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01/03/08

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If you have happened upon this site in the random way we often fall into

sites into the web, then welcome cyber-nomadic reader to a modest

series of comments I like to call “vinaigrette vignettes” ...

... wherein I discuss food, life and lifestyles.

These vignettes form the basis of a book in progress.

(Bear with me. I know a lot of people say this!)

You will soon be able to click on all of the following,

starting with this one:

... wherein I reveal a number of things, including

the fact that I don’t own a microwave (which for

some people may be tantamount to - well, we’ll get

into that later) ...

... and I confess that my favorite chopping knife is,

in fact, a bread knife...  (which someone special to me

keeps nice and sharp!) ...

... and offer a few recipes of my own...

... while I attempt to tell my 20-something daughter

how to shop for food...because she asks me...

but does she listen???

... and try to define what the term “prepared” food

means today... (you can click on the next vignette)

... only to discover that there exists a parallel universe

of home (and ethnic) cooking in the frozen food

section of just about any market anywhere,

the likes of which simply didn’t exist in the last century.

I mean frozen ham and cheese sandwiches?

.... but I will say that one would think this is all terribly

exciting, this (re-)new(ed) world of convenience food ...

but the only word that keeps coming to my mind is -

well - banal...

... because I also tasted a popular brand of frozen burrito

and discovered that it tasted like nothing.... nothing...

not even cardboard... and I think we all have a pretty

good idea  what cardboard tastes like...

... wherein I seriously contemplate some of the more

usual fast foods around: pupusas, say - or panzerotti 

(though perhaps not yet available at a food court

near you)...

... wherein, after 50-something years of life on this

planet, I am utterly joyful because dark chocolate is

finally - how shall I put this - kosher? (excuse me while

I rip into another Côte d’Or  Expériences Noir 70%

Cacao bar!)

... and then I read that the French author Colette would

stir one square of dark chocolate into a small cup of hot

milk, and think, how lovely, how simple, how civilized...

... wherein I go on a field trip to a mainstream national food store chain to check out what the deal is with their jumping on the organic food bandwagon...

... wherein I don’t consider “plain yogurt with fruit” breakfast while ingesting a pound and a half of grapes in a day as a “detox” may cleanse you of toxins, but ... no, don’t get me started.... yet.

... wherein I discuss how come those bags of really, really unhealthy (do I have to spell it out?) chips have suddenly become bulbous (and a metaphor, too?)... and those that are

(ahem) more healthful are quite tiny in comparison...

... wherein I sit down in a café with my one of my daughters to have a small cuppa, only to find myself staring at a poster inviting me to drink rich Belgian white chocolate blended with premium ice cream, made with fresh expresso aka a white mochachillo, “available for a limited time only”... (Excuse me while I reach for the Lipitor ®)

… wherein I reveal my theory of the “alpha” home cook...

... and delve into the mysteries of how to get dinner on the table when you are tired, hungry and possibly uninspired...

... and look into trends (of which there are many: “less pasta, more sauce”; the 100 mile diet, or is it 200 miles? or is it 10 miles?) ...

... and state for the record that any recipe telling me to add one cup of cream has lost

me right there at “one cup of cream”...(see white mochachillo, above)

... in another realm, the world of Wii, specifically the “game” Cooking Mama Cook-off, I plan to test myself and see what kind of “player” I am... so far, pretty good at Wii tennis (made pro!!) and a fair Wii bowler, but Cooking Mama Cook-off? un uh (that’s a sound effect) Stay tuned for this one! (click here for a preview of the “game”)

... and more...much, much more...

I invite you to keep reading!

Martha

March 2008

(contact me: martha.burnett1atmacdotcom)