Silversea Water Cooler: Welcome! Part Five

[clo]

2 hours ago, jpalbny said:

That killed my appetite, zqtchas. Good thing we already ate a few hours ago!

 

Today was chilly. We tried walking before dinner but it rained on us. So we headed home and opened some wine instead. Time for some Fall cooking. 

 

Dinner was fusilli pasta (farro based, not semolina) with roasted butternut squash, sausage, and lots of fresh sage. Roasted pecans for crunch. A favorite Fall recipe, delicious with Grenache. 

 

 

The secret to this recipe is that the sage leaves get fried in butter before adding them to the pasta at the last minute. So rich and tasty.

 

The farro pasta was a treat. It smelled rich and nutty, and had a bit more bite and color than plain old pasta. I really liked how it worked in this recipe. I will have to see if I can find more. I bought it a long time ago, pre-covid...

 

I've gone through maybe half of our sage in the past 2 weeks. I have to be careful though, because the plants have plenty of spider webs. Today I was washing the webs off carefully and found a live spider. I didn't add it to the pasta. Only so much protein one can take!

 

Happy weekend to all!

Where do you get farro pasta?

[zqtchas]

[mysty]

Greetings Coolers!

 

Today's funny.....

 

 

Have a great safe day all!

[jpalbny]

9 hours ago, clo said:

Where do you get farro pasta?

 

Clo, I'm pretty sure I got this at Eataly. They have a whole section of pastas made with nontraditional flours. Their selection is amazing. We go there as often as we can.

[lincslady]

2 hours ago, mysty said:

Greetings Coolers!

 

Today's funny.....

 

 

Have a great safe day all!

 

mysty -  don't recognise this sign; does it mean icy roads or what?  Is it Canadian, or also in the USA?

 

Son and wife came over yesterday for DH's birthday, instead of next week, just in case a general lockdown was announced. Luckily not,  and he loved his present of some half bottles of Muscat de Beaumes de Venise, the first to be opened with his puddding on Tuesday.  We have a very good Chinese takeaway, and enjoyed a varied selection of their goodies, with a rather inappropriate Cotes du Rhone, from Vidal-Fleury,  a very good value excellent wine.  This was because as we had not been expecting them we didn't have anything more suitable in the wine rack.  After two bottles, it did not seem to matter.

 

Hoping Lois and others recovering from various medical problems are doing well, and enjoying their weekend (not much different from the rest of the week for most of us).

 

Lola

 

 

[mysty]

24 minutes ago, lincslady said:

 

mysty -  don't recognise this sign; does it mean icy roads or what?  Is it Canadian, or also in the USA?

 

 

I think it is a made-up sign Lola!  I searched for the image and the only "hits" were for funny signs.  Don't think it is at all official. 😄

[TLCOhio]

1 hour ago, jpalbny said:

Clo, I'm pretty sure I got this at Eataly. They have a whole section of pastas made with nontraditional flours. Their selection is amazing. We go there as often as we can.

 

Fun pasta pix and details from J.P.  Looking very tasty!!

 

THANKS!  Enjoy!  Terry in Ohio

 

 

[Lois R]

Hi Terry, you know more cases of the virus are happening ALOT.........as in today......did you see Cam Newton 

tested positive?.....the Chiefs/Pats game is being delayed now because multiple players have it.....so now

2 games are being delayed......the other one is the Steelers/Titans..........

[lincslady]

Thanks, mysty.  I think I am having a sense of humour failure, and it has certainly become more puerile.  I loved the little girl on the back of the bike, just what 7 year olds would find funny!.

 

Lola

[Fletcher]

Years ago, when Michelangelo was stuck in a dead-end job painting ceilings, I went with my new wife to Venice.  We went out to dinner and had a local speciality, fegato alla veneziana which was calves liver and onions served with wallpaper paste, which I learned was what Italians called polenta.  It was a revelation.

 

We in the UK had a staple  if not a rival - liver and bacon.  This was lambs’ liver or even pigs’ liver served with fried back bacon and mashed potatoes.  I loved it - until that dinner in Venice showed me what a disgusting thing was the liver of a lamb or a pig.  The liver I ate in Venice was from calves and I swore I would never eat any other liver again.  Oh, and British back bacon was all wrong.

 

Which brings me to tonight’s dish chez Fletcher.  It’s a hybrid - a combination of that Venetian classic and the British standby.  To make it I buy high quality calves liver, fairly thickly sliced.  Tonight’s offal actually came from our local Waitrose supermarket.

 

First off I fry some sliced onions until caramelised.  Then I boiled a few broad beans and shell them.  Then the mashed potato.  As this is a luxury dish I spend time on the spuds - I bake them in their skins for an hour or so, then scoop out the flesh and whisk into simmering milk, nutmeg, butter and cream.

 

Now the liver.  I pan fry some pancetta - this preserves both the Italian and British bloodlines of my dish.  Keep the pancetta warm and in its fat fry the liver slices which have been given a  light coating of seasoned flour.  They will only take a minute each side.  If they are thick enough you will have a slight pinkness in the middle.  Then add a hefty glug of marsala, sage leaves, and allow to bubble, add your beans and onions, then ‘monte’ with butter.

 

Plate the liver mixture and top with the pancetta and a dollop of your mashed potato.  Bellissima!

Edited October 3, 2020 by Fletcher

[QueSeraSera]

I love a forum where I have to look up a word or phrase occasionally to make sure I understand it - thanks Lola for allowing me to correct my understanding of puerile to it's actual definition.  Approaching 70 and still learning...

[zqtchas]

[Emtbsam]

7 minutes ago, zqtchas said:

True enough!

[jpalbny]

59 minutes ago, zqtchas said:

 

Only 3 months? Lucky you.

[clo]

@jpalbny Thought you might like this. We're in Seattle for a week and I'm making a shopping list 🙂 I have a few of these but 'need' more.

 

https://www.seriouseats.com/2020/10/ingredients-worth-the-splurge.html?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Features_202001002_Friday_StaffPicksSplurge_SuggestedRecipesTemplate&utm_content=Features_202001002_Friday_StaffPicksSplurge_SuggestedRecipesTemplate+CID_ef84b2090afc0a00bd51ecbd424455c1&utm_source=Email campaign&utm_term=Get the full story

[Stumblefoot]

1 hour ago, Emtbsam said:

True enough!

If Chas would grow heirloom varieties, he could save enough to pay for a cruise each year! 

[nowornever]

CLO...welcome to the fog/smoke, etc.  The Conde Nast "City Guide" that features Seattle  just came out this week has a lot of good suggestions for restaurants. Some are open with limited capacity & some may only have take-out.  https://link.condenast.com/view/5cb4e159fc942d6faa5c6845ctl9k.70z2/afa0167a

 

Maybe someday we will be able to try some of the new ones.... who knows? 

 

Meanwhile I hope the weather will improve tomorrow for you.  

[clo]

4 minutes ago, Stumblefoot said:

If Chas would grow heirloom varieties, he could save enough to pay for a cruise each year! 

At our local farmers' market, we pay $3/# for heirloom tomatoes. At the beginning of the season we bought a 2#'er!

 

 

[clo]

13 minutes ago, nowornever said:

CLO...welcome to the fog/smoke, etc.  The Conde Nast "City Guide" that features Seattle  just came out this week has a lot of good suggestions for restaurants. Some are open with limited capacity & some may only have take-out.  https://link.condenast.com/view/5cb4e159fc942d6faa5c6845ctl9k.70z2/afa0167a

 

Maybe someday we will be able to try some of the new ones.... who knows? 

 

Meanwhile I hope the weather will improve tomorrow for you.  

The "smog" was weird - and we used to live in SF. 

 

We LOVE SEA.  We bought a 400 sq. ft apt. here four years ago for a pittance so we don't have to stay with our daughter and her family. I haven't told her that the food here is a lot of the draw. We have SO many faves, rarely high end. Going to Bad Albert's in Ballard for breakfast in the AM, Jade Garden on Monday probably for (take out only) dim sum. One day we're going to Anacortes to Adrift.  We always run out of days before we run out of restaurants. Also there's 

Zylberschtein's Delicatessen & Bakery

 Oops,sorry about the size of this. The bagels are NYC great as is the pastrami. We take home a couple dozen bagel and a pound (or two) of pastrami. 

 

LOL. You can tell we love it 😉

[nowornever]

Enjoy every bite !!!  And I hope the skies improve.  Be safe.

[mysty]

Greetings Coolers!

 

Today's funny.....

 

 

Have a great safe day all!

[zqtchas]

Most people have a spouse to do that. 

[mysty]

4 minutes ago, zqtchas said:

Most people have a spouse to do that. 

 

Yes Chas, and I'm usually the spouse that does that!  🤣

[zqtchas]

10 hours ago, clo said:

The "smog" was weird - and we used to live in SF. 

 

We LOVE SEA.  We bought a 400 sq. ft apt. here four years ago for a pittance so we don't have to stay with our daughter and her family. I haven't told her that the food here is a lot of the draw. We have SO many faves, rarely high end. Going to Bad Albert's in Ballard for breakfast in the AM, Jade Garden on Monday probably for (take out only) dim sum. One day we're going to Anacortes to Adrift.  We always run out of days before we run out of restaurants. Also there's 

Zylberschtein's Delicatessen & Bakery

 Oops,sorry about the size of this. The bagels are NYC great as is the pastrami. We take home a couple dozen bagel and a pound (or two) of pastrami. 

 

LOL. You can tell we love it 😉

We liked Seattle better than SF. The seafood was wonderful (but not as good as the Chesapeake bay area). We really liked the Olympic oysters. Wife was there, years ago, on a business trip and we stayed at a hotel on the water that allowed fishing from the room porch.  

[zqtchas]