Katie Meadow

Applesauce, puree sweet potatoes and bourbon back.

Lacking a recent roast chicken carcass, I typically use mostly backs and the rest wings and feet. If I can get an old bird instead, that would be excellent. Home made chicken soup is always win-win. Just breathing it while it's cooking has to be beneficial. Of course this time of year there's turkey soup, which hypnotized me while it's simmering away. Too incapacitated to make a real soup? Just drink a cup of turkey broth with a squirt of lime.

Yes, I think of simple chicken soup as comfort food: a little chicken, rice, carrots, maybe with an egg drizzled in. My mother always fed me chicken soup with rice and maybe a slice of toast when I was sick. She never made stock from scratch in her life. I use chicken stock for numerous soups, simple and not so simple. Soup in general is comforting, but if I'm under the weather it's most often very basic, maybe with a squeeze of lemon or lime juice. If I'm simply depressed chicken broth wonton soup might be my first choice!

When my daughter was at Berkeley High, 2002-2006, Boba tea was just becoming a thing around UC Berkeley. She raved about it and made me try it. Once. And that was enough for me. Maybe I managed to suck up one giant gluey ball in my giant straw.

Beans are not a grain!

Wheat. Hard to live without it, and I tried for a year. Most kinds of wheat noodles, yes. Farro and bulgur are regular residents. Farro for soups and salads. Bulgur=tabouli (essential for summer!) Couscous, good every once in a while for a change. Never had it made in the traditional slow cooked way, only the instant 5 minute thing, but I bet the real deal is great. Freekeh: jury is out, tried it only once. Rye. Technically a grass related to wheat. If you need to be gluten free don't eat it. Love it love it love it. Takes talent to use it in bread; the higher the percentage they harder it is to work with. My husband can attest to that. I miss New York. Rye is versatile and good for drinking. Barley. Mushroom and barley is a nostalgia casserole. If barley isn't a main ingredient in Scotch Broth it isn't Scotch Broth. Love it. Barley tea: weird. Buckwheat. Not a grain, technically a grass. Groats are horrid. Some buckwheat added to wheat products is really nice. Pancakes, Soba. In cookies and cakes. Quinoa. Also technically not a grain, it's a seed. BORRRING. Expensive, too. I lump it in with kale and I say the hell with it. Both are marketed as super healthy, but neither is really more healthy than the other pseudo grains or greens. Is corn a grain? Originally it was a grass. Often considered a grain. I like it in all its iterations except bourbon. Going to get out of bed now. Can't wait to have some toast.

Mmm. I see a Date Nut Bread in my very near future. I haven't made one for a few months. In early pandemic times I was making it every other week, like some mysterious addiction. The King Arthur recipe is excellent, by the way. I guess if you are making a multitude you need to find an easy way to chop them. I've come to the conclusion that the best dates for date and nut bread are dates that are not too fresh and not too dry. Just right.

Who doesn't like babies? Geez.

I grew up eating Uncle Ben's and only Uncle Ben's. As far back as I can remember and until the day she died at 94 my mother never cooked any other kind of rice. Chicken and rice was her signature. She lived three blocks from the Halal cart at 53rd and Sixth Ave for her last 50 years and never once wondered what the line was about. That halal plate was always my pre-plane meal when I left after visiting NY. She was a dyed-in-the-wool New Yorker who never ate street food.

Baby collard sellers take note. Kim's a comin' for y'all!

Exactly. But my experience is limited.

One baby veg that's awfully good is baby collards. They can be sautéed like chard, quickly, with no need to boil. I admit I am no fan of long cooked collards, but if you chiffonade the baby ones and cook them with garlic, then add some smoky broth and simmer for ten minutes or so, they are really good. Finish with a splash of vinegar and a tsp of Steen's.

Maybe the smaller one could be used as a sushi mold? I can't quite make out how the lid is designed.

After one turkey sandwich I'm done. The carcass goes into the pot. @Margaret Pilgrimit's hard not to want an ethereal dumpling. How do you make them?

If I were vegan, here's what I would want as a gift: really good vegetable broth. The store bought ones always seem strange to me, but a really good from-scratch broth can be delicious and useful. Then your friend can easily throw in some soft rice, greens, whatever. Half my husband's relatives are vegetarian and I always struggle to come up with good soups for them. Making my own veg stock has helped. I've noticed that many places that serve vegetarian or vegan soups just add a lot of pepper to get a flavor boost. Veg soups that really benefit from a good broth are leek and potato, which can be blended as desired,and any variety of tomato-rice soup.

Personally I am against too much uniformity in storage. When I started cooking in my twenties I used to frequent flea markets in New Mexico and picked up a variety of various older canning jars. I still use them. I've saved glass jars that appealed to me ever since, and probably own a more eclectic bunch than I even need. I do have a basic label-maker, which has pretty much replaced many of the cockeyed labels of my past. Too matchy-matchy? Not a good look, as far as I'm concerned. Rice. My comfort food. I usually have on hand three or four kinds. For sushi or Chinese stir fry I'm very happy with the Kokuho Rose. I like Carnaroli for rice pudding, some soups and risotto, but I haven't tried lots of different brands; most seem good to me. Most supermarkets stock only Arborio, which is fine in a pinch. My reliable gourmet/cheese/pasta shop often has a wide variety of esoteric Italiian rices, but lots I haven't tried. My mainstay for long-grain has been CA grown Lundberg organic white basmati. Often we have to settle for their regular non-organic as it the organic isn't always easy to come by, but the organic actually seems to taste a little better. I love the smell. I've tried various other basmati rices, some from India, but they have seemed dull in comparison. Maybe they have been on the shelves to long? I like if for curries, Mexican dishes, rice salads and any kind of beans and rice. I've tried Jasmine rice, since that makes sense for lots of Asian dishes, but I just like the basmati better. I can't quite get a handle on the Carolina rice varieties. Gold or not gold? Aromatic or not? Is it long-grain or medium? Really happy to entertain any suggestions about the differences, your favorites brands, purveyors, etc. The prices can be steep, so what about value? Seems like it would be nice to use it with Red Beans or any kind of southern style shrimp 'n' rice.

Unctuous. Is that supposed to be a good thing? Maybe, if you love Velveeta. 1 : having, revealing, or marked by a smug, ingratiating, and false earnestness or spirituality. 2a : fatty, oily. b : smooth and greasy in texture or appearance.

You're a crazy librarian. But it's good you are a librarian, because clearly that's the only thing keeping you from organizing your books by spine color. Happy Thanksgiving!

Okay, barley brain. My barley would be cited for contempt of court if it didn't end up in the Scotch Broth. However, I would consider leaving those turnips out. So you can be Barley Brain and I will be Turnip Head. Wow, I'm really enjoying being a couch potato the day before Thanksgiving. Pie is out of the oven and looking very good. Nothing left to do today except eat some of it while it is still a little warm. There was testy moment when my husband doubted the pie crust would be any good, since it was a new recipe for him. Live dangerously!

You're such a killjoy.

I love really fresh dates. Medjool are of course good, but my favorite is the Barhi date. When really ripe it has a liquid center. It's good cold. Wouldn't use that variety to stuff, but I too have a weakness for bacon wrapped roasted dates. I had them in Portland OR at a wonderful restaurant, but I've never bothered to make them myself. I like them best stuffed with an almond. We were in Portland during a freak snow storm and the restaurant comped us little glasses of Fernet Jelinek. A great combination, both firsts for me. Just what the doctor ordered.

Okay, let's see if anyone can come up with a menu as short as this one; we are two on Thursday. Cocktail. TBD Apps: whatever rises to the top of the drawer in the fridge. Kohlrabi in paper-thin slices w sea salt. Nuts? I have to say that deviled eggs sounds awfully appealing; maybe that will happen, probably not. Save it for next week when pickings are slim. Whole roast 11 lb. turkey and gravy Roasted Melting potatoes with roasted green chiles Fennel salad Cranberry-orange fresh relish Sweet Potato Pie that DOES NOT INCLUDE PUMPKIN PIE SPICES. Fluid schedule: We are baking it today! In other words, leftover pie for thanksgiving. Prep today: pie. James Beard red wine roux for making tomorrow's gravy. Home baked Pullman loaves for sandwiches, breakfast toast, etc. Friday: going to the family beach house to have lunch with BIL, SiL and their daughter. Extend the table that accommodates 15 in a crunch and spread ourselves out 6 feet apart at least. We bring up leftover turkey, which they don't all eat, and cranberry relish. They will make some kind of veg entree. My SIL is a terrible baker and is going to make pumpkin pie which I won't eat because I really don't like pumpkin pie or pumpkin anything, but the three of them seem to require it. This will be a rare social event, since we are not sheltering with them, but the drive is short and we won't be in contact with any other humans, only their cat, who is not an endearing creature, if I do say so myself. Shh. And I have a secret. I am liking a tiny no big-deal Thankgiving.

I had no idea anyone made mac and cheese as a traditional side until two years ago, when someone joined us who ISN'T FROM MY HUSBAND'S FAMILY (OMG!) and his son contributed a really delicious one. So exciting, since the usual mashed potatoes never interest me. I don't care much for the turkey, but I admit I like to sneak a bit of crispy skin in a not-obvious location when it comes out of the oven. I'm really in it for the carcass.

I butter my toast once, but I believe I use enough butter to get the same effect. Et tu, @Kim Shook?

I can't imagine using a disposable pan for roasting a turkey. Making gravy after the bird gets to sit on a plate isn't a fast process, and involves, at least in my experience, a series of slow processes: deglazing with stock, cooking away excess liquid, adding some type of brown sauce or roux to taste depending on whether you like a thick or thin gravy. When my husband's family was all together, we cooked a turkey big enough to be in a pan that could be simmered on two burners at the same time to make the gravy. Also if you are going to baste the bird every so often, wouldn't that be a not fun chore to pull out a flimsy pan with a big heavy turkey?