Pierogi

Nah, there's enough preservatives in there that Pringle's would survive a thermo-nuclear meltdown. Them and cockroaches !!!!

THAT scene broke my heart, several times over. I had tears in my eyes. It's glossed over in a way in Julia's book, which I think is in keeping with her character, but that scene was brilliant. You must read it. If you loved and respected Julia at all before, you will do so 1000 times more after reading it. She was a Great Broad ! And *that* is the highest compliment I can give another woman.

Let me add to the confirmations that at least in Southern California, the Bings were exceptional this year. And CHEAP ! They were $0.99 per pound and under for about 4 weeks running at various supermarket chains. I saw them as low as $0.69 per pound, tho' that was undoubtedly a loss leader. What was rarer than hen's teeth this year, and just as pricey. were the Raniers we usually get from Washington about a month after the Bings hit. They never get as cheap or as plentiful as the Bings, but there is usually a good month or so when they're semi-affordable (like $2 per pound). I didn't see a lot of them this year, many stores never even offered them, and they never got below 3 or 4 bucks a pound. Needless to say, I didn't enjoy any Ranier cherries this year.

Sadly, I do not have "MTAOFC", a situation which will be rectified shortly, but I do have "The French Chef Cookbook", which is a compilation, in chronological order, of all the recipes Julia demonstrated on "The French Chef". Since all THOSE recipes came from "Mastering", there was only one degree of separation for the lovely quiche Lorraine that I made last night to celebrate Julia. Usually, I make a combination cheese/bacon quiche, sometimes with onions, asparagus, other stuff. But this time I stuck to the classic Lorraine, just bacon (lots of bacon...lots) and the most decadent, silky, sumptuous custard I've ever tasted. So eggy and creamy and bacony and wonderful. 3 eggs, a cup and a half of heavy cream, S&P and nutmeg, and dot with, of course, butter. I could hear my arteries clogging, and didn't care. I thought I'd miss the cheese, but didn't because the custard was so wonderful. Had it with a sliced, huge, heirloom tomato, topped with a touch of thin sliced onion, thin sliced radish, S&P, slivered basil and a drizzle of good, fruity olive oil. Also did a take on Julia's "Immense Fruit Bowl" from "The Way to Cook". Although THAT recipe serves 4 dozen, I took the spirit of that mixed fruit salad. I did cheat a bit, and used a frozen pie shell. Sorry Julia, but pie pastery and I do not get along, not one little bit.

Dave, If access to fresh, pungent garlic were a given then I doubt any of us would be resorting to pre-peeled. My willingness to try the pre-peeled is Fat Guy's word that it is of higher quality than the often moldy, always spongy garlic that is offered at my supermarket. I don't think it is merely convenience that is driving this. When I use a chef's knife to smash the garlic I have from Manitoulin Island it practically turns into a paste on the first smack. When I try the same thing with supermarket garlic my knife bounces! I am hoping the pre-peeled garlic is of much higher quality. And too, sometimes its about more than convenience or access to decent product. I have pretty severe rheumatoid arthritis which makes my hands very achy and weak. Fine movements, like peeling of that last little bit of garlic skin, are some days particularly challenging. I take my helpers where I can find them, and until I realized what a huge difference in taste there was between the two, the peeled garlic was a helper of choice. It was one less hassle (or literal pain) to deal with, which let me deal with other things more easily. I still can't use a garlic press happily, but luckily my knife skills are still pretty decent, so mincing works just groovy.

This has been my experience as well. I was buying the pre-peeled California garlic in packages at Trader Joe's. They were small enough to be efficient for my single-person household (I could use the whole thing before they spoiled), and they too were vacuum packed in smaller bags of 3 or 4 cloves each. I'd say you'd get between 30 or 40 cloves per package, with a shelf life of a month or so. And I did love the convenience, especially as Snowangel said, of not fighting the papery skins. But having hit a patch were economy was necessary, and being in California where beautiful, hard heads are $0.50 each, I went back to fresh and IMMEDIATELY noticed they are much more pungent and flavorful. I don't think I'll go back to the processed.

I have an embarassment of riches here in Sunny SoCal. On my satellite service, I have 4, count 'em 4 PBS stations available to me. Over the course of the last week, they have all been running huge blocks of Julia's shows, and one of them has had Julia & Jacques in their regular rotation for about 2 months now. I'm in heaven. All 4 of them have re-run the 2 hour tribute to Julia that was done by PBS for her 90th birthday, and which was then re-run when she passed. *THAT* one is a treasure. It has Emeril when he was still cooking at Commander's doing a crawfish boil, and showing Julia how to "suck head and pinch tail" with Julia quaffing beer (I think it's a Dixie Beer) from a bottle. It has clips of Julia and Jacques cooking live in front of an audience. It's marvelous. It is certainly a blatent reminder of how wonderful she was as a teacher, and how lacking most of the so-called "food personalites" today are. Save for the ones who have found refuge on PBS (Jacques, Lidia, Rick, Ming, Jose, I'm talkin' to you, keep fighting the good fight.....). The sole beacon of culinary education out there......

Two words - LOVED IT. As JGM said, is it "Citizen Kane" or "Casablanca" or even "Gone With The Wind". Uhhhhhh, no. But its wonderful and supremely entertaining, especially the "Julia parts" (the "Julie parts" sort of dragged for me, but I'm much older than her target audience, and her book dragged for me as well). But still, there were many good moments in the "Julie parts" as well. Meryl Streep *is* a bit over the top in a couple of scenes, but for sure has Julia's essence. Stanley Tucci is freakin' BRILLIANT as Paul. LOVED the inclusion of the Danny Ackroyd SNL skit.......that was brilliant. All in all, I'll watch it again when it comes on cable, I may even buy the DVD, and it absolutely, positively made me want to cook something. Immediately. Preferably from one of Julia's books. Instead, we went out for French food ! I'd say the theater I saw it in (a MegaMultiPlex) was 95% full, and most of the audience applauded at the end. JGM, I have seen NO negative reviews. The LA Times loved it, the NY Times loved it, even my rinky-dink hometown paper that buys reviews from a syndicate loved it. Dunno who's panning it, but I sure haven't seen it.

Or a clean pillow case. Even better because it's closed on 3 sides. But I'll second the idea to do it solo, *and* outside, because, well, you'll get strange looks, not to mention water droplets spewing all over. Frankly, it scares my dogs, but they get over it when I give them some of the raw veggies I'm chopping for the salad. Or just roll the washed greens up in a clean bath towel, and put in the fridge till you need them. (Gently roll of course........). Julia said that's the best way to dry them. And if it's good enough for Julia, it's certainly good enough for me.

I will now make a bee-line to the maple cookies, but Snowangel, I have to agree. Those Caramel Cashew Cookies are like crack, and must be handled accordingly. I only buy them when I'm having company to help me eat them, or I will scarf the whole tub in a couple of days. They are just an amazing combination of good.

Yep, a bit of cheese. Can't remember what kind, though - some leftover bits from the cheese drawer. We didn't add any sauce - just some finely chopped cilantro and onion inside (and on top). Cool, thanks so much. On the agenda for tomorrow night.

HOW timely ! I have a dinner plate full of pulled pork (not smoked, just slow roasted, but still really good) in the fridge, and I was wanting to make something Mexican with some of them. Is that cheese I spy in your taquitos? What else did you throw in, any kind of sauce? They look fabulous, and I'm full from dinner, but I'd still eat one (or two.......or three.........) TIA !

Spicy Beef Roll-Ups ! My mother's specialty, and something still requested to this day by my friends who knew her and were fed by her. Cream cheese mixed with horseradish, grated onion and Worcestershire sauce. Spread this in a thin layer on one side of that chopped/pressed/formed "corned beef" or "pastrami" by Leo's or Buddig. Roll it up like a jelly roll, chill, then cut into 1/2s or 1/3s. Dip the cut ends into micro-minced parsley if you're uptown. The onion MUST be grated on a box grater, because you want the juice. But not too much juice, the Cuisinart makes it too goopy (I've tried.....). These are getting tougher and tougher to recreate, because that faux lunch meat is getting harder and harder to find.

Similar to this, in a more umm, *Southwestern* vein.......dice your tomatoes, throw in garlic, good olive oil and some good mozzarella, cut into about a 1/4" dice (bigger, smaller, don't stress it, just chunk up the cheese). Add some finely diced jalapenos to taste (seed and devein to your tolerance for heat). Add some S&P, stir and cover with some plastic wrap. Leave at room temp for at least 1/2 an hour. Boil your pasta (whatever you have or like, I've done it with just about any cut). Drain. Put the pasta back into the warm pot, add the tomato mix, cover the pot and leave on the hot burner (HEAT OFF) for 5 minutes. Add copious amounts of chopped cilantro, toss, and adjust seasonings. May need a slight squeeze of acid (lime juice....rice vinegar, something fairly mild). Top with grated Parmesan and inhale.

LOL, one of my best friends is as food-obsessed as I am, and I like to think I helped mold her into the foodie she's become. We both share an undying love for Julia. She turned me onto the book, I had vaguely heard about the blog, but didn't follow it. MY birthday present from her is dinner and the movie ! If only August 7th would get here quicker ! I've been looking forward to it since I heard the casting.

Oh for sure, I third the Tuesday Morning. They are PHENOMENAL ! Beautiful crystal, good kitchen things, they're great. It's more hit and miss in my experience than HomeGoods but if you have patience, you can unearth real gems. A friend of mine got an Atlas manual pasta machine for $25. Edit because apparently I shouldn't be trying to spell "phenomenal" after 3 glasses of wine

ABSOLUTELY love these places, and I have gotten some real steals at them, if you know what you're looking for. These places are jobbers, so a lot of the branded merchadise (Cuisinart, KitchenAid, LC, All Clad) come from department store stock that didn't sell. That's why you see the name brands there and not at their own warehouse/outlet stores. Probably my best deal was a beautiful, Calphalon non stick 12-inch saute pan. Very heavy weight, excellent non-stick finish, and it was 10 bucks. I went back and bought 2 more, since I knew the non-stick would eventually die. I still have one in reserve, and I got them probably 5 or 6 years ago, and use them a lot. I've gotten removeable bottom tart pans, good heavy weight sheet pans, all sorts of gadgets and tools, just love them, HomeGoods especially.

I have never purchased a Martha Stewart branded item I was totally happy with. The workmanship is always inferior, the designs are sometimes flawed, and neither are indicative of the price. The worst was what seemed to be a relatively nice, 12-inch saute pan with a beautiful, thick copper bottom. The sucker was HEAVY, the inside was 18/10 stainless, I thought, yeah, nice pan. First time I used it, I put some oil in it to saute/brown something, and it all ran to the edges. The damn thing had been milled so badly on the interior, that the bottom was convex ! Everything I tried to use it for (granted, I only tried 2 or 3 times before it went to the local charity) stuck like a b*stard because there was no oil in 99.9% of the pan. Last Marfa-branded item I ever, or will ever, buy. To drag this back on topic, talk about a 100% waste of money.

I've used Ina Garten's (I'm sure its on the FN site) numerous times, and never been disappointed. If its not there, PM me, and I'll send it to you, it's in one of her cookbooks.

Surprisingly enough......on the Left Coast here, we do, sort of. But here in SoCal, it's in the lower echelon, cost-cutter (read *upscale ethnic*) markets and only one chain. The large, mainstream chains do not. The first time I'd ever seen such an arrangement was at a Food-4-Less in southern Oregon when I was visiting a friend. Don't remember if it was in Medford or Central Point where she lives, but it was definately a Food-4-Less. At that time, Medford/Central Point (this was about 15 years ago......) was very rural, and very lower socio-economic scale. I remember watching in awe as Judi bagged a HUGE order of her groceries (she has a passel 'o' kids......). I was like........wow......at home we have "people" to do that. The next time I saw such a creature was when Food 4 Less started expanding into SoCal, but they only have opened in the less than chi-chi neighborhoods. They seem to be targeting a niche between the traditional mega-mart chains and the traditional, single-owner, or small chain ethnic grocers. Interestingly enough, Food-4-Less is owned by Kroger.........the MEGA-ist of the mega-marts. Also interestingly enough, most of the traditional, *upscale* mega-marts in my piece of the fading yuppie/preppie paradise that was SoCal, have self-checkouts. I use them often. That is, when I don't go to TJ's where their cashiers/baggers ROCK !

These types, are, sadly, rife in *ANY* industry. Sometimes they crash and burn. Sometimes, actually *MOST* times, (at least in non-restaurant industry), they are promoted to senior management.

It means it costs at least twice as much as the regular stuff !!!

After having found cherries (Bings) at the riddiculously low price of $0.99 per pound on Friday, I started a batch of JP's cherries in vodka today. Although I have about 1/2 a bottle of Maraska maraschino in the bar stash, I couldn't bring myself to use it for the cherries. The cheap-o vodka from Trader Joe's seemed much more fiscally responsible in these troubled times, especially since I'm not doing this little project for the eau de vie, but for the cherries. They're relaxing in the fridge. JP says to wait at least a month before sampling....maybe if I stash them behind the Mike's Hard Lemonade I keep for when my best friends come over, I won't be tempted to break into them. Lord knows *I* never open one of those bottles.

OK. I give. This is the second reference in 24 hours to barbecued bologna. I'm intrigued (to say the least......). I've never heard of such a thing, but fried bologna sandwiches are pretty darned wonderful. Do you just take a roll of, I'm assuming Kosher bologna like Hebrew National, and toss it on the grill? Do you baste it with oil? BBQ sauce? I think I need some of this, and soon. Details, I need details.....

Now, see, this is just perfect. (Well, with a little tarter sauce on the side for me, please.) You could serve this in a doggie bowl, and it would still be a thing of beauty. I can taste/feel the crunch of that fish right through the computer screen. Nicely done, Rhonda !