Margaret Pilgrim

Sea....$24/lb...then

I'm reminded of shopping for dinner with my then-4 year old granddaughter. I had some kind of fin-fish in mind but cherub moves sideways to shellfish and chirps, "Scallops, Ama! We want scallops." Then, turning to the fishmonger, she asserts, "We want scallops, please." There went the retirement plan.

I would hazard to add that wine is also tremendously situational. Many years ago, husband and I enjoyed a simple dinner out, ambiance, plates, late prolonged conversation with the sweet chef/owner...and the WINE! Ambrosia. So when husband's birthday comes along, i buy him a case. Same vintage, whole 9 yards. He tastes it with enthusiasm, recoils and asks me why I had chosen that wine, and BOUGHT SO MUCH! Tuesday night in our kitchen just didn't add up to our recent enchanted evening

We send out sheets to be laundered. They are returned wrapped in blue paper and tied with about 8 - 10 feet cotton twine,

Kitchen twine You are really fancy-shmancy. I save string from laundry packages, tying each week's length onto a ball. Figure it all gets cooked anyway. Son, who apparently missed receiving the thrift gene, needed some string and was surprised by a knot at the end of a 10ft length, He looked at it for an instant and said, "Tell me you aren't saving string from the laundry..." Shrug. (Not sure if was Gallic but it spoke volumes.)

Don't be sad. I'll share your toast, but will wait a couple of hours. It's not noon here, and I only drink before noon in France.

rotuts, I don't even have a stand mixer! Pots ,pans, stovetop and oven. Fireplace and wood oven in the country. Truly antediluvian,

IMHO, all natural cold cuts without chemical additives save for table salt and pepper.

Like with most, no, more importantly than with most ingredients, quality will out. But like a great perfume, a drop is intoxicating; more a turn off.

Repeating what was written upthread, if you tie several pieces of meat together and poach or roast them, they will more or less bond into one piece. IMHO, far better with this minimum intervention than with a chemical bond. But then i don't go in for modernist techniques.

Asparagus beef

Normally, I'd be with both of you, having jettisoned more truffle oil than I care to admit. But I got hooked on the oil and salt at Amphora Nueva. While waiting for service, i casually helped myself to a little cup of popcorn anointed with their truffle oil and truffle salt. Then another little cup. And another. I sheepishly told the shopman when my turn came that "I'd come for lunch." He told me that he was delighted because most of his customers dropped in after lunch and didn't feel up to tastings. We bought small bottles of each. I've happily used tiny amounts of each. FWIW, all of their infused oils and vinegars are sublime. I could drink the Blenheim apricot vinegar straight. Husband is addicted to the blood orange EVOO for which olives are crushed with the oranges.

I gotta make these oatcakes! Maybe time this weekend.

This was my inspiration. I followed it as closely as it's possible for me. I tend to wander off recipe script.

Avocado and mushroom and, yes, more of that intoxicating Blenheim balsamic and drizzle of bleed orange EVOO. Baguette slices to sop up the OMG... Cauliflower, anchovy, Meyer lemon penne, blatantly stolen from WSJ. Bright flavors. Will repeat.

I'm with tic tac. "If it ain't REALLY broke, don't fix it." That's a corollary of "Never pray for a new king." And Murphy's Law, "If it can happen, it will happen,"

I used to meet several ladies for a very wet lunch. Since I drove some 15 miles to join them, my drink of choice was a double espresso over ice. After about 4, I would begin to twitch. I switched to bitters and seltzer, pleasant and not so jangling.

Milk

While a guard is the way to go, I have good karma by using my palm to guide product across the blade. Somehow, it allows better control of how close you are to the blade. So far, 10 finger tips. But I am VERY aware and careful.

Fresh cheese, blood orange EVOO, Blenheim apricot balsamic vinegar. Wow Tiny plate but explosion of flavors. "pollo y rajas con crema", LOVE grilled pasilla peppers.

Coincidentally, I just fell over this treatment in Cuisine et Vins de France...topped with blood sausage, sauted apples, green onion, bacon and dill. I could do this for breakfast too, or lunch or... Your batter is more interesting, complex.

Are those capers or green peppercorns on your chowder? Either is a revelation to me. I want both!

Planned on some kind of wok + rice treatment of a couple of scraps of pork, husband asked if I could just schnitzel it. So... Pork, mini-Yukons, beet greens. Above plate was mine. Potato simply smashed, truffle oil and salt. Husband blanketed his three potatoes with white pork gravy. Different strokes...

Tonight, chard's kissing cousin, beet greens. Stemmed and heavy vein removed. Garlic/EVOO, garlic removed, greens wilted.

Stupid question: I don't stock "whole meal" which I take to be whole wheat flour, since I seldom use it and wind up tossing it out periodically. I do have masa, rye, grilled corn flour, garbanza flour and probably a few more suspects. Acknowledging the lack of gluten in most of these, can I substitute any for part of the whole meal flour and make up the difference with "strong" white flour?