Katie Meadow

I've never made gravy in my life. My husband makes it once a year for Thanksgiving. And I console myself by remembering that @Ann_Tgets up at 3 a.m. or some ungodly hour, so she has time to get a jump on dinner, lunch and tomorrow's breakfast!

My husband saves the "best" for last too. He risks not only his perfect hoard being stone cold by the time he gets to it--or me stealing it off his plate. Many of us just hoard one thing. He hoards food. On his plate, and in the fridge. He will dole out very small portions of good cheese, not wanting to finish it off, until it grows moldy or rock hard. He will eat a rotting peach before a perfect one and then let the perfect one become way too ripe. Not me. I eat the sweetest part of the watermelon first and the perfect peach while it is still perfect. However, I do hoard something: that's clothing. My nicest things go unworn because I want to "save" them. I'm trying hard to fight this bad habit. At a certain point I have to ask myself how long it will be before it's pajamas 24/7.

I happened on the second episode last night. The little cafe under the freeway was hilarious. A dusting of truck exhaust with your meal, anyone? Bring ear plugs and be prepared for no meaningful conversation other than screaming for the hot sauce. But I guess there are loyal truck drivers out there who stop whenever they pass through Laredo. It did make me realize how outdated my idea of Laredo is. Any cowboy's white linen shroud wouldn't be white by the time the pall bearers reached the cemetery.

Yes. And also Smitten Kitchen. Both appear to edit their posts and both write well.

I like glug, as in oil. And I like knob, as in butter.

Thanks, I'll start looking out for it in the various shops we frequent.

Just curious....I don't think I have ever had this American made brand, Sfoglini. How does it compare with Rustichella D'abruzzo? How does it compare to more common store brands like DeCecco? I use mostly those two brands. When it comes to pasta shapes, I guess I don't consider the amount of sauce that clings to it to be the main criterion; more is not always better. I did look at that video upthread. I love that woman! But all four of her trials with cascatelli looked to have more sauce than I prefer. Cascatelli looks like it would be a fun shape for kids. Who wouldn't want to be Steph Curry playing with his mouth guard?

Missed you. Happy to hear from you!

I have the Neuro Fuzzy 5.5 cup. I bought it two years ago and couldn't be happier. Price currently is $175.

@BonVivantI had the best yogurt of my life in Crete. We were just aimlessly walking and came on a little store that appeared to sell nothing but. We tried to find it again the next day and couldn't. Donkey yogurt it wasn't. At least I hope not. Your food for the trip looks great, and I can tell you are glad to be back on solid ground.

Our family beach house is in one of the prime locations for digging them. I've never done it, but some neighbors do. One neighbor gave us part of a clam once and we made chowder. Not bad, but not a quahog like I was used to. But in the last few years it has become controversial as a new personal hydraulic pump has made it a lot easier to dig them, so the clams are depleted in numbers. The general store, before remodels and new owners, used to have a giant goeyduck clam pickled in a huge bottle at the entrance. Always a great novelty when the cousins were little. Really, it was gross!

You are all making me heartsick. I would kill for a plate of fried clams and it's only 7:30 am here in CA, land of two clams. One, the Manilla, so tiny it is barely there, and the other the Geoduck, so big you have to wrestle them out of the sand risking life and limb (at least you only need one.) I woke early and am too lazy to get up and eat breakfast. But now I hear them calling softly to me..... littleneck....cherrystone....quahog....

Strangely I don't like risotto made with meats or seafood. I love artichoke risotto, but I'm getting so lazy about fresh artichokes I don't make if very often. My go-to risotto is fresh tomato, so we eat a lot of that when good ones are in season. Sometimes instead of chicken broth I use a smoky ham broth and that's really fun with heirloom tomatoes, but if I have really flavorful tomatoes I am good with using just water and no stock at all. I also find I'm happiest when I go light on the cheese and butter. Restaurant risotto is usually too rich for me; I often find restaurants use excess amounts of cheese to make up for lack of flavor. or lack of good rice. And my standard rice is carnaroli. I'm not adventurous when it comes to breakfast but leftover risotto is a treat.

This is a bit of a detour, but I would like some clarification about the term "pepperoncini." Sometimes it refers to crushed red peppers, regardless of whether it is a single origin pepper or a mix of cayenne and other peppers sold often as simply "crushed red peppers." And other times it refers to the green pickled relatively mild peppers. Is there a single type of pepper used both in its green phase and then dried when it turns red and crushed up to be served as dried red flakes. Most mixed crushed red pepper flakes are hotter than the green pickled peppers that are called pepperoncini. If indeed the crushed red pepper sold in spice jars (or if you are making it yourself from a variety of peppers) is often heavy on cayenne, then what is the specific pepper that is ubiquitous as an Italian pickled fresh pepper? In my experience with various types of fresh peppers and dried, I have no proof that a fresh mild green chile will become hotter as it ripens and turns red, but is that a factor? According to Lidia B it is a pepper specific to Calabria and is used in all forms. What do you think?

Clearly the problem is your face. It's in the way. Get a really long spoon so that the beans have a chance to cool down before you can figure out how to turn it around toward your mouth. As for the splashing, well, just move your face to somewhere less dangerous. It makes me a nervous wreck whenever I see you have posted on this thread. Calendula ointment is excellent for pillowy lips, for burns, for diaper rash, for almost everything. Glad you are okay!

Yumm, classic stovetop! I've finally gotten my husband to measure the popcorn after about forty years of too much or too little. God forbid I should make it myself. He's very good at getting every kernel to pop and never burning it, so why should I?

Buying high quality rice in small packages may not be cheap, but opening the package for the first time is something I consider a cheap thrill. Fresh rice! For basmati rice I really like Lundgren, grown in CA, especially the organic one. For sushi or medium grain rice I prefer buying it in 5 lb bags, for the same reason. And I do eat a lot of rice. @Margaret Pilgrimif you are ever in the East Bay and haven't already checked it out, try Oaktown Spice; they have a shop in Oakland on Grand Ave and one up on Solano in Berkeley, which I've never been to, and has nearly all the things I use, including a blend of blackening spice that's better than any other I've tasted; I tried finding a blend of cajun or blackening spice when in Atlanta recently, bought several and struck out on all counts. All were so salty I could barely stand them. My daughter and SIL loved the one I brought in my suitcase from Oaktown Spice, and I'm not often a fan of store-made blends. Also they always have the option of buying spices in bags that are often the right size for refill of jars.

Time for @Francito weigh in. At some point she described the basics for Sunday Gravy, or Sugo di Carne. My understanding is that it is long simmered meats (varieties of pork and beef and bones) in a tomato based, red wine braising liquid to create a thickened sauce (aka gravy) for pasta. I always thought the meats were picked out and eaten separately after the pasta course. The op suggested the topic was meatballs. I rarely make meatballs these days, but my Italian meatballs usually included a mix of ground beef and veal and pork, bread crumbs softened in water or milk, a little hard cheese, a little beaten egg, garlic, herbs like parsley and thyme and some coarsely chopped toasted pine nuts; that's from memory. I make them small, brown them in a little olive oil, then add them for a final few minutes to finish cooking in a marinara sauce, not a meat sauce. I have no doubt there are a zillion ways to make and cook Italian meatballs and a zillion ways when and how to add them to sauce. My mother, never much of a cook, used to simmer them to death in sauce. That makes a nice tough meatball.

We are once again in Atlanta, where I am having to adjust to a lack of certain staples, my daughter's strangely equipped kitchen, and her husband's many categories of "Mmm, no I don't think so." They are both on a high-protein diet (she's nursing twins, he's just wired that way) and are picky about certain preparations of ingredients; she seems to have accommodated to most of his quirks. One thing we can all agree on is hot spice. He's game for rice and beans, Sichuan takeout, BBQ. Luckily he will eat fish and shrimp. And almost any kind of chicken. Her cookbook collection is meager, but it fortunately includes the Lucky Peach 101 book. Last night we made the Lemongrass Chicken from the book and it was a hit. The night before we made the lamb burgers and they liked that as well. One of the few things I will be relieved about when I get home, aside from not being in an airport or on a plane, is less meat. Vegetable sides are a challenge; they hate cauliflower and okra and he doesn't like salads with any vinegar or mayo. Finding good cheeses, good bread, good ice cream and good stone fruit also seems to be hurdle of olympian proportions. The plums and peaches are dreadful and the lemons don't have much taste. Lemongrass is abundant and so is good beer. And for those of you like me, who have developed a bizarre love of boiled peanuts, the DeKalb Market is up to its neck in the best fresh raw peanuts I've ever tasted, big, meaty and not a bad one in a batch. So we did that and my husband and I ate most all of them, even though we thought the protein content would be a draw. Not so. We are drinking lots of Highland Gaelic Ale, a brown ale made in Asheville. Today we are making a big batch of marinara sauce they can freeze and we can have for dinner with spaghetti and Italian sausages. We make it at home all the time, but prefer it half the time with cauliflower instead of pork.

After trying a variety of brands during lockdown, I've decided my favorite sardines are Matiz. They are relatively mild. And they are not cheap, but sometimes you can get a multi-pack from Amazon at an okay price. They were less expensive at the very beginning of the pandemic, before everyone started stockpiling them!

In the recipe I use, dill and turmeric get married and have a baby; the dill and the turmeric share the stage and make something new. I've only had the dish at one Viet restaurant near me in the East Bay. That was my inspiration, and I like mine better, having never been to Hanoi and nothing to compare them to. I make Cha ca Black Cod. I suspect the restaurant version used tilapia, a fish I really don't care for. Although how would you know? I am guessing there are plenty of other bland generic tasting fish in the sea or the farm. When I first heard of "Tilapia" I thought it was a made-up fish. I can certainly imagine it is good with halibut. I love that picture of the charcoal set up.

Back in Atlanta for a couple of weeks. Dinner, thanks to the amazing DeKalb Farmers Market was Black grouper--a first for me. Really delicious just oven roasted with some cajun spices, lemon and lots of butter. To go with a rather old school casserole of farro with corn, summer squash, tomatoes and fresh basil; pedestrian and like something from a hippie pot luck, only better, because farro. Perfect for my daughter who is a milk machine with twin babies and needs rib-sticking things she can eat in a bowl while nursing at the same time. It's like a circus trick!

Salted was what I grew up with, but when I left home I started using unsalted for just about everything. We usually have two types of butter, both unsalted: regular for baking, Irish for most other stuff. It's really pretty easy if you have a yen for toast with salted butter to simply sprinkle a little good salt on your toast.

That sounds excellent. I used to love birch beer, but haven't had it for years. Somehow I associate it with being at camp on the east coast.

Growing up it was simply Coke, except at the beach when I always had cream soda. There was a phase when I ordered Dr. Brown's Cel-ray tonic at a deli with a pastrami sandwich on rye. Those were the days before the "New Coke" disaster. I never much cared for Diet Coke. I do have a good friend who, for lack of a better word, appears addicted to it as an after-dinner drink. Then for thirty years or so I stopped drinking soda altogether. In the last few years I've re-discovered root beer floats, but only indulge in hot weather a few times a year. And I'm super picky about the root beer: it can't be too sweet and it has to be made with cane sugar. A couple of months ago I ordered a Mexican Coke (I think it was in Atlanta at a family run Arepa joint) and it was delicious.