Maison Rustique

You all are reminding me that I've got a can of the lightly smoked salmon in the pantry. Might be just the thing on a salad tonight. Too hot for anything but cold foods.

Too hot to cook or eat. Had a salad with nuts, brioche croutons, crispy pepperoni. With toasted, buttered Organic Super Bread from TJs.

I belong to a local group of food-lovers. One of them always hosts elegant, delicious-looking parties. I feel like I've "arrived" because I've been invited to one of her cocktail parties--a martini party. I was thinking of making this anchovy dip with Buttered Saltines. She is a very mid-century modern sort of woman, so thought these might fit. What do you think, since I've never tried the anchovy dip or the baked saltines (which sound a lot easier than frying them). I need easy and portable since it is bloody hot, my hands no longer work well to chop/dice and I plan to Uber so won't be able to juggle anything sloshy or cumbersome.

I want to know about Duvel Dust! @Duvel

Since I don't cook much anymore but still like to have fun and interesting stuff to cook with, if I bought a jar of 'nduja, could I freeze it in spoonfuls so I had some to pull out to use in various things?

I would put that out near the woods for the snakes and raccoons to eat.

@Kim Shook, Yes, I should have said before that the cream cheese is lightly flavored and not terribly sweet. The cookies go great with it! All your other choices look great!!

Yes, it does seem to lose potency. Can you freeze mustard to extend that potency? Or would that lessen it even more?

Not exactly appropriate for hot weather, but I made a mock version of posole verde to use up some stuff on hand.

Are you sure it isn't Soylent Green?

@rotuts, I love those butter waffle cookies! I'd forgotten about them. I should have gotten some to eat with my peaches and cream cream cheese spread!

I need to look for that recipe--I've always got discard to use! EDIT: Found the recipe!

Hot and humid here. My sis brought me some pulled pork. i used some to top a salad along with parm, almonds, brioche croutons and lemon vinaigrette.

I had no idea hostas were edible! You learn something new every day...

OMG! Those eggplant dumplings!! I'd likely not make them just for myself, but they look wonderful!

Sorry to hear that!

That pineapple looks delicious! No photo because I was starving, but I had a meatloaf sandwich with s/p, plenty of mayo and sharp cheddar. Potato chips. Pinot grigio because that's what was open in the fridge. Delicious. Meatloaf sandwiches might be my very favorite food.

I love the 2 French "pizzas". I have tried others but can't recall which or if I liked them.

Interesting about the difference in Brita filters! I just bought a package of Kirkland clones. Will have to see if it says anything on them about what they remove. A package of 10 filters will likely last me around a year, so I won't be buying again for a while.

A hot day meant salad--topped with crispy pepperoni and I added shredded parm after the photo--and a sage-thyme croissant from my neighbors' baker daughter.

Been having this for dessert every evening (until last night when I had the cream cheese with a croissant). I love this cream cheese!

I have everything in this house needed to make meatloaf. Did I make one? Nope. I bought one from my local milkman. I am definitely getting lazy in my old age. It is quite tasty and I did not think $9.99 was a bad price for an 18 oz meatloaf that was ready to pop into the oven. I roasted some potatoes and brussels sprouts to go with it. While I was prepping that, my neighbor popped over with a couple of croissants that their daughter (who owns a bakery) left for me. I had one later with the Peaches & Cream cream cheese from Trader Joe's.

Thank you! I plan to move to a new house in a few months and will look into those when I do.

I seldom like the taste of tap water and mostly don't trust that it doesn't have something in it that I don't want so for years I've used Brita filters. Now I hear that Britas don't remove anything from water except the chlorine taste. I'm not sure what I want to do about this. If anything.

Yum!! That meatloaf looks great!