Katie Meadow

I do pretty much the same as weinoo. In a pan over med high heat, modest amount of oil (I use corn oil, but I would use grapeseed if I had any) a couple of test kernels. In the beginning I do shake a bit to make sure all the oil is distributed, but I find I don't need to shake after that, since anything that pops goes up and unpopped kernels remain at the bottom near the heat. I don't allow any escape valve and put on a tight lid. The organic multi-color popcorn which my local market sells in bulk pops up well. In the last few years I have completely conditioned myself away from butter topping and usually use just a little gray salt and sometimes a little pecorino.

I took an intensive week-long Thai cooking class from Kasma Loha-unchit. She never used coconut oil for frying, only Golden Lion Peanut oil, her favorite. She did use canned coconut cream for various dishes. She would often dry-fry spices in a cast iron skillet to boost the flavor.

Not sure that for most people this is a matter of reason. Clams and oysters I don't think about much, and I do like to eat them raw. But a shrimp? I personally don't want to eat an obviously full "vein." Nor would I serve it to guests in case they are turned off by it like I am. Deveining while keeping the shell on is an annoying procedure at best, so I rarely make recipes that call for cooking in the shell unless I am feeling very ambitious. I agree the shell has a lot of flavor, so I like to make dishes that are a bit soupy and use a little shrimp stock. At least that way I feel like I am getting some use out of those shells.

I can't speak to home made pasta, since I always use dried, but my rules are as follows: use plenty of water--enough so that when the pasta goes in it doesn't stop boiling. Salt the water as it comes to a boil, and don't add the pasta until it is at a rolling boil. Don't put any oil in the pasta water. My understanding is that oil coats the pasta and prevents the sauce from absorbing as fully as you want. If you are using the pasta right away and putting it into sauce there is no need to drain it for any length of time and it shouldn't stick to itself. I agree that the quicker you get it into the sauce the better. If you need the pasta to sit in a colander for a few minutes before serving and saucing, you can put a tiny bit of olive oil on the pasta and mix it around by hand if your pasta is sticking. Since I don't use home-made pasta I don't know it it tends to stick more than dried. I didn't learn any of this from my mother. She used to put a lot of oil into the boiling pasta and she also used to run cold water on it in a colander, even if she was using it right away. That seems really counter-intuitive, but I never was able to talk her out of either habit.

Anna and Kerry, I always enjoy your posts from Manitoulin, which I had to locate on a map. I get that you both do shifts at a local hospital while staying on the island. Do you always stay at the same place? Is it rented or does one of you own it? I can't believe you both manage so much cooking while working what I assume are full shifts. If you are on call in the evenings your cocktail hour doesn't seem to be a problem! How did this relationship w/the island start?

Only tangentially relevant but I'm reminded of one of the dopier romantic comedies made in the late forties called "Mr. Blandings Builds his Dreamhouse" starring Cary Grant as a kind of pre-angst Don Draper. The Blandings family's black maid saves his white butt when she comes up with the sales pitch and tag line for his ad campaign for the jinxed Wham Ham. This is a cringe inducing mess of a movie that could be analyzed from any number of sociological viewpoints. By saving his job, Gussie saves the house, the marriage and the suburban dream of post-war America. Does he hire her as a copywriter? I don't think so.

Umami, just a couple of question on your above 5 listed factors. How do you define "comparable flavor compounds?" What do caviar and white chocolate have in common? Under culture or religion: what do you mean by "can't taste?" That sounds peculiar, and implies that cultural history trumps new experiences. Unless you live on a desert island and don't have any social contacts you will be exposed to new tastes and flavor pairings that you never had access to or simply never tasted before. Some of these new sensations will be exciting and positive, some not so much, depending upon about a million variables. How much a particular pairing might be loved by virtue of it's nostalgia factor doesn't dictate whether anyone else will appreciate it when they finally discover it. I never ate a mayo-cheese-pickle on white bread sandwich until I was 50. Nor did I ever eat peanut butter slathered on a stick of celery. One I adore, one I find totally unappealing. Seems to me that if you are open to new experiences it won't matter how "personal" any given taste is; it will become your personal experience as soon as you like or don't like it.

Thanks to Anne_T and Kerry Beal among others, I was inspired to bake the summer torte that has been getting a lot of play in several threads lately. Wish I had known what to do with black and red currants a million years ago when I lived in New Mexico and had some nice bushes of both. I went back to the Marion Burros NYT recipe for Purple Plum Torte and used small Santa Rosa plums that are in season here now. My favorite plum. But I never knew how hard they are to pit. Great basic recipe for someone like me who rarely bakes desserts.

How do you separate true flavor pairings from things that have an emotional grip or are seasonally available at the same time? Chicken and corn would not be considered a favorite pairing in the middle of winter unless you count fried chicken with a side of cornbread, but in BBQ season in the summer they are certainly linked in many minds and few people would say they don't sit happily on the same plate. I associate them together with new world soups south of the border. What about cultural factors? I ate very little pork growing up in NY. The only time my parents ate pork was when they used Italian sausage as part of a tomato based spaghetti sauce. As for applesauce I would never associate it with pork, only with potato pancakes or being sick.Then I moved to New Mexico, where red or green chile is rarely far from any pork dish so I tend to think of spicy with pork rather than sweet. In North Carolina I was served country ham with a side of cooked apples; very salty with a side of sweet--yummy. As someone implied above, if you live somewhere that you harvest apples and do in your pigs in the fall, that would make for a likely pairing. Mention was made of garlic, coffee and chocolate in combo. Those three ingredients are often added together to meat rubs, or various pots of southwestern style beans and/or chili, often with pork. As for bananas and tomatoes I can't imagine a more awful combination no matter what else is included or how it is prepared. Run for the hills!

I call it fried grits, but it's about the same thing; what varies the most if you are using (relatively) freshly milled corn meal is probably the grind, which is really a matter of taste. If I cook up about 1 cup grits or polenta and serve the two of us we usually have enough leftover to fill an 8 x 8 baking dish. This is done easily if you don't wait until the mush is cooled to put it in the mold pan. Smooth it out right away. I typically get a "cake" that is about 1/2 inch or a bit more in thickness. Cover in plastic and store overnight or til you want it. I cut it into pieces and saute it in a modest amount of butter or oil like Franci does above. I like it for breakfast with syrup and it is also yummy with a tomato sauce and a little melted cheese. And once you have it in a manageable frying shape you don't have to limit yourself to a saute pan; you can grill it outdoors or you can bake overlapping slices with cheese or sauces in the oven. When sauteing I have found it gets a good golden crispy crust in a non-stick pan as well as in a cast iron pan over a moderate heat, and the interior gets nice and melty.

Yes I am eating a lot of cukes these days. My three favorite salads currently: 1) Dilled Potato and Pickled Cucumber salad from Smitten Kitchen. Uses a quick pickle cucumber and lots of fresh dill. My change: way less mayo. And sometimes I mix mayo and creme fraiche or mayo and fage instead of using straight mayo. It's a great salad--the pickles are outstanding; best to do the pickles overnight. I find the salad is best eaten soon after dressing, but that's how I am about all potato salads. 2) Thinly slice cukes, radishes, fennel and a little red onion. Toss in a couple T fresh dill, a few sliced kalamata olives. Add a little salt and pepper and dress very modestly however you like. I just use a very small amount of champagne or sherry wine vinegar and a splash of olive oil. I'm sure lemon would be good instead of vinegar. I even like it with just olive oil and salt. 3) Rarerollingobject described a salad she made months ago and I think it is great. Mix cucumber, melon, ham and chopped toasted hazelnuts in proportions you like. Her dressing specified a little honey, mustard, lemon and oil. I find that this salad needs a VERY light hand with dressing, since a ripe melon may start to weep and the salad gets a little watery. I have used cantaloupe and both green and pink honeydew and various types of ham. Flavorful salty ham works better than mild.

What appears to be fine flour or grain may, even if put in a sealed glass jar, develop moths from eggs or whatever. We used to buy lots of our flours for breadbaking from a co-op in bulk, and it became clear that weevils or moths or something was in the flour from the moment we bagged it and took it home. I switched to using higher quality (sadly more costly, too) flours. I have never had a problem with King Arthur (I do transfer the paper bags to glass containers) nor with Bob's products.

I used to make Alice Waters corn soup recipe from her original Chez Panisse Menu cookbook. The technique is the same as her recipe cited above, but she doesn't even bother with the onions. She does add cream, which I sometimes omitted and love just as much. Keep in mind that straining the soup as she suggests makes it very luxurious and not very cost effective. You are left with not a lot of soup. Good, though! You can add almost any garnish: shredded basil, chopped fresh tomato, roasted green chile, chives, and so on. Gotta have great corn to start with, though.

I married into a family of many vegetarians, so I'm pretty used to knowing how to cook for them. However, in the last couple of years I have changed my diet to a low cholesterol one, and it makes me realize how reliant these people are on cheese and dairy for protein. Now, when I cook for vegetarians I don't worry about anybody's protein needs, and figure they can do without for their main meal as long as I provide them a plate of cheeses for apps. When they cook for me, that's when it's a problem. I don't want to burden them since they seem to consume cholesterol in vast amounts. When any of them are cooking, I now tend to eat earlier and come without being hungry, working around whatever is there or I make sure I contribute something I can eat. Cooking for vegans is a challenge, but I only have one friend who is a vegan and she's so self-effacing about her food habits it isn't a problem. I always make sure there is bread and grains and plenty of salad or vegetables that she can eat. Agree completely that it isn't the diet, it's just in how people approach it. At this point I can only think of two people in my life (neither of them me) that don't have some quirky dietary restrictions, so I'm starting to see it as the rule and not the exception. For so many reasons I'm a person that would have a hard time in a far northern climate with limited fruits and vegetables but lots of whale meat or reindeer.

I like to keep a jar of simple syrup in the fridge and use it to sweeten freshly squeezed lemonade, certain cocktails, etc. When you use syrup you don't have to worry about getting the sugar crystals to dissolve. Just pour a cup of boiling water over a cup of cane sugar, mix until completely clear and store in the fridge to use as needed. Add a sprig of mint rubbed between your hands to fresh lemonade for a big thrill. An exotic alternative: pick a few flowers of lavender and simmer a few minutes in simple syrup. Let cool and pull out the flowers. Lavender syrup is great in lemonade or an Arnold Palmer (half iced tea half lemonade.) Agree with mjx. Unless you have some particular health issue with cane sugar, you can't beat it for flavor. Moderation is the key. There has been a lot of bad press about sugar lately, but really the problem is that we have an extreme case of sweet tooth in this country.

Just two comments and then I will bow out; Paula Deen doesn't really merit all this copy. First of all, let me apologize if I offended anyone. Obesity isn't a laughing matter, but surely Paula has more to answer for than I do. The truth is that is a telling picture, ultimately way more sad and cautionary than anything else. Second, considering whether the punishment fits the crime is pointless. This is the Food Network for Gods sake; it's the smarmy world of big bucks entertainment TV. I'm sure they spent some agonizing hours trying to figure out which would ultimately lose them more money: canning Paula (love that expression!) or continuing to fight the bad PR.

To be honest all I know about Paula Deen comes from news stories about her health and the seriously unhealthy food that she is famous for. I don't find her cooking or her TV persona the least appealing, nor am I surprised by her expressions of the racism that lies so deep in our American culture. Uncovering this kind of thing moves us forward in teensy steps. Kudos to Dylan Wilson for his photo in the NYT front section today showing the lines to get in to Paula's Savannah restaurant. By the looks of it, Paula hasn't been doing her fans many favors the last few years. Lordy, but I shouldn't be laughing.

You're 80, right?

Early Vermont Mac apple. In Vermont, freshly harvested. Apricots from a friend's family property in Los Alamos NM. The size of a peach and dripping with juice. Not this planet ever again. Dried peaches that were dried on the roof of an adobe house in NM. Croissant from a town near Avignon from a bakery advertising "feu de bois" breads and pastry. Still warm, never tasted anything like it, probably never will again. Espresso ice cream shake in Ashland, OR. This one is a stretch, but it was very hot day, I was really thirsty and we had been driving for hours. Can't remember the name of the place but it's on the main drag, easy to find. Okay, I'm making myself sick here.

I live in the East Bay and don't get over to the city often, so I wouldn't have a clue about recommendation for places to buy cheese there. I do have occasion to go through Pt Reyes, the original home of Cowgirl Creamery and of course can buy their cheeses at other places. I do have a personal opinion about them, but have not been there for several years and have never been to their Ferry Bldg outlet. I am not a huge fan of their own cheeses. Also I think the prices are very high. And, at least at the Pt Reyes shop, they are not terribly helpful or generous in my experience. It feels like it's set up take advantage of tourists. As for supermarket cheese depts they seem woefully inadequate. If I know exactly what I want sometimes Whole Foods has it, but their selection is small and the people behind the counter are not very knowledgeable. The Fairway cheese dept in NY seems one of the better "supermarket" cheese sources, if you call Fairway a supermarket. In the East Bay I usually shop at The Pasta Shop for cheese if I am looking for something new, want to taste a variety of things and want to talk to someone who knows something. Also the Cheese Board in Berkeley has a big selection, good prices and some interesting cheeses and the people behind the counter will happily talk with you and give you many tastes. Janet Fletcher has a weekly cheese column in the SF Chron. Since she appears to love every cheese she reviews, I assume she has no interest in commenting on ones that are lacking. She does provide info on where to find the cheeses she profiles in the Bay Area. I checked her website and unfortunately she doesn't have a list of good cheese stores on the site. But I would suggest contacting her and seeing if she would give you a list of her faves. On her website she encourages readers to email her, so it might be a way to come up with destinations. Hi Dave! Yes, nothing quite compares to some of the great cheeses I tasted at village markets in the south of France. Often small producers and very specialized, but really amazing.

Okay, one question. I like all kinds of potato salads and I pretty much wing it at this point according to ingredients and my mood. Potato salad I don't like is what is usually served as a side to BBQ: the potatoes are overcooked russets and there is ten times too much mayo and often a high sweetness factor from god knows what. I mean they might as well be putting marshmallows in there. But my question is really about mayo. I find that almost all published recipes for a mayo based dressing calls for about 2 to 4 times as much mayo and/or dressing as is either prudent or appealing. And I am not talking about 50's magazine recipes, either; I'm finding this to be the case in upscale current recipes as well. When using a new recipe for potato salad I routinely cut the dressing ingredients in half and then don't end up using it all anyway. Many traditional American potato salads seem to be designed to hide lousy potatoes or else they are shilling for the mayo industry. Please tell me I'm not alone.

Hi, a green papaya salad isn't just made from unripe papaya. It is a special kind of papaya, and should be labeled as such. They are definitely different looking from the typical Hawaiian or Mexican papayas, which are eaten ripe. Sometimes I have gotten them at Berkeley Bowl. Another option would be to search out the Asian veg markets such as the ones around 12th Ave and 12th st in Oakland where a lot of Vietnamese shop and eat. I have made green papaya salad a few times, sometimes very simple ones, and sometimes Kasma's recipe, which I got from her class. If you don't know about her (she lives and teaches near Piedmont Ave in Oakand) check out her web site. Maybe her recipe is on it, dunno.

My philosophy is the opposite. Eat the best things first for maximum appreciation. Then you can let your dog eat the broken bits of whatever on the bottom, because you are already deeply satisfied.

I DO trust you. How do you marinate sardines? Are you talking about the Italian sarde in saor? I love them, but have never had the nerve or the energy to try and turn fresh sardines into saor ones myself. Can you buy them already marinated?

In the same vein, I served my sliced pickled beets with a little bowl of creme fraiche and mini silver spoons. Borscht on steroids! Agree that it verges on guilty pleasure.