Carrot Top

whisks, it looks like a gentle yet firm rice pudding of sorts. No heaviness at the base unless either the rice was packed down too firmly or if the oven is off-temp. ruthcooks asked me to add it to RecipeGullet, so here is the link: Torta di Riso Buona fortuna!

Torta di Riso Serves 6 as Dessert. There is a magnificent Torta di Riso (rice custard cake) in the Williams-Sonoma cookbook series. Served with a cherry-vin santo compote, to me it is the epitome of the soul of Tuscan cooking. Simple and evocative of the warm pleasures of hearth and home - no hints of pretension yet pure, strong, proud. Almost naive yet imbued with a canny instinctual intelligence. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190C) ....................................... 1 lb. cherries 1 Tbs. butter 1 Tbs. sugar 1/4 C vin santo 1 tsp. almond extract 1. Put cleaned and halved cherries, butter, sugar in pan over high heat for three minutes till beginning to soften. Take off heat, add vin santo and almond extract. Over medium heat, cook till alcohol has evaporated (several moments). Set aside. ......................................... Semolina flour and butter to dust pan 1/2 C short-grain white rice 2 C milk 7 eggs 1 C plus 2 Tbs. sugar 1 tsp. rum 1/2 tsp. lemon zest 1/2 tsp. lime zest 1. Lightly butter a 9" round cake pan -dust with semolina flour. 2. Bring enough lightly salted water to a boil over high heat to allow rice to cook "freely". Add rice, reduce heat to medium high, boil ten minutes. (Test to be sure rice is not too underdone before draining.) Drain well, then spread evenly over the bottom of the cake pan. Set aside. 3. Warm milk in saucepan till small bubbles appear along edge of pot. Meanwhile, beat eggs and sugar together with electric mixer till thick and pale yellow (about 5 minutes). Add rum and zests and mix well. 4. While constantly stirring, slowly pour 1/2 C of the warm milk into the egg mix. Stir in remaining milk, then pour entire mix into saucepan. Over low heat, stir constantly till custard forms thick enough to coat a spoon (about ten minutes). Do not allow to boil. 5. Remove from heat, pour over rice in cakepan. 6. Bake 45 minutes to an hour, till toothpick will come out clean. Put pan on wire rack to cool for half an hour, then invert onto plate to remove. Allow to cool to room temp. 7. Serve with compote, cut into slices. ........................................................................... Probably good quality jarred cherries would work in a pinch if fresh are not to be found. Keywords: Dessert, Italian, Intermediate, Rice, Tart ( RG1609 )

The recipe calls for "dark sweet cherries". Of course, what a "dark sweet cherry" is to one person may be different than what a "dark sweet cherry" is to another person, in another place or from another background. Given the quality of the only cherries that I can generally find at my market, honestly if I were making the torte I might use the jar of sour cherries (a good brand) in light syrup that is in my kitchen cupboard that I keep on hand to use in chocolate-cherry torte (and of course, not cook them for so long but barely heat etc etc. . .) But then I love desserts that are not utterly weeping happy tears of sugar glee.

Those were some good suggestions. And as far as labels go, often I give up and just decide to consider them "Americana". But the one thing that caught my eye in your post was this: I thought it read: N Tyrant Water (which is how I often feel about these sorts of waters when the cost is totalled at the cash register ) And now I know - it's all in the packaging. Absolutely tyrannical, it is.

whisks, I got your PM so here is the recipe. . .simply rewritten in different form than the book, but altogether the same. Torta di Riso (serves 6) ...................................... Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190C) ....................................... 1 lb. cherries 1 Tbs. butter 1 Tbs. sugar 1/4 C vin santo 1 tsp. almond extract 1. Put cleaned and halved cherries, butter, sugar in pan over high heat for three minutes till beginning to soften. Take off heat, add vin santo and almond extract. Over medium heat, cook till alcohol has evaporated (several moments). Set aside. ......................................... Semolina flour and butter to dust pan 1/2 C short-grain white rice 2 C milk 7 eggs 1 C plus 2 Tbs. sugar 1 tsp. rum 1/2 tsp. lemon zest 1/2 tsp. lime zest 1. Lightly butter a 9" round cake pan -dust with semolina flour. 2. Bring enough lightly salted water to a boil over high heat to allow rice to cook "freely". Add rice, reduce heat to medium high, boil ten minutes. (Test to be sure rice is not too underdone before draining.) Drain well, then spread evenly over the bottom of the cake pan. Set aside. 3. Warm milk in saucepan till small bubbles appear along edge of pot. Meanwhile, beat eggs and sugar together with electric mixer till thick and pale yellow (about 5 minutes). Add rum and zests and mix well. 4. While constantly stirring, slowly pour 1/2 C of the warm milk into the egg mix. Stir in remaining milk, then pour entire mix into saucepan. Over low heat, stir constantly till custard forms thick enough to coat a spoon (about ten minutes). Do not allow to boil. 5. Remove from heat, pour over rice in cakepan. 6. Bake 45 minutes to an hour, till toothpick will come out clean. Put pan on wire rack to cool for half an hour, then invert onto plate to remove. Allow to cool to room temp. 7. Serve with compote, cut into slices. ........................................................................... Probably good quality jarred cherries would work in a pinch if fresh are not to be found. Karen

There is a magnificent Torta di Riso (rice custard cake) in the Williams-Sonoma cookbook series. Served with a cherry-vin santo compote, to me it is the epitome of the soul of Tuscan cooking. Simple and evocative of the warm pleasures of hearth and home - no hints of pretension yet pure, strong, proud. Almost naive yet imbued with a canny instinctual intelligence. If it sounds like something you would like to try, PM me and I'll send along the recipe.

They take care of preparing the bird for you. There is special equipment that allows them to quickly slaughter, de-feather, and blanch for pinfeathers within a few brief moments while you wait. It is a cost that is built into the "price per pound". As noted earlier in the thread, it is a good idea to go the day before to allow the bird to rest in the refrigerator overnight for tenderness. Someone also mentioned earlier being worried about going to these places "now" and I am assuming it is from a fear of bird flu. Is there anyone out there capable of speaking knowledgeably upon this subject for us? There are no markets near where I live, so the subject has not come up "personally", but certainly it is of some interest. Naturally, these sorts of places do have to be licensed and I would imagine that they are regulated very closely. . .

One thing I also remembered is that sometimes these places *are* listed in the Yellow Pages under "Live Poultry", by the way. . .so if you haven't actually seen one in your city, searching the Yellow Pages may be a way to find them, too. . . . Karen (who finds the library first in any new town, then the live poultry market )

This is something that most people do not think about a lot at this point in time, but certainly there have been times and places where the subject was not moot. In older British (and some US) cookbooks written during the WW2 period you will find notes on this concern, and of course it is said that many of the techniques and cooking methods and cooking vessels of China were developed because fuel (at that time wood or perhaps even coke/coal?) was scarce. One of the ways to address this "today" without really doing any worrying or adjustments in daily life is simply to add some more things to the oven when you do use it, things that can be made into other things later. If you are roasting a chicken, you can throw in some baking potatoes for the purpose of making twice-baked potatoes the next day. . .or a small ham or pork roast which can be made into Cuban sandwiches. . .or beets to roast for a salad or soup. . . or a "oven" rice pilaf that can be dressed and served as a salad after cooling. . .some quick buns, breads, or muffins. . . all sorts of veggies that may taste good roasted then served in a tasty marinade. . .the possibilities are really endless if you put your mind to it, and besides being fuel-efficient it is also time-saving during the week, for when you look in the refrigerator - voila! There is something to "start" something with for a good meal.

Can the dead and the fictional mingle? As in. . .Ghandi and Huckleberry Finn? And can the fictional include characters from television (such as Mr. Ed the Talking Horse) or only print sources? And I also wonder, Maggie, if time-travel is allowed among the dead. . .as in allowing Escoffier to respond to Caesar?

Doesn't it just do your heart good to think of the hundreds of thousands of children that "get their wish" (that they quietly intoned under their breath) fulfilled every day of the year, when they end up breaking off the larger part of the wishbone from the chicken?

Olive Oyl became a cooking show host. Brutus, naturally, is a network producer. What nobody ever really knew about Olive Oyl, though, is something that belongs in this thread, too. Drinking coffee will stunt your growth.

Wonder Bread, however, "builds strong bodies twelve ways". And if you tear off the crusts from the slices and press them between your hands till they form little round balls, it is quite adequate nourishment for the entire day. Obviously it is unneccesary to wash your hands before doing this. Only friendly bacteria ever grows on Wonder Bread.

Nobody ever believed that nonsensical endlessly boring statement about "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" either. What is the very first thing in the lunchbox to get traded if at all possible? The apple. Always the apple.

Bennie's tastebuds were never quite the same after that lightning incident.

Sorry. Can't seem to stop. Eating spinach (if you are a girl) will make you smart. If you are a boy it will make you strong like Popeye. ................................................................... Some people I grew up with believed that if you ate fish on Friday you were among the Righteous and Good. Anyone who did not eat fish on Friday obviously by default was doomed to roast in the flames of eternal Hell when the time came.

Keebler cookies are made by happy elves.

And here is some knowledge that only children know. Grown-ups lose this wisdom, as it does not affect them in their elderly state. . .therefore children always have to know this secret themselves and follow its tenet to the rule or disaster will occur. Eating liver will kill you.

And the reason why I had to start wearing glasses in the second grade was not because everyone in my family wore them, nor was it because of the fact that I used to hide under the covers with a flashlight for hours at bedtime secretly reading books, or for any other reason at all. It was because I did not eat my carrots.

Well there you go. If it was a giant hamburger-shooting hamburger, it just would not be right somehow, would it. Though I would think that instead, you guys should have a giant corncob-shooting corncob. That would work, too - and the theme would match the team, no? Here we have a giant turkey. An orange and burgundy giant turkey. With a loopy-sort of look on its face. It is called a "Hokey-Bird". Isn't that wonderful? But this does bring up mention of competitors to the claim of "America's Food" - whatever happened to "As American as Apple Pie?" or of course, turkey. But maybe turkey is only our semiotic food on Thanksgiving and Christmas - to be tucked away with the decorations for the rest of the year. . .

Of course everyone knows that the way babies come into the world is that we find them under cabbage leaves.

Personally I pictured a skinny looking broccoli sprig with a lisp dancing around in a top hat and tux on top of sump pump beautifully rainbow-painted with dollar signs. Can't say that it made me too hungry.

From The American Heritage Dictionary: aspiration: 1. Expulsion of breath in speech. 2. a. The pronunciation of a consonant with an aspirate. b. A speech sound pronounced with an aspirate. 3. The act of breathing in, inhalation. 4. The process of removing fluids or gases from the body with a suction device. 5. a. A desire for strong achievement. b. An object of such desire; an ambition. (Sigh.)

That food looks great, Rachel - but I have to tell you that when I first read this, I was not concentrating well and for some reason got it into my head from the get-go that you were talking about that Daisy person from MTV rather than this Daisy person from PBS. Uh. Well. Need I say more? P.S. Definitely looks like something to add to the Amazon wish list, this book.

Along with this thought another one to muse upon is The Red Lobster when it is in the state of Maine.