maggiethecat

Lordy...we're still at this one? Dear, remarkable, kind, intelligent friends of ours, a couple, come for dinner about six times a year. We try not to cook anything terribly complex because , having eaten at their house, we know that they have very conservative (ie. well-cooked rack of lamb!!) taste. Last time we invited them, there was a pause on the other end of the line. "Could you please not make any weird food this time?) We scratched our heads and reviewed previous menus. Coq au vin. Pasta with garlic and scallops. Bouef Carbonnade. You get the idea. These are weird? These folks know more about, say, the Avignon Papacy or the Lancia than we do. They don't sneer at us. So, we know from food and they don't. Maybe we feel pity and amazement for them. But we're not snobs because of that. Also they always bring a hoover-doover that's really pretty good. Dark rye squares with a layer of cream cheese, a slice of cucumber and a squirt of Kraft Italian dressing.

Isn't it great to walk away from an exam feeling confident? Good for you! Funny...next thing on my to do list for today is puff pastry. Chicken pot pie for dinner. Go ahead and pop that blister with a sterilized pinhead. If you don't do it, it'll happen anyway, and likely in a messier, more painful manner.

Trader Joe's kinda has an Elmore Leonard philosophy. He "leaves out the parts that people don't read." TJ's doesn't devote a lot of space to stuff people are bored to buy...detergent, paper towel, etc. Yeah, you can get it there, but the space is overwhelmingly devoted to the fun stuff.

Suzanne, I admire your philosophy and approach. But we hardly ever have any leftovers. The SO views shopping and cooking an intellectual as well as sensuous experience. He shops brilliantly, planning for no leftovers unless we want them, and he has it squared away in advance. But the real reason we have no leftovers is portion control. Awhile ago, almost by accident, we both lost a ton of weight without going on a diet. We ate everything...and I mean everything..we wanted, but ate about half the amounts we had become accustomed to. Too many leftovers? We just prepare less now. And of course, there are the stockpot and the garbage heap

Whole Foods? Blech. Overpriced---way. Condescending hippyshit "Mission" I go there because they carry full line Burt's Bees and the greeting cards ain't bad. Everything else can be bought better cheaper around Chicago. Caputo's in Hanover Park has the best , widest variety, international produce section I have ever seen. It is vast. Prices? Key limes, 10 for a buck. Fingerlings, 29 cents a pound. I often feel as if I'm stealing.

Stella is no snob. That junk she hates is horrifying slop. To paraphrase Duke Ellington: "If it tastes good, it is good." (I admit to a fondness for California dip made with dry onion soup mix, an ingredient that would never hit my pantry if not for the dip!)

I make liquors at home. No biggie. But what is the active ingredient in Canpari? We know about the nonalcoholic bitters. But what makes Campari Campari? Herbs and so forth?

The frozen green beans, are, so help me, from France! Slim, green, beautiful, tasty. A bottle of pretty decent plonk costs under five bucks. And the cheese is better than acceptable and damn cheap. And there is, of course, the candy aisle. Thank God I lack the chocolate gene or I would be as chubby a kittycat as Morris!

I have never in my adult life eaten without candlelight....unless I was eating outside my home. As a matter of fact, my dining room has no light fixture, so it's a necessity. Ikea has nice candles cheap. My silverwear is sterling, English and all over 150 years old...all thanks to Mum. It is all I use. Beautiful and indestuctible. Linen napkis, tablecloth...sure! Hell, life is short. Use the stuff.

Growing up, as I did, in Quebec, I know the answer to this sucker: A full-sized, unleaded pepsi and a bag of poutine (delicious greasy frites smothered in gravy and hard curd cheese.