vera charles
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Posts posted by vera charles
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Well, my FIOS guide said this morning's show was new, but it sounds familiar. It was called "Barbecues and Bouquets". Ina makes gazpacho and grills a steak and swordfish, then someone called Antonia shows her how to make a bouquet. That sounds suspiciously familiar, but with Ina you never can tell.
This is the third Sunday in a row that BC has aired 10 am. I'm glad the shows repeat on Mondays, since I forget half the time. I haven't seen today's yet, since it was recording as I was on my way out the door to church. I can't believe FN has bumped Ina out of the Saturday morning cooking block. : (
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Why the heck is she in every episode?
It is in the actress's contract. The actors whose names appear in the opening credits appear in every episode.
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Or is Sandra's ghostwriter a better writer than Fabio's ghostwriter? ; )
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I have watched so many episodes and found almost all of them to be genuinely fascinating. I would have to say that the McAdams sisters and Gwyneth Paltrow were among the least interesting to me, if only because the subjects themselves didn't seem to be very interested in the process. They kind of bopped along, going from expert to expert, without asking too many questions. I also wonder why there wasn't an explanation of how the child of the footman, or whoever in that line, got across the Atlantic. Somebody emigrated at some point, surely there is some record of who and when.
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I thought maybe Maura wouldn't know about the baseball until Angela had it at her house to clean it. I was surprised when Maura acted like it was no big deal and already knew that the guy (can't remember his name) gave the baseball to Jane. That does seem like a weird thing to give to a friend of a friend.
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http://www.barefootcontessa.com/recipes.aspx?RecipeID=76&S=0
Is the dessert in question Summer Pudding? That's the only thing I can think of that involves bread, strawberries, and overnight refrigeration.
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I just got my oatmeal raisin cookie recipe out and there is a post it stuck to it. They are my husband's favorite cookies and he wondered why they tasted markedly different from one batch to the next, so he started paying attention to exactly what ingredients I used. He found that the ones he liked best were made with Safeway Lucerne store-brand butter, instead of Land O' Lakes. Use unsalted, then add the 1/2 teaspoon of salt that's listed in the recipe. The butter and sugar should be beaten longer than two minutes to incorporate enough air. I didn't think there was enough difference to warrant all of his research, but since he did it, I make them the way he identified and they do taste good. I had forgotten that I had the details in writing.
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The most unusual name in my family history is Keziah. Apparently, it is a Biblical name, maybe Hebrew? The family has been in the same area since 1789, the men are mostly Johns and Georges and Williams, and the women are Marys and Marthas and Susans. But this name Keziah shows up in several generations, then just disappears.
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Did Jane ever actually tell Casey that she was pregnant? I feel like I missed something.
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I like Oikos yogurt, Hellman's olive oil mayonnaise, and Breakstone sour cream. The other Greek yogurts are too thick, the other mayonnaise doesn't taste right, and Daisy sour cream has a weird texture. So much of this stuff is personal preference, but those are my preferences.
My favorite junky snack food is All-Dressed potato chips, which are made by Lay's but only sold in Canada. My husband's co-worker's parents live in Nova Scotia, so whenever she visits them, she brings me back several bags. Then I have to make them last as long as I can. We have part of one bag on hand right now, then that will be it until Christmas. : ( No idea why they won't sell them in the US and I refuse to pay shipping to order them online, so they remain a magical, every-once-in-a-while treat.
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We just watched the Lisa Kudrow episode from the first season. I had seen it before but I really liked it and I wanted my husband to see it. There was such a balancing act between the tragedy and sadness, and the happiness of finding the cousins they didn't know existed. And I liked that they left in the comment from the cousin - "Lisa Kudrow is in my living room, and she's not on my TV!" I can't imagine finding out that you are related to a famous person who decides to show up at your door with a camera crew in tow. That would have to be mind-blowing.
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Did they say what happened to the third wife (JTF's ancestor)? I thought they just said she was not in other records.
I thought they said there was a divorce, but the husband kept custody of the daughters, both the adopted ones and the ones he fathered. I felt kind of bad for JTF because the guy was such a scoundrel and the stories just kept getting worse and worse!
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When I was a teenager in the 70's, a woman who was researching her own genealogy by driving around visiting courthouses and cemeteries and writing information out by hand saw an article about my dad in the local newspaper. He had been appointed principal of the local elementary school and the article mentioned his parents' names. The woman called him on the phone, asked him a couple of questions to verify that she had the right person, then drove over to our house and gave him his family history back to his ancestor's arrival from Germany in 1728, including documentation of one ancestor's service in the American Revolution. It turned out that, as she was looking at her own line, she kept intersecting with my dad's family, so she started keeping track of that information in a separate book. She figured that she would find out who it belonged to eventually, and she did. At the time, I thought, well, that is pretty cool but so what? Now I am amazed that I have this gold mine of very accurate information, that basically just appeared at our door.
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Should something happen to Jane, Casey won't be taken off active duty because he's a single parent. He'll still be deployed and expected to find childcare.
That's true up to a point, but there are exceptions. In cases where a single parent has exhausted all reasonable options for having someone else care for their child, they can apply for an honorable discharge. That happened to someone I know - single parent, child's grandparent had a serious illness, parent got a discharge.
I think the show's reality is something closer to this:
I'm wondering if they planned this out and were going to have Casey die off screen so Jane could have a baby and do all pregnancy things with Maura and then Lee Thompson Young died and now they can't do that.I have a feeling that the plan from the beginning was to have Jane get pregnant by someone expendable, so that she and Maura could basically have a baby together.
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No, Silver Queen corn isn't new. It's been around for decades and many people still ask for it by name. But in the last 20 years or so, there have been many new varieties developed that taste a lot better. I think the guy I was quoting from the farmer's market gets irritated because he grows fantastic yellow, white and bi-color corn, but people still come up to him asking for Silver Queen.
I think Ina's restaurant would be a bistro setting, like she and Jeffrey visit in Paris. The decor would be similar to her house and the barn - neutral colors, natural wood and stone, plenty of beige and white with little touches of her favorite, orange. Love the fireplace, windows and stone patio, @orchidgal. Ina should definitely consult with you when she starts the decorating process. : )
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Marylander here and we prefer bi-color at our house. White can be bland, yellow can be tough, but the mixed is just right. And the word from my corn man at my local farmer's market is that people say they like Silver Queen because they've heard other people say that. If they've had really good corn, they know there is a lot of corn that tastes better than Silver Queen.
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why do they turn the makeup gun up to Stun when they do Kristin Lehman and Lauren Holly's faces?
I think in the case of Lauren Holly's character, it's supposed to show that she is a glamour-puss, party girl in her off hours. Every now and then, they drop in a little dialogue about her boyfriends, but we never really hear much more about her life outside work. The Betty character looks so different from how Lauren Holly usually looks, it has to be completely on purpose. Betty looks so much like a co-worker of mine, who dresses and applies makeup in much the same way. When I pointed the resemblance out to another co-worker, she had to stop and think about it for a moment, then she started laughing. She said the whole time she's been watching, she knew Betty reminded her of someone, but she thought it was a character on a different show or some other actress, but she could not place who it was. It never dawned on her that it was our mutual co-worker.
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I guess they had to explain Elliott's house in the Hamptons, but completely changing the character isn't a good idea.
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I finally acquired some za'atar today, so I made Nigella's flatbread pizzas. I still haven't found haloumi, so I used feta, tomato, olive oil and dried mint on one, and olive oil and za'atar on the other. I had some pocketless pita breads in the freezer, so that's what I used for the crust. Really good and different than anything I've tasted before. I'm glad I kept looking for the za'atar, which I'm going to use to make this next week: http://www.thehomechannel.co.za/food/forever-summer-with-nigella/zatar-chicken-with-fatoush-salad/ I think I have all the ingredients on hand for the fatoush salad, since it has a lot in common with Nigella's Greek salad, which I make all the time.
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Well, yes, Lovecat, I have to agree, Chris O'Donnell proved he's no student of history. I was yelling along with you, wondering just how many hints he was going to need to figure it out.
Also loved Jim Parsons. He was the opposite of the celebrities who take that all-about-me attitude about their ancestors. He's seemed genuinely surprised and happy about everything he found out.
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This conversation about preserved foods has gotten so interesting! Sauerkraut, apple butter, horseradish, canned beans and tomatoes, jellies, cured hams - all were means of storing foods for the cold, hard winter. In a rural area, if you didn't have food stored away - or "put up" - you and your family didn't eat until spring.
My ancestry, like pretty much everybody else in Appalachia, is German (way back, early 1700's) and Scots-Irish (from around 1800). At some point, everybody moved to town, but they still had the mindset of farmers. I remember when I was a kid, all my older relatives did a lot of canning and preserving. Any child who happened to be around was recruited to string beans or peel apples or help chop cabbage or whatever needed to be done. Ah, the memories!
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Thanks, @jackiecat. I figured it had to be a repeat, since it was airing on CC. Of course, the FIOS guide says the original airdate is 7/12/14, since that's the first time it's showing on CC. I wish they'd show the actual original airdate! I really get a kick out of Ina's old shows and love when I happen across one.
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I don't know where to put this, so I will see if anyone finds it here. According to my FIOS guide, Ina has a one hour show, A Barefoot Contessa Summer Weekend, that will air Saturday, July 12, from 1:00 to 2:00 pm, on Cooking Channel. I've never seen it before, but what I can find online indicates that it originally aired on FN? It sounds like Ina needs to whip up some publicity because why should people find out about episodes by accident? Doesn't FN or CC advertise?
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I did make those grilled foil pack veggies tonight and they were delicious.
I'm so glad they worked out, @annzeepark914. My favorite part of these boards has always been the sharing of recipes and ideas.
I grew up in western Maryland and my parents are both from West Virginia. My mom always made those pickled eggs that are almost florescent pink. I don't eat them but they certainly are unique to look at. My mom grew up on a farm without electricity or running water. Her grandfather ground horseradish to sell and all of the kids had to take turns running a hand cranked grinder to process it.
As for apple butter, my first guidance counselor job, many moons ago, was in rural West Virginia. In the fall, farmers from around the area would bring truckloads of apples to a park next to the school, where they would be cooked in huge metal pots over open flames. Everybody who brought apples got some apple butter back, then there was an apple butter festival and the rest was sold as a fundraiser for the town. The smell of those apples being cooked was so amazing, we were practically hanging out the windows of the school to get a whiff.
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Small Talk: Don't Tell Jeffrey!
in Barefoot Contessa
When I was a kid, my brother, sister and I always asked for Marbled Poundcake for our birthday cake. It's a chocolate and vanilla swirled poundcake, made in a bundt pan, with no icing. None of us really have a sweet tooth and we always scrape off any icing that is present. My mom still says she got shortchanged, since she loved to decorate cakes but none of us would eat the icing!