Margaret Pilgrim

I also try to grate cheese before it becomes rock hard. There is a difference in "age" as it refers to a wheel of cheese and "age" as the super-dry chunk you've left sleeping in your cheese compartment.

I use a vintage 'bolt to the counter" heavy duty hand crank grater that lives in the pantry,. $4 at a PA flea market. Grand-kids vie to grate cheese whenever they visit.

I'll grate your cheese if you'll chop my vegetables.

i'd go here in a heartbeat. I remember "Gus's Pickles" some years back. I recently read in a "Rising Chef" cookbook a recipe for dill pickle panzanella salad to be served with a tarted up fried chicken. Works for me!

This is exactly the recipe I copied and printed out for my 10 year old granddaughter, and which we used this afternoon for our "Christmas Day (instead of dinner) Baked Alaska party". She has been begging to make one (and I had no intention of cooking a second holiday meal), so they came over after lunch and she made this. I was dubious, but it turned out astoundingly well and was delicious to boot. She was ecstatic and flushed with praise.

Beautiful food, good looking group! Beautiful table, good looking group! Happy holidays!

Tropic, the most amazing fresh lard I can source comes from a tiny butcher shop in the deep Mission. It is the by-product of carnitas. Might you have something similar? ( In crust for apple pie....sigh.)

Everything stunning. But this....wow!

Remember the old song, "When they've all gone home..."? It actually was a lovely afternoon and evening. Son and three kids made the croquembouche. Other years' may have been more perfect but this one was somehow less stressful. Practice, or kids growing up. Oohs and aahs and pleases and thank yous and excuse mes. Never thought we'd get here en masse. Standing roast, Yorkshire, roast carrots, plain baked yams, rolls. Lots of butter met its god. Tomorrow they return after lunch to make a Baked Alaska. I'm not cooking another dinner. Maybe spaghettii. Merry Christmas everyone.

If you write elsewhere like you do here, you are not one I refer to. I find your writing tight, concise and your thoughts worth sharing. Writing with the hope of 100% agreement would be a fool's errand, the resulting content not worth reading.

I usually close the tag realizing that here is one more person trying to make a living, word by word by word.

And bread sticks!

I still am! I must have missed Kerry's entreaties. I have almost no appliances. No Intantpot, rice cooker, crockpot, pressure cooker, smart anythings. I did fall to the siren calls of the CSO, and may someday really use it. I do love previously acquired pasta rolling apparatus, ice cream machine(s) and my reach-for Oster mini-processor attachment. For those with an original Oster blender, this is one of the workhorses of my kitchen. For veg of all kinds, cooked or raw meat.

indeed! More info, please, on rutabega greens. Not that I'll ever see them even at my farmer's market. That said, any substitutes in mind? Turnip, perhaps?

One man's gadget is another's major purchase.

I think that the question really regards how closely a recipe needs attribution or substantial change from another previously published recipe. I think there are US guide lines, maybe not same as European or International. Someone?

This would make an interesting eG thread.

Looks and sounds great! I remember many years ago making a similar intense mushroom ragu for a little Friday night dinner party. One guest took a bite and no more, finishing everything else on his plate. The next day his wife explained that he couldn't/didn't eat meat on Friday. She was astounded when I told her that "that wasn't meat!" This is a very substantial dish that will satisfy hide-bound meat eaters..

Because you're a real cook.

I think/thought that was essentially what I said. 😃

Funny re tenderloin for holidays. When I see a tenderloin on the table, I subconsciously think "lazy host/hostess". Easy to cook, easy to slice, easy to chew but little gustatory reward. But, ah, they made sauces!

1-2mm thick. Really? Under 1/8" thick? I can see 3-4mm but 1-2mm seems unmanageably thin.

I am reminded of an older friend who used to save unopenable jars for me to address. I used to take her shopping, and told her to separate items that she would be using immediately and have the checker open them for her. We were at a Safeway and the male checker was delighted to oblige. Except he couldn't budge a lid, twisting and torquing, grimacing and finally turning to another checker for help. With half the front-of-store staff on her case, her jar was finally "ajar".

Yes! Aslo magic with roasted figs. But discretion is the key. A kiss, not an assault.

We've been making this for years. And, yes, black pepper with pears. Glad to read this pie has fans.