Margaret Pilgrim

I love my food mill. Case in point: I make "whole fruit applesauce, simply quartering apples and cooking them down, skin, cores and all. Then I put the resulting sludge through a food mill, resulting in velvety sauce. It is amazing how little compostable residue there is. All the goodness is in the sauce. Regarding tomatoes, it depends on one's tolerance for micro bits of skin. No skin with a food mill.

Good article. I grew up in "Driscoll country" before it was that. IMHO, berries need to be warm from the field, picked "a point" and before they reach that tempting but misleading deep red. As in all fruit, to be perfect a berry needs to have a perfect balance of sugar and acid. Simply being sweet, or worse sweetest, can be a recipe for disappointment, unless you've never had a really proper berry, or peach or apricot or cherry.

Some years ago I was having lunch at a nice restaurant. The waiter admonished me that the olives in the salad had pits. I paid careful attention with exception of missing one that hid in a bite of lettuce. "Crrrrrunch!" Resulting in a $1000 crown.

There was for many years a casual spot in our Castro neighborhood called "Squat and Gobble". Amusing, yes, but a turn off for me.

Assuming that we all know that grapefruit is prohibited for those taking certain meds.

Interesting responses that reflect where we each live. (However I don't intentionally feed snakes!)

I use whipping (40% fat) cream and just serve very small servings, between 1/4 and 1/3 cup. That's plenty at the end of a meal. More is almost gag-inducing.

This method is similar to one I use. Fill a heavy (like le Creuset) pot with water and bring to a boil. Separately bring milk to a simmer; let cool until you can hold your finger in it for 10 seconds. Add yogurt/starter to the milk. Empty water from pot, place heat-proof jars in it and fill with warmed milk. Lid tightly and wrap in a blanket (or toweling, or a fleece jacket! or...) Leave overnight or until all is cool. I used this method to show grandkids that 1) you can make many things that you usually buy; and 2) you needn't have/buy expensive equipment for many processes.

Thanks for teaching me this new term which I had to Google. I now see where our (US) phrase "Canadian bacon" comes from.

Noise level at hip food dining rooms is untenable in SF. Fueled by flowing wine and a young well-heeled crowd.

Regardless of the threat, ALWAYS keep your car fully fueled. Trying to get home in SF from Berkeley after the Loma Prieta earthquake, husband was lucky to find one, ONE, gas station that had generator power and was pumping gas. With our increasing 'weather events', we should NEVER take normal for granted. You never know when you'll need to "get out of Dodge".

Read "Bright Lights, Big City". It's been going on for almost 50 years!

Reichl and Waters wrote the script for let it all hang out tell-alls. Wishing your niece all good luck on her book.

I can't conceive of "leftover oxtails". No, it just doesn't compute.

I go to a local butcher whom I trust and buy raw meatloaf by the pound. Not cheap today, about $14 a pound, but totally reliable and delicious. Husband has told me not to quit my day job after eating most of my from-scratch creations. Not bad but not as good as Bryan's. My method is no-fail!!