Same here, the few times I’ve tried, sometimes I don’t mind, but most of the time, it’s just not for me. I think it’s the bitterness that puts me off. I liked a red fruit version though.
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I whipped out my new Christmas kitchen toy, a Phillips pasta extruder, and made “fettuccine” (more like thick linguini) with the kiddo. Then I took lobster tails, shelled them, pan-roasted the shells in the IP and made lobster stock, reduced it, then poached the tails in the broth and mounted the sauce with European butter. A squeeze of lemon and some parsley and done. Sides were simple sauteed asparagus with dried shallot and corn-zucchini succotash. Reasonably pleased with this first attempt, but🤞🏻 it will improve. (@Saregama does your household have one of these machines? Any tips?)
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Just read 14 days of WFD all at once. I’m overdosed of all these wonderful food!
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Not sure if anyone feels like reading this, but the sauce was one of several samples sent to me to review for my blog. For the first time in my five years of food blogging/social media “influencing” I had to decline to post a review. My letter to them was as follows:
Hi {x},
I apologize for taking so long to get back to you on trying the samples, but now that we are through the holidays, I have had time to try all of the jars that you sent me. Since there were doubles, I gave some to a friend who is a former restaurant manager and chef himself. His opinion is one I trust very much, and unfortunately, we both came to the same conclusion. While I made mini pizzas with the sauce several weeks ago and thought they were good, I obviously needed to try the sauce in more developed meals. Following tonight’s dinner of Chicken Parmesan using the sauce, unfortunately, I find it to be overly bland. My friend felt the same way, as the sauce required heavy doctoring and additional seasoning to make it palatable.
Why I am emailing you this is to tell you that since you were kind enough to send me multiple samples of [x] sauce, I will be kind enough to not review them on my blog and social media. Since my reviews are honest and not puff pieces, it would be a negative review. In these difficult times, I find it personally distasteful to negatively write about a locally operated small business.
Please let Chef [x] know that I appreciate his direction in going organic and taking a “no salt and no sugar added” approach, but at the end of the day, flavor matters and salt content has a lot to do with that, especially tomato sauce. As the product is not being marketed as a low sodium diet friendly alternative, I feel that most people would find the sauce flavorless. The lack of salt was the tip of the iceberg. There was simply no flavor present, and the marinara and tomato-basil sauces had identical ingredients listed in identical order, and I am strained to tell the difference. I have one jar left and if you would like me to return it, I will. If not, I will donate it to the local food pantry,
This is not the response you wanted, but I would rather be honest and hope you will forward this to Chef [x] than write something that will come across as negative.
Regards,
Greg
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I made myself a Negroni after reading this 
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I think you handled that very diplomatically!
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Thank you. I have no problem writing a negative review (Lord knows, there’s a bunch here on HO and my blog) but I did not have the energy and they were kind to me. I don’t do puff pieces and I don’t like lying, so I felt this was the best way out.
As a side note, I am going strictly Instagram for the time being. I have “closed” my blog (for now). It will not be deleted-- there in case I want to return, but I find myself doing double the work (post on Insta then repost on the blog with more writing, etc). COVID really put things into perspective. Less eating out, less reviews, more of my own cooking. Insta is better for that.
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I don’t mind bitter. I actually prefer dry to sweet drinks, but there is just something about swallowing that combination that causes me to force a gulp to get it down. Its one of those drinks that I will literally enjoy one sip and then almost gag on the next, and again, I have no idea why.
My chef friend bought a bottle a few months ago and emailed me, “Hey, you’re good with cocktails, what can I do with this?” I responded with a Negroni, and that’s pretty much all you can do. He too made one and didn’t like it. He ended up making some kind of olive oil cake with it which he enjoyed. I need to try that, or a marinade or sauce, just to use up the bottle.
I think it’s better to give an honest feedback than to praise and mislead them into venturing themselves with false expectations, unless they are marketing themselves to zero salt food for the sick or elderly. My MIL can’t take any salt, food is not very appetising for her and she needs to compensate by adding spices.
Would like to know if they will contact you again with the improved versions.
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“Pork chops and apple sauce”. Not really. Pork chops and chilled chard.
Trimmed and slides for those types.
Chard cooks down SO much!
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very constructive and honest answer. i sure hope they’re appreciative.
i too try to not write anything negative about the restaurants I review during the pandemic, as the goal now is to try to do my very tiny part to be supportive in keeping businesses alive. I try to be honest without being overly critical, while accentuating the positive. It’s harder to do when people send you things, easier for me to pick a place I think looks good (or my editor sends me to, we have similar taste).
will be curious what they write back, if you care to share.
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Mostly Cuban for dinner tonight - we learned from an in person cooking lesson from one of nephews friend’s parents early in the pandemic, and it has become a favorite meal for everyone.
Plantains - amendment to the original lesson is that (over my week alone) I learned to steam them in the microwave first to avoid the peeling and double frying - so now it’s steam, easy peel, smash, fry.
Mojo - I’m going to laugh here and fess up to “naan bread”-ing and “chai tea”-ing this by calling it “mojo sauce.” But I’m pretty sure they called it that - for us 
Anyway, this used the oranges and lemons I carried back at thanksgiving.
Black beans (for the low carb-ers and black beans and rice (moros y cristianos) for the rest.
And the non-cuban additions.
I made chicken in mole verde (I didn’t know we were having cuban food and marinated the pork at hand in chinese and italian marinades) - flavors went together well.
And “my (mom’s) famous” whole cauliflower, modified as of this turn by yours truly - for faster cooking and greater caramelization - into quarters, keeping the rest the same. Then burned to a crisp by other residents while I was out for a walk 
. So a third cauliflower went in, which made for a very late dinner for some us tonight. But, $hit happens, and I burn plenty of stuff, so no biggie.
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your moros y cristianos look fab! i have still yet to make tostones - fried whole slices of plantain, yes, dozens of times, but not tostones. need to do that
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Indeed they are. To you too. Thank you!
We are addicted to tostones now - and they are so easy, it’s a slippery slope… a little (cooking) knowledge is a dangerous thing 
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Love lobster and corn together - looks wonderful!
@ChristinaM we do indeed - it was one of my birthday presents to the sibling (we all love our gadgets, and this one had been denied earlier so it was very well received )
We only used it once before our current low carb-ness, and I’d agree re thick. I read up a fair bit and they say that the dough will look very dry va normal fresh pasta dough, but to leave it like that, because it’s necessary for the extrusion to work.
Please do share your experiments - look forward to learning what works for you, and trying it in another week or two when I’m eating normal carbs again!
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Wow!!! If that’s what you do with one extra day off I can’t even imagine a whole week!
What she said! 
They look great and filling looks juicy to me.
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Well that’s something, lol. Love a good samosa.
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There’s a bunch of cocktails that use Campari - maybe a Jungle Bird might be more to your taste:
And there are also the Boulevardier and the Old Pal though they are variations of the Negroni.
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I made some pho ga broth and chicken using Andrea Nguyen’s recipe a few days ago and fixed up a bowl of pho ga for dinner.
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