therese

Heh heh. Fine ham indeed, but there's a certain coals to Newcastle feeling to the entire enterprise: a woman with access to excellent product in Kentucky ships a "southern smokehouse" ham from the midwest to another woman in Georgia. And both women grew up eating country ham reared, butchered, and cured on the family farm in Virginia. Particularly strong endorsement of the Burgers' product, believe me. Missouri's a fine place in any case. I even lived there briefly as a child, in Cape Girardeau.

My parents visited over the holidays. Instead of bringing a ham with her (they live in Kentucky) she had one shipped ahead of time from Burgers' Smokehouse. Looks like lots of cool stuff on their web site. Even if they are in Missouri. Quite good, if not the truly ambrosial Kentucky ham that's served with beaten biscuits (which are like crackers, not biscuits at all) that I remember. She forgot to bring any beaten biscuits, to my great chagrin. Just finished using the last of the hambone for split pea soup. Excellent.

Details fuzzy, but we did have very nice food for the reception---the only thing my parents paid for, so they went the extra mile. We have photos documenting me about to eat some sort of passed canape, so apparently I did eat something. I do recall beef tenderloin and very large cocktail shrimp on the buffet. Our guests (somewhere between 60 and 70) said it was all great. Three tier traditional round cake: almond-flavored white cake with raspberry jam between the layers, almond-flavored white butter cream on the outside. I do remember it being as good as I'd hoped (this was not a standard combo for the caterer's baker, and I had to do some talking to get her to make it). Highlights of the wedding included arrival of the police.

Embrace the sweetness and make maduros.

Try posting this question on the Japan forum. There are some very dedicated subscribers over there who might be able to look at Japanese sources for you.

Did you manage to make it to any other decent places to eat while you were here in Hotlanta? Or did you answer Mrs. Winner's siren call?

No particular cravings. Morning sickness much worse with second pregnancy (a girl) than the first (a boy), but I did have weird aversions during the first pregnancy: the odors of both basmati rice and lemongrass made me faint with nausea. The second pregnancy I ate a lot of plain baked potatoes. Well into my fifth month I'd gained essentially no weight (was still wearing my very skinny pre-pregnancy clothes, and this was a second pregnancy) and was sternly ordered to start eating a lot more. "Eat dessert. In fact, eat two desserts," are not words you get to hear too often.

Hysterically funny in a trainwreck kind of way. I've only seen the most recent episode, the dinner party one, and probably won't end up watching any of the others unless they're also primarily about food. Like all reality shows the point's to get people with strong personalities to both cooperate and compete. An outgrowth of all those team-building corporate exercises, most likely. Of course, the people should be young and attractive (because we're on TV), and that's where I think the idea of having them host a dinner party was pretty inspired, because I got the very definite impression that very few of them had ever done so. Decorated and possibly cooked for a dinner party, but not actually hosted one. What host is his right mind would respond to a late-arriving guest's request for hors d'oeuvres with a blank look and "They're all gone." Oh, sure, maybe the item you'd first served is all gone, but you will most certainly be answering that query with a smile and a "Sure, I'll be right back. Sam, could you get Bobby a drink?", hustling back into the room with something of the appropriate size and tastiness on a plate, hoping that Bobby's by now thrown back a martini and won't notice too much about whatever the little tasty blob actually is. The problem with both of the dinner parties was that neither had a designated host (or alpha dog) and neither group really understood that ones guests should be made to feel very special. No matter how much work went into the party you should never complain about it, or how tired you are, or anything else. Compliments accepted graciously, complaints accepted with a smile and apology and offer of an immediate remedy of some sort. Certainly not an excuse: when David Evangelista complained that his champagne was warm the response should have been "Oh, goodness, let me take care of that for you", speaker running to kitchen with offending glass in search of colder champagne or a colder glass or something. Even if the problem's not corrected, the effort's been made, instead of an excuse whined: "But I left them in the freezer for a whole hour." Prompting that Sex in the City woman to point out that you can chill bottles quickly in very icy water (and who the hell doesn't know this?). Anyway, I do have a favorite character based on this one episode: the Asian chef on the Crafty Beavers team. Not only did she managed to get a decent dinner together, but she did know the importance of making extra food for latecomers and big eaters, and also objected to her team's complaining to their guests about how tired they all were. True, her satified smirk at the news that the guests were unimpressed by dessert (that she'd not prepared) was caught by the television cameras, but she did not voice this opinion in front of the guests.

Yes, they are ugly and not particularly tasty (a big coffee cake, basically), but mostly they're just an excuse for a party, so what's not to like? Whoever gets the baby (I don't actually eat much of the cake, I just look for the baby) has to host the party the next year.

I hate restaurant buffets (as opposed to food served buffet-style at home, an entirely different thing). Crappy food, poor value, encourages eating food that I neither want nor need. And if I've gone out to dinner I'd really rather not wait on myself.

Okay, let's just clear this up once and for all: nobody, not even my fellow ignorant southerners, and most certainly nobody who ever ate out of a garden, has ever considered either macaroni and cheese or Jello a vegetable. Or fruit. Or whatever. But they do consider both of them to be "sides", and when a person says "meat and three" he means "three sides", not "three vegetables". True, vegetable plates are not necessarily comprised solely of vegetables. But then vegetarians don't just eat vegetables, do they? One of the reasons that vegetable-based dishes from the south often contain significant amounts of dairy or meat is because they are eaten instead of meat, not alongside it.

Uh, no. Serving lots of vegetables (or all vegetables) on restaurant plates simply reflects the rural diet, whether at home or in a restaurant (which is a poor approximation of home cooking in any case). A better question would be "why three and not four?" Well, because the long "e" in meat and the long "e" in three sound nice together.

Congratulations, and congratulations and thanks for your blog this week.

We've been doing tasting menus for our kids all along. We give them a taste of whatever we're getting. We even include wine pairings if they want to try. Of course, now my kids are old enough to handle a tasting menu on their own. Too bad, as they're expensive. No way am I springing for the wine pairings.

A bit beside the point, but I'm used to the term pied noir referring to French whose families had previously lived in North Africa and now live in France. I once lived with a pied noir family from Algeria who'd ended up in Normandy---great couscous and merguez. Is the term used for both?

Ah, so really more of a supper club in which everybody gets to take home lots and lots of neatly packaged leftovers? That sounds like a very cool idea, particularly if the participants are all similarly involved in food but come from different backgrounds. And that would be economical in terms of both food (because you'd buy in bulk) and time.

Sorry---didn't mean to seem snippy, or even elitist. If indeed those involved are friends (or even if they aren't friends outside this setting have similar ideas about food) then it could work out quite nicely.

I have no firsthand experience with anything like this, but just from the sound of it, I'd suspect it'd be better for young singles or newlyweds with little cooking experience, and a desire to increase their knowledge and skills, as well as expand their social circle. I can see how it would quickly become another social obligation and a time-stealer causing you to be away from your family, exactly the opposite from what you're trying to accomplish. ← Agree with James. Somebody who cares enough about food to be active in eGullet's probably not going to be thrilled with this set-up.

A housekeeper is generally a once a week deal, not somebody who is there every day. Unless you've got really amazing resources you're unlikely to find a cook who cooks as well you do. Somebody who comes in and cooks a whole week's worth of meals in an afternoon (a personal chef) would be a reasonable option if you're really strapped for time. My husband and I both worked full-time (very very full-time) and we had two little kids and I still managed to cook. We did have a live-in at one point who did some cooking, but in the end it wasn't worth it.

Being a cheapskate by nature and nurture, I resisted my wife on this one for ages. Once I relented, it made all the difference in the world. It's not just the time, it's the stress of having that mop of Damocles hanging over your head. Plus, on the day they come, you get to experience that priceless sensation of coming home to a clean house. ← Definitely wonderful coming home to a clean house. Makes you want to cook. If you manage to schedule your housekeeper at the end of the week you'll still have it clean for the weekend, and then you'll want to entertain, and then you'll really feel like you've got a life.

Cook double batches ahead of time and freeze half. Use a slow cooker for soups and braised dishes---set it up in the morning and set it on low so that it will be ready when you get home. Keep a store of last minute things that you can broil. Nice quality sausages are a standard back-up in our house. Plan meals ahead of time, and make a list for shopping---you are too sleep-deprived to make spur of the moment decisions. Get as much sleep and exercise as you both can (weird, but the exercise will make you feel better, even if you think you're too exhausted). Order delivery and take out as much as you'd like. Get a housekeeper if you can afford it. Time spent scrubbing bathrooms is time you could be spending with your family, whether over a meal or not.

Glad you enjoyed dinner. We've had similar service issues at Joel, so this wasn't just a one time problem. Where ya headed tomorrow?

I bought two dresses, actually, one a cocktail dress and one a formal. You can pick which one you'd prefer. I've continued to count, and track my points using the Flex option on-line. But I've been using Core foods, even when they're the same points value, in the interest of eating well. And though Jensen's counting points she's also using mostly Core foods (unless, of course, she's been sneaking off and eating large quantities of marshmallow fluff when we're not looking).

WW presently offers two plans, Flex and Core. When I joined this summer Flex was the only option. Core was apparently being beta tested by some WW groupsat that time, and was finally introduced as an alternate about a month after I'd started. Flex: Guidelines but no rules as to specific foods that you can and can't eat. If you want to consume half of your daily allotment of points (which is based on what you weigh---the less you weigh the fewer baseline points you get) in marshmallow fluff, fine. Everything you eat has a points value: a normal serving of tomatoes (a cup) is zero, a normal serving of rice (a cup) 4 points. All sorts of cool points values available: squirrel meat's 1 point per ounce, for instance. You count points for everything you eat, and when you've eaten all your points for the day you go to bed. Or if you want to use some of your 35 extra weekly Flex points you can do that, or if you've earned activity points that day you can eat their equivalent. Turns out that some people do want to consume half their daily allotment of points in marshmallow fluff, and WW thought this was a crappy idea because WW is more about being healthy than about weight loss. So they came out with an alternate plan called... Core: No daily points allotment. As long as you're eating a Core food you can eat as much as you want. Well, not exactly: as much as you need to keep from feeling hungry. So unlimited lean meats and fish, non-fat dairy, vegetables, fruits, eggs, whole grains. Some things very specifically excluded because of their "abuse potential": fat-free sugar-free yogurt that comes already flavored is not a core food, whereas plain fat-free yogurt to which you have added fruit (and sweetener if you'd like) is. Nutritionally pretty much identical, but functionally very different, as the latter requires prep. You can still eat (or drink, in mine and Jensen's case) up to 35 points weekly worth of non-Core foods, so there's wiggle room in this plan as well. You can switch back and forth between the two plans on a week by week basis, another nice flexible feature of WW. So a week of work travel's probably easiest handled on Flex, whereas a week of cooking at home is well-suited to Core (unless you really really want to eat marshmallow fluff). I've been a combination of Core and Flex, eating almost entirely Core foods while still counting the points (because I don't trust myself to not eat too much if I don't count the points).

Maybe we're already the same person. I mean, nobody here's seen us in the same room together, right? Lots of cool questions re WW. I'll let Jensen answer them in detail, but the short answer to all of them is "no". WW doesn't have too many rules or requirements, just guidelines. It's not so much a diet as a tool that helps you figure out how much food you need and how much food you eat. If you want to lose weight you have to pay a lot of attention to both. The meeting version can also have a strong support group aspect to it. Sort of like eGullet is a support group for people obsessed by food.