Carrot Top

Those are creamy jobs, Live It Up. .......................................... If anyone has not read the original Times piece, here's a link.

Looks enough like me to pretend it is, Gregg. Less a couple of years. To be slightly serious again for just a moment again, I think it depends on the school. Cooking as a profession is "in" now, so abuses of potential student's trust might be expected to occur in some cases, some places. Maybe part of any first week at a cooking school should include field trips to several kitchens of various sorts of restaurants in the area(s) - unanticipated visits, mid-dinner time. That would be educational, certainly. ............................................................ I hate to see people this age (assuming we are talking about a first career and not the career-changers of later years) go out into the world with massive debt already on their shoulders *before* even having started their economic lives. Particularly considering the average salary of many who work in kitchens and the fact that standard medical benefits are often lacking as part of an employment "package". It's just plain scary and worrisome. I would be pretty sure that most schools do not paint an accurate picture of this to their potential students. If I were them, I would not really want to if I wanted to continue to attract students to the field.

Looking for something else, I just came across something on lamb and farmer's markets that you might enjoy reading on this blog named "Cheese by Hand". The title of the post is called "Lost Lambs".

There are probably lots of people who would be made *very* happy to hear that, if they did post it, based on commentary about Rachel one can read. I'm not sure anyone would want to turn down her bank account if it were offered them, though. P.S. Did Rachel go to "cooking school"? Does anyone know? And if she did, did what they taught her or did the credentials she carried away from it make her who she is in terms of her success? Interesting thought. I always did wonder if universities were set up to create job opportunities for teachers. But then I decided that really, they were rather, set up to create job opportunities for football players.

Most likely yes, based on anecdotal evidence. But of course an alter argument could be made. Long term, the schools as they are being structured are edging the work of cooking towards being a profession rather than a trade. The financial payoff that a profession offers has not seemed to follow as quickly or surely as the aspirations, though. That's for each individual to answer. Sometimes financial rewards are desired or neccesary. Sometimes either they are not, or they are not the primary goal. It's always good to hear all sides of any situation, as much as possible, don't you think? I think that there are no guarantees for anything in life. A degree in any field, from any school, is not an assurance of employment. When I was exec chef for Goldman Sachs I had one dishwasher with a Ph.D in psychology. Another dishwasher with an advanced engineering degree. Three cooks out of ten with M.A.'s, two cooks who graduated from the Culinary Institute of America, one more with a culinary degree from some technical school in Brooklyn. One of the CIA guys was "let go" within several months. The other I promoted to exec chef when I became a corporate drone in the form of VP for all foodservices. The next best guy in line for the exec chef position, in my assessment, was the guy with the tech ed culinary degree. So there were people in that kitchen with degrees in their fields who, for just some reason, did not or could not get jobs in their field of study - regardless of their educational credentials. There were two people in that kitchen who each had expensive culinary educations, who came out on totally opposite ends of the performance spectrum. Then there was the guy with the inexpensive culinary tech education who was a very close runner up to the guy who I did promote to exec chef, and the only reason I didn't choose him was not due to education or skill level but maturity level (which I assume in later years, he found). And then there's me with no education beyond one year of high school. So what I think is that it's a gamble to spend a lot of money on an expensive education with the idea that it will guarantee a certain life-style or a certain job. Bottom-line, though, any education is great if you can stand it, if you enjoy it, and if you can afford it, without screaming or having panic attacks about the future when it might or might not "pay off" in ways "expected" or implied.

Here is an article dated yesterday, May 17, where Carlo speaks of his recent visit to America.

Maybe these additonal clues will make it too easy but so what. Pay attention to the words in the additional clues. 1700's. Christies 2000. ← And monkeys do love to feast. My mother says to eat my veggies.

My most recent food dream was where I met Tony Soprano on the fourth floor of A&S on Fulton Street in Brooklyn. They had made a cafe out of the part where you came off the escalator, small round tables, hanging lamps, bustling, pretty. Tony was waiting for me. I sat down and ordered something and he said "You know, Karen, you make the *best* sauce with ribs in it that I've ever had." He didn't say it, he bellowed it out, laughing, happy, leaning his chair back then hitting the table with his palm. The scene then shifted to some house where apparently I lived. Tony's guys were driving me home, and when I got out of the car, two of them got out with me and wandered over to the old lady neighbor who was weeding in her yard and said "She makes the best sauce. You know that?!" and the old lady just shook her head at it all. I walked into my house, feeling famous and important. Though confused. ................................................ Nice when a dream sets itself up to stoke your ego, huh?

I think that would have been as strong a hint as the triangle. It would have been a spark to intellect rather than to visual memory, perhaps. Usually, with me, my visual memory is stronger. I wonder if intellectual memory is stronger than visual memory in most people, or not. That would be interesting to know in terms of how to best phrase the clues. There have been two ways I've found the answers to the ones I managed to guess. Either the image was in my brain (as Judy Chicago's piece was) or there was enough of a hint as to the genre or time so that some ideas as to who it *might have been* that did it, could lead to other artists if the initial guess was wrong. And that just takes lots of sorting through stuff. I'm happy no matter if the clue is easy or difficult, though, for (oh god how banal) "it's the process that matters". It's just fun to see *all* this stuff.

Yep. Judy Chicago's "The Dinner Party". Wiki on Judy. The writing of clues is difficult , isn't it.

The closest I can come is eleven men in foppish collars and big hats. And though it is proclaimed a feast, there is no food being shown except for what looks like some cucumber slices and dried-out bread. The guy on the bottom right is holding his tummy as if it hurts. Maybe they already ate and it wasn't too good.

Nope, that's not it. I'll be back later to check if anything else is posted. Have to go get my hair cut and hope that I do not end up like this artwork, though. Wow. Fukuda is very cool!

You think that's bad, not being able to link? Hah. I just posted a long answer to this and it landed on another thread entirely. Anyway. Better keep it short and sweet before something else wierd happens. Now you have earned yet another meal, insomniac. You have a photographic memory, don't you.

Nice piece, Russ. I think the perfection of a real berry can only be momentary. Hours, even, can make a difference. This having to deal with the imperfection of time as it works against things is a PITA, isn't it.

New one: 27. Japanese Archimboldo Cabbage Headed Killer ( )

Don't ask how I did it, because it is obviously due to lack of coffee or perhaps just impending idiocy. I intended to add some more information onto the remaining clues I had but added them on to an older post instead of *here*. So if you want more clues, look back at post 50. This is sort of a real treasure hunt, I guess. Twists and unintended turns everywhere. Maybe I can pretend I meant to do it.

Yeah, the rubber bands. Heh. I used to have acreage and liked the idea of lambs. It was just those rubber bands that sort of flew through my dreams at night that made me decide to not do it. The Farmer's Market here (Blacksburg) has one vendor that sells beef (frozen cuts) from their farm. They do a good business. As you are further north towards DC (I imagine, anyway), with even more of the "foodie" type thing going on, I would imagine you could do fairly well at a Farmer's Market near you, with lamb. Might be worth a call to the management of the market(s) to see what their rules are, if you have enough to sell and are willing to give up some Saturdays or pay someone to cover the stand for you. I'd buy lamb if it were here at the market. There is a guy who runs one of the farms attached to the university who grows lambs, a flock of them each year. They're basically used to test different feeds and grasses. Each year he sells out, ahead of time, in the Fall. He just trucks them to one of the slaughterhouses nearby and the people pick them up "ready to go" from there. Maybe you should just have a big party with lots of roast lamb.

Yes! I'll have to work on refining my clue-writing. I would offer you a tisane as your prize, but probably it would have to be in a different cup.

The best source of information would be your County Agricultural Co-op Service person. They are fantastically knowledgeable and are a completely free service. You can find the phone # in the usual section that has government-type lists in the phone book. The downside is that often they can be very busy, particularly in the Spring and Fall. If you hit it right, you might get a visit to your place where you can chew the fat. Or so to speak Good luck. Oh. Get info ASAP about the young male lambs. They can be uh . . . "troublesome" if left to their own devices, I hear.

You are simply brilliant, dahlink. Here is the link: The Lobsterphone Where you can eat and talk at the same time. And it is subtitled "The Aphrodisiac Phone" so one can only image what else could happen. You win a lobster dinner, insomniac. I'll try to PM you a bit later (must run out now) with my own arcane method of posting links. It may confuse you further, though. Sigh. It took me some time to learn how, too.

Since I'm unsure of both my clue-writing skills and how popular these pieces might be, I'll keep trying to add more information. 1700's. Christies 2000. Three items in painting. All start with S. One is a sandwich. Silkscreen.

And that was a great job on 20. and 22.! I kept seeing a different scene, for each of the paintings described above. On the children and cat one I saw a little girl in a red dress in the style of "The Blue Boy" in the foreground of a long wooden banquet table filled with jolly people. One of those children that is painted as if they were a miniature adult, you know. The proportions of the painting were not exactly "true" but a bit stilted. The colors of the painting were fairly bright. I kept thinking "American" or "Renaissance". On the cat one, with the fish, I saw a close-up of a cat - a striped greyish cat, with a stripped-of-meat sole *almost* collected from the table in its teeth. The bones of the fish were clear and the cat was scrunched up ready to grab it and jump off the table. Well now. I have to wonder if these are figments of my imagination or not. They were very clear, if they were. Very "painterly" too. Heh. Aaargh.

Yep. Easy but classic, I thought.

Three more: 24. See no evil, Speak no evil, Hear no evil and a cohort dine on a ham (among other things) as the god of wine beams down upon them. 25. Pop! Goes my luncheonette meal. 26. My mom made it with milk and served it with grilled cheese sandwiches.

Oh. Plus it's very sexy. Saganaki, I mean. Almost forgot to add that.