16 Comments

I have the same coffee grinder!!! You are right, it’s worth the money! I have the Hario Switch and it’s great. I have to jump into the virtual coffee klatch! I enjoy my Cafe du mode decaf 😀

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I don't know about the Hario Switch. It sounds so snappy! Thanks for the tip, Marion!

See you in the ☕️ klatch! 

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Swank!

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Thanks for the grilled cabbage recipe and explanation on why to use Savoy cabbage.

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I wondered if someone would wonder like I wondered. And here you are, wondering, Linda! Yay!

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Such an interesting post! Once again, the CIA event sounds so interesting. What a wide sphere of influence those organizations have. Only so many people can afford or have access to fancy restaurants. The fact that assisted living facilities participated piqued my interest because of Rose working in them (also in memory care). This made me think of the book Tastes Like War by Grace Cho.

We are not hosting Thanksgiving this year, but we may cook a small turkey just for us. One year my husband spatchcocked and smoked a turkey and it was delicious! I’ve just read the part of Animal Vegetable Mineral where Kingsolver talks about the challenges of getting her turkeys to mate naturally. Wow.

I’ve never bought or brewed Viet coffee at home, but I might give it a try when I find some. My coffee habits are pretty regimented… every day I have 2 cups of coffee in a big Golden Girls mug, in bed while watching Gunsmoke or Perry Mason.

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Yes, assisted living facilities and hospitals are looking to diversify their food. A chef at a La Jolla facility got a copy of Ever-Green Vietnamese. He said the residents are asking for healthy options with tofu and global flavors. Maybe Rose should study nutrition and gerontology?

Get your small bird now. 8-10 pounders are rare. I sometimes just buy the part I like to eat -- the thigh. Or, I'll roast a big chicken. Turkeys are unusual fowl. I need to get a copy of Kingsolver's book, based on your recommendation.

Love your coffee and TV routine. They're solid. The Viet coffee could make you edgy. ;-)

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I’ve thought Rose could be interested in gerontology too. Nutrition would be an interesting component as well. She certainly has an amazing skill working with the older folks, and she doesn’t even have a single coworker to in her same generation. I had one gerontology course at CSUSM, and it coincided with an internship I did at Meals on Wheels.

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We need people like Rose to help us when we're aged! She'd be perfect in that field. Hopefully, she'll go towards that path.

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Spatchcocking a turkey is not a trivial matter. Having the right scissors makes a huge difference. I know someone who uses garden loppers.

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And picking a bird that's not too big. One year, I had to spatchcock three turkeys for writing assignments. That's how I learned to choose equipment wisely.

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Loppers, lol, that would be me!

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Great post Andrea.

I too found it enlightening that such food service professionals, who toil out of any spotlight, do have a huge influence on what regular people eat.

95% of cooking media is almost exclusively focused on cutting edge restaurants, trendy cuisines and award winning chefs. And that's fine. But I realize that these places are out of reach of most regular people. I'll never eat at Providence in Los Angeles or Gia in Hanoi. But I'll be eating at a hospital dining facility within the week.

Awesome job of showing out with the viet food. Hala nuoc cham!

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@Andrea, your dripper appears to be made for campers. Is there a story here?..!!

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Evvy -- oh my. I've been camping twice and one of them was glamping with a full kitchen set up! The other time, we ran out of food and came home early. I'm not much of an outdoorsy type. But now that you mention it, the Hario dripper would be fabulous for camping. We used to take the Aeropress and the manual grinder on roadtrips. Now we just buy good coffee and use whatever maker is at the Airbnb.

Are you a camper? If you are, what do you use on your camping trips?

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Andrea, am I a camper?o lordy no! I got that out of my system with the Army. Bob’s a Navy man. No camping for us!

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