Priscilla

When *I* go to Diwan I want to have the Self-Fulfilling Prophecy Menu.

Yesterday had large-diameter stalks peeled & blanched, room temp with chive mayonnaise. Very good asparagus flavor. That sliced raw sounds good -- like the Italian very thin-sliced raw artichoke salad, except with asparagus. Will try.

Yeah, I know. I can't stand Bruce Springsteen either.

Chef Henderson: Thank you so much for participating in this. When left to your own devices what do you choose to eat? Also in answering another eGulletaire's question you invoked both Marcella Hazan and your Mother ... a righteous combination ... what characterizes the cooking of Bolton?

Holly, that is a great tale. Joy, I'm glad you persisted. Spending just part of a day in Philadelphia a couple of years ago before catching a plane a friend and I were sent to Tony Luke's by a young Philadelphia native who was like a Central Casting version of a young Philadelphia native. Really just the kind of informant one DREAMS of running across. And he said, BE SURE to get the sauteed escarole and AGED provolone. And bless him for that. We wouldn't have known, but that is obviously the signature dish. I remember eavesdropping on other orderers and hearing "Italian style" -- izzat what this greens/provolone version is called? Great, great atmosphere -- actual cops, priests, like that, in line, a guy clearing tables singing Frank Sinatra songs. And most importantly an incredible sandwich.

Wow, Jim, I am so glad to see you, our Portland Authority, cite Jake's ... I had such a good meal there years ago and have wanted to go back ever since. Really the genuine article, it was. I am thrilled to know it's still good.

Wow Marlene digging the recipe linkage, majorly. Last evening big old lamb/basil sausages, browned a bit and then a little red wine into the pan, lid clapped on, heat lowered, done. Accumulated pan liquid reduced, reduced reduced reduced. Sausages arranged on smashed red-skinned potatoes thoroughly informed by butter & chives. Reduction poured over all. Onion so-called confit to go with. Nice salad of butter lettuce dressed with pumpkin seed oil & white wine vinegar. LBB baguette. Inexpensive Jaboulet Cote du Rhone, surprisingly good.

Chile con carne is, not at all unlike cassoulet, a dish with serious, deeply imbedded cultural meanings.

Why would the term chile con carne indicate beans?

Mmmm we drank Rusty Nails from Harrington's recipe over the week-end -- so good! Magical combination, really. Good cocktails are the surest manifestation of alchemy on earth.

Last evening chicken butterflied inserted under the skin Lurpak and sage leaves. Salt & pepper over. Basted hell for leather. Asparagus, peeled blanched shocked etc. with sauce Maltaise Sourdough bread in thick slices painted with chicken pan residue Nice redleaf salad with chevre walnuts walnut oil

All these preparations sound so good. There're a couple that have been mentioned on the Dinner! discussion recently, too, that I claim for this topic. Last evening, larger diameter stalks, peeled, blanched, shocked, etc. Made sauce Maltaise, Hollandaise with orange -- in Craig Claiborne's case also with a tiny hit of Grand Marnier and some zest, too. Really good. I had regular old orange oranges but can imagine with blood oranges it would be especially beautiful.

Priscilla - I did a search, but was unable to locate the mind-blowing Pear Gratin recipe. Would you mind sharing, please? Thanks Rover Rover, I will tell you anecdotally how I do it, at the same time sending over the eGullet transom the fervent wish that Margaret Pilgrim and Toby will weigh in with corrections, refinements, etc., because I may not even be doing it correctly. Pears, halved, cored. (I use a melon baller for the coring, but a knife would work too.) Put in a single layer in a gratin dish, filling the cavities generously with butter and sprinkling over sugar. (I use the raw sugar I keep for tea, but I've thought about trying vanilla sugar.) Bake 30 min. Remove from oven, pour over some heavy cream (I have used creme fraiche at times) and cover generously with Parmigiano Reggiano shaved with a veg peeler. Bake an additional 30 min. Make sure everybody gets the complete pear-cream-Parmigiano flavor profile in a single bite.

Would it be topical to invoke the Spice Girls here. My favorite Spice Girl is Posh Spice.

Lessee ... scored some CAB chuck (they always have the expensive steaky cuts, rarely the chucklike) made a nice stew. (Large oval soi-disant "French" oven pressed into use, for those following the relevant discussions elsewhere.) Big chunks of beef way browned, little chopped onion, several a lot some peeled garlic cloves, coupla sage sprigs, three wide strips of pith-free orange peel, salt, pepper, hit of red vermouth boiled away, bigger hit of in-use red wine brought to boil, meat re-added. Simmer simmer simmer. Carrots peeled cut on the diagonal strewn over, simmer. Red potatoes, steamed, coated with barely melted butter & chives for the potatoes. Sourdough bread. Afterwards a nice redleaf salad with walnuts, crumbled goat cheese, walnut oil dressing. Toby's/Margaret Pilgrim's Pear Gratin blew yet more minds. Bosc remains my fave pear to be given the treatment, although others work, too.

Interesting, Hedgehog. And good for the Danish butter makers, too -- but, if the quality wasn't there, picky Middle Eastern cooks would not cling to a brand name, I believe, same as picky cooks of any ethnic background. I am happy to benefit from this historic relationship. I have noticed Danish pork in Vietnamese markets -- I wonder if it is a similar story?

Following myself! Can this be? Anyway, I liked this book very much, not least because he James Villas puts the credit where (I feel) it's due and praises Craig Claiborne's huge, honest, sophisticating influence on American eating and cooking. Interesting the variety among American food writers, really -- those that are not redundant hacks. Not much variety among redundant hacks, although I suppose among TYPES of redundant hacks there is variety, but who gives a flying fig. And he James Villas mentions complimentarily the late Chef Louis Szathmary, of the late Bakery in Chicago, whom I admired but haven't found others who even know who he is. And his first meeting with M.F.K. Fisher, who seems to come off way better on her own turf than when she's abroad, as pictured in Richard Olney's Reflexions. I suppose we are all of us made up of good as well as bad impressions, aren't we.

There really is no cooking without spices, any more than there is cooking without onion or related. Even in a bechamel there is ground pepper, and, crucially, a few grains of nutmeg and cayenne. Many others -- hollandaise, say -- without those few grains of cayenne the taste is just plain wrong.

Asparagus soup again last evening, only with regular heavy cream rather than creme fraiche. I think the sweeter uncultured cream is better in this dish, I am surprised to see myself type. Also been exploring asparagus with anchovy ... very complementary flavor profile.

Really crackling writing.

Pink, David Thompson-wise and other, was discussed some time back on Dinner!, at which time CathyL cogently pointed out that the American version is pinkly bound, but not so dustjacked. Euroedition is pink through and through, which is of course beyond preferable. I ain't buying the half-assed punch-pulled no-balls not-100%-pink edition. Note to self: Bite the g.d. Amazon.uk bullet already.

Never underestimate the power of pink. I suppose a Dover paperback reprint of Alleged First Cookbook, by Apicius, don't count in the oldest sweepstakes. Also, please donate all food mags to yer local Friends of the Library. Also actual books, for that matter. When I had a major cull a few years ago I set up tables in my yard and staged Miss Priscilla's Book Sale, Where Everything is FREEEEE. I made a sign, listing all the categories of books, like Cookbooks -- Free, Paperbacks -- Free, Hard bound -- Free. After they got over their suspicions (OK, so they haven't even now but still) my neighbors were happy to avail themselves. In a wary way. Then I gave the remainder (a little book humor) to the Friends of the Library. I did reserve the good stuff, and dole it out judiciously sensibly when a likely home for this or that crosses my purview.

Colonel what kind of frying please elaborate if you have the inclination. Last evening, risotto with asparagus, asparagus blanched & shocked for color quality, stirred in with care, for fahncy.

Sounds good, Miss J. Eggy dinners are where it's at, I think. Last week sometime had a late-night pick-up meal of salad with goat-cheese croutons topped with poached eggs. Hardly anything better. Noting the asparagus cooking going on here. Last evening, couple of guests, couple of CAB self-styled London broil(s), rubbed with sage and rosemary, garlic and salt and cracked pepper that the Consort had reduced to a nice paste with the old mortar & pestle. Plus a little olive oil. Grilled over mesquite, nice dark crustiness all around with a red middle when (thinly) sliced. ASPARAGUS risotto, made the fahncy way with pre-blanched, shocked, etc. asparagus stirried in ever so carefully at the end, rather than the homely bung-it-in-after-the-onions cook it to a fare-thee-well way I also like. Carnaroli continues its hegemony among Italian rices on my pantry shelf. After, Romaine salad with walnuts, goat cheese, walnut oil, etc. Banana-Gorgonzola gratin, as per Toby as per Margaret Pilgrim. Sorta shockingly good, really.

Vanessa, I agree about the namedropping. I will confess to finding it interesting, the see-sawing battle for preeminence between the Names in the Food World and the Food in the Food World, and which Names also care about the Food and which do not so much.