Katie Meadow

Let's get this out of the way and I will never speak of it again. I would rather jump off a bridge than drink eggnog. See, I'm already getting into that xmas spirit!.

Regular mashed potatoes have never appealed to me. At family Thanksgiving for many years my nephew, starting as a teenager, made them. They were godawful. I won't say anything about the havoc he caused every year in the beach kitchen, just when everyone needed to finish their dishes, pull out the turkey, make the gravy, etc. But it was his contribution; not a negligible thing when you have 15 people for dinner. But I my husband's family has the sometimes enviable trait of not criticizing anyone's cooking, nor suggesting helpful hints for fear of deflating anyone's self-esteem. I didn't grow up like that, but they did. As a result, some of them have never learned to cook. Should we need a next generation to carry on as we old folk get tired, we will be up a creek without a paddle. But times have changed. For the last few years said nephew has not been at Thanksgiving and no one has wanted the task. This year I made a couple of great discoveries: one is a potato and cauliflower mash that whips up ethereally soft and doesn't appear to suffer from a reheat. Typically I use at least twice the volume of potato to cauliflower, but adjustment is simple depending on how moist you want the dish to be. We make it frequently and the leftovers are excellent for breakfast. The cauliflower takes a back seat when it comes to flavor. I made this dish for my daughter and her husband, both of whom are cauliflower deniers. They liked it very much and didn't realize there was cauliflower in there at all. Their year old twins also were happy and ate it with their hands, as they were not utensil-adept yet. It is a bit stiffer in texture if you cut back on the cauliflower, but still much fluffier than any mashed potatoes I 've ever eaten. The other revelation was a stick blender. It works supremely well for this preparation. We add the usual suspects: butter, milk or cream, a dollop of creme fraiche and chopped chives if we have any.. I think the addition of a little creamy chèvre might be lovely too. Anyway, it is super easy, even though you do have to parboil the cauliflower separately. The fact that it reheats without losing texture means it can be finished before the turkey comes out. This year I am going to test it out on my husband's brother and my sister in law. So, for those of you who, like me, usually find mashed potatoes dull or mortar-like, this is really nice.

When we moved into our house the previous kitchen renovation had been done in the late 60's I believe. Although the kitchen is big the space for the stove was 30 inches. The cabinetry is solid and well built and we didn't have the money to replace it nor did we have the money or vision to start hacking away at it to make room for a 36 inch stove. We needed to replace the dishwasher and the fridge, and replace the floor, which was awful. We splurged on a 30" Viking and I love it to pieces. Despite being a bit over 30 years old with a few quirks, it's still a workhorse. We were three and now we are two, and the older I get the more I like the powerful flame and the less I need another six inches. My pots and pans don't seem crowded and the stove accommodates a pretty good size wok. In your words, it's become the final range.The house was built in 1915. Most people who buy an old house fix it up one thing at a time unless money is no object. My advice is to live in the space for a while before gutting it. In a few years you will have a better idea of what you really want.

Although I really find commercial Jello brand unpalatable, I will attest to the marriage of real fruit jello and whipped cream. Every couple of years during blood orange season I make a gelatin mold that is really nothing but fresh squeezed orange juice. You can cheat a little by subbing a few navels or better yet cara caras, but to really get the right flavor and the deep color you do need to use mostly blood oranges. A brandied whipped cream is an awfully nice thing go-with. My nephew, who pretty much shares my sense of humor, got treated to one of those molds on his birthday. I put candles in little plastic ballet dancer holders and wow, did they dance when I walked out that birthday "cake." Anyway, although my husband thought I was insane, I did prove that you can stick candles in jello and keep them lit.

Worst of all you are probably stuck with lemon or lime jello, since you can't eat anything red or purple the day before. Any project with leftover jello doesn't bode well. Better to spend the time reading a novel or making something you actually might want to eat. My only good memory of Jello is that it was allowed after my tonsillectomy but ice cream was better. And that was probably 65 years ago. W.ell, actually that's not my best Jello memory. I was at a party, and this was years ago. A Japanese woman brought a Jello dessert that was really more of an art project. Very thin layers of different colors of Jello plus white layers which were made using milk and gelatin. When cut it was simply beautiful. It must have take at least a day or two, because there were many layers and the last layer had to be cold and set before the next layer could be added. It was perfect.

OMG I'm a member of your tribe. I'm not wild about having big hunks of meat on my plate either. More and more I'm liking to make Asian things where protein isn't the star, just a participant. Even fish. I've recently been grilling it outside in foil packages with a variety of Asian sauces/spices (and butter!) and then serving it on short grain rice. It works and affords plenty of flavorful juices My rice cooker is getting a workout these days, and the minimal clean up with foil packets is a big bonus.

Yes, pork loin is tender,, but I've never found it very flavorful. When I have it I usually cut it in very thin strips and marinate the living daylights out of it with garlic, soy, rice wine, etc. Then I use it in a stir-fry. Don't own a SV.

Crazy like a fox, you are. You either find the silver lining or you really make it rain

Exactly. No gummy cake there unless it's inside a mailing box.

You didn't say "nuanced." I did. You stated that the Nuri's had more character or flavor notes and that the Matiz was "one dimensional." Meaning the opposite of nuanced. I am in no way disagreeing with you! In fact my husband and I agreed that it was hard to taste anything but the heat in the Matiz. Although I could not have nailed the various flavors as you did. Or were you reading a label? Maybe I should check out the tin more closely, next time I am in the kitchen. Otherwise you are indeed a super-taster.

I finally got around to trying the Matiz spicy sardines. I think they are hotter than the Nuri. Without a side to side comparison it is hard for me to say the Nuri spicy ones are more nuanced, as you suggest. Ot course I really can't imagine a side by side tasting of spicy foods, it would just be too complicated to distinguish one heat from another after the first bite.

Okay, I can see where the confusion about "sweet" hams can get annoying. I looked at the website for Edwards, and they seem to be one of a few purveyors of smoked city hams that they refer to as sweet. Adding to the weirdness is the fact that their city or sweet hams are indeed sweet, because they come pre-glazed. In other words they are indeed sweeter than most unglazed city hams that appear to be sold on line. For a person who didn't grow up in a ham-cooking household there is indeed a fountain of dubious information about ham. After reading my own post I almost confused myself.

Thanks on both counts. Bean confit coming up in the near future. I soak all my beans. Just used to doing it. With RG beans I find a four or five hour soak is usually fine, so I never do an overnight soak. As long as I remember to unfreeze stock overnight I can finish cooking a pot of beans by late afternoon. So yummy.

Tempted to join the bean club a few years ago, but the reality is that I don't try many new bean varieties in any one order. I'm stuck on two or three kinds, routinely. It's hard for me to resist making Red Beans and Rice and I am married to Domingo Rojo for that reason alone. When my stock is low I make an order at least big enough to qualify for free shipping. My last order included Royal Corona which I admit to never having tried before, so that will be interesting. When living in NM I had my fill of refried beans, always pinto of course, but I'm less enthusiastic about pintos these days, from any source. Has anybody tried making refried beans with King City Pinks? I have one pack of them left and my daughter, who is bringing her twins to CA for xmas says the toddlers really like beans. She's way too busy to make them from scratch; if I want to make beans for her I have to tuck RG beans into my suitcase when I fly to Atlanta.

This should be in the AI thread. Just type in Pork, Brain, Spare rib. AI will churn through all recipes and come up with "Soup." Clever, innit? I wouldn't have thought of that myself, that's for sure.

Thanks @liuzhou, this has been a remarkable thread. Love it! Not that I would ever wish you a hospital stay, but this one has been incredibly productive! I hope you can go home soon--those oysters must be lonely in the fridge. Technicolor roe? I can't quite get my head around that, but it can't be nutritionally beneficial. I hope tobiko is really red, because I've eaten my share. The forest frog thing, well, chacun a son gout, as my dad would say in his dreadful French accent. I'll have the creme brûlée, hold the oviducts.

In high school my daughter developed a fixation with boba tea. She was at Berkeley High and downtown Berkeley was lousy with brand new shops to get the stuff. Not that I had high expectations, but one time she convinced me to try it and it was worse than I ever imagined. I had a similar experience with McDonald's fries. Believe it or not, until about four years ago I had never been inside a McDonalds. We were driving down from the Bay Area to my niece's graduation in southern CA. It was rainy and cold and I got this idea in my head that I wanted some nice hot fries. Despite my spotless record of avoiding McD's for seventy or so years their fries do have reputation. They were terrible.

Crabs on the runway! @liuzhou, where do I order the polka dot tops and blue leggings? One question. I must be dense, but how do you commit fraud with a mitten crab? Give them a matching fuzzy scarf? That would be a give-away, indeed; But if you can pull it off I can see how they would command haute prices.

Kill me now,

Priya's first mistake was not programming the AI recipes to omit the words "pumpkin spice."

Wow, time is speeding up. It seems like you just got back. Happy trails!

@liuzhouso sorry to hear you are back in hospital. Many wishes for a quick recovery.

Our Aebleskiver pan hasn't been used in thirty years and it looks great! My husband's mother came from a long line of Danish aebleskivers and she gave all her kids lovely cast iron pans. We did have a waffle iron that was quite old and well seasoned and we went through a waffle phase. Basically after each use it just got wiped out with a paper towel and a little oil. Eventually, and this is true, it languished in the basement and became a home for small critters. I'm pretty sure we don't have it any more, but you never know what's in a dark basement, especially if you have a husband who is phobic about throwing out anything.

We've been making our marmalade for the last twenty or so years, every year. Sterilized jars, new lids. Once in a while one jar out a typical batch of seven pints won't make a popping sound. We use that one first. I've never had a problem with mold, but then the climate here isn't that damp. The last jar left by December or January always tastes and looks exactly the same as the first batch in February. I'm too lazy to do anything that needs to be given a second bath and I don't have a garden anyway. I used to enjoy taking baths myself, but I don't do that any more either.