Carrot Top

An ancient relation of mine used to keep ferrets in England. You might do better with them as pets...they bring back fat rabbits....

A beautiful and hungry-making first post, ojbowl!

Actually, I'd like to propose a new category. (Please imagine me now enunciating vigorously in French as I wave my arms in the air...thank you) Demi-Haute.

"Haute" in either fashion or food has always held one demand, one implication: Quality, simplicity (in a studied way, not a 'quick' way), beauty, and creative finesse. That it is becoming more and more 'branded' in the way of becoming multinational corporations whose intent is to simply make a better bottom line for the next annual report to shareholders is an amusing thought, for the original intention of creating either haute cuisine or haute couture is that of making something very fine, superior to the run of the mill, and different...touched with the eye and hand of fine artists, doing their work in 'ateliers' with the interest of the wealthy who appreciate it and who provide financial support. And while fashion changes more quickly, and what is popular is dependant upon what 'shows' best in Paris, Milan, New York each season....this happens in restaurants, too. There are new fashionable restaurants each year or two... depending on certain styles and critical and popular support of those that follow the haute scene. This article that you posted sounds more like a businesspersons marketing scheme to manipulate the public into buying, at greater ticket price, something that smells and looks 'haute'. They are playing with business model applications within the companies for the purpose of making more money...and that is sort of (to me) the opposite intent of where a true purveyor of anything 'haute' starts. They start with a creative internal idea...not a business plan. It still could produce some 'fun' stuff, yes. But there's always the question of where 'haute' stops being 'haute' and becomes a simple publicity game.

Academic studies can be found to support almost anything. But as I look at life around me and how it has changed from when I was a child...there are basic differences. There are very few people left who do the job of 'home-maker'. Woman or man. It is no longer considered to be a truly feasible job for many reasons...both economic and sociologic. So there is really nobody in the kitchen (and home) doing the work that used to be done, unless one hires a cleaning service or housekeeper. Everyone that cooks knows how long grocery shopping, organization, meal planning, food preparation and cooking take. This used to be done (along with the laundry and keeping a house that people would say "You can eat off her floor"...this is a slightly separate issue...but one that goes, again, to show how times have changed...because now the saying is "There are more important things to do than clean the house.") by the mother of the family, where such a stable situation existed. There are still only 24 hours in a day, but the way people spend that time is different now. Corporations and manufacturers and service suppliers alike have now taken with a vengeance to increasing production and becoming lean and mean. In the 1970's and 1980's you would see people's lives being disrupted by their employers 'transferring' them here and there...disrupting what used to be stable communities with family ties and knowledge of common culture. That declined due to the high cost of the transfers...then came the late 1980's and the crunch to perform. At every level of the workforce, things were looked at with hawk's eyes to try to find the least bit of fat. Then after that fat was cut, the new management philosophy came in that 'If they can do this much, they can do more' and the idea of management by pressurized reduction of hours and employee cuts began. What this translates to in real life is people working outside the home much more than what used to be a forty-hour workweek. It is translated differently. Sometimes you will see a blue-collar employee who works two twenty-hour jobs which have been set up that way so that the employer can avoid paying costly health insurance. The 'shift' hours are totally ridiculous. They start early, end late, have no respect for a person's 'family life'. Then there are the white collar employees, the supervisors or mangement who do not get paid by the hour so are expected to work at least fifty hours a week..sixty to be considered 'good'. In reality, I see less people in the kitchen. They are working terrible hours...the children are in before and after-school care and then need shuttling to sports and dance and whatever activities...because there are no longer many 'neighborhoods' where the Moms were in the house sort of watching over everyone...as the children ran here and there outside and played. I see tired people with undone laundry and unvaccuumed homes who are happy for convenience foods, happy for family restaurants, but who are also happy to have a kitchen for the rare times they can find to sit in it and maybe dream of having the time for cooking. There are the wealthy with the fancy kitchens which are put in the home to keep the value up to par. If they don't have children, they have a chance to use them, maybe. Who cares? Again, the point is that it is not about money. It is about having a place to feel that you COULD make yourself a meal if you wanted to. Lots of people want to. What's next to do a cost/benefit analysis on, the bathroom?!

Actually I use clarified butter quite often. The process used to make clarified butter is the same one that you describe for making ghee...but the butter is not allowed to brown at all. The purpose of making clarified butter is to remove the milksolids from the butter so that a pure fat is created, allowing for higher temperatures to be used when browning meats (or whatever else) without the burnt taste of unclarified butter but with the taste of butter rather than oil. I have seen ghee for sale in Indian foodshops but have never purchased it. Is ghee often made from goats milk in India?

This definitely should go in the Time Capsule....it's a beaut!

The good thought to hold in your head is that there are many New Yorkers who would die of jealousy to have a kitchen that large.... But having had various experiences myself in moving from a kitchen one was happy with to a kitchen one was not (and sometimes not having the option of renovation) all I can say is, if worst comes to worst, well..."close your eyes and think of England". It might be helpful to list which (of all these things that need changing), is the most important to you. What bothers you the most? If you have a prioritized list, you can get some things 'just right' at the moment, and make do with the other stuff till later...

Could it be that ghee is more expensive than oil, Geetha? And of course it is not widely available in American supermarkets... And although preparing ghee at home is not difficult, it does require attention during the process...and people have less time to do this sort of thing, it seems. What do you think? Do you make ghee at home or buy it readymade...

There is an extensive thread on the subject...just search for "larb' and you will discover everything about it!

Rodin. In a small museum. I might need to move into the place. If I go there it will have to be after the Rocky thing...for Rodin makes one soft and melty....

I'll meet you there, Holly. Please bring your camera for documentation of how I smacked down that side of beef into total submission (let us be sure at first that it is PRIME beef and well-aged at the proper temperature) and a propane grill for steaks afterwards.

Thank you, robyn. I try to jump up and down and act like Rocky wherever I go...but since I am a 5'2 redheaded freckled person who smiles a lot, people don't usually make the connection. Here at least I can do it in the Right Place and get some Cultchuh at the same time. Really great idea. I had not thought of that museum. It is, as you say, world class.

I'm bringing spagetti bolognese and a big salad. And 'garlic bread' if my suitcase is big enough. Isn't anyone bringing a good bottle of red wine?

Let's not forget Rex Stout...

Yikes. I first read this as saying "exorbitant and insulting MAKEUP". In agreement, either way!

Being now from the South, I am allowed to say that reading this combination of ingredients made me 'throw' a conniption. Whew. That sounds like something a truly tired mother from the 1960's who didn't enjoy cooking at all with six complaining hungry kids around her feet would make. (And they probably would love it, too! ) I guess it could be all made better by just being at a soda fountain place, though...

I love that response! Beautiful... But you seem to have taken the New World back to the Old ...for there you are, writing from Merrie Olde England. Will you be spending Thanksgiving there? If so,will it affect the foods you serve in any way at all due to lack of certain ingredients or substitutions of other ingredients in any baked goods you buy that would alter the 'usual' way you would do it at home? And I am also very curious to know your own specific menu...I am sure it will be seasoned differently from, say, the New England or Southeastern Thanksgiving dinner...

The way that you are looking at it, Shalmanese, is exactly the way corporate analysts (usually in the accounting department of a large corporation) do when top management looks at costs of everything that it takes to run a business, including the cost/benefit analysis of providing foodservices (of any sort, even coffee service or areas) to the employees. Coffee service, areas for vending machines, cafeterias, executive dining rooms all come under scrutiny at least annually and sometimes quarterly. Every detail of running the operations is detailed including below and above line budgetary costs...and then it is up to the department head to justify the expense(s), bearing in mind what the overall corporate philosophy is in terms of employee benefits and perks. Cafeterias are generally subsidized to a greater or lesser percent and are provided in part as a benefit to the employees. The prices finally charged to the consumer and the quality of the food provided are finally the result of delicate and detailed negotiations between the client and the service provider. Often the 'client' (the person in charge of foodservices) in smaller corporations is a facilities management person and does not have the background in foodservice to sort out exactly what it is the service provider is saying...and to ask the right questions about each line item in order to negotiate the best product for the company. Therefore often cafeterias are not run as best they might be (in terms of economics for the client). In executive dining, where costs can be very high, the manager of the dining rooms can be asked by the analysts to provide a competive cost/benefit analysis...in order to justify the large expense of having an in-house fine dining service. This can involve providing average costs of outside restaurants that would be considered competitive (depending on the corporation and the style of food and service, this could range anywhere from the corner bistro to Lutece, for example...depending on exactly where the 'executives' would be going rather than dining in-house) and including whatever costs would be involved in final cost of the meal(s), and transportation or other needs. The final report is then presented to the management committee or board, and they must make the decision as to whether their dining rooms are actually providing a competitive service in terms of style, quality, services, and costs. Thank god this does not usually have to be done at home. The kitchen...of a home...should be more a warm and loving place, free of the constant fuss that the outside world hammers out each day. I say keep it. Whether it is just used to microwave a cup of tea or whether it is used to cook up a storm of tasty delights. It's a symbol.

The red wine surely would taste better but the champagne idea combined with the excess of the idea...shouts "Money!" to a lot of people...and that is what this whole concept is about...shouting "Money!" Won't work though, if a bunch of college kids go into the place (about ten or twelve) and decide to split the thing between them. Total style ruination. Someone should try it.

I don't know the exact name for it, (you would have to ask a scientist but they are all at the coffee shop right now) but it is the same chromosonal deficiency that creates the blind spot for...uh...avoiding the edge and the back of the john when they aim for the center. I could take this a bit further in terms of blind spots....you know, those places that men just can't seem to find without some really good training but...nevermind.

Sounds like some great places...thanks!

Burp. Oh! Sorry...was that...me? I'll be back in a bit....must take a nap....good cheesesteak, yeah.... Zzzzzzzz...........

I feel healthier already!!!

Our menu is expanding. Maggie has moved us to a tropical island and is bringing a full breakfast. And here I thought I was going to get answers like "a block of tofu' or...'a crate of spinach'... Don't forget that little black dress, please. Surely it will get us all in to dinner somewhere....