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The cooking gopher: upon whom can you rely?


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When you are happily preparing a recipe for some special dish and find that you are missing one or more necessary ingredients, upon whom can you rely to run out to the grocery and pick up your missing item? Another cup of necessary cream? More butter?

:rolleyes: A friend? A spouse? A neighbor? An offspring?

Any (reasonable) hour of the day or night? :blink:

Who will do this cheerfully for you? :biggrin: Grudgingly? :hmmm:

Or will you simply remain silent and try to substitute something else for the missing item?

Love to hear your responses to this one!

This topic was inspired by Marlene's comments:

Shows how often I buy bean sprouts. Don is still hunting. I know Whole Foods has them so he's gone off to try there.

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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Alas, my dear gopher has flown the coop. My son was living with me during the renaissance of my cooking. He was also an early adopter of the cell phone revolution. He would often call from the car as he approached the grocery on the way to the house to ask if I needed anything. (I usually got home ahead of him.)

Boy, do I miss that. Now, I am on my own.

Linda LaRose aka "fifi"

"Having spent most of my life searching for truth in the excitement of science, I am now in search of the perfectly seared foie gras without any sweet glop." Linda LaRose

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Chris will go after anything, anytime, anywhere. He will take a lot of time, however, as he will read the labels, compare ingredients, compare prices, be sure you're getting exactly what you ordered. Unless you need it NOW---he'll be back in a flash.

If I give him a brand name, size, flavor, etc., he brings exactly that. Along with several other items, mostly produce, that he thinks I might like. If there's a party or guests coming, he'll pick up a nice cheese or two, some special breads, a couple of bottles of wine, a new and different liquor, and whatever flowers suit his fancy at the time. He NEVER comes home with just the list.

He's tireless; he always says, "I'll be HAPPY to." If that sweet man got home and I said I forgot to ask for the dried hummingbird tongues, he'd just say let him get all the bags out of the car and he'll run off to the hummingbird store and get some.

We've been together twenty years, and every Sunday morning, he goes out the back gate and returns with a paper, pastries, and a rose. :wub:

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I have no gopher, which probably goes a long way towards explaining why I lean so heavily on cuisine du marché. I also bail on a recipe if I realize that I'm missing something and will transform the ingredients into something else if I can think of it fast enough. Otherwise, "learning experience".

Hummingbird tongues sounds like something to include as a really small amuse. :biggrin:

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Not only no gopher, but no car. If I forget something, it means a trek down the hill and back, so it's generally not an option for me. Now, you might think this would mean I'd be better at not forgetting, but what it really means is that I've just gotten better at improvising.

It's funny -- I'm on very good terms with my upstairs neighbors, as well as the neighbors on both sides, but it never occurs to me to ask them for, say, an egg, or a half cup of milk if I'm in need (I wouldn't ask for hummingbird tongues). When I was growing up, my Mom had that sort of relationship with all our neighbors. It seemed like our mothers were always sending us over to the neighbor's for a missing ingredient. That was cool.

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Usually no gopher here, either, unless my crazy uncle happens to be handy, but he usually only shows up in the middle of the night after the kitchen has closed. Fortunately, my only near neighbor is my grandmother, so I'm comfortable running across the road to borrow an egg or a teaspoon of vanilla if I'm short of a common ingredient. Living in a small town as I do, any recipe calling for something more exotic (hummingbird tongues? eye of newt?) must wait until I make a trek to the city.

Now that I think of it, the ability to make that "Honey, would you pick up some ??? on your way home?" phone call is really the thing I miss most about being married!

"Enchant, stay beautiful and graceful, but do this, eat well. Bring the same consideration to the preparation of your food as you devote to your appearance. Let your dinner be a poem, like your dress."

Charles Pierre Monselet, Letters to Emily

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Not only is Don a tireless gopher for me,, having a teenage son has certain advantages as well, one of them being go to the store for mom.

I constantly forget things depsite yards of lists when I shop. I even forget things when I send Don out to get things I've forgotten and have been known to call him on his cell phone while he's standing in the checkout line, with "oh honey, just one more thing".

Marlene

Practice. Do it over. Get it right.

Mostly, I want people to be as happy eating my food as I am cooking it.

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I am the eggman. I AM THE GOPHER! goo goo g’joob g’goo goo g’joob.

Jason Perlow, Co-Founder eGullet Society for Culinary Arts & Letters

Foodies who Review South Florida (Facebook) | offthebroiler.com - Food Blog (archived) | View my food photos on Instagram

Twittter: @jperlow | Mastodon @jperlow@journa.host

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Hummingbird tongues sounds like something to include as a really small amuse.  :biggrin:

Only in aspic.

I also forgot the calling part....Chris always calls from some aisle or another---he wonders if we ever tried___________brand or _______. Or is there maybe anything else, etc. And he always lists whatever twofers the store is running, just in case we need some, or could put a case in the storeroom. Or, favorite line, "How ya doin' for ice cream?" :wub:

Okay, I'll stop.

Jason, your way with phonetics is right up there with your cookin'. Didn't I see you at CBGB?

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No go-fer/gopher for me. I do all the shopping. Period. If I forget something, well, as my Nanny used to say "Tough titties." :shock: I improvise or simply do without. And woe to me if I forget whatever it was NEXT time.

Shelley: Would you like some pie?

Gordon: MASSIVE, MASSIVE QUANTITIES AND A GLASS OF WATER, SWEETHEART. MY SOCKS ARE ON FIRE.

Twin Peaks

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I send Don out to get things I've forgotten and have been known to call him on his cell phone while he's standing in the checkout line, with "oh honey, just one more thing".

Hard to believe but there was a time when we didn't have cell phones .. and that wasn't even very long ago ... was cooking somewhat simpler then?

Melissa Goodman aka "Gifted Gourmet"

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