Margaret Pilgrim

Kenneth T, please know you have brought sunshine to this misty, foggy SF day! Somehow I am projecting myself walking my Silkie on a leash around the block to the astonishment of my golden, border collie and poodle neighbors. Am torn over choosing a color, since the black is so chic.

Thank you for this black beauty. I see these at my Clement Street market but have never known how they are best prepared. And no one there speaks English. How would one best cook them? Crystal method doesn't sound right to me.

I want in! Please point me to your skin removal system. Tomato skins, pro and con, are raising some hackles on another site. Must be the season! TIA. (Is there a club handshake or secret word?)

Been waiting all my life for someone to peel me grapes. Maybe for this, I'll do it myself!

Chicken roasted with creme fraiche and herbs Sounds awful but is a real show stopper. Very delicious.

And its American cousin, a Dolly Parton bird, Spit roasting in the fireplace

Here's one, a Euro-style bird from my Asian butcher Roasted one hour in a frying pan, modified Judy Rogers' method. Juicy white meat. Served with mash, gravy and sauteed cucumber.

Proposing a rather broad topic because quail and friends shouldn't feel excluded. It occurs to me that poultry, usually chickens. provide us with such culinary joy, and we should dedicate some space to their infinite variety, if I'm allowed to steal a phrase. So, I show you mine. As I suggested on another thread, a simple roast chicken provides me with caveman pleasure. Plus leftovers. What's your pleasure?

Mango And, wouldn't you have traded a cow for those purty beans? No beanstalk, but a decent pasta e fagioli And some rather crappy garlic bread, but, better than none....

(I'd be happy if they'd just supply table/seating where you could attack your rotisserie chicken comfortably. I am 'enery the 8th, I am! 'enery the 8th I am, I am....)

This looks fabulous. Have you tried just baking it in a cast iron Dutch oven?

Back to the cupboard meal of sauteed salvaged beet greens (pretend to see one of our weekly greens photos...) and Pasta with sausage, herbs and cream. Pray for inspiration later this week...

Scrumptious! Is this one of your famous maple boards? Also lovely...

During WWII, butter was essentially unavailable. It was illegal in California for margarine to be colored; it was sold in solid blocks of white fat, accompanied by a yellow color capsule. A lot of people used it straight from the package; my mother would use the coloring plus beat cream into it, then remold it into cubes. She also saved "top milk" from our bottled milk (this, before homogenized milk) and churned butter when she accumulated enough. The value of her effort taught us more than the value of either product.

Was good silver also jettisoned?

You need to include me in your travels. Every kind of biting and stinging bug takes one look at me and yells out "LUNCH!" Everyone in a hundred yard radius is perfectly safe. And I look like the loser of a boxing match. Once in France, I was so badly bitten after a dinner under the wisteria vines that my face was a mass of purple pustules. When we arrived at our next lodging, the host opened the door and exclaimed, "Oh my God, woman, did you fall into a wasp next?"

All's well that ends well, etc. Finally, grand-daughter's birthday dinner. She arrived mid-afternoon to help and direct traffic She dictated the menu which worked well. Rainbow salad, a recipe she brought home from camp. A panoply of colorful veg and fruit with a fresh ranch/herb yogurt dressing. Quite good. Bowtie pasta with house made fresh tomato sauce, no pics. Nor of the excellent Grilled Denver steak provided and cooked by her dad. He is hired as meat station for all future family dinners. Again, too frantic for pics. Birthday cake, ordered by and frosted by birthday girl. "Turquoise layers" with Meyer lemon frosting and gummies. Note the figure eight, her years. A really lovely day and evening. They must all be growing up, including us.

Will trade you my lobster roll for your fried clams...

By special request from grand-daughter for birthday dinner. I have a feeling they're going to spoil their dinners with warm slices slathered with butter. But spoiling is what it's all about.

Our go-out-of-our-way-for was prosaic Woodman's. Always a happy place for us, even in a memorable thunderstorm. Clam bellies make the gloomiest day a good one.

We usually heat through in small amount of simmering water, let water boil away, then brown in residual or if necessary added fat. Have not noticed naturally cased sausages to curl to any extent. We have several Russian shops within a half mile as well as a Polish sausage "factory" Should give them more custom.

To be honest, this product is on hand because our D-I-L chooses organic products for their household and therefore for our grandkids when visiting. So I have in our cupboard many products that I personally have not personally vetted. It works for her, it works for us. And regardless of absolute probity, they are most often better than run of the mill popular brands. I just work here.

Fascinating! What were the qualities of Tang that she wanted for that recipe, and how could you/we have substituted real ingredients to create the same effect?