Margaret Pilgrim

Sister!!!

It is boggling how rampant and unapologetic recipe plagiarism is. I took a cooking class from a noted San Francisco woman in 1980. I had just purchased Marcella's new classic Italian book. Our instructor passed out copies of the recipe we were making. It immediately looked familiar to me, and checking when I got home I found to be verbatim from Hazan. Shameless.

Tangentially, why are commercial breads so SWEET today? Sweet hamburger and hot dog buns? Sweet multi-grain seeded loaves? Has America lost its savory tooth? Echoing @weinoo, I have started using dark rye as my daily bread. Or sometimes dill-rye. Either make decent toast and sandwich bases.

If you’re going to that extreme, hold out for Blenheims.

I vividly remember my father's driving us to "the city", up 101/El Camino, and having him point to the surrounding apricot orchards and despairing, "In your lifetime, a dried apricot will cost 25 cents!" We all laughed.

I think also of riding city buses early in the morning while sitting next to some person who is perfumed by what they served the family for breakfast that morning. I was always saddened that they had to go through their day With kitchen smells. However, It was anthropologically interesting to note the different flavor profiles by culture.

A truly bad idea! I am appalled by open plan homes that make no allowance for cooking odors. We whisk clothes from laundry area to closets in order to avoid lamb chop scented shirts! i can't fathom anyone's intentionally imbuing clothes with farm kitchen odors!

I'm in the minority in that I LOVE domes and have probably a half dozen in various configurations. I always use them for a cheese platter at dinner parties, as current storage of baked goods. I don't find them labor intensive unless you are sloppy when covering a lavishly frosted cake. I like their looks but especially their efficient garaging large foods that don't require refrigeration.

Pan- fried polenta served with steak gravy was what my Croatian grandmother-in-law called “sconsa”.

John's Grill should fit the bill without breaking the bank.

II love (covet) the individual AllClad vessels!

Truth! I often "read" in my mind, while shopping, from the list I left at home.

Bingo.

My husband perfected the art of the checklist to masterpiece status. One for closing the city house, one for closing the weekend place. One for local travel, one for foreign. I, on the other hand, could never bother to write down the mundane items that were always on a list. Like what foods to take for a week in the country. Same old, same old, with some seasonal variation. Which meant that some stay were without bacon. Or a specific cheese. Or hotdogs on hand but no buns. Or....you get the point. He would just shake his head ruefully and say, "Why won't you just make a list?" But that requires that one ALSO read the list when time to shop or pack!

A double order of chicken shawarma (very heavily seasoned with warm spices) with fries and salad, two kefta kabob dinners with salad, hummus and fries, a kind of gyro wrap or "burrito", two additional orders of fries, tabouli salad, extra pitas and yogurt sauces. Son was over today and we sorted through for lunch; he took some home and I will forage supper tonight before tossing a lot that was not to our taste. We were both devastated by the financial hit that the delivery person probably took = cost of this meal plus some 25 miles and an hour excess travel time and expense. These people work on slim enough margins, considerably less than minimum wage, and are tip dependent. I would guess that original buyer cancelled any tip when meal was not delivered. Sure, it should have been delivered correctly but mistakes happen. I just hope this person was able to weather the financial hit that this mistake cost him.