Katie Meadow

I like it simply wok-fried with a little garlic and a basic sauce of soy, sesame oil, rice wine, whatever. But the easiest thing I know to do with it--if you have some Asian style chicken broth around--is to drop individual leaves into simmering broth for a couple of minutes and pour the broth over cooked rice or wheat noodles. Let it be a little crunchy. Makes a great one-pot meal, especially if you have some poached shredded chicken to add.

So yesterday I'm at T.J.'s and instead of routinely grabbing the Grade B in the bottle, which I've used for years, I tried something else: a 32 oz jug of Trader Joe's 100% Vermont maple syrup, grade A Dark Amber. It's very good, a little bit more delicate (and a little bit thinner) than the bottled Grade B, and quite yummy. It is possible that my memory of Maple Syrup from Vermont is completely unreliable (it's only been about 30 years), but from the samples at the museum, I would call TJ's B more like a grade C, and this A Dark Amber more like my recollection of a grade B. There must be some standards, no? The TJ's grade B is from Canada, I think, right? I tossed my empty bottle so I don't really know for sure. Anyway, TJ's seems like a good source for a variety of grades.

Have I tried the choc hazelnut ones? Oh yeah, I'm a heavy user. Good choc flavor, not too sweet. I used them crushed with graham crackers about 1:1 for a crust and that was fantastic.

Chile paste lasts very well in the freezer. I have cup containers and freeze about 3/4 cup per container. That amount works for a pot of beans or posole, depending on how hot it turns out, or for a Bayless tamale casserole. I adore chile paste made from dried whole chiles, but truthfully it isn't my favorite dirty job, so I try to make a substantial batch when I do it.

For the price I haven't had anything better than Trader Joe's. It's very basic, and I use it for all recipes calling for maple syrup, such as barbecue sauce, home made ketchup, etc. For all I know it's grade C. It's pretty dark. I love really high quality maple syrup, but the Trader Joe's is fine for my morning oatmeal. In 1979 on a driving jaunt through leaf country in Vermont we came upon The Maple Syrup Museum. There were several bowls and spoons and, believe it or not, NO ONE standing guard. The Grade A fancy, which was the lightest, was heavenly, but so delicate it would be pointless to use it on anything except ethereal pancakes. We came back with a large can from some small farm and doled it out for as long as we could. Never to be repeated.

Paul, have you tried TJ's chocolate hazelnut biscotti?

So finally I got to try Utz. I was in NY most of October and saw a lot of the inside of the local Duane Reade. Utz is on the shelves, although not the Grandma Utz lard chips; these were simple basic salted chips--good, but not remarkable I thought. Of course I never had them growing up, so there's no nostalgia factor for me. Love to just taste the lardy ones, but not enough to mail order a family size bag of high cholesterol potato chips, which I am supposed to steer clear of.

All this talk about Rittenhouse and I can't ever find it in CA and I have never tasted it until yesterday. Finally I am in NY and went with a friend to a little bistro and they had Rittenhouse so I ordered it, neat. I am embarrassed to say that I did not really examine the bottle so I can't tell you exactly what I was drinking. The bartender was very sweet, pouring generously. It was incredibly delicious. Just my idea of the perfect rye. I know this is so not helpful, but I have an excellent excuse: my mother just died and my intention was to get plastered. I might just have to go back to this bar to find out, but that probably won't be for a month or so.

For a splurge you could go to Bellanico on Park Blvd Oakland and get the bombolini. Really good. They have them as a brunch food on the weekend or regularly for dessert. Italian style donuts, with coffee, makes a great treat.

This request is perhaps not appropriate for eG, and I'm not sure what forum to post in, but perhaps someone can suggest how I could find the right person for this small job, whether it be a beginning culinary student, or just someone with good kitchen skills who wants late afternoon to evening work, approx 4 days a week, flexible. My mother is 94, living at home, alone, in her midtown NY appt. She is on oxygen 24/7 but otherwise fairly on the ball and with very few food restrictions. The woman who was filling this job previously became rather ill this month, and it looks like she may not return. Are there specific culinary schools in NY that I might advertise for a beginning student? Anyone with suggestions? We are not talking complex cuisine, just simple but flavorful food. A regular supply of indiv leftover portions would need to be packaged for the fridge and freezer. Here's an example of what worked. Wanda would come four afternoons a week, from approx 4:30 pm to 7:30. She would do the shopping as needed, cook a meal which she and my mother would eat together, clean up, then leave. The days are flexible, some weekends might also work. Usually there is only my mother to cook for but occasionally there would be a guest. She was not a professional cook, but she was energetic and had good instincts and often cooked some of her native dishes from the Dominican Republic. Nothing was complicated, but it was good. The pay does not fall in with what a professional personal chef might make. This is a no-bling job, but there are some perks: one, my mother wants to have as little input as possible about what gets put in front of her, she just wants someone to make her a nice meal. The chef gets to eat whatever they make. One caveat: no republicans need apply, and talking politics is a plus! The downside is that Chris Matthews is turned up to very high volume. The days can be flexible, and the times could be flexible too if food can be made ahead. Some cooking could be done off site, as desired, with reimbursement for time and ingredients. Whole Foods Columbus Circle is three blocks away. Thanks for any help!

Not to be a wet blanket, but anyone who says "throw caution to the wind" or "lard is good for you" might temper their attitude with just a wee bit of common sense. Everyone's physiology is different, due to genetics, eating or exercise habits or whatever. Paleo people lived primarily on animal products, but they ran 10 miles just to chase the animal down. And life WAS short, for a number of reasons. Anyone who embarks on a high animal fat diet would be well advised to have their cholesterol level monitored. If both sides of your family have no history of heart disease and your cholesterol levels are low, go for it, enjoy all the raw milk cheddar, bacon and croissants your heart desires. If everything that's "natural" is also healthy we would be on easy street.

You could try making hot dogs with no added sweetener and decide if you like them or not. Another option, if you think it needs something sweet to balance a savory taste, instead of corn syrup you could try a small amount of pure cane syrup; it isn't nearly as sweet as golden syrup, and has a slight molasses tang. Plain molasses could work, maple syrup, or possibly a little bit of brown sugar; sort of like the old baked beans with hot dogs in it flavour. I've developed a bias against corn syrup, so I always sub something else whenever it's called for. I haven't eaten a hot dog in a long time, but I would guess most commercial ones have a high corn syrup content along will all sorts of other strange unpronounceable things. The only reason you might not realize how much sweetener is in a hot dog is because there is so much salt in it.

To qualify I assume the beans have to do time in the oven, at least some part of the cooking, yah? I've never been happy with baked beans, but to be honest I have never tried to make them myself to improve on the traditional cookout pot luck affair. I'm crazy about beans cooked in a pot, and I prefer them on the soupy side, which baked beans usually are not. Often baked beans are too sweet, taste mostly of molasses and/ or mustard, and have a leaden, goopy consistency. Okay, I've led a sheltered life.

Lately I'm into Kettle Organic sea salt and black pepper. Kettle sea salt and pepper come in 3 varieties as far as I can tell: the organic chips, the crinkle cut and the baked. The baked are sort of half baked, pretty dull. The crinkles taste oily and salt. The organic are excellent.

Right, here on the left coast ramps are pretty hard to find. I think I saw them at Berkeley Bowl once, but they looked like they had been to hell and back. Hardly worth the expense for wilted imports. Now at the farmers' markets there are lots of different onion varieties, so that's one place to start if you want to experiment.

I'll second the Nina Simonds book. Techniques for cooking various types of rice noodles are especially helpful. One of my go-to books; used it for years.

Kinda depends on what look you are going for and how much maintenance you want to do on an ongoing basis. There are lots of new alternative surfaces out there now. I am in process of redoing my kitchen counters using Caesarstone. It's reasonably priced, cheaper than granite certainly, can be had in large seamless slabs and supposedly needs little or no maintenance. I'm chosing it because of low maintenance, price, color availability (I am not redoing anything but the sink and counters, so I have to make the counter color work with the backsplash, etc.) Can't vouch for it yet, since it isn't installed. The look of all these materials is very different. Marble is warm and rustic and you can expect it to keep looking more rustic as time goes by, but I've seen it looking beautiful when old and well used. Of course it has to be in the right setting. Granite, at least to me, has a chilly feel, so it's a very different look.There are other aggregate surfaces and suspensions of quartz in various synthetics so it's really worth checking out all your options.

A real Hatch chile is not bland; it is fiery and VERY hot. When I lived in NM that was virtually guaranteed. It is possible that what's selling in southern CA is a devolved seed grown locally. Most all varieties of chiles are blander if grown here in CA than in NM. At this time of year I find my best chance of getting warm poblanos is from some of the Latino stalls at the Berkeley farmers market, but it varies

I'm following this thread with interest. When called on to make something for a pot luck with my husband's family I often just rule out soup. Several members are strict vegetarians and I admit to being depedent upon stock--strong or light, depending on what I'm doing--for the soups I make. I'm not often thrilled with the vegetarian soups made by others; often I find restaurants or individuals compensate for lack of flavor by using too much pepper or too many spices and herbs. Another issue is that one of the family members needs to avoid heavy use of tomatoes, so that limits the ingredients further. And truthfully I just can't stand pureed soups made with pumpkin or winter squash, which often seems to be a vegetarian option. The idea of using just one vegetable to flavor a soup is too subtle for this crowd. They need a heartier soup with a variety of ingredients. Are there some good guidelines or hints for making a basic vegetable stock that will make for a bit more depth?

Learning how to plan weekly menus and shop for the week went a long way to helping get mealtimes under control when I was working and had a young kid. Also making large quantities to provide leftovers for the next day was essential. Simplifying salad was helpful too; washing piles of lettuce and making dressing is time consuming and one of those kitchen chores I just hate. Much easier to just cut up some cukes, radishes and tomatoes and toss with feta and olive oil. Doubling up on vegetables and salad became a good shortcut: instead of having a vegetable and a salad, we often just have the vegetable as a salad. Greenbeans with olive oil, salt and pepper and a squeeze of lemon juice can be made easily while doing something else and then timing isn't an issue either, they can just sit at room temp until dinner is ready. I also discovered that eating vegetarian meals at least half the time meant a lot more flexibility, especially toward the end of the week. I'm a little fussy about not having meat sit around in the fridge, so halfway through the week we don't have any animal protein around. It's either be creative with veggies or leftovers or be forced to stop and shop before dinner. I don't mind doing that now, but dragging a tired kid who has a pile of homework to the store after school was not an errand I wanted to make. Sundays became "vat of the week" day--soup or stew. I got into the habit of making a big batch of tomato sauce and freezing it in convenient sized portions for easy spaghetti meals. Learn to love beans; a big pot of beans is very adaptable. My daughter became a devotee of personal designer burritos. Poaching or roasting enough chicken for at least two meals means chicken in soup or burritos one night and chicken salad the next night. I know there are people out there who say they don't like leftovers. That can make weekday dinners hard!

When it comes to stock I try to strike a balance. I buy a cheaper not organic chicken and/or chicken parts and feet. I cook the living daylights out of it (at a low simmer, but several hours) and don't expect that the chicken will be very appealing or even nutritious after that time. Sometimes my husband will pull of a few chunks of breast or thigh meat after the first hour, and that works for chicken salad or whatever. That way we minimize the waste a bit. I can't justify buying free range or organic chicken for stock. If I am making a soup that wants shredded or pieced chicken I will typically buy Kosher chicken or sometimes organic chicken and poach it delicately until just done, then take it off the bone and add it at the last minute. That way it is tender and moist (even the breast!) and I feel like I am eating relatively healthy. If you are getting supplies at Trader Joe's, they sell Empire Kosher chicken, and it's pretty tasty. The difference in taste for me between any canned or boxed broth and homemade is pretty huge, and ultimately, given that I can produce five or six quarts of strong stock at a time, I can turn that into several generous batches of different types of soup, so I think I'm getting my money's worth. Although I don't analyse it too closely.

Ouch, I don't know why I always get sucked into the salt threads. The American rant "Don't tell me what to do" has resulted in all kinds of hideous practices, from talking or taking cell phone calls at the movies to monthly mass shootings. Any whiff of control, especially when accompanied by "This is good for you," will be resisted. When it comes to eating less salt, it would be nice to think that restaurants and processed food manufacturers could simultaneously agree to lower the salt content of all their foods. That way the people who eat out most of the time or who buy the oversalted processed grocery products will slowly accomodate their taste buds to less salt. If you cook most of your own meals and don't buy a lot of junk snacks or processed foods it is very easy to reduce the salt in your diet. Everyone I've ever known who has done it claims that their taste for salt simply adjusts. I need comparatively little salt now in order to make my food adequately salty. I cook with modest amounts of salt and sprinkle high quality sea salt on my food as needed. And I appreciate every crystal. In fact, I can TASTE every crystal. More than half the time when I eat out--be it high end or funky--the food tastes too saltly. For a variety of reasons we don't go out often. When following a recipe, I typically cut the salt according to taste (sometimes dramatically), unless it is baked goods. If it's a Rick Bayless recipe I might cut it back even more. When I watch him cook on TV I can't believe the mountains of salt he casually tosses in. Probably there are many reasons to cut back on salt. Several years ago I tried really hard to see if I could lower my blood pressure by strictly reducing the salt in my diet. No bloody marys, no cheetos. The difference it made wasn't enough; for others it does work. Everyone's physiology is different. Still, I'm convinced that decreasing salt intake does not decrease enjoyment once your taste buds get used to it.

janeer, can you provide a recipe for the tomato pie?

Oooh, those orange Ines Rosales are some of my favorite cookies, Kerry. I also like the Matiz brand plain sugared ones. The savory ones not so much. There are a few recipes on line that I discovered when I thought my source for these dried up, but I never made them after finding a reliable source. (That would be The Spanish Table stores: Berkeley, Mill Valley, Santa Fe, Seattle.) If anyone has a tried and true recipe I would be interested too.

I. Don't. Think. So.