Allura

An article from Eater, on the Food Timeline that Lynne Olver developed. It is now looking for someone to maintain it. It occurred to me that this may be an appropriate project for eG, actually. If nothing else, it's a website that I think folks here will appreciate.

I would call them. I know the ones in NJ are open to the public currently. They may just not be updating their website because it's not universal.

Not really a food distributor (although I'm interested to know about more), but I have been getting produce boxes and eggs from a farm that usually sells at our farmer's market in town. Instead you pre-order & pay online and they do drop into your trunk at our church parking lot. A lot of nontraditional places are also starting to sell produce and other supplies, such as the fruit bowl place on the corner. Heck, one of the church supply places I order from (I head the altar guild), is selling commercial cleaning supplies including gloves and masks. I bought commercial pack toilet paper as well, but that was regular ol' Amazon.

A lot of local farms have switched to produce bags or such to keep themselves going. If you have a farmer's market, it's worth looking at the vendor list and seeing if they have any new options. I'm getting a bag of fruit & 2 dozen eggs on Monday. Pickup is drive through our church lot and they drop in your trunk.

We've been using one of the meal kit places (HomeChef) for almost 2 years now, and it's been nice to have a steady stream of meals now. Not cheap, but my husband can follow a recipe and it got us out of the rut of the same 3 things + too much takeout. Anyway, the reason I'm bringing it up is that we splurged on their lamb chop meal for Easter for the 3 of us. So we had lamb chops with a Greek seasoning blend, a jalapeno jelly sauce for my husband, roasted broccolini, and mashed potatoes with sour cream, parm, and chives. I ordered a cake from the local bakery in the shape of an egg. Too much buttercream, but the kiddo loves it. We ate with my family via Google Meets. Earlier in the day we had an egg hunt, watched church via Zoom, and had a brunch of eggs scrambled with ham & cheese and the last of the TJs chocolate or almond croissants. Not a bad Easter.

I think the important part of this is to use fresh green beans. The original is canned, and I just can't. Steam some fresh ones and it's pretty tasty.

My mother does a Thanksgiving cocktail to start, if you want to do something more fun. My own is going to be at the in-laws house and step-mother-in-law and her family are Puerto Rican, so there will be pernil and paella. And probably a turkey. Maybe. I'm bringing bakery bought pie because I'm just in crazy mode this time of year. There's generally a second round at my BIL's house the next day that's more traditional, but given they have a galley kitchen I just stand at one end and chat or help as needed. And keep kids occupied.

I've been traveling more for work lately (no place exciting, alas), so I've gotten used to eating solo. I'll admit that I have started picking hotels with a restaurant because sometimes I don't want to deal with going out, and hotel restaurants understand solo diners better. But I bring something to read on my tablet and I don't really care what it looks like. I'm a generous tipper, and while I don't drink, I usually have an app or dessert. I did have one place where the hostess was kind of rude, but someone senior to her realized it and corrected. I've never had an issue with waitstaff. Then again, all my trips are in the US. (Edit) Here's some German food from Hildegard's in Huntsville, AL. The photography is lousy (cell phone and I was sitting outside), but the food was tasty.

@liderbug, I was curious about this place and found a collection of their old menus online (which I think we have a thread about, but I wanted you to see these): https://www.msubillings.edu/lectures/cooking/pdf/FongLecture.pdf

A couple of years ago I took a food tour in Nassau, Bahamas. All of it was food that was relevant to the culture. So mostly carribbean, but also Greek because there was a wave of settlers from there. So global as it relates to immigration/cultural impact, I suppose?

We've been getting one for awhile now, actually (HomeChef). It got us cooking again, and it's a particularly customizable one, so it suits us. My husband does the cooking, neither of us love to cook, but we're easily bored with the same ol'. At the same time, we're not super adventurous, plus we have a carboholic child. It does the trick at this stage of our life.

This one struck me. Feeding a pet that doesn't know how to catch their own can get pricey. Both dogs & cats need meat and cats are obligate carnivores. I worry more about feeding my 3 fuzzballs in an emergency than feeding myself. I can live on pasta, even if it's not great for me. Are pets popular? I know it varies widely, from pampered pooches to barn cats that catch their own.

Neither, we'll actually make it. My family's version seems to be different from every other one I've seen. This one is pretty close, though. The one I make is ham, salami, provolone, parm, and ricotta. Although I suspect my grandmother used romano not parmesan. My grandfather owned a butcher shop so my grandmother made it for multiple holidays because she'd use the ends of the cold cuts from the store.

My mom will be cooking (I'll be at church for the umm, 8th time since this past Saturday. Yay for heading the Altar Guild...), and I believe both ham & brisket are on the menu, because it's also Passover and my father is Jewish. Mashed potatoes, green beans, broccoli (probably with cheese sauce) are expected, as well as macaroni & cheese. I'm getting dessert at a bakery, possibly Italian pastries, or whatever cake looks good. It's just going to be 6-7 of us. And of course, we'll be bringing a ham pie, aka Pizza Rustica/Easter Pie.

I distinctly remember you posting about it, too, btw, so it's here somewhere...

Yes, but they don't actually call them that in the NYC area.

A coney is a hot dog in the Michigan area, not sure if it's other parts of the MidWest.

All of those involve eggs or substitutes. Are you planning to make anything from scratch? I'm not a big baker, but trying to create recipes with substitutes is going to be hard if you're not an experience baker. What about Indian desserts? You might find ones that already fit your restrictions? Sugar-based candies might work. Or maybe partner with a baker? I know on other threads you were talking about using mixes. What are you going to use to distinguish yourself if you're using all mixes?

The filling is similar, but we make a full-up pie in my family, and call it "ham pie". Includes ricotta, a little egg & flour, provolone, ham and salami. My grandfather owned a butcher shop, so my grandmother would use the ends of the coldcuts. I have to make two this year, one for Easter brunch at church and one for before Easter dinner. I will freely admit I use a frozen crust bc I'm not much of a baker.

Usually we go to our church for a pancake supper. We have a new rector this year and she also wants to do a "Low Country Shrimp Boil." Kinda weird to mix both, but it should be fun. Not counting the part where I'm hauling my husband into the church itself so a bunch of us can move the altar and set it up to do Lent truly "old school", with the priest's back to everyone. That should be...interesting (no one's ever seen it moved....).

Honestly, for my 6yo we have a very small list of things he's interested in. If he doesn't want the school lunch, he takes either cold cuts/lunchmeat rolled up with crackers (we call them "lunchables" and he loves it), or a bagel w/ cream cheese & smoked salmon, a sunflower seed butter & jelly or something similar. Mac& cheese in a thermos is popular, too. Simple is fine at that age, don't fall into the "pinterest mom" trap . Heck, my lunch is either leftovers or a salad or the occasional sandwich.

One of the things we're warned against when writing technical manuals is to use warnings "judiciously." In other words, don't put so many that people start to ignore them. If the product is unsafe to consume in a large quantity, it should have a gigantic warning on it. OTOH, "hot product is hot," is stupid. The proliferation of the latter is a problem.

For us it was a combo of part of the family coming earlier to exchange gifts (we're the only one with a young child), and then more folks coming later. Partly, it allowed for some leeway in when dinner was ready. And in our case, my mom's Italian-American and thinks she's required to have SOMETHING available when people first get there, if only to absorb the prosecco, etc.

Christmas Eve in the past would have been Italian pasta & fish and a huge multi-course feast provided by my aunt. I miss it, but they've moved and life changes and I'm not up to duplicating it. Last year we started going out for Christmas Eve, just my parents, sister & bf, and my family. Italian restaurant of course, so I had shrimp wrapped in proscioutto for app and halibut with risotto for main. Christmas day morning at home was just cheesy scrambled eggs and chocolate croissants fresh from the oven (courtesy of Trader Joe's). Early dinner was at my parents' house, and we started with nibbles of proscioutto bread, cheese, and spinach/artichoke dip. Despite the nibbles, we started with pasta bolognese, then prime rib with roasted potatoes, green beans and broccoli with cheese sauce. Dessert was too much: Italian pastries, yule log type cake, cookies, chocolates from See's, brownies. And then we left the kiddo at my parents overnight and went to see Last Jedi yesterday.

Thank you very much! Her allergy is to strawberry, so she should be fine.