Margaret Pilgrim

@Tropicalsenior LOVE your bins. Perfect for your baggies.

Turkeys make good dinners.

Probably my most satisfying first was Bearnaise sauce. We were very young, very budget constrained and dining out was rare. So when on one of these very rare occasions we met our first Bearnaise, I knew that if we wanted to enjoy it, I'd have to master it. I used the recipe in Esquire's cookbook For Men, reasoning that if a bachelor could make it, so could I. The instructions were very complicated and entailed many steps, but it worked. Over the years, I have simplified it to a one pan, over the flame, throw together emulsion, basically the way I cook. And basically the reason I have come to try many over-my-head recipes, because I wanted them in our repertory and knew we would not afford them in restaurants.

When I was thirteen, I was planning on making cookies but my mother interceded and suggested I make bread. She coached me through a simple white loaf. When county fair time came around, she suggested I enter a loaf. I did, and won the blue ribbon, first prize, adult level! She was ecstatic, but didn't add when she told the story that that year, I was the only entry in that category, as all the experienced bakers went for more involved bakes.

More boggling than the faux cheeseburger and/or its ingredients an entire generation willing to support this kind of content. Worse, calling the creators "influencers".

Can you tell us about this men-only gathering? Is this daily or a special event?

It's there. On larger chops closer to the shoulder. I always look through the chops in the butcher case and choose those with this cap.

Sorry to have started such a firestorm. I thought I was simply using standard jargon re "unhealthful", as in EPA air qualities. But I see that they too have gone to "unhealthy". Showing my age, I remember being taught in first grade that unhealthy referred to the condition of an organism, while unhealthful qualified something that affected an organism. But words change in meaning.

I'd have to go back and reread the article, but I was surprised that (as I read it) the sodium level in a Costco chicken was not that excessive. i.e., not sufficient to be considered unhealthful.

Please send bowl of each.

The French have a phrase something like "Manger les yeux fermés", eat with your eyes closed. Extrapolating to Costco rotis chicken, just pull it apart and suck the bones, wings first, then drumsticks. Then slice the breasts. Thighs go without saying, luscious. Totally integrated from egg to rotis, Costco owns the farms or at least contracts to guarantee pretty decent quality and rock bottom price. Reason for blind tasting, the backstory of socio-ecological cost. Deal killer for some, but probably not much worse than most American big business foods, non-negotiable for some. My guilty sin is judging it far superior to the properly sourced, minimally treated rotis bird I buy at my local private super, for 3x cost and 1/4 flavor. Junkyard dog taste, here. Don't have a Costco membership at this time since you can only subsidize so much rotis chicken.

We have discovered that it’s crows who are munching down our infant seedlings. Scallions, chard, radishes. We were blaming faulty seeds.

I would!

Reminded of a neighbors visiting mother who "polished" his Dirk van Erp collection, erasing thousand's of dollars of value. eg

Single use plastic spoons are being phased out by some companies.

That airlines pass out in the middle of the night to insomniacs on long-haul flights.

Your salad, indeed, but, yes, braised endive and also fennel are divine. As summer advances, think of room temp also.

FWIW, dear husband has a deep aversion to greens. But he scarfs chard sauteed in EVOO heavily infused with fresh garlic. Like several times a week. And one of my favorite vignettes which I may have already described, in check-out line at a village country store in the deep boonies, the customer ahead of me commented how she hated beets and beet greens because 'they taste like dirt". The young black checker quietly said, "They don't taste like dirt. They taste of terroir." I had to refrain from jumping over the counter and hugging her.

I've had exactly the same experience. I buy it at an ethnic flea market but in bunches that, while very inexpensive, last me for several weeks!

Last I bought, last week, were $3.00 dozen, large white. Good tasting, but nothing spectacular.

and I’ll gladly contribute a battery of cookware!

I read with wonder the fabulous complicated breakfast plates, even trays, that you guys enjoy. My tribe needs/expects breakfast on the table in, say, 10 minutes. What are your group's expectations, and how long are you willing to spend on breakfast?

Blackened (under broiler or on gas stovetop), peeled and seeded, EVOO, cracked pepper, Maldon salt. You don't know what you're missing!

Word!

No, these are correct, according to my husband, who has the patience of Job in carefully watching and turning a marshmallow to it caramel perfection. Me? I scorch, to his disdain and disgust.