Katie Meadow

I read a bit of background about mitten crabs this afternoon and dug up this: "Claudine Fontana from the Natural History Museum advised: "You could eat the meat from the mitten crabs at any time of the year, but it is actually the gonads of the Chinese mitten crabs that are considered a delicacy and these can only be eaten when they become sexually active in the Autumn months." That doesn't exactly make them more appealing to me, that's for sure, although anyone who can locate a crab gonad in all that other stuff inside the shell has my respect. Govt experts say that if you catch one in the US you should report it. Apparently there are plenty of them in the Thames, but would you eat something from that river?

I've grown to love being a downer! Don't forget that Chinese Mitten Crabs may be harmless in Liuzou and Fuchsia Dunlop parts of the globe, but they are a troublesome invasive species here in the US. They burrow into levees and weaken them, causing damage to flood control efforts. Also they are aggressive and omnivorous and can threaten local species. They have been found in Chesapeake Bay, where they threaten blue crab habitat. Just saying'!

@shain thanks so much. Surprising that there is no soft cheese involved, which is fine by me. I may try dried cherries, since I usually have them around. Apricots sound equally appealing. I don't know what it is about me and raisins. They just make me irritable! And that's without eating them.

@shain that kugel looks fabulous. (Except of course for the raisins!). I'm rarely enthusiastic about kugel, but now I want it. What's your recipe?

Okay, I find it beyond hilarious that there is a cocktail that tries to taste like a green apple jolly rancher candy. Jolly Ranchers are up there with the worst candy on earth. My dentist related a story about a fifteen year old boy, a patient of hers, who had an entire mouthful of rotten teeth that had to be replaced due solely to a Jolly Rancher habit. Le Chaim! Clearly I need to go do something else. But seriously, how is that drinkable?

I don't use canned chipotles very often. The last time was probably over a year ago. I confess: I throw out 90% of every can I open.

There must be a dedicated thread for chili and/or chile, but I don't see it. Growing up in NY no one I knew ever made either. When I moved to New Mexico in the late sixties I discovered CHILE. You got either a bowl of green or a bowl of red. Both used chunks of pork, never ground, and rarely beef. Neither used tomatoes. The red in red chile came from a paste made from ripened, dried, rehydrated long chiles. Although pinto beans are ubiquitous in all kinds of New Mexican dishes or as a side dish, they didn't appear in a bowl of chile. Very often potatoes were included in the bowl, which have a wonderful way of absorbing the flavor. The accompaniment was typically flour tortillas. When you say "chile" you could also mean a type of hot pepper: ancho chiles, Chipotle chiles, Hatch chiles, etc. CHILI with an I is an American adaptation. If you are making a Texas-style dish it would be called "Chili." And by the way, in the New World there is no such thing as Chilli, with two L's; that is a British twist, or massacre if you prefer. Ingredients that typically go into Texas style chili are beef (ground or not), tomatoes and beer. Often CHILE powder is used. As for beans, well, it's just one of those things people have strong opinions about. I recently made a Texas style chili using short ribs (I'm not a fan of ground beef), a bottle of beer and fresh tomatoes, which I happened to have a lot of and needed to use up. The short ribs made a very nice beefy broth and were fall off the bone tender. I used some ancho chile powder, RG Indio oregano and a little bit of cocoa powder. I had a modest amount of leftover beans, so, yep, I included them. I served a vinegary hot sauce on the side. I served it over rice, but warm corn bread would be a great go-with. For inspiration I used a recipe from David Leibovitz called Chili with Chocolate. As for chocolate, of course Mexico had it first, but any Texan must admit that, like bacon, a little chocolate is usually a very good thing. I don't believe I've ever knowingly used Ro-Tel canned tomatoes. I know that some Texans swear by them for a variety of dishes. I am guessing that if a Texan had a surplus of home grown tomatoes he or she wouldn't hesitate to use them instead, and it would not make their chili any less Texan. Lisa Fain, of the Homesick Texan cookbooks, clearly had them growing up, but she never fails to acknowledge that Velveeta and Ro-Tel are heavily nostalgic ingredients and that updating those old tried and true recipes like Queso is in no way criminal. Note: I posted this originally in the dinner thread. I searched for the chili cook-off thread but couldn't find it. Why? That's obvious. I spell it Chile.

Thank you Robirdstx for digging up the Chili cook off. Of course the reason I couldn't locate it was that the thread name shows definite Texas bias. I am going to copy my post to the chili cook off thread. Meanwhile, I hope some manager takes the recent Chili thread created a few hours ago and incorporates it into the cook off thread. Thanks!

There must be a dedicated thread for chili and/or chile, but I don't see it. Growing up in NY no one I knew ever made either. When I moved to New Mexico in the late sixties I discovered CHILE. You got either a bowl of green or a bowl of red. Both used chunks of pork, never ground, and rarely beef. Neither used tomatoes. The red in red chile came from a paste made from ripened, dried, rehydrated long chiles. Although pinto beans are ubiquitous in all kinds of New Mexican dishes or as a side dish, they didn't appear in a bowl of chile. Very often potatoes were included in the bowl, which have a wonderful way of absorbing the flavor. The accompaniment was typically flour tortillas. When you say "chile" you could also mean a type of hot pepper: ancho chiles, Chipotle chiles, Hatch chiles, etc. CHILI with an I is an American adaptation. If you are making a Texas-style dish it would be called "Chili." And by the way, in the New World there is no such thing as Chilli, with two L's; that is a British twist, or massacre if you prefer. Ingredients that typically go into Texas style chili are beef (ground or not), tomatoes and beer. Often CHILE powder is used. As for beans, well, it's just one of those things people have strong opinions about. I recently made a Texas style chili using short ribs (I'm not a fan of ground beef), a bottle of beer and fresh tomatoes, which I happened to have a lot of and needed to use up. The short ribs made a very nice beefy broth and were fall off the bone tender. I used some ancho chile powder, RG Indio oregano and a little bit of cocoa powder. I had a modest amount of leftover beans, so, yep, I included them. I served a vinegary hot sauce on the side. I served it over rice, but warm corn bread would be a great go-with. For inspiration I used a recipe from David Leibovitz called Chili with Chocolate. As for chocolate, of course Mexico had it first, but any Texan must admit that, like bacon, a little chocolate is usually a very good thing. I don't believe I've ever knowingly used Ro-Tel canned tomatoes. I know that some Texans swear by them for a variety of dishes. I am guessing that if a Texan had a surplus of home grown tomatoes he or she wouldn't hesitate to use them instead, and it would not make their chili any less Texan. Lisa Fain, of the Homesick Texan cookbooks, clearly had them growing up, but she never fails to acknowledge that Velveeta and Ro-Tel are heavily nostalgic ingredients and that updating those old tried and true recipes like Queso is in no way criminal. So Norm, I have no doubt that your chili was very good, which is the most important thing.

And a second person snuck in another bag of candy as well.

The roasted okra was fabulous. My oven may be on the hot side; I think it would have been more perfect with either 5 minutes less or no convection. We had them with a side of grits and I wasn't watching the okra at the end--I was busy stirring my grits. I've roasted green beans this way many times at 375 F. Anyway, the okra is even better than green beans. I made two dips, mayo based, one with just hot sauce and the other with less hot sauce and smoked paprika. My husband preferred the paprika one. And like you, blue dolphin, we could have easily eaten a second tray. I realize I noted that I usually doctor Vivian's recipes, but in this case it was simple and needed nothing. And "doctoring" is not quite accurate. What I do to her recipes is often to UNfuss them or UNgild the lily. Vivian stretches my patience when she instructs to add "twenty twists" of the grinder; in that case I add a generous amount of pepper to taste. And how does she presume to know what kind of grinder I own? And does Ben stand behind her and count? Somebody stop me. She puts me is such a mood!

A perfect cocktail hour snack with your pumptini. Garnish that with a poodle.

I'm going to make this today. Any roasting tips? I must confess that I have had to doctor or adjust every one of Vivian's recipes I have made, although that isn't very many. I have the recipe for the okra but not for any dips, so I'm going to wing it with maybe some kind of spicy mayo. At the market there was a stall selling Oaxacan mole tamales. Turns out Oaxacan tamales are not my favorite kind, but they were packed with a container of outstanding vinegary hot sauce and I have enough of that elixir left over to make some kind of go-with dippy thing for my okra.

A lovechild! Could a zumpkin spice latte be far behind? If you put a zumpkin in a spiralizer you would be making poodles.

blue dolphin, those multi-colored cherry tomatoes look so great in the jar. You couldn't pay me enough to peel a quart of cherry tomatoes. I bet Vivian makes her husband do it. I am sure they are yummy. Perfect meal: those tomatoes and a grilled cheese sandwich.

PB & J: it's never to late to make new memories. In the early morning of August 21, 2017 we awoke in darkness at a horse farm in the high desert north of Bend OR. We made our sandwiches with peanut butter and raspberry jam we brought from home on bread our wonderful airbnb host provided for us. We drove north up past Madras and wound through a series of dirt roads to a flat turnoff on a rise among fields. For some mysterious reason the whole area was covered in a soft bed of straw. There were three tents where campers had spent the night, one of whom had a very friendly parrot named Sunshine sitting on a play-stand set up on the roof of his car. We spread out our blanket. By this time it was a little after 9am, about an hour before the total eclipse, and getting pretty warm. We ate our PB & J"s for breakfast with cold local Oregon tap water. During most of the eclipse Sunshine remained silent and later his owner said he started to doze off when it got dark. I can't tell you how good those sandwiches tasted.

Here are the results of Corn under Chicken. Good! Several things I would tweak, though. With nice fresh sweet corn this dish ends up being kind of sweet. I did not add the tsp of sugar that Vivian specifies. I am guessing that it helps caramelize the corn a bit, but this dish did not need to be sweeter, that's for sure. I did not achieve what she considers the bonus of the corn cooking differently in different parts of the tray. I think the reason for that is that there was too much chicken drippings keeping the corn very moist and drippy throughout. It also may be that the freshness of the corn resulted in some released juices to add to the bath. I even trimmed some of the fat from the leg-thigh pieces before cooking, although she does not suggest doing so. If I make it again I would trim off more fat from the chicken. I would balance the sweetness with the kick of some roasted green chiles mixed in with the corn or smoked paprika on the corn and the chicken. The chicken skin was pleasantly golden but not super crisp. My husband suggested that the dish should be finished briefly under the broiler to crisp it up a bit more. Worth a try. We had salads, but I'm thinking some vinegary greens would be an excellent side. So, comforting, yeah perhaps.. School cafeteria not so much. Although you could take it in that direction by using canned corn. I see that I have just used canned corn as a punch line for the second time in one day. Weird.

Too right. My mind reels at the possibilities.

Okay, that's perfect. Consider me warned. Secretly that's pretty much what I think of Vivian Howard's cooking generally. I don't own the book. I got it from the library and copied a few recipes that intrigued me, but came to the conclusion that I didn't need to own it. I'll be honest here: what turns me off is Vivian's stinginess about allowing her recipes on line. She protects them from the public as if twisting your arm to buy her book. Recipes just shouldn't be precious. I apologize for dissing her in a dedicated thread. But I'm hoping for the best with this corn recipe; it is very rare that I don't like corn in any permutation unless it is canned. But even canned has its place, as in earthquake supplies.

Yeah, I'm talking about the OTHER Anna N, the one who can't boil water.

Has anyone made the Fresh Corn Roasted in Chicken Drippings? I'm going to make it tomorrow, since corn is making its last stand. The recipe title makes it sound like corn is the star, although in fact there are large pieces of chicken involved. The recipe had me at "Drippings." If you have an hints for this dish let's here 'em.

First let me say I did not have a mother who ever made a meatloaf. Just the word made me suspicious. Eventually I tried doing it myself, and what I have come up with is complicated and has been tweaked over many years and allows for a variety of innovations. But one thing I swear by is using a mix of meats. My favorite mix is 1/3 each of not-too-lean chuck, pork and veal. For me, the reason most meatloaf is mediocre or awful is because its main ingredients are hamburger meat, ketchup and bread. Ya gotta get away from that profile. Otherwise you've basically got a hamburger that's put in a blender and cooked in a loaf pan. Anna, if anyone can conquer meatloaf, it's you.

Anna, you are making the tried and true Jewish delicacy schmaltz and gribenes! A little onion added to pan is classic. Of course when my Grandmother did it she didn't use a bacon press.

Okay, I don't even know if this is a dumb question. I've been making stocks and broths for a zillion years and can do it in my sleep, although I don't. One of the first things I remember learning was never to let the stock come to a boil, always keep it at a gentle simmer. The above advocates of reduction for storage benefits talk about boiling to reduce the stock. How does that affect the final flavor or quality? Or is no-boiling just an old wives' tale? And how much reduction are we talking about? Do you turn a quart in to an ice cube? If so, I really could do it in my sleep, since who wants to babysit a pot of disappearing chicken soup for hours and hours? I just don't think I could stand to watch all my loving patience go up in steam!

I've come to terms with my smallish freezer and admit to a moderate case of OCD when it comes to stocks and broths. I get nervous if my my supply dwindles too much and feel compelled to make more. I don't want to get a separate freezer which would have to be kept in the basement, so I basically am resigned to a freezer that contains the following and not much else, ever: stocks of various kinds, roasted chiles, neck or other bones and the occasional carcass (chicken or turkey), home made tomato and pizza sauces, and a supply of grits. Once in a great while some leftover soup gets in there, but typically we are two people who are just as happy to eat the same meal two days in a row, so there aren't a lot of leftovers that get frozen.