Katie Meadow

Don't ask me why I think only Jews and Scots eat barley. That can't be true. I've never eaten cholent, but my mother used to talk about it from her childhood. I remember nothing about what was in it except whole eggs, cooked for a thousand years overnight. Was that typical?

@weinoo both Scotch Broth and Mushroom Barley soup are nostalgia foods for me. I like to cook the barley separately (in light stock) and then add it to the soup just before serving. That way it doesn't turn the soup starchy and it is easier to control the ratio of barley to soup. I guess an overload of barley cooked for 45 minutes in the soup would be....Jewish congee. At least that's what it would be if my mother every made it. My favorite food on earth used to be Williams BBQ mushroom and barley casserole; industrial size take-out in an aluminum baking dish. It was at B'way and 85th St, and closed many years ago. I don't know how they managed to cook the barley so perfectly, but it was never sticky, always distinct pearls. Being on lockdown is unfortunately making me want a lot of foods I'll never see again.

My idea of chicken and dumplings is matzoh ball soup. Or, what I used to always get at a favorite Viet restaurant that closed down: duck leg wonton soup. The duck leg was just standing bone-end up in the bowl. Picturesque in its own weird way. Yes, I know it isn't chicken, but it was awfully comforting.

Awww! @Kim Shook Happy Anniversary! I want a lemon filled cupcake right now. I used to love cream cheese on a bagel with canned chopped black olives, tomato and red onion slivers, but I haven't had it in years. These times are indeed strange. I have a lot of time on lockdown to fantasize about our next grocery run.

My kind of dinner. Yum. Pre-made crumble topping? There's invention. The other night we had rice pudding for a late dinner. Due to what we are all becoming familiar with, that is the various shortages, we are very low on basmati rice. However my husband scored a few boxes of arborio and carnaroli, and since I always prefer those for rice pudding, , it was a slam-dunk. I've also got a reasonable supply of sushi rice, but long grain rice appears to be about as scarce as King Arthur Flour, at least in these parts. Besides rice pudding, the near future holds risotto and one of my favorite soups, which is a tomato and arborio rice concoction. Yes, we eat a lot of rice chez moi. And like you, @Shelby, I have never been so conscious of not wasting anything. I am trying to funnel my anxiety into creative re-use of all edibles. It helps a little, but no more than most obsessions. And, like other obsessions, it becomes its own burden. So be it.

Thanks to those who replied. My husband came back from a surreal shopping trip this morning with a very big piece of ginger, definitely enough to get me through the next month or maybe more. Freeze I will.

Can fresh ginger be frozen?

Question. Several people have noted the sludge with the French Press. We get very little sludge in our cups. A lot of sludge must mean the grind is too fine for the standard Bodum style press, no? Or maybe I just like sludge. I like Greek and Turkish coffee, and that's mostly sludge.

Canada Dry is better than the rest of the commercial ginger ales, but it is still too sweet and bland for my taste. Ginger beer is fun in small quantities. I can't typically drink a whole bottle by myself, it's too intense. Does anyone have a recipe for a ginger ale that's a bit more punchy and not so sweet, but not nearly as potent as ginger beer?

Okay, so I eat a hot dog maybe twice a year. Or less. But I had a craving. One thing I usually find disappointing is the buns that are available. But we had a desperation day and I just couldn't face making a major shopping list. In the fridge were a few leftover flour tortillas and half a cabbage. So, we bought some dogs. Maybe you could call this a Mexican hot dog without the bacon. Or you could call it a ball park burrito. I made a slaw flavored with mustard and a little creme fraiche (my idea of crema if I don't have the real thing) and some home made pickled jalapenos, cilantro, lime, etc. The dogs were grilled outside, the tortillas heated on the comal. Maybe I was just very hungry, but it was surprisingly good. Mine had a very generous amount of slaw. I can certainly see throwing a slice of crisp bacon in the mix. I grew up with the NY standard: mustard, sauerkraut and best of all a papaya drink from Papaya King. Papayas are easy to come by, and it has to be a snap to make some kind of drink in my Ninja bullet to approximate the King, so perhaps hot dogs will be in my nearer future. Despite the draw of PK I suspect flying to NY these days on a whim is not likely.

Leftover pizza for the appliance challenged: We don't have a toaster oven. We don't have a CSO or any countertop oven. We do make our own pizza in our only oven using a steel. But if I am eating leftover pizza for breakfast it is out of the question to wait an hour to heat up a couple of slices. Believe it or not, we use the toaster. Just stick in a slice, pointy end up, and a couple of minutes later crispy melty pizza almost as good as the night before. One caveat. We don't make loaded pizzas, but rather thin-crust minimalist style with modest amount of tomato sauce and mozz and one additional veg topping. I would think twice about toasting pizza that was topped with a zillion things and a ton of cheese. Also a medium to large slice will stick up beyond the slot and the tip will get warmed at best. No way a deal-breaker for a slice of excellent pizza in three minutes. You do need to monitor the temp and get a feel for the timing to make sure your cheese isn't getting dangerously drippy. Also I suppose your toaster should be a relaxed one with wide slots and not one that has a death-grip on whatever goes in it.

His marmalades are wonderful. I've had several over the years. He used to sell them at a local farmer's market here in Oakland. Now they are very pricey, so as tempted as I often am, we pretty much try to make enough marmalade to last for 12 months. We need about 24 jars a year, and that includes a few jars to give away. I'm into some other toast options lately, but my husband can go through a jar himself in under two weeks.

After a very shallow investigation I discover that Seville or sour oranges are grown in southern CA at several orchards. Supposedly they are at some farmers' markets down there. If so the time is probably now. I didn't go deep enough to see how far from home these orchards market the oranges. My husband is making a trip to Berkeley Bowl this morning so maybe he can find out where ours are grown. There is even a place near Visalia in southern CA called Seville, and they claim there's an orchard there.

I've never heard of that Beanman's brand. RG has very dependable pozole. My method is stovetop, because I don't have an IP or any kind of slow cooker. There's no question that patience is a virtue. I soak RG pozole overnight, and then it simmers at least 3 hours in order to get it to pop. During my many years in New Mexico in the late sixties and early seventies I ate plenty of posole. The best was always cooked in one of those original crock pots by my best friend's father, who grew up in Taos. He cooked it all day in that thing with a modest amount of some type of pork and then added his own chile rojo made from dried red chiles. That way guests could just add the heat to their desired taste. His posole looked more like popcorn than like kernels by the time it was ready, and it's my gold standard. Several years ago I discovered an unused Crock Pot in one of those classic sixties colors in my basement that I believe was given to me by my MIL and that had previously been sitting in her garage for years. (at that time she also gave me an old 6-form popover pan, which I do in fact use.) I got very excited and dragged the crock pot up to the kitchen so I could try to duplicated that Taos posole. I took it out of the box, promptly dropped it on the floor, where it cracked, and that was the end of that experiment. Every time I think about it I get very annoyed. Yes, I could buy a new slow-cooker or find a classic crock pot on eBay, but the fact that the stars were aligned so perfectly for about ten minutes before they fell from the sky has make me unable to act in any way whatsoever when it comes to anything but stovetop pozole.

@gfwebThere is a Making Marmalade thread somewhere here on eG. Seville oranges are in the stores right now in CA. They have a very short season, which is why we are in the middle of our yearly marmalade production right now. We typically make three or four batches of six jars each. Seville orange season just happens to be concurrent with the even shorter season here for Bergamot. We like to add a couple of bergamots to each batch if they are available. Sometimes we don't get quite enough juice from the same weight of oranges, so we throw in a grapefruit's worth of juice to make up the difference. It's all good. Check out the Marmalade thread.

The most effective way to grate ginger in my kitchen is to use the fine shredder on a box grater. Not the very finest holes, just the one that makes tiny strings. It doesn't seem to create a cleaning hurdle. And sometimes I like to grate it that way and then squeeze it out in my hand if I just want the juice and not the fibres. For that you really do need fresh young ginger.

Had no idea that swiss chard had its own thread. That's so sweet! I too use it as my go-to green for soups, lasagnes and even in a quick version of "collards" sauteed with bacon and or ham broth, then last minute a drizzle of vinegar and Steen's. Like @heidih I prefer just the green chard; I find some of the reds and yellows have tougher leaves and a mixed bunch doesn't cook evenly.

Are you suggesting that a whole sleeve and a whole stick is a snack for one? Growing up we had saltines around for one reason, which is pretty weird: my mother used to eat saltines alongside chocolate ice cream. For years I never even thought about saltines, but then 32 years ago when I was pregnant it was the only thing I could eat. Now I'm rather fond of them, with or without butter. Unsalted butter, that would be. Last year I convinced my husband to MAKE saltines. They were pretty good the first day, but became completely stale overnight. Clearly what comes in a sleeve should stay in a sleeve.

I would get it just to look at it. It's beautiful. Looking forward to reviews from anyone who springs for it.

My Viking stove is also early nineties vintage. It's a little cranky but keeps chugging along and has not had any major problems. My intention was to get high BTUs for wok cooking, and indeed this Viking delivers. I don't know if Viking still sells a heavy duty wok burner that is easily switched for the regular ones, but if you are into stir-fry it is worth finding out if the range you like has such a thing. Our dishwasher is an Asko, and the main reason we got it was because it was one of the few that would actually fit the space. However, it works well and best of all is designed for maximum dishes. I can't say enough about the idea of taking some bowls and plates with you when you look at various models. Some are simple badly designed, others just coincidentally work well or poorly for your dishware. Despite being a slightly small dishwasher, this Asko fits way more that the dishwasher in the family beach house, which is a large model American brand with the most limiting and frustrating interior design. And our home dishes are the exact same ones as the ones at the beach house. I can literally get twice as many plates and bowls in the Asko at home. Good luck with your remodel. We've been in our house since 1986 and have replaced and remodeled our kitchen piecemeal, which is a headache of a different kind.

I too love Mexican crema. Since Mi Puebla grocery in the East Bay closed I've been missing many of my favorite items. They used to sell crema in bulk, and you could get it with salt or without. I will look out for the above product. I often approximate a traditional crema by mixing creme fraiche with a little mayo or some Greek yogurt to tart it up a bit.

Fresh ginger is always in my fridge. I use it several times a week, typically in stir fry. The first order of business before every stir fry is to make an oil flavored with ginger, garlic and chile, enough for whatever needs a turn in the wok. Yesterday we had one of my favorite splurge meals: Ahi tuna burgers. They have fresh ginger in them, among a few other things, and get cooked so the middle is barely warm. Pricey, if you buy the best quality sushi tuna, but then local wild caught fresh fish isn't exactly cheap around here. For coughs I find lemon ginger tea with honey is just the ticket. Fresh grated ginger, generous amount of lemon, add boiling water and stir. Add honey to taste. I like it pretty tart and never measure the juice, so the amount of honey varies as needed. Honestly I have no idea which does the heavy lifting--the honey, the ginger or the lemon. I do like gingerbread cake, but with some caveats. Many recipes just aren't very good and I'm often disappointed when served it. One issue is that I'm not too fond of molasses. I prefer using Steen's syrup. My favorite gingerbread however is Laurie Colwin's classic Damp Gingerbread, which uses Golden Syrup instead of molasses. It does not use fresh ginger, and I've learned that stale ginger powder is worthless. It's one of those shelf spices that needs to be refreshed frequently, and damp gingerbread really needs very fresh powder. It is a terrific recipe, and lends itself to all kinds of go-withs. Lemon sauce, ice cream (vanilla, salted caramel, coffee, peppermint, green tea or buttermilk ice cream!) and very yummy: creme fraiche with some fresh lemon zest, aged for a few hours. And yes, I have a recipe floating around somewhere for ginger bread cookies make with bacon fat. Haven't tried it, since I don't often have bacon fat sitting around, but now I'm thinking.....soon!

My mother used to do sour cream and brown sugar with grapes. I do it when I get nostalgic, but I prefer creme fraiche to sour cream. Always surprises me how good it is!

A great strawberry is not an everyday thing. Even in summer at the farmers' markets they are not guaranteed to be tasty. When we visit relatives in Davis we sometimes stop at the strawberry stand; they are often quite good, but unfortunately not organic. And since strawbs are one the most sprayed fruits it is a good policy to buy organic, so I'm torn every time we buy them there. I've never understood the combo of chocolate and strawberry. It just never appealed to me, whether dipped or paired with cake. Strawberries with creme fraiche or whipped cream? Yum. Now that I think about it, really I prefer most all fruits to be eaten separately from chocolate. Although I will allow that poached pears in white wine are pretty good with a chocolate biscotti on the side.

Frankly I've never understood the Kale commotion. Lacinato kale I like in some soups, but generally I find Chard to be the best tasting and most versatile of all the greens. It holds up in soups better than spinach, and tastes good. It can be subbed for collards in a saute and flavored with bacon or ham stock, etc. like collards, but takes way less time to cook. Parboiled and then squeezed out it makes a more substantial and flavorful lasagne layer than spinach. I know there are folks that eat kale raw in salads, but it doesn't appeal to me that way in either texture or flavor. And if the marketing has convinced you that kale is a super food, you should check out kale vs all the other dark leafy greens. Most of them are very similar in nutrients or antioxidents or whatever; kale isn't any better or worse if you look at all the vitamin and mineral contents in comparison. If you are not wild about kale you should consider yourself guilt free.