There's a cake in one of Mary Ann Esposito's books -- "Celebrations, Italian Style"?. Angel food with almond extract and ground almonds.

To go "whole hog" you can split it and fill it with a mixture of mascarpone and raspberries.

I used to think BK was OK. But my problem is that for 12 years I've worked just down the street from a BK, and the aroma of the food is in the air pretty much all the time. When the wind shifts and it mixes with the smells from the nearby meat packing plant and the also-nearby ice cream factory, it's a strong and heady brew.

WELL then. Stop watching it if you don't like it.

This tendency to bash tv food shows for no apparent reason other than snobbishness is getting really old.

As has been pointed out: Julia Child did it. If she did it, then for gosh sakes there's nothing wrong with it.

Honestly. Some people.

I'll see your $30/bottle and raise -- um, LOWER it to $15. Spending on wine can be really out of control for very, very small returns. More than almost any foodstuff, wine can be highjacked by "snob appeal".

My wife would concur with Caviar. I would Concur with foie gras.

I like one of the local cupcake bakeries too. We stop in once in a while or I'll get half a dozen -- or a dozen minis -- as a special treat for the family.

I guess I don't understand the hateful vitriol on this site toward certain things, such as cupcakes. Or in this thread, frozen yogurt. (Here's a hint -- it's been around long enough it's probably no longer a craze.)

Except for the big national chains, these foods are usually created in earnest with good intentions by folks who want to delight people with their foods.

But you have to be open to delight. I suspect from some of the gleeful snarling that takes place on Chow, that many are not so open -- that there are other agendas at play that say more about the person's outlook on life than about the thing being snarled about.

Dill and chives are my go-to for cold beet salad.

Fennel
Radishes
Green Bell Peppers (Love all other colors)
Celery root (I confess it's mostly because it seems like it's too damn much trouble to prepare)
Jicama, ditto. Plus, it's just not that exciting.

I have limited my choices to things I've actually had. More exotic stuff like Christophene, Fiddleheads, and Ramps are things I've never sought out.

Interesting. What recipes do you find that call for "a jar of mayonnaise" or "a pound of butter" (exclusive of, say, pound cake)? Or are you simply indulging in a little regionalistic stereotyping?

When I want true Southern cooking, I don't want "updated techniques". I want the taste I grew up with. And if you "NEVER" look at your community cookbooks it's your loss.

http://www.amazon.com/Cooking-Childre...

I used this to help my son understand cooking and learn how when he was young. I've not seen any better.

"Good gosh, they sure like cheese. And condiments."

I confess that I have never done this. I don't find any reason to do so. As Lynne Rosetto Kasper points out in "The Italian Country Table", many of the factors in a tomato's flavor are in the skin, the seed, and the gel around the seed.

Plus, as a devotee of the late Laurie Colwin's theory of "“a cuisine de la 'slobbe' raffinée,” (The Cooking of the Refined Slob), it seems needlessly "fussy" to me.

And for the earlier poster, yeah, I think even if you are One Of Those People who peel when cooking, peeling when eating a tomato raw is rather extreme.

Never in summer.

In fall, winter, and early spring at least every two weeks. I'm including certain stews in this answer.....

At my local Kroger, where I no longer shop, it was in the aisle with pickles and olives.

It is OUTSTANDING for the beginner. It teaches technique, it groups recipes by cooking method rather than main ingredient, it offers variations, and it shows everything in photographs taken from the cook's point of view. It's not so much a book as a cooking school. I recommend it most highly.

"Skim off fat"? What is this "skimming" you of which you speak?

Um. NO. You clearly have no understanding of the diversity of Southern cooking at all.

Oh, I found this at an antique store once. It is terrific. A great historical document.

I'll third Camille Glenn's book. My copy is falling apart.

I'd also volunteer the magisterial "Southern Food" by John Egerton. http://www.amazon.com/Southern-Food-Home-Road-History/dp/0807844179/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1362680047&sr=1-1&keywords=southern+food It's a wonderful history and has some fine recipes.

Recently, my family gave me the Southern Foodways Alliance Community Cookbook http://www.amazon.com/Southern-Foodways-Alliance-Community-Cookbook/dp/0820332755/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1362680047&sr=1-2&keywords=southern+food, which is (as you might suspect) compiled from tons of community cookbooks. It's sensational.

I'd also recommend an earlier Alliance book, A Gracious Plenty. It's wonderful reading, spiced throughout with literary tidbits relating to our favorite cuisine. http://www.amazon.com/Gracious-Plenty...

Further, deregulation of business meant the end of the 40-hour-work week for many -- business were able to "increase productivity" by giving workers so much to do that they regularly worked 50, 60, 70 hours a week, so the convenience foods became not just attractive to them but NECESSARY, since they didn't have time to cook any more.

The food pyramid "promotes obesity"? Really? How do you figure? With its argument to limit fats and sugars and eat lots of grains and fruits and vegetables?

WOuld you have eaten there?

OK -- What about Maurice's Piggy Park in the heyday when the owner was in the forefront of the fight ag'in' the Civil Rights Movement? http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/29/us/...

You assume there IS a solution, and short of imprisoning the entire population of obese and near-obese people and enforcing strict eating and exercise parameters, there is NOT one.

Another screed from the Nervous Nutritional Nellies. BOOGA BOOGA BOOGA SUGAR OH NOOOOOOOOO....

Bittman is such an overrated "authority."

Eat a little of a great many things. Everything's poisonous in large quantities.

A good point. I see a lot of "self-diagnosing" these days. Allergies that aren't allergies. Gluten "sensitivity" that isn't really celiac disease. The sad thing is these folks give people who really do have the given health challenge a bad name.

Pan Bagnat, described by Calvin Trillin as a large sturdy bun holding "a damp mélange of canned tuna and chopped onions and lettuce and tomatoes and olives and hard-boiled eggs." Anointed with further Olive Oil. Julia Child and Jacques Pepin have a good model to followin their "Cooking at Home" book.

I am SO tired of this knock on AB. AB is very much about the food. He just presents it in an entertaining manner.

Kimball is about the buck rather than the food. And his writing and the tone of his magazine and TV shows are increasingly tiresome.

It is indeed dolphin -- the large, blunt headed fish, not the mammal. I've seen them caught. I've eaten them after.

Julia Child's "The Way To Cook" is wonderful -- great photographs, basic recipes with variations.

I've got the first two Alton Brown "Good Eats" books, and they're good.

Fannie Farmer, edited by Marion Cunningham.