Tropicalsenior

At one time I worked for a business that was a combination of butcher shop, fishmonger, Deli and Catering kitchen. It was a huge building. One day a lonesome little shrimp got dropped down a little floor drain that was hidden under a work table. We were closed for 48 hours while we hunted for that little sucker. It was amazing how much stench one little morsel can create.

Well, they've stopped selling fresh English muffins in Costa Rica. I haven't made them in years but I thought I'd give them a try. They are a little too thick and a bit overdone but not too bad for the rush job that they were. I had to try one and it was fine.

@Norm Matthews I've created more starters than I can count and I've always had good luck just with flour and water but eventually I, too, neglect them and they die. I'm not a good babysitter for sourdough. Also, I have the disadvantage that I make all my bread in a small countertop oven. I have a large oven that will reach the high temperatures but because of the tropical heat here I don't like to use it. I have also started using the preferment method and although it doesn't give me a full sourdough flavor it does make a big difference. The day before I make my bread I make a mixture of one cup white flour, one teaspoon yeast and about 3/4 of a cup of water. I usually make it about 18 hours before I am ready to bake. It may not be the best bread in town but I'm certainly happy with it. This was today's result. These are some rolls from last week.

Because of my age limitation I often make my meal in stages and this sounds like an excellent recipe for that. I would say that you could probably make the chicken and the sauce in the morning, heat the sauce and reheat the chicken in the sauce. I would probably make double the sauce to make sure that it covers the chicken while you're reheating. Or if you're worried about the chicken not getting hot enough, you could pop it in a 400 degree oven for 10 minutes before you return it to the sauce.

I wouldn't even have questioned it. I would immediately take it back to the store for refund or replacement.

I don't ever let them get that black before I use them. They are still quite firm when they are good and sweet. These are some that I bought Saturday and they are nice and sweet for eating but I would probably give them two more days before I use them in banana bread. They will still be quite firm but I put them in his zip-top bag and squash them and they are completely ready to use. I showed two bananas with the peel. Sorry I couldn't show you the other banana because I ate it.

Not a terribly good picture but I snapped this this morning in the supermarket. As you can see, not a single piece of chicken in view.

In Costa Rica that dish would be called Pollo con Arroz (chicken with rice). In a Arroz con Pollo there is only about a tablespoon of chicken in that much rice. It is the national dish here that is served at every type of gathering. Weddings, funerals, baby showers, everything. The way they make it, I swear, one chicken will feed 40 people. And the traditional accompanyments are potato chips and Coca-Cola.

I've been using this recipe for Microwave Lemon Curd for years and it is thick enough for cake filling and it can be frozen.

They look pretty close to the little bananas that I get here in Costa Rica. They probably aren't quite ripe yet but they will be in two or three days. The riper they are the sweeter they get. You can wait until they get quite dark before you use them. I found that the easiest way to mash them is just put them in a zip top bag and squish them.

That happens a lot here in Costa Rica. About 20 years back there was a pizza restaurant that opened in a little kiosk across the street. All the ever seem to have was ground beef, sauce and cheese despite showing about 20 items on their menu. Their basic pizza wasn't really all that bad and we would request it with anchovies and they were always out. As we got to know them better we found out that they didn't even know what anchovies were. They had just taken somebody else's menu and copied it verbatim.

I was glad to see that this topic has come up because Carlos and I were discussing it the other day and I had no idea that Frito pie had been around so long. The reason for our discussion was that the cevicharia down the street has added new item to their takeout menu. It is a bag of picaritos (triangular corn chips) topped with ceviche. It sounds pretty gross to me, but then I'm not a fan of either item.

Thank you. It sounds delicious. Does it also tenderize the meat or does it just add flavor? Maybe with something like this, there's hope for the crappy beef that we get here, which by the way is all grass-fed. Not a feedlot in the country.

Sounds intriguing. I have a mango just going ripe, shrimp in the freezer and some wasabi, uh, green horseradish that somebody gave me. Sounds like just thing for dinner tomorrow night. I just need to know what kind of mayonnaise. Is it Chinese, Japanese, or maybe durian flavored?

Do you happen to have a recipe or a link to this? It sounds delicious and making it in the instant pot is even better.

I had some candied fruit left from making panettone and I decided to toss that in at the end. I wish now that I hadn't but they are still good.

I made a batch of Traditional English Fruit Teacakes. They are quite simple to make but they are definitely something special and well worth making. If you plan to make them, give yourself a couple hours extra because both times that I have made them I have found them to be very slow rising. You definitely have to be patient with these. They are delicious with just butter or cream cheese.

I sold mine to a guy from Canada who claimed to be a chef. He promptly sliced three fingers and wound up in the emergency room.

It looks quite similar to the one that I bought in the grocery store the other day for $3. I used to have one like the first one that you showed but every time I finally got it set up, I realized I was too scared to use it. For the amount of cooking that I do, the cheap little Supermarket version suits me just fine.

Only if the recipe is from Neiman Marcus!

I was also sent this recipe as an example of a dump meal. Seven Can Chicken Taco Soup. That's right. Seven cans that you open and dump into a slow cooker. And they even include a video to show you how to open the cans. When they say dump meal they aren't kidding.

I just received an email that had four recipes and three of them have names that just set my teeth on edge. The first one was Neiman Marcus bars, yeah sure they are. The second was million dollar chicken. That's right up there with the million dollar oatmeal recipe that they sent last time. And the last one was dump cake. For someone who is old enough to remember taking things to the dump and remembering how it smells, that cake really appeals to me.

Today's bake. Two baguettes and two hamburger buns. Nothing fancy but it keeps me in bread.

I'm still on a boycott of Costa Rican bread so I made another batch of Birotes Salados. Although it is intended to be used as small sandwich rolls, I have found out that it makes a great baguette. I plan to use the rolls for barbecue chicken sandwiches for dinner.

Yes definitely. Do try them you will be amazed at the difference in the taste and the texture. The little ones in the photo above just get sweeter as they get darker but they are still nice and firm. Down here in this heat, the Cavendish bananas will be soft and mushy in about 3 days and these will last and be good for at least five to seven days.