bloviatrix

{Scene} Fat guy walking down a New York street {Man in Trenchcoat slides out of alley} Pssst! Hey! {Fat Guy wheels around ready to slap him with his belt} Huzzah!!! {Man in Trenchcoat slowly opens coat} Hey, wanna buy a Can Opener? They are the real deal, no knockoffs here {Fat Guy, suddenly interested} Don't Jive me with your "Rooosle" Can Opener! {Man in Trenchcoat whips out can of tuna} Watch the action on this puppy, it's for real. {Fat Guy stares in awe} Ohhhh, so smooth! Gimme gimme gimme!!! {Fat guy pays the 25.95 and skips home to open cans of dog food} Do I sense an movie idea?

My current two favorite books for vegetables are: Vegetables Every Day by Jack Bishop and The Vegetable Book by Jane Grigson Actually, all of the Jack Bishop books are good references. Verdura by Vianna LaPlace isn't bad either.

I second Nickn's suggestion. I have a Kuhn Rikon that I bought in Paris about 8 years ago that works very well. I believe you can find them at The Conran Shop. Beware of the OXOs. They rust if you put them in the dishwasher.

From the w. 97th street greenmarket (manhattan): Massive bunch of spearmint carrots red leaf lettuce scallions cilantro green and yellow beans gooseberries rosemary and garlic baguette I rarely go to this greenmarket even though it's 3 blocks from me. I prefer Union Square, but I was short on time this morning. They had a jazz combo playing and some guy making fava bean puree and giving people cooking advice. Plus the bread guy gave me his cell phone number so I can order bread in advance. All in all, a good experience. I'll probably begin going there more often.

I never wear an apron. So after staining many t-shirts my husband suprised me and bought me a chef's jacket which I love. I find it useful when I fry as it protects my arms from the splatter - hot oil welts are not fun.

I recently made a sweet couscous with coconut milk, cardamom, almonds, raisins and rose water. I was following a cookbook recipe. Although next time I'll reduce the quantity of cardamom - it was a bit much, it was a a very comforting dish. And very easy to make.

If anyone is interesting here's another site featuring ingredient substitutions. The Cook's Thesaurus

My m-i-l picked up 4 sheets of Silpat for $5/ea thinking they were interesting placemats. I was the beneficiary. Other than that, half-sheet pans for $4.50 at a restaurant supply store.

I'm not sure who I find more annoying: Kerr or Emeril. I find both to be grating.

Penne alla Vodka I was inspired by the Tomato Cream Sauce thread, plus I had some heavy cream sitting in the fridge.

The advice for adding alcohol to sorbets with high water content comes from David Lebovitz's Room for Dessert (p.107). He says you can add or eliminate it according to taste, but his standard seems to be 2 tablespoons/quart for vodka and 1/4 cup/quart for champagne.

This was a great article. It always amazes me how some people are clueless to appropriate etiquette. Reading the thread reminded me of one my strange entertaining tales.... My husband likes to arrange the seating at the meals we host. He doesn't seat spouses next to each other as he feels they'll talk between themselves and the ideal is having everyone at the table participating in the conversation. About a year ago, one of our invited guests called to RSVP. In the process of the conversation she inquired as to who the other guests would be. I thought it was brazen, but told her. To which she said "please don't sit me next to X because I sat next to him last time we were at your house." First, it would never occur to me to ask who else will be there. Second, I think it's presumptuous to request where you sit.

I'm counting down the days until tomatoes show up at the greenmarket. And apricots. I've been told they should appear in 2 weeks.

My favorite B & J flavor is Dastardly Mash - chocolate with nuts and raisins. They discontinued it in the early '90s, brought it back briefly as a "nostalgia" flavor in the late '90s. I'm hoping they'll revive it in the near future.

In order to keep your sorbet slightly soft and easy to scoop, you might want to add some alcohol (1 or 2 ounces) to whatever recipe you settle on to counteract the high water content of the watermelon puree.

Double Rainbow is available in NYC. You can get it at more upscale markets. I picked it up at Healthy Pleasures

Do these stovetop ovens have a self-cleaning function or do you need to go the manual cleaning route?

My husband has a problem with cherries. He forgets from year to year, until he eats the first cherries of the season and then he gets a swollen, numb feeling in his lips (kind of like novacain). He also has this problem with the peels of Granny Smith apples. Of course this means more cherries for me!!

Out of curiousity, what do you all use to juice your lemons? Reemer? Juicer? Citrus press? I currently use a manual juicer, but I find I'm developing wrist pain ( a dozen lemons at a shot can do that to you) so I'm looking for another option.

From the time I was a kid, I had a love affair with Ratners onion rolls/onion pockets. To me, there were few things better in this world than one of those rolls schmeared with sweet butter. (Maybe it was the surly waiters that improved the taste?) Now that Ratners no longer, I've had to find a substitute and I've settled on Gertel's. So, I'm sitting here eating an onion roll covered with butter. No surly waiters though.

What about trying lemon basil? I've only used it in iced tea, but I bet it would be wonderful in lemonade.

No can of Spicy Nuts is safe when I'm around... I can eat an embarrasing number of handfuls of these things. I love these things too. I always forget how hot they can be so I eat a handful, feel nothing, eat some more and proceed to find myself gasping for breath. That delay gets me every time.

Including the cookbooks, reference books, general writing on food, etc I'm at 155. My husband keeps putting me on notice -- I have to sneak books into the house.

i'm sure they'd like to do that. however, that would mean even more reruns, as well as a lot more sales of advertising, which isn't always the easiest thing to make happen. Why not just turn it into All-Emeril tv?

Although I'm happy with a plain chip, I favor yogurt and dill and salt and pepper. I must admit, I've been on a potato chip kick lately.