Katie Meadow

rotuts, I did go to a couple of local Indian markets but saw no brands I recognized and the prices were not so great, either. Gettin' lazy in my old age, I suppose. Plus traffic in the Bay Area is so horrendous these days I'm at the point where I would rather stay home and read a book than drive around. We're going through rice like a house on fire, so I think 20 pounds is reasonable. Paul, I have looked for Tilda locally, but haven't seen it. The price on Amazon is scary: Tilda sells for $24 for 10 lbs, so more than twice the price or Royal or Himalayan Pride. I don't use a rice cooker, so I always cook my rice stovetop. I've been eating basmati rice for years. I use if for everything.

I'm considering buying basmati rice from Amazon. Royal, which says only "aged" is #20 lbs for $19.97, while Himalayan Pride is #20 lbs for $22.99. It says "aged min 1 year." I see a fair number of recs for Royal brand, but has anyone tried Himalayan Pride? The Royal includes free shipping for Prime members (I am one) but the Himalayan does not include shipping cost, so would be at least a few dollars more that just the product price.

A question about cornmeal use in bread: My husband is really into baking bread these days, which of course is a very good thing. But we had a stupid argument this morning. He's about to bake the Seeded Wheat Bread from the Della Fattoria book (we've eaten it from their bakery in Petaluma CA) and the recipe specifies "polenta." Okay, I venture that at least half of you have had this discussion about polenta vs grits vs cornmeal vs corn flour and all the permutations in between. My take on polenta vs grits is that one is the Italian way of making corn meal mush and one is the southern US way. Although in my experience a greater percentage of polenta is sold finely ground and grits is often a coarse grind, that doesn't change the fact that it is all ground corn and can be white or yellow, fine or coarse, depending on your upbringing or your texture preferences. I don't make polenta any more. I make grits, and I buy it stone-ground from Geechie Boy on Edisto Island and it is relatively coarse. I'm an addict. If I were making an Italian dish that suggested serving it on a puddle of polenta I would make my Geechie Boy grits and be a happy camper. If a recipe for cake included "fine grind polenta" I would grind up my Bob's cornmeal a bit and go with that. In well-stocked shops that sell a lot of Italian products you can find polenta in different grinds. When my husbands shops the bulk isle at Berkeley Bowl he finds just one product labeled "polenta" and he says it is coarser than Bob's medium grind corn meal. BB Probably simplifies to one grind for those who are less discriminating and who prefer to buy in bulk. They probably also sell various grinds of polenta in packages in a different isle. So the main question is this: if a recipe for bread says simply "polenta" what would you do? Personally I would decide for myself whether I liked my cornmeal medium or fine grind for any given loaf and I would use the Bob's medium ground cornmeal as is or grind it just a bit more if I wanted it finer. But my husband seems stuck in a loop which does not involve taking MY WORD FOR IT. Andiesenji and many others can no doubt make quick work of this morass. Thanks in advance!

Said there was one left, but when I put it in my cart it said sold out.

Remember the Bangles? Didn't they have a song "Walk like an Egyptian Onion"? What a fabulous name for a humble little allium.

Doesn't your mother have to watch her cholesterol? Diabetes is complicated and I don't really know much about it. Does your mother have to watch the amount of starch and simple carbs or things that turn into sugars? One of my favorite breakfasts is left-over grits; takes too much time to make grits in the morning, at least real grits. I make mine with some low fat milk, and no cheese. I have to limit my cholesterol, though I am not diabetic. Whole wheat toast is always good. Spread something healthy on it. Avocado, nut butters, whatever is not bad for her. I like a little ricotta and fresh slices of tomato on toast. Potatoes are a pretty classic breakfast, and can be good lots of ways: home fries, potato pancakes, etc. Ever have red flannel hash? Made with beets--very healthy! No need for pork in that. As for fiber, sweet potatoes (especially the orangey red ones labeled "yams" are king! I could easily eat a hot sweet potato with nothing more that a touch of butter and a few grains of salt. Personally I'm not big on meat for breakfast, nor do I eat eggs for breakfast, and like others have suggested, breakfast is just another meal, limited only by health restrictions and imagination. It might be useful for the original poster to list the other big no-no's, so readers can feel challenged without wasting time or contributing to a well meaning but growing pile of misinformation. Good luck! I just read the two posts upthread and now I am totally confused.

Bump! I will be in Savannah in early May. Any new ideas? Never been there. I'm leaning toward seafood, local fresh fish I can't get on the West Coast, soft shell crabs, anything really good, local produce. Special funky joints, fun atmosphere. Not interested in anything Paula Deenish. Upscale for a splurge okay, but not stuffy. Thanks for any help!

Haman was a wicked wicked man, and those look wicked good. Any pastry filled with mohn is in my wheelhouse. I grew up a half block from Lichtman's Hungarian Bakery in NY (and around the corner from Barney Greengrass deli). I'm surprised everyone in my family didn't look like blimps. Lichtman's made a roll that was slightly rectangular, and they sold stale slices that I think they must have pre-toasted and you could then pop them in your own toaster and eat them hot, slathered with butter. The only thing better than mohn filling was toasted mohn filling. That really was the most fabulous bakery. Long gone. Spell check kept trying to correct my description to "moon filling!" Clearly spell check didn't grow up on the upper west side.

If you were on the fence about buying an Instant Pot that mouse trap image is for sure going to send you scurrying out into the snow to find one, right? Just make sure you look inside it first.

That's brilliant. I'm going to make leek and potato soup one night soon for dinner and make sure there are leftovers for breakfast. This would be a real departure for me, although I would have pho for breakfast if it was delivered by a cart, which means I never do. Generally I swear by non-variety for breakfast; ninety nine times out of one hundred it's toast, just toast. Almost always with home made marmalade, once in a while with cinnamon sugar. In the summer when there are good tomatoes, every so often I really like toast with ricotta and a slice with a little salt. One thing I would never turn down is a toasted bagel with cream cheese and lox. If someone else makes it for me I will eat steel cut oats, but only rarely. I dislike going out for breakfast or brunch and if, god forbid, the newspaper isn't delivered, I get agitated. I love reading this thread because it is so not me. Although the pictures of poached eggs make me somewhat ill. In the morning, along with not much variety, I prefer not cooking and not talking. The not talking thing has driven my husband wild for nearly forty years. Right now it is 2am, so I might be just a tad grumpy at breakfast.

@shain That kadaif video is a total treat; just amazing.

No interest in picking them for yourself? There must be an active mycological society on Vancouver Island. I know how secretive mycologists and especially professional pickers can be, but the mycological society in SF, to which I belonged for a few years, did have some generous individuals happy to make new friends and looking for company on excursions. Those prices you are quoting --under $10 a pound--sound far too good to be true. If they are in fact getting that low of a price they must be cutting deals with some restaurants for exclusive sales. And now that I think about it, I can't imagine pickers sharing info with each other, but maybe things are different up there. Anyway, good luck! I know how good Matsutakes are.

I'm confused. How would a grinder help if the salt is already super fine? As finishing salt, a shaker might not be the best way to regulate dispensing it. Maybe just a teensy bowl and a teensy spoon? I use a teensy bowl and pinch with my fingers to get the best control when using finishing salt for the two of us. If serving a crowd I would provide a teensy spoon in case anyone would consider the alternative unsanitary. If I am salting cookies I also use my fingers for accuracy, and assume that any errant germs get baked out. Salts vary so widely in so many ways; pinching is very effective!

I am partial to Lundberg's organic CA white basmati. Amazon has a pretty good deal on it right now if you buy it through Prime Pantry ($3.49 for 32 oz), but generally it isn't cheap. Next time I am at an Indian market I will look for Tilda and try it. We eat a lot of rice, typically 5 dinners a week, one way or another.

Comparing tomato soup made in the summer from juicy ripe tomatoes to winter soup made from good quality Italian canned tomatoes is like comparing apples to oranges. They are simply different, and if you want a yummy bowl of soup in the winter you gotta go with canned tomatoes. I like to cut canned tomatoes in half and roast them in the oven to boost their flavor. And recently I learned a new trick: how to make smoky tomato soup. Of course there are many ways to do that, one being to use smoked paprika. But if you are going for smokiness that isn't paprika or chipotle flavored try this: steep some lapsang souchong tea in hot broth for a few minutes before adding the broth (or water) to the pot. Strictly up to you how much to use, and it doesn't make the soup taste like tea, if you are wondering. It's Campfire Tomato Soup. And if you don't have enough bread for grilled cheese sandwiches try making cheesy pan-fried croutons and add them before serving.

I have one of those paddles with holes but until thirty seconds ago I had absolutely no idea what it was for. I acquired it when cleaning out my mother's apartment and I find that it works very effectively for grating whole nutmeg. As for hard cheeses, I like to grate them on the box grater. I'm partial to the second smallest side, which yields fluffy little strands rather than dust.

That seems like a very untraditional tamale pie. The tamale pie we used to make in New Mexico was really more like a traditional tamale, but cooked like a cake: Spicy shredded pork with either red or green chile between two layers of masa. Of course the filling could be chicken or cheese, or anything, but whatever meat was in it was not likely to be ground. I'm sure there are Tex-Mex or soCal adaptations that vary widely. A filling that included ground beef and raisins sounds like the filling for an empanada; more like a turnover, in a pastry typically made with wheat flour.

I always thought that prunes were specifically dried "Italian plums" aka "prune plums," those small egg-shaped plums. So if you dry any other kind of plum it really would be more appropriate to call it a "dried plum" and not a prune. And I agree, those super moist Sunsweet prunes barely resemble dried fruit, they are so hydrated. I find bulk prunes are often way better, and appear more naturally dried so they are chewy the way other dried stone fruits are without that slimy quality. If I remember my tangled threads, there is a long one on eG about currants, dried currants, champaign grapes, etc. In my book raisins and dried currants are no way the same. Lots of dried grapes are reliably known as raisins, but not all are Sultanas, as far as I am aware.

Fish and cheese has always seemed like a very unappetizing combination to me. When shellfish pasta dishes are served I don't sprinkle any cheese on. Shellfish risotto has always seemed bizarre to me. The only exception, at least according to my own tastebuds, is when it comes to shrimp in Mexican food. A little melty cheese in a crispy shrimp taco isn't bad.

Perfect, we got a pack of two square ones. Now I can get rid of the giant glass jar I've been using for 40 years and that has a large shard missing from the rim on which I risk my life every time I dip in for a cup of flour. Isn't it absurd what completely nonsensical things we put up with or even get attached to? Yes, once upon a time-- so long ago I can't remember-- it was a very nice jar.

Okay, a question for Cambro fanatics: What size container is perfect for a 5 lb bag of King Arthur flour? My husband is on a bread-baking kick (so lucky I am!) and we need to neaten up and maximize our storage. He's going to Smart and Final later. Thanks!

Shain, Did you double the recipe for the long loaf pan? And what are the dimensions of your loaf pan? Thanks.

I much prefer the taste of gold-filtered coffee to paper. I have a terrific gold filter that we've been using for years, so it has paid for itself many times over, I'm sure. Sadly it is fraying from old age. I keep using it because two other gold filters I have purchased have been disappointing. My trusty one seems to have a finer mesh, so the coffee goes through slowly. The newer ones just drain through too fast, no matter how fine I grind the coffee. They are useless. So be warned. If anyone knows of a good brand with a fine mesh to recommend I'm all ears.

I have one freezer, vertical, as part of the fridge. It isn't really large, but it is certainly larger than a top or bottom freezer section in most appliances. Just as a guess, I would say about half the volume is usually stock: chicken, turkey or ham. If I cook a pot of beans or soup I try to freeze a quart, but usually we just eat the leftovers the next day. Every September and October, when fresh hot chiles are available, I roast them and pack them in usable portions in the freezer; a habit I picked up when living in New Mexico. I send away for stone-ground grits and freeze it in portion bags. Typically there are at least a couple of frozen skinned and boned chicken breast that I defrost for stir-fry or chicken salad but I don't keep other meats in the freezer, since we don't eat a lot of meat anyway. When I make a pasta or pizza sauce I try to freeze a few containers of that, but they get used pretty quickly. My husband has started making more bread, so sometimes we freeze a loaf. But generally there isn't a wide variety of stuff in our freezer. No vegetables get in there, so I would be hard put to make a meal just from the freezer. Sometimes I dream about having another freezer, like in the basement to free up room for more stock. The older I get the more I want soup.

Yes, I'm very fond of the High Street Mi Pueblo; their cheese selection is great, and their jalapeños and poblanos are more reliably hot than any other big markets. They sell an unsalted crema in bulk that's really excellent. And they sell fresh masa which is a treat if you are ever making your own corn tortillas. Their in-house chips are good, if you like that style, and they carry a few things I can't find anywhere else. I agree we are pretty spoiled here, and I know many people probably don't have a Mexican deli counter with six different salsas made on the premises.