cakewalk

Not too out there? I always loved potato chips in my tuna fish sandwiches, but that's a classic already.

Yes. Step right up, you're next. The only thing that seems to quell those impulses (albeit temporarily) is: sugar, in any way shape or form. My boss was lucky enough to bring a cake into the office this morning, or he'd be dead.

I can't blame you, johnnyd, I really can't blame you. Now that I think of it, I do have a very vivid memory of a crow feasting on some fresh road kill (it was pretty gross), so I guess they're not kosher. Just as well, since I'm not really the crow-eating type anyways.

Is crow kosher? Go Cards!! Sign me, Unrepentent

The tried-and-true eGullet cure for this: roasted cauliflower. See if you can convert her!

Oh I have no qualms whatsoever about eating a "poor people's dish." This morning I had the leftover polenta for breakfast. I had divided the leftovers into muffin tins. (I think someone here recommended that? Good idea.) So I fried them in butter until brown and crispy on the outside, and then sprinkled fresh parmesan on top. Very very good this way. But I still need to play around with it. I used the double boiler method, which seems to be a compromise between the stovetop and the oven methods. It is interesting that nearly everyone seems to have some sort of emotional association with this food, and that association has such an influence on how you react to it. I can understand. I don't have it with polenta, of course, but I react pretty much the same way toward anything that is made with beets, especially borscht, because they remind me so much of my grandmother.

Well, I've just finished eating my first batch of polenta. Good stuff, but I certainly have a long way to go. I figured I'd keep my first attempt on the basic side. I used the double boiler method. (It is surprisingly simple, and hardly needs any stirring.) Three parts liquid (I used milk and water) to one part coarse corn grits. (That's what it said on the label.) Salt and butter. I got a little nervous in the beginning because when I added the boiled liquid to the corn meal there were no lumps! I've been reading all about lumps in polenta and I was anticipating the worst. Not one lump. Beginner's luck, I guess. Or else I did something very wrong. And then I just set it on top of a pot of simmering water, covered it with foil, stirred a few times during the first half hour of cooking, and then let it cook another hour (1 1/2 hrs. total) while I got some work done. I did stir a couple of times in between, mostly because I wanted to see how it "behaved." Interesting the way it sort of sticks to itself. It was not fluffy. But it did not form a crust. It was in a stainless steel bowl on top of a pot of simmering water. I wonder if it would have formed a crust if I left it for a longer period of time? I added some blue cheese after it was cooked but while it was still very hot, now that was really good. Would you add cheese while it's still cooking? Tomorrow I will slice what is left and fry it. Next time I make it, I'll change the corn meal to liquid ratio. In the meantime I like it, but I don't quite get what people think is so great about it. Thanks to all of you.

Oooo. Wicked. But absolutely correct. (What? No "smug" emoticon?)

Halloween is interesting in big high-rise buildings in NY these days. In my building (which has over 1,000 apartments in it, talk about huge), we're asked to put a sign up on our doors if we want kids to come to us for Trick or Treat. At first I thought, well, who wouldn't want kids to come to them? I mean, I think it's such a lovely custom and the kids are so sweet. But the truth is, for the past two years I've gone from work to class on Halloween, and haven't returned home until late and night, so no trick-or-treaters for me. This year, it's on Sunday. YAY!!! I think I'm going to bake something (will the kids' parents throw it out? Hmmm.) However, if I bought candy this early for Halloween, there'd be nothing left, nothing at all. I don't know how you all can SAVE candy for a particular day!

Thanks all. I think I'm going to play with this tonight. I never even realized polenta was Italian, I always thought it was Mexican!

I have never eaten polenta, much less made it, so I'm fascinated by this thread. I love all things corn-related, and I figure it's high time to try this out. I'll probably start with the no-stir method. But first, some questions: What do you eat this with? I mean, what part of the meal is it? Main course? Side dish? It seems so versatile. I've read things where people say they slice it, and some things where people say they eat it as a soup. I'm not quite sure how to reconcile those two applications. Maybe that's the beauty of the dish?

For some good hummus, there's a little restaurant on St. Mark's place between 1st Ave. and Ave. A. A little hole-in-the-wall sort of place, but they make very good hummus. In fact, that's all they make. And across the street there's an Israeli grocery store.

I found a couple of bags of frozen cranberries in my freezer last weekend. Good thing, too, because I was meeting with some people and we needed fuel, which cranberry-nut muffins provided very nicely. Still have a bag left over, I think I'm going to try the cranberry ketchup. They will not go to waste, and I suspect that next year around this time I'll find some bags of frozen cranberries in my freezer all over again.

Sometimes I read recipes that seem like culinary mysteries to me ...

Well, we lived in an apartment building that was across the street from a chicken store ("fresh killed chickens and turkeys"), which was sandwiched between the tailor and the grocer. The chicken lady was the owner (and only person I ever saw) of the store. On nice days she would sit outside the shop (a tiny little place) on a wooden crate, catching some rays in between plucking and chopping up chickens. Anyway, this is how my mother ordered her chickens: she would open the window in my bedroom (we were on the third floor) that faced the chicken lady's shop, and she would yell, "Sylvia! Sylvia!" And the chicken lady (who was called Sylvia only, and I mean only, when my mother was yelling out the window), whether she was sitting outside or was inside the shop, would look up at my mother in the window. My mother's order rarely varied: "cut me a chicken into eighths!" The chicken lady would nod, and my mother would close the window. Later in the afternoon I was usually sent down to get the chicken. And it always went like this: I would walk into the store and the chicken lady would say, "oh, I have the chicken for your mother. But I know your little brother likes chicken livers, so wait here, I get you another liver." At which point she would disappear into the back of the store with her hatchet (I kid you not), and I would hear "whack, whack, whack!" and then she would reappear with a fresh liver jiggling on a piece of white butcher paper, which she would wrap up and add to the bag with the chicken cut up into eighths. And I would take it and go home. And on Thanksgiving, even though my other made a turkey, the chicken lady would still give me a chicken liver. So we still had chopped liver. And many years later, when my family had moved to the suburbs and my little brother was in middle school, he became friendly with one of the kids in his class. And it turned out (again, I kid you not) that the kid was the chicken lady's grandson.

Does changing the day one celebrates Thanksgiving count as making it an "ethnic" holiday? My mother always made Thanksgiving dinner on Friday night, rather than on the regular Thursday night of Thanksgiving weekend. Her logic: why should she make a big dinner on Thursday and then have to do it all again on Friday for Shabbos? So it was always a truly Jewish Thanksgiving. It included a combination of the usual foods for each day: turkey and turkey soup (mit lukshen); chopped liver (chicken livers, which we would get from the chicken lady across the street, don't ask, please); I'd like to say we had a "corn dish," and I guess we did, but in truth it was always canned corn niblets (which I liked, and still like to this day); mashed potatoes, because no meal is complete without them; and other stuff I can't remember right now. This embarrassed me during adolescence, I thought it was too weird. Now I like it, and I have a couple of friends who actually decided to do the same thing (albeit with different foods).

Best: vanilla, coffee (with cardamom, mmmm), frying garlic Worst: guava (major yuk!), liver

Lovely. Good recipe, too.

Wow. Where do you live?

I just want to add that different people make different choices. There are few "hard and fast" rules as far as kashrut is concerned. No one who keeps kosher will mix meat and dairy. No one who keeps kosher will cook a ham dish. Stuff like that. But aside from the basic, larger things of that sort, people can, and do, make individual decisions. So if you are eating with someone who keeps kosher, you might want to ascertain with them exactly what they do and do not follow. For the most part, I think they'll appreciate your questions.

Oh yes. When I was a kid my father brought home a cow's tongue (the whole tongue, and nothing but the tongue) (he was a butcher), and it was the first time I realized that that nice sliced stuff I had been eating and enjoying was actually a *tongue!* Revolting. I have not eaten tongue since then. Although I have been known to speak in tongues. So yes, slice it. But I have no suggestions re: cooking it (sorry). My father boiled it in water with spices of some sort.

Thanks so much. I keep thinking about smearing that on a piece of challah to break the Yom Kippur fast.

Oooh. That went right to my salivary glands. Would you mind sharing a recipe? Fresh figs are truly a gift. I have never cooked with them but would like to, so this thread is great.

I don't know the cost of a suitable goat cheese, but would you pay in the neighborhood of $10 for such a sandwich? Well, it's cheaper than going to Paris, but bottom line is this: I can't see spending ten bucks on a grilled cheese sandwich. Yes, I understand, good bread, great cheese, special stuff, etc. It still sounds like a lot. Would it come with any sides? A coke? French fries maybe?

I'm not sure about how this quote stuff works, but thank you tommy. Brilliant, hey, I like that. (That's what happens when I don't sleep.) If you're going to be changing your "top 5" every so often, it doesn't really matter which cheeses you use, since eventually you'll be changing them to something else anyway. Actually, you can have some sort of a contest. Change your top 5 every week or so, keep track of which ones are the best sellers, and those can eventually become your real "top 5," chosen by your customers. How's that?