kitchenmage

My, my, my. Are we having fun? Few quick comments. Anyone who posts using the terms "men" and "girls" as if they were peers puts any purported lack of gender bias in question and undermines many of their arguments. I spend a bit of time reading food blogs, which are mostly written by avid amateurs and the vast majority of the non-professional cooking focused blogs are written by women. I am not including blogs of food professionals because it's their job and we're not talking about what people do for money here, but even given those, there are more women doing food writing for the love of it. GR seems to be specifically trading on the sexist angle for the show, he seems to do arrogant and abrasive naturally. (Does it mean anything that I can identify several GR shows but nary a thing about his cooking experience, style, signature dishes, etc?) People who repeatedly post to say they are done posting confuse me. Are you done or not? (edited because the editor ate my linebreaks)

We did that thread somewhere around here a while back--the sin of taking half a bagel...or was it a crime? Come to think of it, I believe it was a crime. Arund here those blueberry/raisin.etc creations are known as unholy fruit bagels...

I'm going to dinner at the Herbfarm in mid-November and will be bringing home a copy of Traunfeld's new book. I'll also get a replacement for his previous one as I've given my first one to my daughter, destroyed the spine of the second one, and gave the free replacement from the publisher to the woman who bought my house and herb garden.

Please do call me mage, all my new friends do. I'm curious about the actual data, too. I hate marketing claims without the facts behind them. I looked at the link from schnitzel, and while it was interesting data, I doubt that I could get any of them within 45 min. and most would have to be mail-ordered. I am so not near a city. I must admit I really love the kitchen. We moved a year ago and when we put our old house on the market, we painted the kitchen brick red and put down relatively inexpensive hardwood. Over the walls we'd lived with for 6 years. The walls that were this "pudding" (meaning "cream") color that we'd coated the entire house with when we'd moved in, because even if we were in the middle of a book, we weren't living with the sherbet hues of green, blue, and yellow. (I used it call it the "Maybelline Blooming Colors" house because it was the exact same colors as this 4-color set of eye shadow that was really popular in that early '70s part of the '60s when I started wearing makeup.) Anyway, after 6 years of the kitchen looking like a rental apartment, we fixed it up pretty to sell. So, the new kitchen was part of the first set of rooms that got done when we moved in; plus, the red's much brighter and prettier and the floor is this 3/4" tongue and groove mahogany that we stumbled across for almost nothing. Your blog is very nice, it's on my list of places to poke around when I have some time.

Eileen, I found references that talk about "...Lise Stern's "The Chocolate Report" a supplement to the bimonthly publication The Cookbook Review." but that's about it. Take a look at this for the best info I found. He also says that Merckens milk chocolate is no longer such a great thing.

...with heavy representation from the Department of Redundancy Department.

not to mention the ubiquitous tuna fish! as differentiated from the tuna-cat, which should not be confused with the cat-fish...

FG, you really do need to adopt that as a motto. Perhaps use it to advertise the book tour.

Actually, the tears went into the wedding cake that Tita was making for the marriage of her sister to Pedro, her own true love. ← Ahhh, I sit corrected. I wasn't sure while I was writing it. So was it the soup that was the uber-aphrodisiac?

My memory of the book is that Tita was the daughter--being either the oldest or youngest, I don't recall--who was auto-assigned to stay home and care for her mother for her entire life. This was presented as a cultural norm that was all about self-sacrfice and a hot stove. Her sister, on the other hand, was allowed to have a life and ended up marrying Tita's "true love"--which gave us the scenes of the sobbing soup (or was that the lustful dish?) and other magical influences of the cook. Always kind of liked that part. And yes, each chapter opens with a recipe. If I recall correctly, it was the dsh Tita was cooking during that chapter. Not touching that...huh unh...

I believe it's a reference to the state of water that is not quite boiling--the point at which it's poured into the chocolate for a drink--and is a metaphor for all of the emotions simmering just below the surface throughout the story. If I recall correctly there is even a line in the book where the protagonist (the sister who cooks) is in an emotional state--maybe right before the wedding?--and is said to be "like water for chocolate," hence the title.

Gleaming kitchen appliances and a cat. You're off to a good start, Percy. My votes: * Visit to an Amish farm * Lunch at an Amish restaurant * Special "Parsi dishes" like Dhansak or Sali Gosht or Machi (Fish) nu Sauce

While I completely agree with you, I just want to point out that no two ovens (and other equipment) are the same. I've baked in 9 ovens this year - and they all did different things to the same recipe. Not to mention that living in different locations and climates will also do wonky things to recipes.. and the weather is an issue.. ← Pam, I'll give you that everything varies, but that's not what I am talking about. I've used recipes that had a cooking time of 20 minutes when the dish actually takes over an hour, cookies that only work when the flour is cut in half, and so on. I have done a bit of technical writing and I've always made sure that some human followed every set of steps I've written to make sure that it works and I'm objecting to the sorts of screwups that would have been obvious the first time someone tried to use the recipe.

Actually, Google acts on the direction of the publisher, not the copyright holder. So if some temp hands out a DVD full of books and they weren't supposed to, oh well. In at least one case I know of, when it was pointed out to them that they do not, in fact, have the permission of the copyright holder since the holder was never asked and is not the publisher--as they could easily see if they read the copyright page they have linked into the content they are giving away--they were dismissive and refused to discuss it with anyone other than the publisher. Which is pretty odd since the publisher didn't own the rights in question and the copyright holder was telling them in writing that they wanted the book in question removed. Wouldn't. Even. Discuss. It. But that's just my experience.

I was going to ask project to pass me some of whatever he's drinking, but I think I'd much rather share yours...

Oh this one is easy. Give me more useful data, some science, an option or two, tell me why certain things matters, and why others don't. A particularly amusing story might not be amiss if it adds to my understanding of what I am doing. I am a geek at heart and simply hate it when people ration out information one bit at a time, as if withholding data makes them more...something...than the rest of us. I once worked at a namelessCorporation where many questions were answered with, "You don't need to know that to do your job." Well, you know what? If I didn't need to know, I wouldn't have walked over here and asked, and if you tell me I can do my job better. (but I digress) I learned to cook from a succession of people who generously shared their knowledge and have tried to do the same myself. Understanding aids in generalizing--if you tell someone to use a particular technique or ingredient in one context, that's all they learn; if you tell them what is added/changed by doing so, they just might be able to figure out another way to incorporate their new trick into another dish. This is a huge difference, not to mention the start of many a great cook. Concrete example: I own several Cook's Illustrated "Best..." cookbooks and while I seldom use the recipes--in fact, I believe I've made one thing once--I do read the process of creating the recipes a bit. I've found that it's often almost as good as watching over someone's shoulder as they experiment and gives me a base from which to do my own experimentation. OTOH, make sure that all the basics are covered, and the recipe actually works when prepared by someone other than the author before you start adding extras. There's nothing more frustrating that recipes where something just can't work and it would have been obvious if someone had bothered to try even once. Oven temperatures that leave cake either dry or raw, for example, aren't as rare as they should be. Cookbooks need "technical editors" who actually prepare everything in the book exactly as written; I cherish the ones that clearly have been and get frustrated as @^$!* with the ones that haven't.

Or so you've been told? ← Ummm, yeah, that's what I meant to say. I've heard that they sound like that. Uh huh. saskanuck, "too much flavor"? hello? you're welcome to join my table...heck, anyone whose food is shunned as being too flavorful or different or such is welcome to join me... bring it on!

Tad, Thanks. Yep, that's the kit lens--and given that the date on the images is about two weeks after I got the camera, the photos were probably just shot on Auto. It took me at least a month to get to the point that I started twiddling things. Behemoth, I see what you mean. I am pretty sure those were shot as JPGs, and now that I am shooting things in RAW the interior shots aren't so dark. I'll have to try the night setting with a tripod and see if that makes a difference. Fifi and Robyn, thanks for the book tips, will go check them out. ~km

I make a similar cheesecake, but use fresh chopped and lightly sugared cranberries as a middle layer and graham cracker crust with fresh nutmeg and/or cardamon. Have you tried grated apples in your cake batter? It's still homey, but very tasty. I make apple muffins with whatever tart/cooking apples I happen to have around and often swap some of the flour for ground nuts. Maybe there's a variant for a cake in there somewhere? As for pears, I keep thinking clafouti, neither original nor what you're after.

I have managed to get a couple of new things into the traditional rotation without too much hassle. One is a ginger and bay infused pumpkin pie from the Herbfarm cookbook that has replaced the mandatory 'regular' pumpkin pie, even with my MIL who says it's not Thanksgiving Day without pumpkin pie. Fresh cranberry-orange relish (bad of berries, an orange or two, a smidge of sugar) has also made it as an addition--can't get everyone to give up the canned stuff. I am thinking about adding a squash bisque with shrimp this year. It's another Herbfarm recipe and everytime I serve it it sounds like a porn movie around the table.

Project, one might posit that the Daily Gullet is eGullet's FOH presence, and thus the VEFE you seem to be arguing against in food writing is exactly what should be provided here. An escapist fantasy experience, or EFE, that leaves me smiling. It was and I am. Now if I want shucking lessons so I can escape a similar fate, I'll go look for something illustrated elsewhere...in someplace with a name like "Shellfish techniques, illustrated" perhaps.

I'm with whoever (FG?) said it was the epiphanic moment. Well they said "epiphany" but I think I have enough pocket change to pay "epiphanic" just once. And since it didn't mention testicles descending, it's a winner in my book. (if you don't know, you'll have to go search, or ask Carrot Top)

Those leaves are gorgeous! Now I feel like a kid the night before my birthday--the table full of things to come... I anxiously await the next installment... (why is there no :impatient" smilie? ) [i]edited because i can't type and eat M&Ms at the same time...

wow! now there is one cool list, thanks... last year i moved to a place where Portland is my closest "big city" (all you New Yorkers quit snickering at what i think is a "big city") and while i don't get down there a lot, this is incredibly useful for those occasions when i do... like the blues festival a couple weekends ago--awesome location, great music, but the food...well, the half dozen food vendors seemed okay, but i'd be surprised if there were more than a total of a dozen and a half options for actual food... next time i can use your list to scope out a place to head after the music ends... and you even included markets! for those of us who live outside the city and come in to shop, this is truly sweet...

i vote for the corner of the dining room where the torchiere lamp is in the picture with the guys... it's only a temporary thing and even if it's wrong, it'll help you figure out what's right... and i do feel your pain--we had to tear out a few cabinets and move them around (luckily the counter mostly still fit) before we could get a refrigerator into our new place... i was pleasantly surprised by how we juggled things and i now have a HUGE side-by-side stainless fridge that i love