Food and Recipes while under Coronavirus quarantine #8

Operation: Use All The Fruit commences.

Feijoas notoriously come ripe all at once and don't keep, so everyone who knows someone who has a tree gets gifted them. This is more of a thing in New Zealand, but we are lucky enough to have a very good friend who had a bumper crop this year, so this is our portion of the spoils, minus a few we've already eaten and cooked with. Plans for the rest include baking - apparently they're a good sub for bananas, so my solid gold banana loaf recipe is getting the feijoa treatment today - and the rest are going to get turned into jam once I buy enough sugar.

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Neeko & I have been picking tomatoes before the squirrels get them.

Neekos favorite spot to pee during this visit is the corner of the broccoli planter. Silly dog. At least the squirrels will mind themselves for a few days.
 

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Operation: Use All The Fruit commences.

From South America. ",Feijoa", Brazilian nomination. We scoop them with a spoon or make juice. Tree is similar to a fig

Feijoas notoriously come ripe all at once and don't keep, so everyone who knows someone who has a tree gets gifted them. This is more of a thing in New Zealand, but we are lucky enough to have a very good friend who had a bumper crop this year, so this is our portion of the spoils, minus a few we've already eaten and cooked with. Plans for the rest include baking - apparently they're a good sub for bananas, so my solid gold banana loaf recipe is getting the feijoa treatment today - and the rest are going to get turned into jam once I buy enough sugar.

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Ok friends, candy bars have shrunk in size. I haven’t bought Hershey bars for a long time. I picked up a 6 pack of “Full Size” Hersey bars today, and they are not what full size bars used to be. My hand holding the “Full Size” bar for size reference.
 

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Operation: Use All The Fruit commences.

Feijoas notoriously come ripe all at once and don't keep, so everyone who knows someone who has a tree gets gifted them. This is more of a thing in New Zealand, but we are lucky enough to have a very good friend who had a bumper crop this year, so this is our portion of the spoils, minus a few we've already eaten and cooked with. Plans for the rest include baking - apparently they're a good sub for bananas, so my solid gold banana loaf recipe is getting the feijoa treatment today - and the rest are going to get turned into jam once I buy enough sugar.

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I've never seen freijoa's before. What do they taste like?
Thanks
 
I've never seen freijoa's before. What do they taste like?
Thanks
Tangy, floral.

They're called pineapple guavas some places, though they're neither a pineapple or a guava.

My cake was a failure. No structural integrity. I know the recipe is good, so the feijoas themselves were the issue. Either they were too wet, or too acid or had an enzyme that compromised the rise. I suspect the latter.

It's edible, it's just more like pudding than cake.
 
Tangy, floral.

They're called pineapple guavas some places, though they're neither a pineapple or a guava.

My cake was a failure. No structural integrity. I know the recipe is good, so the feijoas themselves were the issue. Either they were too wet, or too acid or had an enzyme that compromised the rise. I suspect the latter.

It's edible, it's just more like pudding than cake.
Sorry about your cake, but thanks for the explanation!
 
I've been tweaking a Thai salad I had in Barca when visiting my kids:

Grated white or pale green cabbage
Grated or guillotined carrots
Small cubes cucumber
Thin slices of mango (must not be very ripe)
Sliced raddishes
Unsalted peanuts
Lemon vinaigrette (last version added juice of a mandarine)
Parsley
Black sesame seeds

Add a little ginger syrup or chili flakes.
I'm for sure making this. This looks right up my alley. It will drag me away from the air fryer for a while.

Have had a lot of time off playing around with the air fryer. Hot dogs in air fryer, frozen pizza in air fryer, recycled fried chicken in air fryer. Egg rolls (homemade) in air fryer. Egg rolls/frozen in air fryer.
Tater tots in air fryer. Toasted sandwiches in air fryer. I've made so much stuff in the air fryer, I can't even remember too quickly off the top of my head what I've made, LOL.

But I mean you can't make everything in the air fryer (although I've tried). At Easter, though, we did the ham in the slow cooker, THAT was awesome. I made ham yorkies but ran short on flour and had to use some self-rising, that drove me crazy. They were still pretty good. Made first lemon meringue pie, which I was delighted with because it was my first quasi-lemon curd AND my first meringue, and first all-butter crust. (Meringue came out great, delighted.) Pie was great, I've still got some frozen left. Don't know how it freezes yet, though, it might get pitched.
 
I used my air fryer for the very first time this week. The chicken wings were most excellent. I was delighted. Because I am a true novice is there anything I should avoid or embrace when using it? Any tips at all are GREATLY appreciated! And if anyone is waiting to pull the trigger on getting an air fryer I do recommend. Got a great deal and a great meal. I am no longer afraid.
 
I used my air fryer for the very first time this week. The chicken wings were most excellent. I was delighted. Because I am a true novice is there anything I should avoid or embrace when using it? Any tips at all are GREATLY appreciated! And if anyone is waiting to pull the trigger on getting an air fryer I do recommend. Got a great deal and a great meal. I am no longer afraid.
Make cheese sticks! Like get string cheese and bread them, it's cheaper and they'll taste better. The frozen cheese sticks, too, they are AWESOME in there.

Thanks for mentioning the wings, that's something I was waiting to make and never made in all this time, LOL. Yipes. I might be going back to use it again now, lol...
 
Kiddo arrives home for the summer late Sunday night. I asked her what foods she’d like to have. She said fresh veggies because they’re hard to find or very expensive in Grenada.

I went to a food pick up today and thankfully they had fresh veggies.

I picked thru the garden. The eggplants are a small variety but I don’t know if they’re too small yet? One was going bad on the plant. So I picked the others.

I’ll blanch & freeze the beans. The leaves of the beets are holey and I can see beet tops. I will pick them tomorrow.

I hope the 2 spaghetti squash are mature enough inside. I saw them for $5.99/each at the grocery store! They were bigger tho.

I’m trying to finish her dog vet quilt before she gets home.
 

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After a couple of veggie pick ups, a regular food pick up and lots of food prep, thankfully we have a lot to choose from this week. I just needed to get some fruit and dairy items at the store.

Kiddo’s plane was delayed and we didn’t get home from Tampa until after 2am this morning. We are both tired but I am happy to have her home. I finished her quilt Saturday.

I roasted some veggies but the eggplant she didn’t like. She said if it was doused in cheese, she’d probably eat it. I just layered it with pasta sauce, ricotta cheese, provolone cheese and sprinkled Parmesan cheese on top. It’s baking in the oven.

I used fresh rosemary from my garden for the potatoes. Lots of tomatoes so I need to get them cooked down. I made a breakfast casserole this morning.
 

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After a couple of veggie pick ups, a regular food pick up and lots of food prep, thankfully we have a lot to choose from this week. I just needed to get some fruit and dairy items at the store.

Kiddo’s plane was delayed and we didn’t get home from Tampa until after 2am this morning. We are both tired but I am happy to have her home. I finished her quilt Saturday.

I roasted some veggies but the eggplant she didn’t like. She said if it was doused in cheese, she’d probably eat it. I just layered it with pasta sauce, ricotta cheese, provolone cheese and sprinkled Parmesan cheese on top. It’s baking in the oven.

I used fresh rosemary from my garden for the potatoes. Lots of tomatoes so I need to get them cooked down. I made a breakfast casserole this morning.
Such beautiful food!!
And I love the quilt.
 
Have missed this thread!

Yesterday made tabouleh.

Couscous soaked in boiling water until it becomes tender but not too
much. Add diced tomatoes, a lot of chopped mint and parsley, sliced almonds, lemon juice, balsamic vinegar, olive oil.

Good with any fish or meat
 
Tomorrow will be tweaking a dish I pinched from Green in Barcelona

Slices of previously rapidly boiled sweet potato, fry or grill them. Previously cook beetroot and smash it a bit to a chunky purée.

Serve potato slices topped with beetroot mash, some sour cream and coriander on top. Plus salt and pepper.

Colours and tastes are nice, I hope
 
So made a quickie cheapie meal, fettucine parboiled with some chicken stock. Drain that, reserve some the stock/water. Dump into small shallow frypan (the partially cooked fettucine and the pasta water/chicken broth) with sliced fresh garlic. Basically, you've got the garlic already kind of heated up in the pan and now you're dumping in the fettucine & liquid. Add a little more chicken bouillion powder, preferably no sodium this time around. Sprinkle with oregano, basil, marjoram, crushed red pepper, regular black pepper. When the noodles are right texture, dump in some shredded mozzarella. Let things kind of thicken up a bit. That was pretty good, lol. I mean it's not great, but it was tasty, it's low cost, it's fast, and no meat, but does have cheese. Next time will add in some veg.
 
My tomato plants are winding down. Still getting a decent amount each day tho.

My first batch of green bean plants are about done also. I cooked up today’s harvest with sautéed onion, garlic, salt in veggie broth. I have a second patch and they’re about 6” high now. The third patch has a few that germinated so far.

I pulled all my beets. The heat is too high for them to grow much more. The leaves were eaten up too. Next time I’ll plant them in Dec.

I’m hoping my broccoli and Brussels make it. I’ve been keeping a close eye on them in the heat.

I pulled 3 of the multi color carrots. They look funny. I doubt they’ll grow much more either. I’m going to leave them in for a few more weeks.

My pumpkin patch is coming in! 3 mounds of 3 seeds each. 2 of the mounds have germinated.
 

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OMG, those veggies look so darn good. They're so healthy, too. Multicolor carrots, yay! Playing with carrot colors is all the rage these days. I'd pull them, LOL.

And speaking of veggies, I know a while back I noted on here I can't make my own sushi cuz I don't have sushi-grade fish. BUT out of desperation, I looked it up and-- I can make sushi at home! I mean, nori, obviously, sesame seeds, wasabi, ginger, etc. But just fake crab and canned tuna and shrimp tempura, and then veggies like avocado and cucumber. So that's possible, and I'm doing it. I'm not going to get the sushi-grade rice right away because it's super expensive and while I'm screwing up test batches, I'm just going to adapt long grain rice (saw how to do this online).

Yay!! Finally. I don't have a bamboo mat so using parchment paper.
 
OMG, those veggies look so darn good. They're so healthy, too. Multicolor carrots, yay! Playing with carrot colors is all the rage these days. I'd pull them, LOL.

And speaking of veggies, I know a while back I noted on here I can't make my own sushi cuz I don't have sushi-grade fish. BUT out of desperation, I looked it up and-- I can make sushi at home! I mean, nori, obviously, sesame seeds, wasabi, ginger, etc. But just fake crab and canned tuna and shrimp tempura, and then veggies like avocado and cucumber. So that's possible, and I'm doing it. I'm not going to get the sushi-grade rice right away because it's super expensive and while I'm screwing up test batches, I'm just going to adapt long grain rice (saw how to do this online).

Yay!! Finally. I don't have a bamboo mat so using parchment paper.
Good luck with making sushi 😍 You can do it!

To make it even easier, you can just make it hand roll style, so no bamboo mat needed.

This was from my New Year’s Day this year that I posted back then. We made some rolls (California roll and makizushi) but we also put out some “roll your own” ingredients for do-it-yourself handrolls. In the foreground you can see a container of seasoned rice, and some squares of nori to the right of it. In the round partitioned server are the things you can choose from. Just spread a little rice on a nori square, put what you want on the rice, fold up and eat. 😋
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It was baking day today. I tried a new recipe since I had so many blueberries on hand. (My bushes aren’t producing yet.)

The Cream Cheese Blueberry Bread is amazing. I added extra blueberries on top after I filled the pans.

I bought these new tiny baking pans that are disposable. They’d be great for a bake sale. 50 for $13.99. We each tried one and then we hand washed the little pans. I think we can get a few uses out of the pans. I froze 9 of them.

I had a lot of bananas so I doubled the banana bread recipe. We have a dozen individually wrapped in the freezer and 3 for this weekend.

 

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