maggiethecat

55,065. You know, that's a lot of cookbooks, even if heyjude owns a third of them!

I haven't eaten a piece of Godiva for a few years, maybe before they made the silly step of "dumbing down" the product for Americans who love their Fanny Mays. But I remember being frozen, ezhausted and my blood sugar level hitting zero during a Christmas shopping expedition a few years ago. I ordered a Key Lime cream, enrobed in dark chocolate, and think it's one of the best buck fifties I've ever spent. Sublime.

Cool. I never thought I'd want to jump into my car and race to the supermarket to buy a bunch of parsley until I read this. I want to try it! You can't remember the technique's inventor, so I'll give you credit for this, Dave.

What an interesting thread! How I'dI long to "notice" that I'm ecomomizing more! I buy what's cheap and good, and plan menus from what gets unpacked from the grocery bags. Except for a once-a-year- blowout, I never think: "Boy, I'd love a good porterhouse---or shrimp, or blood oranges" and just walk out and buy it! These items appear on my table when they are affordable enough, and/or seasonal enough to buy. Yeah, it has a lot to do with not having much disposable income, but it usually spurs some culinary creative thinking. If the food was good the first time, it's often as good---or even better---in leftover form. Fresco: You are so right about the dishwasher detergent. It makes me crazy to count up what I spend on it, and we're a two person household.

Ditto the Melba Toast.

Cher wanted Cherry Rush Gatorade---you can do better.

Your band's blinded by Bics, pelted with panties, buried in bouquets. You're bigger than Buddha and richer than God. After the show, your roadie's gonna phone Pizza Hut to assuage your munchies? I don't think so! Nah, you've got a rider in your contract, legally binding the caterer to lay on your favorite fuel. Props to Zilla 369 for suggesting this topic: I spent some time over Christmas chatting with my brother and sister-in-law, who once had the coolest catering gig in Montreal. They were contracted to feed every band that a local promoter, Donald K. Donald, hired to play that Valhalla of Hockey, the Montreal Forum. My Rock Goddess Caterer Sister-in-law Hilary reminisced a bit about the good old Glam Days. Yeah, she and Ian culled the M&Ms, provided herbal tea for Prince and laid out the K-Y Jelly for Van Halen. (This last was for lubricating guitar strings, the band insisted. Yeah, right.) But an item in ZZ Top's catering rider was the one that made me blow Beefeater out my nose: "One can squeeze American cheese." Write a rider. You can choose any old band you want ---say the Philadelphia Orchestra. I bet even Eugene Ormandy insisted on cheesesteak sandwiches and, um, cream cheese. Or you can gather the lads in the garage, form your own band, name it, and write your beer-and-bud fantasy rider. I can't dance like Tina Turner, don't drink diet pop like Britney, and can't jiggle like J Lo. Maybe I'll be Maggie la Magnifica, channeling Callas's eyebrows, Victoria de Los Angeles's creamy mid-range and Renee Fleming's decolletage. This Diva expects pulled pork, Bollinger and a carton of Parliament Ultralite 100s. Be a pain in the ass here.

Thanks for your contribution, Fred. That's 55, 028.

54, 716. 10.36 miles!

I've never felt 100% comfortable with molten sugar, and I don't make candy often enough to practice. I'd like to get enough experience to feel confident next time I need to bring sugar to the soft ball stage. Hey, sugar's cheap.

Tasting the eggs from your feathered friends really did spoil me for any others. They are pale, wimpy tasteless imitations. Unfortunately, I can't have a henhouse in my subdivision, so I'm forced to buy the grocery-store kind. Having grown up on potates frites from Quebec and the Ottawa valley---oh the chipwagon at Hawkesbury!--- I rarely order fries anymore. Just ain't worth it, from the gastronomic and Girlish Figure viewpoints.

By now, we've all marched through, or revelled through, the holiday season. Hell, if you can't pitch a screenplay based on your family's holiday get together. (or the Heartland's New Years Eve Party ) ...well, there's nothing riper. You just ain't trying. This round of the Smackdown ends close of business Saturday, January 3rd, in a time zone of your choice. Pitch me.

For really, really fine Vietnamese I recommend Pho Cafe in the Silverlake hood. (Angelenos, chime in. Is it on Sunset?)

Sure we do, Geoff! 54, 702.

54,648. And megaira---Sure, "Einstein" counts. Lucky you.

I really love this idea. We have a nice TV that sits upstairs in my, um, study. We don't have cable, and the TV can pull in one station at the best of times. We watch the Olympics and that's about it. If it were located elsewhere and actually worked I'm sure I would have seen at least one episode of "The Simpsons," "Emeril" or "Sex in the City." But I haven't; it's a monitor for our VCR. We eat, every single night by candlelight (Er, no light fixture in the dining room.) Cloth napkins, check. Napkin rings, check. Good silver, check. My mother can see for miles and miles and miles! I'd like music occasionally, but my husband considers music a religious experience, and "background" music is absolutely frobidden---one must sit in a pew in the living room in silence, listen and not move a muscle, except for moving a drink or a cigarette (Listening- to- Music- Sacraments) to one's lips. When our daughter still lived at home, it was family dinner every night, with rare exceptions---one of our two rules of childrearing. (The other rule should come as no surprise: Music lessons were mandatory until she went to college. )

54,524. Six new ones for Lucky Moi! "The Bread Bible" Rose Levy Beranbaum (She mentions our own Suvir in the acknowlegements.) "Schott's Food and Drink Miscellany" Not published in the States yet, but when it is, treat yourself! "Food Lover's Companion" "Choice Cuts" Edited by Mark Kurlansky. Two used, which I picked up at a the Book Bazaar on Bank Street in Ottawa, which has a decent cookbook section---Gee, I wish I'd had more money. "A Cookbook for Boys and Girls" Irma Rombauer, 1952. No boy or girl ever cracked this one. "La Bonne Table" Ludwig Bemelmans. Wonderful drawings, it goes sans dire.

54,504.

From Nero's Drinkblog...Here

Here's more. I think you must mean Garrett's.

The best pointer I can give you is to page 142 of Rose Levy Beranbaum's "Cake Bible." It's basically a very tender sponge roll, no butter. Cake flour, cornstarch, sugar separated eggs folded together. The flour proportion to the eggs is miniscule, and what evolves in the jelly roll pan is a kind of sublime cross between a cake and a souffle omelette. Very tasty, soft, and ready to roll. If you can't find a recipe, PM me.

I'd use a biscuit rather than a genoise batter.

Just have the vat of boiling oil handy, and make sure I make them before the third drink.

We make the identical dish, but make the balls smaller---it's called suppli al telefono--(telephone wires, because of the way the mozz pulls out in naplam-like strings when you bite into them. 0 From the Rome area, according to the T-L "Cooking of Italy " . Definitely smaller than an orange---two to three tablespoons of risotto apiece. And yes, they must be coated in egg and breadcrumbs before they're deep-fried. I love these.

I talked to Fat Guy He's got the winning ballots They'll post next Monday. You were brilliant! I have to thank you, Jason. We all love haiku.