Margaret Pilgrim

The one thing I've learned during my many (MANY) years, is that one person's shudder is another's yum. ( I actually had a better word but thought better of it)

This morning we left the flea market without our normal early morning "lunch". At home, we heated up two Ball Parks, stuffed them into heated buns. Mayo, catsup, Frnech's, chopped lettuce and red onion. A jalapeno on mine, not husband's. Then into bed at new 10am for a several hour nap since we had left the house at new 5:45am.

Tomato and mozz, EVOO and red onion Making use of salmon and cooked Yukons not used Friday night -> salmon cakes With wilted greens and on-hand tartar sauce

I don't use Amazon for food delivery. My MO, stockpile spaghetti before TP.

You can get Amazon hour delivery in the wilds of Australia? I thought CCST's solution was pretty self-reliant. Needs must.

Channeling my imaginary Italian grandmother, there is something heretical about ordering spaghetti from Amazon 1 hour delivery.

Canola oil, brown sugar, soy sauce, fish sauce, garlic. Best of friends. 😷

Flea market. 25 cents each. Made in France.

It must be skewer night! Nothing to eat, then remember chicken thighs. Marinated in lemongrass and friends. Recycled last night's sushi rice into ersatz fried rice. With a drizzle of nuoc cham And the backyard sourced mache I forgot to serve last night.

Thanks for this. I am so out of the loop that it reads like science fiction. My toast is something that assuages hunger within 15 minutes of getting up in a normal morning. Bruschetta, tomato toast and friends are easy snacks when we or friends want a drink sop. But all of these and their many incarnations are something we cobble up at home. Pay for them at restaurant multiples? You gotta be kidding.

Heidi, some years ago I was able to buy a walnut/prune "cake" from Catalonia at my local cheese store. Then it vanished and no one seemed to have a clue about it. (Fig and almond is readily available, but this one I like better.) So I figured I'd try to make a faux version. Chopped pitted prunes, anise seeds, (toasted) walnut pieces, Muscatel (or any sweet wine) Moosh all together and tamp into a flat container, cover with saran and press HARD. Cover and refrigerate (maybe not necessary but I did.) Periodically press to condense. Last night's is the end of the one I made a couple of months ago. That's all, Everyone seems to find it sublime with cheese, especially people who "don't like prunes!" Here is the real thing

Little dinner party last night. With superb guest-provided Riesling before dinner, deconstructed sushi = sushi rice, salmon, French accented garnish of chives, capers and dill On to the dining room Cauliflower soup with drizzle of curry oil and fried oyster Roast duck with olives, baby Yukons, chard from the yard House bread Red hawk and repurposed Papillon, prune and walnut pate Guest provided flognarde (aka clafoutis) Husband's legendary fresh mint tea. All downed with several fabulous guest provided wines.

Not at all. We have essentially unlimited gradation. There is even a "lift and peak" option that allows you to check on doneness and either continue or stop. But to your question, I think I want a medium toast. Crisp on the outside, still tender on the inside. Hot enough to melt butter. Certainly not hardtack.

Google reports making toast in a CSO It Toast takes under a minute in our Breville toaster. Great for time intolerant people...like us.

Asparagus, orange "beurre blanc" Cod, tartar sauce, fried rice

Sea....$24/lb...then

I'm reminded of shopping for dinner with my then-4 year old granddaughter. I had some kind of fin-fish in mind but cherub moves sideways to shellfish and chirps, "Scallops, Ama! We want scallops." Then, turning to the fishmonger, she asserts, "We want scallops, please." There went the retirement plan.

I would hazard to add that wine is also tremendously situational. Many years ago, husband and I enjoyed a simple dinner out, ambiance, plates, late prolonged conversation with the sweet chef/owner...and the WINE! Ambrosia. So when husband's birthday comes along, i buy him a case. Same vintage, whole 9 yards. He tastes it with enthusiasm, recoils and asks me why I had chosen that wine, and BOUGHT SO MUCH! Tuesday night in our kitchen just didn't add up to our recent enchanted evening

We send out sheets to be laundered. They are returned wrapped in blue paper and tied with about 8 - 10 feet cotton twine,

Kitchen twine You are really fancy-shmancy. I save string from laundry packages, tying each week's length onto a ball. Figure it all gets cooked anyway. Son, who apparently missed receiving the thrift gene, needed some string and was surprised by a knot at the end of a 10ft length, He looked at it for an instant and said, "Tell me you aren't saving string from the laundry..." Shrug. (Not sure if was Gallic but it spoke volumes.)

Don't be sad. I'll share your toast, but will wait a couple of hours. It's not noon here, and I only drink before noon in France.

rotuts, I don't even have a stand mixer! Pots ,pans, stovetop and oven. Fireplace and wood oven in the country. Truly antediluvian,

IMHO, all natural cold cuts without chemical additives save for table salt and pepper.

Like with most, no, more importantly than with most ingredients, quality will out. But like a great perfume, a drop is intoxicating; more a turn off.

Repeating what was written upthread, if you tie several pieces of meat together and poach or roast them, they will more or less bond into one piece. IMHO, far better with this minimum intervention than with a chemical bond. But then i don't go in for modernist techniques.