maggiethecat

I dunno -- maybe eight? There are only two of us, we like the variety of shapes, and as far as I've noticed, opened boxes have a very long shelf life.

I have perfect faith in round or sorta-round pizza, but I was taught to make pizza by my husband's Italian grandmother, and her fabulous pizza was sternly rectangular. She wasn't trying to emulate a wood-fired oven -- her secret was a black roasting pan. And, come to think of it, she cut the pizza with scissors.

I posted amid other posts. The devil made me do it. Daniel Webster -- how cool.

Walt Whitman?

I wish there was on eG, as on Facebook, a Like button. Sparrow, there's so much to like -- nay, LOVE about your pix. The Stone (I'm in awe) the eggs and the sorta Dalmation. Thank you.

Henry Ward? (Copper showing through is probably espn.) I have a lot of stuff in my kitchen that's older than I, most of it courtesy of my parents, dedicated silver collectors, auction goers and generous parents at Christmas and birthdays. Eighteenth century British sterling with dazzling and important hallmarks -- a Hester Bateman spoon serves up the stuffing come Thanksgiving.So I thought I'd show a couple of items we use every day. This is the fabulously useful mesh spoon inherited from my Nonna-in-law Annunziata Rovai. I'm thinking 1918. Works great. These are our huge, heavy sterling dinner forks, c.1810, from the French Huguenot silversmith Francois Dormieux, who pulled up stakes and set up shop in Calcutta. This is a hefty, substantial fork (as French silversmiths like Cristofle still make.) Here's the scale between the Dormieux daily fork and it's puny modern equivalent: And then there's that set of mid seventies Arabia Kilta, and a 1913 edition of Fannie Farmer. and that can of beets.

William Wordsworth? Dave, if that's real Old Sheffield Plate (sheets of silver pounded over a base)rather than silverplate (espn) take good care of it. Old Sheffield plate in good condition is rare and valuable. Take good care of it anyway -- it's lovely.

Yes, Kim, it really does get cooked in the forty-five minute period -- I think the secret is the small dice.

I hang my head.Sorry, rooftop.

Detail I forgot to add, but it might be important: this pie had a lattice top.

Thanks Kerry and rooftop. Thing is, Nonna's pie had no rice and rooftop's fab sounding recipe has no spinach. I don't think that this recipe is too obscure, even in Italy today, but I;m having no luck with my research. So, andioamo, guys.

I was torn between posting this query here or in the Italy forum but decided this might be the better venue. I'm trying to reconstruct a recipe Nonna made for a dense, almost medieval pie filled with spinach, dried fruit and pignoli. Eggs, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla and some parm -- maybe ricotta too. The crust wasn't tender: the fat might have been olive oil, and I know she threw in a couple of tablespoons of Marsala. She made it once a year, at Easter, like an Italian substitute for Hot Cross Bins. I can't find a recipe, or even the name of this wonderful pie. Can my brilliant eG pastry folks help out?

Putting Boston Cream pie in the pie bracket was clearly wrong. Frankly, I wouldn't vote for it in the cake bracket ... it's good, but not that interesting.But all of this is just so much more interesting than college basketball.

Delicious!

The lady wags at Jezebel.com have their own March Madness bracket: Cake v, Pie. I voted for Carrot Cake today.Clickity.

Baps! How could I have forgotten baps? I need to bake baps! (The soup looks great too.)

I'm up to the UP tomorrow, camera in hand. I hope to get money shots of the real thing.

I buy what's cheap and move on from there. I never go out thinking "Carnitas. Beef Welly. Roast Chicken. Asparagus with Hollandaise." I know I can wrassle a dinner from whatever's on sale.

What a swell topic, Kerry! Oh, how I wish I could hang over lunch with you and Anna. Just once. One of my favorite places to lunch with my bff Kat is the Zodiac Room at Neiman Marcus. You get the free demitasse of chicken broth with a side of popovers--beats beer nuts. I usually, though not always, choose the chicken salad sandwich with bacon. The offal-loving fam members swear by the sherried chicken livers. Next week I'm going to the local Two Brothers Brewery with two neighbor girlfriends. The fish and chips is the best I've eaten on this side of the Atlantic, the beef for the burgers is organic, and they serve up a mean mac and cheese. Then there's the beer... Does it count if you're lunching with a gent? I'm meeting eG member Alex for lunch tomorrow at Fabulous Noodles.

169,329 including one for me: the doorstop-sized "Forgotten Skills of Cooking" by Darina Allen. Now I know how to kill a chicken and build a chicken coop. Most highly recommended.

In my family this is a Lancashire joke -- sub ham for the ravioli.

Puff pastry cheese twists. I think they go with everything. Your cook doesn't need to make the puff unless he/she wants to. Store bought is OK. A little parm, some cayenne ... enhances everything.

My experience in growing my own herbs and drying some of them is that drying concentrates the flavor, and oregano is the perfect example. Fresh oregano is much less pungent. Until the dried herbs get too old -- then the flavor's less intense than fresh.

Indeed, Andie, the meat and veg in one half of the pasty and "afters" in the other, in the form of a fruit filling can be found in Cornwall to this day. I keep meaning to try it. What great road food it would be! Sparrowgrass: everything's better with cream. I'll try it. And Anna, should you ever desire to turn your fair hands to pastry, a pasty is a great place to start: the pastry shouldn't be too tender and flaky.

This so totally sux for you, and I've been suffering along. But first order of biz is to kill that wee cowrin' beastie. Make more bread dough, put it in the microwave to rise (of course, with a sign on the door) and stick a nub of dough into a couple of mousetraps. If the mouse can penetrate the microwave let's give it up for bionic mice.