Katie Meadow

Toughen up, people! Crusty Baguette, fruit leather, salted caramels, chunky peanut butter, raw fennel salad, Mexican hot dog, fried chicken sandwich with spicy slaw. If not, rice pudding, a smoothie of carrot juice and orange juice, chocolate mousse, stewed rhubarb, Vietnamese Egg Coffee, cotton candy, pure fruit popsicles, home made blood orange jello and anything requiring an immersion blender. Hope it goes well!

No we aren't.

You don't think he bakes all night?

Kill me now, @Pete Fred. If you don't have a guest room I'll sleep on your couch.

Brilliant, @liuzhou A performance of great range and depth!

As for commercial strawbs Driscoll's is ubiquitous here in CA and elsewhere, although smaller operations do sell commercially here. In season, the alternative is our farmers' markets. My daughter in Atlanta buys boatloads of strawberries as the twins devour them. When I'm in Atlanta later this month and doing some shopping for her I'll look for Florida produce. I can't say I've noticed any difference in the berries when I'm there, but that proves nothing.

Plastic explosives often have a tactile feel like molding clay, right? So, like toffee.

I just cooked a package of Mayan Beans. Really good! I'm very committed to Domingo Rojo and these are definitely comparable, but smaller, and a little different in texture, very creamy. I ordered them a couple of months ago, but they are unavailable now. I used them to make Red Beans and Rice. Highly recommend when they come back in stock.

I have one of these tomato presses. They are not well designed, but they do work and they are relatively cheap. And best of all it's great looking and a fabulous color. Tomato Strainer, Tomato Juicer Sauce Maker Machine Suction Cup Base Hand Crank Food Mill Press with Stainless Steel Filter for Fruit Vegetables (eG-friendly Amazon.com link)

And @Neely one more anti-slime okra treatment is my husband's adaptation of Vivian Howard's Okra Oven Fries. Heat the oven to 400F. Slice the pods in half lengthwise, cutting off the stem end if you like. Toss the okra halves with olive oil, salt, pepper, and any other spice of choice. Howard suggests ground coriander, we like smoked paprika. Place the halves cut side down on a baking sheet.Don't crowd them. Roast for 15 minutes. Turn the halves over and roast another 15 minutes or more to desired crispness. The pieces should be partly browned, partly crispy, partly a little soft. Really great for cocktail hour with a Bloody Mary. Or with a Porch Swing. Or on a porch swing.

I've often seen red bell peppers combined with tomatoes for a soup. A little tomato might reduce the bitterness and also support good color. I'm surprised your roasted peppers were bitter. Usually I find roasted red pepper dressed with salt and olive oil (when done by myself) to be pretty sweet. I've roasted tomatoes with a sprinkle of brown sugar, so as suggested above, sugar might help, and cream too.

Pain meds yes, but also a gummy.

Those compostable bags present a new problem. In my experience they shorten the life of some produce, especially fresh herbs if stored in the fridge because they seem to encourage condensation and get very damp. One solution that helps is to wrap the herbs in paper towels inside the bags. But then of course you are using paper towels, which also should be avoided.

There's a toney market that we rarely shop at but we were in the neighborhood and needed bread. Organic pasture-raised eggs were $14.99 a dozen! That's some kind of record for our neck of the woods. We need eggs but not that badly.

I see chile or chili as being about the most adaptable of meals in America, so calling a "bowl of red" authentic can mean many things to many people in many places. That said, the problem with using brisket already cooked is this: how do you get a meaty broth if you are not simmering the meat yourself? As for BBQ, if you fancy that in a chile, it would be more like Brunswick Stew in parts of the South, but typically it's pork. But you could invent a Texas version with brisket. Although that might already be a thing.