Season finally started here! We had Costco pre-steamed Dungeness crabs last night for dinner at my sister’s. Even though these guys had pretty spindly gams, they were super sweet and delicious.
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Living in Middle America, always look forward to y’all reporting on D-Crab season!
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@CCE did you get much precipitation?
Quite a bit of frozen rain. [Edit - But we did not lose power}
We thought it’d burn off pretty quickly, but then the temps this week were lower than expected, so it took a LOT longer.
Our old dog has been struggling with going out front b/c it’s been glass. Today after 5 days it’s finally crunchy almost melted, so he’s happier - crunchier is easier to walk on.
Our young big dog we’ve been taking downstairs to let out from the basement doors for the last 5 days (because the deck steps are fully ice) which (the basement) he hates b/c he associates downstairs w/ tornados or other bad weather, has finally been let down
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Started the day off with a fun dental procedure that blew our entire insurance allotment for the year! Oh, 2026, how much do I already hate thee? Lemme count the ways…
A gal pal was nice enough to take me there and drive me back home, since it’s my dude’s long day. He met up with our pesca buddy & some rando for HH, so he was home even later than usual. I had one of my friends over for a glass of wine while her dude was also tied up with a guy date. Happy Hour in Happy Valley.
Dinner options that were floated earlier today included takeout from a popular fried chicken place, sushi, or assorted dumplings from the casa lingua freezer plus maybe stir-fried snow peas I originally got for Monday’s Thai curry, but never used.
After heating up a bowl of the leftover chowdah for lunch I decided this was the best option: tasted even better than the first night & cost us absolutely nada 
Too lazy to make up bacon to crumble over, but we still had chopped scallion to sprinkle on top.
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Kurobuta ham and smashed potatoes. Baby garden peas. Pear butter.
For dessert: chocolate cake with strawberry whipped cream.
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The discussion of pinchos morunos reminded of how much I like them. Added roasted brussels sprouts and carrots and poured the garlic honey lemon sauce over everything. Little gem, red onion, tomato salad, sherry vinegar &n oo dressing.
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Steak-frites again, because I found a small beef tenderloin steak in the bargain bin, and because I finally found Lamb and Weston french fries here and wanted to try them. I don’t think I’ve had tenderloin steak before. Verdict: the tenderloin was very, um, tender, much more tender but not as beefy as the bavette I usually get. The fries were excellent, better than the recent McCain’s I’ve been getting.
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Chorizo and Sweet Potato Quesadilla from a CI recipe - not much to see from the filling on the pic but very tasty - Mexican-style chorizo, shredded sweet potatoes, piquillo peppers, cilantro and Monterey Jack cheese.
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Dammit - now I want pinchos morunos! With as cold as it’s going to be this weekend, I do believe this will be on my menu some time during the weekend!
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The power of suggestion.
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I am ready!
I think I will start with Black Pepper-Garlic Roasted (Cua Rang Tỏi Tiêu)!
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Nice feathering on the Kewpie
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Both of them (instant and active) barely did anything when I tested them in sugar water. Still well ahead of bb date, and they’ve been refrigerated since I opened them. Oh well.
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I buy Fleischmann’s Instant Dry Yeast from Amazon (2 pound deal). Presently, its $10.14 (free delivery) – I place it in the crisper drawer in the fridge. It lasts long beyond the Best Before date. Presently, I have bread rising. I checked my yeast (earlier) and it came right to life when I bloomed it.
As a side note, I do go through a lot of yeast, but I’ve never had a failure with Fleischmann’s.
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That’s what I’ve been buying for decades, and never had it fail before (even well beyond BB as you mention), so it’s pretty strange.
I’ve got this olive-garlic loaf rising at the moment. Very wet dough (83% hydration) and I wanted to get some more vertical out of it instead of it just smoodging(*) out to the sides.
(*) New word, maybe?
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I have a novice question. How do you determine the percentage hydration ?
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I just figure water grams divided by flour grams. Not sure that’s right, but it gives me an idea of how the dough will act. Baguettes and rustic boules (what I make most often) are usually high 60’s.
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