Katie Meadow

Poorly designed websites abound, whether complex or simple, but the choice to use music always amazes me. Don't many of us surf while others are working near by? When the music comes on I exit really fast, way before I ever get to see the menu. Surely more customers are lost that way than not. At least give us a chance to reject the menu.

I didn't know there was a rule about fish and cheese, but I have to admit it isn't a mix that I usually find appealing. For instance I'm not wild about seafood risottos. Also I would never sprinkle parmesan or any hard cheese on a linguini dish with mussels or clams. I can think of two exceptions off the bat: one is a tuna melt, but I find a little cheese goes a long way there. The other is one of my weaknesses from a Mexican restaurant near where I shop, and that's what they call a crispy shrimp taco. Some kind of gooey white cheese is down at the bottom along with the shrimp and it really works. Still more unappealing to me is the combo of fish and mushrooms. That sets my teeth on edge.

Sriracha? Is your main very spicy and Asian style? A nice light Asian slaw with cabbage, julieneed daikon and/or green papaya (if you have access to it) cilantro, lime juice, etc. If your main isn't very spicy, then you could add some hot pepper flakes to the slaw to liven it up. Easy, clean, lots of texture.

Soba, beautiful as always. I suspect I would eat anything you make, happily. Define minestrone. Is it just vegetable soup in Italian? If I make a seasonal multi-vegetable soup with some beans, some pasta, some dark leafy greens like chard or black kale, and at least a little bit of fresh or canned tomato I might call it Minestrone. I typically use a chicken based stock. If instead of beans and/or pasta I add barley or rice or couscous I probably would not call it Minestrone. I make a chard and vegetable soup with noodles and use harissa for flavoring, and that sometimes has a little tomato if it's summer, but in the winter, not. So that can't be called Minestrone. But truthfully, I am clueless about what qualifies.

I like emptying out the dishwasher and seeing clean stacks of plates, cabinets of clean glassware, etc. Things I don't like doing: Cleaning radishes, rinsing and drying lettuce, de-veining shrimp and prepping fresh artichokes. That last one takes lots of time and you have to be vigilant not to get poked and stuck in a variety of ways. Plus all the lemon squeezing that needs to be done by hand to keep the cut pieces from getting brown, to say nothing of having to fish the quarters out of ice water. Thing is, they are so good sauteed up crispy.

Once my dentist described to me the amount of restoration needed in the mouth of one fifteen year old Jolly Rancher addict I never touched another one. Just saying! On topic: I agree that Cheetos dust is irresistible, and I will always love it, all the more so since I don't allow myself to have it very often. However, I don't feel the same about packaged mac & cheese products; they all seem repulsive to me. Is the sweet onion flavor in Maui chips artificial? I also like that. Anyone tasted their kid's anti-biotic liquid Augmentin? That's the pinnacle of artificial banana flavor, if you go for that sort of thing. And don't worry, your kid doesn't need the full dose, so feel free. I don't even like real bananas.

I can't imagine lugging my containers to the store, given they are mostly all glass. But I do re-use the basic plastic vegetable and bulk food bags, at least the ones that aren't messed up. When the farmers' market abandoned all plastic bags that became a necessity, and now I find that recycling them for bulk dry goods works as well. As soon as I come home I transfer the contents into their appropriate jars and again, save whatever bags remain tolerably clean. I do take my bottle when I go for olive oil; they know how much weight to subtract for a standard size wine bottle. If they don't, they will weight the bottle before I fill it. I use a tight fitting cork, and then when I get home I switch it out to a bottle pour spout. We re-use double paper shopping bags until they disintegrate, and we have a variety of canvas bags as well. I try hard to keep a few empty bags in the car at all times for unexpected excursions, but I'm not always successful. I have a hard time knowing exactly what I'll do when no plastic bags exist, if that happens, but so it goes.

I just tried the above Martinez variation with my recently acquired bottle of Bonal Gentiane-Quina and it's very good. I used a 2:1 ratio and a lemon twist and it does not taste sweet. Sounds nice. What kind of bitters did you use? Last night I tried a 1:1 rye and bonal with orange bitters over ice. Since it was a very warm evening it was pretty refreshing. I'd like to try 2:1 gin/bonal next. Don't have any maraschino...what should I add? I did try one drink using the Fee bros rhubarb bitters, since that really tastes more cherry, but it was not nearly as good as using orange bitters. I'm coming to the conclusion that the rhubarb bitters was a minor waste of money. It's about the same price as my favorite chocolate bar... Gotta say, love this Bonal Gentiane-Quina.

I have little experience buying in bulk at Whole Foods, but if the product is good that might mitigate some of the negatives (namely price) discussed on a recent thread. We routinely shop Berkeley Bowl, and some of the bulk items are great, but others are not. The cornmeal from Bob's made noticeably better cornbread than the bulk stuff at the Bowl. Bob's buckwheat, semolina and graham flours seem better than bulk flours. King Arthur Flour is always better than bulk AP flour or WW. The dark red kidney beans from Purcell Mountain Farms are far and away better than any bulk ones I have tried. I've never had any bulk basmatti rice I like as much as the packaged Lundberg. No bulk organic or otherwise roasted peanuts seem as good as the blistered ones from Trader Joe's. Steel-cut bulk oats are not as good as Pinhead in the can, but they are a lot cheaper, so during an oatmeal phase I do buy them in bulk. I guess I care less about my oatmeal than I do about rice. On the other hand, the bulk dried fruit from the Bowl is quite good, and so is the bulk organic popcorn as well as various flakes and cereals. And my upscale market where I shop for some specialty items has a very good deal on bulk olive oil, so I'm now using that exclusively. Generally I would say that buying in bulk really depends on the source and freshness of the product, and that quality (or freshness) is not necessarily related only to turnover. Berkeley Bowl has incredibly high turnover, but some of the bulk foods just don't measure up.

I recently was served a Martinez consisting of Old Tom gin, Bonal-Gentiane, maraschino and bitters. I don't know what the proportions were, but I am guessing it might have been 1:1. It was on the sweet side, and listed on the menu as an Aperitif. It was very nice, and the herbal flavor of the bonal was distinct. I might be inclined to try 2:1 gin to bonal, since I'm not generally inclined toward really sweet drinks. Any suggestions for using my new bottle of Bonal-Gentiane? I plan to try subbing it for the sweet vermouth in a rye Manhattan. We don't exactly have a well-stocked bar; there's gin, 2 kinds of rye, cointreau, orange and angostura bitters (and rhubarb bitters, which tastes more like cherry to me) and a few other things.

If you put matzoh in a frittata you'd have a Brei Pie. If you added browned onions and leftover nova, then you might have....a Loxattata?

We almost never eat in the car, except maybe some candy or small snacky things. Like Maggie, for long trips we travel with a big ice chest and pack lots of sandwiches, cheese, fruit, utensils, etc., and typically just water to drink. Admittedly we don't usually take road trips during cold and rainy seasons (well, on the west coast there is actually a dry season), but we always look for a picnic table and a bathroom, which usually means a rest stop on an interstate or some type of small-town park that's easy to get to from the road. Every so often there's a surprisingly nice spot. I need the break, and I enjoy my food a lot more when I'm not moving.

Yes, I'm guilty of referring to it as Whole Paycheck, although the truth is I almost never shop there except when visiting my mom in NY, since it is the closest large store to her apt. We're in car country here I'm afraid, and the extra 10 minutes it takes to drive to Berkeley Bowl is worth it, considering it is our main weekly shopping trip. It's easy to make assumptions about value based on too small a sample of products. I'm guessing that any large market that counts on relatively upscale clientele and in addition devotes so much square footage to prepared dishes is going to come at a price. In addition, I'm not the primary shopper in the house, my husband is. He never goes to WF and he thinks everything is cheap compared to the Berkeley farmers' market. It would be interesting to note some actual comparison prices. My sense has always been that produce especially is priced high at WF. I had some very minor shopping errands to run this morning, including one that necessitated a trip to WF. Before going to WF however, I needed a few things at my closest carniceria. Poblanos--smelling spicy and looking fresh--at the Mexican grocery cost .85 per lb. I also paid 1.99 for a half gallon of Berkeley Farms milk there, which is good quality milk but not organic. At WF the poblanos were 2.99 lb, smelled like nothing and were not as fresh. How much does a half gallon of milk cost at WF? I forgot to check. The next time my husband treks to Berkeley Bowl I'm going have him price some specific items.

Okay then, what about down and dirty Atlanta? Holes in the wall, cheap hot spots, legendary funky places, carts, wagons, farmers' markets, etc? My daughter will be going to grad school at Emory starting in August. Considering how little grant money seems to be available at grad schools these days, Michelin stars are not going to be an option--not that they are now anyway. After five years of visiting her in Walla Walla, this will really be a culture shock, since I don't believe I have ever been in any state that could be considered southeastern, at least within memory.

I like to use a full tablecloth to protect my table when having a dinner party. I find I worry less. I don't use expensive linen and I don't use white; something with a busyish pattern hides most minor mishaps that don't wash out. A couple of hems in a cotton tablecloth is about all the sewing I'm up to, anyway. Much cheaper than buying a ready-made one. For special occasions I like to use a centerpiece, but fun ones that kids can enjoy are the best. I have a large low glass bowl, and I would give my daughter the job of decorator. She would put colored glass stones in the bottom, fill with water, plastic fish, floating glass donuts to hold flowers and floating candles--whatever was available. In the low light of a dinner party it always looks better than you imagine. Duck candles always seem to be a hit as they melt in bizarre ways.

Rangetop. Large SQUARE cast iron pan. Low and slow. Watched and fussed over til almost very crisp. Laid and patted dry in an accordion of paper towels. I wouldn't call it the best way to cook bacon, but it's mine.

Red beans and rice is a staple for us. My favorite dark red kidney beans come from Purcell Mountain Farms. They are creamy and hold their shape and have a really nice flavor. I find the most efficient way to make beans is to keep plenty of ham stock on hand in the freezer, and then it's simply a matter of using what's in the pantry. My ham stock is made with smoked shanks, not hocks; the flavor is equally good and there is a fair amount of meat that can be cut from the bones and then added back into the stew at the end, as desired. The other advantage of making and saving stock is that I can discard most of the fat before cooking the beans. The fact that shanks and hocks cost about the same per pound around here makes it an easy choice. First I fry a few slices of bacon, to render enough fat to saute the trinity and garlic before adding the beans. (The remaining bacon is crumbled coarsely and added back for the last half hour of cooking.) Herbs and spices go in after the broth has come to a boil for a few minutes and the fire has been turned way down to a very gentle simmer. I use fresh thyme, cumin, oregano, rosemary and one bay leaf. I also add a couple of little dried hot red peppers, since I don't use any spicy sausages. The beans get cooked at a bare simmer, covered. At about the half-way point I add a splash of coffee, since that's how I've always done my cowboy beans, and it seems like a good idea for southern beans too. Isn't Red-eye gravy made with coffee? Salt is added for the last 15 minutes or so. I like my beans kinda soupy, not gloppy. I serve with minced white onion to sprinkle on. I think I got that from Rancho Gordo, and I'm hooked on it for all my beans.

I grew up using a grapefruit knife to loosen all the sections before eating with a regular teaspoon. Until I left home and was on my own I never knew dedicated serrated grapefruit spoons existed. That's what I use now; one step, really simple. And I wear my glasses to avoid mishaps. No sugar. My MIL always broils her morning grapefruit with brown sugar. Actually I don't eat grapefruit at breakfast. When I really crave it is in the late afternoon while I'm slaving over a hot stove. That's when I eat the other half of the one my husband eats in the morning.

Are black trumpets the same as black chanterelles? I've only had black chanterelles once, when I found a patch of them in the Berkeley Hills. That was years ago, but sauteed in butter and then mixed into scrambled eggs they were memorable. An omelet would be equally nice. Unfortunately I paid a high price for mine, and that was a good case of poison oak, since the patch of mushrooms was inevitably growing amongst a mat of the other stuff.

I'll say one thing for you breakfast people: you are most of you cheap dates! The promise of one runny golden yolk and you're ready to kiss an egg.

Not being a breakfast person beyond anything that can be put in a toaster, I had breakfast for dinner the other night, which would make a great breakfast for breakfast. The current issue of Bon Appetit (on Epicurious I assume) has a very good recipe for Bacon and Leek Risotto with poached egg. I made it and served it with a fried egg instead--but with a runny yolk--and it was delicious. It requires less butter and cheese than most risotto. Having this for breakfast using leftover risotto would be a snap.

Confession time....I don't heat up my plates although I know it would be nice. Question: how should you heat up plates that have a gold rim? I assume you don't put them in the microwave. Can you put them in a warm oven? The oven will be in use up until the main is served. I'm having my husband's siblings over for dinner tomorrow and want to use my lovely Limoges plates inherited from his family (I still don't know why I was lucky enough to get them) and which they never see otherwise.

The only way I know of for steak and chocolate to be happily married is to include some unsweetened cocoa in a dry rub for grilling, along with red chile, cumin, paprika, what have you. Steak and white chocolate should go under a new thread called "two disgusting ingredients." Add smoked salmon to the same plate and that may qualify for the already existing "three disgusting ingredients." I've never been a big fan of surf 'n' turf meals, but a mouthful of smoked salmon and rare steak seems particularly unappetizing.

That's the problem with young people today. They never learned proper keyboarding, and mistakes are made. Of course upduck has its own problems.

It never occured to me to cook my beans in duck stock; usually I cook them in ham stock. Actually it sounds like an interesting twist, and I think I even have some duck stock way back in the freezer. Upping the duckiness is brilliant, but I am going to play editor and just use the verb " to duck (up)," as in, I'm going to duck up my red beans 'n' rice. Or, alternatively, I'm going to upduck my roast potatoes.