Tere

We used to buy an awful lot of stuff from Rakuten, and had decent luck with Yahoo! Auctions there too - I bought a very good sewing machine second hand that way. You may get someone willing to ship it to you if you ask nicely. How's your Japanese? http://www.rakuten.co.jp/ http://auctions.yahoo.co.jp/ - I note there's an advert for overseas buyers from Buyee on the top banner. Never used, never tried, but might be helpful?

I am an addictive liker. I just love seeing what other people are eating. Apologies for nosiness, I guess, but I am not that apologetic unless the food calls for resting in shade or something. I love the cultural smorgasbord that is our meals here.

so pretty!

I bore my friends on Facebook with the experiments. . Quick brainstorm. Cut, weight, start from fridge cold or not, vacuum or zipper bag, treatment (e.g. marinade / brining), temperature, duration, texture, if you finished it after (e.g. searing), whether you liked it! I don't note all of that stuff (I know what I will get if I ask Sainsbury's for a chicken breast for example), but that's a starter for 10 I would think. Others will chime in I am sure. If you have bought a Sousvide Supreme Demi, I'll just say I've personally found their recommended temperatures much too high for results I like. So it's worth researching a particular thing you want to cook, here and elsewhere Good luck!

We are not eating our ham fast enough, so a couple of weekends ago I insisted we had a take on Spain - lots of ham, good bought sourdough, a smear of butter and tasty crushed passata that I usually use for pizza. Two thumbs up

Steak from the Kamado Joe from a couple of weeks ago, with crispy chips and frozen peas. Yummy! Another barbecue adventure from Saturday night. Spatchcocked poussin with zatar and spicy oil on a bed of bay leaves (3 mins breast down at 200 degrees then about 12 mins). Salad is inspired by a simple and delicious pear, feta, lettuce and vinaigrette salad I had in Botswana the other week, with rocket, pomegranate seeds and a pomegranate citrus vinaigrette. It ate well, but needed more of the sharpness of the feta. I think the simpler one was better!

Foraged a washing up bowl full of jack in the hedge (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alliaria_petiolata) a couple of weeks ago. Chopped some finely and layered it in local rapeseed oil with the pungent flowers for a fridge based condiment. Great in a pseudo caprese sandwich. The other common name is garlic mustard around here and it is hot and spicy like mustard. Also made a "pesto" with ground hazelnuts, local cheese and more of the oil with the rest of it. Good times.

I've settled on 60 degrees C for 60 mins as being very easy to remember - not far off really

Chips with sugar takes me back to travelling in China 20 years ago Thanks for sharing this, it's been great

Same. Well, my mother is like me, my gran was all imperial. I'd guess we are not far off ages but you might be a wee bit older.

We have been beavering away this weekend, which has been glorious. I swear I can almost see the stuff in the veg plots growing!

Ewww. Good luck!

What's the Liquid Fence made from? I don't know that I've seen anything like it here.

Congratulations to the bride and groom! Look forward to seeing more pictures

Yum! Tomatoes are my favourite fruit / veg also - I have a tomato bowl instead of a fruit bowl for snacking. Brought back nice memories of our travels around Jerez and Sevilla at New Year, so much yumminess

Make your own. it's not hard, and you never look back. I batch freeze a bunch of pasta dough in enough for two people portions when I do it, and it holds up very well I think. You can batch the prepped stuff as well, of course. I don't think that turns out too badly, I've certainly been known to freeze uncooked tagliatelle when we've made too much. I still keep dried pasta in the house, but it's strictly emergency food really. YMMV.

Spinach beet is new to me, too - I was attracted by the perpetual quality. And I love spinach! The raab 60 days is also an experiment which is looking very promising.

Yup, tomberries are itty bitty blueberry sized tomatoes. I ordered them in a "what the X" moment but they are actually nice and sweet, and I would consider for lazy salads. They just came from Sainsbury's.

Some pics for ElaineA: My wood store - at the front I am going to plant a patch of apple mint, since mint is a thug and needs corralling, and that's a wasted space. The herb "hedge" I mentioned - 4 thyme of two different sorts, two prostrate rosemary, two upright rosemary, a lonesome variegated sage, two lemon balm, two wild marjoram, plus some gaps... the leaf bark is standing to attention for when I plug the gaps, this weekend hopefully! The mentioned apple mint from the local community garden Dogwood for a hedge but more interestingly three aronia (chokeberry) bushes to plant out. They are thugs apparently so they are getting a triangle to themselves the other side of the veg plot. My berry patch - blueberries, which are persevering, cranberries, which are spreading, tiny little whimberry bushes which were a major rip off but 5 out of the 6 are surviving being the preferred cat toilet. The lingonberries are thriving the best. Fingers crossed for the rest. The soil should be perfect so it's just if they establish. Photo of the happy lingonberries - looks like I might have fruit this year! Squash and courgette planters - nothing to see yet General garden shot with fruit cage at the back. Flower border right at front, two veg beds, asparagus bed and rhubarb creche, fruit cage. Other fruit trees fan trained against the cart barn. Tomatoes and saffron. Progress shots - raab and the first year of asparagus (hence not harvested). Looking good!

"Mexican" salad from a few days ago. Cucumber, chicken sousvided at 60 degrees C for an hour because it's easy to remember, avocado, tomberries which are the funniest thing ever, a handful of grated cheddar, lime juice, salsa in a squeezy jar, sour cream the same, and plenty of tabasco. Not cheffy but I nommed it

Cornflower, zinnia, aster and cosmos definitely up. Might have one sunflower and one sweet pea so far. Veg wise the raab is going bananas, we also have rocket, mixed salad and the spinach beet is definitely sprouting. All three oka have now sprouted and the rhubarb is looking happier, what a difference a couple of days makes!

Brilliant, thank you! I also managed to find a video of Hirano-sensei doing his stuff. We bought our knives from him, and he's lovely. I think I should probably buy a slightly cheaper knife to practice with. Or possibly attack the Ikea set I have in one of my holiday lets, to get my confidence up!

I've eaten a fair few nutty korma and passanda in my time, too.

I've just been looking at the Faire website (they don't really exist like this in the UK, our nearest would be something like http://www.ludlowmedievalchristmas.co.uk/). Wow, it's quite a thing! Love the kitchen pics. http://new.renfair.com/socal/ for anyone else interested.

Store bought walnut bread, butter and cloudberry jam. No pics, I'm afraid, it evaporated!