Katie Meadow

What is an oven bag and why does a pot need to go in it? How much help does a pot need?

Totally agree re RG hominy. I am about to make a traditional Posole Rojo in the next few days. I have a mix of pork butt and pork neck bones and a variety of dried red chiles. Although I have not inspected my stash, most likely there are some anchos and some guajillos. When I lived in NM my good friend's dad was the posole master. He cooked the whole thing in a 60's era crock pot (you can picture that, right?) and always served the red chile sauce at the end, to be added to each bowl to taste. I've never been able to duplicate his red chile. It was the best.

Actually I like most all the pecorinos better than Pecorino Romano. I don't know where you live, but there are lots of pecorino cheeses and different ones might be sourced where you are. The ones I see most often where I buy cheese are P. Stagionata, Molitarno, Maturo, Toscano, Renero, Classico, Calabrese and Antico. Typically there will be a couple of them in stock, but sometimes only one. I'm sure there must be dozens of others. Stagionata is my favorite, Antico my least favorite, although it is pretty common. Sometimes Stagionata comes truffled, which is very good but pricier. I don't see Calabrese very often, but I remember liking it. When there is no pecorino (or I'm shopping away from my home turf) I will get Fiore Sardo, which is reliably available lots of places--and seems to travel well on a road trip.) Anyway, I'm a big fan. I always have some type of aged hard pecorino on hand and use it on pasta, as a soup garnish, etc. And I often sub it when recipes call for Parmesan, which I don't like as much. I'm a creature of habit and in my shopping orbit really there is only one large cheese department and I rarely go out hunting for variety; there's usually something to make me happy. Try what ever pecorino comes your way. Most of them are very likable!

I don't know why I read this thread, except to make myself feel deprived or like I am on another planet. I eat breakfast, but I don't make breakfast. Mainly I eat toast with butter. Maybe marmalade. Lately I am crushing on sorghum plus salt on pullman bread. In addition, I am trying to reduce my wheat consumption, so that's added a very annoying dimension to the toast addiction. The only thing that would make me happy would be if I had a pho vendor come up the block every morning so I could run out to the street with my bowl and fill it with rice noodles and hot broth. Anyway, this is a round about way to give a round of applause to those who actually make/design/cook a real breakfast. Especially those who make it for others!

I will chime in on Jasper White. Both his New England and Manhattan style clam chowders are very good. I grew up in a Manhattan style household, with a mother who was exceptionally snobby about the inferiority of "Boston" chowder, but if it is made well and isn't too bland or goopy-- I can get into it. The main thing is to get good clams, and lots of them, not to let them overcook, and to make a good broth with the juices they render. Hard to do if you don't have access to fresh clams. Here in CA we don't have the quahogs (little necks, cherrystones, etc) that make clam chowder so easy on the east coast, so we have to make do with teeny manilla clams. About red versus white. Unless you dump in a fistful of crushed red pepper the tomato won't mask the flavor of the clams and broth. And when it comes to white, what will drag down your chowder is the use of flour or thickening agents or too much cream. And don't make the mistake of eating oyster crackers with Manhattan clam chowder! Get a nice crusty Italian loaf!

My husband does the prep. He doesn't core the sprouts, just pares off the bottoms enough to take off the outer leaf layer; doesn't seem like a terrible chore. He also cuts them in half if they are a typical size and not tiny. I used to be a dedicated hater until I learned to roast them. Now they are in regular rotation when in season. Love them. Great roasted with a little bacon fat, and also great dressed lightly with a mix maple syrup and mustard just before serving.

I'm not so sure how much or in what way it matters when it comes to pre-made frozen pot stickers or wontons, but if you are making home-made dumplings the type of filling you use does make a difference as to the thickness of the wrapper.The time it takes to properly cook the thicker noodle wrapper for a pork filled pot sticker is too long for cooking a delicate shrimp filling. So for a shrimp wonton or a shrimp potsticker I would advice a thinner wrapper. My potstickers are always pork and vegetable, so I have no experience trying to make a pot sticker with a shrimp filling. My wontons however are always shrimp. The round pot sticker skins sold for that purpose are often thicker than the square wonton wrappers, although at some of the noodle factories in Oakland Chinatown I have seen varying thickness for both styles. I did try the TJ's dumplings once, but wouldn't recommend them. I found them salty and the filling kind of mushy and indistinguishable. In their defense, however, I've never had any other brand of frozen product, so maybe the rest are worse.

That looks so great. Are these west coast clams? What kind are they? And I would love the recipe. Generally here in the Bay Area we get those tiny manila clams, which really don't inspire me like the little necks back east.

My favorite steel cut oats are Hamlyn's Pinhead Oats from Scotland. They come in a can and cost an arm and a leg and are harder and harder to come by. You can still get them on Amazon, but they cost almost twice as much as Bob's organic steel cut, so that's what we buy now. Irish steel cut oats are more available, but I don't like them as much. My problem with hot cereal is that it stays hot for about one minute and then it just isn't so yummy any more. There must be some kind of heated bowl that would keep it hot for longer....

I'll be curious to hear the answer. I've always tossed the peppercorns in a grinder, coarsely ground them, and used them that way, to taste.

It would be interesting to research the relationship between the Caribbean and the Ozark cakes. Just a very brief search for the Caribbean cake brought up a Food 52 essay: https://food52.com/blog/23572-caribbean-christmas-black-cake-recipe The Jamaican and Trinidad versions of Black Cake are more like an English pudding than a straight out fruit cake, but they have in common the use of dark dried fruits (rather than a reliance on candied fruits), grape juice or wine and some type of dark sugar. In the case of the Caribbean cakes the signature is a burnt sugar as opposed to molasses and the use of prunes rather than fig. I noticed that some recipes figured out how to get the wine and the grape juice all in one by using Manischewitz, which I find hilarious. On another day I could see hanging out in bed and reading about this stuff for hours, but this morning I have got to get moving, as I am hosting a birthday party tonight. Strangely, the meal is very southern, including meatloaf and long cooked stringbeans and Vivian Howard's pickled beets and the dessert is pineapple upside down cake--with a bit of rum in the batter--and buttermilk ice cream. There's no Manischewitz wine in my upside down cake. I had enough of that as a kid to drown a horse.

I would drink a black salt mocha in a hot New York minute. That sounds so good. That's very interesting about the black cake. I have an ancient recipe called Old Kentucky Black Fruit Cake. It is labor intensive and has a zillion ingredients. I made it twice, but that was a very long time ago. No idea where it came from. It uses mostly dried figs, several kinds of nuts, and candied orange peel, among other things, including grape juice. The final ingredient, added just before baking, is a glug of melted bitter chocolate mixed in. The recipe calls for periodically pouring wine over the finished cakes to preserve them, but my notes indicate that I used whiskey or rum. And they also indicate that whiskey was used in the actual cake as well, along with the fruit juice. The quantities specified in my recipe are also generous, although not quite as ambitious, calling for 12 eggs and 8 cups of flour, a total of 4 pounds of black and white figs and dates, several more pounds of nuts, currents, etc. These people were baking for an event or for gift giving. I remember it being an awfully good awfully extravagant cake, and unlike any other fruit cake. It was indeed a very dark cake, probably due to the amount of black mission figs, the grape juice, and a substantial quantity of dark molasses.

I've been saving Vivian's recipe for Crispy Ginger Rice with Leeks for a rainy day when I only had one leek languishing in the crisper. All you need for this recipe is a leek, ginger, garlic and rice. If you already have the rice cooked and chilled it's a snap. Her suggestion for additions are great. Sliced sautéed shitakes would have been perfect. Next time. I assume the recipe is from the book, but I can't guarantee that, since I don't have the book now. Another variation would be to treat the crispy rice like sizzling rice and throw it into hot chicken broth if that was on hand. It almost makes me wish I was sick. And of course that someone else would make it. '

Nothing says football like quinoa.

Yeah, neck bones are tasty. Whenever I cook them in stock I gnaw off the meat for myself. I don't think I've ever made a meal of them, but I can see the fun there. Acadiana Table has a recipe for a pork neck bone fricassee, basically a gumbo, to which is added andouille and the usual suspects.

Wracked with guilt I did clean out my freezer, but there was a lot more throwing out stuff (method like the one in the cartoon in Food Funnies) than there was eating stuff. I have an awful confession to make: some of the containers were so mysterious and/or unappetizing that I needed help from my husband to disappear it, despite his disapproval. In the end he agreed and I left the kitchen while the operation was in progress. I admit that I am squeamish about the freezer contents, but this is a great improvement and I actually have room for more stock. Anything with icicles in it was tossed without question. There were some identified containers of soup that were probably less than a few months old which we ate. And there were some pork neck bones that I defrosted and tossed into a stock pot with some chicken parts. There were also lot of roasted green chile packages in various bags stuck in all sorts of nooks and crannies. I threw out the ones with old dates and put all the rest in one large freezer bag. I definitely have enough to last until next fall's crop at the farmers' market. And surprise surprise, I unearthed a lamb shank, so I bought another one and made Scotch Broth. I'm sure it was older than 6 months, but I'm alive to tell the tale.

I don't know if some of the TJ's products are limited to certain areas, but here are the few things we routinely buy and find to be good quality and a reasonable price. It would be very unusual for us to come out of TJ's with more than 2 or 3 things. VALRHONA 71 % Le Noir chocolate bar. You cannot beat the price for this quality plain dark chocolate, although I do know how personal chocolate tastes can be. This one is great for nibbling and for using in some baked goods. I'm super picky about my chocolate, so that might help or not. EMPIRE KOSHER ORGANIC CHICKEN. Has to be both kosher and organic to be best. TJ's HOME MADE (OR HAND MADE?) FLOUR TORTILLAS. Excellent for a commercial product when you just don't have the energy to make your own. Best when fresh; they don't keep well beyond two or three days. TJ's MINI CHOCOLATE HAZELNUT BISCOTTI. The plastic box says "soft bite" but they are not soft at all. If you are a person who likes the flavor of the oreo chocolate discs or Nabisco Famous Chocolate Wafers these biscotti evoke something similar, at least for me. They are definitely not over-sweet. They are always in stock, they are cheap, and great if you suddenly have guests coming over for ice cream or whatever and don't have time to go cross town to your favorite bakery. There are a couple of products that I was addicted to that have gone the way of the dodo. Then there are the seasonal products like the recent depressing episode of the Butter Toffee Pretzels. It was totally embarrassing how much I loved them. I don't even like pretzels. I tried sleeping until next December, but I woke up this morning.

I just reread this thread and It's very funny. Amazing how polarizing the subject is. I really HATE a lot of candy out there. But that doesn't always stop me from nibbling on it. I'm not sure I ever actually ate a peep. They weren't a part of my childhood, I know that, and they just look so toxic. That said, you would have to pay me a substantial sum to eat raisinettes, which combine two things I loathe: raisins and milk chocolate. Plus they look like something a deer left behind. All Hershey products: just plastic. All white chocolate: just soap with sugar. Mounds and Almond Joy: for lunatics. Candy hearts: sidewalk chalk is cheaper, comes in more colors and has less sugar. The single strangest candy is licorice. The salted types are simply hunks of ammonium chloride, which is used as an expectorant, and also in the production of manure, and probably is the reason why roads in the east need to be resurfaced constantly. Some is waaay too sweet, but every so often I find some I really like, like scandinavian black ropes and tire treads. Sadly, my favorite licorice candy of all time seems to have become extinct: Lakrits Lentils: a dark chocolate m & m shape candy with a thin hard black licorice shell. The ones that came in the lovely little folding box were the best, and they disappeared years ago. The bulk ones, not as good, you had to buy in 5lb bags, which was really a major headache. Now those are unavailable as well, or were last time I checked. A 5lb bag is really a disaster for me, anyway. Okay, so love this thread.

When I hear "shepherd's pie" I think UK. I'm not a huge fan of the dish, but then I don't much like ground meat in casserole dishes. And when I think UK I don't think "corn." However, if you emigrated from Europe to the American midwest and you became a farmer, you would no doubt throw in fresh corn if you had a stray ear, wouldn't you? And if you had fresh peas and fresh corn, making a succotash shepherd's pie isn't such a stretch. Liuzhou, you must get really lousy starchy corn in China to hate it so much. I admit that lentils and celeriac topped with mashed potatoes does not sound very appetizing, and in that case, if you also happen to have some lousy corn, well, no help there.

Not for the best. My husband came back empty handed as well the other day and I had a breakdown. I really hate the concept of "seasonal." A candy cane, maybe, but a goofed up pretzel? It isn't red or green for god's sake.

Just a shout out for Gabrielle Hamilton's recipes. Her apps are always knock outs. I've made the sardines on triscuits and the garrotxa on buttered brown bread that are from the book as well as many others. In the last week I made two of her recipes not in the book but both available on the NYT site: One is the recent recipe in the magazine section for caviar sandwiches--yep, it was a New Year's splurge. The only changes I made were to use a home made white bread instead of the one she suggests, and I made them open face. I forgive her for her attachment to the commercial white breads of her childhood in several of her recipes; I just don't see going out of my way for Wonderbread or Pepperidge Farm when my husband can bake a simple white bread that's delicious. The other one is her recipe for celery toasts with Cambazola from several years ago. It sounds a bit strange at first, but it is great. Again, use a white pullman style bread, good butter, a generous swipe of cambazola (weirdly Hamilton says to slice the cheese--who can slice room temp cambazola?) and then top with finely shaved celery lightly dressed with salt and pepper, lemon juice and olive oil. The toasts disappeared as fast as I could make them. A couple of slices would be a meal, as far as I'm concerned. After all, you've got your carbs, protein and salad all in one.

Be super cautious. I think the best way to learn about mushrooms in your area is to hook up with the closest mycological society. They have guided trips and local fairs. I have not been active for many years, but In my area (SF/Bay Area) the society hosts an annual fair, usually in December, after it has started raining (well it used to rain in December here) and there would be at least 100 tables displaying mushrooms that had been picked the day before by members, all labeled, and all questions answered. The variety was astounding. Get a good book. David Aurora's Mushrooms Demystified is great. He is a Northern CA person, but still very thorough. Learn how to take spore prints. It's fun, and they are beautiful. And sometimes they can determine a mushroom's identity when pictures are ambiguous. But the very best way to start is to go out with an expert.

I'm not a big snacker and we rarely buy packaged snack foods other than the occasional Kettle potato chips. But these things are frighteningly addictive. They are too sweet, too salty and really good. They pair well with a glass of whisky for a nightcap. Also they might be good for breakfast with strong black coffee. Or for high tea. Think lapsang souchong. Russian Caravan. Or go straight for the Scotch.

Two early dinners, two days: New Years Eve was scrambled badly when my husband had to rush the hospital in Sacramento to stay the night with his mother, so when he got back the next afternoon we had our little party: There aren't too many classic rich foods that I crave, but the single favorite splurge food from my childhood is......caviar. My parents would often go out on NYE and then come back home just before midnight to ring in the year with me and my brother when we were too young to go out partying. They would break out champagne or iced vodka and a teeny bit of caviar and we would have a midnight celebration. I made Gabrielle Hamilton's caviar sandwiches from the NYT, just as written, except we did them open face. We had toasted white bread my husband had baked a couple of days before and a tin of Tsar Nikolai CA white sturgeon caviar, which is farmed and local and pretty good. GH recommends wonder bread or some such, but she does have some childhood hangups. Accompanied by prosecco. And basically that was a meal. Tonight, unplanned, but everything was southern: Vivian Howard's oven fried okra. Fresh home made cornbread with sorghum butter. Leftover long cooked green beans, simmered in tomato, white wine and ham stock served with white rice. Leftover BBQ ribs for my husband. That's the very last of the gift ribs. They are still tasty, but I've had enough meat, thanks.

I very much want that fish cup for my green tea.