Iron Chef has the same effect on me... it makes me crave whatever they're cooking.

Have you tried Foie Gras? I haven't been able to yet.

I've never cooked with foie gras, but I've had it many times. I had a lovely terrine of it for lunch in Charlotte, NC while doing research on a tea plantation there. You've never had pate?

Not really.

I had an opportunity to try foie gras at the Morimoto Restaraunt in Philly, but I passed it up, since the bill was already going to be $100.

I had Arctic Char instead. Bo-ring. I really should have splurged.

Mashed potatoes with leek sounds good. I've only made mashed once and followed a Joy of Cooking recipe that was pretty basic, except for including bay leaf (a nice touch).

Cheese fondue is easy and fun--I almost did that for dinner tonight before deciding on risotto.

Meanwhile, at the opposite end of the culinary desirability spectrum, dhe, reading Reay Tannahill's Food in History (Three Rivers Press, 1988), informs me that Marco Polo noted how 13th-c. Mongol armies traveled "'without provisions and without making a fire, living only on the blood of their horses; for every rider pierces a vein of his horse and drinks the blood.'"

I'll stick to risotto.

My unspeakable wife neglects to point out that the Mongols didn't kill the horses; they took a mere half-pint of blood from each horse every ten days. This sustained the Mongols without weakening the horses, and carried the added advantages of not announcing the Mongols' presence with fire for cooking.

Reay Tannahill's Food in History (Three Rivers Press, 1988)

I'm 120 pages into this 370-page book, and it's excellent. Who knew that the fish sauce of Thai and Vietnamese cuisine may have originally been the intellectual property of ancient Rome, where everything was soaked with the stuff? (They called it "liquamen.")

I imagine it would be crude to call a transfusion bag a Mongolian Juice Box?

You know me- I like blood ;)

I imagine it would be crude to call a transfusion bag a Mongolian Juice Box?

Bwa! Had I been drinking blood when I read that, there would have ensued a dramatic crimson hork.

But no, you'd be singling out the Mongols unfairly, according to the next two pages of the book, which briefly depart from chronology to mention instances of blood-tapping-and-drinking 'round the world through the ages.

You know me- I like blood ;)

It's, er, the other red meat.

It's not often that I guffaw in response to something I've read. Priceless.

"Got blood?"

Re: Mashed potatoes - real butter and lots of it is KEY.

I never use anything but real butter- margarine and anything like it is anathema. I'm also planning on grating in a touch of the Parrano Originale cheese, which, I believe is the perfect cheese. (see here)

God, I had no idea your friends-only posts would make me so *hungry* ....

I have to warn you- I don't do anything by halves.

Color me warned...

I did the fondue thing at home for a special New Year's Eve dinner. All three courses: the cheese, the meats and the chocolate. Had a wonderful time, and cannot *wait* to do it again.

Except next time I need to remember to make just a little *less* of each, we were so stuffed... lol

Fondue is irrevocably associated in my mind with ski lodges. I don't know why it evokes romance for me- fire, fondue, fur: I've never done a romantic ski vacation.

Sautee chopped shallots and pressed garlic in butter.
Mash potatoes (I'll assume you already boiled them. Leave some skin on BTW)
Add: butter, sour cream (to taste),a splash of half and half or cream, white pepper and shallot/garlic mixture.
Yummmy.
Sit back and listen to the quiet sound of your arteries hardening.
It will be worth it.
P.S. I had to delete and re-post this because the title looked like it had been written by someone at LL's work cafeteria.