MaryIsobel

Thanks, must have misread. If that's the four pound price that's great. I am just used to the frustration of living north of the 49th as far as availabilty to ship to Canada and sometimes outrageous shipping rates, which are sometimes accompanied by crazy tarriffs at the border. I think it's great that they are having trouble keeping up with the demand, as that means that once they get a die and a supplier figured out, it will be a successful business, always nice to see.

I really want to try that pasta shape, but 17.99 per pound (US$, so about 22.50 Canadian) plus a 12 week wait to ship and I didn't even look into the shipping fees to Canada. I shall put it on my Christmas list!

Fabulous! I am always impressed with the number of dishes you make for one meal.

I love the idea of grapefruit - a kind of novel idea for cake. I too, often make loaf cakes in the mini pans. They are great for giving and thaw really quickly for unexpected guests.

Blueberries are early and plentiful this year. Blueberry pie from my Mom's recipe. Shell is filled with uncooked blueberries and then topped with blueberries cooked with a small amount of sugar and cornstarch, water, finished with lemon juice and butter. One for dinner and two minis, one for the elderly neighbour and one to take to my Dad tomorrow. Presentation is a bit sloppy but I used more fresh blueberries than called for and had a bit of overflow. Nothing that whipped cream or ice cream won't cover up!

How wonderful! Your Dad looks very vibrant and extremely happy (as does your son - but he always looks like the happiest kid on earth!) I long to get my Dad out of his long term care home now that restrictions are lifted, but currently cannot imagine trying to get him in to a vehicle. He is currently a "two person transfer" and that doesn't work well getting in and out of a vehicle. One of these days, fingers crossed.

Yes, I have grilled romaine, but this is very delicate leaf lettuce; I'm sure it wouldn't hold up to any heat - good thought though.

I posted a while back about the neighbour who keeps us supplied in fresh mushrooms. To reciprocate a little, my husband took them a couple of pounds of bing cherries from our tree. Not even 24 hours later, they showed up with a cabbage, four zucchini and a grocery bag full of leaf lettuce from their garden. A lovely gift for sure, but not sure we will get through a grocery bag of lettuce between the two of us! I may offer some of the lettuce to the critters that are snacking on my dahlias...

The cashews are roasted with siracha, then chopped and sprinkled on the finished chicken, along with cilantro (which I was also out of) and green onion tops.

Forgive my abyssmal photography and the mundane serving dishes. It is just my husband and I and it's hot! NYT Grilled Soy-Basted Chicken Thighs With Spicy Cashews, without the spicy cashews because I didn't have cashews and it's too hot to go get some, besides, there are pecans in the salad. I recreated a salad I had out the other night. Beets (done in the IP) spinach, feta and pecans in a maple lemon dressing. Not ususally a fan of potato salad, but I saw this one on a site call Salt and Lavendar. It's tiny creamer potatos, crispy bacon, green onions and celery, dressed in a combination of mayo, grainy mustard, vinegar and smoked paprika. It was quite moreish. The original didn't have celery, but I wanted a little crunch.

My dad, who is now 94, did very, very little cooking until my Mom died 20 years ago. On the odd night when he was left to cook dinner for us kids, he made one of his 3 specialties; canned meatballs in gravy, pork 'n beans on toast or as sandwiches or fried egg sandwiches. If he was feeling fancy we would have smoked oysters on saltines as an appetizer. It always felt like a bit of an adventure when Dad was at the helm in the kitchen, and I say that with love!

Thanks. I learned more than one thing today, so have exceeded my goal!

I thought the same thing regarding expense if the salt isn't reused. Not terribly familiar with rock salt and have never seen it for sale. I thought that was what they used for the roads here but I could certainly be mistaken on that!

Thank you - will definitely try this method. Do you reuse the salt bed or use new every time? I have always been hesitant to rub the potatoes with oil, as I assumed that it would make the skins soft but apparently I have been underbaking them for an hour or so...

I'm counting the days (should only be a week or so) til our local strawberries are ready. Oddly, we are surrounded by berry fields here in the Fraser Valley, but I cannot grow them. Critter and birds are a big part of my problem. Hmmm, perhaps I need a bird cannon such as some of the nearby farmers employ...

Every time I see one of your baked potatoes, I get to jonesing for one that looks like that. Would you mind sharing how you do them?

That looks so good - either with crab or shrimp - thank you!

Dinner plan was halibut. Bought a bunch of frozen on the boat fillets last fall. My husband likes his blackened, I don't. I had some mango curry sauce in the freezer for mine. About 5:30, I said "I don't feel like fish and I want to go to the nursery when there are no line ups." Lovely man that he is, he said "go then, I will order lasagna and we'll have the fish tomorrow." I happily went to the nursery, even though I knew that the lasagna that he orders tastes like Chef Boyardee

This is the only way I do wings anymore. Very hard to tell that they are not deep fried!

i aspire to have breakfasts like you do. I had cheerios...

/\ This was the biggest revelation to me when I got my insta pot. I tried the recipe with a huge amount of skepticism and was most pleasantly shocked at how well it turned out.

Husband is getting better at bacon! He went so smoke heavy for a while, I put a moratorium on it. Pretty sure that your house, your clothes, your sheets, your dog are not supposed to smell like a campfire after a smoking session! This batch was good, my only complaint was that it was just a tad sweet. Carbonara and a salad tonight.

That's a new one to me - sounds well worth a try, thank you.

An embarassment of riches, one might say. Neighbour just showed up with these. I had just finishing sauteeing and stashing in the freezer, the remainder of the mushrooms they gave us the other day. Since dinner tonight is halibut (in the style of LiamsAunt) with balsamic beets and sweet potatoes, I wasn't feeling that mushrooms would go well. Maybe creamed mushrooms on toast or mushroom risotto tomorrow night and then back to sauteeing and freezing. As far as gills go, it depends on what I'm making and how dark the gills are. I once made a mushroom, red pepper, asparagus stir fry where the gills turned the whole dish a rather unappetizing colour.