THAT explains it! I couldn’t figure out why the chopped tomatoes (except for Pomi, which are perfect) wouldn’t break down. Thank you for clearing up this mystery .... 

Made me a little homesick for the NorthWoods -- 

I get that part! I just didn’t want to slag on your family for being people who cooked beef well done! But your argument is part of why I don’t get gravy -- and all the people over here in the states who get all misty eyed over gravy at Thanksgiving. Seems they’re mostly people who cook their turkey until it’s…

I grew up without gravy, and essentially do not understand it. Although we always ate meat rare/medium rare ... 

This took me a while to learn the winter I taught English in Taiwan. It seemed such a shame to leave perfectly good food, but if I didn’t, my lovely businessmen students would have kept the banquet going FOREVER. I’d still be there. 

We were such a milk-with-everything family, especially for kids, that when my mother ran horse shows, the catering people brought little kid-sized milk cartons for the 2 of us, and knew we were NOT ALLOWED to drink Coke. It was so annoying! 

Weather isn’t my panic-buying trigger, job anxiety is. So last week’s general layoff news, while not effecting me AT ALL, still had me in the dried pasta aisle stocking up. I have SO many dry goods in my pantry right now. Need a soup made from dried legumes? I’m you’re gal. 

Equal parts orange marmalade, dijon mustard and siracha makes a FABULOUS ham glaze. (I’m not a meatball person, but might try the ricotta ones ... )

I bought a hot air popper when I moved from California to Montana, and used it to make popcorn packing “peanuts”. With newspaper and popcorn I got everything here (on the scary moving truck I never thought I’d be able to afford) without breaking anything. And then I composted the packing materials. Win win.

No baby showers! None of that nonsense until there is a live baby and live mama, at home, all alive and well.

This was my go-to after school snack in 7th & 8th grade. In our original, and forever the best, Toast-R-Oven.

Makes me crazy how hard it is to find lamb here in MONTANA, where people raise SHEEP. I’m not buying lamb that came on a plane from New Zealand when there are SHEEP IN THE FIELD OVER THERE. grrr.

I’m 5'2, weigh 168 and wear a 10/12 — but I got so fed up with sizing and companies changing up styles every year that I started sewing again. I’m pretty close to that average in measurements though, just shorter.

I clearly had an existential anxiety attack before Christmas because there is SO MUCH dried pasta in my pantry. 

It sometimes dogs a little if I’m doing something to heavy, and I should probably take it apart and re-grease it - -but it’s back from when they were still made by Hobart, and it’s a beast. Also, the modern accessories work great with it — I use the meat grinder and pasta roller all the time. (The “heiloom” status is…

Still proudly using the 1972 yellow KitchenAid that my mother passed down to me. It’s in the kitchen right now, kneading tonight’s pizza dough. 

Be prepared to have to revisit this when you hit menopause — luckily, I have a ... creative ... partner who is open to all the non-penetrative sex fun, because “vaginal atrophy” as it’s called is a whole world of good times. Topical estrogen helps, as does a little homemade coconut/olive oil lube (OTC lubes can be…

Yes they are! Although like most game, they need to be cooked more like lean red meat than like poultry. I like them roasted hot and fast with the breast meat still a little bit pink. 

There’s a terrific James Beard goose recipe I’ve done several times — it has a prune stuffing which is delicious, but if you cook it in the cavity it gets VERY rich (which didn’t stop my mother from scarfing it all one Christmas, much to her dismay when all that fat hit her). I do the stuffing separately now. The…

I know! Although I’m old enough to have had a copy way back in the day ... I think it must have gone in one of my many grad-school moves.