maggiethecat

On the differences between WF and Trader Joe's, menton is perfect.

When your mother, who lives a thousand miles away, asks: "Now how old is Fat Guy's little boy" or "How is that lovely ronnie you have so much fun with?" She's never met either, and I've met only one of the gents. Your daughter says: "So who've you got coming up on the Daily Gullet ? Is it cutting into your own writing time, Mom?" Your husband says: "You should really start a thread about the superiority of sliced pickled onions over plain raw ones on hamburgers. See: Nigella agrees with me." Your co-workers call you Margaret Stewart.

Toothpicks. Insert toothpicks into a few of your cupcakes and it will prevent the plastic wrap smush.

Well, there's the peeling and the watching and the draining and the smashing/mashing/whipping/ricing/seasoning things. But there is No Tradeoff, especially because if you have the right small thin-skinned potatoes you don't even have to peel: just boil-em in their jackets and lightly smash in the skin. And, I agree: whatever the nutritional stuff says on the package of instant mashed potatoes, it's just edible library paste.

121,247.

My mother handed off mashed potatoes to my brother and me when I was ten and he was eight. I peeled and drained, added the butter and warm milk. Ian whaled away with the potato masher -- it was both a feat of strength for him and a point of pride: No Lumps Ever! I find that a food mill is sturdier than a ricer, but I often take the Rube Goldberg device to the pan of spuds when I'm having an authenticity spasm. I don't mind a couple of lumps.

I snapped up a 12" Kaiser tin springform for a buck last week at the local resale store. Looks as if it's never been used. Send your minions to comb the local resale places;I know it's labor-intensive, but it can be totally worth the effort.

Everything I know about hamburgers I learned from Paul Newman. In some long-ago article he told me: 1)Meat no leaner than 80/20 ground chuck. I actully prefer the 70/30 "ground beef" with the telltale pale pink color. 2)Form the patties lightly -- don't press away that crinkly curly surface. 3) Rub each side with a quarter teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce, as well as salt and pepper. 4) I prefer my burgers fried in a cast iron skillet, medium rare. Dijon mustard, a splat of ketchup, some lightly pickled onion slices, and a sprinkle of gorgonzola. 5) I don't like a big bready presence in a burger -- cheapo soft supermarket buns, lightly toasted and squashed are fine by me. Edited to add: What was I thinking? A couple of slices of bacon, please.

Say something like: I'm serving two cocktails tonight and describe them. Take drink orders.Do not bore guests with an ingredient list and details about muddling, swizzling, infusing etc. unless they ask. Have some beer and wine around just in case your beautifully crafted poison isn't another man's meat. And please don't demonize lowlife like me, who prefer to taste their hooch with no more than two added ingredients, say soda water or an olive.

Catriona: Can't I be a bridesmaid or something? Your wedding, and its menu is classy and yummy. Please post a wedding picture when you're back from the honeymoon, and let us know how the wedding feast played out. And a long happy wedded life...

That's the problem with intellectual cuisine, and you might as well meet it head-on. Wylie said somewhere recently, maybe on eGullet, that he's jealous that Chicago can support two "intellectual" restaurants and he's fighting an uphill balltle in NYC with one. Babe, you're not working in New York, Chicago or Barcelona -- you're operating in a college town in the Carolinas. Molecular Gastromomy , avant-garde cuisine -- it's a hard sell in very sophisticated markets. Just charge ahead, and do what's right for you.

I'd like to shamelessly plug one of the Daily Gullet's regular writers, Tim Hayward. -- he's terrific, online or in print. Check out Coffee Man and I'm a Little Teapot from Daily Gullet archives. His own site is likewise a literary treat: Fire & Knives.

The September issue of Vogue weighs as much as a good- sized brisket, but offers way more avenues to fastasy than the average brisket. Pencil pants and pencil skirts are de riguer, as well as Marie-Antoinette inspired couture and some seriously bondage/origami stuff from Japan. And when you read the price of that one Donna Karan or Marni or Balenciaga numero that you might actually be able to carry off and wear, the price tag, prorated anuually into weekly meals at Robuchon, Alinea or Ducasse would see you into 2012. But while I longed for them, I tried to imagine taking them out for dinner. Granted, the models, socialites and movie stars clicked in Vogue are probably not the voluptuaries at the table that eGullet members are. But they go to swell events, party late, drink top shelf stuff -not like moi. Piggy that I am, I'm not sending a $10,000 gown to the cleaners becuase I dripped pizza jiuce down the decolletage. So I started thinking about clothing for gourmands. Every right-cooking man I know has a closet full of cotten mesh polos painted forever with grease stains. I drape an old tablecloth over my chest (when I remember!) to eat stone fruit. Plum juice never comes out in the wash. A skirt with a tight waistband might have to be unhooked after a blowout at Nuevo Lean or Frontera Grill. I thought I'd bactracked to the obvious when I recollected that a little black dress, or a dinner jacket hide the splotch, but my husband maintains that a brown Harris tweed sportscoat provides better cover. Ah, the waisband issue. Juicy Couture sweats would keep you comfy and chic, as would a pair of Fish Pants, with an elastic waist. I think eating in the nude is nasty and tacky, unless you're licking cavair from your girlfriends navel. As there are fashion categories: Evening, Resort, Tarty Trophy , sushi and French Laundry? What looks good, wears well, hides the stains and provides tummy space?

120, 224.

Three years of foodblogs. Just amazing. I blogged once, mid-August 2003. I'm giving the link here, just so we remember that we've come a long way, bavettes. No pictures, three days duration, and fourteen lines long, because I was writing sonnets. Ta duh da duh ta duh ta duh ta duh Primitive. Thanks to everyone who's made our blogs such a compelling feature on eGullet.

Confectionary always scares my to death, so this course is most welcome! I think I want a taffy hook, but I'm not sure 1)what a taffy hook is or 2) where to find one. I'd appreciate some advice.

Lorna and Henry: You've given us a terrific blog -- great food, great wine, even a lovebird's Iron Chef. But for me, the originator and Calculatrix of the How many cookbooks? thread, the peek at heyjude's cookbook library was the icing on the cupcake! It's the Vatican Library of eG cookbook collectors. (Of course chefs turn to the Time-Life series! As discussed elsewhere, they're an endless source of information, great photography, and recipes that work. )

Susan: There are nine copies available at Amazon! It sounds perfect, down to the Hamburger Goo, real stew and black and orange graphics. Master Peter could find new worlds, and reinforce the good stuff his mother has taught him with this tome. Next payday...

Your Calculatrix found her calculator under a pile of origami cranes, and we're up to a very pretty number: 120,120.

Chris, you must try anchovy Champs. For four big russets, cook half a can of anchovies in the butter/milk cream mixture for a minute or two, then pass them through the ricer or food mill with the spuds.. Lots of s and p (well check for s ---anchovies are salty ---)then stir in the chopped scallions. It's a haunting fabulous flavor.

You're in stellar company, chris. Although I haven't viewed the show, I see that you and Bourdain, (and countless others, of course) truly do look to cooking as a path to straightening out a world gone awry. No Reservations (I can't do it. When the world's too much with me I stop cooking -- it's so huge a part of my best world -- and spend Q time with Wavy Lays, California dip, my bed, and Janet Evanovich.) I'm panting for Part Deux -- learning to cook in an unfamiliar culture in a faraway land.

Hmmm. Shrimp. Rice. Veggies. Why not turn to the East? I bet any Asian culture has a bunch of recipes that include your ingredients.

Food-related counts, so we're up to 118,913.

118,582, including Nigella Lawson's Feast snapped up on sale by moi.

Please please pick Glendale, an easy drive from my daughter's digs in Los Feliz! Did you stock up on frozen grouse? I'm in a mild lather: I told my husband that we'd go to Surfas the next time we're in LA together, and he's been salivating. I might have to change my Labor Day plans. For my beloved eGulls in NYC, Chicago, Montreal, Atlanta -- Surfas is the Platonic ideal of this kind of shop. One place a foodie needs to visit before he dies.