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2628. thoughtful - 2/3/2005 8:13:08 PM the barefoot contessa drives me nuts, not only because she's so outsized, but she reminds me of ed macmahon...she has all these people over for dinner and she's the only one laughing...like yuck it up people...let's pretend we're having a good time for the camera! 2629. Jenerator - 2/3/2005 9:56:03 PM I thought it was more of a nervous laugh.
Steven Spielberg is one of her fans. 2630. marjoribanks - 2/4/2005 4:45:09 AM I kind of like Rachel Ray's unstoppably cheery attitude, though the accent always stops me a bit cold.
And then there are the FHM pictures, which could rate for or against her. You be the judge.
 2631. marjoribanks - 2/4/2005 4:51:44 AM Well, I wanted to post the rather startling photo of her wearing a black bikini top and licking a large chocolate ice.
But maybe you can look for it yourselves...
2632. thoughtful - 2/4/2005 3:34:38 PM Accent? What accent? 2633. Jenerator - 2/4/2005 4:01:15 PM thoughtful,
I was watching an episode of Everyday Italian when it first came out and the theme was something like 'Making a satisfying dinner with what's in your pantry.'
That struck a chord that day because our pantry was low and I desperately needed to go to the store, but didn't want to.
Anyway, her salmon recipe required that I cook some bacon and leave the fat for pan frying the salmon in(which I have done before and everyone always freaks out about at RI). Meanwhile, in a blender, she said that she takes one can of tuna in oil, about three anchovies and two tablespoons of mayo and a tablespoon of capers and blends them. I had all of these ingredients, but my gut told me that all of that mixed would smell and taste like an overly fishy tuna sandwich.
Giadis insisted that it wouldn't even taste like canned tuna, but rather a "fresh and tangy sauce that would be sure to please."
So, I went ahead with it all.
My husband walked in and his first reaction was, "Oh God, what is that smell?? What are you making?"
I said, "Look at the tv, I am making her salmon dish."
He just looked at me.
We both knew, but I proceeded anyway.
I poured the sauce on the salmon and served with super thin slices of lemon and a fresh sprig of dill.
I took the first bite and it tasted like overly fishy tuna sandwich with a pungent salmon.
We ate burgers that night.
A few weeks later I made a pasta dish of hers that was gross, too.
My mom thinks that Giadis' head is too big for her frame. She is pretty, but I don't think she's nearly the experienced Italian chef that Mario is.
2634. thoughtful - 2/4/2005 5:25:17 PM In my experience, much of liking or disliking the recipes a chef makes has to do with whether your tastes are like theirs or not. I find rachel ray recipes very tasty as is. I have a volstedt (sp?) cookbook for casseroles and another for soup/stew. Both are very good provided i at least double the herbs she calls for. Pierre Franey also had excellent taste when it comes to flavoring a meal.
But I have this heart healthy cookbook from the american heart assoc that at best can be described as bland...rarely use it any more. 2635. Macnas - 2/4/2005 6:21:40 PM My Missus uses a big Land o'Lakes cookbook sometimes.
I have to say I love traditional american cooking. Sour cream succotash is one of my very favourite side dishes. 2636. PelleNilsson - 2/4/2005 9:01:16 PM From the Archives - Report No. 3
This is turning out to be seriously interesting.
When I left off in the last report the Sundgrens had arranged the paperwork for moving from Ljusne in Söderala parish to Söderhamn but they hadn't showed up there. My guess was that they had moved within Söderala instead but with the parish having a population of about 6,500 the task of finding them would be overwhelming. In addition there is no Johanna Sundgren or Johanna Malm born in 1850 or thereabout listed as an emigrant to America. I thought I had come to a dead end.
But then, yesterday, I had an idea that in retrospect turned out fruitful. In the Söderala records the Sundgrens were listed as "emigrants" (to Söderhamn). If they had moved within the parish and if the parish priest was a conscientious fellow he would have recorded them as "immigrants" in order to make his books tally. And he did. In 1854 Johanna Dorothea, now listed as "The widow of sea captain L P Sundgren", shows up in a place called Bergsvik now with another child, Anders Leonard, born 19/2 1853. They must have stayed in Söderhamn for a while after all because the boy was baptized there. So there we have Johanna Dorothea, a widow at 34 with four children 1, 4, 7 and 9 years old. Bergsvik was totally dominated by a sawmill (still there) and they must have lived in premises owned by the mill but there are no details. Then, in 1855, they disappear again.
As I said, Söderala was a rather large parish and also dynamic due to the expanding forestry industry. The priest had an annotation system to keep track of internal migration. It took me some time to figure it out but eventually I found that the family had moved back to Ljusne. And here was another surprise: one more child, Maria Erika, born out of wedlock on 22/6 1855. The father is named as the tailor Erik Eriksson, described as the fiancé of Johanna Dorothea. This must have caused a minor scandal. Having children out of wedlock was a business for peasant girls working as maid servants, not for a widow with four children. In addition, the child must have been conceived in October-November 1854, eight months after the death of her husband and thus well within the mandatory year of mourning.
I had to break off at that point. But what happened next? Did Johanna Dorothea marry the tailor? When and under what name did her daughter Johanna emigrate to America, there to contribute to the gene pool that produced wonkers? Don't miss the next episode of this gripping family drama to be published soon! 2637. thoughtful - 2/4/2005 9:03:37 PM ...and what about Naomi??? 2638. PelleNilsson - 2/4/2005 9:48:40 PM ??? 2639. thoughtful - 2/4/2005 10:22:17 PM Sorry Pelle...an old americanism I guess you'd say. I'm not sure of the source of the expression...probably goes back to radio days when the serials or soaps always ended with, "Will Mary find her long lost brother? Will John find his way out of the jungle? Tune in tomorrow..."
The take off was to make fun of that with a very melodramatic announcer asking ridiculous questions like Will Martha ever find her glasses? Will Sadie ever get her bunions removed? and always end with the question, "And what about Naomi???" usually followed with a 'gasp' from all the other cast members and suspenseful organ music. 2640. PelleNilsson - 2/4/2005 10:39:26 PM Got it. Funny. Yes, that was the style I tried to emulate. But the fact is that I'm becoming quite absorbed by this. I already knew my way around the church records but I have never before used them for proper genealogical research. I'm learning a lot which will come in very useful for another project I have in mind. In addition, Johanna Dorothea's story turn out to be interesting in itself. 2641. wabbit - 2/4/2005 10:41:36 PM Pelle, this research you are doing makes for fascinating reading.
"...and what about Naomi?" is from the old PBS kids' show The Electric Company - it was the tagline of their soap opera "Love of Chair", a spoof of the show "Love of Life". 2642. thoughtful - 2/4/2005 10:44:08 PM wabbit, sorry but the expression predates that one. I remember they used it on the old carol burnett show and I believe they also used it on laugh-in which dates back to the 60s as i recall. 2643. thoughtful - 2/4/2005 10:47:14 PM but i suspect laugh-in used it as a recyled bit from even earlier times. 2644. wonkers2 - 2/4/2005 10:53:48 PM Pelle, your research is amazing and greatly appreciated, even the illegitimate child of my great, great, great grandmother Dorotheia Johanna Sundgren, ne Smeden. 2645. wabbit - 2/4/2005 11:47:00 PM t'ful, I agree, I'm sure it's way older than The Electric Company, but that was the only tv reference I could think of. You are probably right about Laugh-In, and TEC used some of their style, so may have gotten it from them.
D'ya think maybe it's biblical (Ruth 4:23)? 2646. wonkers2 - 2/5/2005 12:03:32 AM Eratum: nee.
Keep looking, Pelle I'm sure there's a horse thief in there somewhere! 2647. PelleNilsson - 2/5/2005 10:34:29 PM Thank you wonkers and wabbit.
Wonkers, so far the family lore and your aunt's account have been confirmed except in two instances. The first is the ship Apollo which I have not encountered, but in fact that doesn't mean a thing because the available records are far from complete and Per need not have embarked on her in Söderhamn or Ljusne. The other is the notion that Per wrote his letter from England to Johanna "on the family farm". I don't hesitate to say that there never was a farm. How do I know that, you ask yourself. The most important indication is the absence of servants in the Sundgren household. At the time even a modest family farm would employ a farm hand and a maid unless there were children in their upper teens. In the case of Per of Johanna with him being periodically at sea and she having small children to care for, it would have been mandatory. If I may speculate I would say that there could have been a project for buying a farm and in the course of retelling the story, the project became a perceived reality.
Having said that we are ready for
From the Archives - Report No. 4
Johanna Dorothea certainly had a tough life. She married the tailor Erik Eriksson, 11 years her junior, in December 1855. In fact Erik's job title, literally translated was ' tailor worker', i.e he was an employee, not his own master. It is hard to say whether the marriage marked a step down the social ladder for her or a step up for him. Johanna Dorothea might have been modestly wealthy. It would be interesting to know what she inherited after Per. One can find out but post-death inventories are kept in regional archives, not here in Stockholm.
In any case, they had three more children between 1856 and 1859 but only one, Mathilda, survived more than two months. Then, in 1862, the 29 year old Erik died of consumption and Johanna Dorothea, 40, found herself a widow for the second time. Three years later she became, briefly, a grandmother when her daughter Christina, then 19, had an illegitimate child (father not named) but it died within a month.
There are many children who died. One shouldn't draw general conclusions from indiviual cases but it is tempting to see a connection with the fast growth of Ljusne that is evident from the records. This must have led to an increase in population density and an increaing strain on the water supply and whatever sewage system there was. As we know, polluted water is a major cause of infant death. Also, consumption is associated with cramped living conditions and bad hygiene.
We are now at 1865. Between then and 1866 I lost track of the family. The reason, it appears, is a reorganisation of the geographical sub-divisions of Söderala parish, caused by the rapid population growth. I'm currently at a loss how to find them again, but perhaps some brilliant idea will present itself.
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