maggiethecat

I could get by without my paring knife, but I'd hate to. It's my go-to blade for dicing onions, slicing herbs, halving potatoes and olives, cutting up peppers and much other prep work. The shorter, super-sharp blade works better for me in small situations.

I agree. The thing about whole wheat bread that spurs all this evasiveness is that no one can make a great loaf of whole wheat anymore -- it's typically, in it's true form, leaden and soggy. I grew up on amazing artisinal French Canadian whole wheat boules, dense and tight but light. Until bakeries can make a great loaf of whole wheat we're gonna get these mock versions of a great bread.

Frequency-wise, I make White Sauce a couple of times a month. For something so simple, and not health heinous, everything it adorns or includes feels luxurious.

I find a cornmeal batter (and yeah, you can use a box of Jiffy) is the solution. The berries soften the batter and the batter stands up to the berries.

I'm glad to see the reemergence of this great old topic. Since I posted eons ago I've become even more che sera sera about kitchen cleaning. We're artisinal dishwashers (the machine's been dead for five years)and it just depends. We're only two, so there aren't lots of plates and flatware -- if we're doing something else they can wait for manana. All I insist upon, in my middle-aged kitchen slutitude, is a scrubbed counter before I seek my couch.

Chris, you are a Silly Wabbit! I'd hate to have celery taken from my life, but it's not exactly a food. Carrots are. Proof: I often toss a sickly half-head of celery when I clean out the vegetable drawer, but never a carrot. Why? The carrots get eaten. As food.

Chris, you've created one of the classic eG topics here and I'm hanging on your every word and photo. Rick owes you: I think you've sold a few books for him.

You first. But we did sort of brush this topic at The Daily Gullet a few years ago:

I'm not eating a canary.

You'd have to buy all the fish in the store to feed one person a tiny serving.

Thanks for behooving, Priscilla. Olney is impeccable, as you say, and I'm going to try even harder to banish bechamel from my vocab when I mean White Sauce.

170,779.

Thanks for encapsulating what I feel about White Sauce. If you know about it, you're a cook. If you don't everything is much harder, and way less fun.

Thanks, Katie. Mucho. That's the thing about White sauce v that scary Bechamel I didn't know about. White sauce is mortar, the real kitchen basic, well, the glue. And I love that glue or mortar every time I lick the wooden spoon.

Thank you. Hey, the recipe list for plain ole White Sauce is endless!

Very cool, and very creative. I love White Sauce, and the only Mushroom Omelette recipe I like, from Elizabeth David, is WS based. Chop five mushrooms (don't slice them) cook them in a tablespoon of butter for a bit, add some nutmeg, s and p, and a smidge of flour. Then add a couple of tablespoons of milk or cream and cook it down. Rich, shroomy, not slimy. A micro white sauce.

Yeah, the illustrations in "The Epicurean" are just plain fab.I saw the "tammy' one too and thought about the amount of sheer sweat that went on in those great old kitchens. Erin: Same Purity Cookbook, same sauce in my girlhood home.

Oh, God, the lettuce, the lettuce. Why did you have to bring that up? How many an innocent, organic head has wilted at my neglect and inability to buy paper towel? The shame, the shame. Nevermind the cilantro. Dear Lord -- I hear you ladies! If i were to do an archaeological dig in my fridge right now, I'd find month old moldering romaine and gelid cilantro. I truly feel bad, as a first world lazy ass and a soi disant frugal cook. There is no health in me.

Yes, I've done that too, within this last month. It really did feel like a sin of omission, and impoverished great grandparents, starving children and eGullet membership were breathing down my neck.

If you were raised, as I was, in the Anglican/Episcopal tradition Thomas Cranmer's words still resonate, even if you haven't been to church for thirty years. From the General Confession: "We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, And we have done those things which we ought not to have done, And there is no health in us." I'm not talking theology here, just cooking, and I'm going to ignore the last two lines and focus on the first. I have left undone those things I ought to have done in the kitchen. I've known how to make yogurt for thirty years, it's better and cheaper than anything I can buy. Why do I make it once a quarter, not once a week? I have a KA and a Cuiz -- even the laziest baker should be able to keep her home in a fresh loaf a day. I've thrown out overripe bananas: I've known how to make a good banana bread since I was 12. Well, there is no health in me. And that's just three of a line of sins of omission! Please tell me that I'm not the only miserable sinner in these parts

I'm never gonna mess with traditional Thanksgiving dinner again. Never again: 1)When you're serving twenty people broth with (yes) homemade tortellini within, the first bowl's cold before the last hits the table. 2)Two turkeys, two different cooking methods -- what was I thinking? Suckling pigs are skinny and make the kids cry.

You Canadian ladies sure know how to lunch! I'll make an effort to gather my Chicago cohort together and add to this terrific topic.

For fun,great food,and a breath of l'ancien regime I'd recommend Edouard de Pomianes's "French Cooking in Ten Minutes."

Ok, this kitchen rocks in every way I can conceive. A tea towel cabinet -- be still my heart. I don't have any practical advice to give you, but thanks for your shout-out to Formica. Layers of paper, impregnated and sealed in resin. The top sheet is a print. Functional, beautiful, lasts forever, and your robin's egg blue is to die for.

Yes, and yes. I think it's a terrific product.