EllieA's Profile

Ditto St Pat's corned beef with cabbage, potatoes & carrots - James Beard's recipe is an old favorite: cook the veggies separately to make them shine. And the bonus of corned beef sandwhiches and if any is left over after that hash. And I, too, am making my first attempt at soda bread a la Smitten Kitchen.

and "complained" -jeez where's autocorrect when you need it ;)

If my husband and I want to go to a nice restaurant for a birthday dinner, it'll just be the two of us. I think it is obnoxious to go to a restaurant and expect guests to pay! (We might go out for a "regular" dinner with friends and then splitting the tab is easy and expected.)

But I much prefer birthdays at home. Like many mentioned above, my husband grew up in a family where birthdays weren't much celebrated, so he prefers a quiet meal, maybe with close friends, maybe just with one or the other children.

I, on the other hand, love birthdays, like to celebrate them or at the very least fill "my" day with love, fun and lots of treats. So I often invite friends over.

The best birthday party I've ever thrown myself (and the guests seemed to feel the same way) was for my 50th. I invited a wild variety of good friends and asked each to make their favorite recipe for 15, or if they didn't like to cook to bring wine for that many. For a short while I worried about an imbalanced menu, but I addressed that by have wonderful cheeses and bread and crudités and plenty of my family's traditional birthday cake (Angel Food iced with a half and half mix of Seven Minute Frosting and Whipped Cream with lots of Angel Flake coconut. YUMMM!) Everyone had fun, the food was delicious and there was something to talk about for the shyer ones! And the food was the present! No one coplained about a DIY birthday either.

Sorry, I mis-flagged. this is fine. I just wanted to see if I could get the answer flagged so I would see it easily!

I am downsizing from a 5,000 square foot house to a 1,450 square foot apartment - and looking forward to it. I have been sorting and outboxing stuff for over a year, but this Cure helped push me forward a bit more. Thank you.

I reduced my utensils to one drawer's worth, plus a fabulous stainless steel set I inherited from my mother. Now I just need to figure out where/how to hang it in the new kitchen. I even decided to part with a pleated black velvet skirt, a black blazer and a blue cashmere cardigan that NEVER bring me compliments and make me feel dowdy, despite their practicality and the expense of acquiring them. Liberating!

Now I have to decide about a Waring Blender I never use!

A crate of art books on katsinas, Papua New Guinea & Africa. Son can choose amidst and then I'll ask the art museum's library, then public library for sale... Feels GREAT.

Downsizing by 2/3rds as soon as house sells, so need this!

This post inspired me mid-way through the comments to just get up and do it - sort camping gear, river running gear, tarps (my husband adores tarps and woe betide me to throw one away on him!) and moving blankets. Not 10 minutes but 1 hour, painless, and two cupboards are organized, like with like and looking tidy. Hurrah! and thank you!

A question: I know that a molcajete is recommended by everyone, most importantly Diana Kennedy, but in New Mexico everyone I know just uses their hands to achieve the right (read irregular and chunky) consistency. What is the opinion of anyone who has made it both ways, please?

I wish we could leave our eggs out in the U.S., but unless they come to you from a chicken rather than a store, we cannot. The egg industry washes the protective coating that keeps bacteria out away, since we don't like "dirty" eggs. Our loss.

In Italy I found a gorgeous, tactily lovely linen bread bag that the shop assistant assured me kept bread fresh. In my all-American bread box, it does...for a few days, though in Colorado the loaves dry out rather than mold over.