jgm

I'm going to let my prejudices show here. There's one person I don't mind watching, but I don't believe a word she says. Giada DeLaurentis. I just can't believe that anyone could eat significant amounts of Italian food and stay that tiny. Plus, yesterday she was boiling water for pasta, and she instructed viewers to throw two handfuls of sea salt into the water. From what I could tell, she threw at least $3 worth of sea salt into the pot. I'm having trouble believing that most people could tell the difference between pasta cooked in sea salt water, and pasta cooked in water with some other kind of salt. I know, I know, there are a few who could. But most people can't. While I can appreciate that we should all use excellent ingredients whenever possible, I'm having trouble with this one, especially considering the huge difference in cost between a couple of handfuls of sea salt, and a couple of handfuls of kosher salt--or, good grief, even regular iodized salt. If you can enlighten me, be my guest.

I could use a little education here. For the record, I'm not a chef and I haven't undertaken the study of food on a formal basis. I live in the middle of cattle country... and well, a lot of people who eat steak wouldn't want to know some of the details about how it's produced. As a friend of mine (who works in a butcher shop) says, "it's FOOD." In other words, as carnivores, we need to understand that animals are being killed so that we can eat, but he and I both are adamantly of the opinion that whenever possible, measures need to be taken to minimize suffering. And that brings me to my question. Is it absolutely necessary to force-feed ducks to produce foie gras? Has anybody studied any alternate methods? And while we're at it, does anyone know of any websites or other references where RELIABLE information can be obtained about cruelty-free food production methods? This is a little off the subject, but from time to time, a local animal-rights group puts an ad in the paper alleging various horrors at pork production plants, and the local pork industry isn't even addressing them... even after I sent them copies of the ads. While it's hard to believe allegations of live animals being boiled alive, screaming, I was a little disturbed when I received no response after sending them the ad. Where does a conscientious citizen find accurate information?

I would have to agree. I live in middle America. Kansas, to be exact. Never been to Vegas, but I'm far more likely to end up there than in NYC or LA. Ditto with many, many other Americans. I'm not a chef; I'm just a foodie. In the city where I live, we do have some good restaurants, but I'm not sure they're as good as the establishments on the coasts. But for all I know, they may come close; never having eaten the food of anyone famous, I have nothing to compare what I have had, to. And that's my point. What's wrong with bringing excellent food to "the masses"? (a/k/a me and my husband...and our friends) That's exactly who you'll find in Las Vegas. And who knows... once they taste the good stuff, they may not be willing to go back to KFC. They may start demanding excellent food in their own very ordinary hometowns. And that can only be a good thing, for the people who eat at restaurants, and for the chefs who cook in them.

My pleasure. I'm pasting this in from a MS Word file. If it doesn't work, I'll retype it. Edna’s French Cookies 1 ½ cups butter or margarine 5 eggs 1 ½ cups sugar 1 ½ cups brown sugar 1 ½ tsp vanilla extract 3 ½ cups flour 1 shot of whiskey (or a little more. . .) Cream the butter and eggs; add the sugars and vanilla. Add flour slowly, and then the whiskey at the end. The dough will be very soft. You can refrigerate it to make it easier to work with. Drop by tablespoonfulls on a hot, greased waffle iron, close the lid, and bake as if you’re making waffles.. My iron is round and divided into quadrants, so I usually make four cookies at a time. They should be about 1 ½ inches across when finished. Remove them as best you can; I think it’s easiest to use 2 forks to gently pry them up and move them to a cooling rack. The first batch or two usually crashes, but you get to eat those right away and they don’t have any calories. Every now and then, Edna would dip one end of the cookies in a thin chocolate glaze. Sometimes she'd use leftover chocolate buttercream frosting on them. They're best on the 2nd or 3rd day.

A few years ago, a dear family friend, without hesitation, shared a special recipe with me. It was for what we'd always known as "Edna's Cookies"... wonderful things baked on a waffle iron. When I was growing up, we ate them either one row at a time, or by chomping the edges off, to form a square, and then by popping them, whole, into our mouths. She died eighteen months ago, and when I just have to be near her again, I make her cookies, and snatch spoonfuls of the whiskey-spiked dough with my finger, just as I did when I was four and sitting on her kitchen counter. The smell of the cookies baking brings back all of the wonderful memories of her... she was truly one of the most wonderful human beings ever to grace the earth, and her five highly-educated, extremely successful professional sons wept out loud at her funeral. Sometime later, my friend Greg reluctantly parted with his family's recipe for a special cake. Whenever I make it, I think about him, though I haven't seen him in years, and all of the insignts about food and about life I gained from being around him. I didn't realize I like parsnips until he served them at dinner one night. I could go on and on about recipes other friends have shared. Some of those friends remain part of my life; others I've lost track of. But their memories are vivid when I fix the recipes they shared with me. Want to become immortal? Share a recipe. Yes, I've had all of the crap happen to me, too. A co-worker and his wife recently fixed my White Chicken Chili recipe, and he was disappointed because it was so bland. "Didn't you use any of the condiments?" I asked. It's supposed to be served with salsa or sour cream or shredded Monterey Jack or chopped cilantro or diced avocado... or all of the above. No, just the chili, he said, complaining again about its blandness. What an idiot. All that money and all that effort into the recipe, but didn't serve it with the accompaniments it was designed to be served with. It's his loss. But my gain, since the recipe was given to me by Cliff and Steve... who are the most wonderful cooks, and I'll never forget them, especially when I make their chili.