maggiethecat

I decided to check out my cookbooks to find something blush-making to report on the Most Embarrassing Cookbook topic. To my surprise, I couldn't find anything truly squirm-inducing (We sold a bunch of books to Half Price Books before Christmas, and did some strict winnowing.) But boy, did I find some ugly books -- and I'm not referring to their design, but to their condition after spending twenty-five years in my kitchen. Below are but two of my victims; one cover between two books (the back of Vol. II. )It would be kinder just to shoot them, and replace, but the pages are still stuck together at Paris-Brest. It was the first dessert I made my mother-in-law. Do you own cookbooks that should be slouching towards the knacker's yard? I'd love to see your pictures and hear your stories.

I've been working with a chipped paddle for five years. We live.

It is, and I think it's unusual at this high level. Call me paranoid and out of touch, but I can't imagine Keller and Kunz swapping roles for a week. What is it about you Cocktail Gods that makes the free and fair exchange of information so natural and desireable?

Agree with almost all, Maggie. I just don't get the cold mashed potatoes thing - but I guess I gotta try them...I normally form cold mashers into patties, and fry 'em. I do, however, love a cold baked potato, cut in half and sprinkled with sea salt. Great, healthy snack food. ← Well, of course hot mashed potatoes in any of their delightful life forms are better than cold mashed potatoes. But, at one in the morning, dipping my finger into the leftovers ... s'good.

Meatloaf, check. Roast chicken torn from the carcass, check. Cold mashed potatoes -- yeah! My fab fave is a leftover smothered pork chop, the onions flapping on my wrist, the sauce smearing my chin. And I'm an icebox purist: the food must be eating standing up in the kitchen.

Here's a rotten picture of a lovely tart we made Saturday night: pate sable, creme patissiere with almonds, blackberries and blueberries. Our guests growled.

I can vouch for Pebs on this one. We've spent some time in Galena and have shopped at Dick's -- it's not a bad store. We giggled, of course.

Raging hormones or not, I can't imagine a better breakfast. Crabs and chocolate cake...

Oh goody! MizD you are always an inspiration.

What a first-class example of what happens when Society members get together from all over the damn place. I've been following your weekend intently, learning so much and salivating so steadily. Doc Choc, you might be responsible for spawning a new generation of chocolatiers from New Mexico . Rob, you're quite the host. I'm glad the Sauvagine was a hit at the cheese party; I want to wallow in it. But Kenogami? I'm not surprised it's stinky, because Kenogami was a newsprint town like Trois-Rivieres, my Quebec home town. Oh, the whiff downwind from the sulphite mill! I can't tell you how chuffed I am that Kenogami is in the cheese biz.

Your post was a Madeleine Moment for me -- I followed the same recipe about 25 years ago. Really, really good. I'm going to follow this topic because I haven't done anything with veal breast for years. It's a pain-in-the-ass cut, and seems more trouble than it's worth. Enlighten and enthuse me, please.

Ivy's piece, in the first edition, is mistakenly attributed to www.gremolata.com, Society member Malcolm Jolley's first -class site about all things food in Toronto, where Ivy cooks, and round the world. I received an email from BFW's editor last week. The second edition is rolling off the presses, and the correction has been made -- The Daily Gullet will receive proper credit. Congratulations to Steven and Ivy. Your accomplishments here make this Editorial Director proud.

Oh, this will appear on my menu this week. Please tell me what the texture of the parsley should be -- limp, crunchy, in between?

No-cal fashion and frivolity -- a Vogue or Vanity Fair.

I hear you about the mags, Bud, but for the purpose of this topic it's books only. 156,388.

Flashback to the summer of 1960. when my mother was pregnant with my sisters. Her pregnancy craving was parsley -- she'd go through three or four bunches a day. I'm thinking her diet must have been lacking something, but as reported upthread, parsley seems to cure what ails you.

With one for me -- that's 156,328.

Simple and useful. I'm going to do green mashed potatoes -- I can anticipate that fresh green flavor.

Amen, Randi! I live near a great food city, frequent great produce stores, and the peaches, whatever the provenance, are nothing compared to Ontario's, for flavor or for price. Niagara peaches in August... I nominate leftover salmon with a slice of buttered baguette and a smear of mayo.

For a glimpse of classic Japanese food packaging at its most beautiful, check out Rona's Christmas in Japan thread. It's as about as far removed from my Philippe's bag as Audrey Hepburn to Tia Tequila, and brought back memories of the food gifts my daughter brought us from her trip to Japan. I didn't open them for a month -- I gazed --and saved every scrap of the wrapping paper.

What excellent suggestions! Thanks for reminding me about taboulleh salad -- I love that stuff, and haven't made it in a year or so. And I'm going to think very hard about how I could make a mousse de persil;that sounds astounding. Was it pale green or dark green, cmling? Parsley Soup. Fabulous idea,and I trust J-G and MB's collaborative recipes. Not to sidetrack the purpose of this thread, which is to collect the longest list of what-to-do-with-parsley ideas I can, but I'm a curly girl. Flat tastes as good, but I find that curly easier to chiffonade and lasts a few days longer. Parsley in quantity has to be madly good for us, right?

A month ago I made a new dish that called for 1 cup of chopped parsley – a packed cup. (No, I can’t remember the recipe or even what it was – trust me, it’s been a packed month!) The flavor knocked me off my wedgies. It was, like what is this fab new herb? I have parsley in the house 50 weeks out of 52 and usually toss a slimy half-bunch at the end of the week. You know, a few tablespoons here and there, or used as a garnish, as in this snap of the filet roast we had for Christmas dinner. What a waste of flavor – when I have fresh basil or cilantro in the house it never ends up in the pail on garbage night! Apart from a persillade, which I haven’t done in yonks, do any of you know more recipes that point out the green power of parsley?

The PPP came up in conversation over Christmas with my daughter and her husband. They've spent way too much time in Hawaii in the last three years -- every island, eco-tourism, tents in state parks, five star hotels with spas. Jealous? Oh no. Never. I described the PPP and they looked at me as if I were explaining a grilled cheese sandwich. "They're everywhere in Hawaii! You trip over PPPS! There are more PPPs than Spam and macaroni salad!" Not sure this is useful, but I remembered being surprised, because I do think of the PPP as being an east coast thing.

Hurrah indeed, Your Fab Duckiness! One tiny food revelation a week for Mr. E. I'm inspired that you, Randi and Sandy are taking the New Year's weight loss topic for the team, each in your different ways. I'm also cheered and inspired that this is an out, Queer three-way discussion, because most of my weight-loss chat in the last year has involved a gay friend and my adored lesbian cousin. GF has been on one diet or another since I met him, and hasn't dropped a pound. (He has had a facelift and Lasix. His partner is a professional ballroom dancer who weighs, like, 83 pounds.) He was the first person who told me that anorexia wasn't the province of teenage girls -- that gay men bought into it too. My gorgeous, talented cousin (who lives about fifty miles from Randi) was a plus-size model before she broke down and came out. 5'11" 180 best distributed pounds I've ever seen. Her partner was (and is) very large -- 5'8" 300. In the first year of their beautiful love affair, my cousin gained 100 pounds, and threw off all those society-based taboos about women and weight. Two years later she lost a hundred pounds in a year and showed up at my daughter's wedding looking like the lipstick lesbian guys pant over. Then she had a baby and is a Big Girl post partum. She's back to Big is Fab and who cares about what men and society think? But she's told me, in private, that she hates it. Down the rabbit hole -- it really does seem that the straight/gay world is topsy turvey about weight issues. Not that it matters, but I'd love to hear what you guys think.

In the Midwest it's the Friday night VFW fish fry. All u can eat, 5.99.