Katie Meadow

One problem with jalapeños, as with poblanos, is that, depending on the source, they vary wildly in heat, especially if you don't live in the southwest or can't find a local vendor that is reliable. I like to pickle jalapeños, but if a bunch is too mild sometimes I add some serranos. I'm not partial to using them raw; after living in NM I got used to depending on roasted long green chiles for heat. And I fall into the category that @heidih suggests: those who don't like raw green bell peppers either. Pickled jalapeños I like in some potato salads and tuna salads. My husband throws them into sandwiches with abandon.

Yes, the diet you describe is quite popular. I'm on it now.

6 oz dried bay leaves, one smoked ham hock and 8 cups of water. Simmer until done. Serve with toast points, whatever those are. I'm told that Gabrielle Hamilton lived on this when she first started working as a poor line cook. Naturally she had access to a Bay Laurel tree (she stole the leaves from a neighbor's yard) and dried them herself, so assume that if if your soup isn't perfect, it's due to your inferior ingredients, or simply to the fact that you are not her. If you like pot liquor this is for you. Can be frozen in ten ice cube trays.

Not meaning to be a downer, since in fact I don't believe I have ever eaten ice cream made with lots of chemical additives. The artisan ice cream we buy in the Bay Area is typically made with organic ingredients; milk, sugar, fruit. My husband makes a fabulous lemon buttermilk sorbet which uses nothing but lemon juice, lemon zest, sugar and buttermilk. When I first met my husband, his father was into making ice cream with a wooden hand cranked bucket that I'm sure he inherited and if I remember correctly, used ice cubes and salt for cooling power. This was in Davis, CA where summer temps could easily go up to 100 degrees. He would use local fruit like peaches and strawberries, cream and sugar. It was really good. It took forever, but he was always a very patient person, a physicist who grew up on a farm. Probably you learn a lot of patience doing either.

Yesterday I made something yummy: strawberry milk. The recipe is from Smitten Kitchen minimally adapted from Gabrielle Hamilton. It's just a pound of berries macerated with a half cup of granulated sugar for a couple of hours. Then blend well the strawbs and juice. Mix with 3 cups of whole milk and 1 cup of buttermilk, and get it really cold. I put it in two mason jars, and it made about 7 cups. A great way to use up berries that are very ripe or blemished. My husband had it for breakfast this morning and loved it. I was never a fan of strawberry ice cream or strawberry shakes, but this is just perfect. It thickens up, like halfway to a milkshake and ends up tasting richer than you would expect. And yet, it's just milk! Preamble as always fun to read. As usual, the things that GH probably concocted out of her pantry as a teenager end up being more than the sum of their parts. https://smittenkitchen.com/2016/06/strawberry-milk/

I'm a big fan of Caputo 00 for pizza. We don't have a professional oven, and can barely get ours up to 500 degrees. The two best improvements we have made are that flour and the use of a thick steel.

@Smithy, the Oregano Indio from RG always looks like yours, a bigger leaf. It's delicious, but a splurge, compared to the price of any Mexican oregano I've bought in my local spice shop. It's been a long time since I bought Greek oregano, but the taste difference between any Mexican and the RG Indio is pretty distinct in my experience.

Throw the bunsen burner at him.

Good thing Dick's is one minute from New Law Courts. Very convenient if you sue Dick after you have a heart attack.

I do the same: put whole tomatillos under the broiler, then peel them. I find a straight tomatillo sauce too acidic, so that's why I like to make my guacamole with a few of them.

So sketchy! My husband braved our usual farmers' market last week. No tomatoes at all. Very very good bicolor corn. Excellent Santa Rosa plums. Lousy underripe apricots. Delicious strawberries. Of course you couldn't pick the produce yourself, just had to rely on a pre-packed bag, and you couldn't peel back the corn husks to get a peek, either. But early corn is usually very sweet and worm-free from our favorite vendor. One of the largest vendors was absent, and that's where we get tomatoes and herbs. Surprising about the lack tomatoes, since some of our regular markets have been stocking decent heirlooms for the last few weeks. Ah well, it is what it is. These days it is best not to count on anything.

I'm embarrassed to admit that I think I know what you are talking about. My husband has a tendency to "half-screw" the lid just enough so that I am going to grab said lid, a recipe for accidents. Now I ask him to simply leave the lid off and I'll put the jar away.

If there's one thing you can rely on in the Bay Area it's that if you plan to make gazpacho the fog will roll in and the temperature will drop. I love gazpacho, but in order to enjoy it fully I need to eat it outside in warm weather. After many years of this predictable annoyance I've just given up on it. If I've got the ingredients I usually end up deconstructing the soup. In other words, I make a Greek Salad. Good tomatoes, cukes and olive oil is 75% of the way to gazpacho, right?

I believe those recipes are for intravenous application.

Then you think I should withdraw my patent application? Geez, but really, no surprise lots of people figured this one out before I did. Like long, long before Cheeto dust rained down on Earth. A fork would so not work.

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.