Margaret Pilgrim

I totally understand but (and I hate people who say "Yes, but..." 😄) I have a handful of friends and relatives who have multiple degrees, have been all over the world but have somehow remained untravelled and culturally tone-deaf. Social obtuseness, if you will. Their professional and business success has allowed them to swashbuckle through life without noticing their negative effects on people around them. I don't think they qualify as mentally ill bur rather monumental PIAs.

Indeed. But much of the offerings on Amazon were picked up at garage sales and flea markets. I found parts to my favorite Oster mini-processor for pennies on the Amazon price, like $5 for a grouip now selling for $40 on Amazon. Granted, the Bay Area is garage sale and flea market heaven.

This is why I love and haunt flea markets. The secondary market holds a treasury of obsolete parts.

I don't think that these people are mentally ill. Rather they have limited travel experience, possibly little exposure outside their circumscribed social and physical neighborhoods as well as high senses of entitlement. I've encountered a few....

Thank you also for catching this. They are obviously hen-of-the-woods, maitake. I've never had matsutake.

Many thanks. Definitely hen-of-the-woods. Typing too fast for my own good.

Bloody ground beef puck with maitake mushrooms. Divine. (Corrected post.)

The (holy) trinity: gf, talented wife and Henry.

We each need a Kerry Beal in our life.

We should clone you, Patti, and send you into Diplomatic Service.

Like bug-zappers and microscopes, books are only as good as the use to which you put them. Between the kitchen end of it and our wood-fired oven, I probably have 15 or so benchmark or reference books on pizza. I would guess that I've used fewer than 10% of the recipes, more of the technique, virtually none of the history and background. With foods that you repeat often, you reach a plateau at which the process and product meet or exceed your demands, therefore "it ain't broke".

Coat-tailing on this existing thread, I want to share a stupid-easy ice cream dessert. I used this merely as inspiration. My interpretation = premium vanilla ice cream (softened), strawberries cut into quarters or eights depending on size, pitted Bing cherries cut into halves or quarters, minced Meyer lemon zest, toasted slivered almonds, torn fresh mint. Packed into a rectangular crock lined with parchment paper, leaving several inch paper to cover and ease removal. Frozen overnight. Brought out after main course, before cheese, The brick pulled out easily by the parchment wrap, cut with sharp knife. Sublime! Served the last slice to grandkids last night. They too loved it, and went home determined to make it themselves.

Lemon juice as antioxidant

Perhaps some input here.

I understood that but felt that a liquid addition might be more in line with the recipe balance. I wonder how the end products would differ, method to method. Ah,,,,time for MC, or a side buy side comparison..

I would re-hydrate it in the recipe's liquid. I sub green walnut wine for a portion of the liquid to make sublime walnut bread. Might this work for you?

Hear, hear!

In my ken, they were a mid-Century diner food, aka Salisbury steak A larger than bunned portion of ground beef, oblong, served as part of a main plate, with or without gravy. Well done. Maybe still available as a frozen dinner entree.

A bowl, please.

Realize that eG has a pretty broad readership. Regional Americans can have limited exposure to what we consider mainstream, or as having mainstream recognition. And some self-proclaimed foodies tend to take pride in not "getting" down-market foods.

Would subbing microplaned lemon zest (maybe Meyer) create the desired flavor?

But weinoo shows us how to achieve this in our own simply equiped kitchens by observation and reflection.

Husband has a favorite phrase. "Some people have done something 200 times and have become expert; others have done it "once" 200 times and learned nothing." Obtuse remain obtuse.

It appears we are pitting why against how. Knowing why doesn't guarantee results. Knowing how comes from expert tutelage and experience.