tejon

What a lovely way to start the day! I had the same yogurt and some raspberries this morning, too, minus the honey.

I have a lot of ingredients frozen: meats, herbs, nuts, berries, tofu (I like the texture once it's been frozen), vegetables (edamame, corn, and peas) yeast, and stock at the moment. There are a few prepared things, but not many: ice cream (home made peach), some sausages, pork dumplings I made a while back, and whole wheat bread. That's just at the moment, though. There is often a good assortment of pre-made stuff from Trader Joe's in there. You'll often find a bag or two of TJs chicken potstickers in there, often sitting side by side with a bag of Orange Chicken .

Food history is fascinating! I love looking through very, very old cookbooks and texts and trying to parse out what they ate, how they made it, how everything was served. Really looking forward to following along as you put on such an expansive dinner.

What about some pakora as one of the starters? You could use any vegetable you find or even a mix, and most people really love them.

I would love to make these! Can't imagine that they would come out even half as delicate as the ones I had back at Din Tai Fung, but since I'm just a smidge over 900 miles away now, making some at home seems like a good idea .

I use safflower oil as a neutral oil for just about everything. Used to use peanut oil until my oldest showed a peanut allergy. Canola oil tastes fishy when heated to high temperatures, at least to me.

← I found out what "3ss" most likely refers to - the recipe is directing you to use the 3 subspecies of chamomile: Roman (Anthemis nubilis), German (Matricaria recutita), and Moroccan (Ormenis multicalis).

Huge fan here. She truly takes pleasure in food and cooking and that shines through in everything she does on screen, which is refreshing. The recipes that I've tried have been uniformly delicious, which is an added bonus. I want to be Nigella when I grow up.

Teri, I have an autistic son as well and deal with some pretty severe food aversions as well. If you haven't checked it out, I highly recommend the book "Just Take a Bite". My son now eats far more than he did before, and meals are less challenging and difficult for all of us. Perheps you could talk to your ex and help him come up with meal ideas? Even a list of things they have liked in the past would probably help him out. I know for me, having a list of foods that I know will most likely get eaten is a huge help and takes a lot of frustration out of cooking. Have your oldest make up her own list so he doesn't have to figure out things to feed her. Though I'd still hide the vegetable broth!

I made Chicken and Pork Adobado tonight. Delicious, though the pork didn't get as tender as I would have liked in the amount of time given. Next time I would start the pork simmering first, giving it about a 15-20 minute head start on the chicken and braising for an hour and fifteen minutes instead of the 40-50 minutes suggested. This one is a keeper, with slight modification.

I think you'd be likely to burn the top layer of cake in places. An even layer of caramelized sugar would also be difficult - you'd have spots that are dark and spots that don't end up as caramelized. Plus, the final look and texture would be rather different.

I agree with Karen. I would remove all large pots and pans, prehaps mumble something about getting them specially cleaned if he asks. Tell your daughter what you're doing so she'll be an ally (guessing she also doesn't enjoy the big pot of paste that her dad serves). You could also leave a good, simple vegetarian cookbook somewhere conspicuous. Oh, and hide the vegetable stock! (I'd take it to a friend or neighbor's house for safekeeping. No use wasting precious stock on a vat of goo.)

That's a pretty amazing haul! My local produce store does something similar, though they sell $1 bags of produce that are too ripe to sell. Last week I walked out with 4 pounds of perfectly ripe organic peaches for a dollar .

Here's the recipe for brains....BRAINS! This recipe was inspired by the one Alton Brown did a few years back. I liked the idea but wasn't thrilled with the recipe, so I came up with my own. By the way, I would suggest getting this mold - it looks a lot more lifelike. Panna Cotta (brain style) with Pomegranite Sauce 1 cup milk 5 teaspoons unflavored gelatin 4 cups heavy cream 1 cup + 1 Tb sugar, divided pinch salt 2 Tablespoons vanilla 8 oz. pomegranite juice 1/4 cup cornstarch Place milk in a small bowl and sprinkle gelatin over the top. Stir and let sit for about five minutes so the gelatin can rehydrate a bit. Combine cream and sugar in a pan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla and salt. Add the gelatin mixture and stir again until combined. Pour into (brain) mold, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight or until mixture is completely set. To unmold, gently tilt mold so sides of the panna cotta pull away a bit, then place on platter or plate. You can also dip the bottom of the mold into warm water to help in unmolding. (For non-brain occasions, pour into small custard cups, ramekins, or a large bowl) For the pomegranite sauce, I just got a small bottle of Pom Wonderful, added three heaping spoonfuls of sugar so it wasn't so tart, mixed in about 1/4 cup cornstarch, whisked like crazy, then brought it all to a boil in a small saucepan while stirring. The consistancy is rather disgusting, but that's the whole point! This looks especially creepy set out on a really nice platter. Also quite effective on a carving board with a large chef's knife plunged into the center .

I made both of these last year, though I've made a brain mold for Halloween every year for almost the past decade. It's a bit of a Halloween tradition in our house! Here's the cookie recipe. It's actually a rather tasty almond shortbread-ish cookie that happens to hold shape really well. "Finger" Cookies makes ~ 5 dozen Yield: 5 dozen 1 cup butter, softened 1 cup powdered sugar 1 egg 1 tsp almond extract 1 tsp vanilla 2 2/3 cups flour 1 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 3/4 cup whole blanched almonds raspberry jelly In bowl, beat together butter, sugar, egg, almond extract and vanilla. Stir dry ingredients together, then add to wet and stir thoroughly. Cover and refrigerate 30 minutes. Working with one quarter of the dough at a time and keeping remainder refrigerated, roll a scant tablespoon full (I used a 1 oz. cookie scoop) of dough into a thin log shape about 4" long for each cookie. Squeeze clost to center and close to one end to create knuckle shapes. Press almond firmly into the end of the cookie for nail. Using paring knife, make slashes in several places to form knuckle. You want them a bit thin and gangly looking, since they'll puff a little when you bake them. Place on lightly greased baking sheets (or use silicone sheets or parchment); bake in 325F oven for 20-25 minutes or until pale golden. Let cool for a few minutes. Meanwhile, melt jelly over low heat in a small saucepan. Carefully lift almond off of each finger, spoon a tiny amount of jelly onto nail bed and press almond back in place so the jelly oozes out from underneath. You can also make slashes in the finger and fill them with "blood. You can also form toes - just make the cookies shorter and a bit wider and only add one joint instead of two. No almonds for these, just indent where the nailbed should be and add a bit of melted jelly to highlight once they are baked.

Now this is how I like to play with food :

Welcome back, Klary! We really enjoyed our dinner at Andina with you and your husband. The food was delicious, but the conversation made it a really special evening. I'm so glad you drove down to Portland .

I was looking for something good to make last night and realized that I had every single thing needed for this recipe. Gave it a try, and it was absolutely delicious! I added a bit more red bell pepper since I had more on hand, but otherwise made it as described above. I do think next time I will grind the Szechuan peppercorns, as I didn't like the crunchy bits here and there (though I dearly love that flavor). Steamed some broccoli to go along with it which was a great foil to the heat of the chicken. Here it is, still steaming hot

Sigh. Back to the drawing board. [Moderator note: This topic continues in Dinner II: The Gallery of Regrettable Foods (Part 2)]

Yes, indeed! Good eyes, both of you.

It's an Indonesian beef curry. Fantastically good, but it really, really looked like Alpo on a plate. My son looked at it, looked at me, and asked, "is this supposed to be for the cats?"

I'll watch the tomatoes and see if they get a chance to ripen, then. I'd be a shame if they don't, since I have quite a few decent sized ones that look like they have potential.

It's with great pride that I finally share tonight's dinner. No, we didn't have Alpo, though it sure looks like it.

Everything looks delicious! Kulfi, ragda patties and pani puri I've had before (and devoured quickly), but the rest are new and enticing. I'm imagining how good the black salt tasted with a fruit juice and how the flavors would work off each other. Thank you, w@w, for sharing recipes - I'll be making many of these soon to be sure. Abra, even with poor lighting the photos are gorgeous. Thanks for sharing this.

I almost always store nuts in the freezer, usually sealed in some sort of Tupperware. They stay fresh so much longer that way, and nuts defrost very quickly when needed. I also keep whole wheat flour in the freezer since it's apt to go rancid quickly as well.