Margaret Pilgrim

This is devastating news. I wish I had taken time to tell her how much I appreciated her input. Very hard for me to digest much less accept.

It's an inside joke I tell myself when I realize that my habits don't parallel those of my alter-ego. In this case, choosing convenience over the daily ritual of choosing products from individual specialty vendors.

You'll never be French either. 🙃

Thanks for this! I want ALL of it!

Two crab stories. As a child, I used to visit my aunt in San Francisco, traveling by train and alone. My father would book me tickets in the bar car because there was always an attendant. I would always get my aunt to take me to Fisherman's Wharf to buy a couple of crab for my mother. I later laughed at the scent that must have emitted from my package for those three hours in a warm train car. Fast forward some 25 years, my husband used to help out an elderly neighbor with small tasks. One night, the doorbell rang and this neighbor handed in a gunny sack full of crab! Small crab. What to do with several dozen probably undersized/underage crab? We had friends over at the moment. Sent one out to find French bread. Start a tomato base. Wash crab. Finally combine with sauce -> 2am cioppino. Husband had gone to bed in the meantime, but staggered out for a bowl. A night of guilty pleasures.

Our season still is not open here. We've been pretty satisfied with picked Dungeness out of Washington state. Good fresh taste and close to zero shell bits. Last ( a couple of weeks ago) at $60/lb with liberal leg and claw meat. I have always found that in terms of net meat, picked and in-shell run about the same price.

Smithy, have you made Mississippi Roast? It is most improbable but utterly delicious. ( I do NOT use packaged seasonings! But confess I have become a user.) Not only the intended meal, but leftovers that range from tacos to cottage pie to poor-boys to,,,,,

Looks like there are few "no nos" at Nonno's. Actually, the Nonnos (Italian grandfathers) I have known would flick those hat off you before you could plop yourself on a barstool.

Not sure I'm dying to tuck my toes under the table with this group, the article's feature shot.

Indeed, the only really reliable cuts.

Pork Marsala or Pork Stroganoff; certainly schnitzel (with white gravy).

I remember ordering dove in Paris. The waiter warned me that it was "sauvage", "forte". I acknowledged that I understood that it was game and might be strong.. He picked up my finished plate that contained only a pile of bones and the head. He shook his head in disappointment. I had not sucked the head. I'll never be French.

Thanks for making this. The last time I made it was ??? 40+ years ago. A good recipe. I'm guessing that the excess liquid came from the potatoes. We have been having the same problem with classic scalloped potatoes.

I believe that egg was the norm mid-Century but went out of favor due to food-safety concerns. Eg in bird contamination, being held at a room temperature, etc

AKA my get up and go got up and went. Mine did too.

I guess so. For larger green beans, our favorite method is scorching them in a smoking-hot iron skillet + Maldon salt. The kids skarf them!

I greatly dislike large green beans, so I either carefully sort out small (young) ones or pop for French green beans (haricot vert). Excellent flavor, no pith or strings.

Nothing, really, Both are actually panades: bread cubes moistened with broth, seasoned with vegetables, baked.

I'm from a starched Maine family. Mid-Century Thanksgiving, without exception was stuffed turkey, giblet gravy, mashed potatoes, mashed winter squash, creamed onions, cranberry sauce, rolls, pumpkin pie. Tastes of younger generation lead to straining giblets from the gravy, eliminating creamed onions, adding peas to the menu. Still later "downstream", eliminating squash, adding mac and cheese. And most recently, eliminating turkey and switching to ham. This year I even ditched the pumpkin pie and made a chocolate cream pie, this season's fave with the grandkids. My grandparents and father would be whirling at these atrocities but the spirit of the day is maintained.

Here's a representative handful. All very plain, classic.

Non PC confession: I have accumulated a large collection of ivory chopsticks by rooting through kitchen and junk drawers in garage and estate sales. Thrown in along with look-alike plastic chopsticks. I rationalize them by their age. Ivory is always totally wrong, but I would rather revere these and save them from landfill. And at $.25, find them hard to turn down. They are simple, beautiful and have lovely hand-feel. When we use them, I respect their tragic origin.

Well said and demonstrated. Thanks. Our grandkids are expert, albeit Anglo.

And polite! With morning greetings and abundant pleases and thank yous. At a local flea market, I also delight in their spontaneous and unself-conscious singing. A joy at 6am for us, and many of them have been there since 3 setting up.

Husband bags. Don't even think of interfering/helping. Weight properly distributed, cold with cold, produce with produce, eggs and bread on top.

Rereading this thread, it occurs to mt that the OP's prolem (grainy puree) might be solved by using only/mostly dark meat.