Katie Meadow

It looks like they survived delivery. We tried takeout XLB in Asheville when we were both sick but they definitely lost something in travel. Better on site.

Good to know that if your electricity goes out on Halloween you can light a pile of candy corn. Also advisable to take a bag with you camping, in case all the available wood is wet. Just don't go camping with @Kim Shook. She will eat them all before the rain starts falling. And by the way, Kim, I'm sorry to hear about your potassium issue.

This morning a new recipe appeared in my NYT in-box called "Sushi Bake." Aside from the fact that baked sushi is absurd from the get-go, the recipe piles on one layer after another of incongruity and offense: imitation crab or canned tuna, cream cheese, an obscene amount of kewpie mayo, sriracha and diced avocado. To top it off? ONE THIRD of a cup of furikake. I assume it is new because there are no comments yet. Takeaway ideas are nearly impossible, unless you can't resist having your cream cheese on a bagel with a dusting of furikake. Oh, and don't forget the "eel sauce" whatever that is. I'm not providing a link because it may be behind a paywall for some, and also because no one should be handed this on a plate.

If you are on a diet this thread is for you. I should get the hell out of bed and have some breakfast, but I've lost my appetite.

Real bananas are bad enough. When my daughter was little she was prescribed Augmentin. I used to gag just opening the bottle. That was like fake fake banana flavor.

We're doomed. We will all be eating Soylent Green and washing it down with waffle-in-a-bottle. KMN.

I miss New Mexico desperately. Most all my vacations are now spent in or around Atlanta, where you could roast a green chile, if you could find one, on the sidewalk. Next month I'm headed for Highlands NC, toggling back and forth to Decatur GA. Looking forward to good fresh harvest apples and fried green tomato BLTs. On the back end, in mid October, we will spend a few days with my nephew and his family in the middle of nowhere MA. It will be very pretty. He has two pandemic kids I've never met. Maybe there's an apple cider doughnut in my near future.

You are a cheap date! I'm afraid to ask what you drink with that.

Okay then, I'm braced for disappointment. Getting a reasonably hot fresh green chile around here has become a pipe dream. The only thing I can find with a kick is a serrano, and roasting and peeling those would be insane.

I must be from the precambrian era. I still grate mine on the box grater, on the second smallest hole. That way I can control by pressure how thick or how feathery my cheese gets. Works equally well with "fresh" hard cheese as it does with the hard leftover ends. Usually we use only enough of a flurry for two portions of pasta, or maybe a half cup at most, so I can see how you might want an assist for large quantities. For reasons mysterious to myself I don't use a microplane for cheese.

So how are the Hatch chiles? We picked up a couple of bag today, but the bags say "mild." In my time in NM there was no such thing as a mild Hatch chile.

@MaryIsobel The ideas above sound really good. It would never have occured to me to use crushed wasabi peas to make a crunchy coating but I like the idea. I like fresh sushi-grade Ahi tuna just about any way it can be prepared, raw or otherwise, as long as it isn't overcooked. One way we like it is patties or burgers, although we don't use bread or buns. Have your fish nice and cold and use a sharp knife to cut it into small cubes, like maybe a quarter inch square. Mix the tuna with some chopped scallions, a little grated ginger, chopped cilantro and a finely minced Thai chile if you are inclined, and salt and pepper. Mix in a little bit of mayonnaise. The original recipe I use calls for 2 Tbsp mayo for one pound of sushi-grade tuna; I think that's too much. I use just enough to hold the burgers together; they will still be very delicate. After forming the patties put them in the fridge for an hour of two to help them keep their shape. In a non-stick pan melt butter and/or oil of choice (rice bran oil would be perfect) on medium heat. Saute gently for s minute or two on each side, so the interior is just warmed. Serve it with a light vinegary sauce or anything else that appeals .I like to serve it with store-bought seaweed salad.My husband likes it with a side of seasoned creme fraiche, like an Asian version of tartar sauce. Maybe this is an opportunity for sprinkling of the much maligned furikake! I suppose you could dip the burgers in a little panko before they go in the pan, but I don't bother. Just turn them carefully. Alternatively you could coat them in black and white sesame seeds or maybe that crunchy wasabi stuff.

Agree, not odd at all. My favorite sweet/savory breakfast treat is some kind of rustic loaf with slices toasted and buttered. Then topped with a blanket of ricotta, generously salted and peppered, and finished with a drizzle of honey or sorghum.

The original oatcakes are my favorite Effie's. I find the corn ones too sweet. I've never seen the Ginger ones, but I would grab them if I did.

Another Siggi's fan here. We buy the plain full fat. My only complaint is they don't seem to market a pint container, so it's either a quart or the teeny personal size. So very rich and good.

And how is it? The logo looks like someone drank a lot of the product before designing it: lovely, mysterious and unreadable, at least by me, but then my eyesight is quirky. I had to read the label to get the spelling and pronunciation. Txurrut! Very fun to say. I too saw that article. I must say, calling it the Vermouth hour isn't quite as romantic as calling it the Violet hour. In my dotage I can no longer drink a martini without sliding down under the table. Porto, Amaro, vermouth, many are delicious and allow me to carry on a conversation and sit upright during my dinner. To your health!

The other day I bought myself a family-size bottle of Carpano Antica, an Italian vermouth. It's my current favorite over ice. Excellent with those parchment paper thin Italian "sheet music" crackers, which are really hard to find and are so delicate they usually suffer in shipping. Trader Joe's used to carry them, but that horse has sailed.

I've never used Jiffy or any other cornbread mix, but the truth is that the batter for most recipes can be made from scratch in less time than it takes for the oven to get to temp, so convenience is dubious. And good cornbread depends on good corn meal. I like Bob's Red Mill medium grind. I only use a minimal amount of sugar, but if you have a sweet tooth you can always adjust that.

Well la di da

But the lady has no snout! I mean the ladle has no spout! This is where enabling goes to die. At half the price it might be a good novelty buy for a toddler; since it stands up on its own you could serve snacks in it. Hey bartender, I'll have a wee dram and a ladle of Goldfish, please!

Paradise Pudding is so weird it's beyond awful. And now I can only hope that Syllabub and her sister Flummery are answers to crossword clues in what's left of my waking hours on earth. And leveret.

I'm surprised grouper isn't available in NY, since it is an east coast fish. Not even Citarella? Never seen it sold in northern CA, that's for sure. Grouper is a favorite of mine; whenever I go to Atlanta to visit my daughter I eat a lot of it, both red and black. So good! I'll be there in the fall for several weeks. Of course my twin grand-daughters are the main draw, but east coast fish is definitely a perk when it comes to visiting the south.

Sablefish is another name for black cod. Sometimes it is labeled as butterfish. No matter what you call it, brown butter is a really yummy way to eat it. Both halibut and black cod are the two fish I eat the most, as they are Pacific fish, sustainably fished, good for you and can be found fresh and wild here in northern CA. And they are both mind-numbingly expensive. But that's what happens when you overfish the planet. I used to include salmon in my top three, but King salmon is now in big trouble.

Show me the Queen of Diamonds and I can make you believe that it is.