SLB

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!

Those fancy cold brews are distinctly less acidic. It's remarkable. And I speak as a very cheap woman who thinks Bustelo on the stove is, frankly, excellent.

It's the oil the catfish was fried in!

I saw the follow-up post about not bothering with these again; but just in case, I offer my beloved late cousin Eileen's instructions about how to make store-bought eggrolls taste like restaurant eggrolls: "fry 'em in fish grease". For what it's worth, that woman could slay in the kitchen.

Yes, La Vara.

I do, too.

Duh! Thank you.

@ElsieD If it's ok, would you PM me the recipe for the Sparkling Gingerbread? If it's not, I totally understand. I have someone moving on into dementia who LOVES gingerbread but hates life right now, and I am hoping to visit her for her birthday next month. With FOOD.

About a decade ago I had to change my diet dramatically, drastically lowering the carbohydrate and increasing the protein. When I say "had to", I mean to address a fairly radical change in my basic metabolism combined with disastrous iron-anemia. I feel very fortunate that I like meat quite a bit, and for the time being can afford it in large volume. Also, I basically like almost all the foods, so switching to lower-starch vegetables wasn't particularly challenging. But I was really sad at the time. It might've been the fact that I had lived 40 years in the full privilege of eating to taste and taste alone. (**generally, my taste is a basically healthy diet of meat and vegetables and a pre-1980-style amount of starch, so it's fair to say that my taste ran coincident to many of the basic dietary guidelines). So I was pouty about having to, you know, bring discipline to a place in my life where I had been going with my heartbeat. There certainly are worse and harder areas where life gives this to us. Anyway, where was I? Yes, I was sad. I now have to get the protein down, whether it's really where the deliciousness-action is at on the plate or not. It can feel . . . boring. People make all kinds of wondrous dishes that are not meat-heavy, and I'm always angling for more protein. And -- did I mention that it's expensive? Good gawdalmighty did my budget change. The thing I'm terrified about ever having to give up is coffee. My mother had to give up caffeine at 65, and I think I've mentioned it here: it was traumatic for her, and really hard to watch. She'd had a life of survival and not much pleasure, and her coffee was an important highlight. She gave up the cigarettes with much less sorrow than the coffee, and she had smoked Kools-straights for forty years. But she did it. That woman had a will the likes of which I've never encountered since she left us.

Or, as @gfweb suggested: voodoo. Seriously -- here's hoping the metal experts weigh in. It seems so odd! For what it's worth, my mother's Wagner Ware Magnalite also greases up good on the bottom. However, it comes right off with Comet.

Sure does seem like it from here.

@rotuts I tried your proposed test, and did not notice any residue. Maybe it accumulates so slowly that it will take a few days for me to be able to actually observe anything. The bottom of the pan felt a little moist, for what that's worth. Here are pics of the flame on the heavy-use eyes. And, I see here that the bottom of my moka pot is all carbonized, too. Hmm. I've had this thing for 2.5 years. Unlike the skillets, though -- this thing is never washed or anything like that. It gets, you know, wiped down occasionally. But no soap touches the mokapot, ever. Maybe there is just too much grease in my house, everywhere. It is possible!

They have never been used outside. No idea. It started to accumulate around 2012 or so, which I attributed to the laziness which has emerged with my middle age. Until two days ago the whole exterior looked black like the remaining small patches in the photo. But, now that I think of it, that is when the Bluestar was put in. Hunh.

Sigh. It literally did not occur to me to read the ingredients!! I figured it was a lye-alternative: "SAFE FOR ALUMINUM" !? Oh, well. I guess I should've left the skillet . . . carbon-on. We'll see how it cook up, rusticplus charm and all.