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Indeed they do! Perhaps these should be called "Mock Porcupine Meatballs", although any dog can tell you it's not a good idea to mock porcupines! I'll have to tell Big Lou to be on the alert for a plump porcupine when he starts wild rice harvesting this week!

To tell the Truth, I was never a big Mark Twain fan until I watched the Ken Burns PBS show about him. I'd always thought of Mark Twain as a bit too "popular", (rather like a Nineteenth Century Andy Rooney), probably based on the selections of his work I was forced to read in school. I had certainly never associated him with food writing until seeing the Gastronomica article. The subject is deserving of an eGullet post, and I promise to tend to that matter before unwrapping my newest issue. SB (Honest! )

Although I had intended to, at least, comment on the Mark Twain article in the Spring 2007 issue, it seems like once "the bloom was off the rose" my enthusiasm for Gastronomica reading waned once again. And today, the Summer 2007 issue arrived! SB (still hoping .... against hope )

I doubt if the Porcupine Meatballs were actually made from porcupine meat, even here in Minnesota. In any case, my friend Big Lou, who's part Ojibway, says his grandmother used to cook porcupine, and that it is a dark, rather dry meat with quite a pronounced "gamey" flavor, much like wild duck. He says it was "not too bad", but it tasted best when ground with an equal amount of fatty pork and made into sausage. We thought it might be interesting to use a ground porcupine/pork mixture and wild rice to make REAL Porcupine Meatballs!

When you think about it, the acts of reading and eating have a lot in common. The word, "digest", for instance ....

I just use one of my regular carbon steel knives, but I hone it prior to use. I pull the knife quickly across the dough and let the weight of the blade do the work. It takes some practice to get the feel.

For better or worse, I am inextricabaly associated with Meatloaf! SB

Cheese sculptures of TV Personalities I'd like to see: Alton Brown - sculpted in Cheddar Mario - in Mozzeralla (of course!) Rachael Ray - in Velveeta Martha Stewart - in Stilton Emeril - in Fetta Bourdain - in Bleu (to match his jeans) SB (and "our own" Chris Cognac in Meunster )

I shop at Fraboni's Cash & Carry adjacent to the plant. (It's on my way home) They also have commercial sized bulk goods available there. Just be advised that they mean it when they say; CA$H & Carry. No checks or credit cards are accepted. I think the pasty shop near Lion Spring on 53 (Celia's?) is closed again? Then I believe there was another place in Cotton after that? For the best pasties, try and find a Methodist Church Ladies Sale! I'm far more than glad. "Eternally grateful" even! The Valentini family and my family have been close friends for generations. (Have you seen the family cookbook they published a few years ago?) When the restaurant, (located one block up the alley from where I sit), was closed there was a dark hole in the social fabric of the town. BTW: One of the third generation Valentinis, Mike, and his wife Sally, own the old Forest Service station at the end of the Gumflint, which was decimated by fire this past spring. (Mike's accounts and photos were featured in the Twin Cities' papers at the time.) They're rebuiling and repairing, and still plan to open a small first class resort on the property some day. My Sister and Cousins, who have dined all over the World, always visit the Whistling Bird when they come to visit. For a real culture shock, stop by The Gladiator Bar afterwards for a beer! SB (Iron Range Expert )

The episodes where Tony is "in his element" seem to work best. A beach has always been one of his favorite "elements", (in both real and fictional guise), and what is Tahiti other than the ultimate beach? SB (can only dream ..... )

I've never noticed what kind of bag anybody carried anything in, including me. Am I missing something?

First ... Congrats on the retirement For your consideration: Russ Kendalls Smoked Fish in Knife River. It's been there forever. (I like the Salmon) Nokomis is a new restaurant just North of Duluth. Fine fine dining, and owned by the nephew of a friend of mine. Cut off 35 on 73 into Moose Lake. Visit Arts Cafe, which has been around longer than forever. Follow 73 North to the Iron Range. Visit Fraboni's in Hibbing for sausages, bacon and porketta. (their pasties aren't bad either) Then stop in at the Sunrise Bakery for some hard rolls for your porketta and some potica. Or stay on 35 until you get to the Cloquet exit and take 53 to Virigina, where you can substitute F&D Meats for Fraboni's and the Italian Bakery for Sunrise. If you come through Chisholm around noon I'll buy lunch at Valentini's, an traditional Iron Range stop for good food and DFL politicians. Thursday is the Italian buffett. Many spots on the Range offer breaded porks too! SB PS: and you can stop in Buhl to fill up with "The Finest Water in America", (at least that's what the water tower has always proclaimed)

Perhaps, Steve, they just remember that lefties are generally more creative than righties. They can figger out another way better than most of us can imagine another color. ← I can't see why they didn't just make these tongs so that the silicone ends were reversible? I guess it was just my engineering genes acting up? SB (designer of the Left-Handed-Flying-Pink-Pig Pen )

Nery nice, but I notice that while they're offered in red or black, they only come in a right handed model? SB ← Not to harp on this, but I don't see why you couldn't use them with your left hand--just slide the locking mechanism with your index finger instead of your thumb. I just tried it, and though I am useless with my left hand, it worked just fine. ← That's what I'd do. I just always find it curious when companies forget that 10% of their customers are left-handed, but are considerate enough to offer a choice of colors?

And, speaking of old Velveeta boxes: For the surprisingly large number of Velveetaphiles out there, (plus the few Velveetaphobes), there is an eBay category for Velveeta Memorobilia! I personally have: 1 ea .5/1.0/2.0 lb 60-70's era "Smiling Kid" boxes, which I was prescient enough to have saved at the time A genuine Velveeta logo cheese keeper (not the generic Tupperware version) that I inherited (ie: swiped) from my Mother. The Velveeta embroidered kitchen towel, a gift from said Mother. A wooden Velveeta box I found years ago in an antique store. A Veveeta Shells & Cheese box autographed by Nascar driver Jeff Burton which I got in an eBay auction. SB (anybody else?)

How did it taste, Arnie, and what was the impetus that made you want to try making it? Where does one find such a recipe, too? ← Inside the cover of an old Velveeta box, or in one of those little recipe inserts. SB (I think it's also on Kraft's web site)

Marlene's (Dad's) Peanut Butter Hamburgers!

While I'm not technically claustrophobic/agorophobic, I don't like being in the midst of crowds, especially in a restaurant. I will assume a stern visage and specifically ask to be seated "near an exit with my back to the wall", adding, in a jocular fashion, "It's an old habit". I'm almost always obliged with a table apart from the crowd. SB (and I get pretty good service too! )

These work great for snaring small nuts/bolts/screws that fall into awkward spots when you're working on cars though!

A food writer would do this thinking that other things in the world are more important than what he or she writes about as a main subject. Politics is so often considered a weighty subject, and a way to make the world work right. Food is so often relegated to be thought of as a lightweight subject, not a way to make the world work right. It only obtains an aura of weightiness for the generic reader when it is linked to business (big bucks) (haute cuisine and celebrity chefs) or economics (food supply and agribusiness). I suspect you're right. Not that there can't be some good food/political analogies, but the injection of political thetoric, especially partisan, usually comes across as a self conscious attempt at urbanity. Once again, I agree. I've been involved in many political campaigns, from City Council to US Senate, and honestly can't recall any memorable meals or food related stories from the whole lot. While politics is said to make strange bedfellows, food just makes messy ones!

That seems like mutual damnation by faint praise? BRW: If you Google "mensa" "Velveeta", you'll get 344 cites!

I really didn't care for this book. Too much gratuitous politics I guess. I've nothing in particular against politics, but I'm glad that neither The New Republic nor National Review print gratuitous recipes. Why would a food writer do this? SB (now gratuitous sex, on the other hand ....

That does seem to be the case, (chalk one up for quality control), but back 20+ years ago every ingot of Velveeta was slightly different in taste and texture. Every now and then you would get a very firm, darker orange one, which was the best! I've always done this. It's best to cut it at least 3/4" thick to get the best "bite".

From: Kraft Canada "Velveeta se présente en plusieurs formats, dont 250 g, 450 g et 900 g." SB

I tried but obviously am not usefully deft, SB. Did you grow psilocybin on Velveeta then take a trip with the Flintstones somewhere? Here is the Jellystone Park story, but The Velveeta/Psilocybin piece must have been culled when eGullet did their archive cleansing last year? Let's just say it involved the ingestion of psychedelic mushrooms, a visit to a brightly lit supermarket late at night, purchase of a two pound ingot of Velveeta, and the unveiling of said cheese in the dome light of a mid-70's Mercury Marquis somewhere in the midst of the woods of Northern Minnesota culminating in the raucous laughter of three joke-crazed youth. The Velveeta was later devoured with some stale hard tack, paired with one of the cheap, popular, fruity wines of the day. SB (there was a part in there about Nosie's doagies too, I think )