Katie Meadow

I can be happy with sweet or savory as mood dictates, or availability allows. French toast, certainly. Leftover pizza, why not. Wontons in broth or out, if only. But there's a major caveat: someone has to put iit in front of me. I can barely push down my own toast in the morning.

Happy Birthday, @Steve Irby. I'm 77. My last few birthdays have been similar. I think about going out, but often end up staying home. There's a local bakery that has a chocolate cake I really like. My husband often buys a couple of slices and that's my party. The last time I actually celebrated was for my 70th. We had a party at the family beach house. Of note was great October weather, a lovely apple pie my SIL baked that had a "77" formed in crust. People stayed overnight and breakfast was leftover oysters and key lime pie. My nephew had never had oysters and he was over the moon, which was hilarious. But the real moment of awe came when a red fox was spotted across the street during breakfast. We're talking about a funky little beach town and a funky beach house with a view of the ocean. In all my nearly fifty years of marrying into this beach house this fox was a one-time only event. Deer always. Wild turkeys wandering about the streets, especially the day after Thanksgiving, just to prove they are still alive. But a fox? I'm guessing never again. This year my birthday will be singularly weird. I will be on the tail end of chemo. All bets are off whether or not a slice of chocolate cake will look good.

What, you don't like their geezer stockings?

I'll take one of those sandwiches. Just hold the broccoli, and anything fetal. And maybe the lychees, although I might trust your zeal on that one. Most all your breakfasts seem fascinating and appealing, or things I might make at a decent hour, like for dinner. As I'm sure I've repeated (geezer time!) I can barely push down the lever on the toaster anymore in the morning, so my husband makes my toast for me. It may be under or over toasted, but I'm learning to shut my mouth.

You had me at steamers sticking their necks out of the sand. Your crowd never seems to order them, Doesn't anyone like them? Of all the things I miss from the east coast that's almost at the top of my list. I just love them. And of course there are none here on the west coast. It's mostly a clam desert except for manilla clams, which are okay but tiny and can't match the little quahogs.

Carpano Antica is a favorite. I love it in summer just over ice. I also like the Cocchi di Torino but can't remember the last time I had it or how. I love the amaro bitters, but surprisingly I don't like compari / or a negroni. My mother always had a bottle of Punt e Mes around in her dotage. Needless to say she didn't have a drop of Italian blood, but she did have an Italian boyfriend.

I thought you were on the road to Montana. But yoi are still shopping at TJ's apparently.

I forgot all about this peculiar thread. For all I know I contributed something to it in a past life, but reading through the whole thing would be as bad as Starbucks coffee. Not a fan. However I went back a page just for a refresh and I do miss heidih. She's right: Starbucks is better than being in the DMV. However, I do have a recent Starbucks story. Last April we were driving back to Atlanta from Edisto Island. It was hot. I needed a bathroom and an icy drink. Signs pointed to a Starbucks off the highway. The facilities were closed but there was a drive-up window. There was a person in the window. When I asked for an espresso frappuccino she said, "Sorry, I can't make that right now. Our ice machine is broken." To my addled brain that just seemed pathetic. We drove across a parking lot and noticed a sign for a Waffle House. I've never been to a Waffle House. Now that I'm vacationing so often in the Carolinas and Atlanta I realize they come with the territory. There's even a "Waffle House Museum" near Atlanta.We never go because, well, it's more fun making jokes about it. I have no idea what their coffee is like, but the bathroom was very nice. So, next time I'm in a jam on a steamy highway I might just try Waffle House. It may be better than Starbucks, but no way more rejuvenating than that iced tea and the pacific coast breeze on the patio. RIP, Heidi.

Voted best home cooked meal in the world.

O Canada you can do better than bubblegum ice cream. I have faith in you and wish everyone over the norther border a happy and well adjusted normal life.

You're making Moe's breakfast.

I've tried one or two gizmos to strip kernels but a knife is really the easiest for me. A few kernels fly off into the void, but who could blame them?

Can you find this product locally in the East Bay? If not, where do you order them?

Me. I'm faster. I get them before he knows they're gone. In all fairness I don't think he thinks about it unless it's right in front of him. If you like the oysters it doesn't serve to broadcast it.

Aww, you're so sweet. My husband is a nice husband too. He eats all the breast meat and the legs and leaves me the thights and the wings because that's what I like. Also I love Shoemaker's Chicken. Do you use only cherry peppers? That's a good solution for someone like me who has a baby-ish dislike for bell peppers.

@weinoo ....my thoughts exactly at first look. How could that not be intentional?

TJ's does have plenty of stuff that's not often found other places and decent prices. And, at least for me, it has six or seven items that I am hooked on, so I keep coming back. I am a coffee ice cream person. I admit that O'Connell's coffee ice cream is very very good. But TJ's is delicious and it literally cost 4 times less. I am pretty much not interested in the rest of the stuff they sell, and my positive record taking recommendations here has run has not been stellar. But I do appreciate very much the ones that have been great. I realize that many agers do not live close to a TJ's. I have no idea how much those six or seven things are worth to me if determined by driving distance. I'm five minutes by car. And 15 minutes from another. And 20 minutes from a third one. The Bay Area is lousy with them. The NYT recently had an article on the TJ's carry all bag. Apparently you can make good money if you take a load of them to the UK and sell them on the street for a ridiculous sum. Aren't there enough promotional cloth bags that you acquire free? Best recommendation recently: that triple cream Delices de Bourgogne. Worst: Kringles, or whatever they are called. Chacon a son gout, as my father would say in an impeccably bad accent. It's almost midnight here in CA. Why am I writing about TJ's for gods sake. Because I'm on what appears to be a fairly strong steroid.

I love to watch when people are dexterous and elegant eating with fingers. I never learned that, so I don't try. I'm just a white Jewish old lady and did not grow up with South Asian or Ethiopian parents. Without untensils I eat the following: tacos, sandwiches, chicken wings and pizza if it usually pizza. Also I have a bad habit of grabbing the pope's nostrils off a hot roasted chicken. Nothing to brag about there.

Thanks tou you @blue_dolphin for enablement. I found a copy of Nancy Silverton's Twist of the Wrist for dirt cheap in great condition on eBay. I like it a lot. She has a very nice way of recommending specific ingredients and then letting you know what good options are available, and whether some of the ingredients can just be omitted. She's exacting and fairly practical at the same time. I will say this though, many of the recipes have lengthy ingredients lists and complex techniques, so I am not so sure all her shortcuts make things quick. Partly because, probably like you, I rarely use canned beans anymore. I'm trapped in RG quicksand . I look at canned beans and can't do it.

This id almost a reverse of the topic, but in the last few months I'm hearing the use of "cooked" on political blogs. Google definition below. But on these pods it is very specifically political. In modern slang, "cooked" primarily signifies thatsomeone is in a bad situation, facing trouble, or defeated. It can also be used to describe someone as extremely tired or affected by drugs.The term has roots in older slang and is frequently used on social media, particularly by Gen Z, to indicate a dire or hopeless circumstance.

Exactly. I love my ceramic spoons. I just sang their praises on the soup vs table spoon discussion. For wontons and wonton soup I always use chopsticks and the spoon.

Very clever. I hate soggy wontons. Our take-out Viet restaurant packages pho similarly. Broth in one container, noodles and everything else in a separate one. When ordering pho in a restaurant I always appreciate it when they bring the thinly sliced beef on a plate so you can add it in yourself and it doesn't get overcooked.

What is the difference between cream of coconut and coconut cream?

So you want to shave a popsicle without making one first? I wish I was with you and we could get high together. I'll bring the shave-ice machine we gave our daughter when she was seven, which would be thirty years ago. We can mix up a batch of flavored sugar water and freeze it in the provided mold and then shave it, and voila! Now that I think about it I'm surprised I never tried to make real espresso shave ice with that thing. And now I wonder where that thing is. In the cavernous basement? Under the bed? Under your bed? @blue_dolphin we may need your help.

When snag becomes gag. If you keep buying it they'll keep making it. I'd love to see the packaging for the Chinese version. Shelby you kill me. You're such a cheap date. When my husband disappears I grab caviar. The grape caviar is good, but the raspberry is better.