Margaret Pilgrim

Do you want to hear the time, some 40 years ago, when I dyed my kitchen yellow while making chowchow? The relish was delicious; the stains memorable.

Blistered peppers Barley soup

More windows to open. Heidi, can you share how you make your Ethiopian fresh cheese?

Wow! Many thanks for these. I can mentally parse most of your dishes but the zucchini in buttermilk and garlic sauce is beyond me. Can you give us more detail?

Your wok looks like it may have come from SF iconic Wok Shop . Well done. If you feel like researching it, the engaged proprietors might be willing to discuss it with you.

Copy to hard-drive! Many thanks.

I have never heard of Baby Duck. Deprived youth.

We. too, leave butter out at room temperature. In town, that works fine year around but in the country, in summer, butter does melt and pool. I use a butter bell with some success, although you have to replenish the water with cooler water as it heats up to room temp.

Well, er, quite right. We know you are sedulous, but it's hard to envision your curling all of your butter. And, as you say, to what end?

Don't you always curl your butter?

A shame you have no butter. It would be interesting to see what kind of curls they create.

In California, some wineries label sparkling wines as champagne Others simply as sparkling wine The more exacting the winery, usually the less precious the labeling.

Quick pasta (actually PA pot pie) of sauteed zucchini, mushrooms, red onion, garlic and large splat of jarred marinara sauce. Pecorino. Scruffy looking but tasted quite fine.

This is exactly how I've understood them and seen them used in restaurant kitchens.

This is not exactly how I envisioned Ken's situation, but, if so, he should visit us and I will send him home with a suitable battery of pasta equipment.

Supper just for me tonight. My usual bowl of green A sort of fritatta of guincale, red onion, grated zucchini, squash blossoms, parmesan

Do we need a thread on fresh corn? As I posted someplace, husband and I gave up on fresh corn some years ago as the available varieties became sweeter and sweeter until they lost all corn flavor. Yellow corn completely disappeared from our local farms, like Brentwood and the Delta. Silver Queen, which was originally a delicious white corn became sugar bombs. We seldom bought fresh corn for a couple of years. Then this year yellow corn reappeared and white corn that had a good flavor/sugar balance was available. Did farmers/seed developers get the message that they had gone too far? Dunno. Your thoughts?

Now I'm the obtuse one. I was thinking that the four portions would be cooked properly at the same time but that it was portioning and dressing that was his concern. I transfer out a cup or so of starchy water before removing the cooked pasta on a french skimmer. And, yes, this works best with extruded or non-linear pasta shapes, but even with them I lose or have to retrieve only several.

Sorry for being so dim but why do you need to look at the pasta? I leave it at a boil while attending other parts of the meal and in about 8 or 9 minutes, pull out a piece. Done, yay or nay. Proceed to drain or continue cooking.

"Son coming for lunch bread" this morning.

Joe's special again. I love this plate. It depends on very brief stir fry of the greens, meat and finally egg. Am thinking of tinkering with both protein and vegetable. Like shrimp and zucchini or asparagus.

Garlic has a checkered reputation depending on your taste and personal history. I've been cooking with garlic for some 50 years, segueing though powder and various presses and hand chopping. But most recently, mostly due to laziness, I have been shaving cloves as thinly as possible and adding them as large flakes to whatever I'm cooking. The result is a sweet and clean garlic flavor that has escaped me with finer crushes. A revelation and new love affair with garlic. HOWEVER, I am a fanatic in selecting garlic. Fresh, young and plump yield an almost, if possible, subtle flavor. When I find it, I stock up and use with gay abandon. When only aged heads are available, I'm careful. What's your preferences, prep, usage?

I seem to remember a Cook's Illustrated technique in which you rolled out the dough and covered it with fruit, then rolled it up. Idea was that fruit was more evenly distributed than mix-in. Perhaps after it's rolled up it would be moderately easy to form into a coil then ball for second rise. Just my take...