NeroW

Ooooh, the real one! I am going to one of the satellites: Chicago. I was wondering if you were at the Paris school . . .

So THAT'S what Beck meant. Mystery solved.

Lutefisk--conflicted. I don't know if I should give in and love it or not. Mother--Naturally Wacky.

Cordon Bleu. They say we are not allowed to remove food from the premises. Are you? If so, how do you sneak it out? Do you hide it beneath your hat? I am trying to figure out how I'm going to do this without getting caught.

Fer-de-lance is Rex Stout's first Nero Wolfe novel as well.

I have used Wondra for gravies. Mmm, gravy. Also, I fry polenta using Wondra. Someone told me it worked well. I think they ripped it off Emeril. I have never fried anything else with Wondra but I keep it around for the polenta application. I am going to put it into a jar as soon as I get home, lest the bugs get it.

Lutefisk, beef carbonnade, pork and onions, tarragon chicken and carrot sauce, carrot soup, spinach soup, egg drop soup (recipe from the Klutz "Kids Cooking" book, I still have and use the primary-colored measuring spoons that came with the book) arm-roast burritos, soft Archway oatmeal cookies from my grandma's glass jar (infused with just a hint of cigarette-smoke), lutefisk, the bonbons that Hagen-Daaz used to make, Jello Pudding Pops, black magic cake, red velvet cake, something called "Kowloon" chicken made in the green crock-pot with pineapple chunks and water chestnuts, Svedish limpa bread, chicken breasts stuffed with crab meat, meatloaf n ketchup, lutefisk, cornichons and lox, lasagne (known to my sister as "lah-gag-you") all manner of boiled white foods, tomato pudding, my grandpa's fried bluegill and perch and pumpkin-seeds, fried codfish balls, creamed corn straight out of the can, Cincinnati chili, some sort of "risotto" that my mom always fixed in her Le Creuset dutch oven with bits of turkey ham in it that I absolutely loved, grilled cheese with yellow mouseturd, banana smoothies, spinach salad with warm dressing, soft-boiled eggs in blue cups, frozen bananas and frozen grapes and frozen peas, lutefisk, delicious red lentil dal at my hippie aunt's house (also pot brownies on accident), Texas caviar, potatoes roasted in salt, etc. But, by far, my most vivid food memory (perhaps my most vivid memory period) is of watching cartoons and eating frozen peas out of orange, bite-mark-ridden Tupperware cups with my little sister, we must have been about six and four at the time. My mother was stuffing a whole chicken in the kitchen and singing one of her made-up songs. Suddenly, my mother came running out of the kitchen, with the chicken, holding its legs and arms and moving them to make the bird "puke" the stuffing out of its cavity as if it were a giant mouth. She was laughing uncontrollably and there was stuffing falling all over the carpet. She said: "look, girls, the chicken's very, very sick! We have to call the pizza man, right now!" My sister took one look at that chicken, threw her peas, and started screaming. She is a vegetarian now. To this day, when anyone stuffs a bird in my family . . .

Tenderloin steaks again, received them as a gift/bribe from the S.O., cooked them in butter as I can't afford olive oil at this juncture , homemade French bread, cheap-ass screw-top rot-gut wine (a choice btw that or the cheap-ass screw-top olive oil at the supermarket), baked potatoes, and dessert was Clementine oranges, a perfect pear, and for some reason, an avocado. And a nip of Jack Daniels. Today, I wish I had stuck with just the pear, and maybe the Jack.

Ain't that right. I always thought it applied more to childhood as well. Then last year I got REAL sick, my kidneys, and could not eat much for a few weeks. My mom brought a seafood paella, up until that point one of my favorite comfort foods, and I had to eat it. Cold. I couldn't stop myself, even though I knew it was a bad idea. Now I can't even look at it. I even gave my paella pan away. And mussels. I made the grevious mistake of eating moules frites once when I was just getting over the stomach flu--BIG mistake. Moules frites were my Favorite Food Period, now I can't even think about them without wanting to run away. I hope it passes. I love moules frites. I ate almost everything as a child. The only things I did not eat were nuts of any sort, in any incarnation--I can't abide pecan pie, bleecccch--sweet pickles, sweet potatoes, Pepsi, lutefisk (as a child I hid a chunk of lutefisk on this little piece of wood that braced the underneath of my grandma's dining room table; it is probably still there, and still edible), caramel, alfredo sauce, and shrimp. I have learned to like shrimp, everything else is still grody.

My best friend Kate and I are, we are having (now, I realize) chicken wing pizza, beer, and tequila. Oh, and thanks, everyone--mini-reubens. She's been bugging me about the menu . . .

Thank you everyone for your honesty and advice. Today is a discouraging day; I know not every day will be thus. I printed out some of what Matt Seeber said about what a culinary school application "should" look like--he's totally right--and hung it on the bathroom mirror, above the stove, etc. I will look at it when I get discouraged. Helps to have a sense of humor firmly intact. BTW, I'm going to the Cordon Bleu.

Thanks for the advice. I did speak with one graduate, who now works for Wolfgang Puck. So I guess that's not representative of the general population. I've already incurred the student loan debt load of a creative writing degree: how's that for 2 big winners!

Weeeelllll . . . I'm afraid the school I was accepted to is a little misleading about this aspect. In their propaganda (the initial "interview"/sales pitch) they hand out a little piece of paper, which claims that exec. chefs who hold a degree from this institution can expect--no, can command $350K/yr. They also claim that a sous chef can expect upper-70s, and they have similar, apparently lofty, projections for other kitchen positions. When I initially visited the school (during the sales pitch) what appealed to me most of all--other than the tables and tables full of free bread--was how happy all the students seemed. I suppose this is because they're there because they love it, and are not in it for the money. This appealed to me at the time, now I am not so sure. The salesman/admissions rep also mentioned that some huge number--like 45%--of the student body are dissatisfied lawyers and exec-types. Interesting.

But Food and Wine is where I first heard about egullet. That has to make it worth something, as far as I am concerned. While I do like to read and dream about cities I have not visited and restaurants I can't afford to eat in, it can get a little tedious. Another reason why Cook's Illustrated--although not exactly on-topic here--sometimes seems to me like a better read. They are able to review products honestly without the worry of offending their advertisers. Although I don't always agree with them, nor with their our-word-is-Law! way of saying things. I've liked some of the recipes in Cooking Light as well. They had one a few months ago for Wasabi Bloody Marys, which, although maybe obvious to some, was a revelation to me. Out came the tube of paste and vodka . . .

He certainly did. I also tried mint with him because he would sometimes eat catnip, but to no avail . . . he avoided all other herbs except chives. He would have chewed them all day, right down to the dirt, if I'd let him.

My cat seemed to enjoy eating the chives straight out of the dirt. He kept them pretty well trimmed. Had little energy this summer in the kitchen, so put them into eggs mostly, at least what the cat didn't eat. I will grow them again, but in a separate box, and no, they weren't hard to grow. They grew like mad with no special care at all.

I have used them thus: 3 Thai bird chiles, soaked in warm water to soften, chopped, water reserved 1/4 c. chopped shallot 5 cloves garlic, minced 1 big old Tbsp. dried shrimp big pinch salt 1 tomato, chopped vegetable oil 2 oz. ground pork pinch ground turmeric 5 Asian eggplants, cut into thin slices handful mint leaves, torn In mortar & pestle, bash about the chiles, shallots, garlic, shrimp, salt. Make a paste. Or make it in a blender and add a little of the chile water. Coat a heavy pot with oil and heat oil. Brown the pork. Add spice paste and turmeric. Lower heat and cook until aromatic. Add eggplant and stir, cover, reduce heat to low. Cook and stir every once in a while until eggplant is tender and loses its shape. Serve with mint (or coriander) with rice. Courtesy of Duguid/Alford. Have prepared almost every recipe from HOT SOUR and have had great results, also, have used the above very untraditionally as a topping for crostini.

Oh, my, my. My. I am so jealous. My whole kitchen is 10 feet by 5 feet, maybe. And now I'm too depressed to get the measuring tape and find out. I have room on my tiny balcony for a tiny herb box in the short MI summer--last year all that grew were chives and thyme, they choked out almost all else. I can't imagine being able to find my microscopic-on-a-good-day basil in the winter--right now, the herb box is under 2+ feet of snow.

Interesting to read that. One of my biggest gripes so far in my (limited) dinner party planning experience has been mixing and matching. I usually try to go with what "feels seasonal," as many others said. I have also usually planned everything else around the main course, unless a soup is particularly compelling. Last month we had a RISK! The Game of World Domination dinner party for friends who all played RISK! obsessively during our dorm days (3 years--not so long ago). The theme (besides RISK) was Foods From Around the World, and it allowed my sister and I to go hog-wild on the preparation of different dishes, cuisines, etc. We had a fantastic time putting it together--peperonata and cured meats, sweet and savory fondues, olives, pissaladiere, deep-dish mac and cheese, fried cabbage dumplings, makeua oop, pierogi, a Moroccan-spiced caponata, spanakopita, stromboli . . . not only that, because we weren't concerned with continuity, we could serve wine, beer, and all kinds of liquor, whenever we wanted, with whatever we wanted. Although I realize this is probably limited to a college-crowd setting, I enjoyed the opportunity to relax over the menu for once.

Ah, yes, unfortunately, not available here in the Midwest either--that I have seen. But it is the greatest. Sierra Nevada for me, please.

I have stored vanilla beans in booze as someone else said with some success. They are scarce around these parts, and sadly I don't often have them left-over. When I do I slit a few of them in two and then put them in a jar with a few big cupfuls of sugar, which I (maybe) let the construction guys use in their coffee at work. Also, I have used vanilla beans in sweet souffles. Warm a whole bean for 20 minutes, covered, with the milk you are using for your souffle. Thanks loufood! I can't wait to start doing that kind of thing at school. What other wealth have you found laying about? This is how I intend to feed myself for the next couple years, so share, share!

Kronenbourg is good. Last time I came home from France I was pleased to find it sold at a liquor store in my hometown. The cheapest beer I drank in France was Amstel Light. This seemed to be across the board what you got when you asked for "cheap." As I like Amstel, I was pleased by this.

Weeeelllll . . . those vegetarians that eat dairy, supposedly the most common, lacto-ovo? And then there are the vegetarians that eat seafood, reasoning that the fishing industry is less bogus than the meat industry. And then there are the vegans: no dairy, no meat, no fish, etc. I can't keep track . . . my friend has a "vegan" list in her wallet that she takes to the grocery store. She does not buy anything with animal products--and that's not just food! Many beauty products, etc., have bits and parts in them. Gelatin, etc. I think the definitions are important to the people who consider themselves such, also, they are important if you are cooking for a lacto-ovo/vege/vegan.

I received "The Cook's Bible" by Chris Kimball (the man is a machine!) and a beautiful book called "The New Way To Cook." It's by a woman but I can't remember her name. I also received "The Sopranos Cookbook," which is more coffee-table. Artie Bucco is a great "chef" on HBO, but I don't know if I have confidence in the recipes. BTW, does anyone else have this book and if so, have you tried any of the recipes?

Buttershots is Butterscotch Schnapps. Sounds weird, I know. The original recipe called for pear brandy, which was prohibitively expensive and which no one would drink afterwards; being practical, this made no sense to me. So I subbed Buttershots. Later, I discovered a few other people sub this same thing for pear brandy.