SLB

Once again, I need help with portions. When planning the happy hour cheese-n-crackers to go with cocktails at a campsite, how many pounds of cheese and crackers for five adults and three teenagers, three total afternoons of happy-hour??? I don't know why I can't ever really figure portions, I just start to panic and want someone else to do it. I need to learn, though, because did I mention that two dinner parties ago, I failed to make enough dinner??? I played it off, but it was a damn shame. **And notwithstanding the reference to "cocktails", we are hiking it all in and having to pack out what doesn't get eaten. So I want to be reasonably on point, because cheese and salami get heavy. [As does alcohol; but for some reason I trust my judgment on those needs. And it's not really the worst if there turns out to not be enough . . . .] And for what it's worth, I sprung for the fancy Momofuku instant ramen noodles for this trip. I will report back on the other side in the appropriate thread.

I just came here to post this, I thought these were extraordinary.

Noted, well. And -- seconding the perfectly-put words of @Kim Shook. We're witcha, all around.

Someone needs some SERIOUS Leave No Trace education. Ugh.

Nice for them, too. Hang in there, girl.

I have given "Ruffage" as a gift a few times -- I really like Abra Behrens -- and then I finally checked it out of the library a few weeks ago. I'm planning to buy it. I think it's just great.

I admit to being a bit . . . thrown: https://wapo.st/3GWCFdJ [s/b an accessible article]

I know that some of you are on Facebook, where I have just discovered an interesting page: "Eating History". It's fascinating, old menus and WPA pictures, etc.

The biography of Joe of the California fixation "Trader Joe's," is magnificent. ETA: I'm referring to the section of The Secret Life of Groceries, which wasn't clear at all.

A new book by Benjamin Lorr. The subtitle is "The Dark Miracle of the American Supermarket." People, it's wonderful. I'm always thrilled when nonfiction is presented with genuinely good writing, and Lorr is a master.

Sorry about that. These purport to be "gift links": https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/07/dining/mimi-sheraton-writing-prose-recipes.html?unlocked_article_code=pCtu52uCaZUaupVICtywMxtUSgd77cGMzdnz6syBfl74yJILrouZv9Ur7SGPqR8THvKBpVf3iWwiTEH8VVj5q3_q30NtvqNBaQZa0dfocEGdXQWmv6u_W9dHqrPXBXEPbEuN2JyYCAHuriGnN70GhuMJY-yrst9ZJD-5tll4MW9DLqgvE4T5oUi-j92zToE_llbU6sdA2audZ7K8Fn149U6T1SpehE2ouPoZagws0-PBWrIZP7ZtLoQhz1IzAi9tCS8JnufZ_x_j5K7665fJEC3TgwynqCePf3sKvSzjVaSeZo4akMHKRQ_FOz4tByrXunOCfTb9SicPcFsRcwlshyMXvfk5gSRoVOu3&smid=url-share https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/06/dining/mimi-sheraton-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=_uEk8YxsdRhZ6ZtJFbz3Js0roSM5pFWvjOXxbw_ovmAQor9P8ccPpZDzHeUeUIO4Cb6QbowrLbZzNs_EBQKToWLxxJ5mMec3cuIrOZiMXoAyDnZ9TbCpX5x6jqkeW6Yu3o6DSJf-NGHTDXoYAccUgtU9mXXfQuxZFhfJiojEFAHWYPdTwIHhNXANd5c2orc14G2FgbbTxQiip8PsGXGlGQQ1a0hj8jMveidZvEjaoX3zUOG4GrVIVoHZI2Kz2ZXZu0bUY_4T9GEfXDflS5d2nOxw3Hsd_PWPCeImUO6HpmGigNDTsSLyy_rcyC-Q6dDoAEr2ca24DjA5qQ&smid=url-share

“Well, whether they’re right or not, which means they agree with me,” she told The Times wryly in 2004, “food writers in general devote too much space to chefs’ philosophies. They’re not Picasso, after all — this is supper. So I don’t want to hear about a chef’s intentions. Call me when it’s good.” https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/06/dining/mimi-sheraton-dead.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Food

I would make pizza beans with any ole' bean. Obviously they'll look different with a dark bean, but I don't think the taste or texture would be worse for the substitution. And I only ever have whole canned tomatoes, I just chunk 'em. To state the obvious, this board is filled with bona fide professionals with master-skills; but with me, when things seem too soupy, I just turn up the heat and pull off the foil. The beans are gonna be fantastic.

Those Pizza Beans are definitely a keeper. I got a spectacular idea from her blog years ago, pink-lemonade lemon bars. However, I did not use her recipe for the lemon bars. I used the end-all, be-all recipe for lemon bars, which is by Pam Anderson from her Cook's Illustrated days. [That Pam Anderson was no joke. As far as I was concerned, she was the only contributor at the 90's CI whose seasoning did not require radical improvements.] I just adapted that to include pureed raspberries, maybe I reduced some of the lemon juice or something. But I do consider the concept something that would have never occurred to me had I not encountered it in Perelman's blog. And those pink-lemonade lemon bars never fail to destroy any other dessert on the table. Even the chocolate. The last time I made them, the host turned to me and said, "[SLB], these are sick."

I too am looking forward to @blue_dolphin's reports from the field. I enjoyed her opinion pieces that preceded the book's publication. But I have "Scraps, Wilt & Weeds", by Mads Refslund, which is a similar concept. I have cracked it exactly once.

Also. Her fingers aren't covered in wet/drekked/sticky when she cooks? How?

@chromedome I didn't know about that system when I purchased to bespoke ones from here: https://www.hamsterbaskets.co.uk/hamster-baskets/freezer-baskets/ The shipping was unfortunate; but they really did make my freezer much more functional. I love them. I am glad for these reno threads, because I absolutely have to redo my kitchen soon -- it's Ikea, and ten years beyond what Ikea is designed to do.

<fallsoverdaid>

Honey Buns. Honey buns, I learned in another life, are very hard for grocers to keep from being stolen. But I've never even been tempted. In fairness, I have never eaten many of the very popular mass-produced sweets; I may have had exactly one Twinkie in my Very American childhood. I never could quite get it. I mean -- to be sure, I never could really get ahold of it, since my folks were so unrelentingly cheap about that Little Debbie stuff. But when I did get ahold of one, I never understood why anyone would want that over a fresh or even stale donut. Which we did have in the house, from the supermarket bakery.

Me, I love those placemats.

I just found this thread, it's wonderful, especially that last exchange. Meanwhile. I am not over the end of Dawat, I really wasn't done there.

I KNOW RIGHT???

@weinoo, I look forward to comparing notes.

For the gardeners: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2023/03/20/what-we-learn-from-leafing-through-seed-catalogues?utm_source=onsite-share&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=onsite-share&utm_brand=the-new-yorker

I too enjoyed @JoNorvelleWalker's orgeat exploration. But what brought me to this topic was the recipe for almond milk that is in "A Drizzle of Honey", which reconstructs the cuisine of the Jewish converso community of Inquisition Spain, as follows: 1C sliced almonds 2t sugar 2C chicken broth, water, or wine. (Gitlitz D. and Davidson L., A Drizzle of Honey, 1999, p. 19.) I nearly fell out! I had no idea almond milk could taste like anything other than sugar (which is what the stuff people buy in those boxes taste like to me, white-sugar-water). Well, let's be honest. I had no idea that almond milk was an old-timey thing at all. I thought it was a newfangled pricey opportunity for plant-based living. You learn something new every day!