Cooking And Eating....“Dis-moi ce que tu manges, je te dirai ce que tu es”

LOCATED AT 2118 NORTH DECATUR RD. FOR OVER 40 YEARS.....RAINBOW WAS EDGED OUT OF THE COMPETITIVE FOOD MARKET BY NEARBY MEGA-GROCERS.  

                  I'M IN MY KITCHEN, ROLLING SOME SPONGE CAKE,  DRIZZLED WITH CONTREAU, THEN LOADED WITH WHIPPED HEAVY CREAM AND JUICY STRAWBERRIES, MARINATED IN A SWEET 'GOO' OF REDUCED LIQUORS....SO MUCH FOR HITTING THE SACK LAST NIGHT, WITHOUT HAVING AN AFTER-DINNER DESSERT!  

both the unsweetened cocoa powder and the walnuts hasten the chocolate iced cream's melt, so...grab a spoon, before it's a lumpy bowl of chocolate milk......give it a stir to blend in the cocoa, first.....after having added a jigger of Cointreau or Creme de Cacoa, or both....if you 'like it sweeter'.....

  Preparing to watch Jim Carrey's "MR. PICKLES" Series, " KIDDING ", again......I made an appropriate pickle stew to accompany the Jiggly Wiggly jello with pickled duck breasts on a Toe Jam & Rock Lobster Confit , plated with spit balls from the corners of Justin Kirk's laughing lips.......Now, 'how do I get my paw outta this padded, fireproof cooking mitt?'

.a 'switch-up' from Mozzarella and Uglis.....a matter of tastes/need for variety= (in the fortunate kitchen) innovation and change......and a diversification from habitual chow......

....and, to think...'growing up'.....dining was part of 'clockwork'....b'fast @ 7, lunch @11:30-1, dinner @ 7-8.......and 'supper' at midnight......Lunch was once the 'big meal'......and Supper was a bowl of cereal with fruit......to supplement the 'then' lighter dinners.......Now, the only 'regular' feature of my eating habits is a cup of java, soon after awakening.......No 'dinner at 8' generally leads to awakening from slumber, a bit ravenous, and devouring some of the many 'leftovers' in the fridge...

                            HARDLY ATTRACTIVE ENOUGH FOR AN APPETIZER COMPETITION ON MASTERCHEF.......BUT, TASTY AND FLAVOR-APPROPRIATE  ENOUGH FOR SNACKING, ABED, WHILE WATCHING THE FINAL 'LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT', LAST NIGHT.. .

and, to make it 'total', the eaglet's chicks'  rosemary and herb-crusted livers, were bowled up with  quinoa salad ...... cranberry, yellow raisins & cinnamon stick preserves, mortar & pestle-ground dried herbs, cilantro and spicy tomato ketchup......served with chocolate/toasted coconut Java....presented across the fallen Hindu Demi-God, The Lord Arjuna's oxidized bronze back and shoulders.....and eaten with French Silver Claw and Talonware......

Pile-ups seem to be the becoming, habitual, early morning fare.......here....a scrambled egg pile up with creamed avocados, shredded cheeses, pieces of sugar-cured ham, spinach, and this morning's 'mix' of ground spices and chopped yard greens.......to be spooned over a toasted croissant, smeared with apple butter........The same morning fare that I loved as a ten-year old, with the croissant having been substituted for toasted Tip-Top Bread or super-light baking-powder biscuits and avocado...for butter. . 24 hours later....more 'leftovers' atop yesterday's 'leftovers', some Thai vegetarian green curry, for 'today', dumped atop a bit of 'yesterday'.....so...what will be the 'bill of fare'....for 'tomorrow'? I was just 'wondering' ....."what do most folk have for breakfast?....by the numbers.....as in 'what they eat, most mornings', while still in bedclothes.........This, and its many variations, is my...

  Eaten, 'as is', with or without a slab of melting cheddar cheese, or on a toasted bun of many kinds......A favorite treat from my childhood.....it was served in school lunch rooms, as well as at just about every downtown 'country kitchen' restaurant and grill.......The version, pictured, here, was served at Sam J. Tummimello's Central Cafe ' ,  24 hours a day... 7 days a week,  for two quarters and a dime.....a step up from the  hamburger steak with grilled onions and a side of fries    ..at the Krystal on the Square.....    

Pistachio-Crusted Boursin Cheese with Spiced Pear Chutney

  THAT I SEEM, NEVER, TO TIRE OF.....IN ANY OF IT'S MANY CULINARY MANIFESTATIONS.....

    onion, ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, coriander, star anise, cherry tomatoes,  hoisin sauce, Thai basil, sugar & salt,  sriracha  and serrano peppers & squeezed lime are the palate tinglers....

Yesterday, deplete of provisions....and, after several days of avoiding 'sweets'.....I journeyed to Kroger, traveling the mile or so with a thousand other vehicles, going 'somewhere or the other'......After entering the Grocery Store and gathering some 'staples', I began to survey both the other shoppers and the contents of their wheeled baskets.......noting the correlations between the body types of the shoppers and the types of food they had gathered.    Many of their 'food items' were unfamiliar to me; so, I began to chat with the other Kroger clients about their selections.......Shopper #1 was a friendly, obese woman, trolling the aisles with her obese husband and two obese children, under ten.   I asked her 'what her favorite foods were'.   She, rather excitedly, replied: "Dolly Parton's Chocolate Pie!.....There's nothing better......Nothing!" as she put three of them into her cart, along with several gallons of sugary soft...

The annoying " Transportation Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax ", alone, would keep me 'home'.

Memories of my late friend, Hill Irving sprung from my Memory Banks....as did those of Sylvia Weinstock.......who mastered the art of combining sugars, fats and chocolates, ensuring the inevitably forthcoming increase in body weight and waist sizes for so many Americans.....In Paris, the dessert, pictured above, would be an inch and a half in diameter......In America, it is the size of a tangerine, if not that of an orange......Entry into its sweet interior is obtained by pouring a hot, sweet 'goo' onto a hardened chocolate sphere, filled with other sweet delights..... How about this 'Tree Art dessert?  An Epic 'FAIL', of course....but, still, tasty enough to eat, anyway....if not aesthetic-enough to win a prize or much praise for Culinary  Inventiveness

 How does one tackle the eating of this Pileup?   An oyster fork?   A salad fork and sharp knife?  Fingers and a large lap napkin?  What would Amy Vanderbilt have recommended?   Any suggestions from Wally and Beaver?   

My jillionth variation on ' tuna fish sandwich '..... "MAKE IT YOUR WAY"     to a can of undrained Kirkland Solid Albacore Tuna, add chopped sweet pickle relish, toasted celery seeds, yellow mustard, mayonnaise, Stonewall Kitchen's roasted garlic & onion Jam, coarse-ground black pepper, chopped broccoli, sweet kale, radicchio, Brussels sprouts, red tomatoes, pepitas and cranberries and a dribble of chilie-infused honey, some dried parsley, chives, onion, cilantro and dill weed....  

                      and are less costly than the junk food that Americans, increasingly, procure at drive-through windows of Fast Food Joints, across our Country......    

                                      My response to Gordon Ramsay's  30 minutes to  'Use Your Noodle' challenge on Next Level Chef ....