Katie Meadow

The closest I ever got to grape jelly in my childhood was Manischewitz wine. Then eventually it cropped up in diners on road trips. The only time I ever heard of grape jelly being associated with hot dogs was ten minutes ago, on this thread. It must be real, since no one could make that up.

When you bake a lot of bread (not me, him) you eat a lot of toast. And when you make your own marmalade you eat a lot of toast with that. Once I get out of bed I need to eat something with carbs. I can't be bothered cooking anything. And then there's the NYT sitting on the table waiting for me. No, definitely no time to cook. I've always been made nervous by the idea of brunch. I feel like I shouldn't eat first, but I can't not have at least one piece of toast or something in order to make it through until the brunch. Also I'm not chatty at breakfast, a fact that always annoyed my mother when I went to visit. Lately we've taken to eating ricotta on toast. And ever since we went south for our daughter's wedding I'm a big fan of sorghum butter on toast. Salted. Lox and bagels is always good. Sadly our favorite place to buy good bagels, good cream cheese and good lox in one place has now cut back to once a week orders only, so I'm missing that due to laziness primarily and having to think ahead days to place an order. I'm also very happy to have left over (veg) pizza for breakfast, crisped and melted in the toaster, never cold. I don't really like eggs or any kind of meat for breakfast. Anything that looks like a face on the plate, such as two fried eggs and a bacon smile is a nightmare as far as I am concerned.

@MokaPot, I went back to my orders for this year on Amazon (Prime). At the very end of February I purchased a pack of 6 cans of Ortiz tuna for a total of $24.49. That was then.

@MokaPot For tuna I like Ortiz bonito in the oval can. I may be misinformed, but I believe bonito is a small tuna, so it contains less mercury. It's very good quality, and not cheap, but I've discovered that Amazon sells a pack of several cans for a reasonable price--better than I have paid in the past at local gourmet shops. For sardines I also order from Amazon. Two brands I find to be very good: Santo Amaro, European wild, packed in olive oil, are a pretty good deal if you buy in a 12 tin pack. They are lightly smoked and typically large, three sardines to a can. The other one I like is Matiz, also European wild, a similarly large sardine and more delicate and not smoky, also in olive oil. They are a bit pricier than the Santo Amaro. None of the canned fish are cheap. They are from Spain or Portugal, but I can't remember which. Both have the bone in, which I require. Why toss out one of the best sources of calcium? As for the "wild" part, I believe all sardines are wild caught. They appear to be sustainable, at least on the European coast.

Another good root beer float can be made with salted caramel ice cream, but most salted caramel is too sweet for me.

Yep, I remember the Progresso canned white clam sauce very well. I don't remember the red one. I think my mom would buy the white in a pinch.

@weinoo, old school linguini and clams for me means specifically babysitting my younger brother. Whenever our parents went out we made linguini with white clam sauce and paired it with a nice bottle of coke over ice. So canned clams are a nostalgia food for me, and pandemic cooking is all about nostalgia. The "why" of that eludes me. Perhaps sheltering in place gives me permission to buy and eat things that are usually not on my radar. In my case that means date nut bread with cream cheese, root beer floats with coffee ice cream, and, in my dreams, Papaya King. I seem to be susceptible to all kinds of suggestions lately. I've spent years whining (to myself naturally, as no one else wants to hear it as much as I do apparently) about the lack of hard shell clam varieties on the west coast, so perhaps this is the therapy I need. What brand of canned clams do you like best? I haven't bought them in a million years.

First of all, if you are debating whether or not to refrigerate something it means you can avoid a problem right there. If you literally forgot and left open food out on the counter, I agree that what it is makes a difference but so does the overnight temp in your kitchen. I'd be far less concerned about a slice of pizza in a cold kitchen than in a warm one. When it comes to soup, my experience is that leaving soup out is not a good idea, especially if it has been heated up. I've always heard that getting freshly made stock cooled down quickly prevents bacteria from growing. The definition of hangover pizza doesn't necessarily mean you passed out before you could clean up a bit.

To the OP: Isn't it pretty to think so? Everything looks so lovely. Without actual people. Post-social distancing garden parties may not be in the cards, as summer is right around the corner. Hard to drink a Quarantini while wearing a mask!

I had one of those! Forgot all about it; no idea what happened to it. My first coffee grinder was a Moulinex. Very reliable, and they sold replacement blades.

For my last order from Geechie Boy I got the Carolina Gold rice for the first time. I thought it was delicious. Love to know how you like the Charleston Gold. Is Charleston rice always the aromatic one? Btw, last Friday I watched Vivian Howard's latest series and she dropped in on Geechie Boy himself on Edisto Island. That was a two minute thrill, which isn't nothing these days.

I too consider celery root a comfort food. My mother didn't have a lot of tricks when it came to cooking, nor did she have many parties when we we were growing up, but her one party trick was celery root remoulade. She wasn't a very good cook, but that one she had down. Fennel is a staple for us. I often sub it for celery in various soups. And it is my go-to easy salad, just paper thin slices with a little olive oil, lemon and salt and pepper. Radishes if I have some, which I usually don't.

By that time you won't remember what almond extract is, anyway. I don't agree that extracts keep forever. I think they deteriorate like just about everything else. Flavor is fragile.

Smithfield, which is in fact owned by a Chinese group, just donated 10 million pounds of product to Feeding America food banks.

Friday night was a Zoom seder, which was really a disjointed cocktail hour. I've never celebrated Easter, but Sunday evening we made a delicious fried rice, using all kinds of misc. items, including a little smoked ham, shitake mushrooms, shredded black fungus, carrots, cabbage, peas, chopped Chinese omelet, Chinese chives, and so forth. Satisfying comfort food. It was probably the first time I ever had ham for Easter. My daughter's Easter dinner on the other hand, far away in Atlanta, consisted of matzoh ball soup and beef short ribs. I didn't even know she knew what short ribs were. I'm so proud!

My freezer is an ungodly mix of ham stock, chicken stock, pork neck bones, home made tomato sauce and ice cream.

Report from Berkeley Bowl: My husband went yesterday morning, The line to get into the store was long, and he had to wait more than half an hour before getting inside. He had a mask and so did just about everyone else. People on line were polite and careful to practice physical distance. Upon entering the store everyone was handed gloves. Inside it was calm and everyone was careful. Certain things were packaged differently. No bulk olives, only containers already filled. We don't need flour, as we got our KA shipment, but there wasn't any on the shelves. Nor was there basmati rice, but he did score a package of jasmine rice. Just about everything on our long list was on the shelves. We bought chicken parts for stock and the only shortage was feet; he bought what was there, about half of what we usually get, and for some weird reason the feet were all very small! Were they baby chicken feet? So all in all we did well. Mostly we stocked up on a week's fresh vegetables and fruit, and we now have plenty of soup broth in the freezer for whatever. Tomorrow is one more trip to an entirely different shopping area, which includes picking up a script, ice cream and my favorite rye bread. Hope it's there! Then I think we are set for quite a while. Despite increased anxiety, mostly due to an underlying lung condition, I know I am fortunate. We are retired, used to functioning together fairly well in isolated togetherness and one of us knows how to cook and the other one knows how to bake.. The Bay Area is not doing too badly. We were locked down fairly early, and most people seem eager to obey the rules and to help out those who can't shop or run errands for themselves. The homeless situation in the CA cities is shameful during the best of times, but now it must be really frightening to be without shelter. Stay safe, everyone.

@Anna N and anyone else who likes blue cheese toast, try this. GH is so fastidious I'm a little surprised she instructs you to slice the Cambazola. It isn't very sliceable in my house, even when cold. So I pay no attention to that. Also I don't bother with the microplane for the garlic, jus squeeze a bit into mix. Other types of blue cheese could probably be subbed, and we won't tell her. It's very yummy. GABRIELLE HAMILTON’S CELERY TOAST 2 slices country white Pullman bread, 1/2-inch thick Sweet butter 4 ounces Cambozola triple-cream blue cheese, sliced, divided evenly between two toasts 1 cup shaved celery, from the inner head, toughouter stalks removed, thinly sliced on the bias 2 scallions, thinly sliced on bias all the way up from the white through the green 1 large clove garlic Extra-virgin olive oil Lemon juice Kosher salt Several grinds black pepper Toast the bread to golden. Butter generously, “wall to wall.” Lay cheese slices on top of buttered toast, neatly, evenly. In a small bowl, stir together the celery and the scallions. Microplane the garlic into the celery mixture. Dress with olive oil, lemon juice and salt, and stir very well, until completely dressed, almost wet with dressing. Mound the shaved celery salad evenly on top of the blue-cheese toasts, and grind black pepper over them very generously. Cut each in half or quarters. **Lest anyone believe that I make this for breakfast, let me set you straight. I don't. To me, this is cooking, and if it can't be thrown in a toaster with six atoms of brain power it isn't going to happen. I love it as part of a late lunch or an app before dinner..

I may be blowing smoke here, as the last time I ordered tea on line was about 3 or 4 weeks ago, but most on line spice and tea companies are functioning, are they not? I buy all my tea on line from several different vendors and have for years. Typically I get really attached to certain teas from certain purveyors, and then suddenly I find a new crush.

Don't even think about it, Jo.

Update after you make it, will you? I saw the recipe and I think I have the ingredients. Are you making that parsley oil? It made me tired just reading it, and ordinarily cabbage soup doesn't have a big draw for me. Picture makes it look delicious, though.

Two reasons why we are baking bread. Well, "we" is a stretch since my husband is the only one in the house who gets near bread dough. So, one: bread requires many hours and timing isn't always flexible. And two: we eat so much bread that if we didn't bake it we would have to be going out to buy it almost once a day and a trip for just bread isn't in the cards these days. Meanwhile I'm baking too, just things without yeast. My taste for sweet stuff is up up up.

It looks like Florida tried to suck up parts of Alabama and Georgia. whoa, Heidi we are of one mind. I"m only seconds behind you.

Forgive me if this is a stupid question and an equally useless suggestion. Is tofu the whole point? Are you looking for a vegetarian dumpling that requires it? I've had good dumplings that are just. well, vegetables: a mix of stir fried cabbage, chinese chives, dried wood ear mushrooms, and any other veggies that appeal. Garlic, ginger, soy, sesame oil, rice wine, all for flavor. A little cornstarch couldn't hurt. Personally I would just skip the tofu and have it some other way. Like maybe take some firm tofu, pat it dry, saute it in your favorite oil until crispy and serve alongside the dumplings with garlic and chili hot sauce, dipping sauce, whatever. The idea of tofu in a dumpling seems problematic, especially if you are having so much trouble getting the texture right. I know I'm lazy, but getting tofu to taste tolerable in a dumpling seems like a really difficult challenge.

There is a NYT recipe for Bacon Fat Gingersnaps that's been around for a while, easily found on line. It would take me six months to get the amount of bacon fat called for, which is 3/4 cup. That's for two cups of flour. I expect I will never make them, but it would be fun to taste one....or two. The picture looks very appealing--a tall stack of very thin cookies. I'm guessing they are super crispy, or they certainly should be.