Two Fat Ladies, Vol. 3 (Lunch, Cocktail Party, Afternoon Tea) and Vol. 4 (Picnic, Breakfast, Dinner) Vegetarians and the faint of heart, beware! But for everyone else, the Two Fat Ladies are back, and they are simply spectacular. In volumes 3 and 4 of their British television series (each tape contains three episodes), Jennifer Paterson and Clarissa Dickson Wright cook for a lunch, a cocktail party, an afternoon tea, a picnic, a breakfast, and a dinner. The two women travel (by motorcycle and sidecar) to a different location in each episode to cook a requested meal–usually laden with cream, butter, and meats (Jennifer notes of one tartine: “Delicious, despite its vegetarian overtones”). Yes, this is a cooking show, but with Jennifer and Clarissa’s patter, it has the feel of a comedy. As they whip up Loin of Pork Stuffed with Mushrooms and a pot of Clam Chowder, the Two Fat Ladies sing the praises of bacon (Clarissa hints at a risqu past when she notes that bacon is a great hangover cure; not that she gets hangovers anymore. Other allusions to falling off barstools and beer for breakfast are dotted throughout). The meals look sumptuous–salmon soaked in wine and topped with orange rings, Brazilian bean fritters, fruit tartlets, vichyssoise, and so much more–and it’s terrific fun following the women as they go sightseeing (a motorcycle rally, watching a male choir, on a quest for the perfect drink at the Brazilian embassy, at a brewery, picking strawberries). Jennifer is likely to break out in song or rhyme, and Clarissa tells interesting facts and gossip from her life. They chitchat about tips for picking up men, the fact that nutmeg is a hallucinogenic, the beauty of British military boys, how you can’t get crackling in Scotland or France. So, be prepared to learn how to core a kidney (and who knew kidneys needed coring?), make cracker crumbs, and laugh along at the antics of these two rather large women. The Two Fat Ladies are destined to become a cooking classic. –Jenny Brown

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Old Stone Oven 4467 14-Inch by 16-Inch Baking Stone (PIZZA/BREAD) Professional pizza and traditional European bread ovens are often lined with stone or brick. This is so heat is stored up and redistributed evenly. The resulting blast of heat from the Old Stone Oven rectangular pizza stone gives bread and pizza a nice chewy crust. The rustic French tarts called galettes are also well suited to a baking stone. To use the stone, place it in a cold oven and preheat to 500 degrees for pizza, or according to the recipe for bread or galettes. The stone is made of the same material that lines blast furnaces and kilns, so it can handle ultra-high temperatures.

Wait until the baking stone is entirely cooled before attempting to clean it. Let it dry completely before using again. Some discoloration will occur over time; this is natural and will not affect baking. Using baking parchment may help delay that discoloration. Do not bake cookies, turnovers or other high-fat items on the stone; the stone would absorb the fat and proceed to produce smoke and bad odors. The stone comes with a flyer that contains detailed use and cleaning instructions, as well as recipes for bread, pizza dough, and two pizza toppings. –Garland Withers

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 18th, 2007 at 8:40 am and is filed under Recipes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.