Margaret Pilgrim

Although Zuni, both restaurant and cookbook, is my gold standard, I somehow missed this thread. I hereby apply to be adopted by @blue-dolphin. Besides feed me, she can teach me photography. Thanks for these many stunning plates.

Been there and done THAT TOO! I seem to be a poster child for "do what I say, not what i do!" I have started turning on a timer ANYTIME I leave a room with a pan on a burner.

Been there and done that with glass lids and pans but never a barstool! I use glass lids almost exclusively and they seem to have a propensity to suck onto frying pans. Here is an 8" grill pan I use for scallops, often pulling it from heat and adding a glass lid to keep the scallops warm. When I "glued" a lid to it, husband released the suction by cutting a slit in the pan. (He expected me to toss the pan but it still works just fine, thank you very much.)

Bingo!

Husband picked up this chopping devise at a flea market. Neither the seller nor he had a clue what it was but husband was sure it was worth more than $10. Its use is very specific.

Suggested crab cakes or creamed chicken over baked potato or "Asian" chicken and broccoli. Husband countered with deep fried prawns and fries. Well, okay. He was right. Jumbo prawns, juicy interior followed shattering coating. Simple catsup/horseradish/lemon/Worcestershire dip. Memorable fries. Maybe chicken tomorrow... A little green on the side

I use mine for shaping cocktail meatballs.

Congratulations and Felicitations! Just looking at your plates, I'd put money on several decades more.

I want this at any time of day. Also on my wall. Another print and frame.

Viet lettuce-wrapped beef (garlic, lemon grass, fish sauce), cilantro and mint; Jasmine rice.

Print and frame.

Mental lapses are indeed a different category.

Bingo! And those times you combined some mystery meat, a half cup of gravy, another of some kind of tomato sauce, some miscellaneous broth, and other spurious suspects for a one-timer dish. And it becomes the most requested and memorable plate you've ever created.

Good posts, Anna. You highlight how idiosyncratic "stuff" is. One person's crush is another's meh. And we're each happy with our collections.

More often it's when my fingers type there for their, your for you're, here for hear, then for than, than for from... Pesky digits!

"Scour the veg compartment Soup" 4 small zucchini, quarter head broccoli, half head romaine, handful of sorrel, quarter pound button mushrooms, an onion and two cloves garlic, can of chicken broth, equal amount water. Blitzed with Bamix, garnished with sour cream, guanciale, green onion. Complex and quite delish. And tomorrow morning's Compost Collection cheated of half a bucket!

It's kind of sad when good writers stoop to churning out drek, possibly to meet quotas and deadlines, maybe from fatigue. Humor is tenuous at best, embarrassing when ill-conceived. There are a handful of writers whom I have loved and followed in their early careers but whose late work I find heavy-handed, not amusing, even painful to read. IMHO, the quoted passage fits the latter.

I will suggest again my stupid-easy workaround. Not MCC based, but results in silky smooth melted cheese in sauce or soup. I simply add a bit of white vinegar to the sauce ingredients, heat and whisk -> total integration and a velvety cheese melt.

Condensed or evaporated milk? Sweet cheese sauce does not appeal to me.

Precisely. The discussion can get quite heated, particularly at a dinner party where the hostess presents a pear "claufouti" to claufouti traditionalists after a substantial amount of wine has been consumed. Only, of course, it they are all on close terms and such banter is expected.

When is a flaugnarde not a flaugnarde? When it's a claufouti. Although even the French willingly debate this.

Greens Pasta all'Amatriciana Now that I've found a convenient source, guanciale is a larder must-have. And saved rendered fat is wonderful add-on to subsequent meals.

The internet photos of this pattern all show a colored border that could be described as "gold" albeit not metallic or gold leaf. As does yours in your photo.

Still baching it so, since husband called a moratorium on them, I pulled a couple of mini lamb Tbones from the freezer. And baked a mini potato, and sauteed up some spinach in the lamb pan. Happy me.

Gag memories. Long, long ago we used to go gold panning with another couple. The other couple were not food oriented. As in, eat to live. But she was in charge of riverside lunches which consisted of a can of Vienna sausages and jar of Heinz chili sauce. I am told that canned Vienna sausage and grape jelly/Heinz chili sauce were chafing dish cocktail highlights at about the same time. We somehow never encountered them. They had to be better than these cold-out-of-the-can riparian lunches. At least I was able to stand my ground and insist that at night we go into town to the local "local" for martinis, steak and red.