What I learned today (Take Two)

Good grief, I've never heard of that before. I have cooked a lot of fish on cedar planks on the outside grill. For family and guests, never gave it a thought. Scary!

[Jenise]

Thanks, Larry. I've used cedar planks many times in the past with no problem and am not a particularly cautious person. But welts like that after such brief contact? Never experienced anything like that in my life so can't just laugh it off.

I would imagine the cedar plank affects only the skin, which I presume you don't eat.

You and I now know about welts--with your cedar and my Eliquis.

Many years ago I took an anti-depressant called imipramine. And soon after I started having oddly-shaped, puffy red, itchy welts showing up on my arms. Eventually, I figured out that the shapes came from leaning my arms on the table. So, I tried writing on my arm with my fingernail and sure enough... itchy puffy red writing appeared!

Fast forward... many years later I read that the drug was not to blame... it was the dye used in the coating!

So, Jenise, have you changed meds lately?

[Jenise]

Nope!

[Jenise]

Yesterday I learned that British jam/jelly brand Mackay makes a lemon/orange/grapefruit combo marmalade like the one from Toronto I fell in love with only to realize that I had bought what could have been the last jar in Canada (Smuckers bought the brand, then snuffed it). Today I learned that it's very very good. In flavor and texture seems very close to the Toronto brand, delivering the complex suite of bitter flavors I so liked about the other.

Last night, I learned that it is actually possible to bring a bag of potato chips to a potluck that has such a nasty flavor that most of the bag will be left at the end of the potluck. I never would have thought this possible, but someone brought a bag of Torres Tapas fried egg flavored potato chips to our block party. Torres makes high end potato chips in other flavors such as smoked paprika, truffle, and caviar. Those all sound good or at least potentially good. The fried egg ones......not so much. There must have been at least 50 people at the party and around 3/4 of the bag was left at the end of the night.

Jenise - that marmalade sounds very nice.

[Jenise]

Mike, I love the Torres plain Olive Oil ones but the others I've tried, like the Jamon and Truffle versions, tasted too artificial.

My friend and I each once bought bags of street-corn-flavored tortilla chips (might have been Tostitos). The first bite tasted okay and incredibly corny, but with additional bites we both overdosed on super-duper doses of artificially flavored CORN! Neither of us could finish our bags. I crushed the leftovers and fed the birds. And I can still remember the overpowering taste. A word to the wise.

I learned sometimes even farmers don't know what they have. At market Betsy bought some green garlic, told me not to use thinking baby leeks. Last night's plan was steamed lobster with a side of pasta with green puttanesca. Went to make, discovered the green garlic was in fact baby leeks (she confirmed she had confirmed at the stand).It was ok, we used regular garlic (option in recipe)
A great favorite recipe we've made dozens of times, we just double or triple the spinach (and do half the pasta).

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/101 ... puttanesca

[Jenise]

Isn't it annoying when produce people don't know their product? This week I pointed out to a produce guy that what they called pickling cucumbers (a bin, loose ones) were actually Persians. No, they're pickling, he said. THOSE, he pointed to some in bags but otherwise identical, THOSE are Persian (because it said so on the bag). Wrong I said, a pickling cucumber is typically a variety called Kirby and they're thicker skinned. Have you ever made pickles, I asked? No, he shook his head.

Then take my word for it, I said, pointing to both piles) these are both Persians, thin skinned like baby English Cucumbers.

NO, he said, they can't be, these are pickling cukes because we order pickling cukes and this is what they send us!

That recipe looks great, Dale, and a bit frustrating as we've had green garlic at our Sunday market for the last several weeks. Unfortunately, I'm out of town this weekend and I'm betting that by the time the next market rolls around, the green garlic will be gone.

[Jenise]

I spent the last couple days down on the Columbia River Gorge, one of the most interesting wine growing regions in the world. I mean, where else can you go from wet, cool climate (pinots, chardonnay) to dry, warm climate (syrah, nebbiolo), and from lush green forest to golden scrub, without changing elevation and in less than 50 miles? It's an astonishing place. And quite beautiful. I wish it were easier to post photos here. Anyway, while there we had Mexican food in a town with a strong hispanic population and I had a very unusual chile relleno. The friend I was travelling with has run into this, but I had not: instead of the foamy egg white batter we're used to (and I still prefer), the chile was wrapped in a very thin blanket of egg yolk batter. And I do mean thin, maybe 1/16th of an inch. It was no less delicious though I have to admit I'd prefer the other.