Ilaine

"Eternity is two people and a ham". Dorothy Parker

Looking for Jerusalem artichokes, aka sunchokes. Are they seasonal?

Tempted by the lure of grilled apricots, we made the trek from Fairfax to Cleveland Park. It was worth the trip. The apricots were as big as peaches, sliced in half, wrapped with thin slices of pancetta, grilled until the pancetta was crispy, and served with a dollop of creamy mascarpone in the middle. Apricots are a fleeting pleasure, perfectly ripe for only a few minutes, but grilling a slighly less ripe apricot enhances the apricot perfume and sweetens it so that it is actually better than a ripe apricot. If you want this, go now. Time is of the essence. Other highlights: seared duck breast with leek & black cardamom duck reduction and a side of broccoli leaves; risotto with Louisiana "swamp" chanterelles and asparagus; pancetta wrapped asparagus and radicchio; and the blackberries. I am from Louisiana, lived there for 35 years, but I had never seen a chanterelle from Louisiana before. It was very fresh, and the whole dish, with the asparagus and the chanterelles, tasted like spring. Yeah, I know, it's summer, but it still tasted like spring.* The blackberries were served with balsamic vinegar and a scoop of vanilla gelato. Now that tasted like summer. Now that I think about it, I would like to compliment our server, but we did not ask her name. A very pleasant person, as they all are, but she especially so. *This dish is on the menu as fettuccini but they will make it with risotto if you ask.

Thistle, if you have never been to Dino, you must. It is my favorite restaurant in DC. Everything is delicious, perfectly prepared from fresh, seasonal, meat, fish and vegetables which are locally sourced, sustainable. I never feel like I am playing menu roulette. One really nice touch is that the menu denotes items which are gluten-free, so I don't have to ask. I always hate having to ask. Same thing for vegan and vegetarian, which I am not, but, if I were, I would appreciate. Very thoughtful gesture. It would be so easy for others to do this, and I wonder why they don't.

Real sago on Amazon.

Shio koji. http://articles.latimes.com/2012/aug/25/food/la-fo-koji-20120825

The plantation theme wedding strikes me as the type of crass, insensitive thing a formerly poor person would do when showing off her money. I am going to use an inter-class stereotype, nouveau riche. I can't tell you how many times I saw dignified black men in white coats serving rich white people when I was growing up. To want to emulate that is, well, how can I improve on crass and insensitive?

OK, now I see why I missed the quote in the deposition. Because whoever posted it on Wikipedia cut-and-pasted her responses to make it look worse than it was. From NPR: Later, a lot, later: http://www.npr.org/blogs/codeswitch/2013/06/20/193913397/stuff-you-might-have-missed-in-the-paula-deen-brouhaha Glad to know I was not as drunk as I feared I was. I still don't condone stuff like that, but I stick by my position that at the deposition, telling her own story, she did not come across as bad as what other people (example, the woman who is suing her) are saying about her, which is what you would expect.

Nora, I don't usually clean the Vitamix, my husband does. He says your method works for everything but spirulina powder, which sticks to the sides. I will try that, I have been sticking my hand in the jar and trying to avoid the blades. lperry, what do you use your Bamix for?

Have never made mayo in the Vitamix. Have used the Cuisinart, and that works very well, but then you have to clean it. You can put the Cuisinart in the dish washer, but not the Vitamix. I hate cleaning the Vitamix because of the blades. The thought of easy cleanup is appealing.

I also grew up eating the kind of food she promotes, only not as extreme, and I, too, am obese with Type 2 diabetes, so I am not sad that her shows were not renewed.

I just looked up Paula Deen on Wikipedia and she did admit to using the N-word. It was late, the deposition was long and stupifying, and I was drinking. Sorry. Here's the quote from Wikipedia, and it's pretty weird: "In her deposition for the suit, Deen stated that she has used the "N Word" at times, saying "Yes, of course" she did, and also acknowledged making racist jokes, though she claims she is not racist. "It's just what they are—they're jokes ... most jokes are about Jewish people, rednecks, black folks. ... I can't determine what offends another person." She is 68, from the Deep South, and grew up before integration. I am 60, from the Deep South, and grew up before integration. I was taught not to make those kind of jokes, and I don't find them humorous. I don't work in the kind of environment that tolerates those kind of jokes. I don't know what it's like to be her and live her life. Nevertheless, she strikes me as a self-made woman who has accomplished a great deal coming from a very poor family, and she does not appear to have a mean bone in her body, or any self-awareness, and possibly not a brain in her head. I also took a look at the menu for her restaurant, and you can get gluten-free shrimp and grits, which is nice, because most restaurants don't make it gluten-free.

OK, I read the whole freaking deposition and I don't get the controversy. The way I read it, she doesn't use the N word but she does know people who do. She doesn't show pornography to her employees and she doesn't think that's right. Her husband does stuff that would not be acceptable in the best company, and so do other men that she knows. She gives them a pass when she probably should not. She thinks the woman who is sueing her is PO'ed because she wanted more control and a share of the business, which might be true. She is protective, maybe over protective, of her brother, who seems to be deeply flawed. Well, in my opinion, we are all deeply flawed. I don't know how many of you could stand up to that type of scrutiny, but I thought she comported herself rather well. It is hard to talk about race. I am white, my husband is white, our kids are white, and they both have black girlfriends. I would rather never have to talk about race, and racial discrimination, but these are facts. I now know more about black hair than before, and that's just the beginning. How do you talk about the beautiful dignity that black men and women established for themselves while having few other options but serving others? Boy, talk about hard to do. It's a fact, I have witnessed it, and probably many, if not most, of us who are older witnessed it. It is not something I would have wanted to highlight, and it's, in my opinion, the worst thing she did. But, at the end of the day, the servers at her son's wedding got paid a lot more than their usual day job. Hiring people of color, because of their color, being a bad thing is peculiarly strange to oppose. It's not something I ever would have thought of. Was anybody injured? Only people not of color. Is she a sick f@ck for even thinking of it? I would say that exploiting people of color is what is sick. She's a cook. If I am going to go with stereotypes, cooks are not too bright, and they are profane and earthy. And, by the way, butter is beautiful, and butter is not what makes us fat. Carbs, especially sugar, refined flour, and high fructose corn syrup. make us fat. Butter is good for us. Especially grass fed butter, full of Vitamin K. I hope Paula Deen sees the light, but, if not, I have sent the message to you. Love more, hate less. Edited to add: she admitted to using the N-word in jokes. See below.

OK, I want a stick/immersion blender, but am never going to use it to puree soups. I like chunky soup. I even prefer my vichyssoise chunky. Perhaps that makes me a barbarian. Was thinking I wanted one for mayo and the like (aioli, say). Already have a Vitamix, a Cuisinart, and a Kitchenaide stand mixer so got all that covered. Smoothies go in the Vitamix, hardly ever use the Cuisinart or the Kitchenaide anymore since developing gluten intolerance. I'd rather chop by hand and wash knife and cutting board than a machine. Have spent hours (literally) perusing the reviews on Amazon, and come away more confused than ever. Given that I am contemplating mayo, and will never suffer hot soup burns, do I want something that can do harder stuff, too, like, say, hummus and mole? The reviews of the Bamix Gastro 200 say you need to bring the eggs to room temperature. Is this universal for such gadgets? (it is probably common sense).

Hi Traveler, the website says the deadline for pre-ordering is May 31, which is yesterday?

This is probably not easy for the situation above mentioned, but I recently came across a suggestion to use bacon itself as the scaffolding/bread for a "sandwich" with guacamole. Which led, inexorably, in my mind, to a "sandwich" with bacon as the "bread" for an egg salad "sandwich". Which then led to the concept of shorter pieces of bacon made into "chips" for any kind of dip, including, but not limited to, guacamole. For the "sandwiches" one would probably want to nuke the bacon, which thereby remains flexible, but as "chips", probably fry, to obtain crispness. Yours in the holy name of saturated fat. Edited to add, if anybody can think of a way to weave bacon into a raft, of sorts, please sing out.

Dairy free AND gluten free is hard. Been there, done that, after months of gluten free, I can now do most dairy but not milk, per se. OK, here goes. Nuts, mixed nuts. Nuts are our friends. Pecans, almonds, cashews.walnuts, Brazil nuts. Berries. Raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, strawberries. Fruit in general, if they don't have diabetes. Apples, bananas. Crudites. Carrots, cucumbers, summer squash, bell peppers, asparagus, tomatoes. Eggs, Eggs are also our friends. Hard boiled is easy, devilled eggs are divine. Meat. Can they do meat? Charcuterie. Pate. Actually hard to find gluten free pate, but it can be done. Meat assumes a refrigerator. If so, and a microwave, consider a frittata. If there is a refrigerator, and a microwave, consider soup. A nice mushroom soup, perhaps?

Bought a Negronne fig in a pot yesterday at the St. George Greek Festival in Bethesda. Only Negronne the lady selling them had, but she had quite a few others in pots, and she's a nice lady, a professor, so if you want a fig tree, consider the Greek Fest. Very good food and music, too, and two vendors selling very nice olive oil and olives. Back to Negronne. Should I keep her in a pot, or plant her? If I plant her, I could put her in a raised bed that otherwise has native perennials for butterflies, and gets full sun in the morning and mid-day, but may dry out a bit in hot weather. Said to be cold-hardy in Region 7, which we are. The lady who sold her said to keep her in a pot, and put the pot in the garage in the winter, but she's from Maryland, and I am in Fairfax. It has got cold enough here to kill rosemary but not the woodier lavenders. She's so pretty, I would love to see her get big.

What a wonderful day for a picnic! And what a wonderful picnic! Despit the fact that the turnout was low, perhaps my favorite picnic of all. I admit I did not try everything, in part because of issues with wheat and sugar, but I still indulged in the GF lemon bars and cookies, which were stellar. I know lperry was not happy with the lemon bars, but I thought they were great. Still, my favorites were the pork ssam and ribs, and DH's caprese. I further admit that I did not try The Matt's Lipton onion dip, but joyfully dipped his Ruffles into my own dips, which came out pretty good. At the end of the day, made sure that Becca went home with all the potato chips. And am sitting here, rueing that fact, and wishing I had potato chips right now. Dang it, The Matt, those potato chips were so good! Please, someone, remind me, next picnic, I need to make layered Jello shot mold. And Ambrosia salad. And The Matt needs to bring green bean casserole. Or I will. Edited to add, DH ( Dear Husband) was hiding a big bag of Grandpa Utz's handcooked potato chips fried in lard in his closet, and just presented them to me, along with the two tubs of leftover dip I made for the picnic. Oh, I do love this man. I may be going to cardiovascular hell but with a big smile on my face. Over and out.

OK, dip it is. I am thinking a couple of recipes from Cooks Illustrated, Caesar dip with anchovies and Parmesan, and Green Goddess dip. Also a couple of Mason jars of homemade, naturally fermented sauerkraut, one green cabbage, one red cabbage. I like the red better. Also, a tub of Pico de Gallo I bought at either MOM or Whole Food on a whim but don't think I am going to actually use. And four bottles of Malbec and/or Zinfandel.

I will bring crudités, as well as caprese. I could bring fancy, high-falutin' dip and have a dip-off against the Liptons, but I know the Liptons would win. I agree, can't have too many devilled eggs. I could bring that, too, but my eggs are too new, wouldn't peel.

Zora, you were correct, both died with domesticated grain in their stomachs. Actually, the Einkorn Oetzi ate may have been wild, but the barley that Tollund Man ate was almost surely not wild. My own auto-immune disease symptoms ameliorated when I gave up wheat entirely. I did not really want to do that, but my IBS symptoms were so extreme I was afraid I would not be able to continue working. I miss wheat! None of the workarounds commercially available are really satisfactory.

Tollund Man (Bogman) was Iron Age, 4th century BC. His stomach contents were a gruel of grains and wild seeds. Oetzi was about 3300 BC, Chalcolithic, Copper Age, transition between Neolithic and Bronze Age. His stomach contents were Eincorn and ibex. But, as I have said before, early humans probably ate whatever they could get their hands on.

Zora, there are a lot of people who like to think and talk about Paleo, Primal, and Ancestral topics, some of whom have blogs, and some of whom comment on blogs. Loosely, they call themselves the "Paleosphere", and there is so much internicine warfare that this is referred to as the "Paleo wars." Which is why I say, "there is no Paleo diet" -- goodness, no, not if you experienced the Paleo wars. Some do eat fruit, reasoning, as you say, our ancestors ate fruit when they could get it. Others say that the fruit our ancestors could get before agriculture was small, and not very sweet. I eat fruit, but only a little bit, maybe a handful of blueberries, because I need to keep my blood sugar low. A handful of berries is very nice. Choirgirl, as you say, vegetables do have carbs, but some don't have very much. In addition to blood sugar issues, I also have IBS, and have found that a little starch in my diet really helps me avoid symptoms.

I found the video excruciating because she was "debunking" something that does not actually exist. She made good points that actually support what many others who talk about "Paleo" or "Primal" or "Ancestral" have said, and say every day. OK, I am a litigator, I argue all the time, I listen to arguments that others make, I analyze arguments that others make. I love a good argument, whether as participant or spectator. You don't win an argument by mischaracterizing what the other person is saying. It reminded me of sitting in court watching someone who sounded like a very good lawyer make a very good argument, which you knew was completely wrong, because it was based on a false premise.