bleudauvergne

I have to admit too that in the past week my dreams have included posting to eGullet.

Speaking of things we said as children, my parents came home with 8 lobsters and had them in a tub of water. I was about 2 1/2, and went to the edge of the tub and peered inside, and said with a flourish: "Spi-i-i-der meat!"

As a woman born in Nashville, I am thoroughly looking forward to this blog.

We were in Paris and I used to make dinner for some friends at our friend Frankie's house, he had a big kitchen and lots of space. While out shopping for the ingredients in a Chinese shop I saw that they had some really great ice cream flavors. I chose lychee flavored ice cream, and served it with fresh lychees that night. It was a huge hit. The next time I did dinner for the same friends, I looked in the same freezer and saw durian flavor. I had never had durian fruit nor had I seen it or heard of it. So I thought - ho sounds interesting, and there's the fruit! I shall do the same thing. I bought the fruit, whole, this huge spiky thing that tore up the bag as I hauled my ingredients to Frankie's house. Well, things had gotten a little wild and fun at the dinner party, due to some mixed drinks, and we were all acting silly. I spoke no French, of course and their English was rather spotty but we all communicated very well and had lots of fun by dancing and badly lip synching to all kinds of music from opera to techno, and acting out scenarios. I remember it very well. This perfect winding bizarre techno tune had come on and it was time to bring out the fruit, which looked like a space alien pod. I ceremoniously brought it to the center of the room, we slowly spun it on it's spikes to display it's alien beauty and we all danced around it. We opened up the ice cream and hacked open the fruit with a cleaver like we were sacraficing a virgin. The moments following as each of us tasted the fruit, spitting, hacking, the "pwah!!"s and the "wah"s were all in unison, and we ceremoniously threw the fruit and the ice cream out on the balcony and continued with the party. Frankie was mad at us the next day because he had to clean it up.

I am searching my memory, and I can't for the life of me think of anything I categorically "didn't like" as a child. I had notoriously picky friends, though. They used to talk about hating liver, spinach, lima beans, etc., all foods I loved. I once ate dinner at my friend Susan's house, and her father was cooking. It was the three of us, and he had concocted some horrible slop out of under cooked Bisquick pancakes, rolling up chicken in them and ladling a disgusting sauce that he called a curry sauce over them. The pancakes weren't cooked in the middle. That was pretty disgusting. I can say that as a child I have the distinct memory of not liking that. But I ate it anyway, and pretended to like it, because I was a guest. Needless to say Susan didn't eat hers. Now that I really think of it, I didn't particularly like sweet potatoes but they were only served on Thanksgiving so I never had trouble with that.

Photo of above mentioned spaghetti cannister.

Weeds, poisonous plants, all berries, barks, some insects and all things green, I wonder if they are edible.

That sounds really good. I'm going to try it. Thank you, Marlena.

Thank you, it was a wonderful blog.

That looks so good, Lisa. I have that exact knife. Wierd. Did you add any eggs to it? I just sent 4 guests home, sorry I'v been missing in action. I am in total agreement with your discard discord. How can anyone do such a thing?

Help I need gram weights!

I was 13 years old and slept over at my friend Olga's house. We went in the house, me with my sleeping bag and overnight bag, and were sent out back by her mother. We picked the leaves in the back yard that afternoon, and her mother served them stuffed for dinner. It was the first time I'd ever had that dish. I was amazed and in awe. I have to say I've never had them prepared so wonderfully ever since. They used beef and rice, very simple. I tried to pick leaves and do this myself many years later but they weren't half as good. When's the best time to pick leaves and how should they be processed before cooking? The thing that made these so incredible was that the texture iof the leaves was just perfect, soft and delicious. When I tried to prepare this dish my leaves were a bit stringy. I've eaten them in restaurants and made them with the brined leaves I can buy, but I never felt it was as good as with the fresh leaves.

Place the bowl so the steam is hitting it and the bowl itself isn't in the boiling water. It'll keep you from scalding your delicate chocolate. But isn't the steam hotter than the water itself? Or am I imagining that?

Rachel, that jello looks downright amazing. If you put something dark in the holes, they'd be the seeds. Like black cherries.

When I learned to set a French table, I was instructed to put the tines down, not because when you do this that it shows the hallmark, but because when you do this, it hides the hallmark.

Wow that looks really amazing. I wonder if I could find the recipe on how to make the kudzu noodles from scratch. That looks like something to try. Where can I find more information about this? Thanks!

In many Joy of Cooking recipes, when melting chocolate and the likes, why do they say "above but not in boiling water", and what exactly does that mean? To place the bowl so that the steam is heating it? Or just a dumbed down version to remind people not to forget to use a bowl? I've always wondered about that.

That's what it's all about Lisa. I am sorry for what you have been through in the past couple of years, Lisa. My recent losses having been enormous and life shaking took place just before we came to France and much of my sense of purpose has come to be intricately entwined with the changes I have been through in their wake. You are courageous to address them straight on and with us - and it's the light that will bring you out of the dark place you have been. Your having passed that milestone of accepting that you can continue the work that you and your mother began - on your own - is so incredibly inspiring to me. Thank you.

Oooooh ooooh!

Does your 10 year old grandson like anchovies too? A remarkable boy!

raisab, I make cassoulet once a year, from Paula Wolfert's cookbook, The Cooking of Southwest France. It's better than the canned stuff, but then again it takes 3 days to make and has an ingredient list as long as my arm, for which I have to shop in a myriad of places, making the whole cassoulet making process last as long as a week. Every once in a while I buy it in a can because it can actually taste pretty darn good coming from a can, and a nice solution now and again if I'm unable to cook for one reason or another. Nothing I would serve to guests, mind you, but it's comfort food. We definitely do buy the confit in cans because the preserving process adds to the quality of the product in my opinion. edit to say I've never had a problem understanding my parisian friends and in-laws, but then again they speak slowly for me, I think...

All cleared up.

That's wierd, I use planters as champagne pails.

Collage on a Whisky cannister for spaghetti. (will post photo when I get home)

Hi Trillium - That was a nice class. I am thinking of doing the winter melon soup and I have a question about the melon. Is this normally available all year round or - just in winter? Thanks for the wonderful class.