Gifted Gourmet

Extremely impressive and thorough approach to this topic, Katie! I am planning to try the tuna ceviche, as Bloviatrix mentioned, as a change from my usual gravlax and gefilte fish appetizer course. The wine pairing suggestions are also available here in Atlanta, for the most part. I love Moscato di Asti and have served it on occasion to my guests' delight. Thank you again for the inspiration to try new recipes and attempt even more creative Passover endeavors in our own kitchens!

Bread pudding, but savoury ... which is pretty good actually!!

Dry it in the oven a la melba toast and process it up into tasty breadcrumbs, not unlike panko ... bloviatrix, this round goes to you for speed of typing....

http://www.cookingindex.com/public/Recipes/des/des12.asp

The Man does have quite a way with words!!

For many of us, the "purist" approach has the best overall satifaction .... yet a little "experimenting" from time to time, can be quite stimulating, should you uncover a new "hybrid blend".... Thanks for the tip!

My favourites all share a certain commonality of features: creaminess, buttery smoothness, triple cream fattiness ... which then determines the wine I pair them with as well as the fruit .... in order of preference: St. Andre, Explorateur, and Brie de Meaux

How about Sur La Table's website, Comfort Me? They claim to have everything ... or even this: http://www.cooking.com/products/shprodde.asp?SKU=198036 Simplicity of using an oval baking pan for challah? Who can refute the wisdom in that!? and as for your line about "crying out in pain" ... and you "coveting their pans"? Absolutely brilliant!

Slam dunk, Trish!! I also wanted to do something different and watched snippets of FN ... back-to-back "Unwrapped" followed by back-to-back "Top Five" ... and when I switched to the History Channel, "The History of Guy Food" ... dear God in Heaven, is this an alternate universe??? truly I have entered one of Dante's lower circles of Hell!!

While reading this particular thread, I realized it needs a musical accompaniment to truly achieve maximum enjoyment for all of the senses .... see what you think ... http://homepage.tinet.ie/~manics/Poetry/DixiesLand.htm

And to further complicate our lives as innocent consumers of food colourings (how veddy British of me!), comes this shocker right outta de headlines: http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=2684584 not trying to curry favour with you eGulleteers but ....can't we just enjoy food au naturel?? and would this cake be henceforth known simply as Velvet Cake? Is that such a bad thing? Sounds sensual and erotically appealing ....

Just think of this: a thread in which the word "cloying" seems to reoccur .... never saw it before here at eGullet .... daresay I won't again too soon! Oh, yes, it is about all things southern, duh!! (smacks head!) Wasn't there a big brouhaha about red dye #2 some years back? and this amount of red food coloring can not be healthy, can it??

Nominally chocolate, but in all the recipes I have seen, they call for a mere 2 TBSP or even 2 teaspoons of cocoa ... The amount of red food coloring, on the other hand, is usually one quarter cup!!! Scary! http://www.leitesculinaria.com/food_history/red_velvet.html who else but David Leite???

Omigawd, forgetting the Southern Mississippi (oft times Texas) Fruitcake with lots of southern bourbon ... and the now infamous Claxton Fruitcake .... http://southernfood.about.com/library/rec97/bl1130d.htm a bit more on the origin of Red Velvet Cake for balmagowry: http://southernfood.about.com/cs/chocolate...velvet_cake.htm as well as some horrific sounding cakes also listed here for your edification, Timothy C. Davis (aren't you sorry you even asked?? )

Yet another southern favorite is Oatmeal Cake with Penuche Frosting ... a whole mess of Pineapple Upside Down Cakes ... very popular ... anything with pralines..... The sugar volume is always uniformly high .... a delight to the local dental societies! I feel the need for a jolt of insulin about now ....

One of the all time local cakes here in Atlanta which is exceptionally southern in inspiration, (God, it just sounds soooo southern too!), is the Hummingbird Cake ... actually, vaguely reminiscent of carrot cake in some of its ingredients and topped with a cream cheese frosting ... I can just visualize sitting on mah daddy's verandah and downing a piece of this, a Dickel Bourbon, with the honeysuckle bloomin' and the skeeters buzzing around mah head... Can you spell cloyingly sweet?? served locally at a number of restaurants ... or even made lovingly at home for Easter: http://southernfood.about.com/library/print99/n90321d.htm

And in Chelm, as made famous by Isaac Bashevis Singer ? A distinct possibility ... Chelm, hmmmm... Jewish History/Literature/Cooking .... all entwined in one steaming pot of cholent ... Rabbi Ribeye, inevitably, says it even better, of course ...

If your MIL is making this type of omelet to cut into strips, she may be observing the tradition of "gebroks" ... particularly if she omits matzo flour in the prep ... please ask her if that is why .. I will wager it is ... me? I eschew faux noodles for the eight days because I prefer matzo balls by far! The story from your grandmother Yetta which you recall very accurately, is pretty much "on target" as far as an explanation of how cholent was prepared in many small towns in Poland ... possibly even in the mythical "Anatevka" as well .... Much easier today, of course!

I actually do remember watching this and thinking much the same thoughts as you have ... she looked almost too much like a model to be digging into pasty raw cookie dough .... not exactly a Keebler elf, Debbi .... http://www.shsu.edu/~pin_www/T@S/2002/DebbiItem.html and I imagine a lot of it stuck under her nails as you have just described!! Wonder where she is today ... no doubt making money with her talents!

That's my preferred Haggadah as well. I love all the commentary it includes. (I'm a big fan of ArtScroll's books in general). Scholastic has just published a stunning Passover campanion - a friend of mine worked on it and showed me an advanced copy. Look at it here. I also am a very big Artscroll admirer .. my prayerbooks for all of the holidays are from Artscroll ... the illustrations and text are quite beautiful ... Thanks, bloviatrix, for the Scholastic Haggadah which looks terrific for kids and teens ... wish it had been available when my child was growing up!

Thanks, Rachel, for the cholent Amazon book links!

Rather boggles the mind when I looked back at the early posts on your link, Bux ... We actually cranked out that many posts?? and on the series??

Actually, ecumenicism works too ... in looking back to the meaning of the word, I especially liked the phrase "aimed at universal Christian unity" in the definition ... I understand the concept, but thinking it over in the context of haggadahs, it made me chuckle ... Agree with you completely that some do stray far from the traditional Jewish Passover seders we all remember from our respective childhoods ...

Thank you, Katie .. it inspired me to look further into the life and times of Rabbi Waskow ... a very interesting man with an unusual "take" on Judaism and the holiday from a thoroughly modern, social action perspective. This link from the Jerusalem Post has more depth and further insight on Rabbi Waskow, should you wish to better understand his background in writing the Freedom Seder Haggadah : http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2000/08/31/F...ures.11605.html

We use a set of ArtScroll Haggadot which are beautifully illustrated and easy for both Hebrew and non-Hebrew readers to follow .... they are soft covered and probably not very expensive to purchase. http://www.artscroll.com/haggadahs.html specifically, this one, which is $2.25 a copy http://www.artscroll.com/Books/hafp.html