I’ve had good luck with Black and Decker for toaster ovens, but the ones purchased 20+years ago do not represent ones purchased new.
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Baked a fillet of lake trout with cumin, sesame seeds, salt ad pepper. It was good, but mom only ate a small amount. She did have a nice bowl of salad first.
It’s funny-until I had a cucumber to add, I didn’t feel like serving salad. It seems salad has to have greens, cucumber, scallion, red pepper, carrot and sometimes avocado before it’s the read thing. We had finished the cukes as crudités, then there was loads of snow blocking the garage so I couldn’t get to the store easily.
Also a nice pot of chicken and dumplings, as well as a gallon of applesauce. Braeburns, Granny Smiths and a handful of dried apricots. 15 minutes in the instant pot, run through the food mill, ready for the freezer.
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Brevelles tend to get rated the best. We have the larger size of Brevelle Smart oven, and it’s pretty much the most used appliance in the kitchen.
Cuisinarts also rate pretty well, particularly their “airfry” convection toaster oven. Their stuff is pretty variable, a lot of the cheaper stuff is genuine trash. But the stuff higher up their product line can be quite good. We have their leverless 4 slot toaster, very good toaster.
Wirecutter has been really reliable on these things for me. They seem to like those two brands, but also lately Panasonic. My brother and Aunt like Panasonics counter top convection oven/microwave combos.
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That does look so good!
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Don’t be afraid to grill some citrus on the barbie.
I use as a side dish, and in salads also muddled in a drink.
Smoky.
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Yum!
The only thing I’m afraid of is actually reaching the barbie right now. We haven’t kept up with the snow, so it’s in a couple feet of snow then covered by a nice sheet of ice on the 2nd story without proper railings on the edges…
I can imagine some grilled lemons would be amazing in so many different things! Planning on cooking up some haddock filets with some sorrel sauce later this week. That would add some nice depth to it.
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Mead review: Redstone Meadery
I just found a new brand of mead at the local grocery. This mead is from Boulder, Colorado. From their website it looks like they do several styles from session meads to “nectars” (@8% ABV) to “reserve” meads at higher ABV. The only ones available at my store were the nectars. I tried two of them.
The first one was Nectar of the Hops. This is technically a metheglin, but the only “herb” in it is hops. It’s really a traditional mead with a late dry hopping in secondary. Now, I’ve had some very lightly hopped mead before an it’s good. It’s not my favorite. I love IPA beers and generally like ‘em on the hoppy side. I was not a fan of this mead. It tasted like chewing on raw hop buds. Which leaves me wondering whether I just don’t like dry-hopped meads or whether it just isn’t good.
The second one was a black raspberry nectar. This melomel was much nicer. Both, I should note, were nicely carbonated. The raspberry flavor dominated with a much lighter honey flavor and no trace of the fermented honey that characterizes mead. Some prefer that. I don’t. I like that fermented honey bite in my mead. So this was nice but a little boring.
So, like most mead brewers, I think, I prefer my own brews. But if there’s nothing in the pantry, this would be an option. It might also be a good intro to people who are new to mead.
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Boneless are my favorite type of bananas…
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That’s fine for regular eating. But for grilling or making banana soup, I really prefer the bone-in bananas.
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…just look at them 
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Bananas on the barbie? That’s something I should try. BTW bananas are berries!
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But for home brewed banana beer, bone in bananas are the best.
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Just make sure you use a wide-mouth carboy. Fishing the banana bones out of a regular carboy jug is a PITA.
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It’s pretty good. I do it as a desert some times. Split them lengthwise, sometimes sprinkle them with demerara before grilling. Leave the peel on till after they’re cooked, helps them hold together. Then usually serve them with ice cream or whipped cream and berries.
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Oooh, I got some Okinawa black sugar as a souvenir a while ago. This looks like something I can definitely use it on.
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