Tuesday Night's Dinner

Hard Polenta (Bittman's Recipe I with 3.5c water and 1c medium polenta) topped with sauteed mushrooms (chantarelles, oysters, shitake, and cremini sauteed following the first recipe in From Simple to Spectacular) and a bit of mushroom syrup (from FStoS's mushroom bruschetta recipe).

Served with some leftover tomato confit from Sunday and a salad with tomato "vinaigrette" (Blend a tomato, a couple cloves roasted garlic, salt, and pepper. With the blender running slowly drizzle in some EV olive oil until happy with the texture/quantity.).

The waiting is killlling me

Many recipes from Quick Pickles yield things that take a few days to reach maximum flavor, but you can always try them right away to get an idea of how they're gonna taste.

These damn fermented pickles have to ferment (imagine that) before they taste like anything. So I just have to WAIT and WAIT and WAIT...

Sunday's Food

App:
Don't really know what to call this, but it was a layered thing with: tomato confit, tapenade, whipped ricotta cheese. Topped with a bit of fresh basil.
Tomato confit recipe from From Simple to Spectacular; tapenade made with 6 nicoise olives, 1 clove roasted garlic and 1/2 tsp of balsamic vinegar.

This was inspired by the "Gateau Froid de Brousse, Tapenade, Tomato" that Andrea had at Le Jardin de Manon in Arles.

Main:
Braised Halibut Provencal (From Simple to Spectacular, replace capers with nicoise olives)

Dessert:
Tangelo Creme Brulee (add 1 tsp tangelo zest to a half recipe of the creme brulee in From Simple to Spectacular and drop the vanilla, strain the custard into the dishes).
This was inspired by the mandarine infused creme brulee that Andrea got at Le Moutardier in Avignon. I think the proportions here were about right.

Other things:
Started a batch of "real" (i.e. fermented) dill pickles based on the "Kick-ass barrel pickle" recipe in Quick Pickles. I haven't done this before, so it'll be interesting to see how it turns out.