Margaret Pilgrim

Mu shu pork

I won first prize in the county fair at age 13 with a loaf much like this My mother tried to make me feel better by telling me that i probably would have won even if any else had also entered in this category.

Thanks for the ideas. I recently bought 3 pounds of chicken wings for broth but being the cheap screw that I am, I just used the two outer joints so have the "drumettes" in the freezer.

A parallel story, my cousin's husband was on a low rung of the executive ladder of his company. He invited several honchos and their wives to dinner. He gave his wife a $$ figure to put on this dinner. A pragmatist, she used a large chunk of her budget to buy a huge Descoware Dutch oven and made stew. Just as Gusteau was charmed by a simple but perfect bowl of rattatouille, the bosses and wives acknowledged the charm and audacity of this simple plate, with glimpses of this (then, the 1950s) extraordinary and unknown cooking vessel.

The universal inventory lament. A parallel of GIGO.

Surplus beans are never a problem. They really last forever. Just take longer to cook. Just consider them Blue Chip Stocks.

Ruby grapefruit, avocado, Salsa Valentina, Mexican crema, cilantro, Maldon salt Zucchini, celery and potato soup, homemade bread croutons and frivolous flower because the times demand absurdity

Great post, Anna.

re general cooking and not C&D, on another forum I confessed to using powdered veal fond I suitcase home from France. A Michelin chef wrote, essentially, "don't worry about it, sweetie. we all do."

I have or had a lot of Desco. It was cheaper than Le Creuset. Cooked well, wore well.

Hit the same wall this weekend, Anna. All of the well-known services were denying new customers. I finally found a smaller service that represents several dozen small, local grocers. They accepted my order, were able to fill every request, gave me a delivery window of 5 hours, texted me several times re selection, had the order on my doorstep in 3 hours I will anticipate more next order annd/but hope they are able to keep up this level of service, plus helping local merchants.

IMHO you have to cook any starch separately before adding to soup. Else -> crappy risotto.

Avocado with homemade chips Pasta dressed with asparagus puree With small bratwurst

Brilliant!

The NYT no-knead recipe is very empowering. We can't buy decent bread 50 miles from the coast, so unless I remember to buy a baguette before we leave town, I wind up tossing together NYT bread in the country. And when husband came home from a food run last Monday empty handed because ALL bread products including tortillas were sold out, voila. NYT bread the next day. And when son was dropping some stuff by the house, his request, a warm loaf, please. Literally 5 minutes hands-on ->

FWIW and around the browning problem, I take a baking loaf out of the dutch oven at about 25 minutes, or when I think it has attained its maximum jump and also is cooked enough to stand the transfer and move it onto the bare oven rack for the rest of the bake. It is during this time that it browns.

Both sobering and terribly funny. I have the feeling that that is how I will be remembered. "Remember Ama's fabulous bread?" 18-hour, no knead. "Her chicken and dumpligs?" See above. And the beat goers on...

Interesting. In what way, Anna. I use a simple Wagner cast iron Dutch oven that actually has a better patina now since I spray with canola before every use. What happens to the enamel in high heat?

I have one of those. Kind of "chicken shaped". Well, rectangular chicken shaped... Or batard shaped.

Ultimate comfort, indeed. In our family, c&d was the first thing our son would request when down with a bad cold or recovering from flu. Even as a young adult, he would call for rescue food, often spur of the moment for me so I developed this sloppy, short-cut version that was still well received and very welcome and out the door in under an hour.. I poach boneless chicken breast in canned or boxed low salt chicken broth, remove the meat. Bisquik dumplings poached in the broth. Meat added back, sneaked under the dumplings. Dutch oven wrapped in a towel and transported across town. Not "Grandma's", but greedily consumed.

Greens Sausage and pepper pasta

Sorrel and mache in the backyard -> Sorrel soup Green chili quiche With mache

I won't dignify it by calling it gardening but we periodically harvest mache and sorrel from a galvanized stock water tank. The mache is volunteer, year after year, while the sorrel, once started, just GROWS. Also several clumps of chard which I hope will supply greens during these sketchy times. Mache = salad material, and may become a cooked green Sorrel Today's sorrel soup I wish i had had better foresight several months ago in terms of a useful greens patch.

Recently came upon a simple method. After using a peeler to remove outside skin, I almost break the stalk in half, then pull the half stalks away from the center, leaving the strings behind. Does this make sense? It is much easier in the doing than the explaining.