Thank you for sharing these links (and recipes)! I've been looking for a source for vanilla.

#CookingNotDrowning Mr. Sledgehammer is making butter chicken today with the last tomatoes from my Mum's garden.

Chocolate Brick (Elizabeth David's gateaux au chocolat, so much better than box cake it's not even funny) 1 cup chocolate chips (I like Ghiardelli 60% best, but honestly, anything's good) 6 tbsp butter 2 tbsp flour 1/2 cup sugar 3 eggs, separated 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract So you melt the chocolate (I like to melt it on a plate in the oven on low heat, then set aside the plate for later, see below) and put it in a bowl and stir in the sugar and butter and vanilla and egg yolks and flour and then you go get another little bowl and whip up the whites 'till they're all peaky (they don't have to be stiff-stiff peaks, I've whipped whites by hand for this recipe and gotten to they-might-stand-up-if-there's-no-wind soft peaks and it's been fine. Who knows how anybody got stiff peaks before electric beaters. I'd have died.) Then you tip the whites into the big bowl with the other stuff, get a rubber scraper, and fold and fold until you get bored and cheat by stirring a little. Then you put it into a greased loaf pan and cook it for half an hour-ish (It never takes more than 40 minutes to cook) on 350. The toothpick test doesn't work with this cake, 'cause it's sort of a torte and it'll seem not-quite-done when it's done. You must wait a bit, which is fine, because trying to get it out of the loaf pan right away is a pain. Chocolate Glaze: Anyway, while you're letting it sit, you take the plate you melted the chocolate on, and you put another half-cup of chocolate chips on it, and like three spoonfuls of butter and two spoonfuls of sugar and enough water to cover the bottom of the plate, like an eighth of a cup. Then you let it sit in the oven 'til the chocolate melts, and take it out and stir it with a spoon or something. At first it looks awful, but then you keep stirring and it turns into this nice thick glaze. Then you turn the cake out on a plate and schlop the glaze on it. Best eaten while warm, with milk or coffee. Serves 2-6.

Let's talk about recipes from the greats: #CookingNotDrowning #ElizabethDavid #CakeRecipe

this is my annotated Gateau au Chocolat (Chocolate Brick) from French Provincial Cooking.

It takes separating eggs, but it's a chocolate punch in the face compared to box cake, really, and almost as easy.

For Szechuan pepper and related spices, I like themalamarket.com - very good quality. #CookingNotDrowning

The Barlow Cheesecake 16 oz. sour cream 3 pkgs. cream cheese (8-ounce pkgs) 10 oz melted semi-sweet chocolate 3/4c-1c sugar, not sure 2 tbsp cocoa powder 1 tbsp vanilla 1/4 cup flour For crust, use one and a half cups of ground chocolate wafers, plus one stick butter, 1/2c. ground almonds and 1/2 tsp cinnamon cook in a springform pan for one hour at 300 degrees. Turn off oven after an hour, and leave cake to rest. After cake has cooled, top with fresh cut halved apricots or sliced, glaze with mixture of 1/4 cup Poire Williams and 1/2 cup apricot preserves. Serve with whipped cream.

#CookingNotDrowning

This isn't exactly mine to give away. And yet. This is a tough time we're having. I give you (with recipe in alt text of image btw, as above) The Barlow Cheesecake. Poire Williams is pricey. It's good. #CheesecakeRecipe #ChocolateCheesecake

Stuffed Mushrooms Pound of Bob Evan's Sausage Butter Bottle of Cream Sherry 8 cloves garlic 1 onion Italian breadcrumbs 2 tbsp flour or 2 tsp cornstarch 1 egg Italian Seasoning Big thing o' grated parmesan 2 pounds mushrooms, washed and stemmed and dried Mix sausage and grate 5 cloves garlic & 1/3 bottle and 1/3 cup breadcrumbs and the flour and 1/3 cup parmesan, and mince onion and break egg and squish it and squish it Cook up 2/3 stick butter, and 3+ grated cloves garlic and lots and lots of sherry into a metal-handled frying pan; put 1/3 of this liquid mixture into the sausage mixture; leave the other 2/3 of the liquid in the pan. Stuff sausage mixture into mushrooms, place stuffed mushrooms in frying pan with liquid, cook half an hour or until mushrooms have given up their liquid.

#CookingNotDrowning let's talk about secret family recipes.

This is my mother's #StuffedMushrooms recipe. Garlic, cream sherry, sausage, cheese, mushrooms, butter, and some more fucking sherry if you please.

One time she had to stretch it and just made a soup from the drippings with sherry+broth.

Native Vanilla: Extract and Gourmet Vanilla Beans Native Vanilla provides naturally-grown, ethically-sourced, high-quality vanilla. Our vanilla is rich in flavor, and is free from any artificial additives.

#CookingNotDrowning let's start with some sources. Share your favorites in replies, if you will:

Spices: www.penzeys.com I know we've heard of them and gosh their gift boxes gosh
Vanilla: nativevanilla.com
Tea: yunnansourcing.com and of course www.fridaytea.com has some fun blends domestically.

#CookingNotDrowning is something you can probably mute or ignore for the next little bit if you're hoping to stay informed about current events and conversations, as I am biting my nails about them and therefore focusing heavily on my kitchen instead.