Katie Meadow

Toast. It's even a beautiful word. In the UK I was served toast that had been put in a vertical rack, each slice surrounded by air on all sides. Talk about a way to cool it down fast. It was bad, but it was better than the rest of the breakfast in my hotel. Because, after all, it was just toast. Cold and flavorless and cut too thin, but it was toast. Many kinds of bread make excellent toast. Anybody who really loves toast knows that. And many kinds of toast are good with marmalade as well as butter, except of course for a bagel, but a bagel isn't toast, it's a toasted bagel. Cornbread isn't toast either, but it can be toasted. The better the bread, the better the toast. However, lousy bread can make tolerable toast if you are really in need of some toast. The reason I don't like going out for breakfast? The toast is never the way I like it. All restaurants serving breakfast should put a chrome toaster on the table and let the patrons toast it themselves, so they can have perfect toast. Only dedicated toasters make great toast. Toaster ovens never make great toast because the heating elements are too far from the bread and toast too slowly, resulting in overly dried not hot enough toast. A broiler in a regular oven might make good toast, but I've never had the patience or the desire to make toast that way. Toast should be made one piece at a time. No toast should be sitting on a plate when everyone has a piece of toast already. Stacking toast results in it's own special loss of quality and of course, ultimately, in cold toast. And cold toast means someone just doesn't care.

I have found that 2% greek yogurt (I like Fage) is a pretty good sub for sour cream and even for some of the half and half called for in a recipe . Sometimes I sub it for half of whatever fatty stuff is called for. It works mixed with mayo in a creamy potato salad. I have also used it in combo with a bit of regular half and half in mashed potatoes. I don't see how using cream cheese would cut down on the fat content. But recently I made an interesting discovery. If you treat celeriac (celery root) like potatoes, and then use about 3:1 potatoes to celery root you need far less butter or cream to make it taste creamy; and here's where a little Fage can help too. The celery root gives the mashed potatoes a silky quality and a little extra flavor. I also find that yukon golds rather than russets tend to make for a creamier less dense dish, and therefore need less dairy and less fat.

When I get a craving for an ice cream sandwich and can't find ready-made that are any good (and in fact I don't know of any), my go-to cookie is the Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafer. It really does have the not-too-sweet taste of the chocolate cookie of memory. If I can wait, I will make sandwiches out of softened ice cream and then freeze them. Otherwise I just eat the cookies and the ice cream together. And that way I can use coffee ice cream instead of the standard vanilla. I do have a neighbor who has perfected the home-made ice cream sandwich and whenever she gets inspired to make them it's a major thrill.

My goal in the kitchen is to make my equipment multitask for me. That's partly to save counter space and partly to avoid washing extra dishes. I often use a broad soup bowl to transfer stuff from the cutting board to the pot, and that bowl becomes a rest for spoons or tongs or whatever tools need resting--and often it's more than just one spoon, so a "single-spoon" rest wouldn't cut the mustard. FG's rectangular dish looks like it could accommodate several long handled tools, so that would work for me too.

Mint chutney? Uses a LOT of mint, and hardly worth the labor of cleaning the food processor in small quantities. Almost any Indian cookbook has a recipe for it, and there are plenty on line as well. Fantastic with Indian vegetable dishes or with lamb. I can't locate the recipe I used to make, but I always loved it with cauliflower or potato curries. Freezes well in modest sized portions.

I'm on a rye kick, so rye is the only spirit I pay attention to these days. I love the Bulleit Rye for drinking straight, and I'm lucky to have found a source that sells it for $21.99. But for mixed drinks I think Old Overholt is the best deal, especially if you can find the liter bottle for under $20. When I run out of Bulleit I'm happy enough drinking Old Overholt straight, which is something I can't say about the only other comparably inexpensive rye I can get, which is Jim Beam. We do drink gin, especially in warmer weather, and for overall usefulness and value we've been buying the family size bottles of Bombay (not Sapphire.) I wish Plymouth and Hendricks were cheaper around here.

Let this be a lesson to me. The first problem with our last dishwasher was the broken latch, probably a 75 cent piece of plastic. It was a KA, with at least 15 years of use behind it. Of course the replacement latch was not available, this model being discontinued many years before, and for two years we had to pry it open with a grapefruit knife. I'm going to take this warning to heart. I still load as we go, but now we close the door just this side of latching it.

When exactly are you coming? No one has mentioned Michael Mina. I have not been there, but you might want to take a look at the website, particularly the bar menu. There is a long happy hour w/discounts and a small-plates menu that sounds very appealing. I could go for duck leg tacos with smoked creme fraiche. It might be a good bet if you are not too hungry after a day of eating. If you want a getaway, drive out to Marshall, on Tomales bay (hour+ from downtown) and have some Hog Island Sweets at the source. Or get them at the Ferry Building. At Marshall they provide an oyster knife if you want to open them yourself, presumably at a discount. If you are here in June, dress warmly at Tomales Bay. Dillon Beach is a great beach for walking, about 20 min from Hog Island. If you are hanging about in the Mission, Delfino's is across the street from Bi-Rite Creamery, both good. I developed an instant crush on one of the guys at the creamery, so I remember the experience almost more than the ice cream. If I was 25 again I would be there all the time. I had the salted caramel, which is awfully good. And don't forget Tartine. I can't speak for the croissants in NY, since I've never looked for one there, but Tartine's are amazing. And so is the bread pudding with fruit, and the coffee is excellent. And it's usually very crowded. I like late morning on a weekday: lots of baby strollers, dogs etc. It's been so long since I lived in the Mission (or in SF) that I feel like a tourist when I'm there. Never been to Mission Chinese, mentioned by eje, but I've heard interesting things about it. For cheap eats in the east bay, I do have a soft spot for Bette's fried chicken sandwich at Bakesale Betty's, but only if you are on this side already; I wouldn't call it a destination.

When I moved to the west coast a million years ago I was shocked at the shape of the butter. The truth is, a standard east coast butter dish, of which there are millions and millions in this world, holds a stick of California shaped butter with no problem. Yes, the CA stick is short, but so is your life. Especially if you are eating a lot of butter!) I like using a simple covered butter dish, glass, so I can see how much butter is left with just a glance into the fridge. Covering butter seems to protect it from refrigerator odors. Cheap is good; butter dishes get handled several times a day, and they do get dropped once in a while, so I would not use anything valuable on a regular basis. My suggestion is to go on eBay and get a nice classic mid-century style for a few dollars. Or get whatever one looks like what you think a butter dish should look like.

No fanatic here, but I do rinse my dishes fairly well before they go in to the DW. It isn't because I don't think my new DW can't handle a bit of crud. It's because it takes 48 hours to get a full load at our house, and I find the dishes start to smell, especially ones with dairy products. Since I load as I go, I really don't like smelling something icky every time I open the door.

So much candy, so little time. And so many threads about it. But really, isn't most commercial candy pretty awful? I've always had a soft spot for chocolate Necco wafers (the other flavors not so much); I can think of a lot of candy worse than that. And jujubes have their place: my dentist uses them to sproing out temporary crowns. Really! I'm in the camp that says tic tacs are not candy. Candy should never claim to be anything but candy. Without thinking about it too much, Raisinets come to mind as a candy I wouldn't eat no matter how desperate. Horrid texture as well as incomprehensible flavors. I've never eaten a peep, but I am pretty sure they give Raisinets a run for the money.

I'm with Carlton. I pretty much have a loading plan, so I rinse and load as I go and typically don't have to do much rearranging at the end. We probably dirty relatively few dishes, since we no longer have a kid at home and tend to hand-wash large mixing bowls and pots, pans etc. If I don't wash my measuring cups (at least when creating a new load) I always need them again; never fails. Piling up dirty dishes in the sink would be gross, especially since we usually do one load every two days, or not even. We must not be very adventurous eaters, because we typically use about the same percentages of bowls, plates, flatware, etc every few days.

I've heard that milk makes eggs tender, and water makes them tough, so I add just a smidge of milk or cream. Anyone else ever hear this? Growing up my dad always added water at the beginning, and then cooked the eggs very fast in brown butter. Not bad, but not tender, either.

I'm guilty, I know, of making remarks about the high prices at some farmers' markets. I don't shop the Ferry Building in SF. I do sometimes shop the Berkeley Farmers' market and sometimes the Oakland/Chinatown farmers' market. The difference in prices between those two farmers' markets is staggering. Surely the prices reflect a lot of variables: size of the farm, methods of farming, organic or not, type of merchandise. Of course my bags of groceries will cost five times as much in Berkeley if I am buying charcuterie, grass fed whatever, organic avocadoes, organic baby collards, etc., while in Oakland I am buying gigantic bunches of Thai basil or other Asian greens. Last August I was buying peaches in Berkeley for $5-6 lb. At the Oakland market they were half that price. Sometimes the fruit was good, sometimes not nearly as good as from my favorite seller in Berkeley. I shop the Berkeley Farmers' market mainly May through October. I'm willing to pay premium prices for fabulous lettuces, corn, tomatoes, stone fruits, okra and fresh edamame. The baby collards are $2 for a small bunch. Certain supermarket items can never compare in quality to these things, even if that supermarket is Berkeley Bowl, where I can get a four times the weight in collards for the same price, but they are older and leathery. Meanwhile I do not in any way assume that any of the small organic farmers are taking much profit. Farming is a hard life, even if you are a wall-street drop out. I think a pretty long-term study is needed to really get an overview of pricing and value, and it probably varies widely across the country. Otherwise I agree we are comparing apples to oranges.

The paper bag technique makes me anxious and I have never had great success with it. I get the best results (and the fewest unpopped kernels) with stovetop popping and fresh high-quality corn. I have an old copper-bottom Revere ware pan that does a fine job. Some of the best popcorn I ever had came from the farmer's market, sold by a farm that grows delicious organic corn. And I have given up shaking, except that right after the corn goes in I give the pan a good roll to make sure all the kernels get coated. My theory is that if you don't shake, the popped kernels stay on top and the unpopped kernels remain on the bottom in contact with the heat until they pop. But I do have a question: what kind of oil are you all using? I used to always use corn oil, because it made sense, but then I tried peanut oil and it didn't make a discernible difference. Does anyone use olive oil?

For snacking I usually want a cracker-like object, savory or salty, often accompanied by tea, if the weather is cool. Right now I'm partial to something called Raincoast Crisps, available at Whole Foods and one other place I shop more routinely. There are a half dozen flavors, but the only one that appeals to me is the "original," which is seedy, nutty and simple. The others sound awful to me, frankly, so I've never tried them; they have various fruits and nuts in them and must be fairly sweet. Fussy. Another cracker I love is the Stonewall Kitchen Simply White. Also very plain. Their other varieties include Seasalt and Asiago. When I have no crackers or I am actually hungry, I pop corn and top it with gray salt and a little grated pecorino. That can easily replace a meal, especially in the evening when accompanied by something tall and alcoholic. Maui sweet onion potato chips, Cheetos and Trader Joe's Root Veg chips are weaknesses, and I just have to limit those purchases. I go through them so fast it's a total waste of money.

I spend an inordinate amount of time hanging out in the kitchen and often don't wear my watch while I am cooking or reading the paper or whatever, so having a big analog wall clock is essential; that would be a Nelson Ball Clock (not an original) which looks great in our sixties-ish kitchen, but is very impractical since it collects exactly what kind of dirt you would suspect in a kitchen and needs to be wiped periodically. My advice about kitchen clocks: get one that's easy to clean. Love that red and white clock.

Doesn't her accent and delivery remind you of a certain SNL character created by Gilda Radner?

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.