A New Year's Message

As 2008 looms, I want to say a special thank you to all my readers. I treasure each and everyone of you. Each hit is like a pat on the back; each comment is proof that there's someone out there interested in what I have to say. Thank you for checking in and commenting and joining me in this tiny piece of the blogosphere that's become almost a second home to me.

To my most constant visitors, thank you for your unwavering support. It means everything to me.

And to my favorite fellow bloggers, Em, Cyn, Rachel, Jenn, Jennifer, and Val, I love what you do. Your messages and comments are as important to me as "real" phone calls and reach-outs from non-blogging buddies. Each of you is amazing in your own way and I'm constantly struck at the generosity you show in sharing parts of your life along with your baking and cooking and beautiful photography.

I hope that the New Year brings readers and bloggers alike everything that you could wish for and other wonderful things that you can't even begin to imagine. See you next year!

Christmas Tiramisu Trifle

Find the recipe here.

My Christmas Dessert...Or When Is A Tiramisu A Trifle?

From Bon Appétit:


Mine BEFORE Whipped Cream:


AFTER Whipped Cream:


It might have helped if I had read the ENTIRE name of the recipe. I saw White Chocolate and Tiramisu and ran with it. Even though it WAS Trifley-looking, I thought I was making a TIRAMISU.

I was halfway through making it and I realized that the layers of cake, creamy mousse and fruit were much more trifle-like than they were tiramisu-ish. Did it really matter? Kind of. A Tiramisu is usually served on a plate in a neat piece. A Trifle is customarily served in a bowl, perhaps with a bit of cream or custard, admittedly neither of which this needed. Bon Appétit hedged their bets and called their cover dessert a Tiramisu Trifle. I focused on the tiramisu part, but I should have realized it really was both.

I followed their recipe for the white chocolate mascarpone filling, but that was about it. I thought pears were a bit weird, so I used peaches and raspberries. I changed the pear nectar and cardamom syrup to a ginger one that Tyler had used for Peach Ginger Bellinis. (Use 2 tablespoons of sliced ginger, with the skin, 1 cup of sugar and 1 cup of water and you'll still have too much.) I used a pound bag of frozen peaches, which I put into a bowl to thaw after pouring over a bit of the warm ginger syrup. And I didn't garnish it with chocolate curls. My vegetable peeler was totally inadequate for the task. See note below.

I proceeded in the customary manner. Ladyfingers; ginger syrup; white chocolate mascarpone mousse; peaches plus a few raspberries thrown on top…Repeat 2 more times. Top the entire thing with whipped cream stars and garnish. It was really rich, really sweet, and really luscious. In other words, a perfect ending to the day.

Note: Because I was having a hard time with my chocolate curls and I needed to get on with it, I did this instead. I put my failed attempts on waxed paper and melted the chocolate slightly in the microwave. Then I spread it into as thin a layer as I could. When the chocolate was firm, I cut it into diamonds and used those pieces to decorate the mousse. (I thought of this AFTER I served the mousse, so these are my only pictures.)

Watch for my fascinating behind the scenes video on the making of my Tiramisu Trifle...coming soon.

The Food Network's Top 100 Recipes of 2007

The Food Network Newsletter arrived the other day announcing their Top 100 Recipes of 2007. It was actually interesting.

Some of their newsletters are a bit busy with SO MUCH to look at, I end up not reading anything…20 egg recipes, 50 cocktail recipes, videos, latkes, blintzes AND gingerbread houses. I prefer targeted searches for recipes, comparing like with like…

Back to THIS newletter, though...one problem is what exactly do they mean by the top 100 recipes of 2007? Is it the top downloaded recipes from the Food Network website? The top searched for? The most commented on? I guess it’s probably the most downloaded, but, why oh why, would Swiss Steak be number 13? I guess Miss Paula must have many fans. And a nice recipe, but certainly nothing earth-shattering, Easter Pie, a ricotta filled free-form baked good from Giada, is number 17.

Number One, Creamy Macaroni and Cheese, belongs to Paula Deen as does Number 100, Bobby's Goulash, plus 47 recipes in between. She is the most represented food network host by far.

Coming in second, but a mile away, is Giada with 14 recipes – ranging all the way from #12, Chicken Tetrazzini, to #85, Linguine with Shrimp and Lemon Oil.

The Food Network Kitchens supplied 10 of the top 100 recipes of the year, and poor Ina came in with 7 recipes, her highest breaking the top 20 at #18, Crunchy Noodle Salad.

Cutie Tyler followed closely with 6 recipes on the list. That ass Alton (I only say that because of the comments that he disses his heavyweight fans) had the top 2 of the top 3 recipes (in other words numbers two and three) AND numbers 41 and 95. That’s quite a spread. Emeril also had 4 recipes on the list.

Wonder of wonders, RR had only 4 recipes, but I’m putting an asterisk next to her name, because one of them was a recipe that Emeril did. Sandy wangled her way on to the top 100 with recipes 65 and 79. I guess America just couldn't live without Bat Sandwiches and Spider's Nest Dip.

Lovely Sara Moulton made the top half with recipe #42, Gruyere Potato Gratin. The last Food Network personality on the list is The Surreal Gourmet, whoever that is, with recipe #25, Beer Can Chicken.

What does this all mean? I guess that Paula has many internet savvy fans, which I'm delighted with. I’m relieved that RR was barely on the list, but also a bit baffled. I get that people search for her syndicated show’s recipes on THAT site. But if she has so many shows on the FN, then why aren’t more people looking for THOSE recipes? Of course, they’re terrible, but that doesn’t stop her from being all over the airwaves.

I am confused by the Contessa’s light showing. The only thing I can think of is that so many people have her books that they don’t bother searching for her recipes.

And, of course, the absence of my fav, Michael, can be explained by his banishment to the Siberia of the network's schedule. If you're not watching him in the early hours of Saturday am, then you're not downloading his recipes. But where are Bobby and Mario (there are still TONS of his recipes on the site)?

The stars that are front and center have the most popular recipes, I suppose. But that still doesn't explain the lack of RR on the list. Maybe the culinary fate of our country is in better hands than I thought. And just think of all the business that the heart surgeons will be getting...

The largest percentage of recipes are in the chicken category, followed closely by desserts. Beef is next with Pasta and Holiday recipes following suit. The rest are side dishes, pasta, potatoes(?)(!) – why did they need their own category? – seafood and pork. Are we to take from this that the largest percentage of Americans are eating chicken, not necessarily prepared in a health conscious way? And that we’re eating almost as much pork as seafood?

I've said it before...my favorite shows, my favorite chefs and hosts are those that TEACH ME SOMETHING. If I want to watch a travel show, I'll go to the National Geographic Channel, where I can get alligators thrown in for nothing. If I want a decorating show, there's HGTV. And if I want mindless entertainment, there's no end of channels to choose from.

This is the final tally:

Top 100 Recipes by Host
Paula 47
Giada 14
Food Network Kitchens 10
Ina 7
Tyler 6
Emeril 4
Alton 4
RR 4*
Sandy 2
Sara 1
Robin Miller 1
The Surreal Gourmet 1

Top 100 Recipes By Category

Chicken 27
Desserts 20
Beef 12
Pasta 8
Holiday 8
Side dishes 8
Seafood 6
Potatoes 6
Pork 5

You would think the FN would have had an intern to do the statistical analysis, but whatever…

* Recipe number 64, Yummy Mummy, was done on Emeril Live, but it's RR's recipe.

'Twas The Day After Christmas...

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Santa made his appearance, quite late…I have OLD kids. Then we spent the afternoon playing Guitar Hero, which apparently isn’t just for 12 year olds. I was definitely the most energetic participant, screaming out the names of the colors as I “strummed”. I was truly awesome…in a bad way, but at least I worked off some pre-Christmas dinner calories.

H somehow knew exactly which hammered gold circle necklace I wanted. I also got various books...you’ll hear about them in time, cd’s, a perfectly sized large coffee mug - which I know someone else could use a few of, and some other wonderful soapy and pretty things from family and friends...

The day was nice, but guestless this year, which I never prefer. Although I must say, it WAS great having no time constraints, so when the phone rang a few times, I didn’t care too much about the timing of dinner.

No starter, just phyllo shells filled with this:
2 scallions
3 sun-dried tomatoes
1 clove garlic, pressed
4 oz. cream cheese
1 egg
5 oz goat cheese
2 boxes little phyllo tart shells.

Chop scallions, sun-dried tomatoes and garlic in food processor, add cream cheese and purée. Add egg, purée. Remove to bowl, stir in 5 oz. goat cheese. Fill into tart shells. You’ll have enough for 2 boxes of 15 shells. Bake at 375° for 18 to 20 minutes until puffed. Serve warm.

I cannot believe I completely forgot to take a picture of the entrée. Sorry. But it was Pistachio-Crusted Stripe Bass with Mango-Chutney Coulis from June 2007’s Bon Appetit. Great recipe, but it called for too many pistachios and panko. And when you’re shelling pistachios, every bit less that you need helps. ¾ cup of each would still have been too much. (I did use the extra crumbs and nuts for breading chicken tonight though, so they certainly didn't go to waste.)



AND my chutney coulis wasn’t really a coulis, because I didn’t purée it, but I did heat it up just a bit. It was wonderful a little bit warm with big chunky pieces of mango.

I served brown basmati rice with onions and mushrooms and a triple vegetable dish kind of like this, with LOTS of garlic.

On to dessert. Ahhh…a dessert that deserves a post of its own. Soon, I promise. Hope your day was grand too…

Merry Christmas

And To All A Good Night...

That means you, kids...

To all my cyberspace friends and blogging buddies, have a wonderful time! Enjoy your families and friends and all the delights of the day.

Love, Sue

Microwave Granola To The Rescue...The Fastest Gift From The Kitchen

At 9 am one day last week, I realized that I needed some baked goods... FAST. No time for cookies, banana breads or even muffins. So I turned to my world famous Granola. Regis and Kelly were on in the background and I had 4 batches made before host chat was over. Well, not exactly, but I WAS able to leave the kitchen well before RR came on at 10.

Plan to make multiple batches, because this is so good. Don't scoff because this is a microwave recipe. I'd put it against the finest baked granola. AND there is no extra fat (other than the considerable amount in the nuts and the tiny amount in the wheatgerm).

The microwave part is both good and bad. It's good because it's so fast. The bad part is that it's tricky to cook more than one recipe at a time. So for maximum efficiency, I PREPARE 4 batches at once, but COOK them one right after the other.

To cook 4 batches really quickly, I toast all the nuts together in a 10 inch glass pie dish - about 3ish minutes on high. Meanwhile, I measure out one recipe worth of the other dry ingredients 4 times into 4 separate containers. When the nuts are done, divide them into the 4 containers. You don't have to be exact.

Place the first batch of dry stuff in the 10 inch glass pie dish. Stir in the honey and cook according to the recipe. Pour mixture into a BIG container - a huge mixing bowl or roasting pan. Then place the next batch of dry ingredients into the glass baking dish. Add the honey, stir well and cook. Pour THAT into the first batch of cooked granola. Continue for 2 more batches. Add the raisins and dried cranberries. Stir really well and store in an airtight container until you've eaten or given away every last rolled oat.

The only tricky thing is mixing in the honey, which can be a bit of a sticky enterprise. I'm pretty particular and I like to to make sure that no oat flake goes un-honeyed.

(When I'm making four batches, I use at least 4 types of nuts. Each recipe calls for 2/3 cup of nuts, so I use two-thirds of a cup each of sliced almonds, chopped walnuts, chopped pecans, and chopped cashews.)

For gift-giving, I fill the granola into plain plastic bags, no zippers, strips or fancy stuff (they're not all that easy to find). Turn the bag, so the granola goes into one of the bottom corners. Twist the bag tight and you'll have a cone shape. Close with a twist tie. Tie with a ribbon and you'll have a quick, delightful gift for any deserving friend, colleague or neighbor. Here's the recipe for one batch of granola. (It's never enough.)

Sue's Awesome Granola
1/3 cup sliced almonds
1/3 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
2 cups old fashioned oats
1/3 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup honey
1/3 cup raisins and/or dried
cranberries

Place the nuts in a 10 inch glass pie dish or microwavable bowl. Cook on high for 2 minutes to lightly toast the nuts. (The time may vary with your microwave.) Stir in oats, wheat germ and brown sugar until well mixed. Stir in honey, making sure to coat the mixture well.

Cook on high in microwave for 2 minutes. Stir well. Cook up to 2 minutes longer, stirring and checking the mixture after 1 minute. (Depending on your microwave, it might be done.) Cool slightly. Stir in raisins and/or dried cranberries. Store in airtight container.

The Flimflam Food Network

There's NO Michael Chiarello to be found on the FN this morning. Imagine my horror when I turn it on and check the listings. There is a RR special(!!!), which is not only NOT Michael, but horrid as well. I can't have been dreaming when I saw Easy Entertaining listed at 11:30, can I? I think they're practicing the old bait and switch. Well, it didn't work. I'll go nag my kids until Giada at noon.

UMMMM...after some more intensive research, it seems THAT I WAS WRONG. Yes, it's true. And I'd like to offer the Food Network a halfway formal apology (only about THIS). It seems that the schedule I was looking at was FRIDAY'S, when MC was INDEED on at 11:30. BUT why did Friday's schedule come up as TODAY'S, after 1 am??! Then it's Saturday, genuises. I do apologize, but I'm not changing my headline...

Thank You Food Network!!!

For some inexplicable reason, when I was checking the Food Network schedule for Saturday on the digital cable program listing thingie, it kept saying To Be Announced.

Just now, when I looked at the FN website, it says MICHAEL IS ON AT 11:30 am! Could it be?!! Have they finally listened to reason and brought my California cowboy back where he belongs? Actually I prefer 1 pm, but I'll take 11:30 am. And just because there's a review on the website of one of the recipes from 2005(!), I still don't care. A 2 year old Michael episode is worth more than a brand new one from...well, so many of the current FN hosts...I won't even go into it. Thank goodness harmony is being restored in the universe.

I better not get up in the morning to find a different program schedule...If I see Ingrid's face at 11:30, I will be in a tizzy from here to South Beach.

Mario TEACHES Us!

Mario taught us more in his few minute segment on GMA this morning than many current FN hosts teach us in an entire season of mediocre food shows.

He looked very robust as he showed us some Italian home-cooked recipes. The soup he did was based on leftover ingredients - a full bodied vegetable soup. The most important part of the soup is SWEATING the onions. Mario! You SO know what you're talking about! It almost doesn't matter what goes into the pot next, if you have a full flavored base. He adds the remaining vegetables, stock and liquid and then simmers it for 25 minutes.

This soup is thickened with bread that Mario has soaked in water and black pepper. (The black pepper isn't in the recipe on the website.) But think about it. How brilliant is that addition of pepper to the bread - adding a bit of punch, layering in some additional flavor - to a simple, simple recipe? I LOVE that idea. Mario is awesome in his knowledgeable-ness.

He also shows off a couple of other finished dishes. The radicchio looked like a wonderful accompaniment to a big Christmas main course. Mario talked about the Shrimp Marsala - Housewife Style and made a point of mentioning that, in Italy, "housewife" is a term of pride. It's "not a menial job. It's the most loved job."

I must say that Chris Cuomo did a better job hosting this segment than many actual food professionals would have. He had looked up the recipes and was able to comment on them in a well-informed way. He actually added something to the discourse. Mario served the soup with this very jazzy ladle.

He then expounded in a succinct few sentences on the geographical underpinnings of Sicilian cuisine. Mario pointed out that it's closer to North Africa than Milan, hence its reliance on currants, pine nuts, fennel and hot chilies in Sicilian cuisine.

We got all we needed this morning. We got a quick view of cuddly Mario, a couple of easy to make delicious recipes, and a bit of food history thrown in.

It's No Secret That Gordon Had A Real Nightmare on His Hands...

I finally got around to watching The Secret Garden in Moorpark, California being pilloried on Kitchen Nightmares.

"Who wants to sit and eat in front of that fat little bastard?", Gordon exclaims as he enters his latest restaurant rescue. No, he wasn't talking about the chef, he was talking about a little statue of a French chef in the dining room of the restaurant.

That wasn't the only immediately obvious problem. It took Gordon a few tries to find the correct entry door, which can't be a good thing for a restaurant. Gordon finds Michel the French owner/chef, who admits to being over three hundred thousand dollars in debt. He needs help, but not enough to shed his proud Gallic exterior. Gordon asks how long he's been running the restaurant and how long it has been quiet. He answers 7 years to both. That's not good, even I know that.

Chef Ramsey takes a seat in the dining room and cringes when he see paper doilies under the water glasses. He orders a salad with shrimp and strawberries. He's not really down with that combination to begin with and after a small taste, he kind of burps it up. Gross. How does he do that on command? (I guess any 14 year old boy could tell me.) The main course of Roquefort stuffed filet of beef fared no better. He said it was as tough as an old boot. AND it was served on a dirty, greasy CHIPPED plate.

Come on! You KNOW you're serving Gordon Ramsey! There are cameras there, for goodness sake, and you give him a chipped plate?!!. Can that possibly have been for real? The carrots were undercooked, perfect if you're rabbit, he says. And he describes the shoe string potatoes as nothing more than a "big ball of grease."

Chef Ramsey's take on Michel: "I'm trying to get inside your mind, so I can start breaking down how stupid you are." After which server Jane opines. "I don't think he likes Michel." Ya think??!

Gordon goes to inspect the kitchen. The drip trays under the burners are full to bursting with oil. The walk-in fridge is a disgusting nightmare. There's mold that he keeps fingering (gloveless). He says this place can't stay open. Gagging, when he finds the old food and maggots sickening, he runs out and gets to the bathroom just in time. Not too strong a stomach, eh, Chef?

When confronted by the horror of his kitchen, Michel acknowledges NOTHING and his first reaction is to disregard all of Gordon's advice, before finally going along with his suggestions. The entire staff spends the rest of the day cleaning. Gordon remarks, "It's good to see Michel scrubbing. He's beginning to show some skills in the kitchen."

It's time for the dinner service. Gordon watches to see what's going wrong (There's nothing right, actually.) A bowl of soup takes 25 minutes to be served, because it has to be cooked. HUH? Whah?! It's not possible that he's sooo clueless that he can't even have the soup made before the evening service. Gordon thinks Michel's complete denial of his shortcomings are worse than if he were a crappy chef...

As a bit of shock therapy, Gordon boards the place up and posts signs that say CLOSED. When Michel sees that, he's really po'ed. He doesn't want any bad publicity associated with his restaurant. He probably should have thought of that before he allowed the maggots and mold to be filmed and shown on primetime television.

Next Gordon overhauls the menu. He gets rid of all the crusted stuff. Jane says GR is brilliant. The restaurant opens for the night. They have 4 new special dishes that they're supposed to be pushing. It goes very well. Everyone is ordering the specials. Then orders start to come in too quickly and, soon, there is chaos in the kitchen and anger in the dining room. Tempers flare and Jane is tired of being yelled at by pompous Michel. She walks out.

It seems to me that there are two problems in the kitchen this evening. Number One is that Michel, who often seems like a cartoon cariature of an agitated French chef, refuses to delegate tasks to his perfectly capable sous-chef Devon. Things are getting backed up and he's not using all available hands to get the food out.

The Number Two problem is Gordon's fault, I think. How can you give an entire restaurant staff a completely new menu at 1 pm and expect them to cook and serve it perfectly at 6 pm?! That's one of the things I don't get about this show. I know they want it to seem like this whole thing happens in the course of a week, but if that is true, no wonder they faltered mightily in the heat of the dinner rush.

Gordon didn't seem to give them all the tools they needed to cope with a new menu and the much bigger than usual crowd. What if he had brought in his own staff and they had run the restaurant for a night with the others observing? THEN they would have actually learned something...by example, rather than by screaming or being screamed at.

Michel's communication skills were the problem according to Gordon. Michel explodes and says the kitchen is closed. The customers are fuming and the dinner service ends in disaster. You know the more I watch this, the more I wonder how anyone leaves ANY restaurant fed and not dying of food poisoning...

The next day the extreme kitchen makeover team takes over and transforms the restaurant. Except not really...usually the restaurants DO look amazing and they really improve things. I didn't think the quaint Frenchified interior was so bad. The new look IS uncluttered, but kinda boring. Michel doesn't love it either.

Dinner time again. the restaurant is packed, after word gets out that Gordon is in town. Miss California is in the house, as is an entire busload of winery tourists. The food is going ok, until Michel learns there is a food critic in the house. He gets nervous. He's shown preparing Gordon's tuna recipe. He oversalts it, and goes out to the critic. She can't even eat it and sends it back.

Michel attributes the problem to Gordon's new menu and he and Gordon start screaming at each other. Frankly, I'm not sure what's going on, because it's impossible to understand them. Every other word is being bleeped out. Gordon walks out in a rage.

Michel continues to hate on Gordon's new menu and insists on making one of his old favorites - the dish that Gordon pronounced as leather-like at the beginning. He plates the Roquefort stuffed filet and is about to have it served, when Gordon decides it's not fair to the rest of the staff to bail and he comes back in. He reasons with Michel, and Jane throws the old plate in the garbage.

Somehow they come up with a decent entrée, which the food critic laps up. Peace is restored in a matter of minutes. Yeah, right...There probably was a catering truck in the back, serving all the disgruntled customers. Michel realizes the error of his ways, at least while Gordon is in the house and Jane is promoted to manager.

It all seemed to end well, except that when the chef is doing those talk-to-the-camera interviews after the whole thing is over, he's sitting in front of that old fat chef statue that they got rid of. I guess he brought everything back in when Gordon left. I also checked his current menu online. While there were no strawberries in the salads, there WERE some of the old dishes, including a bunch of crusted dishes. Let's just hope he's no longer serving mold with them.

I've decided why this show is so watchable. It's really all about Gordon's hair and his three hundred dollar (could it be more?) haircut. It's really a dynamic head of hair - going every which way, very modern, very choppy and the color is gorgeous. He must use more gel than a pastry chef uses butter, but it's worth it.

I don't hate Gordon anymore, he clearly knows what he's doing. But I still believe that you can kill more flies in the kitchen with kindness than you can by shrieking at the staff.

AFTERWORD: Relevant to Emiline's comment are two articles I found. It's hard to believe that the show is THAT staged, but it's equally hard to believe that nothing goes on to move the action forward in a more dramatic way. Check these out:

'Reality' TV show is deceiving

Restaurant, owners skewered on TV series "Kitchen Nightmares"

Nothing To Do With Anything...

Click here.

I'm Dreaming Of A Sugar Cookie Christmas

This is a lot of fun to do with the kids. Make any good sugar cookie dough. I use the Rich Roll Cookies from The Joy of Cooking. I NEVER refrigerate the dough before I roll it out. I refrigerate it AFTER.

After mixing the dough, roll out a large handful between 2 sheets of plastic wrap. Lay the rolled-out cookie dough on a baking sheet, sheet pan or tray. Continue with rest of dough, layering each sheet with plastic between each layer. Freeze for 10 minutes or refrigerate for 20 to 30 minutes. (You can wrap the layers airtight and freeze for up to a month.) Remove sheets of dough from freezer or fridge. Cut out cookies. (It's a breeze when the dough is nice and cold.) Place on foil-lined and Pam-ed baking sheet.

To decorate, I use egg yolk paint. Separate 3 yolks into three separate bowls, saving the whites for something else. (They can be frozen, well-sealed, and thawed and used for meringues. One egg white equals 2 tablespoons or 1 ounce. Four egg whites would be half a cup.)

Add 1 teaspoon of water to each yolk. Leave one bowl as it is, that will be your yellow paint. Add coloring (Wilton paste coloring is good) to the others. I usually color one yolk red and the other green. (Blue is a bit problematical, when you're starting with a yellow yolk.) Using a new paintbrush for each color, paint the UNBAKED cookies with the colored yolk paint. Sprinkle with sugar and or sprinkles. Bake according to recipe, keeping a careful watch.

Now sit back, turn on your speakers and watch someone else do all the work...

The Food Network Has New Fish To Fry

Great article about the Food Network in the business section of The New York Times today. That's appropriate, because their programming has certainly been less about COOKING lately.

There was some GOOD NEWS!!! Next year, there will be "only" sixty new 30 Minute Meals from Rachael Ray, instead of the usual 80!

Honchos at the FN claimed, yet again, how much they loved Emeril, even after cancelling "Emeril Live". Gosh, who knows what they would have done, if they had actually admitted to being tired of him?

Mario is another story. Although there are some potential joint projects in the works, Mario knows his day there is done. “They don’t need me. They have decided they are mass market and they are going after the Wal-Mart crowd,” which he said was “a smart business decision. So they don’t need someone who uses polysyllabic words from other languages.” I really don't think Mario meant that to come off as elitist as it sounds. I think he just meant that the Food Network wants to appeal to the lowest possible common denominator these days.

Many of these changes apparently came when the FN's important weekend shows (its "In The Kitchen" lineup - actual COOKING shows) lost some viewership. What I can't tell from the article is whether this happened WHEN they switched around the lineup (removing Michael Chiarello for one), OR this is WHY they switched it up. I don't know, I just know that once he was gone, I turned off the Food Network after Ina on Saturday afternoons, never to return that day.

We also got an explanation of the whole Bobby Flay deal with Kohl's. Apparently, the Food Network was tired of its chefs becoming stars and putting their names on every little thing and not getting a piece of the action. So, now, the network is becoming much more Godfather-like in the marketing deals they are making with their hosts. That's why we can't feel too bad for Emeril. The Food Network has NO stake in his vast empire. That sounds like it will change from here on in for its other stars.

Couldn't the lesson here be that they could do two things at once? They could appeal to younger viewers (more desirable to advertisers) in primetime perhaps, while AT THE SAME TIME, give us foodies what we really want - cooking by COOKS or CHEFS? All we want is authentic QUALITY instruction with great tips and fine recipes. How hard could it be to serve that up? A smorgasbord of quality AND quackery. Keep your nonsense, if you have to, just don't take away our favorite cooks and chefs.

16 Secrets Of Bad Eating

I thought that 16 secrets the restaurant industry doesn't want you to know was going to be about unsanitary kitchen conditions and the added bonuses - dust bunnies and worse - that unhappy customers get in their sent-back entrées. But, no, it was just about how various restaurants don't give accurate nutritional information about their food. I know it's important, but don't we kind of know that already? Would it be awful if I said that's really not a burning issue to me?...until I read the entire thing!!!

OMG! I knew there was reason I didn't go to Arby's or Chevy's or Outback. Now, I know what it is. The food will actually kill you. 3 examples:

An order of Outback's Aussie Cheese Fries
has 2,900 calories.

IHOP's Omelette Feast has 1,335 calories and
35 grams of saturated fat.

Chevy's Fresh Mex very helpfully gives you all the nutritional content for its tortillas on its website. All you want to know...except it leaves out the tortilla shell itself!!!

I always felt that if, at any given time, I'm so psycho about the calories and fat that go into my food, I'll cook for myself that week. The truth is the number one thing we can do to make restaurant food healthier IS TO EAT LESS OF IT! I don't just mean going out to eat less often, I mean eating less of what's on our plates.

No one needs the amount that's normally served in restaurants these days. If you only eat a fistful of any given food, how bad can it be for you? BUT, many people, for many reasons, are eating the majority of their meals at these places. And if they saw the shocking numbers of a particular entrée in black and white, it might make them think twice before ordering it.

Chain and formula restaurants should have no problem whatsoever listing calories and fat, etc. Their food is made from recipes given from above and from pre-made mixes or pre-packaged individual components. The spaghetti sauce or apple pie doesn't vary from day to day. A cooked-to-order type of menu in a "better" restaurant would be much more difficult to nutritionally quantify, because the actual amounts and ingredients differ from meal to meal.

I wish that restaurants of all types would cut the sizes of their portions (and the prices!). The easiest way to cut calories and fat is by cutting the amount of food we eat and then, perhaps, we could eat what we want...just a lot less of it.

FYI

All of my sidebar Thanksgiving Tips have been moved to a post titled, appropriately enough, Thanksgiving Tips 2007 and dated November 22nd.

Tasty AND Tasteful

A cookie exchange isn't usually the most sophisticated of events. But leave it my friend, M, to throw THAT notion to the wind. Hers was elegance personified...from the beautifully decorated Christmas TREES to excellent champagne (Veuve Clicquot, my favorite) to her toile tablecloth, which went with the éclat and the élan of the afternoon perfectly.



The snacks weren't too shabby either. The Contessa's Onion Dip with purple chips was served. (Don't tell Ina that M cut down on the oil in the dip. You would have too...) There was a gigantic crab dip, yummy cheese (Boursin?) with red pepper jelly and beautiful roast beef with a superb horseradish sauce. EVEN the paper plates upon which to load the cookies were stylish.



You know what they say, either you have or you don't...and if you don't, you can always hope for an invitation to M's house.

Joke Of The Day

At a holiday party, friends have filled their plates with wonderful food.
"Lois", a rather pushy celebrant, notices her friend's plate is devoid of horseradish sauce. She says," 'BETTY'! You MUST try the horseradish sauce. It's exceptional."

"Betty" demurs, before being forced to make her way back to the buffet. She serves herself some horseradish sauce. Upon her return, Lois says "WELL? Isn't it great?" "Betty" says, "It would be, if I LIKED horseradish."

I suppose it's not too hard to guess if I'm Lois or Betty...

Triple The Fun

I'm so mad that I only saw this recipe on Good Morning America, after I had already baked for my friend M's cookie exchange. (More about my cookies another time.) They would have been a quick and easy additional contribution. Sara Moulton made these triple thumbprint cookies, called Trios.

Basically, Trios are three little balls of dough wedged next to each other to make kind of a triangle. You flatten them slightly with the back a wooden spoon and then use the handle (or your thumb) to make a depression. You can put a different jam in each hole, which I think is a brilliant idea. They don't have a picture of these particular cookies in the story, but they look like little jewels.

A Chef After My Own Heart...

I'm not talking about David Paul Larousse's cooking. I'm talking about his concern with the increasingly poor service in restaurants, and how it affects the entire meal, no matter how good the food is.

What bothers him isn't always the same thing that bothers me. He rails against the growing practice of informality by one's servers. For example, he really resents being flirted with at the table by his server... when he's dining with his wife. What if he were ALONE, I wonder?

For ME, on the other hand, THAT behavior would lay the groundwork for a huge tip (and phone number?) at the end of the meal. kidding...sort of.

My most vivid experience of this informal approach to service was when we ONCE (and only once) went to an Outback Steakhouse. We went with our voraciously carnivorous son, on the mistaken belief that we could get a good steak. After we were seated, our server comes over AND SITS HIMSELF RIGHT DOWN AT OUR TABLE AND INTRODUCES HIMSELF. He was very affable and not a bad waiter, but even my teenager was startled at the unexpected intrusion into our personal space.

Larrousse takes this one step further by declaring that he wants NO personal information at all about his waiter. I don't always feel this way. Of course, I would start a conversation* with an earthworm. But, I do agree that you don't go to a restaurant to have an evening out with the waitstaff, and they should never interfere with (or contribute to) your conversations.

My biggest bête noires are in the actual service department - taking away plates before everyone is finished is my number one; not bringing silverware when you're sitting there forkless; not refilling water glasses...stuff like that.

Here are a few of the items in Larrousse's list of the greatest service transgressions. (This is Larrousse talking):

• I am not dining out in order to have an experience with you, nor will we strike up a life-long friendship.

• Do not ask me "Is everything OK?" As a professional, you should be able to discern this without asking — and if you cannot, then you should consider entering a different profession.

• If I pay the bill with cash, do not ever ask me if I want my change. Bring the change — always. As a food professional, I promise I will reward your fine service with an appropriate gratuity.

* Last week at a local restaurant, I learned that Gary, our waiter, was trying to decide between medical schools. I did offer my insight into the one that I thought would best serve his interests...after a 2 minute conversation. But this was ME launching the foray into a personal conversation.

I Will Open No Gift Ahead Of Its Time...Unless I Already Have It

I consider myself really lucky. I have been in possession of some of the hottest gifts of the holiday season (according to today's New York Times) for weeks ahead of Christmas, and in some cases, MONTHS. Ok, they didn't actually say "Hottest". These were items that were part of their feature on "Tasteful Giving", but I think they're hot.

You won't believe what one of them was! It was Nutmeg Girl!!! I had my hot little hands on her WEEKS before this story, thanks to the kindness of A.


The Times' source is a website called Pylons.com, which has all kind of whimsical knickknacks and some very useful items as well. There are really cute peppermills, which sort of look like modern and ethnically diverse versions of babushka dolls.

I've never seen chopsticks like these. One end is pointed to use as normal, the other end has 2 short prongs to spear stuff. My chopstick-impaired son could use these. AND they have two dots for eyes right below the prongs, so they look kind of squid-like. Cool.

Also mentioned in The Times was something I got months ago (naa-na-na-naa-na). It was this mandarin olive oil from Oliviers & Co. There are different flavors. The orange is superb for drizzling on risotto or seafood or salad or really anything that could use a zesty orange taste.



Not on the Times list, but one of my favorites, is a site called Greenergrassdesign.com. Some things are pricey, but there's a lot of nifty modern design here and it's fun to look at. I have this olive dish, which I thought would lead to much game-playing amidst olive-eating. Not so much, but it's still an attractive way to present olives, or nuts, or small chocolate-covered anythings.

Happy Hunting!

Ina Misses A Step, Or Maybe I Should Just Relax

Barefoot Contessa with Ina Garten
Night Before Dinner

Cauliflower Gratin
Green Green Spring Vegetables
Loin of Pork with Fennel
Pumpkin Mousse Parfaits

This was an old episode, so there was no opportunity to view the new barn. Darn! It's going to be an old barn, before we have a chance to see it.

Ina is having folks for dinner on a busy day, so she's putting together a menu that can be made in advance.

She has 2 rules for entertaining: The first is to SERVE COCKTAILS. The second is to serve things that have been made in advance. Gratins work well for that.

For a cauliflower gratin, she boils 3 pounds of cauliflower florets for 5 to 6 minutes. Then she heats 2 cups of milk and grates some Gruyere. She makes a white sauce by melting 2 tablespoons of butter and stirring in 3 tablespoons flour. The mixture gets cooked. Ina fearlessly pours in all the milk at once, and cooks until thick. She was able to do this because she was using hot milk. If it had been cold, it could have lumped terribly. She adds salt and pepper, and (not fresh) nutmeg, plus 1/2 cup Gruyere and 1/2 cup Parmesan.

Her proportions for a white sauce are interesting. She obviously finds that equal parts of butter and flour just don't give her the thickness she requires, so she ups the flour by one tablespoon. Not a bad idea.

The cauliflower is drained.

She brings over an 8 by 11 dish for the gratin. She spoons some of the sauce in the bottom and the cauliflower goes on top. Ina covers that with the rest of the sauce. Then she makes a crumb topping of 1/4 cup breadcrumbs and 1/4 cup of Gruyere. She sprinkles that on top and drizzles over 2 tablespoons of melted butter. I think I would mix the butter with the crumbs and cheese, just to ensure I didn't have any dry patches of just crumbs on the top. She puts it in the fridge to be baked the next day.

She gathers her green vegetables. Ina cuts off the ends of the asparagus and blanches them in bolling water. She lifts them out using a Chinese strainer and puts them into ice water to stop the cooking and set the color. Julia would approve. The string beans get trimmed and blanched. They are removed to the ice water. Broccolini goes in..and out...and finally sugar snap peas go in for 60 seconds and join the others in the ice water. Ina drains them and puts them in the fridge to await their final sautéing just before dinner.

She planned a parfait for dessert in tall glasses. Guess what she's making? PUMPKIN MOUSSE! Luckily, I don't see any bananas around. She dissolves a packet of gelatin in 1/4 cup of dark rum. While that's soaking, she mixes together 1 can of pumpkin purée with 1/2 cup each of white and brown sugars, 2 egg yolks, 2 teaspoons of orange zest, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (I would add more), and a quarter teaspoon of not freshly ground nutmeg. She heats the gelatin over hot water, stirs until all cloudiness is gone. She stirs that into the pumpkin mixture until well incorporated.

Ina whips 1 1/2 cups heavy cream with a splash of vanilla on high speed. and folds it into the pumpkin mixture. She draws a large spatula through the middle of the bowl, folds it over and turns the bowl. She repeats this until the cream is mixed in well. Okay, wait a second...Did I miss a step here?

What happened to COOKING the egg yolks and pumpkin until thickened, BEFORE adding the gelatin and whipped cream? How do you call this a mousse, without the first step of COOKING the yolks with the other flavorings until thick? I have seen recipes where the yolks and sugar might be beaten for ages until light and yellow and thick. But I have never seen them stirred together casually before the melted gelatin is added.

In fact, in most cases, you don't even heat the gelatin. The warmth from the pan will dissolve it. Well, I'm a little baffled. The reviews on the website say the orange zest was kinda nasty and that there wasn't enough whipped cream to do the layers, but nothing about the abbreviated cooking method. Hmmm...

Ina whips more cream for the parfait...this time it's sweetened. She whips 1 cup of heavy cream with 1 tablespoon sugar and 1 teaspoon "good vanilla". She gets out tall narrow glasses...are those champagne flutes? I can't really tell.

She fills the pumpkin mousse, remember the UNCOOKED mousse, into a pastry bag and squirts it into the bottom of each glass. That's really smart. It keeps the sides of the glass clean. Then she layers in some whipped cream (a piping bag would have been a good idea here too) and sprinkles over some crumbled ginger snaps. More pumpkin, cream, snaps. She does the last layer of pumpkin with a little dollop of cream on top, and lastly a ginger snap to garnish. (I would have garnished the parfait at the last minute. )

Ina asks, "Doesn't that look like a party?" It DOES, even if I wouldn't serve it to the infirm or very young on account of the uncooked egg yolks. (Don't I sound just like Debbie Downer?)

The Contessa is stuffing a loin of pork for the main course. She cuts up 2 cups of onion and fennel and adds them to a sauté pan with butter and oil. She cooks the mixture for 15 minutes until tender. She chops fresh thyme and garlic to add later, so it doesn't burn. Ina gives the pan a really good tossy toss. We don't see her doing that that much. She doesn't need to show off like the Alpha males of the FN, whom, incidentally, I LOVE to watch swirling their pans.

She adds the thyme and garlic with salt and pepper and then deglazes the pan with wine. The recipe says you can also use Pernod. I love Pernod in a recipe if I'm sitting in a French fishing village in a cable knit sweater, eating bouillabaisse with fish caught just moments ago by the chef, swilling wine from a tumbler. Otherwise, I'll deglaze with the wine.

For fresh breadcrumbs for the stuffing, Ina cuts the crust off white bread and dices it. That gets processed until fine. She asked butcher to butterfly the pork. She salts and peppers it well. She adds 3 cups of crumbs to the onion and fennel and spoons the mixture over the pork.

She tells us that if we're making this in advance, the filling must be cool. She rolls the pork up and ends with the fat side up. She ties it with butcher string every 2 inches or so. She rubs on a bit (whoops, a lot) of olive oil and salt and pepper. She puts it in a sheet pan into the fridge. Uh oh, I have a slight problem here. Do you really want to make a dish in advance that has bread stuffing ? I thought it was the bread that went bad. EVEN if it's completely cooled, is that safe? Ok, Ina says it is, but I have my doubts (wah wah).

She puts the loin of pork in a 425° oven for 30 minutes, and then turns it down to 350° for 20 to 30 minutes until the meat, not the stuffing, registers 137°. The cauliflower goes in at 375° for 25 to 30 minutes.

Friends arrive. They drinking champers. Ina asks Frank for help in the kitchen. He removes the string and slices the pork. She cooks shallots with oil and butter and add the blanched vegetables. They cook quickly. Ina plates the pork and vegetables and Frank carries them out. She follows with the cauliflower. They enjoy everything. Sweet Jeffrey says there are people all over America who don't eat cauliflower, but would if they tried this.

The pumpkin parfaits come out to applause. Those glasses really look glamorous and the parfaits look spectacular. Maybe skipping a step here and there isn't such a bad idea. The proof is in the parfaits...

Ooh Mommy! I Love Umami

The first time I seriously turned my attention to umami was last summer at Copia, during a wine tasting (a rather blotto wine tasting, for me). In addition to sweet and sour, bitter and salty, they introduced umami as the fifth taste sensation to hit our taste buds. Luckily, we kinda skipped right over it, because after my 5th glass of wine, I wouldn't have known umami from my real mommy. The Wall Street Journal has an interesting article about it in their weekend section. Luckily this is one of the few pieces that they make available online to the riffraff, otherwise known as non-subscribers.

The essence of umami is that savory, full mouth feel you get from certain foods. It is found naturally in meat, fish, some vegetables and dairy products. Two of the best examples of umami in the West are Parmesan cheese and shitake mushrooms. When umami is stripped down to its most basic chemical component, it is composed of glutamate, but don't mistake it as salty. Glutamate, of course, is the major ingredient in monosodium glutamate, the bad boy of additives.

But glutamate is not the sodium-laden, headache-producing element you might think. There are specific receptors on the tongue for it, just as there are for the other 4 tastes. While it is difficult to detect umami elements all by themselves, they give a dish a more complete full flavor than if they were left out.

Interestingly, every region of the world has its own unique umami condiments, which improve mouth feel: tomato ketchup from the U.S., Worcestershire sauce from Britain, soy sauce from Asia and anchovy paste from Europe.

Here is Gary Danko demonstrating a perfect umami dish, Roasted Tomato Soup (from the WSJ website):

Sandy Proves Again, She Is No Cook...

She's More Like A Mad Chemist...

Semi-Homemade Cooking with Sandra Lee
Country Cooking

Apple Pie Punch
Canned Corn Bread Muffins
Cherry Pie with Lattice Top
Chicken Fried Steak with Gravy
Pear Butter

To get the recipes:
Click here (Don't do it.)

We see Sandy in her den of iniquity. ..her pantry where she keeps all of her semi-food products to make her fake food creations. She reminds us that “good old-fashioned country cooking hits the spot every single time, but those favorites of yours take a long time to make.” Well, not with Sem-EYE Home Made, she assures us. Plus, we’ll see a beautiful tablescape that emulates hearth and home…Gag me and it’s only the first minute and a half.

THEN there’s a long beginning segment, which is way too long, explaining Sandy's philosophy of cooking...if you can use the word philosophy OR cooking when talking about her.

Sandy tells us she loves this “handy dandy gadget”…a chinois, for making pear butter. Oh, Sandy, you silly thing, That’s not a GADGET, it’s part of one's Batterie de cuisine.

For the pear butter, she strains canned pears, saving all the liquid. I guess, using fresh fruit is against the rules. She doesn’t even take the entire lid off the can of pears. That’s dangerous and lazy. Am I being petty? Just wait…

She “pops” the drained pears in a pot with 3 tablespoons of pear brandy. In this case it’s probably good she’s going to cook off the alcohol. We wouldn’t want our hostess staggering through the tablescape to her guests. She turns the heat to medium.

Ooh, now we get to talk about the corn muffins. Lucky us. She mixes 1 cup of jack cheese, pre-shredded from a package - bien sur - with 2 BAGS of corn muffin MIX. I sure hope anyone that uses a MIX does realize that there about 5 or 6 ingredients in a corn muffin. It’s just not that hard. Ok, maybe there are a big seven ingredients, but still, by the time you’ve added the bunch of required stuff to the mix, you might just as well have made it yourself.

She adds 2 eggs, each of which she breaks on the counter, leaving a bit of snotty residue behind. Bad Sandy! Next to be added to the corn meal mess, I mean mix, is 2/3 cup of buttermilk and 2 cans of “cream of corn”. I sure hope she doesn’t mean condensed soup…Oh, she means “creamed corn”.

Be careful stirring, Sandy says, because you don’t want to “break apart” the cheese. No, Sandy, that is NOT why you shouldn’t overbeat corn muffins. Craig Claiborne explained it beautifully: “When liquid and dry materials are stirred and beaten until a muffin batter is smooth and elastic, it forms ribbon-like strands that stretch when the spoon is lifted….(The resulting muffins) are tough and dry...the top peaked and misshapen.”

She sprays cans to use as baking forms with nonstick spray. I sure hope there was nothing toxic (other than her muffin mixture) in there. She says the cans don’t have to be fancy. What exactly does that mean? Sandy, maybe in that big pantry of yours, you keep the fancy cans segregated from the simple ones, but I tend to allow mine to freely associate.

She fills the cans two-thirds of the way up. She using tomato paste cans, which she tells us to make safe for cooking by boiling them in hot water. WHAH!!! Are you telling me you don’t have time to measure out cornmeal, flour and leavening, but you do have time to boil scummy tomato paste cans?

There’s more…”for an extra special touch, you’re going to COAT(?) the top” with the leftover cheese. Honey, you really shouldn’t have left cooking school. I suppose if you only had a vocabulary of 3 words :Tablescape, Crisco, coat, you could use that word. But it’s not the most precise term for what you’re doing. Actually, the term for what you’re doing I can’t say here, but let’s move on. She’s going to “pop” them in a 400° oven.

We go back to the pear butter with her handy dandy applesauce maker. (Really who says that twice?) I make so much applesauce that I could paint the entire house with it, and I have NEVER used a chinois. She pours her cooked pear mixture in. She uses the wooden mallet to push it into a small pot. She presses out a tiny amount and then quickly puts the whole shebang into the sink, so we can’t see how much is left in the strainer. She adds fresh (yay!) orange zest and juice with 1 cup of brown sugar. That’s more sugar there than there is pear purée. She stirs it and reduces it down.

She runs to check the muffins. She’s getting a bit breathless and rushed when she mentions all she has left to do. I sure hope she doesn’t get to it all. She takes out the corn can muffins. She’s surprisingly disorganized. She hurries to put the hot cans down, while she dashes to get the flour.

Sandy opens a packet of her garlic ranch dressing. “You normally would use it for salad dressing.” No YOU would, Sandy. The only thing that stuff is good for is to fill in the holes in the driveway. She sprinkles it on the bottom of a glass pie plate. She adds it makes a “great coating for fried chicken too.”

To the packet, she adds 1 cup of buttermilk (evaporated milk is okay too) and 1 egg. She tells us to get a “large, large” baggy. That’s funny, it looks like a normal gallon freezer bag size. Into this bag she adds ANOTHER packet of salad dressing mix (even those words disturb me) and 1 cup of flour.

She scurries over to add oil to the pan for her steak. She coats the cube steak with her 2 mixtures. Curiously, she doesn’t care which order you use. You may either flour and poison-powder it up FIRST and THEN buttermilk, egg and more powdery poison the steak, or do it the other way.

That is whacked. I’ve never heard of such a thing. Remember my mantra: flour, egg, crumb; flour, egg, crumb? Of course, here she has crapped up the egg with her poison powder, so it is a bit confusing. Come to think of it, she’s ruined the flour with the same powder. Not that any of you would actually make this, but I guess I would advise dipping it in the gook first, and then that cesspool of seasoned flour, even though in proper universe, the flour comes first. You know...now, that I’m thinking about it, who knows? It’ll be equally dreadful, either way.

She’s put the steaks in.

The pear butter goes into a “cute Ball jar”. It looks like a mayonnaise jar to me. The steak is ready to turn “lickety split”. I’d like to split now. The still hot and already covered jars of pear butter go into the fridge.

OMG, she takes “a packaged product for gravy” and is going to turn it into gravy. That doesn’t even sound like food. I’m worried, frankly, that someone, even if it’s her own FN crew, will have to eat this. She “pops” the powder into a pan and adds 1 cup of buttermilk. (Does she buy one fresh ingredient a month and then force herself to use it in everything?) She stirs in 1 cup of chicken stock and says it makes the greatest gravy.

Back from a needed break, she takes a pie out of the oven. She busies herself making another one. She unfolds a store-bought crust (it’s actually probably safer that way) into a glass pie plate. She mixes store bought cherry pie filling with thawed frozen berries to cut the sweetness. Why bother, really? She stirs in 1 tablespoon cherry kirsch and pours it into the pie crust.

She sprinkles flour onto the work surface and unfolds another pie crust. She lays a lattice mold on top (I’ve never even heard of that before) and presses down. She cuts around with a fluted cutter and lays the faux lattice on top of the pie. She brushes the top with an egg (a real one) and sprinkles over sugar.

Sandy cuts a slice of the previous cherry pie and THEN serves the chicken fried steak with the gloppy gravy. She tests the muffins and serves them…from the cans.

She tastes the steak. It doesn‘t kill her (immediately).

She moves on to the apple pie punch. She mixes apple cider (juice is fine too) with spiced run and cinnamon schnapps. Then as a special touch, she adds the pear liquid from the processed pears. She garnishes it with overly large slices of red apple. She pours herself a taste…and another.“This sure is good”, she slurs.

She joins us at the tablescape. Ooh, her husband’s two sons, Matt and Teddy, are coming over. Goodie, a tablescape for the stepchildren. Will there be coal on a table covered with sackcloth?

The tablecloth is a flannel blanket. Yeah, I always find that’s comfortable to eat on…NOT. I guess it’s better than her aunt, who just hurls her quilts all over the dinner table.

Ok, the food is shown and OH MY, she using store bought mashed potatoes from the "refrigeration” section. I don’t even know what that is. She adds cream and, let me guess, BUTTERMILK and her happy white powder? No, butter and salt. She points out the cans of corn muffins. Better not to, I think. She shows us, “from her collection of log homes”, a favorite one on the shelf.

And then she says, “Everything is available on the Food Network website.” She doesn’t mean the knickknacks, flannel blanket and log home, does she? No, just the recipes. That’s bad enough. AND I’ve had enough. I feel sullied. I’ve learned nothing, except the lengths to which people will go to NOT COOK, to NOT BAKE and to serve a dreadful meal, which if buried in the back yard probably wouldn’t decompose for centuries…and THAT would be a terrible thing to do to mother earth.