Margaret Pilgrim

The story of so much classic food.

You're a tough customer.

As Mary Poppins sang, "Just a teaspoon of sugar helps the medicine go down..." I would guess that veg box orders often bring produce that requires a little "ingenuity" , aka camouflage.

Guests have begged for our Fuyu dressing = evoo, Meyer lemon juice, honey or brown sugar, cumin, s and p.

Yes, during, right after, Nazi occupation. She was a young child. Now around, say, late 70s, I’d guess.

Correction. Yes, I saw the cans of peas and carrots but we never used them. I used to love canned spinach; it's a totally different animal from fresh but had some kind of allure. And, no, canned asparagus was a luxury beyond us, for better or worse. Of course, I grew up in iceberg lettuce country, so it was a staple, but then leaf lettuce was unknown to us. And totally agree about approaching melons. I always pare and cut up melons because family is spoiled. Longevity is an added benefit.

It's interesting for those of us old enough to remember canned vegetables how different they are from fresh or even frozen. Spinach, peas, green beans, carrots (altho I don't think I ever saw a canned carrot), asparagus. Totally different animals, canned and fresh. re melons, both orange and green flesh melons can indeed become very chemical-like when over ripe. Actually, alcohol. We currently have a cantalope that was borderline perfect/overripe when first cut but that has crossed the line albeit in the fridge.

Zucchini fritters and pancakes rock! But I already hear Weinoo chanting, "I will not eat green latkes, ma'm, I will not eat them Sam I am."

LOL! I can't resist a play on the line from the movie "Magnificent Obsession", "It (butter) will obscure but it will be a magnificent obscuration."

I can't think of a veg that can't be tossed into a 3veg soup, pureed, given a seasoning kick, curry, cumin, sumac, dill or friend, and not be delicious served cold with swirl of creme fraiche or chantilly. Or leave the puree alone and season the cream. These soups are our summer lunch staple.

You can't get simpler than braising zucchini in a boatload of butter, then whirring the mess into a puree. I could eat this for dessert!

Greens sauted in garlic scented EVOO are pretty nice. I remember an Italian friend's recalling his first school lunch. He saw that spinach was on the menu. "Great! I love spinach!" The attendant reached a spoon into a deep hotel pan and scooped out a dripping mass of breen veg and plopped it on his tray/plate. His first experience with canned spinach. Disgusting!

Broccoli is a grandson's favorite vegetable. A natural vegetarian, he will happily eat 3 helpings of broccoli and shun steak. When asked last sleepover what he wanted for breakfast, he answered, "Do you have more broccoli?"

BIG veg. We had a close friend who retired, bought a farm and grew superb vegetables, but he never harvested them in their youth. Huge zucchini, enormous green beans, gigantic radicchio. He complained that he didn't understand the radicchio craze because he found it bitter and inedible. Well, yes, when it is 8 niche across and 6 inches tall! And 10 inch long, fat and coarse green beans. And of course the practical joke baseball bat zucchini. Sure, the baby vegetable trend was overdone, but small sweet and tender vegetables often make converts of the worst veg hater. I really can't think of a horrible vegetable, since there is a way to.make every food delicious. No bad food, just bad cooks. Come culture somewhere has a palatable recipe.

One grand daughter requested/demanded broccoli stalks, saying that they were "sweeter" than the green ends.

Long, slow braised onions deglazed with Madeira, as sauce for pappardelle

I WANT THIS DOG! But he is getting a much better education where he is. With me, he would remain a rambunctious teenager.

Pork rillettes fried up to resemble carnitas -> ersatz carnitas tacos

My Greek teacher related how in WWII on Crete, the population stayed alive on "horta", foraged greens, and snails.

WANT!

This sounds superb. On my first trip to Italy I discovered spinach and mozzarella grilled sandwiches, panini., which quickly became my daily "bar" breakfast order.

Get a plan! You parse your prep so that you accomplish one step, sit for literally a minute, proceed to step two, again, walk around and/or sit a second.... It's more the time spent in one position than total time off feet. Also, pour a glass periodically.... I've had three hip replacements, a spinal compression that a doctor I fired long ago said would cause me excruciating pain is still kept at moderate bay, a knee that would like to compromise me. I don't have time or patience to address symptoms that I can work around.

Really crappy day. How can everyone in the bubble detonate at the same time? Freezer dive for ultimate comfort food -> emergency fried fish, bottled condiments, fresh broccoli with melted Velveeta, bottled sauce and, for the non cook, lots of bubbly in a footless glass. I actually found this plate quite delicious, maybe because I didn't have to cook it...

FWIW, and truly empathizing with your adventure, husband is an engineer, and like all engineers he is sure his way is best. He has installed all of our appliances, usually after many hours of reading off and online manuals, taking miles of measurements, ordering or making dozens of unmarketed adapters, removing interior doors to access the kitchen, knobs and oven door handles to decrease depths.. I read him your floor concerns and he immediately recommended some sort of carpeted triwall useful for gliding behemoths across finished areas. I told him you were going with an air-lift system. He nodded, "That works." Our most amusing installation was a tower refrigerator at our country place. We bought locally from the nearest small town appliance store. it was delivered by two guys in the store truck. One guy got in the back of the truck and i could see that the refrigerator was a lot shorter than he. The refrigerator was about 6ft. I took a deep breath and told myself that it was NOT MY PROBLEM. That eventually we would have the right model. Then they moved the refrigerator off the truck and as if by magic it was right. After it was happily installed in our kitchen, I asked the kid, "I'm sure that you're tired of this question, but how tall are you?" "Six foot 9". Riiiiiiight.

Think something more like The Forsyte Saga.