Quotes from last week (November 7, 2009)

[Steve MacDowall]

“It’s like playing chess with a monkey. You get them to checkmate, and then they swallow the king.”
- An anonymous diplomat describes the difficulty of nuclear talks with Iran

“The current recession is likely to generate for children in the United States the greatest level of material deprivation that we will see in our professional lifetimes.”
- Paul Wise, U.S. pediatrician

“Charging $600 for jeans for no reason at all – those days are over.”
- You Nguyen, senior vice-president of women’s merchandising and design for Levi Strauss

“Popularity is fleeting. It’s not real.”
- George W. Bush, Former U.S. president, in his first motivational speech after leaving office

“Everyone thinks models are stupid. But a lot of them are just really hungry.”
- Crystal Renn, Plus-size fashion model

“It is ironic that people with dietary requirements – what we used to call fussy eaters – think it makes them in some way interesting when, in fact, it renders them as dull as what they eat.”
- Graham Norton, Irish entertainer

“That would make me 500 years old.”
- Steve Martin denies that he is a Renaissance man

[Richard Penney]

"“It is ironic that ..people with dietary requirements...[seen] as dull !""
Interesting, perhaps he should try beetles, worms, and grubs to get a better perspective regarding the subject. Everyone has dietary requirements, but the acculturated tastes of some fit better into the patterns of their peers. My self, I enjoy a chance to get to a nice place and have a salad and well cooked potato and soup while enjoying the friends I came with. Funny, I find many more people trying to convert me back to being a carnivore than I try to convert to being vegetarian. There used to be a bad joke about being what we eat and therefore we would end as a vegetable. I suppose the opposite is true???
-Richard

[Steve MacDowall]

I just made soup with veggies but the stock was chicken - you see we had a chicken yesterday for supper - last night I made a broth from the bones and left over veggies in the fridge. Today I drained the stock - Then I added fresh veggies and spices - it is simmering well I write. The aroma is delightful.

[Richard Penney]

The soup sounds delightful! How did it come out??

When I was a sous chef as a high school kid we always had a 3 gallon stock pot going on the back of the big stove at the club. And we usually had a big pot of mixed soup/stew/ragu in the deep well of the stove at home.
I do a similar one but use vegetable stock and the imitation chicken which I can buy at my supermarket to get the proper mouth feel. After a few more days I shall start my winter soup pot going. Fried till caramelized root vegetables in a vegetable broth plus adding a meat analog/imitation product to add mouth feel.
-Richard

[George Shepherd]

You can't beat a good home made soup!

George

[Steve MacDowall]

[Richard Penney]

That looks good enough to smell the aroma from the photo!
-Richard

[Steve MacDowall]

Thanks Richard - Liz had fun taking this photo.