maggiethecat

I am a cook who focuses on the local,sustainable,organic, and expensive, while fusing the Uzbeki/Uraguayan cuisines of my grandparents.

It takes all kinds of guts to introduce a paper and ink food magazine when "Gourmet" has been 86ed. Tim Hayward has intestinal fortitude, bless him. I admit to having a huge crush on Tim back from the days I was editor of "Daily Gullet." He turned in great writing, on time, with photos and didn't need a single line edit. And as an eG member, he's been nothing but smart and funny. The photography, the layout, the very weight of the paper makes me happy. And, oh, the writing: Tim's pieces on Vincent Price and the Scotch Thermos are the best of the bunch (well I do have a crush....) but Rejina Sabur's piece about Bengali ladies in London gardening and cooking, Tom Parker Bowles about cookbook collecting... Well, there's never a wrong note or a junk moment. Petit Propos Culinaires -- "Fire and Knives" has made you so, so Grandad.

I take the artisinal approach to dishwashing because the water in my town is so hard it can crunch dishwashers like the Jaws of Life withing six months. But of course, I have to empty the dish drainer, which is unlikely to be as full as a dishwasher, but still. I don't sweat the mise, but a sink of soapy water, an empty dishrack and a handy garbage can make for cooking clean. So does a Dedicated Plongeur -- next time a well meaning friend trips into the kitchen during prep and chirps "Can I help?" show him the sponge and the suds. And get a dog. Since Willa the Wonderdog died a few years ago my kitchen floor has deteriorated. Dogs clean up everything.

In Ottawa I was astounded to find out that if I wanted a burger medium I'd have to sign a legal document. I was even more astounded when my fellow diners couldn't understand why I'd want a medium burger. Ah, Ottawa.

I lurve corn flake crusts and rice krispie treats, but Count Chocula, Fruit Loops and there ilk make me gag. Really. (Sorry David Chang.)Bran cereal recipes make me feel righteous (and regular) but they don't turn me on one bit. Oatmeal. Gotta think about oatmeal. Scots wha hae and all that.

This is a fairly long topic and I'm too tired to scroll up and see if I've mentioned this before. If so, I'm saying it again. I come from great frite wagon country (Montreal/Ottawa) and live in Chicago where even the humblest dog/Italian Beef joint serves crisp hand-cut fries. We make damn good fries ourselves in the privacy of our kitchen. I might order a slider or a bacon double cheeseburger, but I'll never order chain fast food fries. I'm picky that way.

I gulp it, checking out the layout, the pictures, the chapters, the organization. Then I read it carefully front to back, and make notes on a 3X5 card/bookmark giving me titles and page numbers of recipes I've gotta try.

167,034.

I checked this out of the library today, and I'm reeling. This is one all-inclusive baking book, heavy on both the how-to and the food porn pictures. I love baking, but don't indulge as often as I'd like because of girlish figure issues. I leafed through the 380 pages and decided that the Mama Cass body type was a fair exchange for the detailed instructions , great photography and my reintroduction to the desserts I made from "Mastering" as a newlywed. Pithiviers, babas, cream puff swans.... But the bread section is serious, the cookies look like something I wanna make in multiple batches, the recipe for candied citrus peel I'll make this week. This book reinforces Peterson's rep with me as the greatest single-subject cookbook writer, whether it be sauces, soups or baking. I own many fine baking books from Maida to Martha, but Peterson's done it again. It's on my Christmas list. has anyone else had a peek?

Pistachios. Color, flavor, crunch. Toujours bacon.

The front page of the "New York Tines" is always studded with bad news, but the only time it made me sob was when I read about Laurie Colwin's death. Her food writing was superb --and I've recommended and gifted my friends with "Home Cooking" more times than I can remember. She was a distinctive food writer par excellence. I'm putting in a plug here for her novels and short stories. "Family Happiness." "Passion and Affect." and many others. She was a great writer period paragraph. and food was present in all her fiction.

Oh geez, how could I have forgotten about Dove Bars? (I'll be checking out the Snickers ice cream bars. Thanks.)

Here's a mail order source:http://www.amazon.com/Lazzaroni-Amaretti-Saronno-Cookies-Cube/product-reviews/B0001FQVMK

I love Aero bars -- the texture is outstanding.I've been thinking about this and I realize that although I've been a long time Canadian ex-pat my favorite mass-produced sweets are still Canadian, with a bow to Petit Ecolier. Coffee Crisp Peak Frean's (Freen's?)Nice biscuits Smarties --to our gringo friends, these are the Ur M&Ms. Cadbury's Fruit and Nut Bar. OK, that's four, but I couldn't leave one out.

I don't have much to add about the contents of the box -- I'd add a box of Kleenex with the TP. But the packing medium should be your local paper. Another voice from home.

Family, whether parents or children, makes us adults and changes how we see the world. I'm glad Thomas has seen the light, although I'm sad that it was the tragic travails of his father that brought enlightenment.

This is backwards, I guess: repurposing hotel freebies for the kitchen. Always stick the shower cap in your suitcase -- it's a great bowl cover.

What brings both of us to our knees is the 20 hour slow-roasted pork butt a la Nigella Dawson. The fragrance hangs around the house for at least ten hours. then There's the unwrapping and unveiling and the Night of the Living Dead attack on the butt. Never. ever fails to bring on eroticism and greed.

Beth, that's brilliant and i have the ingredients. In fact, even I -- unsweetened Joe person -- might give it a try.

Shirley Corriher. Oy. It's not as if I doubt her wisdom and experience, but her cookbooks are just plain terrible. I blame her editor. Filled with gems, I'm sure, but unreadable and unusable. A shame. Seems Rose Levy Berenbaum is her BFF, and she got things right in her cookbooks. I wish a higher power had made Shirley's books what they might have been.

I hate sweetened coffee -- a little cream or 1 % milk is fine, but I mostly drink it black. Not so my Italian-American husband, who can swing both ways if it's great coffee. But after a visit to our daughter's house, where she had bottles of Coffeebuddy-like stuff, he got hooked on that cream/vanilla thing. Of course he knows it's crap: faux milk, faux sugar, faux vanilla. (Corn syrup figures large.)But when it goes on sale he once bought one of those cunning bottles. . He's a changed man. He rolls his own. When half and half goes on sale he grabs it, and dissolves some sugar and vanilla, then pours it into a tall glass jar. When he dribbles it into his coffee, he's a happy man. I love the scent of vanilla, but I just can't handle the sweet. (I do like coffee ice cream.) Do any of you coffee fiends make your own "Coffee Condiments?" If so, do tell.

Great Balls of stalks! Jeezo Pete! You're asking about chopping celery? Time consuming and tedious? I should be so lucky. Long slices up the stalk and short slices across. For tuna salad or the trinity it takes one minute and a half. (Go think about sustainable fishing or World Peace! )

I make exactly one recipe from "Bouchon" -- the quiche, which is fabulous. Otherwise, overpriced, overproduced and meh.

I can tell you the date I last cleaned an oven: February 12, 1978. My water broke during the process and I gave birth the next day. To be fair to myself, I've mostly owned "self-cleaning" ovens since then. Edited for birth date. I must be a bad mother. It was two days before Michael Sphinx beat Muhammad Ali in Vegas.

I've never been stern or consistent enough to prevent sensible curious cats to stop cruising the kitchen counter while my back is turned during dinner prep.