Katie Meadow

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.

Not to be a total downer, but the only real improvement in plastic wrap would be to seriously limit its use. Instead of covering a bowl with cling wrap to store in the fridge, it takes about the same amount of time to put food in reusable containers with lids. Or try those great plastic suction lids by Charles Viancin if you must use a bowl for storage. Yes, I know plastic wrap can be really useful. I've heard there is some kind of biodegradable wrap though I've never seen it. But if we don't do something about plastics in the environment the world will be nothing but nurdles, all the way down. 2018 wasn't good for much, but I did learn a new word. By the way, the Oxford Dictionary chose "Toxic" as its word of the year. A bit broader in scope than "nurdle." Ah, New Years Eve. I'm going to turn on my electric fireplace and have that drink now. Here's hoping 2019 will be an improvement. Cheers!

It wasn't meant as an insult. It's their nature to be ingrates, and part of their charm. Clearly your cats are not New Mexico cats. When I lived in NM I did in fact have a cat. She could eat the chicken and cheese out of a rolled enchilada. After she died I became mostly a dog person. For a couple of years a large male cat invited himself to live with us even though we had a German shepherd. That cat mercilessly teased the dog by hanging his tale over the edge of the table, waving his paw down, and then whipping all limbs out of reach when the dog wanted to play. Not really very nice, considering he was an interloper, but there was no denying he had personality to burn. He was a California cat, and frankly, kind of a bum.

Am I the only one who wonders what Moe does for lunch?

I would be thrilled to have enchiladas for a holiday dinner. Maybe I'll make them for New Years Day. Turkey is so yesterday. Your cats, like all cats, are a bunch of ingrates.

And I carry a little container of sea salt every where I go. Here's how that started: I saw fresh corn ice cream on a menu board at an artisan ice cream shop and ordered it at once, since corn is one my very favorite foods. Then I noticed an "extras" sign which included salt for 50 cents. Absurd! Just ten flakes would have been enough. So I vowed to plan ahead from that moment on.

Lunch / dinner / linner will be as repurposed as possible. For xmas eve I made a big lasagne with fresh sheets of noodles. I bought two too many sheets, so I'm going to cut the remaining sheets is wide slices, cook them, and add them to leftover turkey vegetable soup from two days ago. There will be far too much for the soup, so at least half the noodles will be made into something tomorrow. Misc. items will include egg salad made from a couple of hard-boiled eggs that never got deviled with their siblings. Also included will be leftover smoked spare ribs that were gifted to me the other day and which should take us through another couple of days. Apps will be leftovers as well: a small hunk of very good runny washed rind cheese left over from cocktail hour yesterday and some pickled carrots that have a story to go with them: I got a copy of McFadden's Six Seasons for my SIL this xmas eve, and it arrived two days before. So I looked through hastily and realized I had all the makings for his roasted brussels sprouts with pickled carrots. So that day I used up a bunch of carrots that were languishing in the fridge and made the pickles, to be combined with the sprouts the next day. I completely forgot the plan and wrapped up the gift. It wasn't until we were in the car on our way to said SIL's house for xmas eve dinner that it even occurred to me that pickled carrots and fresh brussels sprouts were still waiting to be roasted as per the recipe, which of course was no longer available.

I grew up eating raw kohlrabi. When it is tender and fresh it's delicious sliced thin with good flaky salt; good with a bloody mary! Also useful cut into sticks and used on a raw veg platter with a dip. I like it shredded and mixed into a slaw. But old tough kohlrabi, that's not really fun. Unfortunately there's a lot of it sold and it isn't easy to tell how woody it is just from looking. There's always kohlrabi sold in the markets in Chinatown here in Oakland, and getting it fresh and young is also a crapshoot. I assume the Chinese cook it, but I have never asked.

I was just gifted two racks of home-smoked ribs! I've had this friend's ribs before and they are spectacular. Good ribs are one of my favorite treats, and something I will probably never make for myself.

Experimenting with social norms can be dangerous, neh?

What was I doing during the seventies when Americans were crazed for lousy bread dipped in hot cheese? Living in New Mexico on a diet of roasted hatch chiles and flour tortillas, that's what. Somehow I missed all the fondue fuss, and distinctly remember making fun of fondue and those electric fondue pots. I've never liked the Alpine cheeses, either. By the late seventies I moved to the Bay Area and met my husband to be. His parents were exactly the kind of people who had barely used fondue pots mouldering away in the garage. They got naked with their friends at Esalen and turned on....their fondue pots.

The hardcover edition is on sale for under $15 on Amazon Prime. I have no idea how long this sale has been going on, but it seems like a good deal. And they are guaranteeing delivery in 2 days, which is not the case with many other Amazon things you might wish to gift at this late date.

I would be so excited to see that in a market! Once in a while corn from the farmers' markets has a little on it, but it never seems very fresh and there's never enough of it to do anything with. Great with cheese and corn and chile in a quesadilla. Swoon worthy.

I love reading Your Daily Sweets. I don't contribute to that thread, since I don't bake much. If it involves making icing or cutting anything horizontally, forget about it. I'm just so happy to know there are people who are baking and who enjoy doing it, and I'm in perpetual awe. I only wish I lived next door to them. Welcome to eG. You will find this is a very UN-intimidating crowd.

Hating leftovers seems like such a self-destructive proposition. To me, leftovers are a gift from the gods. Often the benefits are multiple: first, some things actually taste better the next day. Second, even things that don't literally improve overnight taste better just because you get a free ride and don't have to cook anything. Examples of leftovers that get better: any kind of chicken in sauce such as coq au vin. Potatoes with leftover gravy. Macaroni and cheese, for no good reason. Vegetable curry. Toast, which is leftover bread. Meatloaf. Poached pears in wine. Pecan pie, which is too sweet the first day, but somehow is easier to appreciate for breakfast the next day. Scotch broth soup, because you realize how really great it is. Just sayin'!

Nothing beats an overdone hot buttered flour tortilla. Bring on the crispy.

I find they are best the first two days. After one night at room temp they seem to need to be refrigerated. In the fridge they last another couple of days at most. I have never made enough at one time to freeze them.

Mmm! Boiled peanuts! Since no southern peanut lovers chimed in, I'll just give you the boilerplate recipe that works for me. I never ate them until my second trip to the south. That was in early fall, in Atlanta, and the new peanuts were fresh and plentiful in the markets. I never heard of soaking first, but it's no secret I'm a rank amateur. So, you can take my ratios with .....well, a grain of salt, but I find them addictive. On our third trip to the south, also in the fall, we bought some at a roadside stand, sold in a brown bag that was getting soggy by the time we arrived at our airbnb. Our hosts were split on boiled peanuts: she was a South Carolina native who loved them, he was a transplant and hated them. She pronounced the ones we brought as being pretty much like they always are, so that was a good indicator for me. I assume that the size and freshness of the peanuts has everything to do with how long they need to be cooked. Around here we get fresh raw peanuts in the late summer / early fall at the farmers' market. Many of the vendors who sell them are Asian and I have never asked how they cook them. Honestly, the ones I make with organic peanuts grown in CA are better than the ones I had in South Carolina. All my trips to the south have been in the fall, except for my first one. That was in the spring. All the trees in Atlanta were in bloom and I didn't stop sneezing for the whole week we were there. It looked lovely but omg the pollen was like a perfect storm. 2 pounds fresh raw peanuts in their shells 5 quarts of water 1/2 cup + a bit more to taste kosher salt I don't season, but I'm sure that's delicious. I start by mixing everything together in a big pot and bringing it to a low boil or a high simmer. Believe it or not I too came up with the idea of using a vegetable steamer basket to keep them down while cooking. With nice fresh peanuts it shouldn't take more than an hour and half or maybe two hours to cook them, but since freshness varies, checking for doneness is a good idea. I was told to let them sit in the water for half an hour after removing from the heat. The longer you let them cool in the water the saltier they will be, so I always taste and adjust time.

Full disclosure: the last time I walked into an open cabinet door, which was three days ago, it was my own fault. What's so hilarious (well, if you think the bump on my forehead is laughable) is that I should know better, seeing as my husband is guilty of leaving doors open WHENEVER he opens them, so you'd think I would know better than to leave a door open EVEN ONCE. As for the dishwasher door, I have heard "I wasn't done yet" more times than I can count, and I am all over the weaponization at shin level, enough to stay out of the way when it's clean-up time.