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What a great image. ← It's certainly one of those phrases you're pretty sure you've never seen before! SB

Aren't we comparing an apple to an orange here? SB (perhaps missing the point )

I'd never heard of Eater either. Methinks they are, shall we say, a bit full of themselves? SB (Typical effete New Yorkyness, I guess?)

I'm thinking, Julia? SB

These are also great for covering bowls of rising bread dough! SB (grease the inside first)

I prefer Nabisco Saltines. The holes are just the right size to make what we used to call "Jellystone Park". You take a Saltine, cut a 1/8" to 1/4" thick slice of Velveeta to fit, add a drop of yellow mustard, and top with another Saltine, pushing down just hard enough to force mustard through the holes, but not so hard as to break (crack?) the crackers. SB (also has molds and recipe for homemade animal crackers )

Now that's just plain gruesome! SB

Yeah, SB. Go for it! I'm hungry. ← That with music loud and long, I would build that dome in air, That sunny dome ! those caves of ice ! And all who heard should see them there, And all should cry, Beware ! Beware ! His flashing eyes, his floating hair ! Weave a circle round him thrice, And close your eyes with holy dread, For he on honey-dew hath fed, And drunk the milk of Paradise. - Kubla Khan, Samual Taylor Coleridge Mmmmmmm mmmmmmmmm Honey-dew and Paradise milk. My favorites! SB (let alone served in caves of ice with music loud and long! )

Xanadu, where Kubla Khan a stately pleasure-dome decreed!

Parching/processing is done to remove moisture from the wild rice so it can be stored safely. (remember, it's really a grass, not real rice) Commerical processors tend to be on the safe side and roast the rice until it's, quite frankly, burnt. Hand parched wild rice, which is maybe 5% of the crop, is roasted in small batches, (often stirred with a canoe paddle), until it's dried just enough. It has a gray/green color, in contrast to the black California paddy wild grown rice the recipes were probaqbly written for, and it cooks a lot quicker. {Some of the local commercial operations do a pretty good job of parching. Christmas Point and Ramy are two brands I'd recommend} My friend Big Lou picks out the broken rice grains for "soup rice", where the looks don't matter so much. It's a lot of work, but he's very proud of the quality of his wild rice, and now he has his daughter and grand-daughter to help him. Cooking time also depends on grain size. This year, because of the hot dry weather, the grains were very small. Fifteen or twenty minutes seems to be plenty of cooking time. Because wild rice isn't real rice, the amount of liquid you cook it in isn't critical. When it looks done, (the grains begin to puff up and explode), just drain off the excess liquid and let the rice steam in the hot pan for about ten minutes with a clean towel between the pan and lid. For soup, just add your other ingredients right into the cooking liquid, augmented as necessary. I haven't made any wild rice soup for a long time. I do have a couple pounds of "soup rice", which I also use for baking. (but that's a whole other story ) SB (maybe it's the "wild" that I like?)

U is for Ugli Fruit and Useless I'm still amazed to think that way back in 1968, the Red Owl store in Virginia, MN, (not exactly a bastion of gastronomic adventurers now, let alone back then), carried Ugli Fruit! I don't remember who first told us about the "ugly fruit", but one night some friends and I, probably out of sheer boredom, drove the 18 miles from our hometown to Virignia to procure some of the exotic citrus. The supermarket night manager directed us to the proper department after correcting our pronunciation of the fruit's name to Ugli Fruit (You'-Glee Froot). Name notwithstanding, it was a damn ugly fruit. It looked like a small rotten grapefruit, but in the spirit of adventure we bought a couple. We ate them in the car on the trip home and agreed they were damn tasty! Every few weeks, or if we found ourselves in Virginia for any other reason, we'd return to the Red Owl for Ugli Fruit. Sometimes they had them, but more often they were out of stock. After a few months we kind of forgot about them. The next winter I made my first trip to California to pick up my friend TLee, who'd been staying in Santa Monica with relatives. I was amazed to see citrus growing in every yard, and I'll never forget the first time I ate a warm orange right off the tree! One day, while exploring the neighborhood, we spotted a small tree bearing what appeared to be Ugli Fruit! After dark we snuck into the yard, stole about a dozen, and hurried back to TLee's uncle's garage to partake of our bounty! Thinking of how much better fresh oranges were than the ones we were accustomed to getting from the grocery stores in Minnesota, we had great expectations. Unfortunately, what we had stolen proved to be the Ugli Fruit's visual doppelganger .... actual rotten grapefruit! Useless! SB (hasn't has a Ugli in ages)

I've received a two or three "free trial issues", and tried several of the recipes. I was quote satisfied with the results, but never got around to subscribing. SB (why buy the cow ....

It is a bit harder to set aside in the case of someone whose writing is, for the most part, autobiographical. ← As far as autobiography goes, I like to apply Ruth Reichl's dictum of "....true, but not entirely factual." SB

Gee! When did Saran become the Rachael Ray of wrapping material? SB (RR + Saran Wrap? )

Q is for QO & Quaker Oats I believe we're up to or around the letter "Q" on out semi-alphabetical list? The posters on eGullet don't seem to need any encouragement be "Quarrelsome" this weekend, and I don't have any stories about "Quince", or "Quail", so I'm drawing upon a previous post which has both a key character and plot component bearing the initial "Q". Anyway, at the beginning of the forementioned tale, the character referred to as QO was known as Bait, or Little Bait, after his older brother, who has a cameo later in the story, who was Bait or Big Bait. (Their real names were Mike and Tom Selenski) Quaker Oatmeal was one of the foods (Little) Bait, Burkey and I bartered beer and whiskey for with (Big) Bate and his friend. I'd used the oatmeal to bread the fish we'd also procured via the trade. (Little) Bait was the first of us to fall asleep in the kitchen that night, and Burkey and I were struck by his remarkable resemblence to the guy on the Quaker Oats box! We begar referring to him as QO while he slept peacefully, and by the time he woke up, that was his new name, which he bears to this day. I've always been pretty good at assigning nicknames, but this is one of my favorites, partly because it's a component of an already good story. And it forever thereafter served to lessen the confusion between QO and his elder brother. SB (just noticed that the story also mentions another "Q" product. Canadian Club Whiskey had one of the "By Appointment to HRM ...." stickers, and was always referred to by us as "The Queen", providing us with great fun proposing toasts in HRM's honor!)

You may or may not like their product, but the Customer Service is first class. Dear Steve, Thank you for your e-mail regarding SARAN™ Premium. We always appreciate hearing from our consumers. SC Johnson is committed to producing quality products and wants consumers to be satisfied with them. I'm sorry to hear you were unable to get the plastic film to unroll properly. I apologize for any inconvenience and am sending two full value replacement coupons to the address you provided. I hope you'll give our products another try. We really appreciate hearing from you whenever you receive a product that does not meet your expectations or our high standards. We listen to issues reported to us by our consumers. Comments such as yours provide the company with the opportunity for product improvement. If you have future comments or product information needs, we invite you to visit or e-mail us again at www.scjbrands.com. Regards, Stephanie Consumer Relationship Center SC Johnson, A Family Company SB (already bought a new package, which started unrolling correctly)

But ten years ago no one was threatening to ban foie gras or trans fat either. SB (that would have been just plain silly and disingenuos) edited to correct an intentionally specious spelling of "disingenuous" in an unsuccessful attempt to "lighten" this thread.

So, you're saying we might eat something just because it tastes good to us? This could revolutionize the so-called "foodie" culture. SB (likes Velveeta on Saltines)

I'm not sure if it's a national policy, or just family practice, but my cousin, her husband and daughters from the Netherlands touch cheeks once, right then left. SB (took me a while to get the hang of it)

I wrapped a fried egg sandwich in wax paper and carried it in my pocket before eating, (ala Aunt Gwen), and it was great! Ref: "H" is for Happy, An Alphabet for Gourmets SB

I'd forgotten about that stupid cutter! It added insult to injury, or maybe vise versa? SB (but they do respond to customer feedback)

I just did this last Saturday, (just for two), because I like the leftovers! Turkey breast, stuffing, mashed potatoes/gravy, green beans. (Chocolate cake for dessert though)

It sounds like maybe you have the "New Improved" version? SB (it really sucks)

Since I doubt if any of the seniors served post here, allow me to offer, on their behalf, a sincere, public THANK YOU!

Sometimes I get a new roll of plastic wrap or foil that doesn't come off the roll correctly right out of the box. One edge or the other will fail to unwind. If you catch this soon enough, which is easier to spot with foil than plastic wrap, it's usually not to difficult to peel the offending edge to catch up to the main body of the wrap. This also a lot easier to do with foil than plastic, since the metal is visible and doesn't stick to itself. Tonite I had a brand new roll of Saran Premium with both edges stuck, and by the time I noticed it was too late for a simple fix. Sometimes I can get a small knife blade under the edge and cut of the unrolled portion at the point where the wrap has torn away, but with both edges stuck efforts at this rescue proved fruitless. Not wishing to throw away the whole box, I resorted to a trick I sometimes use when a a used roll refuses to unwind properly. I cut through several layers all the way across, peel off the layers, and try to start a new forward edge. After several attempts, with my patience worn thin and my language becoming more and more "colorful", there was hardly enough wrap left on the roll to make it worthwhile, so into the garbage it went. I felt a little bit better. Now, despite this unpleasant experience, I'd like to put in a good word for SC Johnson Co, makers of Saran products. Several years ago, due to some federal regulation or lawsuit, they changed the formulation the original Saran Wrap. (I believe there's an old threas on the subject?) Unfortunately, the "New Improved" Saran Wrap didn't stick like the product in replaced. Apparently the market researchers at SC Johnson failed to realize that their customers preferred Saran Wrap for it's clinging qualities, since there are several other brand of plastic wrap on the market that don't stick to themselves. (Rendering them useless in my eyes, but, whatever?) After receiving complaints from many consumers, a couple emails from me included, (using some moderarely colorful language), they introduced Saran Premium with properties similar to the old Saran Wrap. So I emailed SC Johnson again tonite, voicing my displeasure. Nearly instantly I had an automated reply from them promising a personal response within 24 hrs. If my past experience is any indication, I'll hear from the company much sooner than that, and they'll be very attentive to my concerns. I'll probably even get another coupon for a free roll. SB (still po'd , but ok )