Oh fun! We have both books and the French Laundry is actually worn now from use. We have made nearly half the recipes. They are fun but VERY time consuming. The deconstructed Caesar salad is a favorite. We are going to Vegas in May for a conference and have reservations at Bouchon so I can't wait. We did in fact dine at the French Laundry on a Monday night at 5:00 in July of 2003, and for us, it was everything we'd ever hoped and dreamed for. I even asked for things from the book such as anglotti and they just happened to have some. It was an 11+ course meal and was SO great. We talked so much about the book that our waiter took us down to meet Keller. We stood at the edge of the kitchen and he came and talked with us, briefly, and then signed our menu. I had it professionally framed with the two laundry pins floating between glass and the "laundry tag" sticking out the side behind the menu with the price respectably hidden! We make the caramelized onions from Bouchon a lot, and with that technique, they are on the stove for hours and hours and turn out like candy. We use them in French Onion soup of course and for pizzas and many other things. And the roast chicken from that book is the only way we'll do chicken now. Rain down salt and thyme and blast it in a hot oven to seal in the juices. Divine! I read recently they are making a movie out of Julie and Julia starring Meryl Streep as Julia Child of all people. If anyone can pull that off, she can. That was as of a week or two ago on imdb. Enjoy your books!

I have a copy of, "the NEW Fannie Farmer-Boston Cooking-School COOK BOOK", 1953. My father, in his retirement, took on the care of several Summer homes in Southern Maine. He would check on them during the winter, board up windows against storms, uncover rose gardens when the time was right, deal with emergencies...that kind of thing. During the Summer, when people were in residence, he was sort of a general, all around handyman. His largest client was old money...there was a beach named after the family, a road named after the family, and a huge home, loaded with antiques that had been the original furnishings. An elderly Black woman came up every summer from South Carolina to be their cook for the season. Little bittie thing, set in her ways and stubborn as heck, but since she'd been cooking for the family for decades, she knew what they liked and how to manage them. I had been separated from my father at age 5, and when I found him again in my early 30's, I went out to stay with him and my stepmother for a year to get to know them. He took me down to meet Marguerite. She was a kick, and we got along...several years later, when she knew that she wouldn't be able to make it up again the next season (or ever), she gave my father her Fannie Farmer for me. It still has a bunch of book marks in it, some with shopping lists, some with her name, some with cryptic notes I can't decipher, all in the same, slanted hand. I actually use the book quite a bit, but I don't disturb the bookmarks. I sometimes puzzle over the marked pages, wondering which recipe she had marked... I also have my mother's copy of "The Complete American-Jewish Cookbook",1952. It has a separate section of Passover recipes. There are no pork recipes, naturally. Generally, the cookies and bread recipes are good. As for unique...I have an Ethiopian cookbook...the only one I've been able to find. "Exotic Ethiopian Cooking-Society, Culture, Hospitality, & Traditions. I've only made a couple of dishes out of it. I love Ethiopian food, and when I found out how much Nit'ir Qibe (purified herb & spice butter) is used in most of the dishes I love, I realized why I love them. For example, in dishes made from 1 pound of ground beef, it is not unusual that they contain a cup of butter. A typical lentil dish pairs 2 cups of lentils with 2 cups of butter. No wonder I love it!

I have a cupboard just like yours above our fridge, where I keep my cook books. Like you, mine kept falling over and slipping to the back of the deep cupboard. Finally I stored a box of items which I don't use often, behind the books, to solve the slipping back problem. Even a box of seasonal items, like Xmas decorations would work. Then I got two heavy metal book ends from the office supply store, and use these to stop them falling over sideways. Another thing I did was reduce my cookbooks drastically. I have some I just love to look through for inspiration, even if I don't follow the recipes, and I won't part with them. But others that were just practical, I actually cut out the recipes I used, and put them into a plastic sleeve binder. Reduced about 8 books to one useful binder, but it seemed like sacrilege at first. Another thing I did with some of my favourite craft books was just put them into plastic sturdy magazine holders from the office supply.

Happy Birthday, Erica! Emily, I'm amazed my cookbook reached you so quickly. Annie, you are so generous with the prizes - will be excited to get something in the mail - other than the overflow of catalogs, magazines, junk mail, etc. Annie, poor Emily will be be embarrassed to hold on the the envelope I sent my cookbook in. I only had one that was large enough and it was previously used so I put everything inside and wrapped the used envelope in paper cut from a grocery store bag. Do I get extra points for recycling? LOL Shirley, we may be close to getting some frost, but not tonight. I was upset that my pepper plants which I have tried to care for most of the summer are finally blooming and starting to grow peppers. I think they will be moved into and out of the garage for awhile. I not only want the peppers, but I want to save some pepper seeds! I haven't quite figured out the OBF football game. Some of you know I follow the Gamecocks at the University of South Carolina. They were not having a great year so far and then Coach Spurrier resigned this week and there was an interim head ball coach announced ... but the Gamecocks won their game today so maybe all of this will get straightened out. The teams we played the last two weeks have been very generous providing supplies for the flood victims, bottled water, and other assistance. My husband found a weather web site with a huge number of pictures of the flood. We were not here for most of those days - it looked so horrible. Of course, we worried a lot while we were away, but seeing it may have been worse. We still have water streaming through our horse pasture and it has been warm and sunny all week. We are ready for things to dry out. Well, time for bed here. Enjoy your day tomorrow! Jeanne