Katie Meadow

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.

Slice and toast and slather with butter.

And the best peeps are ones you could not possibly mistake for edible. The "broken" shells are a lovely touch. Oh I should add that now I've discovered the Kenji method of steaming eggs so they are a snap to peel I've been able to drag out the deviled egg platter I inherited from somewhere. Not up there on the cuteness scale, though. And for some reason deviled egg plates just cry out for cornball designs.

I used to make a meat loaf that was one third ground beef, one third ground veal, and one third ground pork. I used to make meat balls with a ground beef and pork mixture. Both very good. But I've pretty much stopped eating beef and also prefer my protein to be a lesser part of my meal these days. I'm more inclined to use ground pork in Chinese dishes now. I make pot stickers with pork and napa cabbage or pork and Chinese chives, wontons with a mix of minced shrimp and ground pork, or Dan Dan Noodles. Lately I'm hooked on a Dan Dan Noodle soup. The broth is a blend of ham and chicken with a little sesame paste and it's addictive. We can buy a nice Berkshire ground pork that seems to have a good balance of fat and works for everything above.

Interesting watching Andrea's video. Also surprised she didn't even mention pate. I'm a bit finicky about the pate: I prefer a lighter chicken liver mousse which I also can buy, but I can live without the pate and still have a great sandwich. I always use her recipe for the pickled carrot and daikon. I've also made her char siu, although I'm happy enough simply buying that in Chinatown. I liked her emphasis on using Maggi sauce; there's nothing quite like it. She just squirts it on but I like to mix it with the mayo before spreading. In a pinch I've used pickled jalapeños instead of fresh, and that's good too. I've made Banh Mi with pork, shrimp, chicken and duck confit. If I did it again with duck I might just buy a roast duck in Chinatown and pick off the meat; the duck confit was too salty for me. I really like a banh mi with grilled marinated shrimp. In NOLA we discovered a bar with a banh mi operation in the back. They did a sort of po-boy banh mi mash up with a cajun inspired shrimp. They also made a dynamite drink that was basically an alcoholic vietnamese coffee milkshake that was perfect for that sandwich and perfect for the sticky hot weather. Truthfully it's the meal I remember best from that city.

Kudos to you for pulling that one out of your brain. A flash from the distant past. Lik M Aid, actually.

I looked them up too, and I'm sure I've inadvertently eaten similar candies. Isn't there something like that in Bridge Mix? Horrid. If you like them you probably like Raisinettes too.

I love artichoke pizza, but every restaurant artichoke pizza uses canned or marinated or whatever, never fresh. I get it--labor intensive! I've done it by lightly sauteeing cut pieces of fresh artichoke, then adding as a topping. I prefer it on a pizza with a tomato sauce, rather than a white pizza.

I'm a Duke's convert for life. Grew up on Hellman's, moved to CA, switched to Best Foods, finally tasted Duke's and that was that. After hearing so many people on eG and others as well sing the praises of Kewpie I bought the smallest jar I could find. Flavor profile? I'm not sure, since I couldn't keep it in my mouth long enough to think about it. The jar went right into the trash. Maybe umami is part of it; the taste is definitely busy and intense.

I guarantee that if you put a bunch of 3 year olds in a room with a dozen different bottles of over sweetened soft drinks and a dozen of the worst kinds of candy you can think of they will come up with several drink mixes that are at least as good-- or as terrifying-- as Peepsi. The post-pandemic world is off to a rocky start.

It looks perfect from here.