Food, Glorious Food, by Elayne Riggs

Elayne Riggs

Elayne Riggs is the creator of the popular blog Pen-Elayne on the Web. She was a founding member of Friends of Lulu, an organization dedicated to increasing the involvement of girls and women in comics, as readers and creators. She is married to inker Robin Riggs, with whom she shares two cats, and has odd love/hate relationship with Hillary Clinton.

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7 Responses

  1. John Ostrander says:

    Excellent column! Very tasty.I, too, share a passion for food. Good Eats, as Brother Alton would say. Back in college days, I (briefly) dated a comely young woman who said that if i had to choose between her and a double chocolate cake, I would have to think hard. "Nonsense, my dear, " I replied, "you exagerate. I would always choose you. . .with infinite regret for having lost that cake." That's a relationship that foundered soon afterwards.I do most of the shopping and cooking in our household. I have a number of recipes that have become never fail pleasures. Some are quite simple. Last Christmas, some of my best gift were new things for the kitchen, including a really good — and inexpensive — chef's knife that's perhaps the best I've ever used. And a great instant read thermometer.My favorite cooking magazine is COOKS. Great web-site, as well. And they had the best cooking show on TV — America's Test Kitchen. Alas, none of the PBS stations out by where I am seem to show it anymore. Major bummer. They not only have excellent recipes but they evaluate products (they did a segment on ketchup, for example) and utensils (how that chef's knife came to my attention). The magazine accepts no ads so it's a bit pricey but pure value.

    • Elayne Riggs says:

      See, I'm such a foodie that I think of Chris Kimball of America's Test Kitchen as the poor person's Alton Brown, as well as a great example of a TV cooking personality (he's not even a chef, he lets all those women do the "testing" and cooking for him) who has no sense of how real people live, from up in his Boston and Vermont mansions. And what's up with him and Julie Collin Davison? She seemed to disappear from the show for awhile, and I still kinda get the impression Chris doesn't care for her very much. (She's my favorite on the show.)

      • John Ostrander says:

        I love watching Alton's "Good Eats" — perhaps the most ENTERTAINING cooking show on TV — but I've LEARNED more from America's Test Kitchen than any other. And Alton had gotten very anal about his recipes in the past few years ( I know — horrible descriptive word but it is, unfortunately, the correct one). It's fussbudget cooking. I tend to prefer him on his other show FEASTING ON ASPHALT and he is absolutely indispensable on IRON CHEF AMERICA.Kimball certainly can come across as a snob BUT he's also Yankee cheap. If there's two prodcuts or foods and one is slightly better but more expensive and the other is almost as good but vastly cheaper, he always prefers the cheaper one. He will give props to what is best but his heart is with what is less expensive IF it is of comparable quality. Julia and Bridget are his usual co-stars; they tried working in two others as well at one point — probably because both Bridget and Julia have other duties at COOKS as well and may have been getting burned out. From what I've seen, they've gone back to mainly Julia and Bridget while occasionally bringing in Becky Hays. Both Bridget and Julia have a fun rapport with Kimball, I think. They quietly sass him back, especially Bridget. I see an ease between both Julia and Bridget and Kimball. There was an episode where Julia and Bridget were cooking together and Kimball wasn't on the set yet; the ladies decided they would add more spice to his portion of the dish, despite the fact that he is not fond of heat. All in good fun.But if you like Alton more than Kimball, I have no problem. To each their own taste!

  2. Vinnie Bartilucci says:

    Eddie Izzard is almost universally popular. There's a World of Warcraft guild named "Cake or Death" on my home server (Undermine).As for places in Yonkers, don't forget the semi-legendary Stew Leonards. If you have not shopped there, you might as well have never left Brooklyn.I'm the cook in my house, and I enjoy doing it. I tend to cook large amounts on the weekend, and live off leftovers during the week. done properly it results in a large assortment of food to sample.When I get my cooking show, it will be called "To Serve Man", and my first cookbook will be called "It's A Cookbook! It's a COOKBOOK!!!" I addition to regular cooking that the average male can understand (Episode one -"I am Jack's Kitchen") I will make liquid nitrogen ice cream, cook things with lasers, and in one episode there will be a little picture in the corner of a toaster containing blueberry pop-tarts, counting down the time that they take to burst into flame. Kinda like "Good Eats" meets "Brainiac: Science Abuse". I always said Alton Brown was similar to Jearl Walker – I'm gonna take the next step.

    • John Ostrander says:

      I believe Stew's started in Norwalk, CT.Looking forward to your cooking show! I'D tune in!

  3. Elayne Riggs says:

    Yes, I shop at Stew's regularly. Best dairy around, probably the best meat, decent veg although a bit pricey at times. And John, if you liked Feasting on Asphalt and its River Run follow-up, you'll love the third season, Feasting on Waves!

  4. Marilee J. Layman says:

    Food, Beautiful Food! In case that doesn't work: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/7186989.st…I used to be a great cook but I'm too disabled to cook these days. My most exciting meals are things like tortillas with cheese in a pan on the stove. Tonight: a can of soup and some toast.My experience with high fructose corn syrup: I drink 32oz of rehydration fluid a day to keep from having a couple of IVs a week. Originally, that was Gatorade, but my blood sugar started to creep up. Diabetes is a high risk for people with renal failure, so I looked for a replacement and found one with Splenda. The next month's labs showed that my blood sugar was back down, but also, my triglycerides had dropped 200 points! They've stayed stable since, too.