Katie Meadow

In the past I've tried to verify the difference between a crumble and a crisp. Both are basically a streusel topping, but most sources say that one contains flaked oats and the other doesn't. The funny part is that there are conflicting views on which one has the oats. Must be a very regional thing; many recipes that seem almost identical to me are called crisps and crumbles regardless of the oat factor. To my mind a cobbler is different: it is like a drop biscuit topping over the fruit. Then there are all those other variations, such as slumps and grunts, which to me sound like they originated in the backwoods or were invented by little magic people.

I eat a LOT of cauliflower, typically in curry or with red sauce over pasta. For the latter I always sauté it in olive oil or butter or a combo of both, with salt and pepper and then garlic, then combine it briefly with a basic red sauce and spoon it on a bowl of pasta, finished with a blizzard (or less) of pecorino. The other day I made a curry starring cauliflower and kale. Excellent combo. Also a very good combo: eggs and cauliflower. Leftover cauliflower is great in scrambled eggs, especially curried. Recently I've been making a Marcella Hazan cauliflower dish that uses a little onion, green olives and a tomato--super simple. The recipe calls for boiling the cauliflower first, but I find boiled cauliflower pretty insipid, so I sauté it for her recipe instead. In the days when I ate cheese with abandon I was crazy for a dish that was a sort of cauliflower parm, but without the hassle of battering or frying. The cauliflower was baked in large chunks with red sauce and mozz, really easy. Great for a gluten-free person. Am I the only person who adores cauliflower and detests broccoli?

We have 2 packs treat-size Kit Kats and two of M & Ms. I like both, especially M & Ms, so my husband has hidden them from me. Probably in a similar place as your husband hid yours, Sister Kim.

I like my mac 'n' cheese creamy and definitely not oily. I've never had a problem if I make a béchamel sauce and add shredded cheese just until melted. I use a good quality sharp cheddar; it's been eons since I used Velveeta or Kraft for anything. One thing I have noticed is that yellow cheddar seem to result in a creamier, smoother sauce than white. Does anyone else think so? White cheddar ends up being slightly granular, at least the ones I've used.

The only time I allow oil to get to the smoke point is when I stir-fry in the wok with peanut oil. I can't think of any other dishes that I cook on heat that high.

It sounds like the water never even got warm, so the veggies were just sitting in cold water, yes? No reason, but my instinct would be to strain the veggies and keep them in a bag or plastic container in the fridge and toss the water, then start over again on Friday. Or make the soup yourself and save some for her when she gets back, which I am sure she will appreciate.

That's my understanding as well, so I was surprised that it worked well for popping corn. Maybe my husband doesn't pop on super-high heat? No idea, I'm just happy to have someone do it for me.

Since deciding to not buy corn oil any more, my husband, who does 95 percent of the stove-top corn popping, has been experimenting with a variety of oils. He has declared that his favorite oil for popping is now grapeseed. He has tried olive and rice bran and thinks grapeseed does the best job: it leaves fewer unpopped kernels, tastes better and pops up nice and fluffy. We used the same bulk organic pop corn for all tests. Canola and peanut were the worst. Canola popped corn tasted fishy and that convinced me I didn't ever want to use it again for anything. So many recipes call for it that I wonder if the fishy taste is perceptible to only a percentage of people, the way some people think cilantro (I'm not one of them) tastes soapy.

On a hot dog. With dijon mustard. Served with a foam-topped iced papaya frappe. Or a beer, which is a lot easier to come by if you don't live near Papaya King.

I know nothing, especially about acid and beans, so really it is strictly a coincidence that I add my coffee late in the game; I do it because the liquid level gets too low and I have no more stock on hand to add. But now that I do know I will not change my routine! Now that I have this nice espresso powder on hand, I'm thinking that if I use that instead of brewed coffee I should make it into some kind of slurry or something rather than just toss the powder into the pot. I guess if acid is the culprit in beans cooking more slowly, if you add tomatoes you should also add them later on, no?

Haven't had the Ayocote, but they sound great. How do they compare to the black valentines? Patrick, it never occurred to me to add coffee in a dry form. I usually add a half a cup (or more) of rich brewed coffee about 45 min or an hour before the beans are done; it's a good way to add liquid if your beans are getting too thick. I did just get some powdered espresso from the Spice House, so I might try experimenting with that.

I'd be so happy to drop all the traditional fixings. Unfortunately my husband's family loves tradition, as long as it's their own. We make the turkey, and truthfully the only reason I am willing to keep on doing that is so I can take home the carcass for soup. In all fairness my sister-in-law makes a mean apple pie which I eat for breakfast the next morning. But I get a reprieve Friday evening, since we go to a friend's for dinner and he doesn't cook a turkey, ever, so there's no chance of leftovers. For that Friday dinner, which I consider the food (and drink) highlight of the weekend, I make a mostarda and bring coppa and the host makes some kind of Italian food. The hostess does dessert, and it is never pumpkin, for which I am eternally grateful. The most memorable Thanksgiving was a year I lived on a farm. We cooked two of our own geese, and they were such mean critters it didn't feel too bad.

Ice cream cake

I don't know if this would work with any and all pizza, but it works really well for the thin-crust minimalist pizza we make ourselves, which may not be as large as some commercial pies. We just throw a slice in the toaster like any piece of toast; it crisps up, the cheese gets a little melty but not to the point of oozing and nothing seems to fall off of the slice. No pre-heating necessary. Works great. Until we tried this I just never saw an upside to leftover pizza.

We eat a lot of popcorn. Mostly we buy organic bulk popcorn and we always pop it on the stovetop. The smell is intoxicating to me, but only with good oil used. Canola never smells good. My husband is doing most of the popping these days and he has been using Grapeseed oil, which I think smells very nice. The smell of microwave popcorn however is really unappealing to me. Over the years I've tried various gadgets for popping corn and my conclusion is that a simple pot on the stove is as good or better than any of them. That artisanal corn sounds interesting, and worth a try, but if you are regular popcorn consumers, Tiny but Mighty at $9 per pound is a bit steep, when you can buy organic in bulk for less than $2 per pound. Great idea for a gift, though, if you have friends or relatives who are into popcorn.

I always thought arranging books by spine color was hilarious, but I realize people really do it. They must have brains that work that way. But cookbooks especially either lose their jackets or never had them, so what do you do faced with 20 whitish spines in a row that are not easily readable? I don't have that many cookbooks, but mine are often organized by how much they get used: frequently consulted books are easily at hand on a lower shelf, the ones I can't part with but rarely use are way high up and require a ladder. The only books that are organized by topic are baking books and ice cream books, and they are in the middle, easy to reach for my tall husband who does most of the baking and all the ice cream making. I have limited space for cookbooks, and I rarely purchase new ones. If I do, I try to give away the ones I really don't need, so the numbers remain fairly steady.

Very beautiful. I hope I look that good when I'm 300. Really, how did they get into a 300 year old pot?

My local TJ's is selling grapes that are a cross of a thompson seedless with a concord. They are round, smaller than a concord grape, with seeds that are minimal or non-existent. They are delicious and not pricey the way concords often are. The down side is that they are not organic and they have the very unfortunate name of Thomcords. But they are worth it and I am thinking they will probably have a very short season.

With all due respect to traditionalists, green bean casserole using canned products is one of those dishes that was never good, even when soaked in nostalgia. Not that I would really remember, since I haven't had it in probably 40 or 50 years. Being responsible for the turkey and never for the vegetable at our Thanksgiving, I've never had the opportunity to try Smitten Kitchen's updated but still faithful version of the infamous casserole which entails making your own crispy onions, making the mushroom component from fresh shrooms and of coarse using fresh green beans. But if ever asked to provide it, that's the one I would tackle. What this topic has to do with the original post is a bit murky, but there it is. Not only is GB casserole as invented by Campbells (or whoever) over the top, as gfweb notes, but it is also under the table. As in "I can't eat this but I don't want to insult my hosts so maybe this nice dog will help me out." Fresh made crispy onions on the other hand, is a good trick that would elevate a wide variety of dishes. Yum!

Frankly it's hard to imagine successful car-drying in Berkeley. This might work better in a drier climate. Yes, we are in the middle of a drought, but the air is not really dry the way it is in the southwest. I moved into a house in New Mexico one autumn (a million years ago) and discovered that someone had put several bushels of peach halves on the roof, spread out to dry. I am assuming they were from that summer, because, in fact, they were delicious, in a rustic rooftop kind of way. Leathery, not very moist, but really flavorful. Given the weird stuff I ate in my twenties I'm surprised I'm still alive.

A lot of culture and tradition and habit goes into food like the food at SO. Some restaurants make an effort to accommodate customers with special needs, others don't. Not everyone deals with change the same way, and most likely that's a case by case situation. It so happens that I don't eat a lot of wheat. I'm not allergic or celiac, but it just doesn't do my body good. I also don't eat much cheese any more to keep my cholesterol down (which it does) and I also have to limit my consumption of tomato products. Guess where I don't typically go out to eat: ramen joints and Italian joints and places that serve nothing but pig fat and mayonnaise. I also find that I get buzzy and dizzy after eating Chinese food that has lots of MSG. So I have learned which places not to patronize if I consistently have that type of reaction to the food. There are plenty of restaurants that most of those on limited diets can eat in without holding it against the owners who are not able or interested in the challenge that challenged diners present. And owners exasperated by fussy customers have every right to say in the most polite way possible, "I'm so sorry, our kitchen just isn't able to do that for you." If that means the customer won't be back, so be it. So chill out, angry patrons and owners. There are way more important things to be angry about. And think how lucky we are in the Bay Area, where just about any kind of food you can imagine can be had without much difficulty.

I love the Marcella tomato with butter sauce, but the sauce I make in bulk and find most versatile is an old Mario Batali recipe which uses simply olive oil, onion, garlic, half a finely grated carrot, fresh thyme and good quality canned tomatoes chopped or briefly blitzed in a blender if you want it smoother. A bit of red pepper flakes depending upon my mood. All juices go in of course. I too like the Italian Marzanos marked DOP. In half an hour or a little more, depending on how you like your sauce, it's done. I make it in large batches and then freeze it in smaller ones so that it's a no-brainer for a quick meal. It's an easy and good sauce for a lasagne or eggplant parm. When I make a batch (at least 2 or 3 28oz cans) I usually leave about a third of it in the pan and simmer it down further for use as a pizza sauce. I've used the sauce as a basis for many toppings. I especially like sautéed cauliflower or sautéed artichokes tossed on top or thrown into the sauce at the end, but I think it's a very versatile recipe and doesn't involve ingredients I don't keep on hand.

I suppose this falls under book size and handling: good binding! Publishers need to remember to spend money on the binding so that the book stays open as necessary and can take the abuse that a useful cookbook must survive.

Shelby, those beans are lovely, whatever they are. The beans that I have liked best from RG are the Good Mothers, Yellow Indian Woman, Black Valentines and recently I tried the San Francisciano or whatever they are called, which were very good. Where have the Black Valentines gone? Missing for a while, so sad. Sometimes I can find my faves at various outlets in the Bay Area, so I don't pay shipping, but rather pay about fifty cents more per bag. From Purcell Mountain I order the organic dark red kidney beans and my all time fave, the rattlesnakes. Purcell's red kidneys make the best red beans 'n' rice ever. I would guess the black valentines would make a very good southern style bean pot, since they are more like a kidney bean than a turtle. Purcell does carry black valentines, but I have never ordered them. The Rattlers I use as I would in any pot of beans that you might consider using a pinto; they are the pinto bean of my dreams: more flavor, creamy, rich pot liquor, and they keep their shape. Perhaps for refritos a bean that melts the way pintos do is a good idea. Rattlers may be a distant cousin of the pinto, but for my money, they are in a class by themselves. And I lived in NM so I've eaten a lot of pintos. The beans from both RG and Purcell are very fresh. I find that overnight soaking isn't necessary. If I start the soak by 9am they are ready to cook by 2 or 3 pm. Most of the beans above seem done to my taste after simmering for 2 to 2.5 hours at the most. I suppose that depends on type, size and freshness but I've never been very scientific about it--I just taste them. I've never salted my beans in the soak. Typically I cook my beans until I think they need another 15 or 20 minutes, then salt, and cook a bit more. I like to add a little gray salt at the table.

I'm in the organized minority. Shopping for us means getting into the car for a purposeful trip, so saving time and gas isn't insignificant over the long run. Here in the East Bay we are blessed with Berkeley Bowl and great farmers' markets. My husband does the Bowl run, usually about once a week. As much as I appreciate its existence, the Bowl makes me claustrophobic and my desire to get the hell out makes me a bad shopper. I usually do the mid-week errands for misc stuff as needed. The farmers' market is an outing we do together on the weekend. I plan menus for 5-6 days. We eat fish and chicken about once a week, otherwise we mostly eat vegetarian, although I do use meat and poultry stocks for soup. On major shopping days we eat fish that first night. I don't always cook my meals in the order expected, and sometimes I scrap my plans because I just feel like something different. Toward the end of the week our meals are kitchen sink: using up bits and pieces, being creative or deciding that organic popcorn and a G&T is a perfectly respectable dinner. Especially if there is some good chocolate around for dessert. Surely shopping habits don't just depend on personality type, but on where you live and how walkable your markets are. But yes, we are organized by most standards. You should see the pre-printed Berkeley Bowl shopping list my husband designed according to how he moves through the store and what we most frequently purchase. No, you probably don't need to see it, since you might think we were insane.