Margaret Pilgrim

Maceo is a lovely room with friendly vegetarian options rather than afterthoughts.

No newsprint, but excellent quality fish and perfect fries at Woodhouse Fish Company in SF. I prefer the Polk Street kitchen to the Market Street one, but they are both good. Not the cheapest, but huge portions of really well prepared battered fish and super fries. http://www.woodhousefish.com/

Good grief! I hadn't thought of that place in decades. You'd carry you order home wrapped in newsprint. Good eating it was.

Here's a few to flame your fantasies: http://www.parispatisseries.com/

We do something similar. My husband cut one long side off a Farber grill so that food on the spit had more exposure to the radiant heat of the fireplace. We cover the motor with heavy duty foil, secure the meat (chicken or leg of lamb) on the spit andplace the grill in front of the fireplace coals. Absolutely fabulous results. You can play with the kinds of woods you use, such as peach or almond or use vine cuttings. Of course, you can buy these fireplace "roasting jacke", but as the OP suggests it's fun to "do it for free".

And it is hers that I think is the ultimate roast chicken. Fitting that something so simple yet so perfect would be her legacy.

What Putty Man says. Here is the concept; http://jetcitygastrophysics.com/2011/11/23/nextparis-1906-at-home-caneton-rouennais-a-la-presse/

There is an annual fair celebrating the Veritable Jambon de Bayonne every year on the three days preceeding Easter, this year the 27th through 29th of March. On exhibit and for sale are the products of dozens of certified ham makers, charcutiers, confits of all kinds, wild game, as well as stalls selling the region's famous Espelette pepper. Bayonne is roughly a 5 hour train ride from Paris, and a hub from which to visit a handful of charming inland villages as well as the attractions of the coastal villages to the south. For more information on the area, the event and the Bayonne ham, see "Take 5000 Eggs" by Paul Strang (Kyle Cathie Limited), and "The Basque Kitchen" by Gerald Hirigoyen (Harper Collins).

Elsie, I think you answered your own question. When things stick, it is usually because they have not formed enough bottom crust. A minute longer might give you releasable slices. I often take these fried slices, place them in a buttered baking dish, shingle fashion and sauce them: a drizzle of marinara sauce followed by a drizzle of bechemel. Shower with parmesan and back until hot and bubbly.

I have no idea, but I will definitely "try this at home". Thanks for this lovely concept.

Braises are my idiot-proof dinner party go-to. I brown large cuts (osso buco or lamb shanks) or smaller chunks of lamb or pork, less frequently beef, deglaze the pot (All Clad dutch oven) with appropriate wine, pile the meat on browned onions, garlic cloves, a bouquet garni, add appropriate broth almost to cover. Cover with a paper lid and put in a 275 to 300F oven for 3 to 5 hours, checking on doneness after 3. Always, always tender as love meat and ambrosial juices.

Our gleanings so far this weekend: On my shopping list was baking soda, French working jars (the ones with the orange, red or green plastic lids and a double boiler large enough to hold dinner party quantities of mashed potatoes or polenta. Went to one estate sale where my husband unearthed 2 unopened boxes of arm and hammer with 2012 dates, a box of 12 working jars with 6 lids and a 2 qt Calphalon double boiler. Total price: $5.00. Raced to the car, yelling to husband, "Start the car, start the car!", channeling a local Ikea commercial in which the wife thinks they have mis-rung her purchases because her bill was so low.

Heidi, It looks like a pickle or jam "caster" jar. These usually were in sets of two or three and were held in silver or pewter "hangers" .. Here's a page with a bunch, the style varied considerably, some open, many had lids. Castor jars usually had metal (silver plate, etc) lids and were not threaded. Threaded, in fact, is the operative descriptive word for this jar. I have seen them at French flea markets but have never asked their original use.

Super find! And if you only paid $10, you should feel guilt for robbing a vendor with whom you have a relationship! Threaded glass is very perishable, so to find a piece that is intact is in itself a coup. It's a lovely piece. I don't want to hazard dating it, but I would warn against screwing and unscrewing it unnecessarily (as in show and tell) because the threads do chip. (I remember being severely scolded at a flea market in France when testing just such jars.) Enjoy your treasure!

We received ours as a wedding gift in 1958. eta: this was in response to the manu date of the West Bend Penguin decorated aluminum ice bucket.

I would get them out of the little glass vials and into something hermetically sealed. What you are smelling is flavor escaping into the room!

We keep them for years. I put them in a tall screw top jar and add a half inch of rum or bourbon before closing them up. We don't bother to make extract, just scrape some of the seeds into whatever we're making. I bury the "empty" pods in sugar. I suppose I could also put them in bourbon for a faux extract.

Yours, please?

Oh, yes, that was lovely, if rather synthetically flavored stuff. I more recently found a recipe for doing it from scratch in French Saveurs or Elle a Table. Will try to locate it. Sublime. Thanks for the memory.

I'd vote for Rouen in winter also. You can while some extraordinarily interesting hours in the ironworks museum http://www.rouentour...&language=fr-FR where you can marvel at beautifully crafted practical objects made of iron: tools, locks, keys, signs, grillworks... Arte Populaire at its most sophisticated. To keep this food oriented, you could pick up a picnic to enjoy during a musee break.

I've given this recipe before, but it's worthy of repetition: Anne Willan's Cotriade, fish stew with mussels and sorrel http://lavarenne.com/recipe/fish-stew-with-sorrel-and-leek-cotriade-bretonne/

I'd go with blackberries and whipped cream.

Plenty of excellent Brentwood corn in the Bay Area at this time. And for the first time there is a small showing of yellow corn. For maybe a decade we have had almost nothing but super-sweet white corn, perhaps the choice of the younger generations but not what we grew up with. Hallelujah!

Good point. If you have a dutch oven, you could make NYT 18hour no-knead bread. (I would bring dried seaweed to add to dough for yum loaf to go with shore dinners, chowder, etc. )

i didnt know that commercial mayo didnt need to be kept cold.... but aside from that..... a 4 pack of THOSE big jars would last me the rest of my life. I am pretty sure that SW is saying that UNOPENED commercial mayo doesn't need to be refrigerated. If otherwise, it's certainly news to me and refutes the instruction on the label.