Lindacakes

I do not like to see sandwiches referred to as "sammy" and I really hate any sort of logos or packaging on a plate. Case: in a casual Western-themed restaurant, I was once served a bag of Fritos torn open and stuffed with fritos and spicy fried meat. I still gag when I think of it. I dislike this to the point of loathing a plastic cup of condiment (tartar sauce, for instance) on the plate with the food. WITH THE FOOD TOUCHING IT.

What about pureed red pepper or mushroom?

Would you share your preferred salt vendor list?

On the opposite end of the spectrum, I collect pamphlet cookbooks (mostly baking) for the illustrations of the food. No intention whatsoever of cooking from them. The artistry of the illustrations of say, petit fours on a cut glass plate is stunning. I have a chocolate book that I think is printed in at least three colors -- all of them brown, and one of them metallic. They don't make them like that any more.

A few years ago Penzey's did a spin off magazine that was "Christian" in tone. Based on knowing that, I'd take what is being said at face value. There is some belief that this is The Right Thing to Do. I wish this food fad thing would stop. New York City now has a salt store that resembles very much a bath salt store with stoppered bottles, flowers, low light, music. I like my fleur de sel as much as the next person, but really, what's next? The waiter coming over with one of those huge hunks of salt sold as a deodorant with a grater?

Isn't a pie baked inside of a cake called a cheesecake?

I hoard Sunbeams. I have two now. Get on eBay and get yourself one. They look good, and you look good reflected in it. Plugging in the cord gives you a sense of comfort and joy. It's a big, thick, fabric-covered cord. When you touch it, you will remember your grandmother's bosom pressed against the side of your face in a big hug. Hoard everything you love, because they'll stop making it eventually. Like wooden Q-Tips.

I just discovered this: Kyknos tomato paste. Would be found in a Greek specialty store. Yowza, is that good. There is a lengthy section on tomatoes, featuring the canned tomato, in Lynne Rosetto Kasper's The Italian Country Table. If confessions are welcome: Taco Bell Fat Free Refried Beans. I know what you're thinking, me too, but I like it.

Happy to see this thread again. I went looking for it the other day and couldn't find it. I'm doing gingerbread gift tags this year because I couldn't find anything to go with foil paper. Names piped on, looped through the package bow. Of course, fruitcake, I now have black walnut and candied ginger in the mix.

Be careful how you handle this issue with children. My mother did not approve of sweet potatoes and marshmallows. We never had them. So when I grew up and encountered the Thanksgiving traditions of others, well, hell, I'm sorry, what a lark. I happen to love roasted marshmallows and not that this is my favorite way to eat sweet potatoes or that I would even buy the marshmallows and make them myself, but if you offer them to me, I will have seconds. There is a very nice recipe in Mollie Katzen's Moosewood Cookbook for something she calls Gypsy Soup. This has sweet potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, chickpeas and a bunch of spices including tumeric, paprika, cayenne, cinnamon, and tamari. I really like this soup. We the people who own parrots know that the way to get a fussy bird to eat is to give him sweet potatoes. I don't think there's a bird alive who can resist them.

Cleaning chunks of waterlogged food out of the sink trap. Washing the food processor parts. I don't have a dishwasher. I avoid using the food processor to avoid this chore. For those of you who hate chopping, what about a Bamix -- it has a little cup attachment thing that chops. Very nice.

I support the Dorie Greenspan cake. The recipe is on Amazon and on David Leibovitz's blog. Perfect with vanilla ice cream and better the next day. Couldn't be easier to make and is one of those recipes you can very easily memorize.

This book lays a great background for why Domestic Science existed, it's impact on society, and what American food was like when Julia Child stepped on the stage. Perfection Salad: Women and Cooking at the Turn of the Century Laura Shapiro

Also, yes, I noticed that Saveur is slipping while lamb is ruling. I try to be generous and consider that if Saveur did not maintain a certain circulation I wouldn't be able to read it, either, so we need to make a little room for others. I've noticed this with The Splendid Table -- LRK's level has dropped, but I try to feel for her and marvel that her show still exists rather than get testy.

Random thoughts: Bravo to the food editors who focus on Tuscany. This concentrates the tourist population in Tuscany and the rest of us can go about our Italian joy without being bothered by them. I read Saveur cover to cover every month and I've read plenty of back issues. I went to my local (I know I'm lucky to have this) second hand cookbook store and bought every back issue that interested me. My partner has them and every once in a while I ask: "I wonder if the mailman has anything for me?" This is a cue that I'd like a magazine "delivered". You can get back issue magazines from eBay and Amazon. I also like Gastronomica, but you will not find that on sale at Amazon. I am very interested in the folks who replied that they enjoy cooking from the magazines -- I rarely do this, for obvious reasons if you know the magazines I'm interested in. But I think I will try Fine Cooking, thanks for the tip.

Lots of folks cited multiple cities or places when the question was if not here, where? It's a hard, limiting question and I think I'd just roam around from one place to another, probably going back to Italy often. But the very first place I'd get on a plane to eat is New Orleans.

I want to see a picture, please . . . Of the flowers and of the finished drinks! I am thinking that hibiscus are large and that they might collapse under the weight of the sugar. I would have suggested using a mound of sugar as a support, up inside the flower, too, and allowing them to dry like that. Once on a trip to Hawaii I made it a focus to drink as many tarted up drinks as possible, and drew each one for a little souvenir book. It's one of the happiest vacation memories imaginable . . .

Since my parents divorced when I was still a teenager, I haven't had a regular Thanksgiving tradition in my adult life. I freelance around, sometimes hosting, sometimes being hosted, sometimes small intimate dinners, sometimes large boisterous dinners. My secret is that I make my own turkey no matter what. Because I love turkey and I make a good one and I like real gravy. I need time to make this turkey, so I dislike showing up at anyone else's house at a time that would affect my secret bird. I do not want to be under the gun to get the stowaway in the oven before dawn. I also like drinking on Thanksgiving. I like the drinking maybe more than the eating because everyone is friends and everyone is in a good mood and everyone doesn't have to go back to work for days. There's a feeling of abandon that is unmatched. I don't like to commence drinking before 3:00 or so. Cocktails should last a couple of hours before you are really loose enough to sit down to the glow of a good communal meal. I'm with the 6:00 crowd. It's early enough that you can get in that old movie/sandwich thing I also love. That's one of the reasons why the secret bird is so masterful. One can return home with one's partner and relax with Bette Davis and yes, MIRACLE WHIP.

Try the Five Star bar in peanut. You can get one at Whole Foods. Try the hazelnut, too, whether hazelnuts and chocolate count in this contest or not. You won't regret it.

Glorious fruit arisen from the dead!!! I tried one of my 2010 black cakes last night. Hee hee. Superb, if I do say so myself. Makes up for the year I thought they'd make wonderful squirrel food. New secret ingredient: Peychaud's bitters.

I'm not sure Martha Stewart isn't a baking dumbass. How can she possibly speak the lines you've attributed to her? I would like to see her in a Yoko Ono ass apron, though.

I have undercooked a fruitcake before. I toasted the slices and they were very nice, actually.

Answer to Peter's question about canned wahoo, one uses it as a superior form of tuna. It has a cleaner (?) fresher, more fish-like taste. I'm picturing the lady who used to do the Folger's commercial doing the canned fish version . . .

I would advise against storing your fruitcakes in the refrigerator. The cakes need to age and the cold retards the aging . . . A cool shelf is a good place, if you have one, or a basement. Don't put them anywhere warm. They will keep with no booze at all, so if you want a light dusting of booze, that's going to be fine. I think most people who say they don't like fruitcake have just never had proper fruitcake.

Ummmmm, can we go back to that espresso prostitution thing for a minute? I'm picturing some kind of insane Fellini-esque sex show in Bangkok that features a pimped out espresso machine featuring bare-breasted carytids with eagle wings that come to life and step off the machine to serve you . . .