Margaret Pilgrim

No, no, no...I don't do jam. For me, Toast. And butter. And more butter.

A 2nd generation Mexican woman gave me the following recipe and instruction. 1 cup flour, two tablespoons fresh lard or shortening, shower of salt, enough hot water to bind. LET REST, COVERED, AN HOUR. Roll out on very lightly floured board. Turn dough frequently to encourage a circle. Grill in an UNGREASED cast iron pan. Keep warm under a towel. Works pretty well.

Funny, this coming up now. For two days I have been seriously Jonesing last Century abalone. 2 martini lunches at Bardelli's on O'Farrell: avocado and grapefruit, then abalone steaks. But, hell, in those days we even served abalone at small dinner parties. Mise: abalone steaks, egg beaten with splash of seltzer, fresh saltine crumbs mashed to meal, unsalted butter. Beafeaters, Noilly. Make martini. Heat butter to bubbling. Dip steaks in egg, then very lightly in crumbs. Lay steaks in hot pan. Throw back half a martini. Turn steaks. Toss down remainder of martini. Plate abalone. Heaven! Just today I saw that a locsl purveyor is offering fresh abalone STEAKS. I will check it out soon, and if true, I'm gonna git me some.

You're due a drumroll!

Will toss out an alternative baking process. We preheat the oven in our gas range to 550 for half an hour. Form the pizza on a thin baking sheet. We use a thin aluminum cookie sheet. Place ()on the sheet) directly on the oven floor. This thin crust pizza took about 5 minutes, if that. Crust was brilliantly crisp. Our style, with minimum effort.

We have pretty much settled on Carl'sJr for burgers and specialty (filet of fish or chicken) sandwiches. Fries are acceptable. We usually order one simple sandwich and one "meal", then share the fries. All of this, a year old since we haven't gone for fast or slow food away form home for a year due to covid.

Put another way, I&O HAS CACHET. We only tried them once when they first came to our area, but except for the buff kids serving, it's just another FF burger. And someone is going to have to walk that extra. mile to better McD's fries.

An aside, several years ago I bought green plastic "grass" for the kids' Easter baskets. Talk about the gift that keeps on giving, although I never saw how it traveled, I was picking green strands up for months. Crumpled green tissue paper works for me.

Leg of lamb rotisseried in the fireplace Roasted carrots, and "roni".

Nice sized trout! Husband turns his nose up at the 9-10 inchers available here, having grown up on, say, 7 inchers directly from the river, which he now muses were probably undersize.

Can you give us more info/direction on the fry bread? WANT!

A problem is that pizza is defined differently by its myriad devotees. Sure, there are iconic pizzas, pizza makers and gurus who set standards, but our individual goal, I would think or hope, is to reliably create the style of pizza that our individual households demand. Or better put, that the individuals in our households demand.

Thanks for this. My question/confusion was that I'm not sure I've ever had a pie of that configuration, paper-thin in the center, puffy edges.

Had you wanted to, would this dough have been amenable to being rolled out thinner?

Think not only of stuffed pastas but also the super fun and and interesting hand formed ones like strozzapreti and plci. More like playing with Pla-Doh than cooking. Pasta Grannies is a great source of inspiration.

Well, then there was the time in the country when I was bringing a huge stainless bowl of hot buttered popcorn from kitchen to main room. forgot I had put up the "kiddie gate" in the entrance I used to keep the cat from underfoot, crashed through the gate, knocking it aside, threw bowl and a gallon of popped corn into and across room....plied the cat off the ceiling where it felt it was safe... Murphy's law.

Ugly duckling plate = Sardinian braised lamb neck with fregola, dilled zucchini. Apologize for the unattractive plate, but it ate well.

A lifelong anchovy avoider, I have only recently learned that the pricey Italian and Spanish jarred anchovy are quite approachable and a wonderful ingredient in many dishes.

This is startling to me. What are the elements that offend you? It reads like stuff I could eat every day: rice, beans, pork, fruit.

It's interesting that the simplest dishes often receive the most examination. Perhaps because it is precisely their simplicity that encourages variation and hence push-back on straying from the classic.

Have to admit I've not read this thread beyond getting the gist. Not hard rock miners but back in our youth we spent most of our weekends out of the city, panning and dredging on the Yuba River. Our mining partners were serious about gold but not food. I mean, food was dreadful. The other couple were senior in this endeavor and had established a template. Breakfast, either at a village diner or on the river was bacon and eggs. Lunch was a can of Vienna sausage with Heinz chili sauce. Seems scant but I can't remember anything else. Maybe bread. Tad time was eagerly contemplated, maybe a slice of salami. Dinner was either steak barbequed on the river, salad. Or on a splurge day, dinner in the village restaurant, martinis, steak, baked potato, salad. Early bedtime in camp and tomorrow the same. I used to chide them that if the four of us escapees from the business world only took on weekend jobs we'd be way ahead of the cost of equipment for this folly. But then I didn't have their gold fever.

Interesting how flavors are perceived from sweet to savory. I adore springerle and even enjoyed fennel-confit eggplant as a dessert at an outre bistrot, love braised fennel, basil, tarragon and chervil. It is star anise in Asian dishes I don't handle. I made recognizable springerle several years ago from an internet recipe. Rather fun to make and quite delicious fresh.

Good points, but these tykes are under 5. Totally innate.

I have one grandchild who will kill for chicken liver pate (Julia Child recipe); she avoids all vegetables. Her brother will eat broccoli three times a day, literally. Asked what he wanted for sleepover breakfast, asked "do you have any more broccoli?". A third is a carnivore. Just pass more lamb chops. None of these taste match either of their parents nor ours.

I feel like I'm suffering from anomie. I eat just about everything, and can't remember family plate being forced down me. Away from home, I continued an adventurous palate but to this day can't handle smoked salmon, in fact cooked salmon in any form; raw is delicious as sushi or ceviche, but cooking especially grilling that draws out oils...so indeed any oily fish regardless of how healthful they are (mackerel, black cod et al). Iodiny shellfish. Can't abide star anise. I am a really cheap date. Love most of the wonderful "peasant" foods mentioned above. Last night we had a wonderful pot of choucroute...saurkraut braised with duck fat, onions, peppercorns, juniper berries, white wine, chicken broth. Ethereal with a couple of Polish sausage and chunk of guanciale. But we all have different taste.