Katie Meadow

When my daughter was little and she basically went through a "white food" phase I tried hard to make my own Mac n Cheese from scratch to steer her away from Kraft. Those efforts were met with mild distaste. In desperation my technique with the boxed product was to toss half the orange packet and simply make it less toxic. I noticed some other moms going for "organic" Annie's and tried that. Once. If it is possible to cram in more salt than Kraft, Annie's succeeded. I couldn't choke it down. Back to Kraft. And I ate the leftovers. And the dog didn't discriminate, as long as it was served off the floor.

Although I haven't made bucatini in several years I really don't remember it being problematic, either in the cooking or the eating, although I was probably more coordinated in times past. It was always the favorite pasta shape of my nephew, who since starting a hospitality business favored everything Italian. He learned to speak Italian, cultivated a Bed-Stuy soap opera accent (he grew up in CT) and dressed like a natty mobster. He never sprayed a drop of sauce from his bucatini on his beautiful suits. Hard times for that line of work these days; he's the sweetest, kindest guy on earth and is just torn up about all the people he has had to lay off. So grateful I am retired with very few obligations or reasons to leave home or get dressed up. And so so glad I don't own my own business in these pandemic times. Now I'm curious to make some bucatini and see just how much wrangling it demands. Not tomorrow.

I love this thread. I'm getting close to actually making congee. Keep it coming. These next few days call for strong medicine. And comfort food.

Looks like a perfect plate. All that's needed is Dr. Brown's Cel-ray tonic or an egg cream. And some half-sours.

I confess that my objection to bowties is not about taste or texture, just shape. It looks stupid. Same for wagon wheels, whatever they are called in Italy. I used to buy lots of interesting shapes, but so often I would end up with a scoopful of various kinds taking up room in the cabinet and without a good purpose. What I always have on hand: DeCecco linguini fini and Rustichella d'Abruzzo penne, which I can buy in bulk. The penne is not too thick and cooks up with excellent texture. Oh, one more dislike: those fat ripple-edge lasagne noodles. I prefer using the thinner plain sheets. Dried is fine, but I discovered I can buy fresh sheets and that's really easy and quick to cook, plus I can cut them to fit my lasagne pan before boiling. And the edges crisp up after baking in the most appealing way.

Bowties and orzo. Don't like either.

I don't know what the Indiana state motto is, but they missed the boat: "The show you state." Or "The I'll show YOU state!"

@David RossI found the recipe for Toast Water particularly hilarious. You've got to be seriously ill to benefit from that. Like deathbed ill. At that point just spoon-feed me coffee ice cream. It doesn't matter if I can't keep it down.

Maybe you butt-dialed the timer? I make a lot of iced tea. I steep the hot tea for five minutes and have learned to set the timer every time and never leave the room. And yet when it goes off I'm still surprised about half the time.

Between the bananas, bubble gum and slime I'm outta here. The closest I've ever gotten to a frog is having to put in ear plugs to tone down the racket at night. I've never had a mint julep either. I can't decide if the end of days means no frogs or nothing but frog farms.

Wow, this is going to be a memorable Thanksgiving by virtue of subtraction. For 40 or so years I've done the holiday with my husband's family; a big crowd. Not gonna happen this year, at least for me. My husband is weighing the pros and cons of making a turkey for the two of us; he's embraced the job for years since half his relatives are vegetarians. Seems insane to me. I like to pick at the crispy skin when the bird comes out of the oven, but turkey meat is just meh. I am however a carcass junkie. There's something addictive about turkey broth. I don't even like all the traditional sides. I go for the company and my SIL's apple pie. Maybe an apple pie is in my near future. One pie for the two of us means we definitely will get pie for breakfast. Silver lining! The bar is low these days.

Okay, just curious. Frogs are an indicator species. Don't you have to be careful which ones you eat? I've never had frog's legs and don't believe I will start now. And, @Kim Shook my southern roots are exclusively southern Lithuanian. I'm not a fan of bourbon, I much prefer rye in a cocktail or straight up. Bourbon tastes like bananas to me. Too sweet.

Yep, that's it. I use a little less marinara sauce than the recipe calls for. I don't like it soupy and that way the edges of the top noodles get kind of crispy. Very simple; the only real labor is sautéing the eggplant slices. Takes patience and can't be rushed.

I too do some serious menu planning. Here's an example of approx one week plus of main meals. The major shopping run usually involves two stops: Berkeley bowl for fish and meat and vegetables and then a specialty shop for dry pasta, fresh mozz and other cheeses and deli meats. There are always changes and reversals. At least once or twice a week I try to make something that gives us leftovers. Typically we eat a long latish breakfast, rarely involving any cooking and then linner in the afternoon or early evening. Snacking occurs at odd hours; we don't plan a sit-down lunch. Sometimes we make a special run for seafood if we are in the mood. And when we are really low on supplies and I can't stand the idea of cooking we go for take out lox, bagels, etc and that's a meal, with sliced cucumber and radishes or whatever, to pretend we are having a vegetable. About half our meals are vegetarian or use a chicken or ham broth but no meat. No blackboard though that's very impressive! Just a miserable list of scribbles and cross-outs. Day One: shopping day. Always seafood of some kind. Shrimp wonton soup with home made broth and choi sum. No, I don't make my own skins, good ones are available. 2. Large caesar salad and sauteed corn with green chile. Probably some easy app or side. 3. Chicken stir fry with cabbage, choi sum, Chinese chives on rice. Extra rice made for next day. 4. Fried rice with a variety of veggies and a bit of smoky ham. 5. Pizza and a fennel salad. Three kind of pizza: radicchio and garlic, tomato, ham and pineapple, all with fresh mozz. Lots of slices left over. 6. Leftover pizza of course, and a very simple spinach gratin w/no cheese. 7. Dan Dan rice noodle soup with the rest of the choi sum. 8. Eggplant pasta casserole and a fennel salad. Frank Bruni's mother's recipe--really good--no meat and minimal cheese. 9. Leftover casserole and crudites; some scrounging. 10. Red beans and rice, using ham stock from the freezer. Leftover beans usually get frozen for some desperate evening. Things I always have frozen: chicken breasts, marinara sauce and thick tomato sauce for pizza, , Italian sausage, two kinds of stock, roasted hot green chile, some kind of cooked beans, edamame and peas. The freezer is usually pretty crowded. Oh, and about corned beef. My dad, due I assume to some secret past, loved using canned corned beef to make hash. I assumed that corned beef was exclusively a canned product or only something sliced in a deli. Corn a beef? Huh?

The rye cookies sound yummy. One reason they may be successful is that they are not 100 percent rye; they use an equal amount of AP flour. I'm very fond of buckwheat flavor, but baking with only buckwheat and no AP flour is a major challenge. One of the most touted recipes for an all-buckwheat cookie comes from Tartine Bakery. Note that Elizabeth, the baker, is allergic to gluten and has worked hard in the last few years to bake gluten-free. I like a percentage of buckwheat in some cakes and pancakes, but I've never had an all-buckwheat bread or pastry that I really thought was great. I like Soba noodles a lot, but most of them, if you read the ingredients, are not 100 percent buckwheat; those folks who avoid wheat altogether already know that. If there is a big selection of soba you will probably find one or two that are only buckwheat. My experience trying them once is that the texture really suffers.

Everything looks great. Also very nice are the two pieces of pottery. Fried rice is my comfort food.

Duran Pharmacy! We used to go for breakfast. That was in the late sixties, about 13,000 years ago.

Maybe they are using the leftover dye from the children's aspirin. The color in the photos looks more pretty in pink, though.

@heidih, @Kim Shook et al, whoever recommended Nyakers gingersnaps, thanks for creating one more quandary for me. One box and I'm an addict. How do you keep them from getting soft? The only way I can think of is to eat the entire sealed package within 24 hours. I'm perfectly capable of doing that, but it would be nice to give myself an extra day or two. Ideas?

How exactly do you saturate and drain the paper filter?

For several years I had a great gold filter; it was fine enough so that the coffee drained slowly through it. I got a lot of use out of it, but finally it became raggedy and failed. I tried to replace the exact type but it was no longer available. I tried three or four kinds, including the stainless steel one cited above and none of them were fine enough to slow the flow. I gave up on metal filters entirely. I drink far less coffee than I used to, and I'm happy when my husband makes a press pot.

My mother was crazy for shad roe. She used to wrap it in bacon and saute it. I take one bite and find it amazing. Then after another bite I get overwhelmed by how rich it is. I would much rather have the shad. So delicious! A fish you don't see on the west coast. Citarella would bone it for you. Or at least they did in the past.

Agree--Almondinas original flavor are excellent! Most all commercial cookies seem blah to me, but then I don't think I am a cookie person. However there is one packaged tea biscuit / cookie I really like, and that's Effie's Oatcakes. They are not too sweet and just a little salty. And, unfortunately, pricey.

@liuzhouare those morels farmed or foraged? Do they tell you when you buy them? Just curious. I know that morel cultivation is still in its infancy, but China is apparently ahead of the curve.

I haven't made that recipe in years, but for a while it was in frequent rotation. My husband is now the chicken-roasting person. He just makes a bed of cut potatoes and lets the whole chicken cook on top of them in the oven. Works, and I get a night off. The potatoes are my favorite part. If I am just roasting potatoes I really like a bit of duck fat. In the summer months though I really love a room temp potato salad. I have one I'm crazy for this year.