Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Robyn--you always find the best commercials! They don't make 'em like they did back in the 60s and 70s!

I love how the presence of the ubiquitous kid on a skateboard makes every food automatically 'healthy' in the 80s and 90s.

Like others have said, I'm so sorry for your loss. My mother and I spent a period of caring for my aunt when she was pretty much 'shut-in' and my mother is not a cook. When shopping for her (and I'm modifying to make things a bit more 'home-cooked' than the stuff my mom bought), a typical list might look like this:

One or two roast chickens, cooked in two different ways (can be used to make chicken salad, or shredded with vegetables as well as eaten plain)

Lettuce (pre-prepared) with salad greens--put in a bowl, undressed, cover and leave it to be 'served' when needed.

Pasta salad, coleslaw, macaroni salad, potato salad, or shrimp salad--if you make it yourself, use slightly lower-fat mayo, or a more vinegar and mustard-based dressing to make it healthier.

Sliced cheese (either by yourself or bought pre-sliced from a deli). These can be used for sandwiches (grilled cheese) or melted on white potatoes.

Bag of white or sweet potatoes--can be microwaved or baked in the oven

Oatmeal--ideally steel-cut, but if your brother's cooking skills are really sub-par, you can get some plain instant stuff. Dried fruits, honey can spice it up and even make a quick dinner.

Cooked turkey breast--from deli or made by yourself.

Frozen, bagged vegetables in single-serve, or two-serving containers. Make yourself and pre-package, or buy in freezer section.

Fruit of various kinds.

At least two loaves of bread.

Peanut butter, cream cheese, and jelly for sandwiches and toast.

Cottage cheese and/or yogurt to be eaten with fruit and cereal.

Cans of tuna and salmon (your brother can simply mix with mayo, chopped celery).

Eggs to be scrambled or hard-boiled.

Applesauce.

Lots of times older or sick people can't manage a whole meal. Getting something she can 'pick' at like a chicken, a bowl of salad, and so forth, might be the best way to get her to eat.

@dhorst--a Croque Monseiur/Madame would be a true blending of culinary traditions, and might even take the edge off @shoneyjoe's bacon craving!

@arm1970--with mini-bagels (although they tend to be a bit tough and would require a longer marinade, probably 30 minutes, rather than 15-20), you could even make a breakfast bento!

I've always loved maple oatmeal scones--given how yummy biscuits are with butter and honey or maple syrup, having the maple infused in the biscuit seems like one of those 'why didn't I think of that first' food concepts!

@Feedmillgirl--oh no! I wish they would make different nut butter chips! I don't have an allergy and I'd be 'all over' cashew butter chips!

The best suggestion I could offer would be to use 2 cups of chocolate chips. Then, after the bars have cooled, heat up 1/2 cup of almond butter and a tablespoon of honey (you made need more, given that almond butters vary greatly in consistency) and drizzle the mixture on the finished product in swirls.

You could try substituting almond butter for the peanut butter chips, but I haven't tried that--yet--so I can't officially say it will work.

It's amazing how evenly it's colored, given that it was cooked on a grill! No signs of uneven heat at all--that's really cool!

@dhorst--no doubt Santa's elves are at work as we speak ;)

I love bread butts and I cannot lie!

The answer is clear--both of those books were published before Kenji was born!

Seriously, especially in older cookbooks proof-reading was much less rigorous, especially books like Christmas annuals which, regardless of the publishing house, may have been released in a slap-dash manner.

Those books were also published when it wasn't uncommon to see recipes published with instructions like "cook until done," because it was assumed that the reader or the cook had enough knowledge as to what 'done' was....

Finally, in very old cookbooks and recipes (like the 19th century) the equipment would vary so much from household to household (like the temperature of a fire or oven) that cooking times would be less useful than they are today.

In the first example, it probably just wasn't caught, and when it was they thought, "oh, the cook will know when it put it in anyway," and they didn't bother amending it.

How cool that Erin Zimmer got to eat at Zimmer's seafood! And Ed looks fantastic in that photo--very fit and trim.

I love the moose. Cute cartoons + pancakes = perfect Saturday morning comfort food associations.

@BananaMonkey & GinkoDante--I've been putting off buying a new digital, SE-quality camera for quite some time--this weekend I should (really) finally have time to get one!

Another common no-bake are cornflake cookies with cherry 'centers' or halves pressed into them (very common around Christmas)--this is an oatmeal version using orange candies.

@gargupie--I think you're right! Kind of like a 'contact high' from the sugar!

@moonlyt--you're so right--Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes would be all over these!

I suppose I'm the weirdo or the exception, because I'm Wegmans all the way: I can't recall the last time I bought a store brand, when the cheaper, just as (if not better) Wegmans version was available.

I swear I don't work for them, even though it seems like I'm always posting about my Wegmans' love!