Scientists at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Pennsylvania claim to have found periods in the first seven months of life in which taste preferences are developed. If it is true, it might mean that the foods that the mother eats during pregnancy will influence what foods the child prefers later in life. It also means that, since the taste of a mother's milk can vary according to her diet, that the foods a mother eats while breast feeding could also have a long-term impact on a child.

I have a hard time believing this, aside from the bit about finding flavor variation in mother's milk. As anyone with a sibling (or with multiple children) will note, most kids have different eating preferences. Most mothers do not radically change their diet from one pregnancy to another. I think that children develop tastes depending on what they are exposed to and how they are introduced to it, not based on some residual "memory" from infancy.

ABC News also notes that "the data could be used to influence how baby formula is designed, so infants are exposed to tastes that will help them enjoy healthy foods later in life." Attempting to program children, in infancy, to pick spinach over sugar? Excuse me while I laugh at how ridiculous that sounds. Just because a child was given spinach flavored formula does not change the fact that they will probably like ice cream the first time they try it.

After my gigantic endeavor with the gardiane, I was a little burned out on dishes that were high on process. Yet I was committed to those slow cooking ideals I've been talking so much about. And... I had some veal stew meat I'd purchased in my whirlwind through the Italian market.

I adapted a recipe for Neopolitan Lamb Stew from my favorite slow cookbook, and used up all the leftover chopped-and-diced ingredients. And what I made was eloquent, soul-stirring, epic. But all it was: veal stew meat braised in wine. I barely glanced at the recipe. But I'd developed a winning, all-purpose slow cooking formula.

Here it is: you take your meat, in chunks. You coat it in a little flour and salt, brown it in oil, and set aside. You add in a mirrepoix (diced carrots, onions, and celery) to the pan, plus garlic if you're into that. Saute until soft then deglaze with French red wine (about a cup). Dump it all into the pan, maybe with some broth or canned tomatoes, a little thyme or rosemary, and let it simmer for hours. Voilá! Bistro-style stew. And you can tell them it was just a little something you threw together. And you know what? It's kind of true.