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Seattleites like to argue over whether it's a "signature" dish or not, but teriyaki is one of the city's most popular foods, prominent enough that even John T. Edge wrote about it for the Times.

The other option is the Seattle dog, which is essentially a grilled hot dog (or Polish sausage) laid  into a cream-cheese slathered bun. I'm not making this up.

Of the two, I'd go with teriyaki. It's tasty and it'd be a good conversation starter at Super Bowl party. We have a few recipe ideas from the database:

* Teriyaki Steak, Snow Pea and Shiitake Salad (pictured above)

*Teriyaki Broccoli and Snap Peas

* Mahogany Short Ribs

My grandmother was Russian and made plenty of borscht, a beefy soup with gigante beans, potatoes, cabbage and beets. Not that magenta soup! She also made delicious kasha varnishkes - kasha with noodles. Here is a more modern version

Kasha Pilaf with Chicken, Onions and Mushrooms

Excellent work. 

Vace Italian Deli in Cleveland Park sells the small Agostino Recca jars for $5.45 each.  The deli is located at 3315 Connecticut Ave NW. Its phone is  202-363-1999.

I tested this over the holidays for the same reason. I bought rock hard avocados four days before and they were perfect the day of the party.

Frustrating, isn't it! Let's see, by "really nice," you mean they both looked fresh, I assume. Are you in the mid-Atlantic, or elsewhere? Personally, I avoid buying fresh strawberries at this time of year, because the ones you can get in the supermarket are just so far from what you get when they're local and in season. You know, bred for transport, not for flavor or texture. White on the inside. Firm.

Anyway, to the substance of your question: Strawberries need to be refrigerated if you're not using them within a day. Tomatoes, including grape tomatoes, on the other hand, shouldn't; refrigeration compromises their texture and flavor.

So the strawberries should have gone in the fridge. I like to line the container with paper towels to absorb extra moisture, and make sure they're in something with holes so they can breathe.

The tomatoes are another story -- you typically should be able to keep them at room temperature in something that can breathe, but they won't keep more than several days, usually. When you bought them, were they nice and shiny with taut skin? I wonder if they were already on the old side...

I don't have an rule of thumb for conversion, but for lamb and other shanks that are braised, I usually assume 325°F oven for about three hours, total. Add the carrots an hour before.

Beans freeze beautifully. Fully cook them, and freeze them in zip-top plastic bags in their cooking liquid, and freeze the bag flat so it's quick to thaw. Just transfer to your fridge in the morning to have them thawed that night, or leave them out long enough to get them out of the bag, and then defrost gently in the microwave or on the stovetop.

No, no change in texture, really. You can mash beforehand, I suppose, but I think it's better to freeze them whole so you have options of using them for other things.

Two quick thoughts:

Do you let your onions caramelize first, so that you help sweeten the tomato sauce as it cooks?

You might also try adding a cup of red wine to the sauce, like a chianti.

You could certainly go the black bread route, with sour cream and dill and maybe a shaving of raw beets.  Dumplings (hey!) similar to pierogis, spelled something like pirozhki, would be authentic. In fact, a savory strudel or stuffed pastry would be right on point -- you could buy a good brand of puff pastry and do your own thing with a beefy/mushroomy filling. That reminds me of beef Stroganov, of course. Or what about chicken Kiev? All quite manageable. Must have Russian tea cookies! And check out Mrs. Stepanoff's Sauteed Cabbage, in our Recipe Finder. 

I feel your pain. I used to leave that wrinkled piece of salmon skin on the grill pan every time. So frustrating. I devised this method and it works every time: Place the salmon, skin side down, on a cold grill pan. Slowly raise the temperature over about 20 minutes to high. Then cook for another 10 minutes. Do not flip the fish, just let it cook from the bottom. It will release easily when it is cooked through. I marinate my fish is equal amounts of soy, orange juice and honey for about an hour.

We eat a lot of beans, too, and your experience is not unique. Ahem. I have had a lot of luck using kombu seaweed. Just throw a piece into a batch of beans while they cook, then discard it. The urp-i-ness goes away. I don't know why, exactly, but it works. Kombu can be found at Mom's and I've found it at HMart, but not consistently.

I've been playing around with this, too, after my sister showed me the trick in Maine. It does seem to help! I mean, there's also the technique of changing the water after you soak the beans (and you really should get in the habit of cooking them from dried rather than canned) and before you simmer them to beautiful creamy tenderness.

Some experts say the only thing that REALLY works is to eat more beans, so you get used to them, but sounds like that wouldn't work with you because you already eat a lot!

Two other things to try: the Mexican herb epazote, which has traditionally been thought to help de-gas beans; and ... Beano! The supplement. I haven't used it, but it has plenty of fans.

Once your mojo's back, of course, you must make my Enfrijoladas With Avocado, Egg and Onion.

Thanks!

My absolute favorite thing to do with any leftover wine (even -- gasp! -- a mixture of them from different bottles) is to make Mulled Red Wine Syrup. Seriously life-changing. You'll love it, and it keeps forever.

No, I wouldn't sub solid dark chocolate for cocoa powder in a recipe, because the chocolate is very different -- it has the fat in it, and the cocoa powder doesn't. So either get some cocoa powder or look for something else. (But if you make the syrup, you'll be satisfied, trust me.)

As for savory possibilities, you might try these fantastic Roasted Turnips With Mushrooms and Wine. Loved em.

Nope.

Sriracha mayo?

Kimchi?

I was in New York last week and had a fantastic Brussels sprout dish at Barbuto. It was a raw shaved sprout salad studded with toasted hazelnuts and liberally coated with a very lemony Pecorino Romano dressing. Sensational.  I understand the chef (Jonathon Waxman) does the same with very thinly sliced raw kale.

Chilies' heat is dependent on the weather, so wherever those chiles are growing isn't very hot. I often find this to be the problem in the winter, sadly.

And you can't really tell without tasting, sadly. I get in the habit of buying way more peppers than I think I'll need, and tasting as I cook. (Also: scraping out seeds and ribs but saving them and adding them back into the dish, to taste.)

Yes, oven roasting really concentrates flavor!

I'm getting really hungry for some homemade pasta sauce.

Of course! Everything benefits from better heat distribution in an oven, which convection helps accomplish.

I've never done the immersion blender approach. I still do what I learned at L'Academie de Cuisine: whisk that oil into the single egg yolk very, very slowly, in a thin stream (or even drops!), whisking as fast as you can to create the emulsion. Adding too much oil, too fast, will break the emulsion.

To hold your bowl in place in order to whisk vigorously, I roll up a kitchen towel and make a circle with it. I place the bowl in the middle of the towel circle to stablize it.

I like to use my mini-food processor. The blade sits very low in the bowl, and it makes a great mayo.

Crazy!  I just tried to call that Nebraska extension office and got no answer. (If and when I do hear back, I'll report in the next Free Range chat.) I've never tried to freeze them in the shell. The Egg Board has recommendations that call for either separating whites/yolks for freezing or beating whole eggs then freezing those. 

We should be asking YOU for details about those many adventures -- what did you do with all but 2 of them?

We have lots of options in our database, but one that jumps out because it uses just 1 or 2 is this Pomelo, Escarole and Candied Bacon Salad.

The next time you go on a buying spree, though, you should try one of our recipes that uses more than a couple:

Meyer Lemon Barley Risotto

Meyer Lemon Cara Cara Marmalade

Meyer Lemon Confit (sorry, no pic!)

When you say it's off, do you mean it's too thick or not thick enough? A fine-mesh sieve or tamis (I use my fried chicken pan splatter screen) goes a long way toward achieving that silky-smooth result. 

If it's too thick, of course, you can just thin it out with some of whatever liquid you used, until you're good. If it's too thin, it's more complicated to fix, because you need to add some more of the solid ingredients, which might need to be cooked...

Yes, but the chatter specifically requested no seafood. Allergies.

Do you have a dehydrator? How about a leather made from the pulp?

Marinades have only so much oomph with fish. I say, put the flavor on top of the cooked fish. Here are two recipes.

There's nothing like a compound butter - like this lemon ginger combination

Or a chimicurri sauce like this halibut cilantro one

Where have you been hearing this? I need to get out more. . . . Using unsalted butter allows greater control of judicious sodium application. Chefs may use a salted butter to finish a sauce. Also, salted butter tends to store a bit better because of salt's preserving properties. But fewer of us are out on the prairie, churning and putting our butter in cold cellar storage. 

Thanks for the tip!

Yes, Litteri's in the warehouse district off Florida Avenue has Bellino brand anchovies in a jar. About 4 ounces for $3.99, the helpful person on the phone told me.

Yes -- thanks! The recipe calls for regular, not Meyer, lemons, but I'm sure it'd be fab with those, which would give a nice floral perfume.

Yes, good catch. Garlic is essential in pasta sauce.

Love this. Now that's service!

Sure!

Thanks much for the tutorial! I can vouch for that saving-mayo technique, yes!

For a soup, I would be tempted to make little meatballs, rather than use the ground beef. Maybe a spicy Korean style meatball using gochuchang chili paste? Add a clear broth, some noodles, scallion and cabbage.

Unfortunately,  no. Gochujang is a Korean condiment that can not be easily replicated. It's made with red chilis, fermented soybeans, glutinous rice and other ingredients. The fermented pungency is essential.

Sure, you could create your own split, but that cracking is what this bread does.  Go with it! Smelled great in the oven, didn't it?

Too many to count. The most recent one concerns my first attempt to make dried sausages. Something went seriously wrong. The saucisson sec sausages were plump and gorgeous when I hung them. They were shriveled little jerky strips when I took them down two weeks later. My mentors in my budding charcuterie experiments say either I had too many air pockets in the casings or that we have a serious pathogen problem in the basement. It could be a bit of both.

Always amazed at how some liquids I've saved from cooking/braising will boil down quite nicely into a glistening, concentrated gastrique-like flourish, while other liquids just boil down to . . . a blackened pot.  And I have yet to come up with a brown rice pudding that works. Chatters? 

Oh, sure -- just the other night I was pan-frying and glazing some tempeh, and since I have good luck using just tamari for this purpose, I thought it would be fun to try with this double-dark mushroom soy sauce I bought at H Mart awhile back. Well, between getting used to my new induction stove and forgetting just how concentrated this soy sauce is, I ended up with blackened tempeh that tasted like a burnt salt block.

Hmm. I doubt it. Cathy? What do you think?

No, the kombu is used when cooking dried beans. It clears the foam that gathers on the top. (That foam is full of the gas-creating enzymes.)

On noodles. On salads. On roasted sweet potatoes. On popcorn. Chatters, any other ideas?

Great -- thanks!

I know, right? There is nothing new in the world of food, really. OK, maybe cronuts, but you get my point.

Penzeys sells file powder in three different sizes: a 4-0unce bag for $7.99, a 1.7 ounce jar for $5.69 and a small .7-ounce container for $3.45.

Thereare Penzeys locations in Falls Church and Rockville.

The dumplings were delicious in the soup. They were cooked right in the boiling broth for about five minutes. I don't have a time for steaming, but expect it would be more than five minutes - closer to 10?

Cathy did a great job with it, didn't she?

Basically, yep.

Zest and freeze the zest on pieces of parchment paper. I usually stack the pages with 1/2 teaspoon of zest on each. Juice the limes and freeze the juice for an emergency margarita. Alternatively, make a lime curd!

I haven't, but of course the Internet has.

Oh, I didn't realize that by "vegetable bin" you meant the fridge! Yes, it slows down the ripening, absolutely. So you get them where you want them, then refrigerate.

This is one of my favorite recipes for the grill

Thai Skirt Steak salad with asparagus

Here is a link to my recipe for citrus liqueurs. Blood orange liqueur is so pretty and absolutely delicious with gin.

Well, I never had a chicken noodle soup starting with a store-bought broth that tasted as good as when you make the broth yourself. THAT's where the flavor is.  (You figured I might say that, right -- always cheerleading for the DIYness of cooking?)

If you want to start with that convenience, it's best to doctor it:  Toss in some parts from a rotisserie chicken (no skin), or roast some chicken or turkey bones in the oven at 375 for, say, 45 minutes or so, then toss them into the broth, with a few whole black peppercorns, maybe a piece of celery, an onion half, a carrot, a bay leaf, a few stems of parsley. Barely boil, then let that simmer for 30 minutes or so. Taste and make sure the salt level is right after you strain it.  Whatever flavor's there will go right into the noodles, so that's an important step. Last bit: a splash of lemon juice as you serve each portion. 

I like Kitchen Basics brand stocks the best. 

We understand!

I haven't tasted a jar of good commercial sauce side by side with a homemade pasta sauce. But my initial reaction is: Of course the homemade would taste better. The ingredients are fresher and there are no preservatives. Plus, you can control all the flavors and aromatics of your sauce.

Yes, although the Korean was a little stronger in flavor.

Sure!

Delving into Home section territory here, but do not waste one more minute of stress on centerpieces. Depending on how big your table is, you can do lovely things with small clear votives and low-to-the-table tea lights. Even a package of confetti-type glitter. I've seen combinations of fresh Brussels sprouts leaves and white asparagus alone that would cause Martha  Stewart types to take notice -- I'm talking about those elements stuck either into the small votives or even juice glasses.  Even if you just used flowers from the grocery store, using a bunch of them in a single color creates a statement. 

Numerous studies have shown that the microwave doesn't hurt food's nutritional value per se. All cooking robs food is some vitamins, but the worst method seems to be boiling, because the nutrients end up in the water (unless you consume that broth). The microwave may even have an advantage because it cooks foods for a shorter period, which helps avoid more nutrient loss. Overall, though, here's what I think: Particularly with vegetables, cook them the way that makes them most delicious to you, because that way you'll eat more of them!

That jelly quality comes from the collagen in the bones. Did you start from raw chicken or cooked? If using bones from cooked chicken (which I do all the time), you may not get the gel. If the flavor is good, don't worry about it.

I don't here, but I routinely did when I was on leave in Maine in 2012, because there was a nearby source that I trusted. I loved it -- but I can also understand the concerns.

I use them interchangably, unless reducing for a silky pan sauce, in which case I find the turkey stock is too thin to offer much flavor.

We've had some savory granita entries in our Top Tomato contest over the years, and there's a Shiner Bock granita that is THE thing to serve at a hot as LL barbecue in the summer. But I'm thinking that chicken stock granita might only work if you were piling a bit of it into, say, a steaming bowl of something that needed chicken flavor dilution. 

We will pass that along! I had leftover carrot juice from testing so I looked for other ways to use it and came up with a Dinner in Minutes pasta dish that's quite good. Look for it next week! 

Yes, it's true -- I saw that study about carotenoids, too!

They're preserved. They'll last for a long time, but the texture will begin to get mushy. Time for some Moroccan cooking!

Some weeks are fried rice weeks. Start with about three cups of cooked rice and vegetables, add carrots, bok choy, green beans every day, maybe tofu,  some kimchi, an egg.

I like an avocado, grapefruit and shaved fennel salad.

How 'bout this one?

Think this Cambodian one's my fave, tho.

Make your own arancini-type rice balls; you can fill the middle of them with anything you like.  Or create a rice bowl, with various ingredients you have on hand (leftover meat, tofu, veg) top with Sriracha or a sweet-sour sauce. 

Agreed.

Good idea. How about this one, a Coffee Panna Cotta?