Margaret Pilgrim

I would think one could order simply in most cultures. Rice, pasta, veggies, simple meats. Our young son lived on roast chicken (kotópoulo psitó and pollo arrosto) during a month in Greece and Italy, and learned how to neatly bone out bird parts neatly as well.

Rhone whites are under understood and appreciated.

Admission: The winemaker is a personal friend, but his products are superb. A chenin blanc example. My cellar "go to" whenever I have a difficult dinner party course is Sandlands Chenin Blanc. It is the perfect host, welcoming artichokes and asparagus as smoothly as chicken pot pie and grilled prawns. Several of our dinner guests are "winos" who drink only better French/German wines, and I've received nothing but good reception for Sandlands wines.

For early supper tonight, channeling Smithy, I enjoyed a pan-grilled dill havati on dill rye with kosher pickle slices and strong Dijon (+ short glass of chardonnay). Superb. Keep it up, Smithy. Looking forward to aping your impromptu meals.

Those look like quite decent breads! IMHO, you can't buy good bread in NorCal once you get 15 miles from the coast. Don't know why because I certainly think there is a market for it. What we find is either fluffy or leaden. Or like porridge of nursery rhyme, "9 days old".

Strawberries are a special food of the gods, meant to be enjoyed still warm from sunny fields or your backyard strawberry pot. I can't abide cooked strawberries, e.g., preserves. One may find them delicious but, please, don't call it "strawberry".

I know what a good dad you are, and how far you'd go to support Charlie's honor! But, personally, I would only address one challenge, the first, i.e., the crab boil. I wouldn't give this "friend" another target. Your crab boil will stand on its own!

That is more aptly called a "Castle Mobile"! Super design and accoutrements. You're living well!

I don't see a great difference between snake and eel, which is delicious.

I owned that book along with Bono’s coffee table tome, both long swapped out of my collection.

Re unintentional damage, we have been close to two pet deaths in which the victim ingested part of a poisoned rodent or fowl. Deterrents (like Irish Spring soap, mentioned upthread, are a far safer and more humane solution.

Medium eggs, at Grocery Outlet in the Valley last week = $8.99/dozen. Ordinary, not organic or specially branded.

We see tens of thousands of migrating snow geese each winter as they rest in the California Delta wetlands. Husband commented that it was illegal to shoot a snow goose in Montana while he was growing up because they could be so easily confused with a swan, also illegal.

I need to address several small parcels of beef sweetbreads, sleeping in my freezer. I adore menu sweetbreads but confess I have no experience cooking them. I scooped these up at a country butcher shop, whose shop subtitle is "Meat eaters' toy store", where they sold for an incredible $3.00 a pound. (Husband explained "big boys don't eat sweetbreads".) So, ideas for how to prepare these? Beef, not veal or lamb. Blanch? Weight? Flour or bread? Simply saute? HELP!

A “senior cook” responding to @Tropicalsenior: At my first job and my apartment, I would buy a pound of ground round and 3 zucchini. Dinner was 1/3 lb burger and a sliced zucchini. Repeat two more times, then rebuy the same. My roommate moved in and rebelled after a week. Menu got marginally better. I married in 6 months, moved out of town and took on an hour + commute. Dinner was a shared small porterhouse and splat of some vegetable. I seriously learned to cook, mostly out of Betty Crocker, after husband was drafted, we moved out of state and I had time to think about food. A champagne appetite pushed me toward restaurant-level concepts. Cooking like this at home dulls one’s taste for moderately priced restaurants. Shot myself in the foot.