I've been using a Costco giant container of garlic salt for years and years. It says it expired in Dec 2007. It's still about a third full!

I skipped my usual weekly grocery delivery last week, so I�m having to dig a little deep for inspiration and meals this week. While my chicken thighs marinate, I�m placating my growling stomach with toast and sunflower butter.





Hmm, fourteen years is a lonnnng time, plus however many years you�ve had it open since you bought it. But I will pretty much eat anything as long as it looks (including texture) and smells good.

Salt is a preservative. The garlic will sometimes lose or gain potency. It is cheap--I would replace it, not because it will hurt you. Actually I like to control the amount of salt so only use garlic powder if I need to.

Grilled Silva Louisiana sausage & red onions (with olive oil and leftover red wine) on warmed sourdough seeded baguette
leftover cheese pizza with Trader Joe’s bomba hot pepper sauce
kettle bbq chips

Where do you buy the Silva sausage? Do you like it more than Evergood?

I was going to go back to low carb this week, but the risotto I made for my husband and daughter was so delicious I decided to restart tomorrow.
One of those dishes with humble origins (bones and carcasses I’d put in the freezer along with manky outer lettuce and cauliflower leaves and cores, carrots, onion, and a few other bits and bobs all pressure cooked for an hour to make the stock) that is far greater than the sum of its parts. I was hoping there’d be leftovers for arancini for Wednesday’s lunch, but no, it was frightening how quickly it disappeared down our gullets.

Still surprises me how different the combination of rice and stock becomes depending on whether it is made as Spanish arroz (dry or “honeyed”/meloso), Italian risotto or Japanese takikomi gohan and how the exact same quantity of the exact same rice drinks up hugely different quantities of that stock as it cooks.

arborio?

An orange, and some delicious turnip cake.

I used to keep stocks of “balilla x solana”, arborio (or similar) as well as Japonica rice, then I eventually realised that the kind of Japonica rice I buy does everything I need it to.
The one I’m using now is grown in Italy, doesn’t say what kind it is but it’s similar to Akita Komachi and Koshihikari, might be a hybrid.
All of the kinds I’ve mentioned are quite robust as short grain rice varieties. There’s a popular paella rice in Spain called “senia” (I seem to remember that being the rice of the La Fallera and SOS brands, which are big in Valencia) but it is very pernickety, if you cook it for too long it loses its integrity (se pasa - it “goes over”) so you really need to know what you’re doing. A big part of why “bomba” rice is so prized is that it’s much harder for it to over cook in this way, the price one pays is that it needs far more stock so it’s harder to make it taste great with as few ingredients as the tricky senia rice needs. Balilla x Solana (you might know it as Calasparra rice) needs a little more stock than Senia but not nearly as much as the Bomba rice and doesn’t “go over”/“unravel” very easily.
I’m not the only Spaniard to discover that certain Japanese rice varieties are an acceptable substitute for Spanish kinds. In the States, a good all rounder is Kokuho Rose - although I admit that I never used it for risotto, it does make excellent arroces. Just don’t rinse it first for Mediterranean dishes.

Safeway only because it was on sale - $4.99 for a 4-pack. I can�t tell if it�s better than Evergood, which is priced better (as a triple 4-pack) at Costco. So I�ll just get Evergood at Costco when I have both enough space and desire to buy it at Costco.

what�s turnip cake like?

I'm jealous, as I love turnip cake but for us, dim sum is very much an infrequent and special occasion.

Too soon to start this?

I love dim sum and Chinese cuisine so much and severe moderation is very essential unless cooking a very healthy version at home!

Ooh yum - glad you had it. Now 8 days since I last bought it although I guess I did have leftover crab omelette on Sunday!

Um, I could be wrong but I don�t think Eastbay1K was referring to himself.

My wife has fallen in love with the Chik-Fil-A Chicken Wrap, with the Light Balsamic Vinagrette Dressing. So, I picked up one with a 12 pc Nugget for me sans sauce, as the batter they use has enough flavor that I don't need any. Finished it off with a Chocolate Shake and Ice Water (with normal cubes).