SLB

SQUEE!! It's showtime!

I love the look of wood, too. What I don't love is the look of aged, crazed, discolored "book-matched veneer", which is what I'm working with. Trust me, I'd replace this table with a lovely long rectangle of wood if it made any money sense at all. [Also -- thanks to whomever -- my guess is Smithy -- got these posts seated in the appropriate forum. I searched and searched, I can't believe I somehow missed "The Topic" ?! Anyway, now it's straight]

My guess is machine-made; the pattern of the holes is so consistent and orderly. There's no label; how would I be able to tell??

This is not a great photo -- it's a gray day, and just plain dark: I don't know how old the tablecloth is, but I am very confident in my presumption that she did not have a tablecloth until well after WWII, when enough of her 20 children had done well enough for themselves to move her into the kind of house that had an indoor bathroom. I don't even know if it's particularly special; it just was the "fancy" tablecloth in my mother's home. In my child's eye and memory, it is very *pretty*. My adult self prefers block printing, geometrics, etc. Other kinds of visual stimulation.

Also, in my obsession I learned a new term: "Tablescape".

I hunted up this thread because my current obsession is tablecloths. I love textiles, and textile-art, and the whole thing where utility combines with pretty. I've tossed most of my mother's old tablecloths, which were all 1970s polyester. But I have one lace wonder that was my paternal grandmother's, a woman born not long after the end of US slavery. Actually, it's not lace, more like a weave or loose crotchet or something. I have no memory of it having stains during my mother's custody, but when I pulled it out yesterday, it featured several large yellowed areas. Now I want some new ones. Or at least one new one.

I enjoyed it too, although I wanted to hear more from McFadden. Dave can be a bit of a steamroller.

Me too, I'm definitely interested. And, I'm wishing you a nourishing holiday.

Patti-baby. This food you're throwing down on these neighbors in need? It's *sending* them down memory lane, in the very best way. I keep thinking, what must a person feel when they reach into a community fridge and get a meal like one of these??? I said it before, I like everything about this. It's invigorating and humbling and all the things for the season of thanks.

FWIW, I didn't read the detour to food-safety customs as hateration, I saw it as more of a reflex from the professionals who've had the rules branded onto them. Meanwhile, I've been meaning to say, I see all that shiny magnalite in effect! And I see it with my head hanging low in shame, as my own custody of my mother's magnalite has been so derelict that I can't even remember it being shiny, although it sure was shiny when my mother passed it to me back in 1996. It had been my Louisiana grandmothers before (not Lafayette, way over in Terrebone parish). C'est dommage. I'm looking forward to seeing the sammiches.

My first thought was, supply-chain issues.

As always, you and these photos are making the book basically irresistible. In the meantime, if I heard Dave Arnold correctly, McFadden is the guest on next week's episode of the "Cooking Issues" podcast.

First was pureeing tomatoes and chilies for the salsa picante to go with posole. Next was pureeing more tomates and chiles to go into Mexican picadillo de carne molida. [I seem to have Mexican food on the brain these days . . . .]

My neighbor gave me an immersion blender several months ago -- she is purging and turned out to have two of them -- and I only just now pulled it out to finally use. Man are these things useful! I don't know why I haven't BEEN had one!!!

@patti, nah. All I see being revealed is your extraordinary cooking triumphs. This project is such a blessing, and it's also an inspiration. Not just the service aspect, but also the fact that the food looks so good; to echo @Maison Rustique, there's another layer of feeling cared for when the item looks all nice, like restaurant food! Also? You sound like you are having a lot of fun, I'm enjoying everything about this thread.