Just managed to pull myself off the floor from laughing so hard. You ladies really know how to put some fun into holiday cooking. I think I am going to have to try this recipe myself. Maybe I'll switch the Smirnoff for a little Bacardi Dark (goes better with the dried fruit). Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Night!!! Ms. Faith

It's amazing many of them never clean their hands after handling pork, chicken, eggs, etc. and start touching everything else. Thank you for that! Do you ever see any of them WASH their hands? Seems like they only wipe them on their aprons. I'm washing my hands every two minutes if I'm touching something sticky, greasy, or whatever. Wiping isn't the same and anything you touch afterwards is going to be sticky and gross. As far as the health of the recipes - one reason most restaurant food in a French restaurant tastes so much better than what people often do at home is because the food is swimming in butter. And it's usually good butter. But for the most part people aren't overweight because they're eating too much high-quality butter and cheese. It's because they're eating too much. Period. And substituting a low fat version of something isn't going to make all that much difference if you've been snacking all day. Just a little piece of chocolate, just a little caramel, a donut, etc. It all adds up. For those who are over 30, ever notice how kids play today? When I was small, we'd play all day long and didn't want to come home. Riding bikes, playing softball, or whatever. Today kids have play dates but the weird part is that they bring snacks! Really? There's a danger they might fall over dead of starvation? The guy who first pointed that out to me was a refugee from Somalia! He knew about hunger and thought it was so strange that American kids can't go anywhere w/out snacks in their backpacks. It doesn't matter whether the snacks are carrots or candy, the idea is that kids are always eating. I have a number of friends from Europe and elsewhere and they've all commented on that custom as it seems so strange to them. We train kids from infancy that they're never supposed to feel hunger, and then we satiate ourselves with whatever is at hand, which often as not is some prepackaged snack or fast food. I stopped watching cooking shows when they started becoming contests where people with copious tattoos were judged by illiterate non-cooks, or even worse, they were hand-held camera shots with jump-cuts that serve only to annoy because you know they're trying to make things seem a lot more exciting than they really are, so I can't say a lot about most of them except that I did like to watch Nigella. With the sound on or off; doesn't matter. Giada De Laurentiis is my new fave. But as for actual cooking skills, it's only Lidia and Jacques Pepin. Hopefully w/out his annoying daughter.

I've posted this one many times before but it sticks in my memory because it was offered at a dinner party by a very busy lady, head of a university department, who came home after work to prepare this dish for her guests. We were all so impressed that she managed to make something tasting so good without working at it all day. She had made mimeographed copies of the recipe beforehand as she said everyone asked for it when she served this dish. This was before the days of photocopiers ! LOL. This was a simple but prize winning recipe in a cross country cooking contest sponsored by a Canadian womens' magazine in the 1960s. Tastes better if made one day ahead. 1 kilo of veal shoulder steak, cut into small bite-size pieces 2 medium onions, sliced 1 cup water 1/2 cup ketchup or tomato sauce 3 cloves garlic, chopped 1 teasp salt 1/2 teasp pepper 1 1/2 cups cashews (rinse if they are salted) 2 TBS butter Worcestershire sauce 1). Grind garlic, salt and pepper together in mortar and pestle. 2). Roll veal pieces in this mixture in the mortar and then on a clean plate, being sure pieces are well coated. 3). Brown veal in butter in a saucepan. When brown, add onions, water, tomato sauce and cashews. 4). Simmer slowly until meat and nuts are both tender. About 40 minutes. It may need a bit of water added. 5). Thicken with a bit of flour and a few drops of Worcestershire sauce. 6). Best served the next day. Goes well with rice and a crisp green salad. SharonCb

thanks lynnalexandra. Sorry for the confusion on the cookbook. It is the whole cookbook and not just one or two recipes!!! Although it could be a hoax going around the net and I don't know about that either. But the recipes do sound like him (I used to watch him on tv all the time but can't seem to catch him anymore) There was a note on the inside of the "internet" cookbook that said this: Jamie Oliver's new cook book for free! How good is this..... Cook book = £20 Ingredients = £10 Getting sacked for "accidentally" releasing the book to the entire planet before it even hits the shelves = PRICELESS! It seems that someone at Jamie Oliver's publishing company sent a word document version of his 2nd book to one of their mates this morning. Unfortunately for the poor sap who sent the word document, it is now flying around the web at a rate of knots. So print what you like AND please spare a thought for the poor bugger that originally sent it, while enjoying the food you make from the recipes!!! The deal of the day - Jamie Oliver's latest cook book. RRP £20 at most participating book stores. Yours for nothing! Enjoy & Pass it on!! I just have a guilty feeling about passing something on like that. I should have read it before I offered. If someone can make me get rid of the guilty feeling for the "poor sap".... I'd pass it on!!! It's also good reading, if you know Jamie and how he speaks.