Margaret Pilgrim

Just as we were packing to drive to the country, a friend dropped by with his handmade chestnut pappardelle. I asked him how he would dress it and he suggested an artichoke sauce. Badly framed and poorly photographed, but delicious. I cut some jarred artichoke bruschetta with a bit of chicken broth, topped with pecorino. (FWIW, this stuff is a super emergency hors d'oeuvre topping when time or energy is short.)

Ice cream brand or Amazon?

Better than McConnells? Wow, that's a toughy. I love McConnell's SWEET CREAM, which it pure and unflavored, a wonderful canvas for dessert concepts. We also love Straus' vanilla bean for roughly same uses at half the price. Straus' is clean and organic. Both their coffee flavors are superb. By the way, I usually find coffee to be a definer of a company's ice cream. Or maybe just my preference.

McConnell's is $11 a pint at my two "corner stores". And worth every penny. We are spoiled by regularly buying Straus' at Grocery Outlet for 2.99/pint. But that's comparing apples to oranges. Both delicious but certainly not the same.

I remember some years (decades) ago, going to a city Safeway for a particularly good promotional price. The advertised price didn't come up at checkstand. The checker called the manager who looked at my flyer, shook his head and said that he had never seen it before and asked where I got it. I told him it came in the Tuesday junk mail packet. He met the prices. I later realized that it probably was delivered to our weekend place, a half dozen counties away. Sorry about that.

Probably once a day. And with a clean spoon.

vis a vis, mayo in general: chicken salad; tarter sauce; Momofuku ranch dressing; Louis dressing; instead of egg for binding schnitzel crumbs; chocolate cake

Andie's point should be well taken. Leaving fried foods on the heat until they readily release from the bottom is the clue to good crusts.

As the globe faces recently unprecedented inflation, it makes sense to think outside the box when shopping. If youre willing to take a leap into the unknown, you may find product otherwise overlooked. All you can lose is the cost of that one item and you may open an new door. I have long been willing to try the untried, visit a venue without its being vetted by someone "in the know", trust my own taste. I've always been willing and fortunately able to spend what I need to to get the product or service I want or demand. But I'm also loathe to spend a dime more for the same product or quality. I often laugh at the old San Francisco social judgment, "Who IS she? Nobody knows her mother!"

b_d, I imagine that my referenced off-brand qualifies in his context.

An excellent point. I usually pay little attention to items that are constantly in our pantry, but somehow the manipulation of commercial mayo prices bugs me. I have always used only Best Foods or Kewpie, and having lost my mayo virginity with Banquet, i was startled to see how an off brand could so outdistance the other major brands.

"None that I know" and "most" does not equal all.

I was brought up on Best Foods but its price hike pushed me to try Banquet which Grocery Outlet was selling for $2.49. It is astonishingly acceptable! But now out of stock. I would buy it again in a heart beat.

Not so here. In the '60s Green's restaurant, one of the nation's first vegetarian restaurants features cheese heavily in its menus. Vegetarianism is a continuum. Like politics and religion, each person finds a place for himself on the arc.

Technically correct. Cheese is usually allowed a lacto-ovo veg. I was neither, just avoided meat. It was strictly how I felt like eating and wasn't the least philosophical.

Rough bread, strong Cheddar and a pickle that Americans would more likely akin to chutney all fall within the ordinary lacto-ova veg regime. But, certainly they are not vegan.

I might love that! During the vegetarian period I spent in the UK, ploughman's lunch was my pub order. You see, you need the butter to cut the strong cheddar and pickle to brighten both. Yes, I could do that!

Either would be nice.

One of my favorite sandwiches is a half baguette, generously buttered, with thick slabs of camembert end to end. (A glass of white wouldn't clash with this.).

My current sandwich is seeded bread, pastrami, razor thin slice of red onion, dill pickle, seeded jalapeno, mayo, lettuce. Not for purists.

My lightbulb sandwich moment was at the lunch counter at Grey's Antique Market in London. Chicken sandwich on white bread. Mayo and "salad" (lettuce). BUT, the guy salted and peppered the chicken. All the difference in the world. Salt and freshly ground pepper.

Rereading previous comments, it occurs to me that time is a factor in preventing splitting. Low and slow, and they heat evenly and don't split.

Exactly. Thought I invented that method. 😆 How else would one want one?

Will never again leave Meyer lemons on the tree too long. Last year, I went out to pick a few and found that (apparently) rats had stripped the peel off every ripe lemon. Mr. Google confirmed that they do find the peel delicious, while leaving the completely peeled fruit hanging on the tree. Of course we composted the molested fruit. This year, I am watching like a hawk.

Not dry fried, but I frequently glisten a non-stick pan and scorch green beans. Splotchy blackened outside, half-cooked inside. Maldon salt and yum.