Katie Meadow

Hear my confession. I have never once in my 73 years sat through a complete football game. The times anyone has tried to explain the rules they come out just as the went in, undigested. Even though I suspect the rules are fairly simple. It's a dangerous game and the outfits are, frankly, very weird. I have been to a Superbowl party once, against my better instincts, but spent most of it in the kitchen. I have never considered what to eat during a Super Bowl. The food usually sounds awful. My husband and I used to go a movie during the game. Never crowded and always a feeling of camaraderie among the patrons. So much for that tradition in 2021, although I admit we haven't done it for several years. My only enduring tradition is to hate Tom Brady, so even though I have allegiance to no team, I root against him. It is my personaI shame that I know what is number is, and a testament to how he has colonized our lives. I didn't even know there was a team called the Buccaneers until this year. I most likely will be eating during the Superbowl, but it will be an early dinner. Duck fat roast potatoes and a Caesar salad, which we would be eating on any other day. As far back as I can remember it has been referred to as the STUPERbowl. I grew up in a household that watched two sports: tennis and baseball. I also grew up in a household supported by a Madison Avenue career. My dad was Don Draper, without the angst or the affairs, as far as I know, and also, as far as I know, lived his whole life without stealing the identity of a dead man. So I will be watching the ads. During the actual game time I will tune out the sound, read the Sunday paper and curse the Spelling Bee. The game will be on, because my husband does understand the rules and reads much faster than I do, so will be done with the paper for the most part and also is much more flexible person than me. Okay, my pathetic rant is done. I'm looking forward to tomorrow. Please everyone be careful. Stay home, don't accidentally inhale your beer through your nose or choke on a wing tip. For all of you who love football I hope it is an exciting game, not that I would know what that looked like. Cheers!

@Smithy, my favorite treatment for cauliflower is similar to what you made, in a curry, with potatoes or just by itself, served with a refreshing raita and a mango pickle. But I do have an emergency recipe for when I literally have nothing in the fridge but a lonely cauliflower. The only other ingredients are spaghetti or some other pasta shape, and a couple of cups of marinara sauce. I make mine and freeze it by the pint, but emergency implies alternatives, so your preferred store bought would work. Mine is meatless, so this qualifies as a vegetarian meal, or a side. Works for two as a main, four as a side. All I do is this: bring ample water to a boil for the pasta. I like thin spaghetti or linguini fini. Trim the cauliflower and cut it into bite-size pieces. Heat a generous amount of olive oil in a large skillet over medium-low heat. Saute the cauliflower, adding salt and pepper. Cook until lightly golden or you can pierce it with a knife, al dente, so it has a bite to it. Add a few cloves of garlic, minced, cook a minute or two more and remove the cauliflower to a bowl. Without cleaning the skillet, dump in a pint of your favorite tomato sauce. I like to add a shake of red pepper flakes if the sauce is mild, and taste for salt. Heat on low until simmering and add a little of the pasta water. Add back in the cauliflower to heat through. When the pasta is done to your liking, drain it quickly in a colander and then put it back in the pasta pot. Pour in the skillet's worth of sauce w cauliflower and mix. Serve with grated hard cheese. Very good for a three-ingredient quick dish.

That was a fascinating article. I saw it yesterday in the Wed Food section. Visiting Portland OR during an unusually cold and snowy week a few years ago I drank a lot of Hot Applejack cocktails at a restaurant we went to a few times. Now I always have it around. I make a very nice apple cake that calls for either Applejack or apple brandy. Local applejack is something I will pay attention to next time I am in Asheville NC. Damn this f-ing virus. My daughter is pregnant with twins in Atlanta so I'm hoping to make a southern trip in June. Who knows what will be going on then. I need my shot.

I'm pretty sure most all my friends, if I still have them, don't wear shoes over bare feet. Everyone I know wears socks, so I don't feel bad asking them to take off their shoes. Wow, it's been a while. And people don't live in flip-flops like they do in really warm climates. Although now that I think about it, when and if we can ever have guests maybe I'll provide a basket of clean socks just in case. After our dog died and our daughter left home we carpeted the entire upstairs with beautiful New Zealand wool. After that I became pretty serious about the indoor shoes only thing, or socks. I loved my dog, I love my daughter (moved to Atlanta and helped turn it blue!), and now I love my carpet and rugs.

@JoNorvelleWalkerI knew you were awake!

@Franciyou make me laugh. In my house if I made gnocchi and someone didn't want to eat it one of two things would happen. If it was my kid II would tell her to make herself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich . If it was my husband I would tell him to go his room and stay there.

Several years ago, while shoeless in the kitchen, my husband backed into me, stepped on my foot and broke my toe. Yes, it could have happened somewhere besides the kitchen, but the stove, sink and dish washer are all spaces from which people back up before turning around. So from that day on I decided I needed to wear in-house-only shoes, especially when in the kitchen. So there you go, another broken toe story. And then there's this. What if you are barefoot and someone shatters a glass on the floor? If you manage to make it out unscathed after the event, the next day you could easily step on a stealth shard that didn't get swept up. A boiling spill near the stove is, of course, a very good reason, as we have all acknowledged.

I'm not much of a baker, so if I wanted to learn a particular type of crust I would start with Julia Child's recipe. My husband does most all the baking in our house. Mostly he bakes bread, but when challenged to make pie he started with Julia Child's pate brisee. I assume her recipe for pate sablee is easy to find. Oh, and welcome.

Maybe contact David Lebovitz? He probably knows someone who knows someone who knows the recipe. Or if he himself eats the stuff he could probably come close to naming the ingredients and even ratios.

I lived among a loose farm collective for a year during the late sixties. Rabbit was occasionally on the menu; I can't remembered if we raised them or shot them. I don't remember any of the group being a particularly memorable cook, but I suspect the rabbit was grilled outdoors. I do remember that rabbit kidneys were generally agreed to be a special treat. I wouldn't be tempted to eat them now. But way back when on a hippie farm....yep. We also had a cow and made our own butter. Maybe the kidneys were pan fried in home churned butter. Okay, I haven't thought about that in a long long time. Rabbit kidneys are not very big. In the less distant past I've had rabbit twice. One time was at an upscale country restaurant in the south of France. I got the leg portion and it was good. My mother was given the "whiter" meat and I thought it was dry. The second time the rabbit was also cooked by a French person, an expat who had run away to marry an American.. This was at a tiny bnb in the middle of nowhere in the NC Smoky Mountains. She was truly an amazing cook. It was delicious, as was everything else she served up for dinner and then breakfast the next morning. Dinner. along with the rabbit, included radishes from her garden with butter, and a pear tart tatin.

Awful news. I'm having a hard time believing it.

Jello has legs.

You're the expert!

For @Kim Shook and others who are fond of saltines, I've just discovered a saltine-like cracker that ups the ante: It is Westminster Bakers Square Hearty Crackers. Apparently the brand is an old New England Company. They are a sort of like a saltine and an oyster cracker had a baby. I can't explain it, but I love them. Of course ordering from Amazon I somehow was in denial about the price and didn't realize when I started to re-order how ridiculous the mark-up is. It doesn't matter, because they are out of stock a week after my first order. I'm sure that this brand can easily be found on shelves all over the northeast for about a third the price. The operation seems to specialize in oyster crackers. Anyway, I'm on a search for a more reasonable source while suffering from withdrawal.

Found this recently at my favorite Japanese/Asian market. Tokyo Market is up in north Berkeley and has the freshest fish ever, and a huge selection; it's a shlep, so we don't shop there routinely. This rice is very good! Shorter grain that my usual Kokuho Rose Sushi rice, and a bit more of a bite if the ratio of rice to water is the same, no? Last night we cooked the rice for a hybrid Cajun/Asian shrimp dish, and tonight I'm going to do a simple veg stir fry with cabbage, chinese chives, kohlrabi, choi sum and egg. Fun having a new rice!

Ideas for a crazed old ugly enamel coated cast iron frying pan: Buy a baby turtle at the circus and make a cute pond environment for it. Just don't keep it on the stove. Make a mini rice paddy and grow rice for home consumption or artisanal gifts. Make some crazed marbles in it and then arrange them inside it for an art project. Hang it on the inside of the front door in case of intruders if you don't have a baseball bat. Although statistics say that heavy frying pans are most often used by the intruders against you. Put the pans out on the street in a box that says FREE. Learn to say no, so you can use that empty wall space (which we all agree doesn't exist in @weinoo's kitchen) to hang the turnips you got in your latest box because there's no way they will fit in the fridge. OMG I just saw the @jimb0post! How could two people come up with such an inane idea at the same time?

Good god that sounds delicious.

Thanks. Yeah in the distant past I knew that! Maybe I've reached that tipping point where I relearn something new every day. Now there's a comforting thought.

I know how they get a ship in a bottle, but how do they get that pear in?

Oh, that's a very nice antique. Mine was also just flimsy metal and wood, maybe a little bit newer. Probably purchased at a flea market a million years ago. Even when it worked it didn't work very well. I rarely need more grated hard cheese than two people require for a flurry on pasta, so I'm happy with my old knuckle-challenged box grater. When the wedge of cheese gets dangerously small I just toss the rind in the soup pot or wherever. Actually I don't believe I ever hurt myself grating hard cheese. Before I owned a processor there was always the fear of pink latkes.

Exactly how would you repurpose them?

If those kids are drooling on the floor they are way too young to have fruit mentos. That's neither the size or shape you want stuck in your kid's airway.

That style of grater has been around forEVER. I'm sure you can find one for a better price than that somewhere!

In the old days those RR pears from Harry and David were spectacular. I had the feeling they packed them very carefully with attention to varying states of ripeness. I kept them in a cool room, not refrigerated. But the last time I ordered them, maybe five years ago, the quality and attention to detail was way down. They just weren't great. Made me sad, and I decided, given the price, not to buy them anymore. This season I've had some excellent Anjou pears. I keep them on the counter and that short window of "just right" has been easy to gauge. When it comes to pears I'm with Flannery O'Connor: a good one is hard to find.

Pears (and apples) are not stone fruits.