huge crush (I mean HUGE)

I love cooking programs. If I had cable TV, I'd be nose to the screen with Food-TV all day long. Mercifully, TPT has a station that show cooking programs every evening from 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. I allow myself complete slugdom on Tuesday evening and watch all of the programs. Heaven. My absolute favorite is the glorious Jacques Pepin. I wouldn't eat anything he prepares (when you look up "fussy eater," it says Carol the Reader) but I love to watch him cook, look at him and listen to that lovely French accent. Sigh....

I have now read several chapters of Katherine Darling's Under the table: saucy tales from culinary school, Ms. Darling's memoir/expose/whine about attending Jacques Pepin's French Culinary Institute in New York City. I am living her adventures from the comfort of my newly-mattressed bed (I feel like I'm staying in a hotel since the bed just doesn't feel like it's mine yet), happy to not be swathed in a polyester uniform (you know, the checked pants, long-sleeved and high-collared jacket and the neckerchief) in an un-air-conditioned kitchen. I've read about poaching eggs, making omelets and all things egg--each student is given 3 dozen eggs at the beginning of the session and must produce a perfect example of each cooked form of egg (imperfect samples are gulped down before the teacher notices and comments on the failure). I would imagine that learning to perfect a recipe would put you off eating it for a long, long time.

So far, she hasn't said anything to burst my bubble about Monsieur Pepin--heaven help her if she does!

(This weekend (I was under the weather so reading was the perfect activity) was a bonanza of wonderful reading: I finished The Angel's Game by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, the companion book to Shadow of the Wind which is one of my all-time favorites. A fabulous read. I'm also well along in Home Safe written by Elizabeth Berg, my favorite grown-up author. She hooks me from the first word and I love and care for her characters and her words--there are always little phrases to savor and remember. Plus I read an entire issue of Vanity Fair magazine!)