Annie_H

Just put 12" tweezers in my cart. We use long chopsticks all the time. Thanks Alex, 😂

Wood fired smoker mixed grill. Salmon on rhubarb, planked. New-to-us sausage. FabriqueDelices ChipolataBistro Potato salad and feta/watermelon/mango/basil/chives salad. No plating pics. A few frames loaded totally black. Bummer. Nice sausage. Just put two more packages in my cart.

I use it as placemats when having a crab, lobster, shrimp boil--over our outdoor table covered in newspaper. On my cutting board when slicing red beets. So handy. I did do research a dozen years ago about the different brands but supply chain issues I had to jump at what they had in stock. Some are better for high temps. Some more echo friendly, yada yada. Me no care at this point.

Rhubarb juice is really good. This pic was a few years ago but I'll be making a batch this week. Simmer until soft, then strain. The juicy pulp I freeze in 1/2 pints. Add to sauces and I'll make a batch of summer bbq sauce. This year were were late tapping our maples so only 5 gallons. --need forty gallons for a gallon of syrup. Cooked the five down to a half gallon and will mix it with the rhubarb, some ginger, turmeric, etc. ---for seltzer and cocktails. We try for forty gallons every year but seem to end up with 20 making a half gallon of maple. Plenty for us but no gifting. I'll get maybe 24 juice containers for the freezer and take out one or so a week to thaw for that week.

Whenever I have issues growing all winter indoors, I consult their forums. Whiteflies, etc.

Really more like twice that. Just seems like an excessive #. We harvested two paper grocery bags. About 6 bundles in each. 20# bags each?. Neighbors are welcome to help themselves. 20 pound for us I like to juice and make a bbq sauce. That is 60 this weekend and barely looks like we touched it. When my niece and nephew were young and visited one summer they were shocked how French fries grew. 😂 They grew up on fast food and easy packaged foods. Sister does not cook. Chive farm, lol. Things seem earlier this year.

I did grow potatoes for for a few years but not worth it here. My 'armchair' crops are garlic and rhubarb---zucchini, beans. No trouble or tending. My rhubarb 'farm' is nuts. 200 pounds in a 80ft row from three 100 year OLD mother plants divided 15-20 years ago. We thought at the time it would be a good retirement farm. 80 foot row every two years. from 20 year old Mother plants. Shit happens and we no longer care about such. We just give away and so many city slickers, co-workers, will be thrilled this week getting fresh rhubarb. The flowers are gorgeous but need to be removed. If not, the plants do not care. (we are in the Catskills. Remote farm.) One car passes maybe twice a day. We just tonight harvested about 20 pounds of rhubarb. Will go to city co-workers and I make juice. 200 pounds if I feel like harvesting.

I do the same with bacon. I make a weave of portions. Into the oven to crisp. A breakfast sandwich or brunch BLT. A big family reunion the vultures woke and 'smelled the bacon' but could not sneak any. A solo home cook for a crowd is an issue when one needs to start yet another pound of bacon from vultures theiving. The weave seems overly fussy but done ahead getting up early and having solo time with with Pop?. Priceless. 12 weaved bundles in the oven prepped ahead. Finish crisping before serving. (on a salmon BLT the bacon this way is like velcro. Holds all together)

Surprised it is on your bucket list. A favorite EasternShore hometown delicacy since I was a wee one. If you like sausage, paté, and polenta/grits, especially polenta next day griddled, I can't imagine not liking it. I've been making my own for a while. Over the holidays I ordered my hometown brand. They ship only a short time each year. It's greasy so I can control that and like mine better. Too busy doing other things to make a batch. I made a batch, 4 mini loaf pans, Easter weekend. Used a pound of frozen Momofuku Bo Saam, extra barkie. 1/2 pint of chicken livers. Polenta using good rich master stock. Nothing fatty. Really does not need it. Lots of pepper and sage. I use Bells seasoning since I buy a tiny box every thanksgiving. A little town next to my hometown has a scrapple festival every year and the 'Punpkin' Chunkin' insanity. 🙄 When I was young, 8 or 9, I started helping Dad in the kitchen. My siblings are 6,7, and 8 years older and have never been interested in cooking. Dad stopped doing breakfast and eggs to order so I took over. Then decided they can cook their own. Same with bacon being hovering vultures, they would sneak scrapple and bacon from the pan or p-toweled resting. I got smart and start scrapple first side crispy, flip, and immediately cover in cracked eggs. Some broken yolks. Cover with roasted oven potatoes and into the oven for a bit to set the eggs. One sister could not and still does not like food touching so tough tittie. She was a nasty devil and tyrant. Still is but was dealt a bad deck of cards with mental health issues. Not her fault. Louisiana Boudin is another favorite we make. Obviously now I use lots of various veg in the roasted. Dad will like the sweet potatoes I add. He will laugh at the method being 'invented' so many years ago. I'll make it next visit...

Just got a box last week from WebstaurauntStore.com. Last time I ordered was 2015 so it lasts a while. A few more things while at it. I added an extra 4" tall shelf in the pantry that hold it and next to it my food saver and rolls of bags.

Anything for the kitchen I consider 'fun'. I've had these for a while. Lifetime scrubbie it seems. A drip of soap and salt or baking soda in my Chemex. --removing the collar is a PITA. Do that every few months if that. Made for cast iron and good for that if needed. Burnishes the good surface if something does cling. Two is important as one is always in the dishwasher.

Zapps! 😀 I like the French loaf. Handy to have in the freezer.

We have a good system going for a few years. I appreciate he unloads the dishwasher in the morning while making coffee. Then reloads if the sink is a bit full from the night before. Then cleans the sink with BKF. Brings me coffee in bed. Anything not sure where it goes he leaves on a drying cloth above the dishwasher. I still need to check and rearrange some things put away wrong about once a week. Takes 5 min.

The NYTimes has a recipe that has a very big fail in the ingredient list. A few years now. In the comment section so many have said, "please fix this recipe". Must be something I make and refer to often but can't remember now what it is. This one bugs me from Food52, finger limes Where are the 20 pics most put in these post from every angle. One pic and the most important characteristic is out of focus. Yes it is described in the copy but pretty stupid to not show the beads of lime in the cut fruit.

For soil in fabric pouches, the fabric is similar to a felt. It stay wet as long as the plant is watered. Even as the planter starts to dry out the 'felt' is often still damp. The roots will grow all the way to the edge of the wet bag. Then stop growing but more roots will form. Plastic pots, especially black ones, will dry out around the pots when the sun hits them. Why trees are best wrapped in burlap.

I first saw one in use at MomofukuKo. They use the real deal but I have the imposter Thaan (sp) brand. Still burns long and clean. Unless a bit of grease hits the coals. And reusable. Some start the heating process in a hot oven. I just use my chimney starter with some cooking oil on lots of newspaper and a torch. I had my eye on one of these for a while being so portable. HIBACHI But ended up just using something I have next to our outdoor table.

I'm not much of a recipe writer but here is one, stuffed zucchini flowers I use goat cheese and fresh herbs. Thick and stickier than ricotta. No sun-dried tomatoes in mine. Pry open the flower by tearing and add a heaping teaspoon. Gently squeeze shut. I dredge in egg, then corn flower, (not corn starch)--just the bottom that hits the hot pan. I like to serve just like the link posted for a crowd. Male flowers. With the female fruit attached I slice down the length of the zucchini one or two times. Press down with a weight--anything that gets them to fan out a bit to make good contact with the hot pan. Cast iron. A bit of butter and olive oil. When I have a ton of flowers I make fritters using a mound of a corn cake recipe and press the stuffed flowers into the batter. These I do flip briefly. Less time on the flipped side. I also press them into frittatas halfway through the baking. And on Roman style pizza.

Pizza in Teglia alla Romana

It gets a bit frustrating on my garden forum where the old timers are so set in their ways--- but I get it to a point. Like any modernist revelations, myth busting, some will never be convinced or even try a new method. My Meyer lemon is in a fabric pot, (GreenHouseMegastore) set into a tall pot I filled 1/3'rd with packing material. Thriving. 8 years now. Beauty plant in my kitchen all winter flowering and the scent of the flowers---intoxicating in such dismal weather.

My favorite size are the babies with the flowers.

Good choice. I did a side-by-side a few years ago and the pouches out-grew the standard plastic buckets. 'root pruning'. Roots travel all the way to the fabric unlike a standard plastic pot where the roots ball up interior. (I have pics somewhere). I have a few dozen of different sizes for trial breeding projects that need to be moved around. Mine have handles but no larger that 5 gallon. Yours look like ten gallon commercial?. Mine are still looking good 5-6 years now. Just ordered another 5 pounds of garlic from HoodRiver. Last order was 5-6 years ago but I need more volume. I save and re-plant but still would like more varieties. I'm moving it out of the main garden next Fall.

A new-to-me pasta. Trofle. Just delivered so I was anxious to try. Sauce was already planned. Vegetable vodka Mediterranean. Spiced chick peas in the oven with merguez. Long cook time I watched like a hawk. 10-13 minutes the package says. Started checking at 9min. Ladled out at 13min since planning to toss with the sauce before serving. Nice. Will be my go-to for summer pesto and mixed greens this summer. Garden peas, etc. I weighted out 1/3'rd the package and made dinner and two lunches so 4 servings. 16 servings per package. (17.6 oz) Used an all-clad saucepan. Lots of evaporation with such a long cook but made a really nice thick starchy 'broth' to add to the sauce. Wrong sauce pairing but I knew that. Nice to know it holds up well cold next day lunch.

Pups are eating good. They get kibble, (cereal), for breakfast and a homemade porridge for dinner I make once a week. Saving veg kale stems, celery, carrots and their tops, --any crisper ends saved. Apples, pears. (no allium family). Cuisinart minced. Rotation of ofals, liver, minced beef, chicken. Cleaning out the pretty empty freezer I found a half dozen salmon fillets in the bottom freezer drawer under food savered herbs and grape leaves and fresh frozen ginger/tumeric. Family rule is veg only in that drawer but shit happens. Might be from early 2020 so pups are happy. 3 recent batches...

Hot smoked salmon and wild gulf shrimp spring rolls and sushi. Finally have basil, mint, and cilantro in the house at the same time. (Thai basil is only two inches tall in the garden). Imposter wasabi---mustard powder and horseradish but does the trick for a quickie. Micro green Rambo radish and pea shoots. I've been getting the best tiny but dense, creamy, avocados. Tiny pits. So heavy for their size. Made a few hand rolls for todays lunches. I have a new last week delivery of Alaskan salmon, sushi grade. But found some of last Falls delivery I smoked that I'm using up first. I order twice a year that suits us. !0 pounds is about 25-30 cryo-vac'd portions.

Most will have very mild issues. A bit of stomach distress not worth noting. Some may have a 24 hour issue most call a 'bug'. Older generations call stomach issues and flu-like symptoms a 'bug' that should pass after a day or two. Intense symptoms should seek urgent care for dehydration. --puking water is a good sign to get help.