Carrot Top

I can remember paralyzing fears from when I lived in Brooklyn Heights. It was like "I really can *not* be seen going into Key Food." Because, of course, one had to go to D'Agostinos. But of course that's Brooklyn Heights. I doubt if people in other parts of the country worry about which grocery store they should go to because of foodie anxiety.

It took me two years of hardship to learn how to link and still sometimes I have problems. This is much more acceptable to me as a fault than say, I dunno, someone who uses Food Lion brand frozen peas. I feel badly to be this way, but it is true.

Gosh, SB, you got me back to the table with that. I am definitely guilty. I like to win, when I can. Plus, I read somewhere that that is what men do in their communications, men who accomplish things, rather than women whose communication style it try to get along with each other and spread peace, supposedly. Do you have a dining room window? What sort of glass is it made out of? I've read of a new kind that reflects the food on any table in a quite exquisite manner. My olive oil comes from the grocery store, though, Kroger actually, and is mid-level cost. I hope people will still talk to me after this confession.

I can't imagine why the song from the movie "Ghostbusters" keeps running through my mind as I read this thread. You know, "I ain't afraid of no ghosts!" Oh well. Must leave for a while to chop the overgrown purslane in my driveway and also vaccum the fast-food crumbs out of my SUV. I look forward to returning later to hear more of the vast and encouraging egalitarianism that exists throughout the countryside where foodies are only foodies but never anxious.

Oh. Raw power, huh? No food anxieties there? Wonderful.

Heavens no. ← cakewalk, I'm enough of a snob that I'd love to be the one that wrote that quote, for it would mean that the NYT had paid me to write something, which they didn't. Unfortunately, it came from the linked/quoted article. But I like the line and love your response even more.

You're welcome. I'm glad to hear that it's only big city New Yorkers that are subject to this particular insecurity. And even more glad to know that only 800 people in the world are affected by it. It's good to be around the real, down-home folk here.

And of course we know that Washington DC is foodie-anxiety free in all relevant geographic areas, too. Guess the NYT blew it again in getting the story wrong.

Funny you should ask. I came across the term "recreational eater" yesterday and became curious about it. A new term, apparently. Only nine Google hits. But I'll take any bets going, that it will grow, the term "recreational eating", and become a part of our daily language soon. Then we'll have to create teams and ratings, of course, for the sport of recreational eating. ................................ Art. I don't think teams can or do create it. Therefore one would have to wonder if a professional restaurant kitchen team led by a chef who was an "artist" would be creating artform food, or if the food would only be art coming from the Master's hands.

An interesting article in today's NYT. Is "who we are" defined by the foodie-ness of our tables? If they have invented pharmaceuticals to deal with other sorts of mind/body problems that limit opportunity in the world, will they invent something to cure or assist in helping foodie anxiety? And where is that consignment shop located?

There's something to this idea. Depends on the criteria of ranking. If it is understanding of food as science and art, the rank would be different than technical skill. Building on the quoted post, I propose the following ranks of people currently on the network: Sandra Lee Rachael Ray Robert Irvine Paula Deen Giada DeLaurentis Tyler Florence Ina Garten Alton Brown Bobby Flay Mario Batalli Emeril Lagasse I'm probably somewhere between Tyler Florence and Ina Garten, putting it that way. I know I'm leaving some out. Fill in the blanks on the missing ones, since I can't seem to figure out how to rank the remainder. ← I like this concept! Where do y'all think Julia Child (yeah, I know she's not TVFN) fits into this kind of hierarchy? This may be sacriledge but I was never impressed by her cooking skills. Her food did not look that good to me and her knife skills, etc. were not great. ← Ah. Poor Julia was not only *not* TVFN but needs to fit into a hierachy also? And you say her cooking skills were not up to par either, nor her food nor her knife skills? ................................... Perhaps my "take" on all this is different, coming from the background of having been an executive chef in a fine dining atmosphere, and also, of course, a home cook. I like to think that people can and will respect their own ways of cooking and making meals at an "amateur" level, without ratings of any sort and most particularly without getting involved with the idea of comparisons to TV cooks except those ratings, or rather goals, that come personally, and from within oneself, as a way to improve *if they feel they wish to*, not because someone else is "better" in some way. Because, really, it is professional cooking that is less important than this thing which is called "amateur cooking" here. This "amateur cooking" is really the cooking the world runs on, and which the world has always run on. Professional cooking is a job, a vocation. It can be a pleasure. It is not as glamorous as some might think who have not done it. But long before there were professional cooks, there were home cooks. Home cooks, who in this thread are given the name "amateur", are vastly more important in the grand scheme of things than anyone on TV or anyone who cooks at a restaurant. Professional cooking is just the fluff, the icing on the cake. It is the entertainment and it is something that people pay for. But it is not where the real thing resides. The real thing of cooking resides in the home, with home cooks, who cook daily for their families as they have always done, long before TV or the wide-spread availability of thousands of hip cookbooks with "how-to's" on knife skills. P.S. Aside from the main discussion, but as it was raised, I must say that personally, I can't find a thing about Julia Child not to respect.

Could someone define art for me please?

I define a skilled amateur cook as someone who can produce a simple and tasty, nutritionally well-balanced meal for their family or friends. The knife skills do not matter as long how the food is cut serves the family or friends well. Knowing how to create sauces beyond a simple pan sauce would not be a requirement in my book, for the world of sauces as created by chefs were sauces not created for home use in general. Three things define a skilled amateur cook, to me. Know how to purchase good fresh food; know how to roast, braise, and saute; know how to put it all together on a plate. It helps to be able to read and follow a recipe but that is not required. This is, I am assuming, home cooking we're talking about as the term used was "amateur". Now perhaps the "TV Celebrity Chef Level" can be attached to the sig lines, too. Just to be sure we all know where everyone stands. This, is what makes any cook, amateur or professional, skilled. Pay attention to what is in front of you. Pay attention to it and think and respond. If I have been rude about this idea, I apologize just slightly. For instead of the original task of determining where one stood in order supposedly to improve, now the entire thing has gone to not only ranking amateurs but also ranking (yes, they are professional, those TV people listed above) professionals in the field and making personal comparison to them, which is so far apart and away from paying attention to the food in front of one that it is an alternate universe. An amusing one in ways, but really if one is taking the idea of cooking *seriously* then it is a step backwards, for the attention is on surface not reality. i.e. To give an example: I am an amateur physician. Every day I think of how to make people feel better, to give forth to the world better health, just as amateur cooks want to give forth to the world better food. I have my family to practice on, and my friends, just as amateur cooks do. I can offer ideas that I've studied in books but obviously have never called myself a professional as that is an entirely different level. Would I be better off in this task of trying to be a skilled amateur physician by keeping my attention on learning more, or would I be better off by measuring myself against others in my peer group (who, of course, would be every other mother of children in the universe), or else maybe by deciding that my measurement of my skills would be based on the TV physician I most resembled? Of course, I'd have to be Dr. Kildare, based on my own self-measurement. The question asked: My answer: A skilled amateur cook pays attention to what is in front of them and responds to what is going on in the cooking process with common sense and some basic cooking skills. A skilled amateur cook is someone who can produce a simple and tasty, nutritionally well-balanced meal. Yours, always, in all attempts at overweening self-importance, Dr. Karen Kildare

Just came across a reference to timballo, in "Lidia's Italy" (a recent release) . In the section on Naples: From timballo, Lidia goes on to offer pizzele ripiene con scarola e salsiccia, then goes further into discussions of "tiella". There are two fillings offered: The first one of scarola, olive, e capperi; the next of polipo, aglio, ed olio extra vergine de olive. I can not tell you how gorgeous the one filled with octopus looks. (Ha, ha, I just wrote octopus like this: octooooopus. And it looked like an octopus. ) Now, there is no denomiation of this specifically being "picnic food" but I would bet that it's been taken on a picnic now and then. It is just too perfect for the idea to not be. "A bottle of wine, some octopus, and thou."

My best guess (based on the problems you had, particularly the butter seepage) would be that the oven was not hot enough to start off with. Do you have an accurate oven thermometer that you can put in the oven to test the temp? Home ovens often are not too great at calibration.

Oh. This is much more fun. So now, instead of playing "let's measure our skills against certain formal criteria to rank ourselves" it's "I'm just like a celebrity TV chef"? Whoof. Something is coming to mind. What is it . . . I can't remember. Oh I know. It's from biology class so of course I can't remember. What are those animals called that survive by living off the host animal? Darn it, can't think of the term.

I used to use the Lenotre recipe and the only difference I can see is that he puts a bit of rum in the almond pastry cream. Eh. Nothing wrong with an added bit of rum, at all. There are two recipes for Pithiviers in Lenotre - the usual one is flat with a topping of only confectioner's sugar. The other is the Dutch Pithiviers that has the dome shape, more refrigeration time before baking, and which has the added topping of sugar, almond powder and egg white.

Interesting proposition. A sort of a spiritual or romantic quest of the heart that is answered by food. I've read several things exploring this idea lately - one where a woman who is having an affair turns to fulsomely cooking intensely wonderful things for everyone around her, and how she did not do this before the affair and did not do it after the affair was ended. Another, where a man who is emotionally remote shows that by his eating habits in choosing separation from the "norm" of those around him by becoming vegan who then decides at some point in his life that he wants not to be emotionally remote so then enters into the world of eating as others do around him. These sorts of stories do remind me of religious "testimony", as when people stand up in churches and claim they have been "saved". Worthy of thought.

Has anyone read Bull Cook and Historical Authentic Recipes and Practices?

I think it looks good enough so that your guests tonight *should* offer to be your slaves after tasting it.

Haven't read up on horsey yet but just polished off "Having What She's Having" by Scott Korb, a story that links his life of vegetarianism and veganism and self-denial with religion and religious yearnings that then becomes an upside-down tale when he comes to the realization that he wasn't doing what he had told himself he was doing in his food choices for some long time, in terms of becoming the sort of person he wanted to be "through food". A good story.

I would eat them, my son would definitely eat them , my daughter would try one then give the rest to her brother. At close to two dollars a pack, that's a slightly expensive treat to give out though. Unless, of course, you are thinking of making "home-made".

Oh, yeah. Well, you know. I've stopped giving a rat's ass what they eat at school or at friend's houses or even at home pretty much too as long as they are healthy and relatively happy. But the thing is, they *want* to be the kids whose mother brings something wierd. They are constantly encouraging me to be this way. Therefore I must try to live up to their expectations.

Sounds like an interesting book. Let us know what you find out at the signing. The banquet would be fun, wouldn't it.

Here's a nice recipe for Twice-Drunk Walleye. From Field and Stream magazine. Yeah, dude. It's the place to be for cooking. Especially with beer.