Katie Meadow

Lobster is usually a safe bet, no?

I guess I like the taste of peanut oil, so I use it for high heat stir-fry. But I don't consider Peanut oil a neutral oil, it definitely has flavor. For high heat cooking minus the peanut oil flavor I think Rice Bran Oil is a good choice. You could read about the pros and cons of the multitude of oils until your eyes cross. I suspect that there are many people who use canola oil because it is very high in omega 3's. But it does have other negative qualities, even aside from the fishy taste that only some of us detect. If you want a good source of omega3's snack on walnuts.

If I was to go out and actually purchase Velveeta, which I haven't done for forty or so years, I would feel guilty. But if someone served me tortilla chips with melted Velveeta hot from the oven topped with a pickled jalapeño I would eat it without guilt. After all, I didn't do it. Eating beef makes me feel guilty. I do it a couple times a year.

Canola oil is a mystery to me. Just a quick search on Google confirms that I am by no means the only person to whom canola oil smells fishy. Some say they only detect the fishy smell when it is heated, but I can smell it in the bottle. I never have it in the house. If I want a neutral oil I use Sunflower. I also keep grapeseed oil on hand, but use it mainly in sweet baked things that call for oil instead of butter. So maybe Eric Ripert himself smells like fish and the scent of the canola oil is too subtle for him.

I adore a good yellow watermelon. Don't you think it has a slightly vegetal quality? Hard to describe. I'm convinced the ones with seeds are better than seedless. But I think that's true of all watermelon. Looking forward to the season here in northern CA. I will be in Atlanta in June and I wonder if yellow watermelon is popular there. I'm looking forward to everything but the flight, that dreadful airport and the weather.

I went through a Duralex phase. It seemed romantic. French picnic! But my husband never took to it. He prefers to take his chances with stemmed wine glasses; one particularly weird event involving two stemmed wineglasses included a trip to the ER. I discovered the best solution was simply Ikea generic stemmed glasses. If one breaks it isn't sad, and every so often you can go back to Ikea for another six-pack. The decline of dinner parties at our house has resulted in a pretty stable collection of wine glasses.

Ooh, lovely. Happy Birthday (not).

Okay, so now I have to know: what does SE do? What do you mean by animate objects? Is she a veterinarian? A therapist? A cat wrangler? Only after I left NY for less insular territory did I learn that cutting bagels in half horizontally is considered a dangerous operation I hope my confidence doesn't get shaken now that I've learned there's such a thing as a left-handed bread knife, because I'm pretty sure I don't have one.

If it was the second mai tai I get it. If it was the first, you have my sympathy. Doesn't Baccarat make a sippy cup?

I say you're good as long as SE can cut a bagel in half.

I'm a southpaw. and although I do have a few right handed skills, working with a sharp knife isn't one of them. The worst offender in anyone else's kitchen is a right handed soup ladle. All ladles should be made double-spouted. So obvious.

@weinoothat doesn't sound fun at all. What exactly was the cause of the problem? Okay, so here's how I cope: I make my husband do everything. In the case of an injury to my dominant hand, that would mean a lot of takeout.

This is a great recipe to be served along with Greek spreads or whenever; it's a bit chunkier than most spreads, so it also works served as a mound of salad. Great with fresh baguette or plain crackers. I like it best warm. GREEK LENTIL MEZZE ¾ c small French lentils (Le Puy) 1-2 small zukes, quartered and sliced 1 small onion 1 skinned tomato, minced 3 leeks, greener parts only in ¾ in pieces ¼ c mixed roasted peppers, diced 1 medium carrot, finely diced salt and pepper 1-2 cloves minced garlic vinegar Rinse lentils. Pour over boiling water and let sit 15 min. Drain, add lentils to a small saucepan, cover w/an inch of water and simmer 10 min. Set aside for a few minutes. Drain and reserve ¼ c liquor. In a sauté pan stew onion in generous amount olive oil over very low flame, 5 min. Add leeks, cook another 5-8 min, mostly covered. Add garlic and carrot, continue to stew another 5 min. Add zukes, cook a few min. Add tomato, peppers, salt and black pepper. Stew 5 more min. Add back in drained lentils and a small amount of liquor. Add some more olive oil as necessary and a splash of vinegar to taste. Cook a few min more and remove from heat. When almost cooled taste for salt and oil, add as necessary.

Did you already get your shad? I'm so envious! @MokaPot yes it is boney; a total pain. That's why you want it boned by the fishmonger.

Good luck with the search. Given your local resources I'm surprised it is so elusive. Maybe everyone hates boning it? I don't have a ghost of a chance, here in CA. Shad is so delicious.

Why don't you just go back to bed and keep dreaming? I have enough to worry about without currant anxiety.

How timely--we made granola this morning. As far as I know no two granola recipes will be alike. When it comes to oil, I prefer a neutral oil, either Sunflower or Grapeseed, both of which are always on hand. I assume that everyone customizes their granola according to what they personally like. I hate raisins, so I use a mix of currants and chopped dried cherries. As mentioned above, the fruit gets mixed in after the granola comes out of the oven, so it dries out just a teeny bit from the residual heat as the granola cools. Some things I hate in granola besides raisins: dried blueberries or strawberries, cinnamon and maple syrup. Cinnamon is for toast and rice pudding. Maple is for pancakes. The only unusual addition in my granola is two tablespoons of pomegranate molasses mixed into a combination of honey and Steens. It does affect the taste, but it is very subtle zing, and I'm sure no one would guess it was in there as part of the sweetener.

Your Neanderthal sisters were painting with tinted mammoth fat. What they didn't use to make paint went into the mince pies.

Okay, that recipe. The good news: there is only 1/4 cup of raisins, so they could easily be eliminated and the currants increased. The very bad news: the recipe calls for 2 cups of suet...AND THAT'S JUST IN THE FILLING! Clearly the brandy needs an upward adjustment. London at xmas does have its charms, so I will reconsider.

Thanks for a very cogent answer. Sounds positively medieval. Are there raisins in it? If so I would be unlikely to even taste it!

Stop by one day soon with a stick of that butter after you've baked bread. We can swap home made marmalade!

Well, that's fair. I've never had it. I grew up with parents who really had limited cooking abilities. My mother grew up Kosher, my dad? Hard to know what he did before he became my dad. We ate a lot of local Chinese and local deli food. Then I moved to Wisconsin for a year and lived on soup mix and A and W burgers and root beer. Then I moved to New Mexico and survived happily on great cheap family restaurant food: bowls of red and green chile, beans, enchiladas. In those days we wouldn't be caught dead at Taco Bell. Then I moved to CA, lived on the border of SF Chinatown and discovered some basic wok cooking, mine and others. Then I married a native CA boy with a mainly vegetarian family that lived on veg lasagne,strange tofu casseroles and big salads that were also strange. Except for my husband, who ate everything and still does, even as I've become finicky. So, mincemeat pie? What exactly is it?

If given a choice I would opt for a gift of a plain stick of great butter over something already baked. That way I could buy a fresh baguette and some paper thin slices of French jambon and make a lunch with all three. And the next day I could slather the butter on baguette toast. And make a rich buttery omelet. And if you made cornbread I would be very happy if a stick of butter came with it. However, if you showed up at my door with fresh warm perfect croissants I might be pretty excited. Naturally you will be baking them in your wood-fired oven, right? Perhaps a stick of butter doesn't sound like a gift to many people, but I'm one those people who like special ingredients in an original state. Many people give gifts of "something you wouldn't make or buy for yourself." The reason I don't make it or buy it for myself is most likely because I don't like it that much. I have relatives that always gave us a bottle of "flavored olive oil" as a gift. Just a plain bottle of good Italian olive oil would be a lot more useful than lemon or rosemary olive oil. I'm not fond of rosemary and fresh lemons are easy to add to whatever. Oh yeah, I know what an ingrate I am.

Seems to me the difference between Yorkshire pudding and dessert is your taste for beef tallow. I'm not convinced I want that for dessert. If there were leftover YP from dinner, though, I'd be very happy to have that for breakfast the next day.

I admit I would rather snails find their purpose covered in garlic butter. I find them sort of gross when alive, but it is a sad environmental truth that the common variety of snail in our neck of the woods has all but disappeared in the last several years. It used to be you couldn't avoid crunching them after a night rain when you went out get the paper. Now I never see them. Sorry you got spanked. It was a science experiment, right? Oh, and would you please explain "build a window?" I know snails need prep, but never heard that term.