Katie Meadow

On average we spend about $15 per day for two of us. That includes some but not all wine, but not beer or hard liquor. That figure is pretty much based on cooking at home 24/7. We rarely eat out, and when we do it's frugal. I'm guessing the weekly bill edges up in the warmer months because, god help me, I can't resist the Berkeley Farmers Market. Most of the fruit and veggies sold there are mighty pricey compared to Berkeley Bowl. For the price of six servings of red beans and rice you can buy two or three peaches.

Mitch, you had me at nutella, but you lost me at pizza. I can't get my mind around nutella pizza. I've been known in desperation to just have a spoonful of nutella out of the jar when I needed something chocolate after dinner.

I'm enjoying this blog very much, swimming as it is in testosterone. Points have to be subtracted from Johnder because he didn't crispy-up any artichokes and because making a beautiful suck-up dessert was unfair. Also, and this isn't his fault, I just don't want a pair of yolks staring at me during dinner. The picture of his brothy stew looks fabulous and I would eat that in a New York minute. Although I couldn't identify some of the ingredients. You either cheated or have an awfully well-stocked pantry. The risotto looked perfect and to me was the most appetizing of all the dishes. Many points for that one dish, especially because I don't actually like scallops and the chokes look especially crispy. I would be happy to have that along with Sam's simple kale for a meal, if Johnder would make me a cocktail. Many points for Sam's kale, since homey is good. Points also for starting to cook at 8pm. I would just have made a bowl of popcorn, at that point. As for cocktails, I'm impressed by anything more complicated than a glass of rye, neat. Points to all for braving the weather to shop. I don't think my 93 yr old mother, who lives in midtown, has been out of her apt in the last three weeks. She orders take-out using her iPad. If I was tiger mother I might vote, but you are all deserving of praise. Oh, and I just noticed Johnder's recent post. I grew up two blocks from Barney Greengrass, so of course I have great and tender feelings for it. But yeah, Russ and Daughters is amazing.

Blue m & m's are excellent. I don't think they taste any different, but I like the look of them. Okay, let's leave candy out of the mix, since there's not much that is natural about drug store candy. And junk foods like cheetos are so artificial (good though!) that the color is probably the least worrisome thing about them. So in the case of food coloring, the color of cheetos doesn't bother me, since they look just like what they are, essentially a novelty and no pretentions to being real food. Old fashioned Maraschino cherries are borderline. They are not pretending to be anything BUT food coloring, but they are so toxic looking they might as well be radioactive. What I object to about food coloring is when it is used to fool you into thinking something is real. Yellow cheddar boxed mac & cheese looks awful to me. And white cheddar boxed same may look more real but doesn't taste any more real. Love beets (in all colors.) I haven't used jarred borsht in many years. Does it have food coloring in it? I guess it must. Home made doesn't have quite that magenta look. I do agree that the jarred stuff looks pretty sick when the sour cream gets mixed in. I prefer leaving the sour cream in a lump rather than mixing it in. Partly because I like the taste/texture contrast, but also because I do agree, that pepto pink color doesn't always work for me. The deep red of real beets is a beautiful thing. What's really creepy are foods that are not only colored, but shaped to look like something they are not. Take marzipan, for instance. Really good marzipan is dreamy. Humble little marzipan potato with a dusting of cocoa, yeah! But once, when I was in the hospital, someone brought me marzipan that was made to look like a salami sandwich. I couldn't get myself to take even one bite. Just looking at it was enough to make my tastebuds go haywire. If that green bagel was an onion bagel and smelled like onions I would eat it. If I was hungry. I think the onion would win out over the green.

I rarely plate the whole entree, for ourselves or for company, but it depends on what is easiest or makes sense; so, mostly family style. Composed salads or apps get plated. If the main is something awkward or messy I might be inclined to plate (in other words, to be crass, if I can see a great potential for accidents.) Mostly I find that my family or guests are picky-ish, and don't want someone else determining what's on their plate. But then most of my friends are not frequent restaurant patrons and are used to the same haphazard style at home.

For violence there's always a Black and Blue Shooter. But nothing says no romance like Mezcal with a worm.

The Eva Zeisel is a knockout. During the sixties I spent a lot of time at Flea markets and collected Harlequin, multicolor. Very festive for a party, but the the plates are on the small side, and by the time I realized how nice it would be to have soup plates there wasn't much Harlequin around and the price was too high. From my MIL I inherited a set of very simple Limoges, plain white with a thin gold line and then another half-collection of Wedgewood that is also very plain with gold rim, plus beautiful simple gold-rim glassware that matches. I like to use the gold-rim stuff for small dinners, since it can't be put in the dishwasher; it's too lovely not to use once in a while. When I put out the Wedgewood I feel like I'm on the Titanic. In a good way. For every day--and for serving more that six--I use plain white restaurant supply china, since I have 12 of everything and it can go in the dishwasher; not romantic, unless you are eating off it at Le Bernardin (actually I haven't a clue what they use but it's probably better than mine.) Nevertheless it's well-proportioned, stacks fabulously and is indestructable. We eloped, so too bad for us, no registry. By the time we could afford to buy a nice set of dishes I realized that the money for a set of whatever probably should be put toward college tuition. A wise decision, it turned out.

Lark & Termite isn't a cookbook, in case anyone is wondering.

That's a very odd contraption for a number of reasons. The two that strike me at once are that 1) the design is most appropriate for boiling eggs in a rectangular pan, which no one has and 2) in order to set or adjust the time or kill the alarm one must reach directly across the steam from the boiling water, no easy trick without getting a bit of a burn.

I do need to eat something in the morning, but it is typically a small thing, a neutral carb, such as half a bagel or, most likely, a piece of buttered toast with a minimal amount of marmalade. Protein such as meat or eggs doesn't appeal, nor does a heavy dose of acid, like orange juice or grapefruit. And I don't much care for sweet pastry or coffee cake, either. I like steel cut oats maybe once or twice a week, and every so often I get a hankering for popovers, but that's about as much cooking as I can tolerate in the a.m. I'm not wild about pancakes, but I eat them if someone else is willing to stand over a hot stove flipping and fussing. No one in my house is. Truthfully, the only reason I eat apple pie for breakfast on the day after Thanksgiving is because I'm afraid if I don't there won't be any left by lunchtime. Pathetic.

Agree. No reason to let it age on the shelf. Use it as finishing salt instead of using the kosher salt that way. We buy gray sea salt, which is also pretty coarse. I just break or flake it up with a small mortar and pestle in salt-cellar quantities as needed.

Chris Taylor, your link works. That's one gross snail. Is that a foot? Or something else? I googled Bailers since I've never heard of them before. No doubt it comes sans shell because it's the shell that everyone wants.

Don't know where I got the recipe, but a sweet noodle kugel that's been kicking around for at least 30 years specified Oregon brand canned tart cherries and they were pretty good. I'm not into sweet kugel now but when my daughter was young it was right up her alley.

That Adler fork in the middle....the hammered look...very nice.

There are lots and lots of things I hope never to eat again, most of them being in the junk or fast foods/highly processed categories. There are also plenty of foods, like natto, which I have never tasted but don't want to either. At the top of my list though are the foods that if made from scratch with lots of love I still wouldn't eat ever again. They include beef liver, tripe, tapioca or any kind of bubble tea, soft boiled eggs, turkish delight and Pernod.

I've never made a strictly fresh pork stock, but I do make a Chinese stock for wonton soup using a combo of chicken and pork neck bones, which seem to be very flavorful. Learned that on eGullet, thank you very much! Smoked pork (that would be ham, no?) makes a great stock for red beans & rice or many other bean dishes. For that I use ham shanks rather than hocks, since they are meatier and I like to have a little ham to add to the beans or make a hash or something. Around here the hocks and the shanks are often the same price per pound, and the shanks seem like a better deal.

I don't think I've bought wax paper in twenty years. What I used it for religiously was mushroom hunting, to line the basket and to store the shrooms in the frig. I no longer forage for mushrooms. Now I always have parchment paper on hand. Okay, please tell me I'm not the only person who butters a baking dish with my fingers.

Diamond Crystal for all cooking, but not for finishing or raw foods. No Mortons ever. Just a contrary habit. I grew up on Morton's iodized table salt, just don't want to go back.

Always butter, usually maple syrup. Occasionally molasses, or, if I have some on hand (which I don't often) shagbark hickory syrup. I noticed recently that Hickoryworks, the shagbark people, now sell a smoked hickory sea salt. Though I do salt the water just before adding my steel-cut oats, it never occurred to me to salt it at the finish. The hickory salt might be yummy that way. If you haven't ever had shagbark hickory syrup, it tastes like a campfire. Sometimes I add peaches in season or fresh berries, but just a few. I like to bury raspberries in the hot oatmeal so they get melty. Then I always top off with a little cold rich milk or half and half. I used to toast regular long-cooking rolled oats, and that really improved the flavor and the texture. But I'm very happy with the taste of untoasted pinhead oats. I'm sure they are fantastic toasted. Lazy, I guess.

Since cutting back on salt several years ago I too wonder about the most effective point/s at which to salt food. It would be great to know at what point in the cooking process the food makes best use of the salt. I usually follow a recipe and salt at the times specified during cooking, but I almost always use about half the amount called for in things like soups and stews. I do salt meat before grilling, but when Bobby Flay says 1 Tablespoon I use 1 tsp. Some chefs seem to salt several times during the cooking process, but I just don't find that necessary. I know one thing for sure. Anyone who cuts back on salt ends up complaining to their companions in a restaurant that the food is too salty. I don't go out much any more, because I just don't enjoy my meal if I find it too salty. Chefs who have restaurants almost always oversalt in their books, so I figure accordingly. I don't salt my stocks at all any more, assuming that whatever I'm going to make with them will get salt during and probably after cooking. When it comes to sauteeing veggies, I find that a little salt and pepper is helpful at about the midway point, or when the veggies have wilted or are thoroughly hot. I salt the water for regular pasta but never for Asian pasta, which already has a ton of salt in it. I've taken to using finishing salt since often my food is slightly undersalted, but at least I can control it that way, and it doesn't take much, as someone mentioned above. I use Diamond Kosher salt during cooking, and only use the gray salt as for raw foods or finishing. I'm typically cooking for two, not four, but my box of salt lasts at least six months. And that's cooking almost every night, plus bread baking.

Alice Medrich has some recipes like her whole wheat sables and buckwheat cookies with chocolate nibs that she notes are better a day or two later. Indeed, the buckwheat cookies were fantastic the next day and even better the day after. The fourth day I wouldn't know, since they were gone. Not generally a cookie person, it takes a lot to impress me. I don't know if my guests liked them as much as I did, but I liked them so much I didn't care. This is a great topic, since I am less sure of myself when it comes to flour and sugar, and always look for a dessert that can be made the day before a dinner party. So I can toss it out if it's horrid of course.

So if I get this right, the OP is objecting to an attitude among certain restaurants that implies, "Truffle up or shut up." I'm with you on that one. When I dine out, which is rarely these days, I just wanna have fun, with good food. Attitude I don't need.

I have used Chemex in the past, and every time I get offered a Chemex cup of coffee it's quite good. But I'm not sold on using paper filters. The Chemex website claims that there are good oils and bitter oils in coffee, and that their particular filters only filter out the bad or bitter oils. Is this true or even possible? I checked out the site referred to by Alex, and they suggest that paper filters impart an actual distinct (and unwanted) flavor, and that making coffee in quantity mitigates the problem. I have never exactly noticed an off-flavor from a paper filter, but I find the flavor is richer without one. Part of it is just what you are used to. At our house we use two methods for brewing coffee. When we want more than 1 cup we use a French Press, avoiding the filter issue altogether. For one or two short cups we use a single-size gold filter in what is now pretty much an antique ceramic Melitta cone. There's nothing about gold filtered coffee that I find inferior to paper filtered, and it saves money and paper. I wonder if you could use a gold filter in the Chemex, and if that would taste any different than a gold filter dripped directly into the cup. If it did, that would mean the shape of the Chemex is important. The design has always been beautiful.

This is a great topic, but HUGE! And it's really Anthropology. So many things come into play: culture, personal history, personal taste, availability, perception of value and current value. Being a fat aristocrat used to be a sign of well-being. If you were lucky enough to have lots of fattening food you were (comparatively speaking) healthy. When I moved from the east coast to CA I couldn't believe that white grapefruit was uncommon. Florida white grapefruit is the best. I'm pretty used to Texas and CA pink, and it's fine, but now I think of white grapefruit as a total treat. My husband, CA boy that he is, never even had one before he met me. Artichokes were precious to my mother when I grew up. She was crazy about them, they weren't that available, and she treated them like rare objects. When I moved to CA in the mid-seventies you could buy 10 artichokes in Watsonville (not little ones!) for a dollar. Everyone here ate them routinely with mayo, which I thought was very weird. Of course in the west, they use mayo on hamburgers. But now artichokes are not so cheap here where they are grown, and they seem like a splurge, selling by the choke not the bag. Chicken wings, feet, marrow bones. It now costs more to make stock than to buy broth in a can. Personally I agree about dark meat from chicken or turkey. My mother once advised me to marry someone who liked white meat, so I could have all the dark. Here's a question: if snake tastes like chicken, why don't we eat snake? And does it taste more like dark or light meat? If caviar (good caviar) were cheap and abundant I would eat plenty of it. If scallops cost the same as sardines I still wouldn't eat them. For several years after moving west I mourned the personal loss of Maine lobster. Now in my head it's so special that even when I go back to visit, lobster disappoints. I find it's better as a memory. The same can't be said for wild Pacific King salmon. Now that's a rare treat.

You are both saints, and both lucky. I won't embarrass myself by listing all the many ways in which I must have turned my daughter against learning to cook. She's a college grad now and on her own. God knows what she eats if someone isn't feeding her (she had the perfect campus job working in the dining hall, which meant free food and lots of it), but I know she doesn't like junk food and she does appreciate my cooking when she comes to visit, although her idea of helping me is to ask if I want help and then promptly leave the house. That way she can at least say she asked. She claims to have baked bread, but I have yet to see any evidence. Last summer when she was home for two weeks after graduation she scrambled an egg in one of my cast iron skillets without using any butter. She's pretty good at clean up, but after 22 years she still doesn't know or care where anything in the kitchen goes, and puts clean utensils and dishes wherever she feels like. When she visits I spend some frustrating minutes at critical junctures searching for a tool while something starts to smoke. Not that she isn't perfect in every other way.