Katie Meadow

I haven't seen a potato that's sprouted in a million years. Wouldn't it have to be awfully old? Clearly I don't have a root cellar. But I probably wouldn't eat it if one came my way. And yes, I did as a child stick toothpicks in a potato and sprout it on purpose but no one in my family ever suggested eating it.

I pretty much love potatoes. Fried, roasted with duck fat, in a green chile stew, various potato salads, etc. But I never was a big fan of mashed potatoes. It is possible I was never served good ones. I always found them to be essentially cement and usually not hot enough by the time the cook stopped fussing with them. Until now. I've discovered that adding mashed cauliflower to the potatoes is a way of livening the flavor and making the whole dish seem lighter, or more airy. The flavor, even when using almost a one-to-one ratio is very subtle. It still tastes like mashed potatoes. My daughter and SIL both claim to hate cauliflower, and they really liked this. I just boil peeled potatoes and cauliflower separately. Add salt and pepper, mashed garlic, creme fraiche or light cream and butter and use an immersion blender to whip it up. I use yukon golds instead of russets, because I prefer the flavor. As a final touch I brown some butter and crisp up some fresh sage leaves in it and pour over the before serving. Sometimes a soft goat cheese, if I have some, replaces or is added to the dairy. Mostly mashed potatoes appear as a side on thanksgiving, and they are more like a required afterthought, a job often given to a teen ager or someone who doesn't cook much. At least in my life it's been that way. And I don't believe my mother ever made mashed potatoes in her life. But this mashed potato cauliflower whip is a main event, and must be given the respect it deserves. I have both potatoes and cauliflower in the crisper today, so this is my plan for dinner as an entree. Sides will be golden cherry tomatoes. basic quick cabbage and carrot pickle, and maybe baby sardines.

Years ago on a road trip we stayed in John Day in Oregon, just overnight in a spare room of a couple's house. They were awfully nice people. He was, indeed, a hunter as well as a birder. My first shock came on entering the main room: There was an enormous wolf, taxidermied, hanging on one wall. It was awesome and horrifying. I stroked the fur and it was like silk. That pretty much unsettled me for good. For breakfast we were served elk that he had also shot. I'm just not a person who wants meat in the morning, especially not something gamey, even if only a "little" gamey. I took one bite and couldn't choke down any more. I felt terribly rude and embarrassed. I hope I at least partly made up for it by eating a LOT of the wife's freshly baked scones. I was so unnerved by that beautiful dead wolf. I'll never quite get over the whole experience.

Do you grow watermelons that have seeds? I'm totally convinced that the seedless watermelons that have taken over the world don't taste as good as ones with seeds. This is driving me nuts. My favorite is a yellow watermelon with seeds, and it is so hard to find these days.

Cherry season on the West Coast has been remarkably long and very good this year; a lot of them coming from WA. Cherries are just about my favorite fruit. The prices are ridiculous. My husband says he paid almost $9 lb for a bag earlier this month. That's like doubling in price over last year. About ten years ago I had a great source for good bings, at $1.69 lb. I won't buy salmon when wild King filets are going for $30 lb, but I guess I will pay anything for cherries. Actually yesterday my husband came back from a major shopping trip and said that wild salmon was down to $23 lb. I told him he should have bought it.

Exactly. Roast chicken was obtained from Williams bbq on Broadway and was accompanied by their barley- mushroom casserole and a vinegar-heavy salad. Salad was the only thing my Dad would eat that qualifies as vegetable matter. He would have laughed out loud if anyone served him brussels sprouts or rutabaga, neither of which I ever laid eyes on until I moved to CA. He probably knew the word "rutabaga' because he was a crossword puzzle addict. My food of choice in 12th grade when stoned was a foil tub of that mushroom barley stuff. I would kill for that now; brave an airplane full of maskless fools--if only Williams still existed, which it does not. That chicken does look good. I just talked my husband into roasting one for dinner, making good use of my time on eG!

My mother had one of those!

Yes they do lose their edge. Although mine sometimes chip or the tips break off from carelessness before they get sufficiently dull . My husband did some research a few years ago and determined that buying a new Kyocera every year or so is not much more costly than having one sharpened. The blades are so thin anyway it seems to me that sharpening one would make it even more fragile, but I don't really know if that's true, just a guess.

Not that I eat burgers very often these days, but I was always told to mess with the meat as little as possible: don't incorporate lots of stuff in it, don't mush or mix it up or take forever to form patties, etc, and above all use good quality beef. This onion smashing seems brutal.

Looks terrific. Do you have a recipe?

You are too kind.

Non-fluted tart pans seem old fashioned no-nonsense kind of objects that don't scream TART PAN, and I like that about them.

I'll go out on a limb: they are both stupid. I'm not diplomatic, I know. Also I've never had any desire to make Hasselback potatoes. And if someone gave me either of those things as a gift I would question their judgment.

I really hate broccoli; the smell of cooking broccoli is, to my mind, just awful. But whatever it is that's sold around here as Chinese Broccoli or Gai Lan-- I love. If Chinese Broccoli with garlic is on the menu, I order it. I can eat a stir fry of the stuff with garlic and chile and sauce over rice as a main dish.

So let's just say that "keyboard" is a metaphor and I don't know what you are spilling your eggs on. My keyboard is an actual thing, as I am a luddite who still likes a laptop.

Four minutes to make, 3 minutes to eat, and 2 hours to clean off your keyboard!

So perfect for those kinds of people who never restock their earthquake survival kits. And canned sardines trade value grows with every day there isn't an earthquake. Plus you get an art collection, at least as long as your flashlight batteries last. Win win.

Runny egg and laptop are two words that shouldn't be in a sentence together. Keep that up and move over @JoNorvelleWalker.

If going to UNM means you are a Lobo, then yes. I went to one basketball game. My pack was mainly English Dept, poets, and potheads.

Nothing gold can stay, not even mustard. But there's only one way to find out.

Wow, I had one of those electric jobs in college! No stove needed, just an outlet. You could take it apart and expose the coil, which turned out to be useful in the winter in Wisconsin when the dorm heat failed. The windows had ice on the inside, but I was able to sit at my desk as long as the coil was plugged in underneath me. I dropped out after a year, ended up finishing college in New Mexico. Much better weather. I just wasn't Wisconsin material.

I've tried a variety of sardines and so far Matiz are my favorite. I admit that I have not tried as many Portuguese ones as Spanish ones, and I have avoiding the top tier really expensive ones. Not that anyone asked, but the worst ones were Wild Planet packed in oil. I can't imagine what water-packed sardines would be like.

More pop needed! For years we have been stove-top popping a multicolor bulk popcorn, and we've been happy with it. It pops up pretty big with almost no unpopped kernels. But all of a sudden this same stuff has changed. It pops smaller, tastes less crunchy, and leaves tooth-breaking kernels. It just can't be us. My husband has been making this popcorn the same way like maybe once a week or more for years. Looking for suggestions for your favorite brand or source for kernels that pop up fresh and tasty and are good for stove-top method. I don't use a lot of garnishes. Rarely butter, usually just plain with good salt. Artisan or otherwise, but we eat enough of it so I don't want to break the bank. Thanks!

@weinoothanks for the marketplace visual. Does this operation have a poster for sale? Other merch? Surely there are sardine tee shirts? Wallpaper (the old fashioned kind) that I can use in my little bathroom off the kitchen? If I go to Portugal I want to schedule my visit for the tinned sardine art fair. @Keralawas asking about the smaller fish in the catch. What does Matiz market as baby sardines? Maybe the smaller ones are even more valuable. Maybe a sardine weighing three pounds ends up as cat food. It wouldn't be cost effective to make that big of a can, although the possibility for can art would be fabulous.

I too read the article yesterday. Did I miss something? I don't recall there being any comparison to Spanish sardines; everything in the article was based on a trip to Portugal. I have never tried the Nuri brand that the article highlights. Portuguese and Spanish tinned fish are both considered the best, which must be a magical blend of the quality of the fish caught off the the coasts of both countries and the care and techniques of the canning processes they have developed over many years. I've tried various pricey sardines from Portugal and Spain, and so far the Spanish Matiz are my favorites. Right now Amazon (prime) is selling a 5-pack of Matiz for $17. So a can costs a little less than $3.50. Santo Amaro, a Portuguese brand, sells on Amazon currently a 12 pack for $36 which is a bit less per can. Those are good too, but I prefer the Matiz. The Nuri sardines sell on Amazon as a variety 4-pack for $27, or close to $7 a can. I'm sure they are good, but I'm not ready to spring for that.