Katie Meadow

I grew up on undercooked green beans. My mother, early in her marriage, rebelled against canned or overcooked green beans. Her vengeance was to only serve them as a salad and always far too crunchy. I love hot green beans that still have some bright color but absolutely no crunch. I also like long-cooked southern style green beans with bacon, and green beans oven-roasted until starting to blacken.

Where exactly is this recipe for @weinoo's spaghetti with clams?

I too have mostly given up beef. Part of it is it's a very individual, perhaps, small then, way to help the planet. The other part of it is that I just don't crave large hunks of any kind of meat. About twice a year I get a craving for a green chile burger made from ground beef (mostly that's about missing New Mexico) and we grill the patties outside. Mostly I prefer my meat in small doses, like part of a stir-fry with vegetables. And that includes chicken. Eating a big piece of chicken does not appeal either. I would say I rely on pork for flavoring dishes, and use ham broth frequently when I cook beans. I love Char Siu stir-fried with noodles or in a banh mi. I eat seafood, (except octopus) Asian cooked duck or duck soup, and I definitely eat dairy products from all sources, in moderation. When I see pix of rare steak taking up half a plate I don't wish I had some.

I'm going with the fluffy damp pith hypothesis. All I know is from experience. Lemons grow greenish gray mold and get softer. Limes just get hard as rocks when left to themselves. Very different.

Too bad it is really seasonal, but some version of pears in wine is my favorite dessert to make. Not difficult, but you do have to get pears that are the right degree of ripeness. Versions seem endless. Very easy to bake go-with: Dorie's 3-ingredient almond crackle cookies. Both are especially good if you have GF guests, which I rarely do. I admit that I do have another personal best, but I don't make it often because my husband makes fun of it: it is blood orange jello with brandied whipped cream, or any fancy whipped cream that suits you. Too bad blood oranges have an even shorter season than good pears, but it's actually pretty exotic. And the blood oranges have such deep flavor that you can cheat and sub in a percentage of less expensive oranges, like cara caras to keep the color intense.

That looks better than what we had as kids: Bonomo Turkish Taffy. Same technique, smash it into pieces. Not very good, really, but we had a good source. My brother went to school with Michael Bonomo.

I'm into root beer floats like crazy in hot weather. Currently I'm partial to HD coffee for my ice cream in a float. Salted caramel ice cream also works, but for me it is a bit too sweet. Yes, I know, most people automatically go for vanilla. Fussy about my root beer, though; I like it on less sweet spicy side and made with cane sugar, not corn syrup. Delicious and comforting.

I never had Kraft Mac n Cheese as a kid, and only bought it for the few years that my toddler daughter refused to eat my home made version. I thought nothing could be worse until I tried Annie's. Changing the name is like putting lipstick on a pig, but I really am not nostalgic about the product or its blue box.

Ya mean Jordan Almonds don't come from Jordan? Okay, yes, joking. I'm sure we can do stale here in the US as well as anyone. A very quick wiki check and it appears more likely that candy coated almonds were Italian in origin. And two sources say that their first mention is in The Decameron. They must have stocked up during the plague. Greeks and Italians have them on the table at weddings. That seems nice!

Yes indeed. And I assumed that the traditional staleness of the almonds was part of the overall perfection. After all, by the time we get them they've been aging on a container ship from Jordan, right? Probably the ones on that ship that got beached on both sides of the Suez Canal were better as a result of the delay.

that sounds promising. I don't think I've ever had a Jordan almond and exclaimed, "Wow, delicious fresh nuts!" Perhaps I need to get out more. The next time I pass a WS on a shopping trip to a mall (which may very well be never, given there's a snowball's chance in hell that I will ever wander about in a mall ever again) I will check it out.

Not that there isn't plenty of bad pizza all across America, but I'm surmising that the bad pizza in Asia is more.... creative.

I moved to CA in the mid seventies. At that time it wasn't hard to buy fresh Pacific sardines. They were cheap, and delicious grilled. Between 2006 and now the local sardine population has collapsed by 95 percent. It is hard to imagine what Monterey was like in the heyday of Cannery Row. Experts say climate change is partly to blame, but probably overfishing factored in as well. With the availability of canned Spanish and Portuguese sardines and their popularity is it possible the same fate awaits that market?

Use the tongs at the dinner party but when the guests laugh about it tell them that it was gifted to you. Unless of course the intended recipient is at the dinner. In that case just tell them the truth.

Thanks @weinoo for the suggestions. Never had cockles but def up for that. What do you do with? And I am going to try the sofrito. Years ago I was on a Daisy Martinez kick and became obsessed with her yellow rice and finding uses for achiote paste. I did make my own sofrito but these days I just don't have the energy to prep for prep. As for Duvel, don't worry, my lips are sealed. I am pretty sure that The Little One, who isn't so little any more, previews Duvel's in-box and tosses the unimportant messages any way, .while snacking on octopus

Have you tried the Matiz piparras? Green pickled peppers with a really unique (to my mind) flavor. What other Matiz products do you like?

I've been eating the standard Matiz sardines for several years, but I've just discovered their wild baby sardines. They are packed in a smaller can, and they cost more, but they are a treat. Packed whole, with skin and teensy bones, with a very few shreds of piquillo peppers. The sardines are very mild. So far I love them split in half on buttered toast or on a fresh baguette. I also think they would be perfect as a garnish for some types of salads, like maybe a panzanella salad or a bean salad. Typically with the bigger cans we split a can and I break the fish up a bit and add lemon juice and a little red onion and eat them open face on toast, but so far I am really liking these babies plain. And because they are less than 4 oz per tin, we really need a whole can for each of us. A thrill, not exactly a cheap one, when it comes to sardines.

The truth is that when I'm on vacation, like you, I really like to NOT cook, since I cook almost every day when at home in CA. This last visit to Asheville / Atlanta provided a new unexpected twist in that my husband and I caught lousy colds from the grand babies in Atlanta and we felt so lousy when we were back in Asheville that we didn't really even want to go out. When in Atlanta we stay at my daughter's house. That's another problem entirely: their kitchen is weirdly stocked and poorly organized and they are too busy to care; they both work and with twins they are very grateful if we to cook a few meals when we are there. Cooking for four people in a cramped kitchen with a lack of good tools and half the counter space being taken up with sterilizing equipment is a definite challenge. We did have some stuff shipped from Amazon to them to fill in some of the gaps, but it was a drop in the bucket. Not only do they need lots better kitchen equipment, but my daughter is stubborn and doesn't see the need! Honestly they are doing great when it comes to the big picture and the twins, who just turned one yr old, are a source of constant hilarity. Both girls are good natured, love to eat everything, and are incredibly happy to hang out at a local brewery and chow down on pub food. Any glass of beer within reach is seriously threatened. Vacations that are driving distance from home are typically at the family beach house. The kitchen is fairly well stocked, but the flip side is that we do have to do most of our own cooking since restaurants are not close by. That's a shopping and planning problem, which is a whole 'nuther mind set in figuring out how to make meals easy, since it is still a vacation and I still don't want to cook. Thanks to me there's a good oyster knife.

And the best part is that it is small enough to stuff in among the cast iron pans and sharp knives that are in the suitcase when I fly to my vacation airbnb in North Carolina.

At the risk of having a pie thrown at me, I'm on team Moe. However I'm very fussy about the fruit: it can't be too ripe or too sweet. And if it's canned fuggetaboutit.

As an all-purpose hot sauce these days I prefer the Huy Fong chili garlic stuff. My husband uses it all the time because he finds my stir-fry dishes not hot enough. He also uses the Lao Gan Ma Chili Crisp interchangeably, whatever is handiest.The Sriracha sauce seems a little dull to me now.

See "I will never again..." for details.

Okay this is really funny because my husband uses it for stove-top popcorn as well! And he treats this dopey pot like royalty, as if it could never be replaced. It's the kitchen equivalent of a Timex watch.

Do I detect a buffalo theme? Vegan Buffalo Dip strikes me as pretty funny.

Not counting any lids, several of which do double duty. Also not counting baking pieces, no sheet pans, no designated roasting pans, casseroles, bread pans or pie pans. No electrical appliances like rice cookers (yes I have one), slow cookers or instant pots (I have neither.) I don't have any pot and pan obsessions or addictions and I try hard not to acquire more stuff. I have replaced two dutch overs and the the two older ones do heavy lifting, one as a marmalade pot and the other for bread baking. The newer ones get regular use for soups and stews, etc. Another pan was a thrift store find in very good condition. It is Le Creuset and I think they call it a paella pan. It is big and doesn't see heavy use, but comes in very handy for several things, none of which is paella.. So I have a total of five enamel coated cast iron dutch ovens. 5 I have three cast iron fry pans. One is large and square and is in beautiful condition. It got a fair amount of use for bacon, but I hardly ever use it anymore. The next one is also in good shape and can fit two medium size grilled sandwiches. The third one is tiny and cute and gets used for toasting spices or little jobs. Two other saute pans include a 12 inch stainless steel and a 10 inch cheap non stick job that has been replaced once. Handy for eggs or delicate fish cakes, etc. Then I have one dedicated french omelet pan that is a relatively heavy carbon steel workhorse. I've had it forever and it's magic. 6 I have two copper pots. One is perfect for several portions of risotto, grits, rice pudding, stewed rhubarb, etc. It is at least 30 years old and gets frequent use. The other is a shallow slope sided pan that is perfect for making a tarte tatin. Limited use, but a great Good Will find a million years ago. 2 Two pots for miscellaneous use. An ancient trashy Rivere Ware that is big enough to steam five eggs on a steamer rack. And a nice sturdy little stainless steel one for making two portions of rice or bulgur or sauces. 2 Two other stainless steel pots include a high sided spaghetti pot, potato boiling pot, whatever and very sturdy. The other is a relatively lightweight stainless steel pot that is quite big and used for primarily for making stock. 2 So that makes a total of 17, to the best of my knowledge. It's beyond me why I spent the time to count my pans for this thread. I could have made lunch instead. Oh wait! I forgot the wok. At least 35 years old, carbon steel, used at least once a week, and I couldn't live without it.