[What's in your fridge?]

Despite foodblogs..let's post whats in our fridge...and guess...from culture to culture...

[1920's Menu for a party]

how about this...

Canape of Anchovies

Cream of Celery with Toasties

Celery Olives

Aiguillette of Striped Bass Joinville

Potatoes a la Hollandaise

Medaillon of Spring Lamb, Chasseur

Asparagus Tips au Gratin

***

Breast of Chicken a la Rose

Waldorf Salad, Mayonnaise

***

Venetian Ice Cream

Assorted Cakes Coffee

Apollinaris White Rock."

....from the Waldorf Astoria Cookbook, James and Cole.

http://www.foodtimeline.org/fooddecades.html#1920s

God knows what any of it means though

[Food Terms We Loathe/Misuse]

I agree with much of the above, especially the baby talk--veggies, sammies, and so forth.  But I haven't seen anyone mention the propensity of many tv chefs to use the following words when describing a step in food preparation: pitch, pop, slap, throw, toss, grab, drop, hit, snag and so forth.  For instance:

"Now, let's throw this in the oven...."

or

"Our water's come to the boil so I'm 'gonna' pitch/toss in the (fill in the food item here)..."  Actually, I think you want to place anything in boiling water, for obvious reasons.

or

"Next, grab some parsley or mustard or butter....."

or

"About a half an hour before the ribs are ready to come off the grill, you wanna slap/hit 'em with some of this sauce..."

More akin to describing an upcoming bout of wrestling than food instruction and usually accompanied by the onscreen talent talking louder and faster and making exaggerated arm gestures.   I think we're seeing more of this in an attempt to make the chef seem more accessible/likeable/down-to-earth to the folks at home.  Not totally annoying just bizarre.

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I'll agree with about half of this; I think there's no reason to 'hit' the meat with a sauce. That just sounds dumb. The action described in grab is a little less.. aggressive? so I only shake my head at its use 50% of the time. 'Throwing something in the oven' is something I say, so I'm obviously not upset by it.

If it's something that will splatter (throwing a batter or meat into hot oil, for instance), I'll agree that 'throw it in there' is bad; on the other hand, 'toss a little salt on it' is perfectly OK.

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Totally agree...and add "Let's dump [this] in the processor"...dump? I hate it. And generally, I find drizzle to a most overused word.

[What classic dish is due for a revival?]

Great topic this...how about deep fried camenbert? or is that early eighties? and that thing that people used to do with an avocado, halved, stone removed and filled with french dressing..and what what about..shrimp cockatil with the single prawn dangling over the side of the cocktail glass!

[Tequila Cocktails]

Does a Long Island Iced Tea count?

[Vermouth]

eeek! I am so new to the world of cocktail making...I have vodka and gin in the fridge..and vermouth on the drinks table..what should be in the fridge? ..should it be the spirits or the "mixers"? I use cinzano vermouth extra dry..AND HAVE NEVER NOTICED...any other stuff like Noilly Prat etc. in my "botttle shop.