The Old Foodie

OK - just before I turn in for the night, here is the summary (over to you Anne - can you can keep track of the points and the challenges while I sleep? ) 35 challenges to date. Still in Play: Abraham Lincoln and Daikon Sun Tzu and Hansen's Diet Black Cherry Soda Tinky Winky and Sardinian Maggot Cheese! Santa Claus and Kobe Beef Bing Crosbie and carrots Aristotle and tortillas (added by me to make it up to six. Daniel, this one is on your behalf, I'll forgive you this one time .... ). Can you do this one in 3 or less degrees? Lenin and Pemmican [Mallet, you just lost your point to insomniac for the Karl Marx challenge - that should spur you on. You are now at 11 points, Daniel is ahead with 12 points. Some of you still lurking please join in, dont leave all the fun to the few - give mallet and daniel a run for their money (play money that is, there is no financial gain here, only the Glory).

Oh! do I know how that all feels. We lived way out in the country when my children were little, so there was no neighbour worry, but my daughter (second child, if she'd been first, I wouldnt have had the courage for another) was an extra-ordinarily light sleeper - I swear she could hear the first bubbles in the kettle as it boiled - and I so needed that cup of tea. She had two or three very brief catnaps by day (10 minutes max) and didnt sleep a night through till she was over 2 years. And she was very high maintenance when she was awake - this child would not simply amuse herself. In our most exhausted moments, in a pathetic attempt to retain our sense of humour, my husband and I used to "joke" which said "if only we could put her in the chook (chicken) shed" (which was out of earshot). My daughter (who is now my best young friend) says that was child abuse - we say it would have been child abuse had we actually done it. Remember - however bad it feels, it wont last forever. Soup saved it for me - but we had a slow-burning wood stove and a permanent stock-pot / soup pot on the back of it. If planning ahead was possible in the state of fatigue and frustration that you must be in was possible - you wouldnt have started the thread. Do whatever you have to do, and eat whatever you can get by whatever methods you can think of - dont worry about nutrition - there is no medical evidence whatsoever that a few months of potato chips (under the covers or not - love that story) or chocolate or cold canned beans straight from the can will kill you. If you tell us where you are, perhaps some nearby e-Gulleters can do a meal run?

1. Rick James has long been linked with cocaine use. 2. Cocaine is a white powder. 3. Powder is the name of a movie from 1995 Starring Jeff Goldblum. 4. Jeff Goldblum was born on October 22. 5. 22 is the number of calories from fat contained in White Castle Clam Strips. Clearly I'm not going for points. ← This is very elegant though - neat, discrete steps, not leaps of the imagination. This is the gold standard folks!

Well Done folks - I'm doing my best to keep up. Of 34 challenges so far, the results are: Still in Play: Abraham Lincoln and Daikon Sun Tzu and Hansen's Diet Black Cherry Soda Tinky Winky and Sardinian Maggot Cheese! Santa Claus and Kobe Beef AT 4- 6 degrees, can you make it in 3? Lenin and Pemmican Karl Marx and Parsnips Mallet - you better watch out, Daniel is now at 12 points, so you are neck-and-neck. Remember - if you solve one, you have to post one - some of you are a bit slack here. If you dont want points deducted ...... judges discretion .... no correspondence will be entered into etc etc. Daniel - shape up with a challenge please. Someone else owes one too - you know who you are Kerry - love the Pitt/Plastic surgery one. Anne - an extra point to Kerry for that one??

Doesn't making it in 2 count? ← OOPs! Sorry, points adjusted. My mistake.

You sure are Daniel - four points to you. Now you need to think of two more challenges for the rest of the contestants (or at least one more - we got up to seven challenges somehow). Remaining Challenges: Abraham Lincoln and Daikon Brad Pitt and Wattle Seed Mahatma Gandhi and bangers 'n' mash Sun Tzu and Hansen's Diet Black Cherry Soda Tinky Winky and Sardinian Maggot Cheese! At 6 degrees, can you make it in 3? Hirohito and Grits Lenin and Pemmican Karl Marx and Parsnips Da Vinci and Jello [edited to add the points for the Bob Dylan solution]

I was just about to say - this is two foods. Silly me!

UPDATE In Play Bob Dylan and caviar Abraham Lincoln and Daikon Thaksin Shinawatara and injera Brad Pitt and Wattle Seed Mahatma Gandhi and bangers 'n' mash Sun Tzu and Hansen's Diet Black Cherry Soda Currently at 6 degrees, can you make it 3? Hirohito and Grits Lenin and Pemmican Karl Marx and Parsnips Da Vinci and Jello

This is where we are at (I am "moderately sure" - if I'd known how hard it was to keep track, I might not have suggested this!) Still in Play Bob Dylan and caviar Abraham Lincoln and Daikon Thaksin Shinawatara and injera Ghengis Kahn and Spam Brad Pitt and Wattle Seed Mahatma Gandhi and bangers 'n' mash Recap of "Rules". Two points if you get the connection in 3 or fewer degrees, one point if it is in 4-6 degrees. If two players come up with the same degree of relationships for the same puzzle, then both get the points If someone else comes up with a shorter path, you lose your points to them. Extra point if you have the actual food in the actual person's mouth. Extra point for a connection that is particularly clever (eg Pontormo with Paris Hilton and botargo) - at the discretion of the judges (annecross and me). Judges decision is final etc etc etc. Top two contestants so far. mallet with 12 points annecross with 11 points.

Pontormo - we need one from you in return for your Paris Hilton success.

This is so good I think it deserves an extra discretionary point. What do you think, Anne? You should be able to come up with a good one to fill the vacant spot Pontormo!

This is quite a good review article from a reputable journal: http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlere...bmedid=16759972 The final sentence sums it up: What most researchers do agree on is that we are only just beginning to truly understand the nature of soy, and that much more research is needed before it is possible to make firm health recommendations. “If you look at nutritional research in general,” Kaplan says, “there are kinds of proteins that are described as being ‘bioactive.’ Most people had assumed that if soy is bioactive, it’s because of the isoflavones. We’re no longer certain of that at all.” [disclaimer: the Thomas Clarkson mentioned in the article is no relative] The older I get (and the longer in the medical profession) the more I am convinced that, as Rebecca said, the only sensible approach is "moderation in all things".

I think I'm going to have to take the day off work to keep track of this. I guess if someone else comes up with a path of fewer degrees, you gotta give up your points to them?

What an amazing contest (or should that be what amazing contestants)!!. Three degrees only in most of them. Keep it up. Where are the rest of you? Lurking in admiration I suspect. Remaining Challenges: Francois Mitterand and Mole Paris Hilton and botarga Hugo Chavez and jellied eel So to keep up the numbers, here are three more: Samuel Pepys and Hamburgers. Bob Dylan and caviar Rembrandt and chutney (any flavour!) [edited to add the challenges]

Degrees can be any way you want them - people, food, cars, mathematical equations, insect species - anything. 2 points to you Nina. That one was clearly too easy. Do you have a suggestion for the next challenge, now that you have solved this one?

How about a game for some fun and to get you thinking? I propose a variation of the Six Degrees of Separation game, that is I propose that there are only six degrees of separation between any specific person and any specific food. I mentioned this (jokingly) as an aside in <a href= “http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=97452&hl=”>Tim Hayward’s thread ‘That Sweet Enemy’</a> (suggesting only three steps, which is Grand Master Level) and gave the first combination off the top of my head - Adlai Stevenson and rhubarb – which Anne (annecross) solved in two steps! The only easier one might have been <a href = “http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=86785&hl=”>Mayhaw Man and cake</a> Anne thought you might all enjoy playing it, and suggested a new thread, and also concocted three challenges. Lets see what you can do with this half-dozen. Two points if you get it in 3 or fewer degrees, one point if you need 4-6 degrees. Feel free to suggest other ideas if you solve one, so we keep about 6 on the go. Unless it all goes chaotic and disorganised and tangential, in which case I'm sure we'll all enjoy it anyway Winner at the end of the month gets ….. Oh! Probably only the Glory, or maybe an Important Sounding Title. Here are the challenges: The Dali Lama and Chateubriand Francois Mitterand and Mole Queen Elizabeth II and Nutria Julius Caesar and potatoes George Bush and foie-gras Paris Hilton and botarga

It is the palate of a beef, finely broken up into slivers. Let us know (and do post pictures) when you actually do it! (there is a Tourte of Beatilles in La Varenne, 1653 - so I guess it is "French" as well) J

It also works if you make a standard recipe for jam (or jelly ) and when it is cooked and off the heat, stir (carefully) in "about" a tablespoon of spirit or liqueur per jar of jam. No need to cook anymore. Whisky in marmalade is good. Your imagination will tell you what other flavours will match.

Phew! I couldn't have drunk enough of anything to keep up with that debate - Thank Goodness for our hemispheric time difference which ensured it was all resolved and back to food while I was blissfully sleeping. Now, over my early morning cuppa I feel obliged to ponder my current favourite theory of the three degrees of separation that separate any particular person and a specific food item. Adlai Stevenson and rhubarb, perhaps? Janet ← Easy he was Governor of Illinois, and there is a rhubarb festival that has been held at the Governor Small Park in Aledo, IL. Well done! George Bush and foie gras? Paris Hilton and botarga? (or should this be in a new "challenge" thread? ) There are probably a few people who think fish eggs are nasty little bits. Cocks combs were once included in the "beatilles" or "beautiful little things" that went into what, by change in pronunciation became "Batallia Pie" - an exceedingly popular high-class pie in the 16th and 17th centuries. And Catherine de Medici (1519-1590) - who could afford to eat anything - was said to have once made herself sick by eating too much Cibreo, which is a Tuscan (I think) style dish of chicken "nasty bits", and which she supposedly particularly enjoyed. Scarcity has a lot to do with "fashion" - a cockerel only has a tiny bit of flesh in its combs, so perhaps these dainties were reserved for the rich or important - like the sheeps eyes or the parson's nose or any other selected little bits. I'm just waiting for the day that some "beak to tail" enthusiast re-invents Battalia Pye. Trust me, it will happen.

Phew! I couldn't have drunk enough of anything to keep up with that debate - Thank Goodness for our hemispheric time difference which ensured it was all resolved and back to food while I was blissfully sleeping. Now, over my early morning cuppa I feel obliged to ponder my current favourite theory of the three degrees of separation that separate any particular person and a specific food item. Adlai Stevenson and rhubarb, perhaps? Janet

This phrase is memorable. It is not only exceptionally nicely turned, but also glows with a classic (not garden-variety) sort of truth. ← Hear! Hear! It sums up the topic so well - and in a completely unarguable sort of way - that we could safely just pack up this thread and all go home. Except we are all having too much fun to stop the debate just yet.

Hello everyone. I have added to this list - more in French from the Gallica site - no doubt there are more there that I haven't identified - and the Advertising cookbooks from the Duke University Digital Scriptorium. The location is the same http://www.mydatabus.com/public/TheOldFood..._Cookbooks3.pdf The advertising books can be seen directly at http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/dynaweb/eaa/cookbooks/ lots of goodies there - several Jell-O books from the 20's, several from the Lydia Pinkham company, one about Smoked Salt. There is one lone English one the Be-Ro cookbook - wonderful. The first things I ever baked were from a tatty old copy that had belonged to my grandmother. I wont add any more to the list for the foreseeable future - unless some fantastic pre-1800 sites come up. Have fun.

I see. Summer = no school. No school = no cupcakes at school, not (necessarily) no cupcakes at all. I would have thought that a lot of kids would think being on holiday and therefore deprived of a cupcake party at school would be a good trade – particularly if said holiday represented not having to deal with school authorities who feel “that these in-class parties were detracting from the educational experience." And as for parents who would make a hue & cry because their little dears were being deprived of “a hallowed childhood rite”! Those parents would be more toxic to their kids than the teachers/school authorities. What about the hallowed childhood rite of having a cupcake party at home? Are said parents complaining that their children only get half their quota of cupcakes, or no cupcakes at all? This cynical old biddy thinks that some people have too much energy to waste. Same amount of energy spent obtaining or making cupcakes for said deprived children would be energy better spent. Even better spent helping said children learn to make cupcakes themselves. Good educational experience, that. Or might they get sore arms from stirring ingredients, or (heaven forbid) burn themselves? I see now. It is not Puritan, it is Puerile. This sort of madness happens here too, and I suspect also in the UK. We are rearing a generation of fragile, over-protected, wussy kids. World War III over no cupcakes at school. Scarred for life, definitely. Please dont try and explain any more. This cultural immersion is giving me a headache. I'm going to make myself a healing cuppa.

Please! Someone enlighten me! What - on EARTH - has summer/not summer to do with whether or not children get cup cakes (we call them patty cakes here). at their birthday parties!!!!!!!!!!! There is some unfathomable divide here between our two countries with their common language and heritage. Our summers here in Queensland are tropical HOT - and I've never known a summer-birthday kid miss out on patty cakes at a birthday party. The icing melts more quickly, and it is a harder job keeping the flies off them if the party is outside, but ....... Is there some strange Puritan-originating law that says sunshine and cup-cakes together are too much fun? If I dont get an answer to this very quickly, I'll go slightly mad.

Epiphany Eve is already here in Australia, and I set about considering the food traditions associated with it, and naturally looked to see what eGullet had to say about it. From reading this thread, one could be forgiven for thinking that only the French celebrate Epiphany with cake. <a href= "http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=97452">Tim Hayward's wonderful essay</a> this week on French food as seen by the rest of the world continures to burn in my Yorkshire-born heart, and I am forced to redress the balance and give you some British Epiphany food history. Twelfth cake was eaten regularly until a century or so ago - James Boswell, the biographer of Samuel Johnson decides at one Epiphany to eat his way through one area of London, sampling the Twelfth Cake at every shop along the way. In the Victorian era it was still common. Here is a recipe from ‘The Cook’s Oracle’, by Dr Kitchiner, 1845 edition Twelfth Cake Two pounds of sifted flour, two pounds of sifted Loaf Sugar, two pounds of Butter, eighteen Eggs, four pounds of Currants, one half pound of Almonds blanched and Chopped, one half pound of Citron, one pound of Candied Orange and Lemon-peel cut into thin slices, a large Nutmeg grated, half an ounce of ground Allspice, ground Cinnamon, Mace, Ginger, and Corianders, a quarter of an ounce of each, and a gill of Brandy. Put the butter into a stew-pan, in a warm place, and work it into a smooth cream with the hand, and mix it with the Sugar and Spice in a pan (or on your paste-board) for some twenty minutes; stir in the Brandy, and then the Flour, and work it a little; add the Fruit, Sweetmeats, and Almonds, and mix all together lightly; have ready a hoop cased with paper, on a baking-plate; put in the mixture, smooth it on the top with your hand, dipped in milk; put the plate on another, with sawdust between, to prevent the bottom from colouring too much: bake it in a slow oven* four hours or more, and when nearly coke, ice it with (545) This mixture would make a handsome cake, full twelve or fourteen inches over. Obs. – If made in cold weather, the eggs should be broke into a pan, and set into another filled with hot water; likewise the fruit, sweetmeats, and almonds, laid in a warm place, otherwise it may chill the butter, and cause the cake to be heavy. Dorothy Hartley, in her wonderful 'Food in England' describes the various designs of jam tart made (very competitively, especially for Church social events) by English housewives proud of their pastry-making skills. Skill was demonstrated by the number of different coloured jams that could be fitted inbetween the spaces of the lattice top. A special star-shaped design allowed 13 different colours, and if made at this time of the year was called "Epiphany Tart". A good one must look like a stained-glass window. I'm going to make one, if I can find 13 different colours of jam. So There! Francophiles eat your hearts out. Have fun Janet