Quick Update & From Scratch

Hola,

I hope to have full posts back tomorrow...maybe Wednesday....J-lo's mom leaves tomorrow and tomorrow evening, I might just crash!

When I return, with Bloggers Blessing, I will be posting pictures and recipes for:

• ~Moroccan Chicken with Lemon and Olives, served with a couscous with pine nuts, raisins and cilantro
• ~Roast Chicken in White Wine, Asparagus Risotto and Orange Glazed Cake, all brought to us by the great editors at The Silver Spoon.
• ~Mini reviews for 2 Amy's, Zatinya and maybe a third depending on dinner tonight

It's been a wonderful weekend and I feel I need to detox with carrot sticks and wheat thins.

In other news while blobbing out after the roast chicken in white wine, waiting for or having just finished the cake, the question came up: We know what "from scratch" means, but what is it's origins?

Very interesting, we had to do a quick google (scroll down) and found this very interesting answer which J-lo nailed the first part spot on:

The Devil made me bake it.

Dear Evan: Delighted to discover you and your mission . . and one day after we did I have a conundrum. We were at lunch and I commented to my wife that her soup was particularly flavorful. I then asked whether it was a prepared soup or from a recipe. "No," she responded, "it's from scratch." Of course we've heard the expression "from scratch" zillions of times, and everyone is clear as to meaning . . but wherefore and whence . . or should I just say, "whencesoever"? My efforts toward this end stop at William and Mary Morris' "Dictionary of Word and Phrase Origins," which attaches scratch to "Old Scratch," a nickname for the devil. This, in turn, is derived from an old Norse word "scratti," meaning "devil" or "sorcerer." All of which is of absolutely no help. Can you locate a more likely route? -- Carroll F. Raaum, via the Internet.

Please don't say "whencesoever." It gives my spell-checker conniption fits. Speaking of conniptions, I must admit that I was taken a bit aback by your assertion that my parents' book (published by HarperCollins, by the way) connects "from scratch" with "Old Scratch." Perhaps you have an old edition. (I'm not being facetious -- there were three separate volumes before the current Second Edition.)

In any case, if you check under the entry for "scratchcake" in the Second Edition, you'll find an explanation of "from scratch." It means, of course, from the absolute beginning, without any advantage, in this case without benefit of a prepared soup mix. The phrase comes from the lingo of 19th century sporting events, specifically the "scratch" drawn in the ground which served (and often still does) as the starting line of a foot race. A runner "starting from scratch" received no handicap or benefit -- whatever the contestant accomplished was due solely to his or her own efforts. So, too, is a cook baking a cake without the benefit of Betty Crocker or her ilk said to be making it "from scratch."