🥧🌲👀🥧 @mcmoots@kith.kitchen

Just had a couple friends over for our first social-distance backyard bbq. This might be the summer I really learn to grill.

Making this for dinner, with bacon: https://www.101cookbooks.com/caramelized-tofu/

came back to a garden covered in bindweed... but also the first zucchini! and peas!

eating that for dinner with an orange chicken kit from the freezer.

Also tonight: In lieu of an awkward Zoom funeral we had a memorial dinner at my father in law's favorite restaurant: https://sazonsantafe.com/

Holy SHIT it was amazing. They start you off with a plate of 5 moles, and then you have to choose just 2 for your main course. Which is impossible on account of how they're all the most delicious. Best meal I've had in about a year, definitely worth a visit if you're ever in Santa Fe.

Quick solstice forage tonight in the local greenbelt: Artemisia carruthii, Artemisia ludoviciana, and Juniperus monosperma. It'll flavor a rabbit or something this winter.

The blue corn blueberry-lavender donut from Whoo's in Santa Fe is possibly the best cake donut I've ever had. Which is faint praise, I don't like cake donuts, but you're not gonna make a raised donut work with blue corn, so it makes sense. The glaze is flavorful, the corn flavor is still there underneath, A++.

This is not a blanket recommendation for the donut shop though, their Bavarian cream was a serious disappointment.

the recommended altitude adjustments for a pie are basically to add more water to the crust, and use softer/wetter fillings that don't need as much time to cook. and good luck keeping the gluten from toughening and the crust from getting soggy.

this is frozen peaches and huckleberries. we'll see how I did at the texture in a few hours.

I don't know why I thought corn from California would possibly be worth eating. Even when you're getting it fresh in California the corn is not good there.

This is like eating corn-flavored La Croix.

My consolation prize for not getting a whole tuna was a trip to the park with the black locust trees. Eating this salad is the official start of summer in my personal liturgical calendar.

Dressing is viili, sour cream, mint, garlic, and lemon juice.

Wholesale fish update: There was a 4 hour long line at the boat so I bailed.

A different boat was selling salmon, with a much shorter line on account of how they had normal retail prices. I bought some smoked salmon candy just so I didn't have to leave empty handed.

Who here has experience using sketchy shop tools to cut frozen fish or meat? Will we be sad if we try to do it with a hand saw rather than buying an electric knife?

There's a boat in town selling sushi-grade whole tuna to the public for stupid cheap (poor boat went out just before the plague and caught a bunch of stuff intended for restaurants), and I want to split one with my neighbors. Trying to figure out how to cut it up without having to thaw it.

My best theory is that the internet people were right and 45 minutes was enough, and I fatally overcooked it before the first taste. But like. That is some *intense* toughness to develop in 45 minutes in something that usually takes 7 hours of braise.

Meat is such a pain in the ass, ugh, I should give up and go back to tofu.

After another 2 hours of pressure cooking, my tendon is so far off of what I was expecting that I'm wondering if I have somehow fatally overcooked it, or made a weird chemistry error, or bought rubber instead of tendon. It's like chewing on an eraser.

I did take it out at several points in the process - 1.5 hrs, 2.5 hrs, 3.25 hrs, 5 hrs - and at no point did it ever have a nice toothsome tendon texture. At 1.5hrs I couldn't even slice it. WTF???

When you google "instant pot tendon" you get a bunch of people promising you that you can pressure-cook tendons to toothsome softness in an hour. LIES.

After 2.5 hours on high pressure, my tendon is just barely to the point where I can slice it. Giving it another 45 min & we'll see what happens.

My house smells amazing right now, I think I did the pho spices okay this time.

A friend's going to bring over some viili for me to try. I'm skeptical but curious, place your bets now.

Also the artisanal bread community's emphasis on giant fucking holes in your bread is ridiculous. I don't want a crumb so open that my jam falls out.

See also: You should be able to eat the crust without it hurting your gums.

In a lot of ways this bread was a disaster - my sourdough starter is anemic and yet overproofed in the fridge overnight, I forgot to slash it, blah blah. But the thing about fresh homemade bread is that even when it's mediocre it's still pretty great.

Knotweed apple pie for breakfast, and the first iced coffee of summer. ☀ 🥧 🌱

Spumoni rules, Neapolitan drools.