Thanks for the Crepes

I ate another Chilean plum out of hand yesterday, and while it wasn't as floral and fragrant as in season perfect fruit, it went a long way toward soothing my winter-weary psyche. We tried the Tiramisu Torte, and it was certainly respectable. I added a bit more cocoa to the top before slicing because they hadn't completely covered the top. I also stuck slices of strawberries into the sides and laid a couple on top after plating slices. Then I perched a few blueberries on top and sprinkled some around the plates. It made for a very pretty, and deceptively decadent dessert. There's only 268 calories in 1/6 of the torte. It comes across as more sinful, so much so, that I rechecked my reading of the nutrition label. My husband adored it, and it's certainly worth the calories and its $1.17 cost per slice price. It has a reasonably short list of ingredients with nothing too bad in there. I liked it well enough for something from the freezer case that you slice and plate. It's not as good as the tiramisu I used to get from the Fresh Market, or what I used to make when I could find ready-made lady fingers. It's fine, but it did inspire me to read up on making my own in Joy of Cooking. I doubt I'll get up to piping lady fingers anytime soon, but I think I can handle making a European Sponge Cake, slicing it into fingers and toasting them. My biggest problem with the TJ's tiramisu is it contains no booze and that the mascarpone is freeze-dried and not very forward. Also the packaging is awkward. The box says not to refreeze after thawing, but I did so any way, because after only 3 hours thawing in the fridge the product was very soft and already beginning to weep. Not at all like the firm cheesecake-like texture in their picture. There were even still some slightly frozen areas at the center of the slices we ate. I think this would be better for a large family or dinner party where you'd use the whole thing at once. You might also want to go with the minimum recommended fridge thaw time of 2 hours. We shall see what my rebellious refreezing does to the texture. Either way this probably won't become one of my TJ's regulars. Not when it sits right next to good old New York cheesecake and the Chocolate Dilemma Cheesecake.

I just boil them right along with the florets. I like to go 4 minutes on the cook time. I nibbled on some leaves raw from my garden once, and decided to use them. I use the stalks too, but peel them on Marcella Hazan's advice. She thought the stalks are the best part, and recommended them blanched for bagna cauda dippers.

I love the farming pictures too! Also the rest of Smithy's adventures while chasing the sun. I'm glad you finally found some. It's astounding to me that they have so much agricultural success in such an arid region, but they seem to have elevated irrigation to almost an art form. @ShelbyThat broccoli field may be inundated with pesticides. Bugs love broccoli. It sure does look prolific, though. It's a shame most of the very beautiful, delicious and nutritious leaves are wasted in commercial broccoli production. I love to eat them.

@SmithyThank you for the tips on enhancing subpar plums. I only tried the softest one so far, so I'm hoping the rest are better. Most of the items I bought are old favorites, so I know they will be delightful. I TJ's. I don't mean to be a Debbie Downer, but I love hearing other peoples' honest experiences about products I may consider buying, especially on eG. So I offer mine up too, good or bad, hoping to give others information for deciding what to spend their hard-earned money on. I know you're right about off-season fruit. I've never bought stone fruit off-season before in my life. TJ's had Chilean nectarines too. We're having a cold snap. It's 14F tonight, and I know many of you who live in the North don't think that's cold, but it's very cold to us thin-blooded Southerners. In the past few days I've splurged on strawberries (not from TJ's), blueberries, and the plums. Blueberries are amazing, but strawberries, which are what I used in the salad instead of the plum, were satisfactory in the salad with balsamic/ginger/soy dressing. They are a ghost of the in-season fruits, but a mid-winter treat, despite that. They managed to placate me so maybe I can last out winter a little longer. I did pass on the fresh corn on the cob at TJ's, although I picked it up and examined it, while imagining it with hot melted butter. It was $1.00 per ear, you had to buy four, and they did not look like they'd live up to the promise of my butter-drenched fantasy. *Sigh* I just cannot wait for Spring!

Thank you, shain, gfron1 and Smithy for your thoughts on pine needles. More exploration is in order. It's also incredibly satisfying to know that I'm not actually "kooks" even at this late date. I guess the bottom line is, forage with knowledge and caution. Glad to know most pine is off the black list, because I love the flavor.

Very nice-looking pasta dish, and an interesting technique for roasting the pasta. What really caught my eye though, was your use of pine needles. What kind? I used to chew on (and swallow) white pine needles as a kid, but quit after everyone said I was kooks and that I was going to poison myself. I always thought fresh rosemary tasted of pine, so that would be a very harmonious combination, I think. A brief Google yielded that there are species of pine that are poisonous (like yew), but also that folks make vitamin-rich tea with others. I loved the bright, tart flavor of pine needles, and now that I've found out most species aren't toxic, I would love to hear what you have to say on the matter. Please PM me if you fear we will drift off the Lunch topic.

I managed to make it to TJ's today, and mostly got old tried and true favorites: Pizza Parlanno, frozen, which has Italian sausage, uncured pepperoni, and roasted peppers and onions. I usually add at least mushrooms and sometimes other stuff too, 18.25 oz.. Very good for an inexpensive ($4.99) pizza. Pizza Margherita, frozen, imported from Italy, and either a blank canvas for your added toppings, or very good on its own if you are in a minimalist mood, 14. 8 oz. ($3.99) Cheese Enchiladas, 9.85 oz.. ($1.99) Spanakopita Triangles, 12 oz.. ($3.99) Mushroom Turnovers, 6 oz.. ($3.69) Dry Roasted Salted Pistachios 16 oz. ($8.49) I am always disappointed if I resort to buying pistachios elsewhere. Egg, 1 dozen large white. ($1.69) cheapest price I've seen in a while Butter quarters, salted, 16 oz. ($2.99) cheaper than the grocery stores around here TJ's domestic double cream Brie. ($5.99/lb.) Ciabatta made locally, 12 oz. ($2.49) TJ's Multigrain Bread, 24 oz. ($2.79) Capellini Pasta 16 oz. ($.99) Maple Leaf Sandwich Cookies, 11.4 oz. ($3.29) TJ's Classic Potato Chips, 10 oz. ($1.99) Spring Mix 5 oz. ($1.99) Roma Tomatoes. ($.29 ea) Mini Heirloom Tomato Mix with red, yellow, orange, green, brown, and one tie-dye (which has been designated as cook's treat ) 16 oz. ($3.49) Zucchini 18 oz. ($1.99) McIntosh Apples 4 lb. ($3.49) Bananas. ($.19 ea) Red Bell Pepper. ($.99) White Button Mushrooms 10 oz. ($1.79) Iceburg Lettuce. ($1.29) cheaper than grocery stores Lemon. ($.49) " Blueberries, Chiliean 24 oz. ($5.99) Brussels Sprouts, frozen, 16 oz. ($.99) Chopped Spinach, frozen, 16 oz. ($1.49) Asparagus Spears, frozen, 12 oz. ($2.99) I also bought some new to me stuff: Family Meat Lasagne, 32 oz. ($5.99) TJ's Macaroni and Cheese, 14 oz. ($2.99) Beef Steak Burritos, 16 oz. ($2.99) Tiramisu Torte, frozen, 19 oz. ($6.99) Breaded Mozzarella Sticks, frozen, 16 oz. ($3.99) Red Plums, Chilean, 26 oz. ($3.49) All of the old favorites have always been great, and we only tried a few of the new items, but I'll update when we try the rest. I'll start with the good. We had some mozzarella sticks baked in the oven to start. When I opened the bag, the aroma of herbs drifted up even frozen. This was promising! They cooked up very well, and we enjoyed them with marinara. These are better than FarmRich brand which I have bought at the grocery store before. They are probably the best mozz sticks I've ever had, and that includes restaurants. The red plums are not a hit so far. I selected the softest, and I hoped ripest one to add to the salad with spring mix. It was not quite inedible, but it was so far toward the verge of it, that after tasting several small pieces to decide if it would improve or detract from the salad, the coons got a nice treat. I hope the rest of the batch is better. The beef steak burritos that my husband selected for his dinner, bombed out too. Way, way too much tortilla to filling ratio. I didn't taste them, but they smelled good from the filling, what there was of it. He showed me a cross section after he sliced throught it, and it was just sad. He scraped out the filling and said it tasted as good as it smelled, and there were beef strips among the beans. The coons got another treat from the excess tortilla. Not recommended. We also got a beautiful white flowering cyclamen plant in a 4-1/2" pot that I selected for Valentines for $3.49. My husband encouraged me to get the breathtaking orchid for $17.99 at the flower display near the door instead. It was gorgeous, and a great value for such a large, rare and healthy specimen. I've never seen one like it with white petals with piebald sort of deep purple patches. I said, "I'm getting ready to spend a lot of money on food. Let's just wait until we're ready to check out, and pick it up on the way out." I knew I wasn't getting it when he muttered on the way to the checkout, "I hope I have enough money." At least I have my priorities straight.

@blue_dolphin I have been buying the featured California Estate EVOO from TJ's ever since I read somewhere? about it. If It wasn't here, I was very probably led there from here. I also have read that many imported EVOO's were tested and found to be adulterated with cheaper oils. I used to covet and revere imported oils, but after that report, this Cali-born lady is sticking with Cali EVOO. I can't remember where I read it, and wasn't able to find it easily on a search, but I stand by my memory, and I stand by my endorsement of TJ's California Estate EVOO. I'm also a fan of the tart cherry juice. I don't have any on hand currently, but if memory serves, it really is 100 percent cherry juice with no additives. It's well balanced, and not overly sweet. I think it would make divine popsicles. For what it is, it is worth the price. I've tried the cara cara's too when I catch the season, and they've always been good from TJ's, as has most other produce I've purchased there. They are produce, though, and subject to mishandling, so YMMV. I haven't tried any of the other stuff you mention, but it sounds interesting. What aroused me from the flyer was the Montmorency dried cherries. I love tart cherries! They go on to state that because the cherries are tart they have added sugar. (They are already concentrating sugars in the cherries by drying them.) That does not please me at all. If anyone has experience with these dried cherries I would love to know what you think of the flavor profile.

Radish sprouts? The sacrifices we make for our beloved pets. If they are indeed radish sprouts, they can be grown in a specially designed screened jar for sprouting (inexpensive) or a Mason jar with some cheesecloth and a rubber band. This could be placed on your very beautiful sunny windowsill, and kitten might be able to knock it off the ledge, but it probably wouldn't hurt the sprouts, especially if you put a throw rug under it on the floor. It would be like wind stress, which is strengthening to plants. I guess it would depend on how persistent the kitten is, and I know they can be crazy energetic. I used to call plants like that lanky, pale and sun-starved until huiray turned me on to a word every gardener should know: etioliated.

It looks like Ayocote are the poster child for the overnight soak method, especially if you don't have a pressure cooker. I just always do the soak step anyway after trying to make chili in a crockpot with dry red kidneys and all the other ingredients added before I went to work. I honestly can't remember if I soaked or not over 30 years ago or the provenance or freshness of the beans. I just know that the soaking method is my lifelong friend now. We were struggling then, so I cooked that chili for almost three days in the crockpot. The beans never became soft or edible. The acid in the tomato component may have been the culprit? I never add sugar to chili or beans, but that's supposed to be another hindrance to their softening. I realize that there are many very credible proponents of no soak, but you know what? I like to change the water several times while soaking and some say that this washes away some of the stuff that causes the problem with beans that ladies do not like to mention. Don't know if that's what worked, but my beans don't have the unmentionable problem.

I agree with Deryn that liuzhou or huiray could provide you with a better answer, and that they are probably best steamed. I do know that most Chinese buns are steamed, and ovens aren't that common, even to this day in China. I don't own a bamboo steamer, but many Western households have one of those expandable stainless steamer baskets that adapt to the size of your lidded pot like mine does, and it works just fine. I'm also surprised that since the packaging has English along with Chinese? and is out of Brooklyn, NY, that they don't include any guidance on cooking. They do include a phone number. A miracle could occur, and you could actually contact helpful customer service. I have access to a great pan-Asian market too within walking distance. I tend not to buy stuff unless I already know what to do with it or there are English instructions. There's one lady who works there (suspect she's an owner) who is friendly and very helpful, but she's not always there when I am. When she is, she is willing to answer my questions and help me find stuff. The other staff (all Asian, as are the bulk of the shoppers) don't have much love for my non-Asian self. If you can find a helpful employee or owner in your store, it will really be a boon to you in your interest in Asian food preparation. I have really benefited by my market lady's willingness to educate me, and by reading about what huiray and liuzhou have to say on this ancient, and to me very delicious, cuisine.

Porthos, I agree that my choice of a fillet/boning knife for most knife work is quite unusual. I have several chef's knives, but they are unwieldy and just clumsy to me. I suspect those who favor them (the vast majority) may be bigger and stronger than me. But as you alluded to it takes all kinds to make up an interesting world, and if your results are good, who really cares how you got there? Cook on!

Great idea, Tere! I wish you'd posted it before I froze some duck fat in a pint container, just the other day. Not too late to thaw it and correct that though. Can't wait for duck fat potatoes. As usual, this thread is an amazing array of top notch, varied and covet-worthy foodstuffs. After both of us eating on the duck and it's stock for three days, plus a ramen lunch for the husband, I still have a quart of gelatinous duck stock and a pint of duck fat in the freezer. My $13 ducky just keeps on giving. As excited as I was about the head on/feet on duck, I have to say that I may not buy the Keystone Katie brand again. I went to their website, and sure enough, I was right about the ducks never eating fish or worms or bugs. It certainly wasn't a bad duck, by any means, but I prefer a little gamier, ducky flavor that comes from the a more natural diet. This one was very mild, and tasted like chicken with a duck texture. It was still a great experience, and people who don't like gamy flavors would probably be overjoyed with their ducks. Tonight I fried up a little one pound pork tenderloin. It was dusted and rubbed with Goya adobe, sage, cumin, chili powder, black pepper, and oregano. Both my adobo and chili powder contained salt, so I didn't add any more. After it marinated in its spice robe for a while at room temp during other prep, it was shaken in flour in a recycled produce bag and shallow fried at med-high in a skillet to develop a crust, then a lid was put on, and heat turned to low to sort of steam-fry it like chicken. When it got near 150F core temp, I took off the lid to recrisp for a few minutes. Then pulled, blotted on paper towels, removed towels, tented with foil and rested for a few minutes and sliced. The tenderloin was served with kabocha squash, brussel sprouts, and cinnamon dusted apple sauce. About half the tenderloin is left, so it will probably appear at dinner tomorrow thin-sliced in sandwiches along with the other half of the kabocha and french fries.

@rotutsI will try your minimalist nutmeg idea. It sounds intriguing. I'm also a fan of generous drifts of fresh and fragrant black pepper on my mashed potatoes, but only after plating, because if you stir it in, it just looks wrong to me.

@paulraphael Me too. I just quartered a kabocha squash for dinner tonight with my fillet knife only. It's just not really long enough to handle a watermelon or large squash (like a Hubbard), but after I've cut the behemoth into manageable units, I always go back to the trusty fillet/boning knife. I even use it on butternut squash. I consider it my best friend in the kitchen. It's the best for disjointing poultry and cutting between vertebrae and such, as well as making thin, precise slices, or curved cuts, like cutting watermelon flesh from the rind. I own a cheese slicer, the kind with the thin wire and the roller on a handle, but never use it because I can get thinner and more uniform slices with my knife. Mine's a cheap one too, Pinnacle Cutlery stainless and made in Taiwan. I picked it up at Dollar General many years ago for the sum of $2.00. The blade length is only 4-3/4" with the sharp edge being only 4". It still does 99% of what I need to do, and I find it easy to control, and therefore safer. I fervently wish I had bought more when they were on offer, just in case something happens to my little daily companion and workhorse (pony?). It still sharpens up to almost razor sharp and holds that edge respectably well. I baby it though, and no one else is allowed to touch it, much less use it.

I like fluffy mashed potatoes, light on the butter, but with plenty of hot milk added. I always use Russets for the fluffy texture. I use an old-fashioned potato masher and elbow grease to get them really smooth. I tried whipping them once, and they turned into what to me is glue, but to some others creamy. Usually I have to exert a real effort to restrain myself from butter, but this is one dish where all I want is just a little. I realize many people prefer more butter, and lots of better restaurants offer them that way and with roasted or otherwise garlic. It's just not my preference. To me, light and fluffy mashed potatoes can't really be improved. Well maybe with a lobster on the side. That said, I do like to add a few chives or green onions to the mashed stuffing of twice baked potatoes along with slices of good (preferably hoop) cheese, but still strive for that light, fluffy texture in the filling.

@Darienne Thanks for the link to the pannukakku recipe. It looks good and easy. I'll probably melt the butter in my baking pan after preheating the pan a while instead of melting butter on the stovetop to make it even easier, and I won't search out birch syrup either. I have some TJ's real maple on hand, and I'm looking forward to making this a lot. If it tastes like crepes, you know I'm in.

That is a lovely video @EsaK! Thank you for sharing this peek into a Finnish home and their food culture. The wood-fired oven, the adorable dog, the family participation, the experienced and deft hands of the older lady, and best of all, she is passing it on to the beautiful younger lady.

@Darienne as usual, I'm ignorant of your intriguing subject here, but interested and trying to learn more. I looked for pannukakku images on Google, and they seem more like Dutch baby oven-baked custards than American pancakes. Is that what you're talking about?

@Panaderia Canadiense The community you supply with your amazing creations is certainly a lucky one! Your artistic attention to detail is quite amazing. Pyrotechnics! Even if his/her cake tasted like plastic, which I'm sure it definitely does not, Ollie will be one thrilled happy camper. Every child aspires to a cake made especially for them by the talented PanaCan.

Smithy, Thanks for sharing your experiences with baking pita. I would certainly love to partake. Something that I have found very useful for baking breads like pizza, naan and your pitas is not only more durable than a pizza stone, cheaper than a specialty baking steel, but also multi tasking. It's the enameled cast iron reversible flat griddle/ribbed grill that came with my gas grill. You could use it in the oven for breads or on the grill or campfire for eggs, bacon or pancakes. It could be flipped to the ribbed grill side for shrimp or other small items if you don't have room for a long/handled fish basket. It is quite heavy, so it has that drawback.

I roasted my duck tonight, and it was very good, with lots of crispy skin and very rich meat. I must say that it was the mildest flavored duck I've ever tasted though. It must have never eaten any fish or bugs or worms? It was Keystone Katie brand from my local fresh seafood monger, and out of Shartlesville, PA. Pride of the Dutch Country! it proclaimed. There were also what might have been Chinese characters on the labeling. They were some Asian language I can't read for sure. To my surprise and delight when I unwrapped it, it was my first real life encounter with a head on/feet on ducky. Even the ones from my grandparents' farm had already been beheaded and had the feet removed by the time they appeared in the kitchen for further processing. I only learned how useful poultry feet were for stock much later here on eG. I left the head and feet on for roasting, but in retrospect, I'll remove them next time. I like to use the turned chicken on a V-rack in a roasting pan method. It's not as ideal as a rotisserie, but I've always had much better results than just plonking a bird breast side up into the oven and leaving it there. The long dangling neck and head and the grabby feet (one glommed onto the sturdy rack like it was still alive) made it so hard to turn the duck on the rack with my usual meat fork and wooden spoon inside the cavity that I eventually resorted to just protecting my hand with wads of cheap paper towels. The duck carcass broth cooking in the crock pot for tomorrow's ramen will be better than I thought because of the feet for sure, and I am hoping the head. I'm not sure if I did the right thing, but I put the head with beak attached right in there too. You could see the tongue in there! The roast duck was served deboned with a salty, sweet and spicy glaze I learned from Betty Crocker, and I have tweaked over the years to add a sour component and a couple more spicy ones. We also had jasmine rice. I took huiray's advice and started rinsing basmati rice, and I liked the fluffy result so much I started using the method with jasmine too. I just add water to the cooking pot with the measured raw rice and then pour it off many times until it's no longer milky and mostly clear. The rice is heavier than the water so this method works fine. Then, when I'm satisfied the water is clear enough, I use the pot lid to drain out the last dregs of water. My fine mesh strainers apparently aren't fine enough to contain all the rice. My tea ball would probably work, but it would take longer than my patience would last. I've read from several sources that you shouldn't rinse to preserve vitamins. I eat so many great veggies and other things that I don't feel that I'm reliant on rice for vitamins. I think the rinsing treatment washes away loose starch that can make your rice sticky and clumpy. For me, when I'm shooting for fluffy, I'll stick with huiray's rinsing method. I stir fried some Shanghai bok choy to go with dinner and finished with a light chicken stock sauce. There was quite a bit of liver and a couple lobes of what I reckon was the gizzard that I threw in the bottom of the roasting pan. I also put the excess abdominal fat pulled from the back of the cavity down there too so it could render, and added some water so the fat wouldn't burn and splatter. My V-rack holds the meat high enough off the pan so I can do this and still get great crispy skin. I tasted a little of the liver and the gizzard after dinner, but decided to give it to the coons, although I realize that I passed on very concentrated nutrients. I put the roasting pan into the freezer while I cleaned the kitchen to congeal the fat. I collected a pint of duck fat off the top which is now in the freezer, along with the strained broth under it, of which, there was maybe only a cup. We ate most of the meat, but I diced what came off one of the leg quarters into small pieces, and that amounted to maybe a scant cup. It will be good either in the ramen tomorrow or duck fried rice with the planned over jasmine rice in the fridge. I tasted the broth, and it seems like it will be rich enough by the time it's done to save the meat for fried rice. So far, my addition of the head doesn't seem to have done anything at all adverse to the stock.

I just got some feedback on Chowhoud, and you know what? I think I might pass up this promotion. Cat food anyone? Perhaps there is a reason that I haven't darkened Subway's doors in a long while.

Subway is offering any of their footlong subs for $6. I saw on a commercial from a local broadcast TV station and confirmed it on their website. It's a limited time, month of February offer only. I haven't eaten there in over ten years, but does anyone have any opinions about which of their offerings might be worth the bargain price they're offering? I ran across this opinion in my searching. I sort of lean toward the Turkey Italiano Melt, but have never had one.

I know this is unusual, but I use a boning/fillet knife for almost all prep, and enjoy it. It's one of my most pleasant kitchen tasks. It is just so precise, thin, light and sharp. I rarely find a need for another knife, and *knocks wood* I have not cut myself in many decades. It is my very favorite tool in my kitchen. I do pull out a big Old Hickory high-carbon steel butcher knife (cleaver like, but with a rounded tip that comes to a point) to cleave a watermelon or large squash occasionally. To me it is a blunt instrument, as are most other knives. Over thirty years ago I used this same Old Hickory knife to chop down a Christmas tree with a 3-1/2" trunk because I was lacking a saw or an ax. It took me a while even with the vigor of youth, but I got the job done.