Katie Meadow

Mostly I don't snack when on line. Maybe I just get absorbed and don't think about it. Another reason is that I don't want my greasy fingers on my keyboard. But recently I tried something new with one of my preferred snacks. I have a weakness for Cheetos, especially when drinking a bloody mary. But picture this: Cheetos has a new best friend-- a pair of chopsticks. No greasy fingers, no orange dust spoiling a cloth napkin. The height of elegance.

Perhaps you could call the periodontist and talk to them about the changes they have made. I agree with Ronnie, though, that dentists are taking the most precautions of anyone these days, and are probably more worried about getting the virus from patients and less likely to be spreading it themselves.

That's a strong recommendation. Tell me about the heat levels. Which do you order?

A little char is good, but I personally toss most of the burnt skin. Same goes when i make babaganoush. If I roast the eggplants on the grill I definitely like keep a bit of charred flakes in the final product.

For fresh tomato salsa I like to use roasted long green chiles, hatch, hot poblanos, whatever I can get. Having lived in NM we always had roasted chile available, freshly roasted in season, frozen out of season. I still do that reflexively instead of raw jalapeño. I make it very simply, good tomatoes, chopped and salted and let sit a bit. Then add a little minced red onion, cilantro, lime juice and the chile to taste. Great for tacos or burritos. It's a little sloppy for dipping chips, but still works. Roasted chiles also go into my guacamole, but lately I've added a few roasted mashed tomatillos to thin it out, along with the usual suspects like garlic, cilantro, lime juice, whatever. It's more tart than using all avocado, but is also useful if you have second-rate avocados. I used to buy a cooked red salsa made in house by Mi Pueblo super store--they sold about four different kinds--but sadly they went out of business last year. It was delicious, and available all year round. No idea how they made it. Nothing bottled seems worth buying, at least that I've tried.

I'm with SE and vote for the latte option. Do most of those espresso makers w/steamed milk make enough milk for a latte? I don't have an espresso maker, but if I want foamy milk in my coffee I have to heat the milk in the microwave and then use my little hand-held frother. It works fairly well, but it's all about technique and the quantity is limited. A bother to be sure, so usually I just don't.

Fascinating! Not totally relevant, but whose writing is on the card? Doesn't look like grammy writing to me. Just curious.

Sometimes mangoes remain stringy, so the texture of the ice cream might be different than you expect.

I've never been able to discern the difference between the Gray's hot dog and the Papaya King hot dog. By the time the sauerkraut and mustard get layered on they taste the same to me. However I will defend the Papaya King juice over the Gray's juice to the death. @weinoo your dog looks perfect.

I'm pretty sure there's no such thing as a really good dirty water dog. However there might be a very dirty water dog, which would be one you buy in the late afternoon.

Wouldn't it be useful to define barbecue before trying to figure out where it came from?. If you believe it means long cooking over smoke rather than simply grilling over a fire,, then look to places that had plenty of wood to burn. Just a guess here.

Agreed. First there will be the cut on your finger. The there will be an oil spill, colored red. @JoNorvelleWalker don't even think about it.

That bottle is a blast from the past. Is it readily available? The price I pay for letting my husband do the shopping. Oh, wait, still worth it.

The snails look small. Do you just suck them out of the shell or do you have special snail forks?

@Kim Shook I always have saltines on hand, but try the sardines on triscuits, a la Gabrielle Hamilton. Here are her instructions, hilariously fussy as always: Canned Sardines with Triscuits, Dijon Mustard, and Cornchons Ingredients 1 can sardines in oil 1 dollop Dijon mustard small handful cornichons small handful Triscuit crackers 1 parsley bunch Directions Buckle the can after you open it to make it easier to lift the sardines out of the oil without breaking them. Stack the sardines on the plate the same way they looked in the can – more or less. Don’t crisscross or zigzag or otherwise make “restauranty.” Commit to the full stem of parsley, not just the leaf. Chewing the stems freshens the breath.Reprinted with permission from Prune. Since you already have sardines in mustard sauce you are halfway there. Since almost choking to death on a triscuit sixty years ago I don't have a long history of keeping them around, but I have to admit that they are very good with sardines. Direction #1 sounds dubious. Buckling a can of open sardines has a high disaster rate, don't you think? I guess if you are charging $12 for a sardine appetizer you want them looking pristine and whole. Rest in Peace, Prune.

Fruited rice and sprigged anything deserves a round of quiet applause.

That was nice the cook went to special effort to make poached eggs. I'm just surprised there was rye toast available.

Use of heavy cream in large quantities is a splurge no matter how you look at it. Might as well get what makes you swoon and.... enjoy!

Not to rain on your parade, but this doesn't sound like a very high use for shrimp. It's hard to imagine the texture of the shrimp being very good by the time the bread is cooked. If the shrimp is good quality I would simply make a shrimp cocktail to go with warm cornbread, or a spicy peel & eat shrimp in the shell. Then it's only a hop and a skip to hold the cornbread and make shrimp 'n' grits instead! Any great NJ tomatoes yet? Sauce for that is awfully yummy made with ripe fresh tomatoes. Then stick some birthday candles in a lemon ice box pie.

In my family, after dinner at an Italian restaurant it was always just an espresso with a lemon twist. Mmm, delicious.

Everyone has a different tolerance level, and it doesn't always have to do with the food actually being spoiled and unhealthy to eat. Those of us with sensitive noses are more likely to detect that "just starting to go" smell or taste. Milk or cream can smell bad in the carton as a result of thin layers of dairy on the upper carton, but if you pour the milk out it can be okay. I am usually ahead of my husband by a day or two in determining I don't want to eat something. He just isn't as sensitive to smell or taste as I am and often, if something isn't obviously bad, he just can't tell. Me, I can usually tell the day before something smells bad and I just don't want to eat it. Old yogurt may not be spoiled, but it doesn't taste very good either. The trick for me is to catch something in the very beginning stages of deterioration and get him to eat it before I throw it out a couple of days later. If you have a hard time determining whether food should be consumed you would be well advised to have a cast iron stomach.

I love Neccos, hate those hearts and have never had Rolaids. I did used to like aspergum, though.

Wow, great information and the best title. I'm thrilled they are coming back, especially if the packaging is the the same. Chocolate was my favorite flavor, so I'm a little hesitant to applaud any changes. I don't see how they could be made any better, or any worse, for that matter. I thought they were perfect as they were.

@weinoo, if hockmesser is Yiddish for a one-handed curved blade, then that's actually more like my mother's, only hers had a wooden handle. Maybe mezzalunas are usually two-handled? My mother would have likely not known either name for her curved blade until later in life when she acquired an Italian boyfriend. Chopped liver he would never have eaten. I don't know where the recipe came from, exactly, but it has been edited by me. The ingredients list is very much like the one for Jasper White's recipe, which I have made with fresh clams, and which is good but overly complicated if you ask me. I don't see why any recipe using canned clams should be fussy. This is really basic. I think it can sit around and then be reheated. All that's missing is my mother's favorite dessert in the summer on Long Island: driving to Howard Johnson's for pink peppermint ice cream cones. MANHATTAN CLAM CHOWDER 3 or 4 slices bacon (or pancetta, etc.) 1 tablespoon olive oil, opt. 1 small onion, chopped 2 carrots, peeled and sliced or cut in small cubes 2 celery stalks, chopped 1 large garlic clove, minced 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme or a few sprigs of fresh thyme 1/4 teaspoon celery seed 1 or 2 bay leaves 14 ounces of canned tomatoes, chopped, with juices 12-14-ounces of clam broth or juice* (that would be bottled if using canned clams) 1 pound waxy potatoes, peeled and cut into bite sized cubes (about 3 medium yukons) 2 6.5 oz cans of baby clams, juice reserved* Salt and black pepper to taste Tabasco or other hot sauce *If using fresh quahogs, scrub clean a dozen or more quahogs. Place clams in a small pot and add two cups of water. Bring water to a boil. Cover the pot and steam the clams until they completely open, about 10 to 20 minutes. Remove from heat. Remove clams from pot and set aside. Strain the clam steaming liquid through a fine mesh sieve or cheesecloth to catch any grit, reserving the liquid. Remove the clams from the shells, chop. Use chopped clams in place of canned. Use steaming liquid in place of clam broth. Slowly cook the bacon with the olive oil (don’t bother if your bacon is fatty) until the bacon is crispy and its fat rendered. Remove, chop and set aside, leaving a tablespoon or two of bacon grease in the pan if you want to cook your vegetables in it. Sauté the onion a few minutes on a low flame in bacon grease or oil, then add celery and carrots for about another 4-5 minutes. Do not brown the vegetables. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Add the herbs, chopped tomatoes with juice, clam broth and the juice from the canned clams. Mix and bring to a simmer, then add the potatoes and chopped bacon. Cover and simmer gently until the potatoes are done, about 30 minutes. When the potatoes are tender, add the canned clams, cover the pot, turn off the flame and let sit ten minutes. I can’t imagine that cooking any further will make the clams more tender; they are what they are. Add salt as needed, serve with salt and pepper and Tabasco or Crystal hot sauce if you like.

Now dig up the mezzaluna that went with! My mother must have gotten rid of her bowl and blade when she moved to a small apartment because I sure never found them. In my seemingly endless coronavirus nostalgia fugue I made chopped liver a few weeks ago and it is impossible not to think of her set-up under the circumstances. Never did a bowl take such a beating. And speaking of nostalgia foods, last night I made Manhattan clam chowder with canned clams, (basically your fault, Mitch.) It was a first for my husband of 33 years and he was thrilled, as he should have been, given that our main meals have consisted of Bloody Marys and Root Beer Floats with grilled cheese sandwiches for two days. (Not that that's a bad thing of course.) He stepped up to the plate and made excellent biscuits to go with, a skill worth my encouragement which is paying off -- for me at least -- big time. No oyster crackers, but really, biscuits fresh from the oven with clam chowder?