Katie Meadow

The National Wildlife Federation says this about California Bay Laurel: Leaves of the California bay laurel have been used by people to get rid of head lice and to discourage fleas. Scientists now think that dusky-footed woodrats use the aromatic leaves to keep fleas out of their nests. For some people, the oils from the leaves of this tree can be toxic. In my experience the local leaves you can pick here in the Bay Area are very intense; to my taste not particularly pleasant. For my needs dried Turkish bay leaves are just fine.

Does snake taste more like eel or more like chicken? There is a hilarious story in John McPhee's 3-part series in the New Yorker about thirty years ago from his book "Rising From the Plains." The material profiles the geologist David Love, whose mother's Wyoming ranch was a focal point for travelers. You can read the short excerpt about the murderer Bill Grace here. And yes, it's about eating a rattlesnake. https://cowboystatedaily.com/2019/10/23/rising-from-the-plains-is-classic-wyoming-book/

All you need is a hammer, a nail and a coconut and you can live another day. My mother, whose food habits were surprising, had a thing for fresh coconut milk. She hammered three holes, tipped the coconut over a glass and drained out the liquid.. Delicious.Then she would split it open (yes, with the hammer) and we gnawed away at the flesh, and most likely tossed the rest when we got bored with it. Looking back it seems to me you could soak the coconut meat in water and produce another drink. Not as yummy, but maybe good? When split a fresh coconut is like a snow geode. Lovely.

Same here. Only I love it especially because it's my husband who makes them and not me. I am far too fuzzy in the morning to actually cook anything. Which is why I eat toast for breakfast just about every day and rarely post in this thread.

Blue crabs are a favorite nostalgia food for me. As kids we used to catch them with butterfly nets in Hampton Bays, Long Island. I especially love them during soft-shell season. I've had tender big ones at NY Noodle Town. They are not a West Coast crab. Surprisingly I saw them for sale, live, at 99 Ranch the other day here in the East Bay. i've become squeamish about killing live crabs in my old age, so I didn't get them. I'll be on Edisto Island off the SC coast in late April and I'm hoping they have some there. The place we are staying at backs on the marsh, and the property description says it includes a" crab dock." There will be some 3 and 4 year olds with us, so they may object to throwing a living creature into boiling water, and I get that. I'm not one of those people who propagate the myth that lobsters and crabs don't feel pain.

I don't like that sort of thing. I don't like bananas or bread made from them. I thought you didn't have an oven...

Thanks! I've been waiting over two years for an answer. Okay, not really. In fact, I don't even remember posting about them. But due to the link I believe I know more tham most people on Earth about them. Well, not counting people in China. Do they taste as good as the article makes them seem?

@Kerala your friend has some whacky plates!

I too detest commercial ketchup and never keep it in the house. But for frosting a meatloaf I suggest a homemade ketchup with an addition of spicy smoky BBQ sauce. It's made with canned Italian tomatoes but tastes nothing like traditional ketchup. I almost never eat beef any more, so I haven't made meatloaf in years. I also used an equal mix of beef, pork and veal back in the day. And speaking of NOT ketchup, I like my french fries with aioli and smoked paprika.

So beautiful! How do you make plum caramel?

Agua de Tamarindo: tamarind, water and sugar. Tamarind soda can easily be found in many Mexican restaurants. It's good

I'll have the Lily Pad Pizza please, and to drink, a glass of Aqua Pond.

Just about any one can write a book about making and eating bad or weird food. Today's NYT Science Times is all about healthy eating, and addresses the misconception that the good old days were healthier. Make America Healthy Again? When exactly was "then?" Maybe, if you lived on a farm and grew vegetables in a climate with a reasonable growing season. In most areas of the country access to fresh fruits and veggies was not a given. Also, meat was very expensive for many folks. You were lucky to have clean water. Then came ultra-processed foods. A friend said that her poor German Jewish ancestors left a record that they ate Caraway Soup. Yes, that was caraway seeds, cooked in water. You did what you could.

I kinda think that cake is hideous, but I'm not totally sure. And I wouldn't have done well at Henry's table either, for so many reasons.

The last time we were in Atlanta my daughter asked us to organize her pantry. I have a hard time imagining that anyone who really cook would be happy with someone else doing the organizing, but in the case of my daughter, who is a haphazard cook and super busy with work and toddler twins I figure anything would help. Container store prices are high, I agree. For many dry goods the most efficient way to store them is to just buy canning jars by the dozen, in multiple sizes. Most useful tool? a label-maker. If you don't want to use the metal canning lids (and I don't) you can easily buy colorful plastic screw tops that are made to fit them from Amazon and probably other sources. This is a simple way to get misc messy, leaky bags out of your cabinets.