annabelle

I'm with djyee about tasting uncooked eggs in the mixture. The photo accompanying the piece looks a bit deceiving. It appears that the spinach is sitting atop a crust of some kind. The recipe is a little vague so I can imagine multiple attempts to get it "right".

Katie yes, fresh spinach has a lot of water. You need to wring it out after you cook it or it will cause your cake/pie/quiche to separate when you mix it in. I haven't made the recipe you are referring to, but have made tons of spanakopita over the years and the drier the spinach, the better. Other greens are also full of water, but spinach seems to have them all beat.

You can ferment the flowers and make wine and that's about it as far as I know. I can't imagine they are tasty cooked alone or tossed in salad.

That would be interesting. I imagine they're going to spend most of their time in the Back Bay restaurants with lots of establishing shots of the Charles River and maybe a trip to Fenway Park. Hopefully Eric Ripert will be there so he can get prissy about how messy ballpark food is again. That's always a good time.

I hope Emeril is a host/judge since he's from Fall River. I hope they have to make baked beans to be judged by a bunch of home cooks famous for their beanpot suppers.

It's a cooking vessel, not a serving piece. Who cares if the inside is stained? It's purely esthetic and isn't going to effect the quality of the dish. I have a whole set of Corning ware that belonged to my mother and it is stained on the transfers from 50+ years of use. Vigorous scrubbing is going to remove the designs, so I let it go.

Staub is superior for me, as well Cherie. At any rate, Barkeeper's Friend works well on just about everything.

One of my sons is the same way, Kim. I add more liquid such as Lisa suggested. I do need to buy some EverClear to make my own extract.

Sticky toffee pudding. It's loaded with chopped dates.

Kim, how big a shell is the pie in? You can spread the pastry cream in a separate pie plate of the same size and transfer it to the shell the next day. Set it on a warm towel to loosen it up and slide it into the shell. I've done this with custard pies before.

Definitely agree about the phyllo dough and puff pastry.

You could have a party when your ankle is healed (I'm sorry to learn about that. Ouch!) and the huckleberries are ripe. Ham and pies, what more could you ask?

No doubt. They were given severance pay when they showed up, which is better than showing up and not knowing where to collect one's final pay. I've had that happen to me before and it's not good.

As reported in the WaPo? The paper of microaggression in every corner is hardly unbiased. Anyone who didn't see Uncle Bubba's closing its doors coming, wasn't paying attention a year ago. The place was a money pit and a gift her idiot brother didn't deserve to have. I don't blame her for putting that ugly chapter in life behind her.

Too young. RIP Steven and prayers for Ellen, PJ and the family.

That would be great fun, Dave. You'll be able to make so many other dishes with the leftovers, as well. Are you up for documenting it in pictures for us?

Meh. I don't care that she's large. I care that she is obnoxious. She is but one of a pantheon of obnoxious chefs who do make up words, wave their knives while talking and do riffs on the same five or six dishes every time they are on.

Mac and cheese. It's fast, cheap and tasty.

No kidding. Talk about a dog bites man type of story: Food Establishment in Crowded City Has Mouse Problem! Next stop: Ethnic restaurants cut corners! Someone has too much leisure time on his hands.

I'm with Smithy. I like the picnic ham better than the traditional ham. Julia Child has an excellent recipe using a picnic that is slowly braised with stock, port and aromatics then served sliced along the bone in the French style, rather than toward the bone in the American manner. One of the great things about ham is that it is so versatile. The above recipe yields enough stock (give or take) to make an excellent pea soup with dried split peas.

A little, and I mean very little, almond extract goes a long way, Shel.

I feel the same way about Anne Burrell. She was prattling away about making something "super yummy" to her hapless crew on "Worst Cooks in America" and happened to look up and see Bobby Flay looking at her like "Are you f*cking kidding me?" Not only that, she's added magenta comb-in color in her egg-beater hair.

The back of the Jif jar says hydrogenated vegetable oil. Tasty.

Does the oil separate, pastrygirl? That was what I was thinking with adding butter instead. I imagine if it was around long enough to separate, then it could just be stirred like nut butters. Adding lecithin is a good idea.

If you give a mouse a cronut . . .