Carrot Top

Oh God I am totally in stitches. And I am headed out the door at this moment for the grocery store. Maybe I can find some Pork "Leon".

How about a noodle kugel? Anyone out there have a great recipe?

That thing in the front looks like some sort of upside-down frog-like happy doll, Chufi. Can you see his little arms, eyes, and mouth? And laying next to him it looks like a bookbag in which he stuffed his dead companion after he murdered him. Aaaah! I love it!

And then of course, you can call it a "tian" or Provencal vegetable casserole and be quite elegant.

Of course an alternate view on the dish-doing with your hubby or wife idea is to not be married and instead to have a paramour come to visit when there are no children about. The concept involved in this alternate view involves both of you looking at the dishes, him nicely offering to help wash up, then both of you deciding that there are much better things to do than wash dishes. That the dishes can wait till the morning. Or alternately, till the afternoon. Or whenever. Just an alternate view, you know. Not as romantically nor as beautifully phrased as your concept was, Busboy, but nevertheless with some aspects of romance residing within it. Or so I believe, anyway.

Thank you for reminding me of Joni Mitchell. The only CD I have by her at the moment is "For the Roses" (which I played this morning. . .). I was astonished to see that four out of the twelve songs had food imagery in them. She really had an eye for the glowing brightness, the sheer physicality of food. A social critic, too, in a sense. But full of gaiety and joy also. (The songs with poetic food imagery were "Banquet"; "Barangrill"; "Lesson in Survival"; and "Judgement of the Moon and Stars - Ludwig's Tune".)

Pastisio. Wonderful casserole. Greek. Yum.

They have the standard contract on-line with information as to how everything works in terms of privacy and security. I let you know if my computer crashes or if anything terrible happens. (I did download the site.) Somehow I am lucky so far with downloads. Not a single virus, and absolutely no spam. I use Mozilla for the most part and have Norton for protection. Norton. Sounds like some skinny little guy. But he does the job.

God, you are so right. Add my scream to yours, please.

Well. . .it sure takes more time to learn than making a strudel does, but then the rewards may be greater, too. Though some might argue that there is no reward greater than apple strudel.

Lentil milt, undoubtedly. ................................................... I still think this one is almost too good-looking to belong here, though.

Sweeeeeeet. Yet more reasons to be sitting here glued to the computer. But thank you, nonetheless.

Normally I agree with you. But I'm telling you, this shredding thing worked. The apples were completely cooked through and there was no leaking - the filling was rather dense and sturdy - I just line it up along the edge and rolled. I actually put this recipe in a Rosh Hashana cooking column - I will no doubt receive feedback from my very vocal readers - I'll let you know if anybody had a problem with it . ← I've used both methods that you list above, both worked. But I do have a sense that the choice of apples one uses in the shredding method might be important. Some give off more juice when cooking. What variety did you use, Pam? And do you both use breadcrumbs in your strudels in between the layers? Or not? (I always do, the final texture seems better to me.) Of course I don't know if this would make it non-Kosher for you, Pam. Have you ever done it with matzoh crumbs in between?

What a shame. It is one of the few that I truly enjoy. I imagine there is some focused way that the advertisers have traced the usefulness of their advertising in these magazines though. . .to amount of sales generated. Maybe then, the wave of the future will be to have more online "magazines" that are directly reader-supported rather than advertiser supported. It does cut out that cost factor of "real" manufacture and distribution. Personally, my direction lately has been to spend money on books or on online journals and avoid the print mags. Last time I looked at "Vogue" (not that I have much use for it here, and not that it would do me any good anyway having passed the age of twenty five or so ) I had the devil of a time even finding the real articles for the mass of ads. Food mags seem to be angling this direction, too. Aggrevating.

Oh! Really this is a wonderful thread! How very endearing and happy are our imperfections when they happen (which of course is not often, not often ) ! Now this is the thread that really might force me to use a camera just for the fun of it. Documentation of the excellent. . .that is all well and fine. But documentation of the mind-boggling nonsense that life dishes out even as we seek perfection. . .that. . .as they say. . .is priceless.

Okay, I'll give up my hard-earned secrets. Here is a recipe that my mother made. It was one of six things she could make that were quite tasty. She claims that this recipe came from her own mother whom *she* said only made two things that were decent to eat: this recipe and Swedish Pea Soup that her seafaring Swedish husband (my grandfather) had taught her. Progress is obviously made in generations. I loved this as a child and would probably like it okay now. It's pretty good. Here it is, written in my mother's words and spellings from an old index card. Hamberg Casserole 1 good-size onion, 1/2 green pepper. Saute in skillet. Remove and put in casserole. In same skillet put 1/2 lb. hamberg and cook until crumbly. Put in casserole and add 1/2 can tomatoes (size 2 can), 1/4 cup of uncooked rice, 1/2 tsp. salt, 1/2 tsp. chili powder, 1/2 tsp. pepper. Bake about 35 minutes in 375 oven - cover! casserole. It is taking every ounce of my willpower not to re-write that as a nice neat little standardized recipe, but even the form carries something about the recipe, so I am resisting my impulse! It is incredibly inexpensive. . .the story is my grandmother found the recipe on the side of a box or something during the Depression. Yummy, too, particularly for children. Edited to add: A 1970's sort of popular casserole that did not use canned soup or its ilk was "Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic". Remember that one?

Interesting question, Jennifer. I've noticed the same thing. I have no idea as to the realities of the cost of paper and customer spending pattern thing, but have noticed that magazines (and there seem to be a zillion more of them on the racks) seem to be skewing themselves much more either "upscale" or "plain everyday/almost slightly downscale". Sort of the "I am an everyday person" thing or "I am not just an everyday person". But the shininess factor can occur in either the expensive ones or the cheaper ones. There are several expensive ones I can think of (mostly "New Age" or "Intellectual" focused) whose pages are extremely matte but also very thick and lovely. It would seem that people must be willing to pay for magazines, since so very many are published. But oof! They are becoming expensive. Or maybe it is just that I am getting old and cranky and anything that is not *really* important and fine just seems expensive. Sorry to wander off answering Jennifer's question, Chris. I hope you will put up with me. I do realize I take some putting up with. I have not seen the Saveur. I keep wandering online to read whatever content turns up there, instead. (That actually may be a factor in your assessment of how the new issue has been re-formatted. The younger among us who have grown up being bombarded by a variety of medias, all very visual. . .including the internet. . .may have given some sort of feedback in studies about how the pages looked. . .not "busy" enough to capture their interest or perhaps not in smaller appetizing "bytes"?)

Your reputation is the most valuable part of your business. It can not be regained as quickly as the cost of a batch of muffins if it is tarnished.

My God, can you feel the breaths expanding within yourself when you read this?! And it is words. Just words. Astonishing.

It's a failing that I only allow to happen for a short portion of the day, Bond Girl. It is rather dull and tiresome. Karen

project, you might enjoy searching the bookstore or library (or Amazon under "Professional Books") for books specifically detailing restaurant operations and management. They do cover the subjects you seek knowledge about. As far as words used in fiction being a lesser carrier of emotion or the grand meaning of things, that is up to each individual to decide. As science has discovered, we all learn differently and what words can do for one person they may not do for another. Chacun sa gout. There is no "one way". If you are angry about what you were taught in school, or feel that you were forced to learn things that were just plain wrong, that is one thing. If it is very important to you that this not be so for other people then it would seem to me that the way to help others see the light would be to write (?) something that they would take to in response. Would music have people understanding your point? Would art, to the general public, have them understanding your point? Or would it take the years of formal education in the subject for one to capture your meaning? Would science have people understanding your point? It might, but it would need be put into words, for most of us speak in words, in language. Perhaps you would have us all speaking mathematics so all would be clear and concise. But as we have been speaking language for thousands of years, you would need the words to teach the mathematics, to do the translation. If you would have people understand your point, it must be done in language, and it must be done well, and it must be done so that it is appealing. It must appeal to the human spirit for most human beings to be interested in reading the words that would lead to any truth of any sort. You sound so very angry with fiction. ................................................................................. I will tell you one thing. You want to know how to become a chef. How to walk that path. A path must be walked and even sometimes chopped through based on one's own personal narrative. Fiction provides narratives. Personally, I never could have become anything at all in life but probably a victim of sorts given the circumstances of my own young life if it were not for fiction. For books. For stories. Believing as a child that I *was* in a sense Pippi Longstocking carried me to being a chef. Much more than any knife skills or oyster-opening skills did. They were only the way. Not, the path. Both are required. A way and a path. ..................................................................................... Edited to add that I am truly sorry to hear of the loss of your wife. She sounds like a most marvellous person, a true and good friend and love. My sincerest condolences and thoughts to you.

Yes, the testicle comment struck me as colorful. That is what captured my interest. Sexist, I could care less about. It is or it isn't, it doesn't bother me in the least. Obsess about it, no, definitely not. Just trying to understand how the thing worked since he mentioned it. .......................................................... Edited to add: Just so that it does not appear that I do not take the interview "seriously", I should add that the questions Bond Girl asked were excellent. The thought comes to mind that the venue of telephone interviewing might be fraught with difficulties. The time is short and depending on how focused or not one is, there is no going back on whatever comes out of one's mouth. Clark is an enormously bright and talented guy from what I know of his work. It will be a pleasure to learn more about what he has to say on the business aspect of things when he comes back to eGullet as a panelist in the upcoming discussion.

Milagai, the only similar thing I have heard of with grapes is very cold grapes served with sour cream and a generous sprinkling of brown sugar. That is very good. But I have no idea of the provenance of the recipe.

Okey-doke. Let's try this again. . . "I have eaten so much. . ." Rumi You will have to scroll down a bit to find the poem.

Sorry to go on about this. . .but how does one know when the chef's second testicle has descended? This is important, obviously, in terms of knowing whether to support this chef or not. Maybe they could erect (heh) something on top of the restaurants of the various chefs that are "in the running"? Something like the thing the ball falls from on New Years Eve in Times Square? So that when the magical moment happens, just everyone who is anyone can know and rejoice. It is better than the other option I thought of, anyway.