Margaret Pilgrim

Asparagus with gribiche sauce Polish sausage, choucroute, caramelized apple

I have posted this many times on eG but here goes one more. In order to mimic sodium citrate, just add a teaspoon GOOD white vinegar to your sauce at the point when you are trying to melt the cheese. Voila. Done. No graininess regardless of the cheese you use. My logic, the point of sodium citrate is salt and acid. I think that most cheese has enough salt, so I just add a little acid.

Free garden salad Pretty close to free chicken crepes Apple croustade...for some people

We knew that.

More bolted mache salad, now with ranch house rose petals, Blenheim vinegar, blood orange EVOO. Husband enthused, "Great salad!" Bloody strip steak, crushed potatoes, marchand de vin sauce

Many thanks = tomorrow's lunch.

Homemade tomato soup with truffled popcorn, this menu by special request. "We ate the whole thing..."

That's a beautiful but moreover inspired dish! Many thanks.

Red peppers Lidia's chicken casalinga, same pan potatoes, side of scorched asparagua

To me, pan grilling uses a dry pan, perhaps with salt if you are in that mode. Adding more than a gloss of oil is frying. Frying does produce a crust, but is not the finish I look for in a steak.

Holy $%#@! I just paid almost $5 for 3 lbs (1.36 kg) Diamonn Crystal Kosher salt and thought I was being robbed. How much of this was shipping? Does no one carry this in your neighborhood?

A brilliant kitchen mandate.

I agree that the best recommendation is "When in doubt, throw it out." That said, i am most suspicious of unrefrigerated egg, meat or fish. Left out veg, I'd probably eat. But i also put lots of faith in our minds' influence on our health. Worrying about whether I will get sick is not worth half a sweet potato or fries.

Asparagus with green goddess dressing and sieved egg Heritage pork chop with balsamic reduction (rosemary, garlic, butter), smashed potato

Salad from the garden Pasta with prawns, tomato, sorrel, basil, shallots, white wine, pancetta

It was a large, cooked ARTICHOKE. You ate the big chunks of seafood with a fork, then pulled off leaves coated with the delicious sauce. After biting/pulling off the eddible tip of the leaf, it is discarded. Used knife and fork to attack heart. Think "Henry VIII goes to the shore"!

Exactly.

Since I see you're willing to play with artichokes and since you're a pro and can extrapolate the concept, I recall one of the best dishes of my life, by Nancy Oakes at the Mad Hatter Bar before she moved downtown. Essentially, a large artichoke, leaves pulled outward and stuffed with shellfish ragout. Shrimp, bay scallops, squid in a rich tomato, garlic, basil sauce. To die for, and to remember over 25 years! Go for it and let us hear about it.

Soup to dive into, both figuratively and literally.

Pizza time Husband requested no tomato -> Salvadorian crema base, sliced onions, Oaxacan cheese, sweet sausage, red pepper flakes.

Repeat of Allard's duck with olives, couscous, chard

"refried" pork rillettes become instant carnitas become giant tacos

(Skinned) fried chicken, smashed potato, gravy, grilled radicchio/balsamic Following fresh cheese with oil from jarred Italian marinated vegetables

Asparagus with Green Goddess Ravioli filled with homemade ricotta

Naw, just skin 'em and boil 'em up.