Katie Meadow

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.

I'm slow on the uptake, so it's taken me a few days to realize....weren't we talking about pizza? Banquet or no, eating pizza with chopsticks doesn't seem like the best approach. Scissors and a sidecar notwithstanding.

Yes, before you buy or rent it's always good to do your research, but not all problems are disclosed or discovered until it is too late. A good neighbor cleans up his/her act or factory if others are being adversely affected, whenever humanly possible. If only.

I can see the struggle now. Me trying to cut the pizza with my left hand with a scissors with blades designed for righties, and then having to cross over my right arm to retrieve the slice. I guess at my next banquet I should request to sit at the head or one corner at each end so I don't poke out the right eye of my neighbor to the left. Actually I'm pretty sure I could learn to use chopsticks with my right hand if I need to without too much trauma.

Wow, if squabbling about the size of the pieces occurs I would venture to say another pizza was needed.

I'm fond of Lao Gan Ma chile crisp, but my go-to for all around chile garlic sauce is made by Huy Fong, the people in Irwindale CA who bring you Sriracha, the bottles with the rooster. It has a much better bite and flavor than sriracha, which seems mild to me. The company has had a battle with neighbors, however, as the factory leaks chile fumes, presenting some serious eye and throat issues for people in the area, depending on which way the wind is blowing. No idea if they have solved this problem at this point.

If chicken liver is prepared Jewish style, sautéed with onion, chopped with cooked egg, and a generous drizzle of cognac, etc I am usually happy to eat it, although some people just don't make it very well, and in that case I can skip it. If I am making Banh Mi and want the liver spread, I will buy a chicken liver mousse made by our usual haunt for cheeses, charcuterie, etc. But no, liver from mammals doesn't appeal at all. And I pretty much have stopped eating beef altogether. That bridge has sailed. I do feel awfully guilty when I eat Foie Gras, but that opportunity has been scarce as hen's teeth in the last few years. Partly because it's pricey, partly because I don't go to those kinds of restaurants (or any restaurants these days), partly because it's cringeworthy to think about how it is made. But yeah, it can really be delicious.

Does anyone remember the James Thurber children's book "The Wonderful O?" All the O's in the alphabet went missing, so poor Ophelia Oliver became Phelia Liver.

Talk about reinventing the wheel. The pizza wheel, that is, the cutter designed to do a real job for a basic price. That "scissors with a sidecar" looks unwieldy and is probably hard to clean. And here's a wild guess: it is made for right-handed people.

@Kim Shookyou are missing the banana. Why waste perfectly good mustard?