heidih

With the traditional meal generally held on a different day my go-to in recent years on T-Day itself has been steamed local spiny lobster with a variety of dipping sauces, good rice or bread to catch/sop up the juices, and an lemon juice and oil dressed simple green salad as a counterpoint.

Once you start adding bones to get a gelatinous quality in the beans it seems you are moving away from the "food of the people". Beans well prepared can be creamy and delightful with nothing more than water. Start simple and realize that very often flavors are layered at the table with a wide variety of condiments. Toasting and charring of ingredients adds other complex flavors. Don't overthink - cook

It has been eons but I seem to recall that the skin formation was more significant when the dishes were put in the fridge right away versus cooling on the counter? And of course left open to the air.

It would help if you told us what the dishes are that you are trying to "improve".

A cake type of brownie is nice with them. Take care with the liquid proportions.

Applaud the "no dust jacket"

Personal preference, but I find info and the like too busy on a back cover. My niece just gave me the Manresa cookbook which has a very cool textured cover. It uses the black back cover for a few quotes from folks like Keller and Passard in white lettering - subtle.

Your basket screams APPLES to me. A few cheerful red apples, apple butter, dried apple snacks, cheddar in dairy form or in cracker form, mulling spices come to mind. On the bread, I think it would be welcome from a taste perspective, but I would include a brief label with shelf-life/storage instructions along with a simple description.

It couldn't hurt to talk to Santa Monica Seafood. http://www.santamonicaseafood.com/content/seafood-company-history Based on what I have read and heard the local chefs may be getting access to the best stuff - actually visiting market like International Marine. Like Sysco - there are tiers I think?

As Anna notes this gives a great perspective. Hopefully it can be integrated into the book marketing.

Thanks Peter - been waiting for this since you first mentioned it

I have that exact bowl I bought for bread Shel! - it is a great size for me and beautiful to look at. It was a set of 3 but I managed to break the super large one and the smaller one.

Not a fan of long simmered ground meats - well have not purchased or cooked any in forever. Seems like all the flavor gone and the "meat" is just boring texture. I think the long slow thing has validity with braising cuts.

This belongs in the bread topic but I felt compelled to answer you - this is an article about Nancy Silverton's starter (of the famous La Brea Bakery) http://www.food.com/recipe/nancy-silverton-s-grape-sourdough-starter-316306

My dad's "stuffing" which is really a baked meat/bread blend of the liver, some minced beef, bacon, bread cubes and seasonings. The European trained sausage maker calls this "stuffing".

Like the sound of that kimchi cream with the nicely roasted cauliflower. How was it made?

Since savory waffles are all the rage now I would do a buttermilk waffle with the kale (cooked down and squeezed and amped up with roasted garlic and lemon zest) sauced with a lemon heavy slightly minty sweetish sauce. Emphasizing the savory of the waffle with some cheese like pecorino.

+1 on the mango or a firm but ripe cantaloupe style melon - I think color factors into the salad enjoyment

Here you go: Link to the shelves (scroll down a bit) and RRO's explanation http://forums.egullet.org/topic/139829-eg-foodblog-rarerollingobject-2011-mealtimes-at-the-university-of/#entry1829333 "As for the colour coded books..there are two reasons for that. One is, as I mentioned, we have A LOT of books and apart from one shelf of queued newbies, have pretty much read all of them. I also have a pretty strong visual memory, so I realised one day that the majority of time I was looking for a book, I was first picturing it visually in my mind and then irritatedly scanning nine bookcases for books with that colour spine. It was a short jump to thinking that this is how I should organise my books in the first place, though it wouldn't work for everyone I realise. (It's actually been quite controversial among my friends, many of whom dismissed it as frippery and something the village idiot would dream up!). As for the doing..chronic insomnia. I average about 3-4 hours a night, and when you're regularly awake at 4am looking for something to occupy yourself with, reorganising that many books seems like a worthwhile endeavour. "

And it depends on the user. Someone remind me about color coding - some folks remember a book spine and that works for them. Hmmm will look

Hop on down to your local library and check out their shelves. As I recall mine does a decent split of general purpose, specific cuisine, diet specific etc. When I was flummoxed about the name of a title I could generally trace it through its location - it makes that much sense

When I had it many times years ago, the style with frozen "frenched" green beans was the one I preferred

i knew I was repeating myself.... http://forums.egullet.org/topic/136712-wax-paper/

I keep a roll from the dollar store (50 squ ft) in the cupboard. I use it almost daily and not as a sub for the other types of rolled items. So cheap.Tear off a piece, put garlic cloves down, fold over, mash with large pestle. Same with a small quantity of nuts. Put items like tamales inside, twist ends, and nuke - mini steamer. top with paper towels and nuke some bacon - no mess. Those are my most frequent uses.

Well I am old so "Lay's recent packaging" is not on my horizon. I spoke of a gut feeling prompted by, what to me was a fairly intense visual similarity to a product from (now I realize) the 70's (older than I thought I was). It made me go back and look at the ad. I never do that. So, for me, and I am obviously a minority of one, it was significant. This time, really walking away.