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Off to the Land of Haggis

09 Apr 2004, Posted by Jennifer Iannolo in travel

Well, there’s no turning back now. The tickets have been purchased and the relatives warned. Brother Gargantua will not be traveling with us to Scotland, so the Queen has released the emergency stockpile of food. We received a lovely letter from her. I can’t believe it has taken me 32 years to visit the land of my mother’s birth, but I am overjoyed that the time has come. Mary Margaret is eagerly anticipating fish and chips wrapped in newspaper, pastries and real Cadbury chocolate. Her childhood nickname was “Porky,” so that should tell you all you need to know. I…

A Salute to Success

05 Mar 2004, Posted by Jennifer Iannolo in food

Dear Ms. Stewart, As a female entrepreneur who has often been called impatient, intolerant, unforgiving, ruthless and any other diatribe of slurs, I’d like to salute you for maintaining your grace when others would relish in seeing your breakdown. In that respect, you did not let them win. Few understand what it takes to achieve what you have — we entrepreneurs are in awe of it. It is those who could never achieve it who are the most vindictive, and they are eager to see you squirm. I take great delight in your response, whether it be a casual throw…

Pat-a-cake, pat-a-cake, baker’s man…

27 Feb 2004, Posted by Jennifer Iannolo in food

I never thought I would say this, but I’ve come to hate birthday cake. Of course, it is entirely my fault. I was foolish enough to make my godson’s cake for his birthday, and now have a list of requests for the rest of the family calendar year. Did I mention that we have had three family birthdays in the past week? Now, I could understand the enthusiasm if my cakes were a sight to behold. However, the first two were not exactly bakery quality, what with the melting whipped cream icing, sliding layers and other monstrosities. You may be…

An Ode to Bread

16 Feb 2004, Posted by Jennifer Iannolo in food

Bread. The staff of life. It has captured my imagination for the past week, and I am happy to report that my loaves have been unexpectedly successful. I started out with simple wheat and white breads, but yesterday I turned artisan and made rye and pumpernickel. The rye is gorgeous — it tastes like a genuine, New York Jewish rye. And the smell…it has a sublime but subtle scent of onion that makes me swoon. I sent a loaf to my sister yesterday, fresh from the oven, and as luck would have it she had bought some corned beef that…

A New Kind of Uniform

10 Feb 2004, Posted by Jennifer Iannolo in food

Tomorrow night I begin my first formal cooking class. I have spent the past month deep in thought, trying to decide what the next step of my journey will be. After ten years of looking from the outside in, I’ve decided to take a different kind of journey through the kitchen. I’ve enrolled in a 9-week course of fundamentals, from knife skills to braising and onward. I’m not sure where this path will lead; perhaps I will end up in culinary school, perhaps these nine weeks will suffice. I have very quickly realized that there are not vast fortunes to…