Katie Meadow

I'm not surprised that Yossy Arefi's ginger cake packs a punch. She's very generous with spices in many of the recipes in Snacking Cakes. I thought the carrot cake called for too much fresh grated nutmeg, so I cut back a bit and was glad I did. As for the sesame cake, that also has a substantial amount of tahini.but that really works for me. Yesterday I baked the Blueberry Blackberry Ricotta Cake, mainly because my husband came back from the store with blackberries. My experience with commercial blackberries is that they are often tasteless or just off. We used to have several blackberry patches that we could pick from ourselves, and those were delicious; not any more--they've been paved over or sprouted buildings. So, these weren't the greatest blackberries. If I made it again I would just use blueberries. The cake tasted even better for breakfast this morning. So if you like blueberry muffins you will love this cake. The ricotta gives it a really nice texture. I also think cutting back a little on the sugar would be a good idea; that's not unusual for me, though with many cakes.

I always thought Pi Day was just a day: 3/14, or March 14, named for the first three numbers of Pi. Pi Week is silly. I remember it being a fun day on college campuses because people in the math department would bake pies and sell them like a bake sale to raise money for some project or other.

I guess if someone wants to construct my cold salad with a tweezers, be my guest. But I always wonder when hot food is so fussed over. Doesn't significant heat get lost in the process?

Glad you are home, @JoNorvelleWalker ! Assuming your own doctor has access to the blood tests, perhaps he or she can give you ideas about what foods and/or supplements would be useful. Of course bananas for potassium. I recently learned that a good person to discuss these things with is an endocrinologist. Mine had ideas that my GP never offered, some of which were critical.

Continuing with "Snacking Cakes" I baked the carrot cake with dates. My first disappointment with this book. Not bad, just kinda boring. Good for children who won't eat vegetables, but I've had better carrot cake.

Frankly, @Kim Shook, that sounds hilarious and I can picture the two of you trying to figure out the exact right moment to go for the apple. I really like English Toffee. When I'm craving that combination, and am too lazy to search out toffee, I just spoon some salted caramel sauce out of a jar and melt it in the microwave. Then I dip slices of apple into it.

And then there's this: https://www.camelliabrand.com/the-red-beans-parade/ Personally I'm ready to join the Dead Beans Parade. Camellia beans does sell something they call "Small Red Beans" and associate them with Carribbean tradition. This is a way deeper rabbit hole than I originally thought. My guess is they are related to Domingo Rojo beans, but what do I know. So if you want to experiment making red beans and rice with small red beans instead of kidney beans there are clearly many options. Camellia Brand does seem to push their red kidney beans for RB&R.

All I know is that Camellia was started in New Orleans and has been in business for 100 years. The beans they use are not grown in the South. They just got lucky and cornered the Southern market; must be a combination of right time right place, good marketing and product consistency. My knowledge of red beans and rice history is pretty limited, but I do know that the common mythology is that the dish was made on Mondays, which was often laundry day, so a long slow cook was an advantage on a day when doing a week's worth of laundry must have taken a very long time.

I stand corrected. However I also stand by the fact that Camellia beans are kidney beans. It says so on the package. And that is indeed what everyone in the South uses for red beans and rice. RG's Domingo Rojo make fantastic RB&R.

Well of course they are! I know plenty of vegetarians and plenty of "somewhat" observant Jews who just couldn't resist bacon one second longer. If my mother ever bought those cookies it was because they sounded Italian.

Truthfully, it isn't very funny. So no one should feel the least bit bad about not getting it. There's not much to get. I'm a Jew who grew up in a rebelliious environment. My mother grew up in a kosher household but didn't look back once she tasted a crab. I don't believe she ever suffered from guilt. My own guilt has to do with eating animals. I gave up beef, but still eat pork, chicken and fish. What irritates me most is when people pretend that animals don't feel misery or pain.

Kidney beans are red beans. The most popular bean for Red Beans and Rice in the South is Camellia Brand red kidney beans. Before I started using RG domingo rojo beans for RB&R I used to order the organic dark red kidney beans from Purcell Mountain Farms, which are quite good. When I was in Atlanta visiting my daughter the only option was Camellia. I didn't think they were so great.

My pizza steel is 3/8 inch and I can't imagine it ever warping. We got that instead of the 1/2 inch option and I'm glad, because it is quite heavy. and does a great job. if you are planning on moving the griddle back and forth from wherever you plan to store it an inch thick griddle would be impossible to deal with. It would have to be built in.

@Kim ShookI often check out library books and end up copying a few recipes. Be warned, the type in this book is small and not very black, which, as I mentioned somewhere, is the only drawback. I don't even think the recipes would copy very easily. Especially because I really like this book that really irritates me. Not only should a cookbook be readable, but it should be very readable, given that the baker is most likely setting it on a counter, which if further away than regular reading distance. Oh, yeah, cranky me. Old enough to want quick and easy cake recipes, too old to have perfect eyesight.

Probably not the kind of help you are looking for, as I like my oysters raw, but there is a restaurant between Dillon Beach and Bodega Bay just inland from the northern CA coast with the name of Rockers Oysterfeller. The food is decent but the name is cringeworthy. It's a lovely drive at dusk from Dillon Beach, very rural, and once in a while we see owls swooping down for their dinner. The restaurant replaced a very nostalgic Italian family style diner/ restaurant known for martinis and three-bean salad. Respectfully called DeNucci's.

I have no doubt that a Blendtec or a Vitamix would be a different animal from the typical lower priced model blenders, but between the processor, the immersion blender and my adorable little Ninja bullet-style thingy I believe I'm covered, at least for what I make these days. I have on occasion pined for a high performance blender. Nothing makes shorter work of a smooth dried red chile sauce, but the idea of a major purchase when I really want to stop acquiring more STUFF is daunting.

I don't hate my food processor but I admit it's a chore to get it down and another chore to wash it and a chore to remember which way the bowl goes on. I use it for four things: hunmus and/or babaganoush, pickled daikon and carrots for banh mi, shredding root vegetables for a root vegetable cake I make rarely and, once a year, fresh cranberry relish. What I hate is my blender. Since I discovered the immersion blender I haven't used it at all and should give it to the Goodwill.

I wish I had access to the sea beans, they sound like fun. Maybe I've just overlooked them at my favorite Japanese market. Wakame seaweed salad is ubiquitous here, and is often sold in containers alongside prepared packaged nigiri / sushi. I love the crunch but it is very salty and gets stuck in my teeth as do the sesame seeds that accompany it. I like it as a garnish for fish or shrimp cakes. Have we mentioned kombu yet? An essential ingredient for dashi, a simple soup base, it is a thick rubbery kelp. I suspect it would take a lot of prep to make it chewable on its own. I know two things about kelp. One is that it is crucial to the health of the CA coast and is endangered. The other is that I get nauseous and dizzy watching the kelp forest display at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and then have to go sit down. All the creatures that live in the kelp must have good balance. The swaying of the kelp must help them keep safe from predators who get woozy enough to lose their appetite. Then there's dulse, a red algae. A zillion years ago I had a roommate who was obsessed with various health foods and went on a long dulse kick. I got good and sick of it, I have to say, and haven't had it since. I think about her every time I see a package. I'm a little unclear on the difference between seaweed and algae but I believe one of them falls under the category of the other. I'd rather have the answer from @liuzhouas he's more fun than google. I'm sure there are many more edible kinds of both.

I was going to make the carrot cake from "Snacking Cakes" but didn't have any dates. What I did have was an apple, a few carrots and a pineapple. So I made the Morning Glory cake. Arefi's suggestion to throw in some fennel seeds was brilliant. That would not have occurred to me in a million years. I had no cardamom, so I skipped that; I don't like cardamom much anyway. And I used walnuts because I don't like pecans enough to keep them around. I just love that so many of the recipes call for ingredients I already have on hand and can be impulse bakes. I've made four of the cakes so far and haven't had to shop first.

Liberated at the interface. L'chaim!

Baking my way through Yossy Arefi's snacking cakes, despite the tiny pale fonts. I've done the sesame seed / tahini cake twice and I am addicted.. It makes fantastic breakfast toast. The donut cake was excellent; my husband was in heaven. Two days ago we made the Mostly Apple cake, also very good, especially if served with a dollop of creme fraiche. and I liked that the apples don't disappear. The addition of some whiskey was nice; I used apple brandy, but the small amount wasn't detectable. Next time I might use sambuca, and more than a tablespoon. The most surprising ingredient was espresso powder, which I wouldn't ordinarily associate with apple cake. But what harm can it do? At one point I did think I could taste it, but maybe a little more of it would be distinctive. No clue, really, but I'm trusting her at this point. Next up maybe her carrot cake, which she clearly states up front does not have raisins in it. Thank you! So many things to appreciate in Snacking Cakes: the fact that you can put together the whole thing in the time it takes for the oven to heat up, the fact that you can use an 8 x 8 pan for almost every cake, and the fact that my oven seems to synch just right with her suggested temps.

I'm pretty attached to my favorites, so typically I will place an order that's big enough to qualify for free shipping. Then I wait until my stock is depleted and do it again. I always order at least one or two that I haven't yet tried, but the bulk of the order is Domingo Rojo. Sometimes I splurge on RG popcorn, which is delicious, and a jar of Oregano Indio, which is unique.

Maybe it makes sense to define these terms? I know it's murky, but generally hors d'oeuvres means finger foods served with cocktails before sitting down to dinner. Although I don't think "finger foods" is really a good definition, since some cocktail foods are served with little plates and utensils. The main thing is that you are standing up or sitting in the living room or a more casual venue. Apps and starters are often used interchangeably to refer to the first course of a sit down meal, especially so when you consider restaurant menus. Hors d'oeuvres are something my husband can put out in between making cocktails, while I'm at the stove finishing up my starter, which could be a composed salad, a soup or almost any very small plate. My father in law used to refer to hors d'oeuvres as "pupus," with a nod to Hawaii. My mother's go-to hors d'oeuvre was celery root remoulade, so she served it with little plates and forks but always before sitting down to dinner. My father's favorite was chopped chicken liver on crackers. Both were accompanied by martinis. So what is an amuse bouche? My sense is that it is something the restaurant kitchen sends out to you while you wait for your starter. It isn't on the menu, so there's an element of surprise. I always suspected it was a way to divert your attention if the kitchen was busy and slow to get out the first course. Everyone in the restaurant gets the same one. so it serves several functions at once: a diversion, a signal that the chef is "creative" and the restaurant is "generous." If it isn't on the menu that means it's "free." All this is not to say it isn't often fun. Okay, nuff a that.

And don't forget schmear, schnitzel and schnoodle. Well, that last one isn't technically a food, but it sounds like it should be.

You get what you pay for, no? I never knew lox came in plastic wrapped packets until I left NY. I'm just grateful that I have a source for pretty good packaged lox and decent bagels and cream cheese. If you buy your lox at Zabar's or Russ and Daughters you pay for beautiful slices, and experienced cuts and no sticking from compression packaging. And you get your choice of various types. But those of us who no longer have a great local deli have to put up with a few inconveniences. To this day my breakfast or lunch guests have never complained that my plate of sliced lox isn't picture perfect. Which it isn't. But then, who whips out their phone when they are dining at a friend's house?