat your books is helping with that when I remember. Sometimes it's just cheese and crackers for dinner with a fridge and cabinets full of stuff I could/should cook.

@rotuts stop with your Amazon links, I'm buying too much stuff! Just kidding, I'm buying good stuff.

@rotuts after I considered and agreed with your logic, I went to,purchase the 900W Anova, the deal had ended and the price went up. The 800W was still on sale so I grabbed it.

Is the Anova Bluetooth 800W at $149 a decent deal? It's time I started to SV. I now see the 'checkout' price is $99.

I love following along on these trips!!

This is kind of dinner. Freekah with sautéed kale from a friend. Actually he's my son's former girlfriend's husband and he's a bartender at my local. Interesting worlds colliding. Anyway, he's really into gardening so we've bartered greens for eggs and cucumbers that my gardener BF has. Also made some arugula pesto to freeze because he gave me a lot and I'm out of town before I can use it all. Now I have to decide how to preserve the rainbow chard he gave me.

@Shelby last year I made Spiced Plum Chutney from a recipe on Epicurious. Sorry can't figure out how to link. I made about 30 pint jars which I thought might be too much. But this year the rain knocked the blossoms off the trees and we have very few plums. We use it on pork and Greek yogurt and with cheese and crackers.

I've made this with all yellow cherry tomatoes and my boyfriend gardener loved it so much he planted 25 yellow cherry tomato plants this year. Just served it over pasta with Parmesan. It was incredibly delicious. Over polenta is a great idea.

@flippant Those prices are US Amazon Prime. I ordered Lucky Peach.

@kayb happy birthday! Enjoy that prosecco!