A good dish.

We're getting the first nip in the air in the evenings. Time to break out the chicken chasseur recipe.

I collect chasseur/cacciatore/hunter style recipes.I use Jacques Pepin's recipe (or "receipt",archaically,locally). His recipe is a good baseline to start with. I admire Pepin. He knows the value of work. I bumped into his work early on, before I could do more than boil water; he was head chef of recipe development for Howard Johnson restaurants. They held sole restaurant rights on the Pennsylvania Turnpike many years ago, a true cash cow. I digress, back to chasseur chicken; see the whole point is, what is to hand. A handful of gathered mushrooms (know your ingredients,ahem, very important);some wild onion;a bit of tomato,not a lot; a tot of wine or vermouth; and at the end, tarragon.Sufficient festering time yields a warming comfort food. Pepin's recipe, strangely and presumably to add an acid (why not a vinegar), uses a tablespoon of soy sauce.

Greater minds must help on this question; in the meanwhile I will delve into my latest treasure: a copy of LaRousse Gastronomique,co-translated by Patience Gray. I heartily recommend her flinty prose in Honey From a Weed. My Yankee bargain-hunter side is pleased to have bought LRG for $2.00. Works out to about .20/lb.

"After victory, tighten your helmet cords": Why I like to be a librarian, #1.

Torn from an e-mail:

Also, Project Vote Smart’s purple bus (purple being a blend of blue and red, i.e., bipartisan) will be at the Headquarters library on October 13, from 5-7 p.m. Stop by and pick up information about voting, candidates, issues, and more.

The rush is being at the synaptical point connecting people and information.A safe but ohso satisfying jolt. From a story hour to the proper tax form ("but nevernever advice"), we are there in easy times and hard times.

Our whack is coming, omysistersandbrothers; recession in American means "gut them libraries, people don't read anymore". I remember a recession in a different grid co-ordinate from where I currently serve. There was a great weeping and gnashing of teeth at the cutbacks, closings, and dismissals. Gird up, the boulder is on the way down the hill.

What can we do? Our job, well:focus on basics, emphasize the value of libraries in your communities, and talk up your library when opportunities arise.Keep your heads down and move quickly.

An article I read is informative. The author argues the true model for our current financial shitstorm is not the Depression of 1929, but the Panic of 1873 .