Ooh, there are not a lot of worse sensations while eating than sandy grit.  Gross!

I had a friend try to make my recipe with an agar-based box mix and it was a disaster.  You might have some luck digging around molecular gastronomy sites and calculating an agar to liquid ratio.  

Here’s my recipe for pina colada jello shots. The cream of coconut separates just slightly and so they’re a lovely soft gold color with a thin layer of white at the top. Thank me later!

I’m making stock right now and I see pho in my future.

These enchiladas - trust me. https://www.bhg.com/recipe/chicken/chicken-enchiladas/

It doesn’t sound like you necessarily need any cookbooks, but you might enjoy Meera Sodha; it sounds like her heritage is not dissimilar to your fiance’s, and her recipes are absolutely delicious.

It said I was an ambivert, which is true, but the more interesting thing I realized is that I am *much* more texturally oriented than I thought, at least in the sense that when I was trying to let my mouth guide my choices it was almost universally about the specific texture of each of my pics.

May I recommend a Petsafe SSSCAT? They work GREAT for scaring the bejibblies out of a cat who is somewhere they don’t belong. Tables, doorways, Christmas trees, counters...they’re just a loud pssst of air that’s activated by a motion sensor, and you can replace the cans with any canned air. Our cats didn’t care if you…

Oh, I’m so sorry.  I just teared up thinking about how awful that must have been for you.  Sure, things are just things, but those little treasures are impossible to replace.  I hope that you and your child are currently building a beautiful new collection of memories.

I started doing this two years ago, the list on my phone, and it’s been AWESOME.  I love giving thoughtful gifts, and it makes it easy and fun.  Plus, it’s entertaining to scroll back through the year and see all of the weird shit that I’ve added to the list.

Thank you! Those shrimp sound fantastic!

Would you be willing to share your pickled shrimp and your corn-syrup-free pecan pie recipe?  They both sound intriguing!

Oh damn, you’re right!  PEA-CON for the nut, Butter puh-CON for the ice cream.

Same here, fellow Michigander!

But where is my beloved gingerbread latte?  Ugh, it was my favorite.  The syrup is so good in black coffee.

These look delicious! I have to say, though, as a baker who has watched her husband raise up a lil’ baby sourdough, it’s not actually anything like throwing together a yeasted bread. The process of creating his own starter took more than a month and had him measuring and feeding multiple times a day.  The standard…

The chopstick guide thing especially works if you have shitty takeout chopsticks that have a flat side!

It’s quite easy to make! I’ve had some good success with it. The only trick is to not use milk that is high heat homogenized. I think you could also get away with using halloumi, if you mysteriously have access to that.

Sounds great, except when the reality is you work at a nonprofit, you’re the only person doing 18 jobs, and your sick time is stacking up because you literally cannot be out. Literally the only thing that would help me manage my workload is hiring another person or a person and a half, and that ain’t happening.

Her paneer with fresh spinach is a STAPLE in our house.  Man, it’s delicious.  Love basically every recipe of hers that we have tried.