I freak when my taste buds are off. We are so off salt just because it is such a dead numbing overpowering taste killer...like hot spicy peppers. I've never had the throat closing scary allergic reaction to anything. A bit of salt at the table we both adore. Like salt in pasta water. That is fine.

When i had a three day migraine in my early thirties, terrified, the first thing my primary said...after being pissed we did not call earlier, "what are you eating, what is your diet". I wore a pill in a capsule around my neck for 5 years. lol. (it was pretty like a charm). Something in processed food is a trigger...no idea what. Not MSG. I have some hints but we just don't go there. Whole fresh foods. Nothing processed.

Another good comfort. Braised meatballs. Enameled cast iron stove-top. 1/2 pint bone broth into the oven to braise. One hour, then uncovered glazed...miso smoked chili flake...heat up 20 minutes...so tender.

Family is on the covid mend in SCarolina. Other nephew and family with two toddlers and grandma on oxygen in elder care have vacuated NewOrleans... (good grief)

I've had anosmia for a number of years. Everyone has acted like it was nothing, but once you have happen to you you understand. It does affect your sense of taste, but it is also dangerous. I don't smell things that are on fire, I don't know when food has gone bad... On a scale of 1 to 10 my sense of smell is 1-2. Sinus infection caused it.

After extensive surgery I got it back for about 3 months, and it was gone again. I'd give a million dollars to be able to smell anything. I wouldn't care if it was skunk, or a papermill. When I got my sense of smell back, I loved everything, horrible and amazing.

I would endure the surgery again if I thought it would help me again. Insurance providers probably have different ideas than I have, of what's necessary.

Rob, my BIL is very similar! Can't smell/taste much most of the time, then KABOOM he can smell and taste everything!..........And then it's gone!

It's truly dangerous not having a sense of smell!

Though, I miss my sense of taste too

Rob, Have you look into "Can LENS Neurofeedback Treat Anosmia"? and "smell train" to regain the ability to smell?

BTW, I am not a doctor.

dcarch

I have a lot to catch up on! Lot's of great cooking -- Rob's plum pork chops and mug cake, Jadip's pasta, Sleeve's stuffed squash blossom and gorganzola sliders. I also enjoyed seeing Dcarch's tomato harvest.

As predicted August has been all about wine. We started with the Thompson seedless grapes, then the satsuma plums, and now this week we harvested, destemmed, and pressed our golden muscat grapes. It was a family affair with all three of us working over 4 days. This is the second year that our neighbor has helped out. He gets a huge amount of grapes on his side of the fence. We've always told him that anything on his side is his, but I think our vines are far outproducing what he can eat. We will thank him with wine. Between the three harvests, we will produce 200 bottles of wine. Our biggest harvest ever.

In between the harvests, I have been working, Garrett started school and we got in a little cooking.

SV salmon with basmati pilaf, zucchini and a butter thyme sauce

Used up some of our tomato harvest with this Chicken parmesan

Milled whole grain wheat to make english muffins, which were tasty and healthy and paired them with Trader Joe's bake at home croissants, which were tasty but not so healthy.

Brunch!

Our pomegranate wine from this winter is now ready. It came out really clear with a great flavor.

What a great harvest, Lynda! 200 bottles!!! I've been toying with the idea of going to a do-it-yourself wine store. One batch makes around 30 bottles and it works out to be about $7 each. Storage is an issue, though.

Rob, I had no idea you had health issues. Like you said, not being able to smell (smoke) and not being able to taste.....sure takes the fun out of cooking!

I tried a new air fryer recipe. A number of months ago I bought a tub of Gochujang and tonite I finally got around to using it. Spicy chicken bites.

The sauce had ketchup, honey and soy sauce and I used less of the chili paste than the recipe called for (2 tbsp instead of 3) but it still had a heck of a kick.

Your chicken looks glossy and delicious. Not all are so spicy. I make my own to control the heat...

I've never made wine. Impressive. We tried with a few trial vines....concord is our best producer for juice. But we have major dis-like for pruning the wine grapes. (working full time...etc)...climate.

No time ..but the concords seem to produce without much care. Not lazy. good grief...so much to tend to, 😜

Darn fruit trees are having a good year...lol. Soon we will be so over Fall harvest. Wrong complaint but it is so much work....free food, one tiny seed makes so much food....

Thought this was our last squash blossoms but the bees are busy....

Nice veg meal...killer humus, lettuce wraps, pickled golden beet chips...smoked motzarella...

I’ve had stuffed squash blossoms at restaurants but have never cooked them myself or maybe have but a long long time ago. Agree that your chicken looks shiny and delicious Jasdip.

All great meal everyone.

We had a roast spatchcock chicken with chillis and various other veg roasted in the same dish. That’s a little homegrown parship.

Crispy skin salmon, I promise it was pink inside, it had fallen over onto the side showing so that it looks too well done,

Beautiful meals Neely.

So many blossoms Sleeve. I never seem to get enough to try stuffed blossoms.

Jasdip, $7 a bottle to make your own wine seems really expensive to me. We make kits, on occasion, and average a little over $2 per bottle. That is about the same as we would pay in the store for an inexpensive bottle, but the quality of our 'homemade, but not homegrown' is so much better.

Working remotely this week from our other home, which has allowed me some time to cook.

Smoked spatchcocked chicken with nectarine BBQ sauce, yukon gold coins and a garden salad.

Managed to take an afternoon off for a picnic in wine country. I thought it was interesting that they haven't harvested yet.

This was the last of our homemade bratwurst. They were originally SVd and then frozen. For dinner tonight we smoked them and then gave them a quick pan sear. They were really good.

My attempt at buns didn't go so well. They were tasty, but not really functional as buns.

Last night we had sushi. The local fish market here had some great tuna, but little else that was sushi grade.

I trust your salmon is perfect,😜. My prep and cooking is relaxed. Never rushed. But when the hot plates come out of the oven, plating, snap a quick pic....we like hot food. Your meals always look so composed and calm. The pics are not always as the food actually is.

Always impressed Sushi is in a regular rotation. We will get our Fall delivery of Alaskan sushi grade salmon mid September. Sausage even a half hour in the smoker is so good!

Storm Soup and fresh baked chips. (fortunately we did not lose power)

Wow, so much good food here, and every time I open this thread, there are those lobster rolls. And I'm so far behind, but it's been crazy busy here...

Sleevendog, I hope your family recovers quickly and that you stay healthy. People let their guard down just once, and that's all it takes.

We've lost power three times in the past two weeks, thankfully we have a generator, especially when Mother is here. We had a birthday party for Maci, a gradation party for Makayla, cakes got baked for both of those. Here's Maci's, she wanted a "Harley Quinn" cake. Strawberry pound cake was sturdy enough to make the skirt, although I ran out of fondant before I finished the design...

Makayla's graduation party theme was "Oh, the Places She'll Go", hence the cake topper. Her cake was red velvet. It wasn't the party we'd planned on for her graduation, but with COVID we wanted to keep things outside and give people lots of room. We cleaned the pole barn, set up the food there, left the big doors open. It gave the kids lots of room to play outside and people sat down to eat but weren't crowded. The only problem was that it was over 90F and no air conditioning, although we did run big fans in the building.

It got hot enough that we found some black plastic and a hose and a bottle of dish soap and put together a make shift Slip N Slide for the kids. Some adults didn't hesitate to take advantage either!

We've mostly been eating out of the garden, which is overflowing with produce. We've even added chopped tomatoes to our chili dogs!

I canned Readinglady's Chunky Tomato Basil Sauce and Chase's Chile Sauce and still had tomatoes left, so I made Sol's Tomato Tart:

Zucchini became zucchini bread for Mother's breakfast, which resulted in her telling me she didn't like it anymore. (sigh) I made a pumpkin pie and she ate that, but I didn't take a picture...

She was happier with fresh corn from the garden and some chicken strips, although she didn't care for the zucchini/summer squash gratin:

After we took her back home, Elery and I had hamburgers and cucumber salad, with the last of the cucumbers before the vines succumbed to the heat:

My romanesco did well, but like cauliflower it got strong. We roasted it anyway, it just reminded me of roasted cauliflower, not one of my favorites. I will try to pick it smaller next time, and maybe it will be milder:

Another "garden centric" meal of chicken, green beans with new potatoes, the roasted romanesco, cuucmber salad and some roasted golden beets.

Elery stopped at a food truck on his way home from the Dentist one afternoon and picked up "Cajun" fries. They were interesting, with spicy sausage and cheese and mayonnaise on french fries. I made more corn because it just needed a vegetable!

Elery chopped the rest of the romanesco, added some peas and ice burg lettuce and made himself a salad:

Tomorrow it's supposed to be down to 69F and rain, so maybe corn chowder. Or BLTs, because the picnic table in the backyard looks like it usually looks this time of year:

Annie

You have been busy. (summer birthdays are the best). I say every September 1st...be careful what you wish for. The harvest is always insane. One tiny seed....

Family is doing well in recovery. Difficult with a 6 month old.

Brother and SIL are visiting mom and pop. (from Idaho). Their caretaker is amazing. She changed all bulbs to LED and had her son, an electrician, repair un-safe outlets. Her adult grands stopped by to help flip their mattress. She keeps busy cleaning, etc. She likes fixing things...

A couple meatless meals. Snacky. I've been on a humus kick. Bonus salad dressings cleaning out the blender jar with AC vinegar and a bit of toasted sesame oil.

I'm still trying to live without potatoes, rice, corn, pasta, or bread. I love, love LOVE huevos rancheros (how do I live without the beans, and the tacos?). I also had some harvested cubanelle peppers. I found a low carb substitute that used the peppers: https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/poached-eggs-cubanelle-pepper-puree

Way too many steps, but would absolutely use the mushroom mixture again.

It's really quite tasty. I'd love to cut down on the steps. Close enough to huevos rancheros that I don't miss it.

Pork tenderloin stuffed with dried apricots and capers. Loved the dry rub and crust. The stuffing needed something more.

With stone fruit salad.. Goat cheese rounds.

A week ago our temps were in the high 30's/40C and this week they've been heavenly. Cooling down to the low teens at nite.

Annie I love chopped tomatoes on hot dogs. I had hot dogs a couple of months ago.....Shopsy's wieners which was my norm but they didn't taste as good. Either the recipe changed, or I'm finally wanting to eat better. Nah it can't be that!

I woke up the other morning wanting to make relish. First time since Tom died so I went out and bought a basket of dill cucumbers (just a smaller size I guess) and some gorgeous peppers and went to town.

Tonight was pizza night

Annie, love the cakes, the slip and slide at your party, and hearing about your farm. You must be crazy busy right now.

Sleeve, That watermelon salad is beautiful and restaurant worthy!

Rob, Your stuffed pork looks interesting - would love to have the recipe. What would you change?

Jasdip, Your pizzas always look so good. I canned pickle relish for the first time this year. How do you use yours? I use mine to make tartar sauce.

This was dinner two nights ago, macadamia nut crusted tilapia with lemon risotto, dill tartar sauce and green beans.

This was last night's steak fajitas.

Salsa was a roasted hatch salsa from the garden

Air fried peppers and onion

NY steak in the cast iron

This is our first batch of pomegranate wine. it was a hit and we will make it again with this years' harvest.

Homemade brownie and mint chip ice cream. I used our fresh mint to make the ice cream, which was a first for me. It was only slightly green, which I prefer over using food coloring. I would make it again, but need to use a shaved chocolate for the "chips". I used regular chips and they were too much and all sank to the bottom.

I am still practicing with the electric grain mill. The brownie above was made with freshly milled rye flour. It was surprisingly good. The bread below was 100% whole grain sourdough, a combination of spelt, einkorn, faro and hard white spring wheat. Garrett eats it for lunch with salami and EVOO.

Nice to see Garrett enjoying the breads you are making and hopefully he picks up the knowledge. DH learned from his mother at that age and makes all our breads....i just pop in to do forming.... team effort. Wine looks great.

We have just been having some classic favorites in rotation. Freezer shopping making room for Fall harvest. Using up what is in the crisper for salads. Grocery haul deliveries mid week.

Last of the salmon but will re-stock next week from Alaska. (just got the e-mal)...they ship Sept-Oct and again Febuary.

Pasta merguez gorgozola dolce, olives....crispy salmon and veg....fennel, hatch chilis, red onion.

Great meals, and bread Lynda! I like your vegetables in the air-fryer.

I use my relish on hamburgers (obviously), alongside beef, or sausage, and in egg salad.

I made a new recipe.......slow cooker pork loin roast. Cooked and at the end a balsamic glaze put on and then popped in the oven. That part was optional, but to cook keep on cooking it in the slow cooker, the glaze would just drip off. It got rave reviews and one of top picks on 52.com, but truthfully, I'm not sure I'd make it again. Boiled potatoes (I haven't had them in ages and they were a treat) and some cauliflower than needed to be eaten.

On my birthday I was treated to a Peanut Buster Parfait at DQ and they really cut back on the nuts, the favourite part of the ice cream treat. Just a few sprinkled on the top, instead of all through.

So I bought some Virginia redskin peanuts from Bulk Barn, some ice cream and I already had chocolate sauce. There's more ice cream than it looks, I wanted to get the side with the nuts. :-)

So many wonderful meals.

Pulled my favourite Italian Sausage and Rosemary sauce out of the freezer and we had pasta for dinner.

So nice to see you again Ann and your delicious pasta.

Mamy many delicious dinners but it is lemon risotto that really made me go Mmmmm.

I baked Salmon en Croute and we liked it alot.

New to me salmon dish. Nice salads.

BLT's. Potato salad hybrid, (warm german style + a bit creamy), Sleeve sauce. UEO, (unidetifed edible object) in the greens turns out to be a green olive. I was prepping tuna nicois salads for lunches at the same time.

Lynda,

Sorry I'm just now seeing your question. Here's the recipe:

https://www.myrecipes.com/recipe/apricot-stuffed-spice-rubbed-pork-loin

I would soak the apricots to get them juicier before stuffing. Probably a bit of orange juice.

Lamb leg, sealed in Dutch oven with paste around lid, 325F for 6 hours. Veggies, bouquet garni, garlic studding, white wine.

There was a mushroom-wine sauce for this.

Oysters on a dish made by SWMBO.

Fig salad. Figs were a little underripe so they were briefly roasted with a bit of sugar sprinkle. That suggestion was mine.

Tomato galette. And a bottle of Sancerres.

“I love lamb!”

This was all DD’s doing, it started as an homage to Anthony Bourdain, whose Les Halles cookbook contributed the lamb recipe. After watching “Roadrunner”, we miss him even more.

DD is headed to Marseille in a few weeks. She is anxious about finding a place to live, wondering when the schools where she’ll teach (English) are going to reply to her emails, and hopeful that lamb will be more readily available than it is in the US.

John ”just a number” Liu

Thanks Neely.

What a great dinner John. I love lamb too. How exciting for your daughter. Hopefully you will be able to visit it her at some point.

Gave Moe a couple of options for dinner last night. One of which was Green Peppercorn steak.

So that is what we had.

With roasted potatoes, steamed green beans and fried mushrooms.

We had baby steaks last night. Soaked green peppercorns in gin overnight, then a low heat with 1/2 pint bone stock....a bit of mustard after a couple hours. Gorgeous....set on back burner off. A pat of butter waiting. Way early for the meal. DH dried a cast iron on the front burner but the flame never came on. Instead he turned the back burner on, then the front as well....

Oh well. The pot is soaking today. burnt. not black burnt but a gonner. I caught it ahead of a scorch.

I love lamb. Have some Frenched chops in my cart. Love almost as much as oysters. GrandCentralOyster bar has delayed opening yet again due to our storm last week...flooding.

(My SIL built a pottery studio in their backyard...Portland)

So nice to see a happy gorgeous pic of DD. Hope the communication works out for the next journey to France. Heck of a time for travel. (love the new glasses. I have similar in my rotation of three)

An apartment in Greece fell into my lap overnight. Just needed to babysit a sweet cat. I was traveling alone at DD's age. Perfect and private. And this was way before internet.

I've been deep in hatch chili processing. This years box got diverted due to the storm. They went to CO, OH, and Montana. 🙁...four days late.

Left top is 2018, right top is this batch. Straight to the smoker for 5 lbs, sliced and oven roasted for another 5 lbs. Fresh salsa and pickles...the best and freshest are in everything. Most in the freezer. Another dozen in the fridge crisper.

Smoked and stuffed with merquez, wild rice, and gorgonzola dolce...pickled red onion, fresh hatch, fennel salad/slaw.

John your DD is very cute and I too love lamb.

Sooo good to see green peppercorn steak Ann.

Sorry Sleeve but had a smile about the way you decribed what happen to your sauce. Good going on processing all those chillis.

We had a kind of crazy meal...Pasta bake with what I now will call a chopped salad after mistakenly calling it a salsa. Pity because hubby has just gotten around to saying ”we could have one of those salsa things with it”

Yes, i would call that a 'harvest chopped veg salad' or a 'farmers market salad' but would need some further explaining in a NYC restuarant setting. Yours would be served on top of 'tossed' mixed greens or massaged mixed kales...shredded. That is if it is a-la-cart ordered as a salad. If on a plate with a protein included, that would be delicious and acceptable. 'Roast chicken with chopped fresh raw garden vegetables and roasted new potatoes'...if finer diced peppers, red onion, even cucumbers, and even some stone fruit, ...lime, cilantro....a bit over a salmon fillet, most on the side, then halved cherry toms with some diced avocado on top....we hit a grey area...that is often called a salsa crudo. (chunky).

I worked as a server in restaurants from 15yrs old through my university years. I was good at guiding diners through an unfamilar menu. 'Whole Dover Sole, grilled with garlic and herbs?'...not a delicate fillet over rice, lol. Memorable. I explained the whole fish, bone-in. (head and tail, 😂) she insisted...this diner was horrified when it came to the table. It was a famous singer after a big venue concert. (what a bi@ch). Some of her handlers orders whole lobster, haha. I was busy disecting the bone and teaching lobster cracking. (it was emmylouharris)

Anywho, i know you like using local and fresh and what is available. In and out of season...stray from fixed recipes. Something from yesterday but mostly fresh. Avoiding food waste.

Last night it was a noodle bowl. Pint bone broth from the freezer, lots of chopped greens and garden veg. White miso, scallions, fresh ginger. 4 minute ramen. Black garbanzos, (italian CeciNeri) ...Back in the rotation as it can be different every time depending on the cripser drawer. Managed a couple lunches at the same time. Super quick for a weeknight

So good and so simple. Quick pickled veg and pesto...

DD is looking at Marseille apartments online. At the affordable level - that’s relative of course - the kitchens are veeeery small. It will be interesting to how she copes with a hot plate and microwave . . . no, I think we’ll bump the budget a little. Cooking at home saves so much money.

Hu Liu

Ohhhh the stories you could tell, Sleeve :-)

I love her song C'est La Vie song. Can't help but wonder if she's using a bit of coke at the very beginning. (youtube)

Good luck with your and DD's search John Liu. So exciting (and probably a tad scary) for her!

Thanks for the recipe Rob. I will look forward to giving it a try!

John, your lamb looks great. Cooking at home does save so much money. My goal is for Garrett to be a decent cook by the time he finishes high school. So far, he has a lot of interest in eating good food, but not as much interest in cooking. He does cheerfully set the table and helps when asked.

Ann T, that peppercorn steak looks amazing. I also have to thank you for your blogs, they have been very helpful on my bread making journey.

We are starting to set out our winter garden as well as continuing to harvest our summer crop. Pomegranates look great - we will make wine from them. Lemon guavas will be ready soon and they make a nice sauce. Pears are almost ready. I am not sure what to do with them. We have had more peppers this year then previously, as it was our first to use the greenhouse. So far they are going strong, but I am not sure how long they will produce for and at what point I should harvest, pull and start over. Sleeve, how did you smoke your haul of hatch chiles? Do you smoke any other peppers?

This was dinner last night. It was another tough work week and I was looking for easy comfort food. Smoked spatchcocked chicken with nectarine orange ginger sauce. For the sides we had a garden salad and added our hatch chiles and red onion to a rice pilaf. It hit the spot, but was not very adventurous.

BBQ rub plus low and slow in the smoker

I filled all four smoker racks with Hatch. One and one half hour at 180º. They are big. Froze whole, skin-on. That gives me options when i thaw and decide what to do. Skin on is easier to stuff. I ordered 25 pounds. I still have a dozen of the freshest in the crisper. I have roasted in the oven, pickled, and charred on the gas burner flame....into a closed container to steam and peel. I have fermented for a hot sauce in the past but we prefer having the whole or sliced smoked/roasted over anything else. Winter month options. My homegrown favorite pepper is ahi amarillo from ArtisianSeeds. (he is a member of my gardening forum) Always grows into a big bushy massive shrub in my climate. I always grow one in a pot and pull it into the kitchen sunny slider glass door before frost and have fresh hot peppers through the holidays. (not as big and busy as the garden grown)

Do you ferment?. I make pear and AC vinegar every year. 2-3 gallons. Processing gets overwhelming but i'll have some time next month. Affectionately know as Peri in Canada. I also make pear butter. A dense rich cooked low and slow. Just pear. no added sugars.Just pear. I've not cared for apple sauce since 4th grade, so it is very different. Rich, smooth, almost nutty caramelized notes. Takes forever but worth it. (only the last hour or two need attention like simmering down maple for syrup). A Blendtec or Vitamix helps for sure.

I have two nice small chickens, wild caught shrimp and scallops and lamb chops! in my grocery cart. I again postponed yet another week to frugally use what i have. So stupid to suff more on my plate when we have a full crisper of veg and gorgeous local grass-fed meat choices in the freezer.

Your chicken look so good.

Boring is another burger meal but we had a rough work day but i fortunately planned ahead. Quick hatch, cucumber, red onion, kale, leaf greens...pickled for an hour. English muffins from the freezer, toasted. Young gorognzola dolce cold from the fridge i forgot to bring to room temp. Creamy/soft so no biggie. Managed a zesty 'sleeve sauce' somehow. Plating was near 9pm. Yikes, but s@it happens. (i planted a dozen trays of micro-greens at the same time) dumb. Multi-trasking can back-fire, lol.

Lovely chicken meal, Lynda.

That's a great burger with the salad, Sleeve.

Tonite was another quick air-fried meal. I was on my first zoom call with a fellow. We've been writing for the past month or so. I spent ages getting the camera to work properly on my laptop so a quick meal to the rescue.

Dumped a frozen sausage and fresh-cut fries in the fryer. At 4 minutes left I added my bun.

So you have to "dish", jasdip!

A fellow? I'm happy for you!!!

Great yo see all posters yummy meals.

We had a sort of eastern European meal.

Bratwurst sausage with mustard, red cabbage with pickled cucumbers, pinch dill and crispy potato chunks with garlic.

Yeah, yeah, I had supper, but first I need to hear more about Jasdip's "fellow". Of course at one point she's going to cook for him, so that makes it relevant, LOL.

Ann, welcome back, I've missed you. I made your cream cheese danish yesterday, Naturegirl came to visit and left me canning jars, so we had your danish with some coffee.

sleevendog, it's definitely the time of yer for BLTs. We had some too, on homemade bread with big slices of Barnes Mountain Pink tomatoes from the garden, they are Elery's new favorite.

Neely, those crispy potatoes just look so.....good, yum.

John, I love the picture of your DD. Good luck to her in France, it'll be a great experience for her. I also hope things are such that you can visit, you're going to miss her. Oh, and nice dish your wife made, I didn't know she was so artistic. Oh, and the tomato galette looks amazing.

Lynda, rye brownies? I wouldn't have thought of it, but rye WOULD go well with chocolate.

Like you and sleevendog, I'm dealing with peppers, although mine aren't Hatch. I canned 18 pints of pepperoncini and cut up 18 Big Bertha green peppers to go into the freezer for future use. I also grew Biquinho, little peppers about the size of a fingernail, just a tiny bit of heat. I made refrigerator pickles from some of them, but have more and I'll can those tomorrow. They look like this:

So, what's for dinner? Ashley came over with Madi and Maci, and those two are the biggest consumers of carbohydrates I've ever met, LOL. I made the mistake of asking them what they would like for dinner. As a result we had Sol's Honey Rolls, some mashed potatoes, spaghetti with tomato/basil sauce and glazed carrots. Yeah, weird meal, but they were happy.

Another day we had corn fritters and cooked some potatoes with cabbage and sauerkraut and some kielbasa our neighbors brought home from Chicago as a "thank you" for watching their house and getting their mail.

The girls helped me bake a loaf of bread:

and we got out the "Yonanas" machine. It's supposed to make frozen fruit into a dessert with the consistency of soft serve ice cream. It kind of did, but frozen banana just has a sticky weird texture. It was a waste of good fruit, no one would eat the stuff. I did get a recipe boo, so we are going to try something that doesn't contain bananas and see if it's better.

I made a broccoli cheese quiche to take to Mother, her birthday was the 8th, she's 86.

And so, I think I'm caught up. Meals have been simple, my time is taken up by canning! It's that time of year, you know. :-)

Annie

Annie is it worth growing those hot peppers for that teeny-weeny size? How do you even prep them, just pop the top off I guess. They're cute!

Cool looking soft ice cream machine.

Nothing to dish about ladies.....it's a long-distance friendship only. He's in the southern states! LOL Just had to throw that little tid-bit in there. Very nice fellow, smart and witty. Actually a fellow GW member put us in touch with one another. :-)

Jasdip! Nice, smart & witty sounds like a keeper to me!!

Annie, I hear you on the preserving. We plant in hopes of a good harvest, but sometimes it is too good of a harvest.

Sleeve, thanks for the tips. I am relatively new to fermenting. We made ACV this year, which came out great and we plan to keep making it. We also let the last bottle of wine in each batch go to vinegar. I hadn't even realized that pears could be used to make vinegar. Our pear tree took forever to get to the point of a decent harvest, but now seems to be in a grove. I usually make a tart, but how many tarts can you eat, so I need to branch out.

This was last night's dinner -- BBQ pork satay and peanut sauce with coconut jasmine rice and a spicy salad of shaved cucumber, shallots and cilantro. I thought I was being conservative with the heat in the salad, as I only used 1/4 of a hot pepper, but it was still way too hot for me. I enjoyed the first half, then the heat caught up to me and I couldn't finish the rest.

I made sure that all the red bits went into DH's salad and it was still too spicy for me.

Jasdip, I grew them because I had gotten a jar of "Sweety Drops" and they were the perfect salad-type pepper, although they are pickled. They are about $5 a small jar, though, so I thought "I can do that". Well, I've grown them, and they are pickled, but they aren't ready to taste yet, so I can't say if I'll ever do it again, LOL. They are tedious to deal with, but I just have to pull the stem off. Every. Single. Tiny. Little. Pepper. (grin) They make a short bush too, and ripen from the bottom, so I pretty much have to get on my hands and knees to pick them. Fortunately, The Two Small Princesses think it's great fun and so they do that for me. For now.

OK, so he's a nice guy. You know, when I met Elery my boss signed me up for eHarmony. She told me I didn't have to date anyone, just talk to people, she thought I was too "insulated" after I got divorced from my first husband. She informed me that it was unhealthy to go to work, then go home, then go back to work and do nothing else. So I did. I talked to a popcorn farmer in Ohio, a woodworker in Idaho, a pastor in Pennsylvania, a detective in Florida. It was entertaining and interesting, but when I actually started dating, two of the men I met were from the forums, LOL.

Lynda, I always plant like I'm going to have a bad season, and then if I don't, the local food pantry is very happy. (grin) Sometimes it's a lot, though. Your dinner looks really good, but I'm such a wimp when it comes to heat, so I sympathize with that heat sneaking up on you!

Yesterday it was over 80F here. Right now it's 65F and raining, so I have chili on the stove, right next to a pressure canner full of carrots. Later tonight I'm pickling another small batch of the biquinho. I actually like it right out of the garden. Just a tiny bit of heat and some of the fruitiness of a habanero, but manageable even for me! Elery says they would make great "ornaments" on a cheese or vegetable "Christmas Tree".

Annie

The process to rent a Marseilles apartment looks too complicated to do from afar.

When DD arrives in Marseilles, our ”French daughter” Alice, who grew up in Marseilles but lives in Brussels now, will help her find a place and navigate the process, and they’ll stay with Alice’s mom in the 5eme arrondisement there, which will be very helpful. DD will need to open a French bank account and all that stuff.

Many lower-cost apartments seem to lack an oven. I wonder if people use counter-top (toaster) ovens there?

I picked up some ground beef for $3 lb.. It was only a year ago when I was able to get it for $1.88. But I bought a package and set some aside for meatloaf tonight and froze the rest.

Rainy day, and to last the whole week, so I'm watching Clickbait on Netflix, a thriller.

John, I'm glad there is someone there to help her, just the minutiae of life is sometimes confusing HERE, let alone in another country!

Jasdip, that's what ground beef is here too, and not even GOOD ground beef. Little of that increase goes to the farmer, of course. A couple of times I saw chuck roast on sale cheaper than ground beef, I thought to myself that it would be cheaper to for people to just buy the chuck and grind it in the food processor.

The chili was good and I made corn bread to go with it, the white savory type of cornbread that Elery grew up with, so he was very happy. No pictures because I was simultaneously canning 15 pints of carrots and 4 half pints of biquinho peppers, multi-tasking, LOL, and not very well because I forgot the pictures.

Annie

Everyone's meals look great. Today I made a vat of spaghetti sauce and an apple crisp - both put a tiny dent in our apple and tomato harvest. I'm also trying some spare ribs that DH bought by mistake - he meant to get back ribs to smoke) started in the instapot and then broiled with sauce. So ribs and spaghetti and garlic bread tonight. My daughter who is an RN is staying with us for a couple of days and works the night shift tonight. With all the garlic in the meal, she won't have to worry about treating vampires! I told her I'll give her a pack of TicTacs to put in her pocket.

Tomorrow will be Annie's salsa and some apple pie filling for the freezer. Then (not tomorrow!) I'll do slow roasted tomatoes and a batch of applesauce to freeze. Apple butter after that. It is hard to give away produce here as everyone I know has a plethora of produce. At one point our food banks did not take produce from "unkown" producers, but I should check again. There's also a church in our small town that does free "take-away" (since Covid) dinners, so I will contact them too.

John Liu "--------The process to rent a Marseilles apartment looks too complicated to do from afar.----"

I was a member of FIAF (The French Institute) here in NYC. FIAF had someone there who headed a service to help people to find schools, rentals, passports, travels, etc.

May be the CONSULAT GÉNÉRAL DE FRANCE in your city can also advise you.

dcarch

OT for Annie. My other 'my-sweet-baby' was my Jeep. 1998. My first 'ride' purchased new. Killer baby in the city. And on the farm. We attempted a restore but did not have the time or finances. (my discouragement) Mostly time. DH spent way to much $ getting it back in shape. Not a project for a local garage or our garage. Dh had no time to do it himself. (stupid)

I gave it to a twenty-something. He did a full restore. 'My sweet baby' has a new life. So happy for him and his love of my 'sweet baby'. He sent me pics. Took him a year but so impressed by his determination. My sweet baby lives on...lol, 'rock on'....tricked out big time.

He stopped by over the weekend so proud. So thankful.

Oh, yeah, now THAT'S a Jeep! I still miss mine. (sigh) Nothing else is quite like a Jeep...

It just wasn't practical any more, though. Mother couldn't get into it, Elery couldn't get into it before he had that hip and knee replaced, even the dog couldn't get into it. The wind noise on the expressway was terrible, so we couldn't drive it the three hours to visit Elery's closest son without being deafened. Gas mileage was terrible. And I loved it! The Buick Enclave I drive now is most certainly NOT a Jeep, LOL.

The Princess now wants a Wrangler, she calls it her "dream machine". I told her they were expensive and "tippy", but she still wants one. It's in her genetics, I guess.

Annie

Steak and Frites with a red wine sauce.

Prime NY Strip with bone in.

Lovely steak. Always perfection.

"The Princess now wants a Wrangler, she calls it her "dream machine". I told her they were expensive and "tippy", but she still wants one. It's in her genetics, I guess."

Less tippy now but top dollar. City and small town and farms they are so fun. Horrid highway driving. I'm a mini cooper lover now. Manual. So much fun.

Mid-week easy but excellent local sausage. Ginger/garlic. Lean, not a fatty salt-lick. Nice veg on the griddle went to mush due to dinner delay. Fennel, leek, zuccini, etc. Good mixed grain.

Yummy sausage meal Sleeve and Yes perfect Steak and Frites Ann.

Many other great looking meals posted here as well.

Joining in the Jeep conversation...In my ahem, younger days, I drove a short wheel base Land Rover, nothing like the comfort of the brand seen in their cars today and very much like an old Jeep. . You could take the roof off, doors out and had a fold down front windscreen and Yes it was alot of good fun.

WFD is actually WFL (lunch) Pumpkin soup and a Samosa made from left over curry and oven baked not authentically fried.

Gorgeous color and we just hit 100!