Carrot Top

You're absolutely right, Sandy. I was just writing along there and didn't stop to think of all the possiblities in that moment. It was the words I was thinking about, not the reality. Often a problem with me. It was that cigar/cigarette thing. The diminutive of the word seems to follow along unquestioningly. *Maybe* (heh) what should be asked here is why the diminutive of the word always infers "female"? But anyway, after I read Secret Ingredients - Race, Gender and Class at the Dinner Table which just arrived yesterday I'll probably be more in shape to find the right words. Maybe. Wanna borrow it after I read it?

I ran across it at the library, too, Lori. The series in general has been excellent, but this one is well. . .*fabulous*! Nothing complicated to cook in these books, which is good for most of the time when one has children around. Nice little touches and ideas in most of the recipes. Two days ago one of the salad recipes seemed nice. My usual cucumber-tomato with red onions and lots of parsley salad morphed into a recipe from the book (or close to it, anyway ) using cukes, red peppers, celery, red onions, and the most important touch, fresh mint and cumin. Well. What can I say. *Fabulous*! (Yes, the children devoured it. )

I've met women who would make that sort of statement. Actually I remember one in particular who used to try to get me to go out drinking and dancing with her (the dancing being flatfooting and the drinking being in places she insisted that I needed to experience called "beerjoints" in WV). I also remember trying to get my feet into her car through the empty beer cans on the passenger side floor of the car. Takes all kinds. Anyway, I am not sure whether to say "be glad" or not, that you do not live in Kazakhstan, for there we can see both "lettuce ladies" and others who are very blunt about what they feel about men and salad. The Lettuce Ladies of Kazakhstan (Hmmm. Love those outfits. ) But then, of course: Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

The only thing that can top the Christmas markets in Vienna is the midnight mass at St. Stephens Church. The choir, all boys, must be angels in those moments. A traditional seven-course Christmas Day dinner that *must* be eaten, every course, brings one back to earth in a solidly satisfying way. The visions of the markets with gorgeous glittering baubles in the bright cold daylight, everyone bundled in hats and heavy coats and scarves and boots, the puffs of breaths showing when anyone spoke. . . the sounds of the singing angels in the warm high-ceilinged, crowded church where one had to stare at pillars reaching daintily yet with great strength soaring upward to the artwork that filled each tiny inch of the walls, the table that sat so very firmly ready to hold course after course, wine after wine, of hot savory things to be finished at the finale with that most wonderful thing in the world - a cart full of Viennese pastries rolled to the table, served up, dolloped with cream, sidled with hot bitter coffee. That was my one Christmas in Vienna.

But if those trees do not grow in your area, here is a recipe. Most grocery stores have fresh wonton wrappers available (in the produce section), unless you really want to make those yourself from scratch.

Well. . .if spaghetti grows on trees I don't see why wontons wouldn't.

Yeah. . .there goes that idea I had for taking myself out for dinner at The French Laundry. Oh well. Another time. If you want to really see the difference between the older Gourmets and the newer ones, zeffer81, find some of the old issues for December and compare them with more current issues. I think you'll see a big difference not only in overall content but also content amount. . . also tone. . .and finally, recipes - in tone, amount, *and* content or "style". December 1971, for example, has articles on Christmas in Vienna (by Lillian Langseth-Christiansen); Christmas in Cornwall (by Derek Tangye); A Dutch Celebration (by Dale Brown); The Bachelor Chef (Donald Aspinwall Allen); Foods for Holiday Giving; Cooking with James Beard - Frozen Desserts; A Thai Christmas (by Elizabeth Lambert Ortiz); Dark Rum Cookery (Elizabeth Lambert-Ortiz); Gourmet's Christmas Gifts; Gourmet's Menus Christmas Dinner; The Art of the Mandoline; and Stuffed Potatoes for "The Last Touch". I'm wondering what this year's December's issue holds. Might have to go out and get it to compare. (It's possible that I am just enamoured of a certain style, and that there *is* just as much and just as good in the current issue. Eh. How could that be?) P.S. I'm actually getting a bit spooked by these 1971 magazines, because there is a guy I used to date (a few years after that, 1975 or so) who was one of the most popular male models then, smiling at me here and there in ads through the issues. There is Jim with a martini glass, holding it up with a demure grin. There he is again, waving a hello to someone out over the side of the yacht where of course one drinks gin. He squints out in a macho sort of way from behind a cigarette. Yikes. Grownups were so very grownup then.

Or of course you could always make something from orange lentils. . . a nice Indian soup filled with warming spices perhaps. . .

The sturdy Dandelion arrives at any greens fight lickety-split dressed up with bacon and slivered onions. Having pushed up through tough rocky soil, a sidewalk crack or the aggravating neighbors yard where the everyday killing of Dandelions is rampant and seen as a given Right, Dandelion is a tough street-fighter sort. Arugula, on the other hand, pulls up in a Porsche. Delicately, the door is opened and Arugula steps out. A scent of the finest balsamic vinaigrette wafts out and a tiny sliver of exotic mushroom is worn tilted sideways on the head. Arugula has been coddled in the neat fields of Organic Snootyville Farm, where even the dogs talk to the plants to assure happy growth. Which one you gonna bet on?

Depends on the place and the guy. Dear real rough, tough, buff and sexy SB: Salad used to be called "rabbit food". Guys don't usually take to being called rabbitty. Quiche. Well. Just listen to it. It sounds like Peter Sellers trying to speak French. Amusing.

Mango Smoothie? Orange Sorbet or Sherbert? Grand Marnier for the Grownups? Marmalade or Orange Curd Tartlets?

Daresay if you sat down and wrote "The Cake and Okra Bible" that would succeed, too. Never saw a book like that before.

Yes, of course. To me, Shavuot is Noodle Kugel Day. And I think there should be a Noodle Kugel Day each month. India is marvellously full of festivals, isn't it, Milagai. I am always astonished and impressed! You have explained exactly how I feel about turkey with those words.

Don't ask me. I'm sitting here wondering why on earth I ever gave away my first four issues of Art Culinaire which they're saying on another thread are selling for six hundred fifty dollars or so.

The only group I know of in the US that seriously celebrates Epiphany (besides some ex-Brits) are those who attend the Greek Orthodox Church (which uses the Julian rather than the Gregorian calendar to date celebrations). Don't know if that's any help in answering your question.

There *are* places in the world where this has happened in modern times. It is happening in places at this very moment. War. Soils that have been depleted since pre-historic times unable to produce enough to eat. Starvation, and one person killing another for a handful of food. No easy solutions. Certainly no solutions "right there", easy to implement. And what comes in (not enough, of course, ever, seemingly) to try to help *are* the products of industrialized agriculture, shipped halfway across the world quickly, not in boats moved by sail, and what comes in to help additionally are the developing ideas of modern (sigh, yes industrialized) agriculture studies by those who, when faced with a "nothing" in front of them in terms of soil and geography, try to find a "something" so that people who do live there can hopefully find a way to live. There are no grocery stores or on-line shopping for these people to fall back upon. There is only the hopeful goodwill of others who do not live where they live. It's only serendipity that any of us were not born to live in these unrelenting places. ......................................................... Farming is hard work, Sunny, of a type suited not for everyone. . .as you say. I'm not suited for it, but have great respect for anyone who does manage to do it.

Two mentions of Laurie Colwin made me realize that she was one of the writers I've never read a lot of (she wrote mostly in the 90's, didn't she? I wasn't reading Gourmet hardly at all them. . .). Since she seems to have really been someone important to read (based on your thoughts), I ordered "Home Cooking" - a collection of her essays. It just came and even without delving in too far, I am totally thrilled. Thanks!

Trust Me Knock-knock Who's there? The cannibal who lives upstairs A cannibal? Then I'm dead meat Nonsense! Do you think I'd eat My neighbor? Crunch. Yum. Never trust a cannibal

Gosh but it's fun flipping those two words around in that sentence while imagining the Life and Times of Busboy. (Edited to alter a phrase for I was starting to sound like a guy from Coney Island who eats only in restaurants with bullet-proof windows. )

I don't think OCD is encroaching, nor the dreaded sin of being "girly". And probably you didn't pay a consultant "up to $1200 per hour" to learn these things (as some people do need to), as this article discusses: Mind your Manners There are also some fun retro shorts (movies, not what one wears ) from Emily Post featuring two women (ladies ) learning how to dine, on this site: Taste TV (Of course, just sitting through the fifteen second commercial previous to the piece teaches manners, too. . .sigh) That sounds interesting.

Can I have a T-shirt with that written on it? This is what I wrote: Did each one aside from the garden and chicken coop.

Actually I am not going to look anymore, because I just went on Amazon and ordered this: Secret Ingredients: Race, Gender and Class at the Dinner Table Sounds thrilling, doesn't it? Must. Not. Order. More. Books.

Here's something more on gender's role in food cravings. (Here's a link to an abstract of a thesis which discusses this in scholarly terms: Comfort Food Preferences Across Age and Gender) Of course here "comfort food" is what is being discussed, without the additional social impetus of dining out in public with others. Would be nice to find more on that - I'll look a bit.

My sense is that perhaps parts of the article are "right", perhaps some not. Just as with most things in life, including articles in the daily newspaper. There is the fact to be considered, in reading this, that it is in a British publication, writing for that specific audience. There can often be anywhere from a small to a large difference in the "style" and tone of the writing. These differences are sometimes quite apparent in restaurant reviews in British publications as opposed to those in American publications. The humor is often different, in particular. I think this article was meant to be humorous, and that the archness used in the style of writing was meant to hint at that. It would be interesting to hear a native Brit's opinion on it, though.

No harvest festivals to tell of. Probably due to industrial agri-business.