Most of my favorite recipes come from either Jamie Oliver(he uses his hands instead of gadgets, substitutes “glug” and “glassful” for scientific measurements and is generally a hilarious Brit), The Joy of Cooking, a marvelous Italian Immigrant Cookbook or the William-Sonoma website(and my mother and grandmother of course).

Fear not Lorraine, Julia Child suffered most dreadfully from this problem as well and even worse as most thought she was a feminist. She was not. She was a woman who cooked. And cooked very well. If you do not have her original cookbook – Mastering the Art of French Cooking, I highly recommend it. She did it in her small kitchen in Paris with her best friend through life, Simca Beck. Try reading about these ladies as well as M.F.K. Fisher. Our Christine over at PP is about to embark to Dijon like M.F.K. did as the wife of a college professor and mother of 2 very small children. (Christine is in the same mould as these women and her reports from Dijon promise to be spectacular.) These ladies were old school. They had their struggles and failings, like George Eliot (and us all), but they always remained ladies.

Mr. Cusack and I have known each other for a long time. He suffers well with all the indignities I have subjected him to over the years. And there have been far too many to count on fingers and toes… Also he is a great reader and conversationalist so he has probably enjoyed reading our discussions.

By the way, I just read your comment over at PP. Lorriane, you and I have much, much in common. And answer will be coming in regards to Mr. Knghtley’s marriage proposal and Captain Wenthworth’s letter. I tipped my hand when I said Mr. Knightley’s proposal was the second most small ‘r’ romantic one in English literature.

I am so delighted to learn there are young ladies of sense still around who still ponder the undeniable charms of Jane’s men. It bodes well for their future happiness.

I suddenly sense that we have strayed far off the beaten “path” laid out by Mr. Cusack.

Be that as it may, I should probably note that you may think, and rightly so, that Foodie serves as a poor improvement on Slow-fooder. Nevertheless, it possesses at least a certain flair the other clearly lacks.

Why do all the nicest cafes belong to liberals? You are right. Slow food sounds awfully commercial. I prefer to call myself a Foodie, meaning I only make things from scratch with real ingredients, recognizably derived from some organic substance.

And unlike slow fooder departer of Rome for Antioch, Rod Dreher, I do not think the meatballs at IKEA are anything to write home about. Thankfully no one in my family does either. They much prefer Marcella Hazan’s or even Nigella Lawson’s…