Katie Meadow

We are in the Berkshires in Western MA visiting my nephew.and family. They live in the middle of nowhere and it's lovely. Despite the odds there is a wonderful place called the Dream Away Lodge ten minutes from their house.. It's in an old traditional reconverted farmhouse. We all had Porch Swings. I've never had one before, mainly because I thought they were always made with bourbon, which I don't really like, but these were made with gin and they were fantastic. Summer in a glass. And it is hot weather here in MA. The place was packed. We sat outdoors where the kids could run up and down a grassy slope. We all could have had several more Porch Swings but the kids were getting hungry and there were no available tables for food service. Sadly the place was all booked up tonight for dinner, or we would have made a reservation. The Porch Swing is going to replace my G & T this summer if I can figure out how to make one.

I have a similarly large loaf pan. I haven't made meatloaf in it for several years, but I believe I used a total of 1.5 lbs of mixed ground meats, at least that's amount that come right to the top of the pan. I use the pan basically as a mold. I line it generously with plastic wrap, sides overhanging. I fill it with my meat mixture (which has lots of stuff in it besides meat, often a layer of spinach or other greens.) I pack it well and smooth the top. Let it rest an hour or so to settle. Turn the loaf pan upside down on a sheet pan with low sides and unmold, tossing the plastic wrap. Then I brush on a moderate amount of home made ketchup mixed with BBQ sauce--no doubt everyone has a sauce they prefer. Finally I cover the whole in a layer of uncooked bacon, and shove it in the oven. Best of both worlds: A nice neat shape, and bakes evenly. It can be moved carefully to a serving platter, but is kind of unwieldy, so I generally slice it on the sheet it bakes on.

@Pete Fred When your store does "Mexican Week" perhaps you can get some Oaxaca cheese. Super melty, great "pull," although I never heard that expression before. It's also excellent in a very simple omelet. Lately we've been making grilled cheese sandwiches with Oaxaca and a scatter of sweet onion.

Okay, I know there are lots of names for both these cuts of meat. My understanding is that the butt is above the shoulder, resulting in the butt being more tender, more marbled and fatty, while the shoulder sees more action and is therefore a little bit leaner. I've also read that the butt is best for stewing or braising and the shoulder cut is.is betters for a slow roasted crispy hunk that can be sliced. However, there seems to be a lot of misinformation or simply disagreement about all of it. I have been on a Green Chile Stew kick lately. The first time I sent my husband to the butcher the shop had no shoulder but did have boneless pork butt, which is what he bought. A 2.5 lb. butt needed a lot of trimming of the fat; I would estimate almost a full lb of it was fat. It maade a delicious tender stew; worth the waste. The next time he went shopping for butt at the same place the butcher said they didn't have any pork butt, only shoulder. He went to another store and the butcher told him that butt and shoulder were the same. He went to a third store where they told him the built was way more pricey, and despite my husband requesting it be boneless, they sent him home with bone-in butt. I cooked it and it wasn't quite as tender as the first butt. I have no idea why. But that bone was not inconsequential in terms of waste or in terms of irritation ofcutting around it. I did throw it into the stew but the flavor was not noticeable improved by including the bone. How much of any of this sounds right? I don't believe they are the same cut. Is the price usually higher when they tell you it's pork butt rather than shoulder? What cut would you use if you wanted pulled pork? If you are roasting the pork rather than braising or stewing it you will not have to trim as much fat off, since the meat will release a lot of fat as it cooks and you can avoid some of the remaining fat when you start pulling it apart. When making a stew you really do have to trim off a lot of fat before cooking, or the broth will be really greasy. Shed some daylight on this if you can!

May recovery be smooth. So far, 2024 has not been a walk in the park.

The perfect medicine: Hot and Sour Soup. Or, if you happen to get a cold in New Mexico, Green Chile Stew. Luosifen hasn't made it to Northern California yet. I don't know about river snails, but our garden variety land snails seem to be fighting a losing battle. They are going the way of the dodo, at least in our neck of the woods.

I have no idea what town it was in.

My lemon slices didn't get burned. They didn't get caramelized, either. They just got a teeny bit dried out at the edges but pretty much remained inedible/raw but hot. No idea really how you would get them to caramelize or sweeten up. I assume that's not what Alison intended.

I missed this post! And I just wrote a term paper on that tea cake, see above. How funny. I used yogurt mixed with creme fraiche instead of sour cream. And I didn't find the cake needed extra time in the oven. Maybe my oven runs hot, and also I used a dark metal loaf pan.

I don't have any of Alison Roman's books, but as @weinoo curmudgeonly notes, lots of her recipes are available in various places. I don't know for sure if her Lemony Turmeric Tea Cake is in one of her books but we baked it the other day and it is fantastic. Since my turmeric was old and probably less flavorful than it might have been, I couldn't really identify the taste of it, but it did make for a great color.(That's the color I want for my iPhone case.) It's more of a quick bread than a cake, baked in a loaf pan. Really really good. Not totally sold on the lemon slices over the top. I think you could use Meyer lemons for the top and caramelize them before adding and baking. They were not terribly edible as instructed. And thanks so much for the beauty secrets link. I'm going to get the Boy Brow right away! I come from a long line of women with insufficient eye brows. The day before my mother died, she requested from her hospital bed that I go back to her apartment to get her eyebrow pencil. She looked good when she expired at 94 years old.

@Shel_B I save my high fat European butter for fresh bread or buttering toast or crackers. When I bake I just use regular butter. It's cheaper, considering how much butter goes into some bakes, and It has NEVER occurred to me when eating one of my quick breads or cakes: "Oh if only I'd used Irish butter!" Well, maybe if I was making shortbread I would splurge with high fat butter, bur for simple snacking cakes or muffins, no.

One of my weaknesses. Never seen them at any farmers' market, so I have to go to Oakland Chinatown for my fix. Parking is horrendous, so we don't go very often, only when we really crave char siu or roasted duck or the best fresh pot sticker skins and fresh noodles.

@Kim Shook same here.

Living in CA does present some challenges. Getting good maple syrup is one of them. On our first trip together my husband and I went to Vermont and Maine among other northeastern places. In Vermont we went to the Maple Syrup Museum. Does it still exist? They actually had samples for tasting the different grades. Swoonworthy, to say nothing of spoonworthy. I'm assuming the sugar maples are heading north in anticipation of warm Vermont winters.

Well that's interesting. Real unadulterated grade A is a far cry from this stuff.

I love a good pineapple upside down cake but don't make it in a springform. A regular cake pan works and so does a cast iron skillet. Also those maraschino cherries should stay on the supermarket shelf. Fresh pineapple is essential. My only observation of your mosaic is that it isn't enough fruit! I don't think you should be able to see any cake top when the cake is turned out, but I'm sure it was delicious. I think a good one is harder than many recipes make it seem; the amount of caramelization has to be generous, but not enough to make the cake too soggy.

My husband loves maple syrup but he's also very frugal, so for years we've settled for TJ's brand, since really great stuff from Vermont is valued in gold bars. Then all of a sudden they didn't have it and he purchased something else, admittedly better. When the TJ's syrup returned to the shelves he bought that. Both of us agreed that it was not the same as it used to be. It seemed overly sweet and thin, like watered down. Is it us or is it them? If you have been using TJ's maple syrup have you had a similar experience with the stuff now on their shelves?

Pineapple vinegar is another mild one that could be used as a sub.

I never heard of these Korean dogs. But the more I learn about them the more I just want an old-fashioned state fair corn dog. Thanks, but I'll take my mozzarella on a pizza. As for rolling a panko breaded hot dog in sugar, well, the end is nigh.

In my experience, browning, sweating and caramelizing all require different times. Sweating I think simply means cooking on very low heat until they are very soft without letting them get any color. Caramelization can take up to a half hour on low heat, but the goal is to make them sweet and they will definitely get golden-brown. "Browning" takes the least time of the three and doesn't need to be done on super-low heat. Just my three cents about onions.

The NYT has a recent recipe for Alemandrados, almond-lemon macaroons. My contribution has always been charoset, but if I were given the dessert task I think I would make them.

I was kidding! I know you are a storehouse of knowledge and your explanation of Hercules is the only even half plausible one yet, except of course for mine about the lion! I don't blame anyone for making stuff.up. I have a good friend who is also a fount of information, arcane or otherwise, and gets teased about the fact that if she doesn't know the answer she tells you anyway-- ESPECIALLY when it sounds sort of good. .Have you ever played the Dictionary Game? You chose a word from the dictionary that people with you swear they don't know and you write the definition on a piece of paper.. Then everyone writes down what they think is a good definition of the word. The answers get read out loud and everyone tries to guess the real definition. Some people are really great at sounding like their absurd idea is convincing.

Why not? Because you made that up!

Yes, the only challenging part to fried saltines is adjusting the heat and getting the saltines the hell out of the pan quickly. When they sit on paper towels after frying they continue to darken. We've tossed a lot of mistakes into the garbage..

An aperitif with yerba mate? No wonder it wasn't a keeper. Hercules used yerba mate to kill the Nemean Lion. He didn't slay the lion; one taste of tea was enough to make the lion run for the hills.