Quoting Michael Loo to Nancy Backus on 09-30-18 09:59 <=-

I was hankering for spag bol the other day and didn't
order it because the menu description admitted to the
dreaded courgettes ... so I stumbled into a coq au vin
blanc that was the only bad, really bad dish, that I've
had in France this millennium.

You'd've done better with the dreaded courgettes... speaking of which, I

Assuming that the spag Bol was any decent, I'd have done
much better with the courgettes.

Indeed.

recently made a spicy ratatouille, which Richard declared Michael-hot...

Actually, Michael prefers his ratatouille on the mild
side and with not so much rat in it (nor zucchini). I'd
eat a spicy version but would have to classify it in my
head as something other than ratatouille.

You could just think of it as a vegetable medley... I'm sure my version
isn't particularly authentic, even before I added the chilies... :)

I'd added some roasted Hatch chilies (which I'd put up for later, and
dug out of the freezer) to the batch... apparently 3 (the amount in the baggie) was about triple the amount I should have used... ;) Tasty,
but it made his tongue hurt, and mine tingle... :)

And Hatch chiles are not normally that hot.

When I bought them at Wegmans, the store was selling a milder version
and a hotter version... the ones that they roasted were the hotter
ones... I bought a package of the roasted chilies and then divided them
up into baggies to freeze portions, then put the baggies into a plastic container to help preserve them... This was the first use I'd made of
them... the three I used were of a good size, and still had the seeds
and membranes in them....

Midweat Living

Is that meant to be MidweSt Living...? I noticed that it was MidweAt
for a succession of recipes appended.... But west made more sense...

And so it does. Those recipes were mostly silly
filler anyway but on the short side, so they could
be appended to long posts.

Ah. One just notices the oddities, ya know.. ;)

As my hands are variable in size, and I've always hated
this keyboard, more frequent typos are likely to be the
rule as my eyesight and proofreading deprove. I of course
typed in several recipes and used the same identifying tag
for them all, and the a and s keys are next to each other.

That's about what I'd surmised.... but had to make sure... ;) And I
later saw that Ruth Haffly also picked up on it... :)

I think that it was supposed to have had more of the blue and cream cheese adhering to the grapes on the inside of what were supposed to be rounder and larger balls.... ;) Some people like blue cheese, you know... (G)

I alway said, that's fine, if you like the taste
of moldy old books.

Ummm.... I think this is more a case of taste buds differ... some people like cilantro, some people think it tastes soapy; some people like
stevia, others taste the bitter component... and so forth... ;)

Funny thing is that I'm seeing more defense of blue cheese
than zucchini.

Zucchini is rather bland.... one can take it or leave it, usually... but
people do tend to be more polarized over such as blue cheese... :)

I got a chunk of Balderson 4 year Canadian Cheddar, and
as previous discussion revealed that most of us found
4 years to be the optimal age for Cheddar. This was
just barely sharp enough, no crystals though. It
disappeared in a trice.

It certainly did... I think I only had a couple slices of it... :)

I had only a tiny crumble (smidgen?).

Got distracted for too long...? Maybe it would have lasted longer had
there been more choices of cheeses to taste from...

Not that much cheese but plenty of butter and other dairy
stuff at this picnic. But with prudence coupled with a
diminishment of that old bugaboo lactose intolerance, I
used a minimum of pills. Good thing, as I'm currently on
the east coast and on my way to Australia before I get to
the west coast, where my pill supply resides (yeah, if
worse came to worst, Costco might get a visit).

Or BJ's depending on where you were.... you certainly are being rather peripatetic.... Is Lilli part of all/most of these trips...?

Shipps had requested pumpernickel which you'd've been even less pleased with, but the closest thing I found was the swirl, which at least satisfied them... ;)

Satisfied me, too, as I wouldn't be inclined to eat either.

Worked out for everyone, then... ;)

Bread isn't my favorite; caraway isn't my favorite.
Things worked well.

Yup... :)

- the Shipps and others really liked the strawberry rhubarb,
- and a peach preserve was very delicious, but I found the
texture kind of nubbly and strange. No doubt using it on
bread would smooth out that issue.

Lydia does make good jams... :)

Yep. Following her example I made some jam out of some
not-very-good mirabelle plums from the Tulle amrket.
This went quite well with salvage French toast made
for Lilli.

I'm sure that it was well appreciated, too... :)

The plum flavor was okay, but it was the starchy texture
(almost like American fruit) that was improved by cooking.
What I made was between a compote and a jam, so there was
a bit of fluid that could be used with the French toast.

Sounds quite nice and tasty... :)

ttyl neb

... "As soon as the rain stops, we'll break camp", said Tom intently.

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