> get lamp

Huh. I was today years old when I learned about HTTP 406 Not Acceptable. Apparently Doordash doesn't like something NordVPN is doing to my net traffic, because disabling it lets me load the page. All I wanted was to see if my favorite pho restaurant was on there, geez.

Made linguine & clams for the first time tonight. In summary: Om nom nom. No pictures, because, uh, we ate it?

To avoid sounding like the unwanted prefatory life story on a cooking blog that makes you yell just get to the flipping recipe already!!... I compiled a recipe from the following:
https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/linguini-with-clams.html
https://www.emerils.com/127752/linguine-clams
https://www.thekitchn.com/recipe-linguine-with-clams-pasta-254098
https://stripedspatula.com/linguine-with-clams/

Aside from 1. there was still some grit inside some of the clams (maybe I should have pre-soaked them in multiple changes of water instead of just one), and 2. a bit too much red pepper flakes (I just eyeballed the amount called for, so must have overdone it a tad), overall very successful. I think this is also the first time the thing about adding reserved cooking water back to the pan to get a sauce to come together and stick to the pasta has actually worked for me. Usually I just wind up with a watery mess (not enough starch in the water, maybe?).

There's not a whole lot to it besides the clams -- olive oil, garlic, white wine, lemon juice, red pepper, finished with butter and parsley (depends a bit on the recipe) -- so the clam liquid itself is a pretty prominent component, and therefore I expect success depends on good clams. Fortunately, these were, fresh and oceany and even a little sweet, rather unlike the steamed mussels I made a few weeks ago where I half questioned whether they were even safe to eat because while they smelled fine raw, they had a rather unappetizing odor when cooked; so when we couldn't even stand to eat them all, I wrote on my dinner ideas sheet, "shellfish that don't suck". (In the event, there was no gastric disturbance, but leaving them overnight in the fridge rather than cooking them the same day as purchased probably hadn't done them any favors.)

anyway, *sips leftver Pinot Grigio and digests*

I wonder what sort of reputation the Cosmopolitan cocktail had before Sex and the City?

Step 1: Add together the amounts of liquid that go with those amounts of chickpeas, lentils, and barley, put it all in the Instant Pot, close, and press go.
Step 2: Realize--fortunately about 1 minute after starting the thing, so it hasn't even melted the slushy bits from the recently thawed broth, never mind attained pressure--that you have misbrained tablespoons as ounces, and thus overshot the requisite amount of liquid by 2x, which will likely result in soup instead of a grain-bowl kind of thing that you can put sauteed vegetables on top of.
Step 3: Say "Dammit."
Step 4: Say "What the hell" and toss all the vegetables in there along with the tomato sauce you needed to use up and some Berbere seasoning and turn it into vaguely Ethiopian chickpea-lentil-barley-vegetable stew.

Miruvor by AsliBayrak on DeviantArt

The Alchemist's Guide to Alcoholic Beverages (page consists mostly of an image, 1300x1463 pixels)

I actually just cut a circle out of last night's polenta to have it for breakfast with a little goat cheese and a fried egg on top.

Someone take Food Network away from me.

Today we unintentionally ate vegetarian: breakfast, yogurt, berries, + English muffin (me)/granola (him); afternoon snack, cheese & crackers; dinner, fried tofu with smoked paprika, chile verde salsa, and a little guacamole, over sauteed kale and red peppers with garlic, over chili/cumin/cilantro flavored mix of black beans, brown rice, and corn, all topped with a little feta cheese as a substitute for something like cotija (yeah, it was kind of a sloppy pile).

And more, the beans were cooked from dried (we're getting into doing that with our pressure cooker), corn cooked fresh from cob, guacamole made fresh. We're basically one plaid shirt away from being a horrible stereotype. I'd say we're approaching haaardcooooore but then we didn't make our own yogurt or tofu, so. Though, if it "helps", we often buy our tofu at the farmer's market either directly from the guy who makes it or from his employee who is one degree separate? (rly tho, it's good stuff. I can even eat it plain without seasoning because it has its own flavor, and I like the texture.)

Er. By way of redemption, I also bought maplewood smoked bacon today? Like, made from a pig that used to be an alive creature?

Dang. Never mind the plaid shirts; we are a horrible stereotype.

Ah well. *chows down on slightly sloppy pile of rice etc.*

(opportunity to test the DW images interface here! ah, ok, looks like it's auto-thumbnailing. handy. click to embiggen.)



...IT'S LOOKING AT ME.

Must be one of those regrettable foods from a Sunset cookbook, right?

Nope. Larousse Gastronomique, Crown Publishers' 1961 English edition. I guess sad food photography was just endemic to the 1960s.

Dear Hive Mind:

I ordered chirashi sushi today at a restaurant. I recognized everything in it (ohboy. Maguro, sake, ikura, tai, hamachi, tamago, tako, kani, possibly hokkigai, ebi, shiro maguro or ono?... um, I think that's all the meat? then wakame, shiso leaf, daikon...) except a slice of something that was similar in shape to the long, thin, triangular slice of carrot, but it was yellow and pebbly. It tasted vaguely seafoody, but then it was buried in among all the fish, so that may not be telling. It was a bit chewy, not soft and tender like raw fish, nor crunchy like the carrot. Looking at pictures of uni and considering its expense, I'm pretty sure it wasn't that (although I could be wrong), especially since that's listed in the restaurant's "super chirashi" which isn't what I ordered.

Soo... what the hell did I just eat?