Katie Meadow

I think it's pretty common to throw fresh arugula on a pizza after it comes out of the oven. Ideally, at least from my perspective the pizza should be really hot so the arugula wilts a bit on top.

KMN. That sounds amazing. It's possible the collars could handle cooking on both sides. It's pretty hard to overcook black cod.

I never post in the Lunch topic, mainly because I don't really eat lunch. We typically eat a late breakfast and an early dinner and a late snack. But on vacation we must adjust. Yesterday was a rehab day of sorts, so we stuck close to home in Highlands NC. We had some hardware store shopping to do and maintenance tasks. The hardware store in Highlands is so huge it made me dizzy. We needed brighter lightbulbs and a flashlight; the shelf space devoted to both was amazing. Since by the time we managed to get ourselves into town it was already after 2:00 pm we decided to try lunch outside at the place that had the fabulous grouper, so I had fish and chips, which I rarely eat, partly because I don't really deep fry anything and, and mostly because places that make it in the Bay Area rely on Tilapia, which I hate. This fish was cod, thick and very fresh. The batter was light and crisp, really delicious. I can't say the same for the fries, which I believe were battered instead of double-fried. They were tasteless and boring. Why is it so hard to get good restaurant fries? Really, I may have to learn how to deep fry in my dotage. Yes, I always wear shoes in the kitchen. One thing I've learned about the mountains in September is that it's too chilly to eat dinner outside, especially for a wuss like me; these folks don't believe in outdoor heaters until winter. So lunch outside is a great luxury. It's so dark in the cabin that by the time we get out of bed it's practically lunch time anyway. Of course we are staying up late, because we have a big TV here and we are re-watching all of Breaking Bad for the first time. But now thYat we have better lightbulbs and have rearranged some of the furniture I now have a cozy spot I can read in. In Highlands we have nothing but time and have limited ourselves to one waterfall a day.

This or something like it will go into heavy rotation once we get back home. I've added a veg stock to my freezer arsenal recently and that's been really useful for a variety of things. I cooked RG beans in it and that was excellent. A change from my usual ham broth beans.

Well, yes, but this cabin in the woods is deep enough in that it doesn't see sunlight. So it's problematic sitting out on the deck as September is chillier than I expected. Next time I do a mountain vacation it will be in high summer. I'm more of a seaside or desert person, so this is novel for me. The darkness in the cabin isn't a problem for my husband, but I have a particular retinal condition that demands a lot of light. Every Friday thru Sunday will be spent at my daughter's place in Decatur, GA, where it is currently 80 degrees. The rest of the week will be spent looking at waterfalls and checking out small towns. This is Cherokee country. There must have been a lot of Scots settled here, because the Tartan Museum is in nearby Franklin. Besides the museum, for which they charge, there's more merch than you can shake a stick at, especially if you need to wear a tie showing your clan pattern. If you love plaid, this is your happy place.

Here I am in apple country in September. I'm in the mountains in North Carolina. One of my absolute all time favorite apples is the Arkansas Black, which we have always referred to as a Black Ark. And here they are! Part of a farmers' market haul. I haven't even tasted them yet, I'm just living in anticipation. They used to appear for a very brief time in our Bay Area market but we haven't seen them in years. Another favorite apple is the Black Twig from Tennessee, even more elusive. Maybe we will go into Asheville for the day soon and check out their huge farmers' market and see if they can be found. In mid October we will be in western MA and I'm hoping for a hot fresh apple cider doughnut. And speaking of doughnuts, which is clearly off-topic, I'm also looking forward to my favorite doughnuts in the world: Hole Doughnuts, in Asheville.

Being on vacation means eating out a lot, which we don't do often at home. We are in Highlands NC. Our first splurge dinner was a popular place called "Wild Thyme." They had a special of pan-fried grouper. I'm a grouper groupie, so that was a no-brainer choice. It was the best piece of fish I've eaten in ages. It came with a humble sauce that was a little lemony with capers that was really good. I ordered the sauce on the side because I like my fish fairly plain and usually find sauces too heavy handed. We are trying to eat half our meals in our airbnb, so two days later we ate at "Gracious Plates," a restaurant in nearby Franklin that bills itself as "farm to fork." The star of the meal was the fried green tomatoes. They had a light crispy tempura batter. The tomatoes were sweet-tart and the slices substantial. I was in heaven! Whenever I'm in the south in the early fall I order fried green tomatoes, but typically they are battered with a thick cornmeal crust that dwarfs the tomatoes and taste like cardboard. These were ethereal. The rest of the meal was just okay, although the wine was a major good deal: apparently every Wednesday is half-price wine night. A glass of delicious minerally rose was like five or six dollars. We did have an appetizer earlier in the afternoon. A roadside stand was advertising hot boiled peanuts, which I can never resist. These were cooked perfectly. It's the next morning and I'm already craving more. This is a "cabin in the woods" kind of vacation. We are at 4000 feet elevation and surrounded by dense trees. It's so dark as a result we are sleeping in late every day. The residents of these mountain towns are hearty folk. At "Wild Thyme" we opted to eat dinner indoors. They told us they don't drag out the patio heaters until November, when there's a chance of snow.

I'm in the southern Appalachian mountain town of Highlands, NC. To stock up our airbnb we drove a few miles north to the town of Cashiers. They have a small farmers' market that's open every day. The selection was limited, but very interesting. There were a few things I've heard about but never until yesterday ever laid eyes on. There were muscadine grapes and also scuppernongs! Both were larger than any grape I've ever seen. I was surprised how thick the skins were; I ended up sucking out all the fruit and tossing the skins. Of the two I preferred the green scuppernongs. There was pristine fresh white corn, which was good. There were greenbeans that were the best in memory. They were clearly very fresh and actually tasted like....GREEN BEANS. Better than any beans I've bought at farmers' markets home in the Bay Area. We splurged on a quart box of blackberries, also delicious. The rest of the haul hasn't been tasted yet: baby crookneck summer squash (so Barbie fucking cute!), a mix of tiny baby fingerlings that were various different unlabeled shapes and colors. Pale yellow onions that are the exact whole size of when I really want a half an onion. A pint each of fresh shelled Black Eye Peas and the same for Butter Beans. A customer in the market swooned when she heard me talking about them and said she liked them just boiled for twenty minutes or so and eaten with just gobs of butter and salt. Sold! We're going to eat the peas or beans tomorrow night for dinner and take the remaining pint down to my daughter's in Decatur. I'm told my twin granddaughters who recently turned two, adore all beans. I hope they never decide to do what my husband did when was two, which was put dried beans so far up his nose that he had to be taken to the hospital. We then proceeded to an Ingles supermarket the size of a soccer field. Just a rough guess, of course. I admit I don't do much of the shopping any more, but I never imagined the way the cereal aisle has evolved. Some of them were higher than any child's eye level. In fact they were MY eye level. OMG. There was a box of KitKat cereal; mesmerizing chunks of KitKats floating in a bright blue sky. My husband saw my trance and said, uh, no. I hardly ever even eat cold cereal. If I'm still thinking about it the next time we hit up Ingles I may have to make the leap. After all I'm on vacation!

Using up my miles, American first class to Atlanta. The last time it was inedible, this was a little better. The choice was lasagne (vegetarian) or beef. I've never had lasagne on a plane that was edible, so I ordered the beef, even tho I rarely eat beaf. It was supposed to be short ribs, but was more like a brisket. Not as terrible as it could have been and I left half of it uneaten. Came with what I think was some overly rich mashed potato type dish. Also edible but weird. Salad was dark leafy greens, so at least I got some percentage of my daily requirement. .Dessert was a choice of "cheese plate" or mango sorbet. I got the sorbet. Also edible, although it needed ten minutes to defrost from a sold block. The best part of the meal was the flatware and tray tables. Real flatware and magnetic tray table, so fun to play with. You can get a spoon to stand up at very strange angles.

Not to mention the shrimp being overcooked.

I don't think of tinned fish as a low-end product, but I do think of it as pantry food. I can open a can as well as a restaurant kitchen. And I can serve my tinned sardines and open a jar of pickled piparra peppers at home, when I don't feel like cooking or eating out. Here's my favorite sardine meal these days: Japanese rice made in the Zoji. Nuri spicy sardines plus the oil served on the rice. And for color I add some jarred Matiz piquilllo peppers. On the side I have some thin slices of cucumber with a little salt, sesame oil, rice wine vinegar and a sprinkle of black and white sesame seeds. All good, especially when there's little in the fridge.

Does clumpy granola always depend on more more sweet syrup? I make granola that is not clumpy and it is not very sweet.

I make two tomato soups. The one I make in the winter uses canned Italian plum tomatoes that get roasted before blending. For this soup cream is optional and gets added at the end to taste. I prefer it without the cream. Come summer I make a fresh tomato soup with dry-farmed early girls. I suppose it could be made with heirlooms, and I also assume, since there's not much to this soup except for peak-season fruit, the flavor of the soup would change depending on the variety of tomato. To make my summer tomato soup I find this to be a most effective way to seed and peel: CucinaPro Tomato Strainer- Easily Juices w No Peeling Deseeding or Coring Necessary- Suction Cup Base, Food Press (eG-friendly Amazon.com link) It is by no means perfect, but it is extremely good looking: a red plastic tomato press. It is a design which probably could have been improved, but it gets the job done. And it makes you feel very happy when you first take it down from the shelf after many months of not looking at it. The happiness is somewhat tempered by frustration when the suction bottom fails, but now that's just part of the experience.

Tomorrow night my plan is to make malfatti with brown butter sauce; you know, it's those little logs composed mainly of spinach or chard and ricotta cheese. The ones at my Italian restaurant down the street are so rich I can barely eat them, but they are delicious. I've never made them before, so if anyone has tips or a recipe they love, by all means send them. Thanks!

Me too. I love it for breakfast, but I like it toasted and buttered. So that's my treat if I make cornbread the night before as part of dinner. Can you get Bob's Red Mill? The medium grind makes excellent cornbread. Also there are numerous artisan products on line from places that sell grits, such as Marsh Hen Mill (aka Geechie Boy) with a selection of various grinds. Now I'm thinking I'll make some this evening!

I got curious and did minimal searches. Indeed there are plenty of recipes on line that use only tomatoes or tomato paste for Mexican red rice, but there are also plenty that use achiote, with or without tomatoes. It's also used to make Puerto Rican yellow rice. It has a very distinct taste. I'm thinking that many Mexican restaurants serve a blander version with only tomato flavor. It's been a while since I had a "red" rice side in a restaurant, but I don't remember it tasting like achiote. I also like it in a rub or sauce for grilled chicken. I'm sure there is someone on these boards that knows a lot more about it than me. I notice that some of the recipes on line call for achiote powderI; I've never seen it sold in powder form. Once I tried to make oil with annatto seeds but the seeds were hard to find, so I just stuck with the paste. Really it is more of a soft little brick You break off a chunk and dissolve it into a paste or liquid as desired. Then there's gullah red rice, aka Charleston red rice. That uses tomatoes to give it color and flavor and has a profile as you would expect from the holy trinity and often sausage or shrimp.

I always thought the red color comes from achiote paste or oil made with annatto seed; two ways to get annatto. The paste is usually available from any market that sells a lot of Mexican products, and also from Amazon. It's east to work with as long as you know to soften it with lemon or lime juice rather than water. Makes very good red rice and tomato can certainly be added.

Nettles on pizza is fabulous. I've never made it myself, but I do know there's some prep involved to take the sting out.

Just looked up colcannon. Little did I know that I've made a version of it over the years. Basically mashed potatoes with sautéed chard swirled into it. I've also made potato-chard cakes, using pretty much the same mixture only adding egg and a little flour. Honestly I have no idea what it will take to get me to purchase kale over chard. My only experience with adult curly kale is when people bring a kale salad to a potluck. Raw kale seems like goat food to me.

I just cooked Royal Coronas for the first time. What a hoot! I typically soak my beans for 4-6 hours, starting in the morning the day off. These big babies could have used a longer soak I think, like overnight. As it was, they did take longer to cook than most any beans I've had from RG. I simmered them on the stove-top in a robust home-made vegetable broth with onion, garlic, fresh thyme and bay leaves and the resulting pot liquor was delicious. I make a pot of beans frequently and do not own a pressure cooker or InstantPot. My 5.5 qt Creuset is the most hard-working pot in the kitchen. As for the op, I can't see how a soak would be any more beneficial than it would for beans that are not headed for the blender. I would just make sure they are nice and soft and creamy before blending.

Sounds very promising. Happy not to par-boil anything. Doesn't the garlic get burnt during the time it takes for the stalks to cook? For most of my stir-fries I start by making a a spicy oil with garlic, ginger and a couple of small dried chiles in the wok. I take the solids out when they start to get golden and use the oil to cook all ingredients. Then maybe add some additional minced garlic with the leaves? Then throw in the sauce, cover to steam a minute? Gai lan is on the next shopping list. Oh, what is Golden Mountain sauce?

I'll skip the liver, thanks, but I'm all over the arugula.

Okay, a sardine shake is a truly revolting idea.

No restaurant gai lan that I'm aspiring too. I love that dish with garlic and sauce, but often it isn't as good as I want it to be. Okay what else is new. Recipes vary as to whether to par-boil the gai lan or not, whether to peel the stems, etc. I just need to source some fresh vegetable with a lot of leaves and start experimenting. I would be happy with just that on rice.

I'm also taking an Areds eye supplement. My doc is thorough. There is no fix for my retina problem but I adore him so I'll do whatever he says! Spanakopita is a good idea. I love it but rarely make it since I have yet to conquer my trepidation about working with phyllo dough. Spinach soup will happen when fall and winter set in. @heidihGumbo Z'Herbes is an excellent idea. I hadn't thought of that. Chase's recipe looks to be for 100 gallons. I'll get right on it. @Margaret PilgrimDid you ask how it was done? .