You HAVE to be joking

I got this little missive in my email today:

From: Anne R. Brooks
Date: 1/31/08

Sent: To [me]

cc: Alan Rupp, Ruth Fejfar; Carol Hamilton
Subject: Derby-Pie® Infringement

To whom it may concern,

It has come to my attention that you have published pages with a reference
to "Derby-Pie" or some similar name on the web page listed below. I wish to
inform you on behalf of Kern's Kitchen Inc. of Louisville, Kentucky, that
they hold the trademark for this name and it is not legally proper to
promote a product by this name without Kern's Kitchen's permission. The
registration number is Reg. No. 878,334 and it is on the Principal Register
with the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

To avoid any formal legal action, it is requested that you remove any
reference to "Derby-Pie" on any and all web pages.

The following WebPages contain the misuse:

http://theladyofshallots.blogspot.com/2007/11/derby-pie.html

If there are others we would ask that you take care of them also.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation. If you have any questions please
direct them to:

Carol Hamilton a paralegal at:
Lynch, Cox, Gilman & Mahan P.S.C.
400 West Market Street, Aegon Center
Suite 2200
Louisville, Kentucky 40202
Tel: 1 502 589-4215

[email to: chamilton@lcgandm.com]

Alan S. Rupp
President
Kern's Kitchen, Inc.
502-499-0285

[email to:Alan@DerbyPie.com]

I will definitely never patronize this company--and I thank them for bringing themselves to my attention so that I can be sure not to do so.

Garlic, and shopping at the Asian grocery

I gave up on fresh garlic a long time ago. It's annoying to peel, garlic presses are a pain to clean, and garlic goes bad too quickly to keep enough on hand for the amount that I use.

Instead, I use minced or crushed garlic in a jar, the wet kind. It really tastes the same, is cheaper, it's easy to load up in a dish (spoonful after spoonful...mmmm!), and it keeps for a long time. No one has ever noticed the difference, and it's light-years tastier than garlic powder. It's saved me a lot of time, money, and aggravation. I also use ginger in the same format; we are ginger addicts here, and I never disappoint a guest with my cooking.

If you really want to find inexpensive garlic in a jar, try the Asian market. I pay a lot less for many ingredients, including coconut milk, canned specialty vegetables (bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, baby corn), dried mushrooms, produce, fresh mangoes, and sauces (tamari, vegetarian oyster, stir-fry). Some of them are up to 50% less than in the standard grocery store, and there is little to no difference in quality. We hit up the Indian grocery for staples like basmati rice, dried chickpeas and lentils, and spices (cardamom is especially inexpensive, and it's a great place to get pre-blended spices like garam masala).

Good food is important in our household. We eat a LOT of vegetables, and our friends really enjoy visiting for dinner. Because we're fairly poor, our food budget does not allow for much dining out, and fast food places are not vegetarian-friendly anyway. Lunches usually consist of leftovers, and snacks are cheap stuff like yogurt, dried fruits, cheap pretzels, and bulk nuts (almonds, walnuts, cashews, pecans--I am allergic to peanuts, but okay with tree nuts). We're definitely not "junk food vegetarians"; we couldn't stand to eat so unimaginatively!