Toliver

Lucy, Did the old man ever show up at the restaurant? Now I am worried about him. Thank you for your words, for your pictures and for sharing part of your life with us.

edited to remove duplicate info.

If I were a company like Kraft, I would have tested every product in my company and whatever item proved to be low carb would have a new "Low Carb!" label slapped on it and the unit price would be raised. Which is exactly what has happened. So the winemakers are doing the same thing (not sure about the price raising though). It's a smart thing to do especially if part of your target audience has suddenly stopped drinking alcohol-related products due to concerns about carb consumption. I'd be interested to see how the Atkins craze has impacted the wine-beer-alcoholic beverage industry. Obviously, there has been some sort of impact since Low-Carb Beers are debuting left and right. The winemakers are just following suit. From my perspective, it's not that they're joining the "Low Carb Craze". They're just making sure their pro-low-carb customers are aware that their products are still okay to consume. A la Martha, It's a Good Thing.

I agree with dlc...you have a good eye for composition and food styling (oh, the radishes!). The tea bag in the tea cup photo was wonderful, too, stark and yet warm at the same time. Even the off-kilter pear photo was intriguing. Have you given thought to food styling or photographing food? You seem to have a knack for it. I also agree with some of the other posters...you should update this blog monthly. I would love to see how the markets (and your meals) change with the seasons. And I'd be happy to donate my photo account on eGullet to you, as well. I already have a PictureTrail account so I won't be using any image space here. More pictures from Lucy!!!

So that's the Colonel's secret.

I echo Hathor's thanks! I appreciate you taking the time to post the information. You did Carolyn proud.

Thanks for the explanation. It makes perfect sense. Which leads to another question I had that you sort of answered already in part: If a soil disease does hit a vineyard, is it goodbye vinyard? Or is there a way to "clean" or treat the soil so more vines can be planted? If a vine gets a disease you said it gets pulled. But do you run the risk of the new vines you plant getting the same disease? And how often are your vineyards left fallow (is that the right word?) or does that not come into play for vineyards?

You mean other than the garlic powder and onion powder in the recipe?

Can you explain what "budded over" means? Are the actual vines removed and new ones put in? Or is a grafting thing? An excellent and informative blog with fabulous pictures! I am looking forward to the rest of the year. Thank you for taking the time to do this.

The Food: La Choy's canned Chop Suey. For every meal. With a side of cold Lima Beans in some sort of milk broth. The Chef: Doesn't matter. Not even St. Jacque could rescue the meal. The wait staff is pushing around dim sum carts. You ask the waiter pushing their cart nearest to you what it is they have and you can't understand what they're saying because of their heavy accent. So you go ahead and take what they have only to find it's La Choy's canned Chop Suey. The music is provided by a live choir consisting of everyone who didn't make the cut to get on "American Idol", along with a couple of the contestants that did.

Lorelai Gilmore has a jones for Mallomars: "Gilmore Girls" transcript, episode "Happy Birthday, Baby" (on a PC use "Control F" to find "mallomar"...halfway down the page) On a separate note, another recipe: Recipe for Mallomar Brownies (The page is kind of "iffy"...it's there sometimes and sometimes not) And, when Googling, I saw mention of Mallomar Ice Cream but couldn't find a recipe. I shall consider that recipe mythic and unattainable until someone else finds it. But I could have been mistaken because I did find "mallomar" made a (Letterman?) Top Ten List for "Worst Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream Names: Mallomar Khadafy". Edited to add: Uhm, yes, I do have work I could be doing. Why do you ask?

How bad is your "jones" for Mallomars? Hmmm? Worth paying a ridiculous amount for 3 boxes of Mallomars in an online auction? edited to add that you can find them for sale online...some at a ridiculous price and some at a more reasonable price. Here's another essay from a Mallomar lover: Click

Actually, what's been said is correct. True Mallomars are seasonal due to the warm weather. They apparently don't ship well in the heat of summer. Here's an essay from someone else explaining the love of Mallomars: Click Edited to add I found two Mallomar recipes on the web site for Kraft (who bought out Nabisco): Mallomar Sticky Buns (no I ain't making this up) Mallomar Cheesecake (1 reviewer gave it 5 stars) Edited again to add the bit about Kraft now owns Nabisco

Bird pee, bug spit, exhaust from that helicopter that was flying kind of low, the pesticide that your next door neighbor was spraying a little too enthusiasticly on his plants so the excess drifted across the fence and onto your lemons...you know, stuff like that.

I second that notion! I believe I have even picked up the slightest southern accent after reading your wonderful musings. Thank you for taking the time to share your life with us. But, please don't think because your week is up that we want you to stop. Brooks, when you get the itch please feel free to let us know what's happening with you, your family and town by posting it here. Did ya cook something good? Post it here (with pics please). Take a tour of Avery Island? Post it here. Go shrimpin'? Please, post it here. I'm with Jinmyo, pin this blog!

Sweet Cherries were in. It's early for cherries, isn't it? Bought this last Saturday: yellow carrots Huge honkin' head of cauliflower ($1.75 each which worked out to be around .60 a pound) just picked parsley locally harvested orange blossom honey daikon radishes cabbage Two pieces of Linzer Tort, a slice of Apple cake with slivered almonds on top and a bag of apple raisin scones from the German woman who sells baked and canned goods.

I've got two timers in my kitchen, one from Pampered Chef that counts up & down and has all the buttons on it you could ever want. But the other one, Barclay Geneve (I believe) has just four measley buttons, Start, Stop/Reset, Hour & Minutes. It can't count up, only down. I have no idea where I got it. What I love about it is that 10 minutes before it's ready to go off, it gives a little beep. Then at 5 minutes left it gives another little beep. So instead of a "BEEP I'M DONE, GOSH DARN IT" it's a more genteel, "Excuse me, but in 10 minutes your food will be done" and "Five minutes to go, doesn't it smell wonderful?" I've got to get a life!

Brooks, Snack on something. I want to read more of your blog!

Alas, Monica, I know no one there. I wish I did only so I could recommend you to them. I have been a subscriber to the magazine since practically Day One and I am an avowed chile head. I just figured you'd be a natural to write for the magazine (published cookbook author that you are), especially on a topic like the spicy side of Indian cuisine, a subject that, as I noted, I really haven't seen covered well in their past issues. In fact, I could see it as a nice series starting with a primer introducing the various spices and "heat" particular to Indian food including some recipes for spice blends as well as basic "hot" dishes. Then there could be a look at regional Indian "heat" or a look at holiday/traditional dishes. Come to think of it, not all the recipes they publish are for "hot" dishes. The spiciness of their published recipes vary from very mild to very hot. That would open up quite a spectrum of possibilities. Hey, just flesh some of these posts out and you'd have a nice proposal letter! Good luck to you, Monica!

Monica, Congratulations on creating and following your new path in Life. I wish you much success. If you're looking for more outlets for your writing, I can suggest Chile Pepper Magazine. It publishes 6 times a year and is dedicated to hot & spicy cuisine. I can't really recall if they've ever really delved into the spicy side of Indian cuisine or have even done an "Indian" issue (sometimes they do "theme" issues, like Caribbean or Barbecue). I think a primer on hot & spicy side Indian cuisine and ingredients would be right up their alley, so to speak. I am sure they would welcome your expertise. Just a thought...

There is a grand thread on eGullet on the "The Great Pastrami/Smoked Meat Experiment, Getting to the bottom of things". Pastrami starts out as corned beef. Melkor posted a corned beef recipe in the discussion. Who knows...maybe your dad will want to try his hand at pastrami, too.

How do you like them? Maybe someone here can help you out (you can start a new thread - indeed this thread can be the source of a lot of new threads!). Robyn Maybe they can tack on a fifth eGCI "Egg" series since "scambled" wasn't covered in any of the Egg classes.

I see. Sort of like a cookalong? "Here are tonight's ingredients...report back on what you concoct." There was a cookalong thread here somewhere already. Unfortunately it wasn't titled "This is the Cookalong thread" so I can't find it. Sorry but it's close to dinnertime and my hunger must have seeped into my writing. Yep. Spidey's theme song is on there. Better yet, it has theme to "Super Chicken" on it, too. Whoo-hoo! Life is good.

This sounds like the eGullet Backyard Iron Chef idea that Chris is trying to get off the ground. It would be very entertaining! Yes, and the love of his life, Sweet Polly Purebread (?). I have a CD of cartoon theme songs and "Underdog" is on there and it rocks. Another very cool jazzy theme song was from "Jonny Quest".

Brooks, Thanks for posting the link to the museum. It's quite interesting. I especially enjoyed the Paint By Numbers Art Exhibit. I think I even have a couple of those paintings in my house somewhere.