cakewalk

Kosher wine? I never knew that. And I knew the wafers were thin and cracker-like in their consistency, but I never thought of them as representing the unleavened bread of Passover. Interesting. Very interesting, all of it, thank you. Calendar-wise, I find this year to be confusing, what with Easter having fallen a month before Passover! I know it's due to the Jewish leap year and the extra month of Adar, but still, there was something about the actual temporal connection between the two holidays that I always liked. And this year, it's just not there. I think Pam probably doesn't even have a minute to catch her breath!

Absolutely, jaw-droppingly amazing. (Insert emoticon with jaw dropping down to knees.) How long did it take you to separate all those eggs?! The chiffon cakes looks beautiful -- it looks like a chametz cake!!! (That's a compliment) I would also love the recipe for those rolls, if you're willing. As for them being "too close" to real bread, well, it's a two Jews three opinions deal. There are bound to be some people who will find a reason to turn up their noses at anything. Their loss. I have never heard of any "overall" judgement that forbids them absolutely.

I had a chive plant on my windowsill for about three years, but this year it isn't doing so well so I just bought another at the greenmarket. (I buy them all at the greenmarket.) I also have rosemary, which does great, and tarragon, which I thought had died last year and then it suddenly started growing again, even though I had stopped watering it. Go figure. I just bought thyme, dill (I've never grown dill, this is a first), sweet basil, and spearmint, which, even though it's a weed and is supposed to grow like one, always dies on me, but I keep trying. They are all perrenials except the basil, which sometimes grows well and sometimes doesn't, I've never figured out why since I always treat them the same (courteously). I have a northern exposure, which usually isn't so good for plants, but because I have absolutely huge enormous windows I get indirect light all day long. My plants seem to like it.

If you eat beef, kashrut dictates that you wait six (!) hours before consuming dairy. However, if you eat dairy first, you must wait 30 minutes before consuming beef. ← Always, always keep this old saying at the forefront of your mind: "two Jews, three opinions." And on that note: many rules of kashrut will differ from community to community. For example, Dutch Jews wait only one hour between consuming meat and then having milk products. Why? Good question. I don't know the answer. That seems to be the way the tradition was handed down in that community, but I don't know how it got started. The six-hour wait is standard for most Orthodox Jews. Many Jews have started a "compromise" between the six-hour wait and the one-hour wait. They wait three hours. Again, I don't know how this started, but it is certainly picking up a lot of steam. Are things clearer now? Welcome to halachic Judaism!! Pam -- I'm very much looking forward to reading this blog. Thanks for doing it during what is probably your busiest time of year!

Wow. Now that we're all done picking on the woman in the article, we're all picking on each other. Time out.

I'm reading "Foul Matter" by Martha Grimes, and she has a scene that really made me laugh. Protagonist's wife is "cooking" dinner, and she is dressed for the part. Full apron, pot holders, etc., as she asks her husband how much longer he'll be working, dinner is just about ready and the girls are waiting at the table. And he wonders why she makes such a big deal of it, since "dinner" is always, always prepared food from Dean and DeLuca's down the street, and all she does is reheat it in the microwave. I don't know why one thing reminded me of the other, except maybe for the oppositeness. (Is that a word?) The thing I like about the woman in the article is that there is no pretense about her. (At least there doesn't seem to be in the article; gotta remember that the article is the only thing we know about her, if she even exists at all.) She doesn't like to cook and doesn't do it. In the fifties, when instant coffee was starting to become popular, there were all sorts of questionnaires etc. trying to see how people viewed women who used instant coffee instead of brewing fresh coffee for their husbands and families. (I distinctly remember reading about this for a class when I was in college many, many moons ago, and it comes to mind now.) People were given different women's "shopping lists," which were always exactly the same except for the coffee, and were asked to give their impressions of the type of woman they thought the shopping list portrayed. And guess what? The instant coffee users were deemed to be slovenly, lazy, didn't care about their families, selfish, etc. etc. The brewed coffee users were thought to be good wives and mothers, nurturing, etc. etc. Now it's true, of course, that instant coffee users are useless boors ( ), but this woman, well, yes, I would like to have her as a dinner guest.

No, I didn't see that as her point at all. That seems to be an aside in the article, not the point. This woman's mother never cooked either, and that was a generation ago when most other mothers lived in their kitchens. As for the title (or subtitle) of the article, those are never written by the authors and are often (I'd even say usually) way off the point of the story -- they're written to get your attention. To say that a shift has occurred in domestic economics is not exactly earthshattering news at this stage. Ten years ago it might have been a point worth making. But now?

Soulless? Where does that come from? Really, I think such responses are interesting. Maybe the most interesting thing about the article is that, since it doesn't seem to make any value judgements itself, the reader is left to do so him/herself. And since the most jarring thing about this woman seems to be that she does not cook, that is going to be the basis of our value judgements. She seems to be portrayed as a very fortunate woman; she is successful in her business life, her family life, and her social life -- and these things are usually not accidents. So why soulless? (Slow day at work today. )

Yes, that is true. Thanks. The article really pissed me off at first.

Last year the radishes got to me, I thought they were so pretty. And I had no idea what to do with radishes, except to use them as garnishes. So I looked up "radish" on epicurious, and I was amazed at all the recipes that came up using radishes as the main ingredient of a dish. Give it a try. Unfortunately, my curiousity ended at that point and I never tried any of the recipes. But there's always this year! Also, someone here (I think it was NulloMundo?) mentioned using radishes instead of potatoes to make hash browns. I haven't done it, but it sounds like a great idea.

Can you share it with us? I'm not being facetious. I really do not see the point of the article. She has introduced us to a very accomplished woman who cannot/does not like to/want to cook. And she keeps telling us the same thing again and again and again and again, in various different guises .... But her point? Really, I don't see one.

"Asked about other traditional women's hobbies, she laughs at the idea of her doing knitting or pottery. She's more the rollerblading or horseback-riding type. And she thrives on running things. She was president of the Metropolitan Police Boys and Girls Club for three years and is now on the board. She opened a lingerie shop and ran it for nine years. She co-founded the first women's bank of Maryland, serves on the Woodrow Wilson Council, chairs the board of Women of Washington. Somewhere along the way she went to acting school. Now she is co-authoring a book on female celebrities." But can she type [cook]? What an utterly obnoxious article.

Yep, sounds like you'll be going through Chelsea Market. Which is nice. Not worth $38 for a New Yorker who knows where he's going, of course, but since you're coming from elsewhere and you don't know NY, well, this is one way to do it. Just curious, do they offer you anything other than the tour for that money? Like, are they taking you there from your hotel by bus? Do you get any sort of free samples of foodstuff? I agree with the poster who suggested you go over the Union Square greenmarket. Not yet much by way of produce, but the flowers and herbs are out, and it is truly glorious on a nice day. They're open Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

I don't know about it being bad for you in general, but it sure as hell isn't good if you're trying to lose weight. Those calories aren't being worked off at all (well, they are, but at an incredibly slow rate, since most of us are pretty inactive when we sleep.) If I go to sleep when I'm still feeling full, I generally don't sleep well and I wake up still feeling full. It's very unpleasant.

Did you still mash the strawberries, or did you just slice them and fold them in like that, so you had pieces of strawberry in the cake?

The image of potatoes bouncing back is wonderful. Thanks. I have frozen soups that had potatoes in them, with no problem. Could it have anything to do with the type of potato used?

Yes, I guess there's a lot of truth in that. (Sigh.) But what about if this were done like they do felafel in New York? That is, you get your felafel and the toppings are free, but they are served to you from behind the counter as you get your felafel; they're not set up in a salad bar type thing where you can keep going back to get more. Know what I mean? I'm not sure how Glenn's service is -- do you have waitstaff and table service? If so, this won't work. I do not want to get this off topic too much but a quick comment. Some people will take so much of anything if it is free, to the point of ruining whatever they are eating just to get more. ←

Is it feasible for you to have a small sidebar where people can take what they want, at no extra charge? You wouldn't have expensive stuff, just the sort of things that have been discussed discussed above: pickles, relish, lettuce, onions, etc. People will either take or not. (Note: I have no experience in the restaurant business, and don't know if people would get greedy because it's free, or decide against taking things they don't want because they're given an option. Personally, I would only go for the pickle -- and then only if it was a half-sour!)

Every time I open my freezer, I have to watch out for my toes. I know that nothing in there dates back before the last NY blackout, but since that was over a year and a half ago I guess it's time to check things out. At least I know that nothing will be smelly and mushy. Cleaning out my fridge, however, promises no such good fortune. An interesting article, with good supplemental information by DTBarton. Thanks.

These days, it's a gallon of gas. That'll take me 30 miles up the road. That's something. "Only $2" may be trivial pocket change in NYC but it has a little more significance in my present lifestyle just 8 miles across the Hudson. I'm gonna think carefully aboiut where it winds up every time. I love New York, but it runs on its own scale. ← It's also a ride on the subway, which takes many of us where we need to go. Let's not be too presumptuous here. IIRC, 8 miles across the Hudson shows some pretty ritzy homes and lifestyles that I couldn't even dream of touching. Re tipping: does anyone know its origins, historically? I would guess that the owners of early pubs and lodging houses didn't pay anyone to serve guests, but "allowed" them to do so for whatever tips they might get. Eventually they got salaries, but the tipping gesture remained. But that's a complete guess on my part. Anyone have any knowledge of "tipping history"?

My name is cakewalk and I am a half-bagel vandal. I didn't even realize it until Purim. I was at my friends' house for their Purim brunch, and, as usual, there was so much food they could have fed the proverbial army. They had bagels and lox, but they also had so much other stuff, and I knew I wanted to at least try everything. So, not even aware of what I was doing, I sliced a bagel in half, put half on my plate, and put the other half back in the bagel basket on the table. And then, this thread came rushing to mind and I realized the honest-to-goodness truth: I am a half-bagel vandal. Me. A born-and-bred and even current Noo Yawkah. (With quite a large gap in between.) And you know what else? After I owned up to that realization -- I very complacently ate my half bagel! And then I started on the kugels. Go ahead, banish me!

When we were kids my grandmother and my aunt always stayed at our place for Passover. What I really miss more and more, especially as I get older, is having my grandmother there to make breakfast for us. Kremslech, matzah brei, even just a piece of matzoh with butter (she would always wet the matzoh first), nothing tastes quite the same. Aside from that, I can't really say I await anything. I'm not really a big matzoh fan. And my mother was not exactly the best cook in the world (sorry Mom.) These days on Passover I do a lot with vegetables, since I only have Milcheg dishes for Passover. But I still find vegetables to be a treat, Passover or not, because the only veggies we ate growing up were canned carrots and peas and corn. I still marvel at asparagus and I'm amazed that I was an adult before I ever tasted it. I love making vegetable quiches with grated potato crust instead of regular crust. But towards the end of Passover, I do crave some good fresh bread. With butter.

I'm not sure what you're doing that bruises your wrists ← Using a crappy, not-good-enough knife. (It's all I have right now.) It demands all sorts of twisting and turning of said wrists just to get the knife through. So I stopped, and I just wrap them in foil, throw them in the oven, and peel and cut when they're cooked. But I'm sure they'd taste much better if they're roasted after they're peeled and sliced, so I'm going to give it another try. Hell, I've been working out, maybe my wrists are stronger. (Maybe I should get a good knife!!) Thanks.

Mmmmm. Beets. I also roast them, usually at high temp. I agree with JAZ that this is really like steaming, but I have a question for those of you who mentioned peeling and cutting before the beets are cooked: how do you manage this? Uncooked beets are like rocks. Peeling takes forever, and cutting them up usually bruises my wrists! Any suggestions?

Very good. I admit, I usually buy celery at the supermarket. And it's probably been sitting around for at least half a year, which is why it's usually bitter. I don't think I've ever seen celery at the greenmarket (I ususally go to Union Square), but once they're up and running again I will look for it. And I will put it in water in the fridge. I will try anything, because good celery is really good (string or no string)!! Thanks for the suggestions. Heh heh. What's with the string? Hee hee.