Listener Mail XXII: Visions

in the day. It is always a what have I got and how can I use it?

green salad. I have to say all of your sometimes I'm so envious of your dinner situations listeners when I hear what you do and how you have these go to recipes. My mom, she was a big to boulet. Oh she loved it, but similarly, my brothers and dad didn't really like it, so it was just for her also. But yeah, I mean that sounds that sounds delightful. That sounds like the tabulet one sounds like exactly what I would like to eat. That other one if you left

out the pasta, I would be great with it. But uh, yeah, it's just a personal thing that I'm going to have to continue working through, you know or not?

and barbecues. This is eventually what I decided as well, and ultimately it's a side I most often try to avoid due to my sensory issues with certain food textures. Lo and behold. A few days later, my partner lovingly made pasta salad as a main dish for dinner. I took this as a sign from the universe that maybe it was time for me to give it another chance, especially because the dish was a childhood favorite of my partners, as her mother would make it on hot days because

of its simplicity and well general coldness. The verdict, I can now say I am a big fan of my partner's pasta salad. It is still up for debate whether I enjoy all pasta salads or just this one. But I do think any dish made with love is a dish worth trying, regardless of past experiences. While my partner's mom passed away some years ago and I never had the pleasure of meeting her, I feel so lucky I get to meet her in all the wonderful qualities and

traditions my partner shares with me. Thanks so much for continuing to be a bright spot in my week and for allowing me the opportunity to cry about pasta salad. Oh always, absolutely, we support crying about food. Oh but yeah, that is so lovely. That's really cool.

make a better walking taco. I've also used them in a taco salad instead of regular tortilla chips to give a bit of a twist. They do have a variety of flavors, but there is something about the original nacho and cool ranch flavors. I've tried a couple of different flavors over the years, but nothing really struck me. If I go overseas at some point again, I'll have to look and see what is there and even compare their base nacho to what we have here. Oo Oh, pasta salad.

I know you are definitely going to hear a lot of strong video here. While I don't mind pasta salad, I think there are very few that are done really well to the point that I want to have more. During the summer or at potluck type gatherings, I'll grab a small bite to try. I think a large majority fall into the It's fine, but nothing really special or memorable going on. The dressing really makes a difference on it.

I generally encountered it either being overdressed or underdressed, and when overdressed it seems like it will be an oil bomb or a Mayo bomb. Yes, with the dressing, I think an oil based one works better for the most part. While I like a good Mayo for the most part, I think mayo and pasta don't really go together. Well. Maybe someone can change her mind, but I haven't found one I liked yet. Seems like it is more common with elbow macaroni for some reason, and oil and vinegar

with the appropriate herbs works better. As Lauren mentioned, she might like an orizo based pasta salad more. Those are generally simpler and not overdone. Just cook up some orizo ads, some good chopped olives, dice cucumber, some sliced cherry or grape tomatoes, a little finely diced red onion or shallot, and a little asiago. Then at a dressing of your choice,

a simple herb red wine vinaigrette would go well. I don't have a recipe handy, but I do remember having one like this that was definitely one of the better ones. Also a wild thought, maybe if we take a sosa pasta salad add some doritos to it. Finally, I can't remember if you've done an episode on lentils. I've been cooking with them a lot more recently. They are so versatile.

state of Florida. To make it more relevant, I've been waiting for a Saber Classics episode to come up on chocolate chip cookies to write you this email, but decided to throw caution into the wind and send it anyways. Based on your cultural references, I deduce that both of you are in my age group or thereabouts, so you probably remember the days of the chain email. You may have even seen this one come through your inbox at some point in time, because it's been around for a

long time. I received it in two thousand and nine. It was possibly a chain letter even before or email was commonly used. I always had my doubts as to its authenticity, but either way, I have made these cookies several times and they are yummy. Indeed, it's a bit long winded, so feel free to paraphrase Okay and then Nova pastes in this chain email. That is a thing that exists, so okay, let's go into it a little background. Nieman Marcus, if you don't know already, is a very

expensive store. They sell your typical eight dollars shirt for fifty dollars. Let's let them have it. This is a true story. Good mark of any actual true story on the internet.

was outrageous. I called Neeman's accounting department and told them the waitress said it was two fifty, which clearly does not mean two hundred and fifty dollars by any reasonable interpretation. Nieman Marcus refused to budge. They wouldn't refund my money because, according to them, what the waitress told you is not our problem. You've already seen the recipe. We absolutely will

not refund your money. I explained the accounting department lady the criminal statutes that governed fraud in the state of Texas. I threatened to report them to the Better Business Bureau and the Texas Attorney General's Office for engaging in fraud. And I was basically told, do what you want, don't bother thinking of how you can get even, and don't bother trying to get any of your money back. I just said, okay, you folks got my two hundred and fifty bucks, and now I'm going to have two hundred

and fifty dollars worth of fun. I told her that I was going to see to it that every cookie lover in the United States with an email account has a two hundred and fifty dollars cookie recipe from Nieman Marcus for free. She replied, I wish you wouldn't do this, and I said, well, perhaps you should have thought of that before you ripped me off and slammed down the phone. So here it is. Please, please, please pass it on

to everyone you can possibly think of. I paid two hundred and fifty bucks for this, and I don't want Nimon Marcus to ever make another penny off of this recipe. And then the recipe follows, I'm not going to read it out right now, but you can absolutely Google. You can email as or Google if you want the purported recipe. Nova finishes the email. If you are planning a new cookie esque episode, may I suggest Stroopwaffle. Growing up, we would visit my family in the Netherlands every few years,

and these guys were a special treat for us. But more recently they have been popping up at restaurants all over the US. Okay, several things. First of all, yes, for some reason, I was just thinking about streep Waffles the other day and how we have not we've been remiss and not talking about them.

story began circulating. This is one of our points of evidence. I had to look into this, so okay, Niam and

Marcus maintains that they have never charged customers for recipes. Furthermore, they didn't even have a company recipe for chocolate chip cookies in the mid nineties, but apparently people believed this story and were writing into them, like absolutely incensed, to the point that by nineteen ninety seven they were so fed up with this rumor that they had their executive chef create a chocolate chip cookie recipe and they posted it online for free, with like explicit notice that anyone

was free to distribute or print it as they wished.

uses instant espresso. They both sound pretty good anyway. As of twenty sixteen, which is when Facebook had an iteration of this tale circulating, Nieman Marcus's VP of communications told Eater that she had not received an angry email about the whole thing in six or seven years, and you know, good for her. Wow, not done yet. So this is not the first urban myth about a customer being like sneakily overcharged for a recipe by some kind of uppity

retailer and then taking revenge by distributing said recipe. Snopes found iterations of this going back to nineteen forty eight, when this cookbook titled Massachusetts Cooking Rules Old and New printed a recipe called twenty five dollars fudge Cake along with this story about a woman who enjoyed a slice of cake on a train, asking the chef for the recipe, and being billed twenty five dollars for it, which at

the time was a lot more outrageous. In the nineteen sixties, the villain was the Waldorf Astoria Hotel and it was a three hundred and fifty dollars red velvet cake recipe. In the seventies, it was Missus Fields and a two hundred and fifty dollars chocolate chip cookie recipe. Some versions of that story shifted the blame to Marshall Fields the department store, and Snopes thinks that that is probably where it to Nieman Marcus the department store.

between two disparate food ideas. This one is Lamington pizza. I took the idea of a baked dough circle topped in cheese, sauce, various herbs, especially basil and other vegetables or meats. I combined it with the idea of a square of sponge cake dipped in chocolate sauce and coated in desiccated coconut or sometimes other nuts, oftenandwich with cream

and jam. This resulted in me making a marscapone and sliced pineapple jam filled square bakedo dipped in tomato, chili and chocolate sauce and covered in sliced roast almonds and fresh basil. Thus it is a completely new abomination because the pineapple is inside the pizza. It was generously filled, so it was a rich dessert. Both soft and crunchy, with the brightness of the basil counterpointing the sweet sour of the jam, the richness of the marscapone, and bitter

umame of the chocolate sauce. It was so much better than it had any right to me. If I made it again, I would definitely coat it in desiccated coconut to pair with the pineapple. Please find picture attached and picture wells attached.

the shops there also call it Turkish Delight. I did get some on our second day there. The shop had lots of varieties, but I wanted to try the plain ones. I bought a box of three flavors. They had rose, honey and mint. They were delicious. Later I bought another box to take to my son and his wife. That box was from a rest stop on a highway and it contained rose and lemon. I like those even better. All attach a photo of a shop in the town

of Saffron Bola, which is named after Saffron. After Turkey. We went to Cambridge, England to visit our son, daughter in law and grandson. They lived next door to a Sri Lankan family and mentioned that the family had cooked a delicious dish for them that included leaves from the curry tree. I tried to correct them to say that curry wasn't a plant, but a mix of spices. They insisted the neighborhood said that there was a curry tree.

That night, I looked at your podcast feed and saw an episode on the curry Tree that I had just missed. It is hard for me to keep up with podcasts when I'm traveling, so I listened to that episode and admitted my misunderstanding. The next day and now camembert ah cam and Beert. As I said at the top, we were in France, Normandy. Actually for the month of April. We have a house there in a small village. We spent the month getting the house ready for the market.

So if you know anyone looking for a small house in a small village in Normandy, let us know. We're asking ninety five thousand euros. It's a charming village and we love the Normandy area, but with a grandson in England, we need to spend more time in England. We'll still vacation in France, though we've been spending time in Normandy every year except twenty twenty since twenty ten. One year we visited Camembert. There's a museum there devoted to the cheese,

but it was a disappointment. It consisted of some wallboards with pictures. I don't even know if there's a factory there producing cam and Beert. We did see the statue of Marie Harel in the town center. It was interesting to learn more about the statue through your podcast.

Lone l'abier. On that visit, we were right on the floor where the biscuits were being made. They were making chocolate cookies at the time. They have a gift shop, of course, but our guide told us we couldn't buy the biscuits we saw them making because those were made to ship to America. They are sold here under the name Pierre Biscuity. But we were discussing camm bear. Our house in Normandy is not far from the President factory in Don, France, which claims to be the largest manufacturer

of cam and beer's in the world. We often see the President trucks go by the house with the morning's milk. Whenever we go out walking or driving in Normandy, we see cows in the fields and orchards. Most of the herds we see are small, twelve to forty cows. I'll attach a picture of some normand cows. We see other varieties as well. I have some Camembert in the fridge at all times when I'm in Normandy and most of the time here in North Carolina. There are many brands

available in the grocery store in Normandy. I've tried several of them. Most are made from pasteoroid's milk, but I did find one made from raw milk. I didn't notice a difference in taste, but maybe I'm just not sophisticated enough to taste the difference. I often buy the President brand, but I've tried others as well. The cheeses in the supermarket in France are fresher than the ones I buy. Hear there's one variety I've bought called Les Rustique. This

one is creamier. When my sister in law was visiting, she said that that one was the best, but it is still made from Pastchoi's milk. And finally, you asked for recipes. I loved baked bree or Camembert. And if you are having people over or have a large family, that's a wonderful way to serve the cheese. But if you are just one person in the household eating it. Baking a whole cheese at once is not a good idea, so I have found out a way to enjoy baked

caman beert one serving at a time. You need a five inch wheel of cammbert, a five inch round pocket peda. I buy Joseph's which are low carb, a pop up toaster, and a wire cheese cutter. I hope everyone who enjoys cheese has a wire cutter. It is the best way to cut soft cheese. Take your wheel of cheese and cut it first in half so you have two semi circles. Do the same with the peda. Then stand one semi circle of cheese on the cut side in the wire

cutter and use a knife. Score the outside rind parallel to the cutting wire, about one eighth inch in from the edge. You need to score the front part where the wire enters the cheese and the top, but once the wire is in the cheese, it will continue to cut through the rest of the rind. This trims off the outside rind. It's fine to use this as the first slice, but if you prefer not to eat that

much rind, you can just leave that part off. Next, score the cheese twice more and cut two semicircular pieces of cheese, put each one in the peda pockets and drop them in a pop up toaster toast on a medium setting until the cheese melts. The peda will keep it from leaking into the toaster. I've been doing this for years, never had a problem with leaking. That's it.

Enjoy your low carb sandwich. Well, I just have to let you know how much I enjoy your podcast and how often it relates directly to something in my life. And lovely pictures were attached, by the way, Yeah, so sad sometimes where we're.