Katie Meadow

A friend has a mulberry tree here in Oakland. The berries are nice. Correct me if I'm wrong but I think silkworms only eat the leaves.

I'm sure I'm not alone, but until last June we racked up a lot of pandemic miles on our Alaska Air card. They partner now with American, so when we flew last month we found a nonstop American flight from SFO to Charlotte and we used miles to fly first class. Coming and going the meals served to us were inedible. Not worth taking off my mask for. But the seats were comfy, everyone was friendly (okay, the bar is low for that, since my definition of friendly is really "lunatic free"), both flights left on time and I wore my N95 despite new regulations taking effect on the return flight. I made it home Covid free, which is really my goal every time I leave my house.

I just received an order from these folks who sell on eBay. They are advertised as Madagascar grade A late 2021 harvest. They are as described, very moist and fresh. I've seen fatter beans, but these are pretty good, considering the price at less than two dollars a bean. I use a half a bean, scraped out, plus some of the scraped pod for a pot of rhubarb w/ strawbs compote, or for a batch of rice pudding. https://www.ebay.com/itm/325149509480?ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT&_trksid=p2060353.m2749.l2648

I love edamame and I love boiled peanuts. One would never sub for the other, but either one makes an excellent app with a Blloody Mary or a G &T. In the summer whenever fresh edamame appears at the farmers' market I go for it. Most of the time I'm happy with the frozen kind that takes about 5 minutes to cook. As for the boiled peanuts, I've tasted them once in the south and find that the ones I make at home in the Bay Area are good or better. @kaybmentions opportunities to buy them at roadside stands recently. I thought they were seasonal, since you wanted nice fresh peanuts for boiling, which are available in the autumn when the harvest happens. The first time I bought raw peanuts was in Atlanta; they were plump and fresh and came in a giant barrel and had lots of takers. We didn't have time to cook them as it turned out, and our next stop was my mother's in NY. We took them on the plane, shoved them in her fridge, and then a couple of days later we boiled them. My mother was horrified and thought we were insane. But keep in mind my mother had some great street food available in her neighborhood but never tried any of it.

Best start packing asap then.

North to south leaf-peeper tours have undoubtedly been mapped. Start in Maine and work your way down into the Carolinas.

Bedouin tuna noodle casserole uses camel milk. Where did you get the camel? Also my recipe, inherited from my twelfth great grandmother calls for a cup of sand. Did some pink Arizona sand come along for the ride home?

Fascinating list, beautiful labels. The scary one is described as a "chili dusted watermelon Jolly Rancher." Remember that weird thread where members suggested the most awful three ingredient combos? Just the idea of a cocktail that involves Jolly Ranchers makes me want to run for the hills. But I'm also a person who thinks cereal milk ice cream is pathetic. The easiest grown up NA drink for me would be a Virgin Mary. Lots of flavor distractions, addictive heat, goes great with almost all cocktail food. Using good tomato juice is a must, though. I like Knudson's. Also, no pre-made mixes!

NO white chocolate.Ever. I believe that chemically white chocolate is only a few molecules away from a bar of Dove soap. And I agree about frosting, less is more with all that almond. If you feel the need I like Heidi's idea for a light lemon glaze. Also, rather than marzipan I think almond paste is better in baked goods. Marzipan has added sugar and doesn't blend as well.

@heidih, that sounds amazing. My husband is the baker, not me. He's tried rye bread a few times but I think there's a steep learning curve with a mind set all its own. We actually have the book called "The Rye Baker by Ginsberg, which is very interesting. After this experience with Owl Bakery he may have extra motivation.

That's why god made clogs.

Dinner was unremarkable except for one thing. A strawberry onion. We are winding down our days in Asheville, both of us sick from a cold we caught in Atlanta. I had forgotten those days, when a child is less than a year old and chalks up one rhinovirus after another. We are getting very tired of eating out, so we decided to cook. We had a box of thin spaghetti (DiCecco, a size we don't see often in the Bay Area) We had butter, chives, the remains of some delicious goat cheese, all things we needed to use up before we leave. And then there were the onions. A couple of days ago running errands we went to an Asheville farmers' market, a huge barn where vendors set up shop. This time of year isn't the best for produce. There were endless shelves stocked with every imaginable kind of local pickle or jam. But there were these onions, labeled "strawberry onions." They were small to medium size and lovely. It was dark in that corner, but I was sure I saw a faint crimson cast on the onions but it was, as I said, dark. They were advertised as "sweeter than Vidalias." So I used one as the basis for a sauce for the spaghetti, with chives, goat cheese and butter. Indeed they were sweet. We caramelized them and threw everything together for a sauce. It was served with grated local cheese called Meadow (yep that's true.) It really wasn't at all bad, though not something I would typically make at home. Later we googled them. Strawberry onions are so called because they are grown surrounding a strawberry field to keep varmints from smelling the berries. Believable, right? My husband tells me I was just imagining the beautiful rosy tinge. I've had Walla Wallas when visiting my daughter in the Pacific Northwest and loved them. But these Strawberry Onions were in a class by themselves. I have no idea why they are so sweet but there must be some special dirt around Asheville. So you see, our home-cooked meal away from home was better than I might have expected. Cooking in an AirBnB with limited pots, pans and resources always has me on edge. Our Asheville kitchen is lacking a few things. For instance the bread knife is thin and so flexible you could probably tie a knot in it.

Not to be missed if you need some good bread in Asheville: Owl Bakery. It's conveniently close to Hole Doughnuts. Need I say more? The morning we went it was chilly, and no one was sitting on the patio, which is a pretty sweet friendly looking place. The bakery is in a ramshackle house with a window around the side where you order. What knocked me out was their 100 percent dark rye bread. It is dense and beautiful and sour and it's the rye of my Lithuanian dreams, so dark it's almost black.. A good bread knife is advised; the one we have in Asheville is pretty inadequate, but ultimately it slices up fine and toasts slowly (be patient, remember it's rye bread and has lots of moisture.) Anyway I haven't had bread like that in a million years. And I mean absolutely the highest of complements when I say it's the doorstop to end all doorstops. No bakery in Oakland or Berkeley has anything like it, and after forty years living there I'm pretty sure I would know about it if they did.

In a good hardcover book the signatures are sewn, not glued. The cook book I've had the longest is my mother's Joy of Cooking. It is indestructible. Cookbooks really need to be made with sewn bindings. Most paperbacks are glued and are useless if they take the kind of beating a cookbook does.

A note on our dinner last night at Tupelo Honey. I do have fond memories of it from my last trip in 2013. It is always crowded whenever we pass by. We both have colds now; with granddaughters in day care there is no avoiding it. And since neither my husband nor I has had a cold in about 20 years, anything going around is going straight for us. Back in Asheville last night we sort of wanted to go to Jack of the Wood, which is an Irish bar and we sort of wanted some sinus-clearing Indian food, as in Chai Pain, but they don't serve even beer, which my husband seems to think is beneficial for a head cold. So we opted for the closest place to get both beer and comfort food. The app was promising: fried cauliflower with some kind of plcklish white dip. Actually very good. Everything that came after was so salty it was hard to know what was what. The grits were fixed in that overindulgent creamy cheesy way, but the ratio of cream and cheese to grits was skewed so far in favor of the cheese that it almost wasn't grits any more. There's a lot of lily-gilding in southern restaurant food that tries to accommodate modern tourist tastes, as if adding ingredients makes it fancy and therefore worth extra money and long descriptions on the menu. Yes, I know I'm picky about food, but the problem is I can make excellent grits myself. My husband makes a mean biscuit. I know how to cook string beans, so my standards are annoyingly high.. Today we are going to lay low and soak our heads in steam. My husband is off buying a NYT and to WF to get lox and bagels for dinner and some essential oils to add to the steam-pots. If there's one thing Asheville must have in abundance, it is essential oils. Breweries and wellness stores and esoteric teas are abundant. So esoteric that they don't carry English breakfast tea in any iteration. Dobra Tea in downtown is a trip, and anyone who really knows their way around Asian teas would have a field day there.

Growing up I was the only member of my family who really liked bialys.

This morning we went to the farmers' market in Avondale Estates, where my daughter lives, in the greater Atlanta area. There were good strawberries, way less pricey than Driscolls or anything we've gotten yet in the Bay Area. They actually were red all the way through! And we scored some very good pencil asparagus, which we just had for an early Easter dinner. There were also beautiful little heads of garlic and spring onions.

I have the 5.5 cup Neuro Fuzzy. It by some chance it broke, which it shouldn't since I've only had it 3 yrs, I would get another one asap. I use it at least once a week if not more. I don't have an IP or a steam oven. I can make Basmati rice n a pot on the stove, and do so often, because I love the toasting smell and because I've been doing it so long I can do it in my sleep. But the Zoji has been a revelation for Japanese short or medium grain rice. Sometimes I double the amount that we typically use for the two of us with a stir-fry, and the leftover half goes in the fridge so it can be reinvented the next day as fried rice. The Zoji has been a lifesaver in my marriage: my husband no longer has to worry about timing when he makes rice. He can just start it early and let the warming function do its thing until a stir-fry magically appears. As in me making the stir-fry.

Rhea Seahorn as Kim Wexler breaks my heart.

I never even heard of Cinnabon until Better Call Saul. Plus I've never seen one in northern CA, not that I've looked. But now if I saw one I don't think I would try it because the image of Jimmy McGill working there makes me so sad.

Easter Sunday in Atlanta: my husband is making biscuits for breakfast. My daughter is making lamb kofta for dinner. I'm doing nothing which is just perfect. Praise be.

My daughter gave the 10 month old twins a seder dinner. She crushed walnuts and mixed them into apple sauce. It was served on a matzoh, along with a parsley sprig, which they also ate out of politeness. Then they chowed down on some Jamaican goat curry, which, in fact can be kosher if properly prepped. I suspect this wasn't, but it was quite good. I've had goat once before, in a taco. Also good.

More notes on Asheville: We finally made it over to the River Arts district. Talk about colorful. A whole street full of graffiti and wall murals, totally fun. And yes we did eat at 12 Bones, which was all it is cracked up to be. Very good ribs, and as an amazing plus, really great collards and pretty good potato salad. I usually find the collards served at BBQ joints are bitter and have too m:h sugar and too much salt and are cooked to death, but these were delicious. Great atmosphere, very friendly folks and nice outdoor tables. I appreciate places that are open for business mid-afternoon. Yummy. On our way yesterday back to Atlanta we stopped in West Asheville for doughnuts at Hole. Okay, I've never had doughnuts like this. They use one yeasted dough with several different toppings: a glazed vanilla, a cinnamon something, and an almond sesame with a little bit of salt that is out of this world. Then they rotate a fourth flavor in that changes. Yesterday it was beignet. Really just their basic doughnut with a generous snow of confectioners sugar. Really really really good. All doughnuts are fried to order and come out to you hot. Coffee is simple black drip, excellent. The doughnuts are undeniably sweet and greasy and fabulous. They gave us a couple of free ones because we must have seemed old and stupid, since it took a while to figure out their system of ordering and payment, the kind of thing Gen Z does in their sleep. It takes about six times longer than stepping up to a human at a counter and finding some cash in your wallet, but so it goes. Clearly at least half the patrons were tourists, as they spent time taking pix of themselves in front of the an old Hole truck that appears not to be movable and in fact has a hole in it. The outdoor table next to us had a strange family dynamic. They had two preteen boys in bad moods and one of them asked, "Why are we here?" Everyone else in the parking lot slash outdoor tables knew the answer to that.

And they had the nerve to call that a bialy? Growing up in NYC I remember that bialys were sold just about everywhere bagels were sold, but at some point that changed. I never see them in northern CA.

Since you brought it up I will just add to the chorus. Two things I don't like are chocolate dipped strawberries and most examples of what people call gravy. A good strawberry in its birthday suit is heaven. As for gravy there are a couple of exceptions: my husband's thanksgiving gravy, which is more like "au jus" and has minimal thickening and also I find Red-Eye gravy made with coffee to be pretty interesting. Gravy that's pale, milky and floury is the work of the devil and I can do without, thanks. The concept of biscuits with gravy has never seemed appealing. I adore a good biscuit but with butter only, or jam if the jam is tart. @Kim Shook your love of gravy AND dipped strawberries are two things I pretend don't exist, and never dampens my admiration and affection for you!