Eden

Creepy! Big brothering the entire school system because a couple parents are control freaks is just wrong. If there's an individual case, like the kid with diabetes, then that childs family needs to find an individual solution. (like talking to the cafeteria workers to make sure none of them sell him sweets anymore) This reminds me of a regulation they were trying to pass at some school (district?) near here that children could not trade lunches I remember how cool it was to be able to try new foods by swapping. I think it's a great thing for learning about differences between cultures, and brroadening your palate as well A little bologna for the kosher kid is not going to kill (or damn) her, a little tuna salad for the vegetarian, likewise. Now if a child has life-threatening allergies, it's another matter & you need to teach that child special rules, but when we're talking about the majority, hey let 'em mix it up a little! Oh and re the big-brother panties, if you click through the ordering button you see that they must be jazz*, but I bet they're not too far from being available. Heck you can microchip your kids already... *well faked e-articles/websites

I asked a friend who's an "industrial hygenist" about this. here's a bit of her reply:

Thanks for letting us know about this site Randi! I just got my order today & they smell fabulous! I got some of each to do my own taste test :-> Can't wait to cook with them...

goodness, that's almost $20/pound! I would have thought that hazelnuts would be cheaper in europe than peanuts, given that hazelnuts are a part of traditional cuisine, at least in Italy, and peanuts are decidedly not... I was planning to serve it on fruit, or possibly a nut torte* or even just a spoon if I like it as much as nutella *Another experiment still rumbling around my brain is a nut torte made from almond flour w/almond oil and egg white, and maybe a pinch of fructose.

I have made quince paste at home (with sugar) and it is usually a tiny bit grainy from the natural texture of the fruit. I notice this a little in most of the commercially available quince pastes as well, except the mexican Membrillo, which must be strained like jelly before finishing. I'm surprised they added pectin; quince is pretty much the King of pectin fruits. by the way homemade quince paste is super easy to make, if you want a version that's less sweet. Just add some red wine & spices & you've got the Medieval French version That's great Eden. It's fat free, correct? When you are eating out, you can't always control the hidden sugars. There are a few things to consider though. Most industrially made sausage and bacon, in fact most processed meats (sandwich meat like ham, chicken loaf, etc.) are cured with sugars. Keep on the lookout for words ending with "ose", sucrose, glucose, dextrose, etc. Malt is also a bad one. Go to the store and read the ingredient labels on the processed meats. It's scary! Your best bet is to try and steer clear of the breakfast meats. A 3 egg omlette with cheese and onions is an example of something you can order out, or steak and eggs. Be careful! Another thing to avoid in restaurants is salad dressing. Sugary gook. Ask for oil and vinegar. If you adore bacon, sausage, etc. and want to have it at home, do some legwork and find a source that contains no sugar. It's not going to be easy because sugar is a widely used industrial preservative. You could also make your own. ← Yes indeed the yoghurt cheese is fat free. I made it myself to be sure. Re the sausage, you're right I didn't think of the hidden sugars, which is silly because I've been searching desperately for sugar-free ham/bacon at all the stores in town this week with NO success. I must have read about 100 packages of ham/bacon! Given the number of eco-groovy grocery stores in Seattle, you'd think I could find something, but no... At least with sausage I know I can probably get something that's wheat and sugar free from The Market, and if not, I make a tasty sausage myself in a pinch. I have a question: Does the French version of Montignac discuss nut-butters at all? (the US version does not) I was thinking yesterday that you could make home-made nutella fairly easily, by just pureeing hazelnuts to a butter, and adding in a bit of ground cocoa and maybe a spoonful of fructose. I can't find #s for hazelnuts, but I assume that like peanuts which start with a GI of 15 and go to GI 20 when you make (pure) peanut butter, that hazelnut-butter would also be fairly low GI (if high fat)

I just have to share this, it reminds me of a post upthread where Loic and his sister ate most of your loaf of pain integral: Bill made a huge deal when we were shopping this weekend that I had to get him some "regular bread" so he wouldn't be stuck eating my scary whole grain stuff, but then he got a taste of the wonderful pain integral style bread I bought, and now he's completely ignoring his bread and eating mine

My biggest cooking problems seem to always come when I ignore that funny little feeling. I try to keep in mind that my instincts are more to be trusted than someone else's written down recipe, because even if they are the greatest chef ever, transcription errors occur, or their onions are different from mine, or..., but it's always a bit hard to think you know better than the recipe when cooking a dish you haven't tried before... re the quenelles: is it possible that the humidity in the kitchen also plays a role in how much liquid you need to add?

Unfortunately I'm having unrelated problems sleeping so my energy level is the pits right now, though perhaps better than it would be with the usual sugars coursing through my veins? the herbed yogurt cheese on rye bread has been my main breakfast since figuring out that the fruit/yogurt combo doesn't work for me, but yesterday I had a breakfast out so I ordered an egg with a small side of sausage . Actually I ate all 3 meals out yesterday which was a good challenge for me, and managed to stay pretty well within the montignac guidelines. I made a wonderful curried chicken salad the other day with Non-fat yoghurt and am thinking of making another batch to have on mornings when I just HAVE to have serious protein, but don't want to break into the lipids... I had a piece of apple as my fruit this morning & found it to be both more filling & less of a sugar buzz for me than the other fruits I've been eating, so I will probably try & stick with apples for breakfast, and save bingeing on cherries for lunch

This goes back to the "what works for you as an individual" issue. I love smoothies, but for me they have to be a dessert. Likewise I confirmed the other morning that just yoghurt and fruit spread is not the right breakfast for me. My body recognizes the fruit sugars but not enough of the protein in the yogurt to counterbalance it, so I go flying off on a sugar-buzz... Even this morning, I had a (greenish) banana with my yoghurt cheese & toast, and I should have stopped at half a banana Breakfast has always been hard for me, I don't like eating in the morning to start with & I'm always very susceptible to sugars in the early hours, so I usually just make a scrambled egg, or else wait till later and eat leftovers (cold pizza is nature's perfect breakfast food ) I know I can have eggs occasionally, but since lipid breakfasts shouldn't be everyday I still need to figure out what I can do within montignac's guidelines that will work well for me. This first week will be about experimenting...

peach and rose scented Geranium sorbet! you cook the geraniums in the sugar syrup with the peaches & then pull them out before you puree...

Eden, who is the speaker? The conference is the Joint 2005 Annual Meetings of the AGRICULTURE, FOOD, AND HUMAN VALUES SOCIETY (AFHVS) and the ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF FOOD AND SOCIETY (ASFS) The speaker for this particular session is Rachel Eden Black, Universita' degli studi di Torino. (no relation) They are indeed. I was just watching Jaques Pepin prepare a simple ChickPea Ragout with fresh tomato and it made me all happy to realize I could have that,. Then I realized that one of my favorite appetizers, which is portobello mushrooms broiled with a bit of brie & some spices, would be a fine addition to a carb free meal. I have yogurt draining right now to make an herbed yoghurt-cheese spread later, and am about to go make chicken broth. Life is good. I had to laugh at breakfast this morning though. I had plain yogurt with a bit of pure-fruit strawberry spread, and suddenly remembered my poor mother trying to get me to eat the exact same thing when I was young instead of the pre-sweetened commercial yoghurts and I would have none of it, no way, no how! but here I am years later, choosing it for myself

I was looking at the schedule for a food conference coming up in Portland (OR), and one of the sessions is entitled "Saturday Morning Market: Provisioning and Sociability in Lyon, France" I feel like I've already attended this session just by reading your blogs I note that this recipe uses a fair amount of cream (as did the other quenelle recipes I found online without wheat in them) so If I understand the rules correctly you will need to avoid carbs in the meal with with your quenelles? Does Loic's mother really put the equivalent of jarred gefilte fish in with her blanquette de veau? Olives I could understand... I may have to go pick up some veal & try that sabayon with it, it looks incredible. Nice idea of just making some rice on the side for Loic. My husband is a skinny little carb-based life form & I need to find ways to keep him happy & healthy at the same time that I'm doing this for myself.

what I loved was the friend we invited to a special dinner party, who I knew didn't like "fatty foods" and was big on plain vegetables, so I specifically bought artichokes for my veg so that while the rest of us could have a lovely sauce with our chokes, she would be able to eat hers plain, and presumably be happy. She spent a large portion of the evening dissing artichokes, talking about how horribly wasteful they are because you only eat such a tiny part of them, blah blah blah. (Yet I've seen her down corn with no qualms on multiple occasions! ) She has not been invited back & we only see her now in large group settings.

and no-one mentioned home-made madeleines yet???? Whenever I make madeleines we save the whites to make angel food cake or meringues. Whenever we make meringues I save the yolks to make madeleines...

Thank you, you are a great inspriation. I am taking your advice & thinking about the wonderful dishes I will make. Like kichree (basmati rice & dal with spices, yum!) and Greek chicken with olives, and your lentils with bacon, and... I cleaned out the cabinets today & moved all the phase II foods up out of line of sight. I think you are right. I haven't had to worry about how "whole" my whole-wheat was previously so I haven't paid attention to this detail in commercially available products here, and of course I have no problem with being told "make your own", but your average guy walking down the street doesn't know how easy and fun it is to throw some flour & liquids together & walk away with fresh pasta or home-made bread... I read somewhere that Montignac's first attempt to break into the American market flopped because the book was "too scientific" and having read bits of that edition several years back I do think this latest book is "montignac-light", so in that spirit especially he'd avoid "asking too much" of his readers... I looked at the website & they have a bunch of meal suggestions including some with whole wheat pasta, so I am going to assume that it is safe & go ahead & make my own.

I have just finished reading Montignac's latest book "The French Diet" (TFD) and I find several interesting differences between what he has written for the American market and what you have related from the French edition. Among other things, he suggests in TFD that Lunch should be the largest meal of the day rather than Breakfast. from re-reading your blog, you apparently were allowed butter in limited amounts, while in TFD it is verbotten. In the cheese department you seem to have been given free rein, while TFD strictly limits one to low/no fat cheeses. you were able to make your own whole-grain pasta, but in TFD all pasta except cold spaghetti (?) is forbidden. I wonder why the changes. Is it that he thinks we white-flour addicted americans can't be trusted with any lee-way in the grain and butter department? I am spending the next few days finishing up some social obligations & a box of special chocolates while I think about how best to incorporate this diet into my life, after which I'll be joining you. Good luck to us all.

I am certainly guilty of this, as are many of my friends & usually it's all fun & games: I make cassoulet, my friend David does a 7 course blow-out feast every New-Years, my friend Holly used to make art out of marzipan, etc. but what I don't like is when it becomes a big competitive ego thing along the lines of "YOU aren't allowed to make cassoulet - we all know that I'M the fabulous cassoulet maker around here". In a reverse of showing off I will actually avoid mentioning to people that I've been cooking certain types of foods that are "their" specialty, because I just don't want to get into it what a waste of energy to feel threatened because someone else is cooking something well that you also cook well...

Just saw a sign up: ex Max & Bookers on Market St. in Ballard (which was previously the Burger King) is now going to become, wait for it... a Burger King I wonder if the new franchise owners asked about why the last one failed???

Sunday I finally had time to make pizza. We went for a simple pepperoni & mozzarella pie. The results were tasty, but still not what I'm trying for. I really want to make a good Neapolitan style pizza, and what I got was very nice home-made pizza... There were several issues: STRETCHING THE CRUST: I can get the center thin enough for neapolitan style now, but it thickens up far more than I want it too at the outer edge, and I just feel awkward & klutzy through the whole stretching process, like I don't know what to do with my hands... I was just about ready to use a rolling pin! Is this just a matter of practice, or is there a trick I'm missing? If it's just a repetition thing I'll go ahead and blow a bunch of yeast & flour, and make 10 of them in a row next time till I get the feel for it. BAKING THE PIES: I baked my pies at 550f (in theory at least, we need a new oven thermometer so I couldn't verify) for about 8 minutes. My crust had decent crispy chewy texture, but no real browning! I had to stop at 8 minutes because otherwise the toppings would have been overcooked. In fact on one I deliberately went longer, and the mozzarella got a nasty grainy texture I really didn't like, but even then no significant browning on the bottom of the crust. Is this that my stone is a thin pottery toy instead of real stone? CRUST FLAVOR: The crust came out bland. I used the following recipe, and let it rise for about 3 hours before shaping & baking. 2 cups AP flour 1 cup cake flour 2.5 tsp yeast 1 cup water 2 tsp kosher salt I'm thinking of letting it rise overnight in the fridge next time to see if more flavor develops, but it would be nice to be able to get good flavor on a same day crust... PARCHMENT ROCKS! I tried the parchment paper under the pizza for the first 2-3 minutes trick, and it worked like a charm. No more cornmeal or pizza sticking to the peel for me! And for those of you who are wondering as my husband did last night "umm, what about Fahrenheit 451?" you really do pull it out before it bursts into flames. Here's the proof: PS: here's my "high tech proofing oven" a soft sided cooler, with a heating pad and a couple of tiles:

I have a similar situation to Varmint. but what I've found works well to overcome that fear of "measuring up" is to find something they cook that I don't, and make a point of saying something like "Oh I adore Pot-Roast, and I don't know why but I just never make it" I have friends who are pretty low in the skills set when it comes to cooking, but they make good biscuits & gravy, which is just not part of my culinary repertoire, so when they feel like reciprocating for cassoulet or the like, they know to invite me over for biscuits and gravy (and cheetoh's since Bill won't let me have them at home ) Also direct 1:1 reciprocation is not a concern for me, I love cooking and hosting dinners, other people don't, so I don't expect to be invited to an equivalent meal for every one that I cook, but what I do expect is some sign of appreciation for the work I've put in, even if it's just some kind words. I have friends who live on really tight budgets and can barely make the rent, so they don't invite me over much, but they do make it immensely clear how much they enjoy both my company & my cooking, so I enjoy having them, and don't feel sponged off of at all. (I have moocher radar, I can tell )

I'm coming in a little late on the Pizza cook-off, but I spent the last 3 weeks in Italy doing "research" so that should exonerate me Pepperoni with gorgonzola= I've tried for neapolitan style in the past and made very good but not quite there pizzas. I think the soft flour combo suggested above will help, and I definitely think trying to get something warmer than my 500 degree oven would make a big difference. Also I was just not getting the crust thin enough, but again found some great ideas here. thanks! so I have a couple of questions. 1) has anyone put a thermometer into their BBQ to see how warm it actually gets in there? is it really enough warmer to bother? 2) has anyone tried using a pizza stone/BBQ in combination? 3) My pizza stone was a gift, not what I would have chosen, and is an underwhelming 1 cm thick. A couple of people talked about breaking thinner pizza stones. was this from exposing them to excessive heat or did they just get banged around too much? 4) is anyone else familiar with the wonderful potato pizza of Florence? (thin slices of potato with rosemary on a much thicker pizza crust than neapolitan style) It's one of my favorites & I'd love to recreate it, but have no experience with making that thicker crust pizsza. is it just a focaccia recipe? And re storing your pizza peel, mine lives in a bag stored flat on top of my fridge - it's out of the way, but always clean when I pull it out of the bag (ditto for my oversized pastry board) and I can stack other stuff on top of it when needed... Off to buy mozzarella and pepperoni later this morning.

ooh yes crepes! I make a killer buckwheat crepe, but haven't gotten a sweet crepe recipe that makes me really happy yet...

ooh I just stumbled onto this & am totally inspired to play with terrines again. In my previous attempt the recipe called for leaf gelatine, I could only get powdered & I had some "issues" with the conversion... Time to try again. Carolyn's veggie terrine looks perfect for a vegetarian's birthday party I'm hosting this weekend! So I'm wondering if I can combine this with the other cooking interest in my life at the moment: rose petals (My garden is exploding with roses at the moment) Does anyone have a terrine like recipe that uses roses? I could just put them in a rose petal pannacotta, which would be the sweet equivalent, but I figure someone here probably has a brilliant idea already tested... I know the petals lose color & texture when I boil them in milk for my rose pudding , but if I put them into gelatin when it was no longer quite that hot, would they be OK? Hmm, maybe with something similar to Adam Balic's chicken galantine upthread (what WAS the source for that recipe by the way? I haven't played with 17th c. english stuff in a while so I don't recognize it...) I love chicken & roses together!

Imagine making this as an apetizer in those teensy little asian egg-sized eggplants!!!

The Vineyard wineshop in Greenwood carries kosher wines that are quite drinkable, not the nasty stuff we used to have to put up with... There's a wonderful little deli down near Pike Place Market "kosher delight" that makes really good matzoh ball soup also check out this link for additional Kosher shopping options.