Katie Meadow

Aww, life is short. Don't diss kohlrabi! Salted, paper thin slices of raw kohlrabi make a great cocktail go-with. I can see it as a wrapper for sushi, although I never would have thought of it. Pickled kohlrabi is excellent. It does need to be fresh and tender and juicy, and it isn't always like that.

I wasn't being serious. Just implying the produce looks more beautiful than the stuff pictured here that comes from Imperfect or the other operation that sends boxes of "seconds."

Without giving this any scientific thought (I'm sure there are a number of readers who will be happy to) I've always suspected that relatively small cubes or dice, if cut before boiling, will absorb more water and result in mushy texture and loss of some potato flavor. Watery potato salad would be very bad. I use yukon golds during the winter for potato salad. If they are big (whatever that means to you) I cut them in half before boiling. Then when still warm I cut them into chunks and then gently mix in several shakes of salt and splashes of vinegar. I let that sit a bit before adding whatever else I plan to use. In summerI like to make potato salad with French Fingerlings, which are my favorites; excellent in potato salad, in fact excellent fixed in a variety of ways. Farmers' markets should have baby red potatoes or other waxy candidates this time of year. Although I've absorbed lots of recipes for potato salad, I rarely use one. I've made a zillion potato salads and and they are never exactly the same. I suppose I've pretty much decided what works, and I'm flexible. Potato salad to me is a mood thing, if you know what I mean. Anyway I only have a few criteria: No russets. Always celery. Often fresh dill. Usually some kind of pickled thing. Once in a blue moon capers. Once, and only once, beets. These days I'm into smoked paprika. Sometimes I like just an olive oil potato salad with good vinegar. The outlier potato salad is Japanese. The potatoes are just a few minutes from being mashed. The use of mayo is, to put it mildly, bold. There are peas and carrots in it. The main flavors seem to be salt, sugar and Kewpie. Sometimes it is inexplicably yummy. I've noticed that some recipes for Japanese potato salad include diced ham. But that's a little like a Russian potato salad! Except one uses Hellman's. My least favorite potato salads can usually be found at pot lucks and BBQ joints. Potato salad isn't having a good day when it's a guest at a picnic in CA farmland and the air is a pleasant 95 degrees. Did they pre-measure the mayo before they realized they didn't have enough potatoes?

Weekly boxes available, delivered personally by cart. Don't see any apples, maybe the horse ate them. See website, Perfect.com.

Most molded salads made with packaged Jello don't frighten me; I find them hilarious and have rarely been in a situation where I might actually eat some. The exception is the cranberry Jello salad served with a traditional Thanksgiving meal. Now that does scare me. I think it usually uses raspberry jello, or at least that's how my FIL made it. He served it in a ring-shaped mold with sour cream liberally glopped on the top. This was not something I grew up with.

Hi Dave, greetings from Oakland. If you baked bread like that for me I wouldn't complain either.

No wonder your appliances are in the bedroom.

My memory of the water in Greece is that it was the best I've ever tasted. NY water is good. Bay Area water is very good. But the water all over Greece was delicious.

I'm hooked on Cajun blackening spice. I don't really blacken anything, but during lockdown I started using it for fish, shrimp, cajun banh mi and as a necessary ingredient in a pot of red beans. Also we are eating a lot more red sauce which I make in quantity and freeze in portions. Spaghetti with sausage, spaghetti with cauliflower, and we are making pizza more often. Leftover pizza the next day can't be praised enough. Another thing we are buying and using more often is curry leaves. Curried cauliflower has become a staple. Oh, and root beer floats have become more routine in the time of covid. Ice cream and chocolate biscotti are taking up residence on a permanent basis.

They are cute, like little fairy bowls with the roe nestled in them. In Atlanta a friend of my daughter brought over a gigantic casserole of mac n cheese. She used orecchiette, and it was good; thicker and with a bit more bite than typical elbows. I ate more mac n cheese in the three weeks I was there than in the last ten years combined. They seem to have an unlimited capacity for it in the south, appreciating it whether it is good or not. When you have newborn twins to feed you eat everything you can close your jaw on.

I buy Japanese buckwheat noodles. Most of them are a blend of wheat and buckwheat; if you want all buckwheat you do have to read the labels carefully. I've tried cooking the all-buckwheat noodles and it's tricky. Buckwheat alone doesn't have much structure and gets mushy, so if you are looking for a gluten free alternative that would be the only option. If you are looking for that earthy buckwheat taste w/o needing gluten free, go for the 50/50 ones, or whatever ratio the noodles are.

By the way, thanks to all for your suggestions. I'm mulling over the whole idea and looking at options.

I don't require frozen. Did I say that? Although it occurs that if you receive it unfrozen it has probably been frozen once before, no?

I don't keep avocados in my bedroom, but I do very often walk into a room with one intention only to arrive and forget why I am there. No doubt a nap is a good option for times like those.

Is there a comparably good east coast operation? I can get locally here in the bay area most of the fish that Wild Alaska supplies, but I want east coast or southeast coast fish. I'm suffering post partum depression since leaving Atlanta. I want redfish, grouper, Atlantic cod, blackfish, sea bass, etc. Wild gulf shrimp, excepted. The ones we get here in CA are the same as the ones we could buy in Atlanta, both very good. The cost in Atlanta was about 3 to 4 dollars cheaper per pound.

My dentist used to use Jujubes candy to remove temporary crowns. She heated them a little, then you bit down rather hard, waited half a minute, then sprang your jaw open forcefully. It almost always worked. I don't know when she abandoned the method, but it was at least ten years ago. Having witnessed Jujubes power I never ate them after that first extraction. But she did make the experience of getting crowns more fun!

Excellent technique if you are camping near the Caspian Sea and forgot your mother of pearl spoons.

Hmmmm......what to do....... Well, you could try Gabrielle Hamilton's caviar sandwich: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/19/magazine/caviar-sandwich-holiday-gift.html On New Year's Eve, before my brother and I were old enough to go out to parties, my parents, in a not-typical gesture, would sometimes leave a party in order to come home by midnight. They would treat us to caviar at midnight. Their choice of beverage was often ice cold vodka. So, caviar was a once-a-year thing for me, and still is. Now we buy American caviar, some of which is really delicious, and we make the above sandwiches on NYE. I know GH has had a long nostalgic relationship to Pepperidge Farms white bread, but I don't; my husband bakes a very good white loaf that's makes a fine sandwich. I'm sure PF is also great, one a year. The first time I had caviar was at a very fancy party, some friends of my parents. There was what to me seemed like a tub of it, and there were little mother-of-pearl spoons for dipping in. I remember being transported and it is possible that I didn't even know what it was. I found out quick enough. I was more than happy eating it right off the spoon.

Growing up I have many memories of my parents eating raw clams. My mother was particularly into them. Summers in "the other Hampton" we ate a ton of shellfish. But I never witnessed any interest in oysters, which is strange to me. I really like the briny east coast oysters. My dad did eat a live Scungilli he found on the beach one time just to gross us out. No idea how he knew what they were or that you could just eat them raw, alive and sucked out of their shell while playing with your kids in the surf, but then he did have a longs and sometimes mysterious life before I was born.

Number 5 new thing to eat in the south: Brunswick Stew. I only had a few bites, but it was good. Made by the barbecue place that we all liked. I never knew that the main ingredient that makes it different is BBQ sauce in the stock, or mixed in at some point. I am guessing that Community Q simply adds scraps of their ribs or brisket and their own KC style sauce. All recipes I've come across use canned tomato and frozen veggies: frozen corn, lima beans, etc. It seems to me you could make an awfully good stew in the summer with fresh veggies and leftover BBQ meat, if you are lucky enough to have any.q There's also a breakfast place close by called Rising Son (yes, SON) and they make the largest biscuits I've ever seen. You couldn't call the Cathead, unless you meant a jaguar or cougar. Designed for sandwiches, I think, but very good warm from the venue and very good toasted for breakfast this morning. My Son in law made a Broadbent bacon-biscuit sandwich for his dinner.

I have not found it easy adjusting to the lowering of restrictions. Eating out only three time since the pandemic, only the last one, a few days ago at a pub's patio, seemed sort of familiar. I felt much anxiety in the airports and on the plane. What an incredibly strange year and a half we've all had.

@DuvelMaybe crudités of common vegetables? Salmon instead of meat? Salmon Teriyaki? Something else Teriyaki? Grilled Chicken with choices of white and dark meat and a salsa or chimichurri on the side? A warm potato salad made with some pickles and the usual suspects? Any fresh English Peas around? Always a treat as far as I'm concerned, whether in Japanese potato salad or hot with butter and salt. I would be happy to come over for bland food, as long as you were cooking it.

Publix has plenty of Hagen-Dazs! Even pistachio, which I never see in the Bay Area. Publix is my new friend. But they didn't have Broadbent's bacon and my husband couldn't find any Anson Mills products. He might not have known where to look and he hates asking for directions. He comes from a family where all the men seem to have a built in compass. He knows what direction he's facing even in unfamiliar places. Well, usually.

If only. My brother and his ex were into macrobiotic and all kinds of bizarre diets. My poor nephew couldn't believe what was available to eat when he started going to other kids' homes for dinner. The chances of a four year old eating an umeboshi plum in America are pretty slim, especially once they learn about Kraft mac n cheese and PB & J.

Don't forget about Olympias! Teeny little things that almost disappeared and are now, slowly, making a comeback. I've only had them a couple of times, but they are fantastic. If they are for sale or on a menu get them.