Katie Meadow

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?

That little interview was very sweet, thanks to whoever posted it. In case you have never tried the Domingo Rojo bean they are back in stock at RG. They make the best Red Beans and Rice ever. Just saying! And Steve, here's my plea (again!) The situation with Rattlesnake beans is getting dire. They are disappearing from the planet. My only two sources for them became one, and now it's none. Maybe they are a good candidate for the Xoxoc project?

What's for dinner? That would be something made by somebody else using the processor or the blender. And if you did have pics of your appliances would you remember where you stashed them? You would need to note: 3rd shelf left side garage. 2nd down SE cabinet behind ice cream maker. Pantry. You'll see it when you get there. Is there a pantry?

My mother, who passed away at 94, usually went out for Italian food. That was partly or mostly because her boyfriend/ companion was Italian and wouldn't dream of eating any other kind of food. Yep, a snob! He never oooked a meal in his life as far as I could tell, and if my mother wasn't with him, he would be found at Patsy's. Which isn't really isn't relevant to the fact that up to the day she died she would order an espresso at a restaurant after dinner, with a lemon twist. It didn't seem to keep her awake at night, any more than anything else did. As for Elaine's dad, who grew up in a traditional household run by his Taos born mother, he made that red sauce in his sleep. Whenever I was over for dinner it was in something or next to something. I've never been able to duplicate it. Hot, slightly bitter, perfect. These days if I bother to make a chile rojo from dried chiles I dole it out like caviar. At their house it seemed like it came from an bottomless well. I'm telling you, this pandemic is like a highway to the past. Is there just more time to drive on it? What else do I miss in NM? So many things, but right now I miss hearing the geese migrate in Vee and Vee overhead, following the Rio Grande..

We have two appliances we don't use, but one is a ghost and will haunt me to the grave, for no good reason. The first is one of those electric drip coffee makers which came free with something. It's large, like for a party. We used to have parties. Maybe we used it once or twice. Besides the fact that big parties are a thing of the past, our friends no longer drink coffee in the evening. And we have always had several other ways of making coffee, so who cares. It is still sitting up on an unreachable shelf that's basically a boring museum. The second appliance, the ghost, is a sixties era crock pot. Avocado green or plaid; if it existed in this reality I could tell you. When I lived in NM during the late sixties and early seventies my best friend's father, who grew up in Taos, made the best beans ever in his old crockpot, and then the best red chile sauce to add to them. After I moved to CA I started to miss those crockpot pinto beans. What should I happen upon in my in-laws' garage but a sixties crockpot still in the box. My MIL didn't even know where it came from. It promptly went into the basement of our own house and I forgot about it. Time passed. Lots of it. Then it surfaced, just when I was feeling nostalgic and bored with my own cooking. I was ecstatic! I Vintage! Still in the original box! I carried the box upstairs to the kitchen, opened it and grabbed the crock pot. It slipped and fell onto the tile floor. Faster than you can say @JoNorvelleWalkerit shattered like an old thermos. I think about it more than I should, like the fish that got away, but you've never eaten a fish before. Or the ice cream scoop that falls to the pavement when you take the first lick. Some things are meant to be buried, even if they require more than one burial. In this case, the third was charm. I've never wanted a replacement. I loved that one. Beans are a stovetop operation now and forever.

Hope you get to the Desert museum. I love that place! Haven't been in years. The Heard Museum in Phoenix is truly amazing for Native American artifacts. No idea what their covid restrictions are. Most magical time of year in Arizona and NM. Look for big hawks on telephone poles!

@liamsaunt: you are eating turkey a week before Thanksgiving?

I don't think it's exactly a myth about needing high BTUs, but more heat is better. I cooked for many years with a wok on a so-so average stove and it was okay, but then I got a Viking. The flame is big, although I would have to go through stacks of old manuals to locate the original specs re the BTUs. The stove has heavy cast iron grates and I have an optional cast iron wok grate that I can switch in as needed. Clearly I'm not getting the kind of heat they get in commercial wok kitchens, but my wok gets hotter than on any other stove I've ever used, and that seems to be a good thing. The wok is carbon steel, relatively heavy, with one long wooden handle. The ones with two short loop handles don't seem very practical, but I suppose it's about what you are used to. Don't those handles get awfully hot? I purchased mine when I lived on the edge of SF Chinatown about forty years ago and I use it at least once a week. I think of it as being a very typical round bottom shape. No longer lovely, but at this point it hasn't changed its venerable look for years. I hope it lasts the rest of my life.

We had plans to have a lunch of Thanksgiving leftovers with my SIL and BIL and their daughter but now I'm thinking maybe not. Their daughter, whom I adore, has a bigger bubble than us elders. If any of you saw Rachel Maddow's show this evening you may guess it was enough to sober me up good. Not that I've taken any risks for the last nine months. Strangely enough my husband apparently plans to cook a whole turkey as he does every year even if we don't get to share it. That seems worse to me than two people and a ham, frankly. I don't lift a finger with the bird, so no complaints. I get a carcass and we'll have a lot of gravy all for ourselves. I've discovered the absolute best use for the gravy is to mix it into the sauce in a pot pie. The poor man, he's going to be choking down a lot of turkey sandwiches. Luckily he bakes a great white bread loaf that's just right. My sandwiches are the simplest: turkey and lettuce with butter spread on top and bottom. Okay, I've talked myself into it.

Hot smoked salmon was something I didn't really get exposed to until I moved to the west coast. The Pacific North West, often small roadside stands, makes hot smoked salmon (and other hot smoked fish like Black Cod) one of the great treats of a road trip along the coast. Often it doesn't last longer than the destination. When it's good it's nice and moist and flakes easily. But one of my favorite uses of hot smoked fish is in kedgeree, that Indian-colonial cultural mix of rice, fish, and sometimes chopped hard-cooked egg, often lightly curried. Recipes often specify smoked haddock, but we don't get that around here, and salmon is perfect. Very comforting dish! I also like hot smoked salmon in some kind of fried fish cakes, with potatoes and other ingredients. Variations are numerous. Or, if I'm really lazy, I do nothing with it, just pick away at it as an appetizer on dark rye or crackers or all be itself. It could also be good in a breakfast quiche or pie.

The Vikings made some pretty good lox. If they had managed to make it as far as Lithuania they might have learned how to make a decent bagel.

Okay that looks fantastic. Never made congee, never used the porridge setting on my rice cooker, which looks just like yours. Can you give me some details? Was there a recipe? What kind of rice? Ratio of rice to liquid? Did you use a stock or just water? Seems like it would be easy to make a shrimp-shell stock to include. That's brilliant about using the warming function to cook the fish. So tell me whatever you can without boring yourself to death. I don't usually need someone to tell me what to do, but in the case, yes. Thanks!

So...does every stir fry taste porky? I'm used to using peanut oil exclusively. For a stir fry sauce I might add a bit of pork or ham broth or chicken broth depending on what's in the wok.

Chippy-ish.

Agree, a great name. You can push the cantilever only so far before you reach the tippling point.

I just assume that the fuzzy refers to how cute it is, like so much Japanese design. It's like a little egg shaped critter that does your bidding and congratulates you for petting it by chiming twinkle twinkle little star. I admit, it is kinda cheerful in a mindless way.

My Neuro Fuzzy is the same. We don't have a lot of appliances (compared to some) but this one is a lifesaver. And I am not one of those people that has ever struggled to make good rice. I make mostly med/short grain or sushi rice in it. We eat a lot of rice and my husband has always had trouble with timing. Not any more.