FabulousFoodBabe

Danielle, your blog is not only taking me through one of my favorite places in the world, but through a favorite time of mine: those crazy years when I was working, the boys were little, and a 'break' for me was grocery shopping alone. Your kids are gorgeous and I'd love to hear their words for things. Example: My older called lasagne, "na-NON-a." When we tried to correct his pronunciation, he changed it to "nah-NON-ya." what does Mr. Max call ravioli? Pizza, delivered. You deserve it! (Have the salad delivered, too. )

Especially the "Hello Kitty" ones. I have some leather potholders that are so pretty I just look at them; I have no idea if they are useful or not. Mitts .. I have a few and they are used for non-food things (putting on the dog's head and watching him shake it off; boys hit one another with them). I love plain white bar towels for anything; they're cheap and easy to maintain.

Just don't ask for a bite of my foie. And my opinion of a worth-it $20 martini is one served by a half-naked, buff, bunny-dipping* French guy with good hair. (*) Playboy bunnies, remember?

Not in these heels, no sirree Jean-Luc thinks "Fabby's Footwear" is a great culinary term. I kind of like kibbles and bits. It's got a nice snap to it. Praline Kimchi Asafoeteda. Yeah, that's a good one, too.

Mr. Fabulous just informed me that we'll be dining there on my birthday. (For our September anniversary, we opted for Yanks/Sox tickets, versus the soft opening.) anyway, I'm SO excited. Yippee skippee, Fabby

. Yanno, my iPod Italian lessons don't cover merda di cane. But I'm still on disk 7.

Oh, yes. That's lovely, in any language! ::: using sb's babelfish ::: And it's Fluffernutter, in every language, it seems!

Yes, yes! This whole e coli thing has given my sons more ammo than they need: "Are you sure this lettuce didn't come from a place that maybe bags some and sells some in heads? Where is the bagging actually done -- at the grocery store or in the field? Hmmmm?" I did it to them -- made them think about their food. But they do have a point.

I've noticed that a lot of the posts here are in French or Italian -- but I can't come up with a lot of beautiful food words in English, myself. Is bibi babka a real food word? I guess it's beautiful to me, I can still do the song and the Balki portion of the dance.

So true! How about, "with our compliments," or "I'm buying."

Add me to the grease-trap cleaners. I can still smell it. Yeah, I was the boss and after I did it a few times just to be sure I knew how, I made the latest arrival or the cook who smelled most like lat night's booze, clean it. I can still see them running up the hill to the kitchen, pushing ahead of one another ...

South Bend! My best friend married a guy from South Bend ... there's No Place like Dome. *** Back to the topic at hand: Danielle, would you please go to Rush Street this weekend, at about 3 a.m., and at least pretend to get really drunk and do shots and stuff? And take lots of pictures of course. When I was in Chicago for a no-kids/no-husbands weekend (in August), my friends refused to do it with me and I'm still upset about it. Seriously.

Day-um! That's a good one, SB! Very, very good! Oh man, that's a bad thing to do to a right-brainer like me. Cheeks divided by tongues ...

You?? Nevah! Hmmm ... you got starving kids in Africa; I got 'em in China. But I'm Italian. the way we ate, I have no doubt my parents knew I wouldn't believe the "starving Italian children" for a second!

Well, yeah. And I wasn't critiquing anything -- I said, if it makes you feel closer to God, that's terrific. The belief that eating a certain way makes you better than others, is what bothers me.

Spiritually advanced enough to starve oneself to death? Hell, why wait until you're 93 to do it? Unless you become a Jain at that age ... Anyway, not gonna happen here. I live near too many women who are systematically starving themselves and see anorexia and bulimia (and smoking crank, in a couple of instances), as a way to go the extra mile to look good. Or, in most cases, to just look skinny.

Used to be that wasting food was considered the sin, not simply eating it. Does your grandson really buy that "crack babies in Minneapolis" stuff? I never believed for an instant that the kids in China were starving, but my mother kept harping on it. And since guilt is self-induced ... Anyway, I know you're being tongue-in-cheek. Aren't you?

Hmmmm ... I can do that. Good Lord, though. At that age, her sinning might have been what kept her going! I never really 'got' the idea of food being sinful or decadent or guilt-inducing. I also think that if someone's consumption habits makes them feel closer to God, then they should go for it. It's when someone declares that their consumption habits make them morally superior to other humans, that I go like this:

Danielle! What a pleasure; I've been wondering where you'd been. Where in Chicago are you living; can you say? It's one of my most favorite cities and a place I'd always wanted to live. I'm going to love watching you 'move in.' Some of my very best friends from forever live downtown and in the outlying areas. I just love Chicago. I suggest that if you ever have the chance to shop with Fresser, you take it. It's quite an experience!

I'm amazed to not see certain chefs on this list. A couple of them would be boeuf, I suppose. The link a few posts ago made me wonder if she was really wearing a flank steak dress, if she was extremely small or the cow was really big, or if it was Photoshopped in. Yeah, I'm overthinking this. Beef: Short ribs Lamb: shoulder, braised Chicken: Breast, skin-on, with lots of good stuff under the skin and the skin really crispy. Pork: Roast, cooked until it falls off the bone. Duck: all of it.

I had a foosball table before I had a dining table! Just a few pieces of plywood over the top, and a nice cloth, and voila. And yeah, I was a grownup, with kids, before the dining table was purchased. I am loving the photos of books and shelves from the others. How's about it, dvs? Let's see yours!

Congratulations, dvs! This is the fun part of moving. Here's how mine are organized, by shelf (each shelf goes tallest to shortest from left to right). -things I don't use or don't use much, but like: Junior League, food producer books and pamphlets, celebrity cookbooks that i don't use much. The Jif Choosy Mothers Cookbook and Dom DeLuise's Eat This, You'll Feel Better fall into that category. So does the Fanny Farmer Cookbook, and the cookbook by the Ladies' Club of the First Presbyterian Church of LaGrange, GA. -Reference books: The Food Almanac, Larousse, etc., go here, as do my CIA textbooks. -Binders of recipes, including my coursework from the CIA, FCI and other places. -Books I use a lot, like Joy, The Way To Cook, Cake Bible, Classic Home Desserts. -Beautiful, coffee-table style cookbooks that I use: Charlie Trotter's first one, French Laundry and Bouchon, Elements of Taste. -I also have a shelf for stuff that I like to read like Ma Cuisine, Fork It Over, Cod, Salt, Gallery of Regrettable Food, Soul of a Chef, Fast Food Nation, Omnivore's Dilemma, etc. -One shelf of ethnic cookbooks and restaurant cookbooks, and one shelf for stuff like my James McNair and California Culinary Academy series', and a Bon Appetit series. I also have every issue of Saveur, and every issue of Cook's since it went to no-ads. -The ones I really don't like (heh) are in the basement, holding up the foosball table, or being used as a printer stand here (spines to the wall).

It's hard for me to make a decision for myself, without some sort of context. What do I feel like eating, what is the occasion/guests, etc. Sort of like being asked to name a favorite restaurant. That said: The Modern.

Pontormo -- I didn't say this before, but thank you. From what you and hathor are showing me and saying, the whole attitude is just so different from what I've been used to here. And I feel really relaxed just thinking about it.

ChefCrash AND Mizducky-- you are both right! (It's Hesseman, Chef -- which I know because I'm a Cincinnatian ..) hathor, this is glorious, educational, fun. I always thought Pepitas were Latin-American!