Stone Soup by Jan Eliot for April 11, 2010

Must be 99.99% garlic and 0.01% eggplant; the garlic is drowning th’eggplant.

The only thing worse would be , Salsa from New York City !

Sounds terrible..lol.. She had better put out some tasty food or she’ll scare Phil off…;-0

Oops! Didn’t notice before it said “Girls go Gourmet” Sorry!

baba ganoush is in the house!

Trader Joe’s ! low -fat! really good – give those girls a few years and they’ll be “gourmet” like my kids.

Dollar store gourmet!

Well, she could always mix it with a can of tomatoes and a few sauteed chicken livers for spaghetti sauce. ;-)

But asiago and artichoke spread is a much better dip.

comixavier: “Must be 99.99% garlic and 0.01% eggplant; the garlic is drowning th’eggplant.”

It could be the disgusting 0.01% eggplant which is ruining all that lovely, lovely garlic.

I remember worse things from my more ethnic relatives. You’ve never barfed until you’ve smelled czarnina.

I just checked the recipe for czarnina, runar. Cut the head off a live duck? Duck blood mixed with vinegar? No thanks, I’ll pass… (Of course, MY maternal grandmother used to make her own head cheese from pig brains - it was fascinating for a young boy to walk into her kitchen and see a pig’s head in a big pot on the floor. “Ethnic is as ethnic does”, as that dorky Forrest Gump would probably say.)

I had a maternal great aunt who was born in Poland that used to make duck’s blood soup, put it in jars and give it to the relatives. It was almost black in the jar with little globules of fat at the top.

I’ve never tasted duck’s blood soup myself, but a few of my cousins rave about it. I’d probably try a little now. I’m waiting for Campbells to market it.

Hot mon! My mother’s family was Scot. If anyone says ‘haggis’ in your hearing, run!

There’s gourmet, and then there’s gourmet-not.

Like like Val chose the latter.

My father spoke wistfully of scrambled eggs and brains. Head cheese was a big hit, too. I always thought czarnina looked like watery mud (or very loose diarhhea). Then there’s kaszanka, a sausage made with pig’s blood. I guess the peasants had to make the most out of everything. He was always disappointed that I didn’t like Polish cuisine.

So you wouldn’t polish off the plate?

Eggplant and garlic–I’d give it a try.

I come from a family that doesn’t eat expensive meals very often. Usually, the fanciest things we eat are at places like Applebee’s, Sizzler, Izzy’s and Hometown Buffet.

Ergo, I consider places like California Pizza Kitchen and Chipotle to be upscale restaurants as well.