Applesauce! You forgot applesauce!
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A few dinners enjoyed during the tail end of April:
Wings and greens; Flank steak fajitas, homemade salsa; chicken and vegetable soup with a cheese biscuit. The soup was from a Stonewall Kitchens mix that was gifted to us. It was actually pretty tasty, and surprisingly not salty, which is the bane of most soup mixes, IME.
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We made the potato salad today as close as possible from the descriptions. Will report later after eating.
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The Harry’s berries were a sometimes treat for us, and I was always surprised living in socal that there were so few places for u-pick. Up here in the pnw, where we’ve lived for the better part of the last 15 yrs, there are tons of upick places, and the berries are typically delectable. Our county - Whatcom - I believe provides the majority of raspberries to groceries around the US.
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This is so true. Harry’s Berries (no picking) is in Oxnard and the nearest (or most popular) picking place I know of is Underwood Farms about 50 miles from us in Moorpark.
I got these blue, black & raspberries today from Pudwill Farms’ local farm stand. Their actual farm is 80 miles north of Santa Barbara. Yikes.
Here’s the salsa I mentioned. Harry’s not only sells great strawberries they make great salsa. Who knew? It’s bright, fresh, balanced, delish.
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I miss the year round availability of produce there. Here in WA, we only have lettuce and radish from April through end of May, and then beautiful stuff until Oct when it moves to just kale and squash. We used to frequent the markets in LA all the time. My favorite stall, course I can’t remember the name, was a citrus one on the Wed and Sat Santa Monica FM. They had these ugly valencia oranges that were just glorious to eat. Perfectly sweet, tart, and juicy. Miss those.
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Coinkydink @emglow101!
I made a reasonable facsimile of Paella. Not really a planned thing, more of a what’s in the fridge, freezer & cupboard that needs cooking & what dish will they go well together in. How about trying your first Paella? Okay. I loosely followed the directions on the bag, but didn’t have artichokes, piquillo peppers or their jarred tomato sofrito, which looked like thick tomato sauce in the photos, so I used a 1/2 jar of sundried tomato bruschetta & this homemade roasted tomato purée.
Along w/ingredients mentioned above, Baby Bells, Broth, Saffron, Smoked Paprika, Smoked Salt, Shrimp, Lobster, Christorra Chorizo, Peas for Green, lemon
It was easier than I thought but clearly I need more practice. Maybe not clearly, but trust me. I don’t have a paella pan, but did manage to get a little socarrat on the bottom. The problem was too much liquid - in order to absorb it everything overcooked. Hubs had 2 helpings and thought it was great, lol. But I could use a good recipe. Paging @Barca.
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Maybe Arnett Farms? I’ve bought some ugly delicious oranges from them. 
I don’t make it to the big markets a lot, like Santa Monica, but they have a stand at Culver City FM.
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It’s been 15 years. I don’t recall. They sold several varieties of citrus, prepackaged in mesh bags, they all had a little square of paper in the bag with the farm contact info. The oranges themselves often had little brown squiggles on the rind, like wormies trying to get in but failing. But they were the best tasting oranges I’ve ever had. When our eldest was small, our routine was to go to the Sunday Venice FM for produce and lemon crepes. The good old days!
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A post was merged into an existing topic: What’s for Dinner #69 - The “It’s Gotta Be May” Edition - May 2021
Greg, are you still feeling ok? Hope so…
Looks wonderful. Did you use 3 to one ratio of water to rice .
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Aside from one flare up, yes I am good. Still trying to get a doctor appointment regardless.
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Thanks @emglow101.
I wasn’t happy with it. The package said use a jar of their sofrito, 4 cups rice, 8 cups liquid. I substituted my own sauce mix for their sofrito sauce but am not sure how many ounces their’s is, plus I used less rice and thought I reduced liquid accordingly, but I’m not great at calculating measurements, reducing & doubling - one reason I could never be a good baker. 
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4 cups of rice . Wowza. I’m starting with 1 cup . If you don’t succeed try and try again . I have been binging you tube videos of cooking the Paella of Valencia. No fish or shellfish. I am expecting error. Starting with the chicken and vegetables.
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Right?! Even reduced it was a lot. I have more rice left in that bag + another bag. Will keep practicing. YouTube will help.
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As much as I’m a fan of all thing allium, I have to draw the line at those things – too fakey for me. However, a product briefly appeared some years ago that was just stellar. Alexia (now making ordinary frozen onion rings and the like) sold a snack-aisle product that was actually real onion rings, and they were just great! (Yes, I know the French’s/Durkee/nee O&C canned Thanksgiving ones are technically real too, but they lose much in the processing.) Whatever Alexia was doing, they were really doing right, because what they had were very flavorful, big, crunchy, intact onion rings, in a resealable bag right in the snack aisle.
I can understand why they failed though. Apparently it was an expensive process, and you ended up with a small (and half-empty) $3 or $4 bag of onion rings that could be eaten in one sitting. Too pricey for most people, I suspect. I would’ve gladly continued to pay the premium for this wonderful product, as there’s nothing else like it available. Sadly it disappeared all too fast.
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Sorry I missed those!
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Homemade onion rings are one of those highly rewarding dishes that is a PIA, but ohhhh soooo good!
I use the frenchies for certain things but mostly for an edible garnish. Great for topping off an onion soup, topping for scalloped potatoes or even on top of a mac n cheese. They also have thin sliced and fried jalapeños which are quite yummy!
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