Lindacakes

Lamb is one of my favorite things to eat in Indian or Middle Eastern restaurants. Lamb curry, lamb kebob, lamb stews . . . Lamb is good. However, other than the odd chop here and there, I don't buy lamb myself. I don't buy a lot of meat, so that's not particularly odd, but I suspect it goes back to the time there was once a rabbit on the table when we were kids. I will never forget how the legs looked . . . And I will eat rabbit all over Italy but don't ask me to buy one.

I brought a tiny espresso maker home to my father's house at Christmas so that I could have my fix. The first day, he watched me make it, asked what it was, shuddered, and refused to taste it. Day two: his ancient coffee maker had finally broken the night before, my sister-in-law made coffee in a pan on the stove. No coffee in the morning, Christmas eve, I'm sipping my espresso out of a regular coffee cup. "It's mean to drink coffee in front of a person." "You told me you didn't want any. Do you want me to make you some?" "No." Then there's a cousin of mine who is over fifty years old, still lives with his still living and still married parents and will not eat anything with seeds in it. My nephew, as a small child, would not eat bread. Yep, bread.

On a whim I checked this today -- I'm glad you liked it, Jeff. I always do mine in an 8 x 8, but next time I'll try the round.

Poppy Cannon.

Another vote for Bamix. I use it to do whatever a blender is supposed to do. I threw my blender away after I bought it. Crushes ice, chops nuts, whips cream, liquifys soup. Very strong.

Well, most of us agree that butter is best, but what butter? This is my favorite -- Vermont Butter and Cheese My mother was/is a butter fiend. She will slice pieces of butter off the stick and eat them just like that. And yes, Virginia, she has had a heart attack . . . She never made anything with margarine -- she said she couldn't wash it off her hands. Long before the truth about margarine became common knowledge. My father keeps tubs of something yellowish in his fridge . . . I taste it with wonder once in a while. I can't imagine what it's made of, it doesn't behave like any other substance known to mankind. He buys the cheapest version possible. When I go home and cook for him, he is ravenous for anything I make -- with, of course, sticks and sticks of butter! Recently I had freshly popped popcorn with melted butter on it for the first time since I was a kid. Rapture.

This is what I do for a living -- transform textbooks into wonderful interactive multimedia. I hear this either/or argument a lot. And I ask: did the microwave kill the oven? Did the cell phone kill the wall phone? Did digital movies kill cable? Why choose, why not both? Nothing replaces the experience of a book. My house is full of 'em, I collect 'em, I hand bind them myself, I even gold illuminate them. But I also have a computer, which serves a different purpose. What if: someone invented really good cookbook software? What if you could arrange the recipes anyway you wanted? What if you could have that lemon pie filed under pie and lemon? What if you could buy a cookbook and then download a digital recipe pack for free? What if you used a seach feature to search "rhubarb" across six different cookbooks? What if you could add your own cook's notes? What if you could get a special video pack on pie making? What if you could buy a Thomas Keller animated tutorial to go with his book? What if you could create your own cookbooks and print them out? What if you could collect all of the recipes you find online and bring them into your software? What if you could use your software to attend a virtual lecture by Diana Kennedy? What if your software included a Larousse and a link from anywhere to the Larousse? I could go on and on. I don't use cookbook software myself, but I have all of my recipes in digital format. Any new recipe I get, I grab it digitally. For two reasons: one, because in one of these threads I learned of a woman who had her hand-written cookbook stolen. Two, because I don't believe the plethora of free recipes on the Internet will last forever. Periodically, I download this file to a Flash drive and I have a copy in my safe deposit box. I like printing out a recipe, getting it dirty and throwing it away. I like being able to email recipes any time I want. I like searching across my recipe files. I like filing recipes in multiple places, because I am a flavor nut (I've got a buttermilk file). I have a variety of cookbooks that I own just to look at, like most people. Food porn. I would love, however, to have The Joy of Cooking digitally . . .

Mmmm . . . order the Rancho Gordo beans. Really. Use the Russ Parsons No Soak Method. There's a thread. I usually hate lists like this. It's the first time I've bought this magazine. I intend to try to taste everything on the list I'm unfamiliar with. There's another thread out there, someone's blog on the top ten best foods in the world or something. I read 80 million entries and made note of everything I didn't know on the list, put that list in my Palm, and I'm working my way through it. God help me when my curiosity goes.

Funny, there's been a lot of Moosewood bashing all over eGullet lately. I have the Moosewood and the unfortunately named Enchanted Broccoli Forest, which I got for a dollar in one of those Book-of-the-Month-Club 4-for-a-dollar specials they don't run any more. I really like many of the recipes from the Moosewood. The Gypsy Soup, for one. I suppose there are better versions of everything out there, but the recipes are reliably tasty. I own this one, and I don't really cook from it because I go to the restaurant. Angelica Kitchen I was given the Brown Rice Gravy recipe by the chef when the book was being written. Really ungodly good stuff. Dolores Casella's Vegetable Book (out-of-print) is not vegetarian, but it's a good vegetable book. And I second Chez Panisse Vegetables and Deborah Madison. Try the Moroccan carrots in Chez Panisse. Your guests will love you for it. You'll love yourself for it.

Amazon.com is the best place for selection. Bloomingdales is next best.

I don't like football and I don't eat junkfood, but during an experiment to blend in, I sort of got into the concept of super bowl food. I try to find something I would normally never buy and watch half time so that I know what everyone is talking about when they talk about the commercials. Last time I went to the grocery store I bought a box of frozen mini hot dogs wrapped in dough of some sort. I am looking forward to that. I'm thinking it would be a good time to buy a jar of some of that onion dip stuff (I like Helluva Good brand but it's hard to find anymore, I'm open to recommendations) and a huge bag of Ruffles. I admire the woman who dreamed up the guacamole football field with sour cream yard lines. All of this being said, while I'm munching my pigs-in-the-blanket and eating glutaginous methylcellulose, I fully intend to enjoy every minute of the Giants' victory.

For me, it was pepperoni. The only meats I truly love are pepperoni and bacon. For my girlfriend, it was hot dogs. A hot dog from the cafeteria at the Museum of Natural History to be exact.

I'm seeing definite levels of desperation in this thread -- some people are talking about when they have not much to choose from and some people really go to the down and dirty of when there is nothing in the house (like chocolate, hey, eating your baking chocolate supply when you're hungry for something sweet is not desperate enough). I'm with the sugar on bread people and I'm inspired by the brown sugar people. Of course, a baked apple with loads of extra sugar helps, and a bowl of yogurt with like a quarter cup of apricot preserves helps . . . How about those times when you could bake, but you want something ridiculously fast? I once started a thread about Quickies in the 8 by 8 that didn't fly very far. I was disappointed. I want a recipe for cereal bowl cookies. Like, whip up a half dozen cookies in ten minutes! Good ones!

The Bean Feed. Does it exist in real life, or only on the News from Lake Woebegone?

Almost an entire box of Oreo Cakesters. This is a tiny little whoopie pie version of an Oreo cookie. If you scrape off one of the layers, it doubles the cream ratio. You can eat the layer. They taste like ass, absolutely pumped full of chemicals. I feel terrible today, too.

One of the finest meals of my life occured in San Gimingnano, Italy and included a wonderful risotto with white truffles. Sigh.

This is nice, a new soup thread. I have the old one bookmarked and haven't made my way through it yet. Better to start from the beginning. Funny this should come up right now, in another thread about embarassing cookbooks to have on the shelf, someone said The Enchanted Broccoli Forest. This weekend I made the potato leek soup from The Enchanted Broccoli Forest, one of my favorite soups. Potato Leek Soup The Gypsy Soup from the Moosewood is also exceptionally good, and unusual in flavor. Gypsy Soup I like to have this in my freezer all winter long: Minestrone My Costco is currently carrying some sort of clam chowder in the same case with the hummus. Exceptionally good. I'm looking for bean soups if anyone has a good one. Some way to use yet another bag of Rancho Gordo beans. Important details: the soup pot and the immersion blender. I see some folks are using Le Creuset or similar. I do that, and I have a 10 quart (hard to find size) stock pot. Then there's the Bamix. This has changed my life. I read that "cool the soup, place the soup in the blender in batches and blend, return to pot, reheat" and laugh with joy. I want to go over to eat at Hummingbirdkiss's house and give her a hug.

Don't tell anyone, but I grew up in Ohio, and my mom used to make lime jello (also known as "green" jello) with shredded carrots in it. That's actually very good compared to: Glorified Rice The best part of the recipe being, "When it begins to congeal, add . . . " This is best made with those multi-colored miniature marshmallows, by the way. What makes me hang my mouth open, however, is something you hear about in Weight Watchers quite a lot: Coke Cake This is when you know that Weight Watchers motto about being able to eat anything you want is just plain wrong.

For jumanggy: It is probably safe to assume that most Americans' core physical existence (bones, teeth, and a good ten pounds of flab) have been formed by the building blocks of nutrients found in Rice Krispie Treat bars. These are found in the pantry, at the neighbor's house, made when the babysitter comes over, at any bake sale, birthday parties, Grandma's . . . They're available in my employer's cafeteria, although I don't care for their version as they are too thick and too dense. What's sad is that they are now commercially available compliments of the Rice Krispie people. This is against all rules of human conduct. Someone's mom needs to make them for you.

I'd go for Butterscotch Brownies. Betty Crocker's Cooky Book has a terrific recipe. Very easy. PM me if you want the recipe. I LOVE Maida Heatter's fruit and nut bars. Love them. But I think they may be too thin, at least, they're thin when I make them. I like the idea of the rice krispie treats. Who doesn't expect them/love them at a bake sale? What about gold dusting them?

Not as bad as the BLOOD BALLS I once saw someone eat on one of those competitive "reality" shows . . .

I don't particularly like Magnolia Bakery in New York City, but they do these chocolate mini pies -- deep chocolate with a little shot of whipped cream on the top. They are very sexy to eat -- you kind of have to remove them from the little pie tin to eat them (undressing) and then they are uncontrollable (lusty) to eat, and then they are so soft and luxurious in the mouth (use your imagination). Heart shaped? In a red box? Whatever, they are a very sexy food for sharing. I personally, not a bakery, make individual heart-shaped red velvet cakes. Also very sexy -- but more visually instead of sensually. I also like raspberry truffles (suggestion) because they aren't red, but you think red when you eat them. (Secret). I also like a certain heart-shaped plain dark chocolate mold that Li-Lac chocolates has -- it is just the right shape to fill the mouth, but with rounded corners, and very lush. From a consumer point of view, I'm thinking go creative with actual physical experience rather than packaging.

Mixing cauliflower and potato in a mash is an old Weight Watchers trick. The dryness of the potato sucks up some of the liquid in the cauliflower. It doesn't get rid of your potato starch, but it's less potato calories. I think roasted cauliflower itself is a good potato substitute. The carmelization ever so slightly mimics that potato jacket flavor us spud lovers crave.

Pat, can you tell me whose recipe you used for fruitcake cookies?

Has anyone tried anyone else's pancakes in this thread? I love/hate threads like this, because I copy out all of the recipes to try. And I think I did it with the last pancake thread, too, so I've got a lot of pancake recipes to work my way through. Momma was a Bisquick person, and she used that very Tupperware pitcher to mix hers in. Always served with bacon, always served for supper, and I loved them. I might like a Bisquick pancake now, but I think the Joy of Cooking buttermilk pancake recipe is the closest to that particultar taste as I remember it, so why buy Bisquick? Momma herself now swears by something in a yellow square plastic container that pours right out. I'm also surprised at the dogged loyalty amongst pancake eaters. I myself regularly rotate at least three different pancakes: The one I had on New Year's that was found in the New York Times about twenty years ago and contains a stick of butter. Yes, an entire stick. These are good. Another one found in the Times about that long ago, corn cakes made with corn meal and containing kernels of corn. Especially good when there is fresh corn to make them with. One that starts with oatmeal soaked overnight and is more rugged, but has such a sweet nutty taste that people go wild for them. I've made buckwheat pancakes while camping that I remember fondly, and I think it's a mix from one of those Bob's Red Mill type packages. Easy enough to make at a campsite. For our British friend, might I inform you that pancakes are an American invention primarily designed to assist the consumption of maple syrup. For some of us, the more maple syrup, the lower the grade (grade B), the better. If one clicks around on that pancake in a can site, one finds a shocking recipe for a cream cheese sauce to be put on the pancakes. I might try this. Little has been said about sauces. I like maple syrup too much to play around. I find that buttermilk is an absolute necessity for pancakes. I collect buttermilk recipes and love the taste of buttermilk but there's no recipe quite as good as a pancake. That being said, share with me your buttermilk recipes.