Just Peachy, and Maggie Nemser Is a Real Person

I am here to announce the single greatest sandwich invention in the history of time. Well, in my life, anyway. I was so buried in work (and e-mails, laughing nervously about my recent rants on marketing ninnies and Corporate Doublespeak, and the ills of factory-farmed meats) that I missed breakfast. And lunch. And showering and dressing...the joys of working at home.

Late in the afternoon, the heat just passing, I remembered some sliced Sonoma jack-blue cheese I had bought, and thought it would make a great grilled sandwich. (Grilled as in "toasted in a frying pan with butter on the outside.") Meanwhile, knowing the cheese would be way salty on its own, I looked at the fat, red Brandywine tomatoes I'd gotten from Happy Boy Farms this weekend—I needed something tangy with a bite of sweet to balance the blue. But I kept going back to the refrigerator, preoccupied with other things—do you do this? Stand there in front of an open door, close the door, and the next thing you know, you find yourself with the handle in your hand yet again, gazing into an open refrigerator.

There on a plate sat two huge ripe peaches that I knew I should eat, but didn't want the accompanying mess (down my arms, into the sink, etcetera), especially since the yellowjackets are at their worst this year. In a flash of pure lightning, the inspiration came: grilled cheese sandwich with sliced peaches. And lots of fresh basil leaves, with a little mayonnaise, on sourdough bread.

Here, in all caps, for the cue cards:

GRILLED SANDWICH WITH SONOMA JACK-BLUE CHEESE,
SLICED PEACHES, LOTS OF FRESH BASIL LEAVES,
AND A LITTLE MAYONNAISE, ON SOURDOUGH BREAD

Best thing I've eaten in so long. Such new flavors, but hauntingly old: summer, and the aroma of warm peaches drifting up into my nose with each bite, and the salty tang of the blue cheese, like a travel brochure to another land. This was truly something to savor: make one for yourselves soon.

Let me know if you think you improved upon it. This is a "less is more" kind of sandwich, as the peach was just perfect.

• • • • • • • • • •

I got a comment on my blog today from someone named 'Morgan" (I can't tell you how I dread seeing that name in my in-box, since I am always afraid that Morgan Christopher will rear his head again)... and laughed out loud when I read the chastising I got.

Morgan commented:

I think this entire post and the speculation about "Maggie" is hilarious. You want to know why? Because she's my cousin. She officiated my wedding. She's one of my best friends. And you know what? She's a real person, not a Yahoo creation or whatever you conspiracy theorists may insinuate. She's Food Editor of one of the world's largest online news sites. Let's not denigrate people irresponsibly on the web (though some people think that's what it's for) -- especially a well-meaning blog that strives to be credible.

Well, I am no conspiracy theorist: I am a person who is rightfully cynical about media manipulation of my brainwaves, and rigidly cynical when I perceive MARKETING to be at the center of what I ingest, orally or aurally or visually or otherwise.

But I wrote Morgan back, and promised to post here about HOW WRONG I WAS when I questioned whether Ms. Maggie Nemser was a corporate invention. (Which wasn't really what I thought, in my heart of hearts.)

I wrote back immediately:

Morgan:

You're right: that IS hilarious.

I am just one big giant crab right now, and hopefully you saw the POSITIVE comments I left on her post at the Yahoo site. She did a good job.

I am currently embroiled in a big flap online with marketers, and am suspicious of everything that remotely smacks of being dressed up for public consumption. Take Yahoo's "Real Food" campaign (for example). There is a brouhaha among food bloggers about how it should be called a "Surreal Food" campaign. Because mayonnaise in a jar, made with untraditional (manufactured) ingredients isn't what most of us ("us" being food bloggers who care about the quality of ingredients) consider to be "real" food. Thus the whole thing is tainted with the stench of corporate food, aka "agribusiness." Some of us who care about such things are irked at the presumption of using the word "Real" in conjunction with what is not real. Just as we are irked at the government, who is considering approving 35 completely NON ORGANIC ingredients for the production of food which will then no longer be organic at all.

I did see some Google result about Maggie [edited: presiding over the marriage of] her cousin, after getting her ministry online. (Me, too: I'm surely one of the very first Universal Life ministers to have accessed the forms, way back in the mid-Nineties.)

I'll post an amendment when I can, and assure you that it's not Maggie, but the Corporate Powers That Be, who have got me rankled.

More anon, and thanks,
Tana

Here is a link to the Real Food section at Yahoo.

DISCLAIMER: I have food in jars and boxes in my house. I have purchased many jars of Hellman's and Best Foods mayonnaise—mostly because that's what I grew up with and didn't know any better. But I would never promote their brand, certainly not as an integral part of a recipe, or even as a choice anyone else should make. Currently I'm looking for a good organic one, and will probably go the way of Spectrum...

The point is, I know I'm a sinner. I know I fall short of my own ideals, usually for financial reasons and sheer laziness, and because there are some things I'm not willing to give up. (Like my morning tea, with its carbon footprint thousands of miles long.)

But I am not being paid to promote unhealthy corporate "food." I am certainly not part of someone's $1.5 million advertising budget.

The other day, Logan and I were at the art supply store. He pointed to a box of Pepperidge Farm Goldfish (strategically placed at his eye-level), and said, "That's junk food, Nana." And the lady next to me? Her mouth dropped open, and she gave me a little smattering of applause. I am teaching him what REAL food is, and that it's more what my daughter calls "ingredients" (in other words, fresh produce, pasta, eggs, you name it). We use canned tomatoes and other packaged foods. I rarely make my own chicken stock—if it's so easy, please come to my house and make it for me, so I can get out of the kitchen and do the next thing on my ever-lengthening list.

I may be compromising on occasion, and making the equivalent of a Rachael Ray 30-minute meal, but this is not what I aspire to. I can't abide the Rachael Ray wannabes (or the Paula Deen mentality, or that horrid Sandra Lee, who as we all know is really Anne Coulter with an apron).

Compromise I will not in this regard: I will not buy supermarket meat from factory farmers. And anyone who's trying to sell that stuff can just bite me. (I'm organic! I'm free-range! I'm humanely raised. Well, once I moved away from the childhood home, that is, and escaped my older sister.)

Maggie Nemser, wherever you are, keep up the good work, and try to escape the promotional hoops they will undoubtedly want you to jump through.

That's all for today. Go eat a peach.

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: “A Georgia peach, a real Georgia peach, a backyard great-grandmother's orchard peach, is as thickly furred as a sweater, and so fluent and sweet that once you bite through the flannel, it brings tears to your eyes.” — Melissa Fay Greene, Praying for Sheetrock

And that's all from this Georgia Peach until next time.

Comments

[GaryM]

C'mon, quit apologizing for having a jar of mayo in the fridge. Many of us would love to drop off the grid, have a zero carbon footprint, and eat only what has been raised within walking distance. Our generation (baby boomers) are too old and set in our ways to change quickly, but we can change, albeit incrementally.

[Jennifer Jeffrey]

Tana, you're wonderful precisely because you're imperfect, just like the rest of us, but more so because your frustration is tempered with understanding and awareness.

Your sandwich sounds SO good! Grilled peaches + cheese + basil = summer.

[Meredith]

Re: Good jarred mayo

I don't know if you have one nearby, or how you feel about the company, but Trader Joe's has a good organic mayo. It's the closest I've had to the homemade stuff.

Tana,
I love your site and your powerful voice.

[Jody]

Grilled Cheese with Apricot is also amazing!

[Ginger]

Just found your blog today and so glad I did! Try grilling your peaches (on the flame grill) and topping with honey and blue cheese and pepper.

[Thomas]

I actually found this article when I googled "Maggie Nemser" after seeing her picture in an article in Yahoo food. I was looking for her because I was curious how someone who appears to be about twenty-three could have had time to have done all the stuff that it says she's done in her bio. I must admit I was also hoping that she was some kind of food celebrity that I'd never heard of and that I would find other articles with more pictures of her, because I thought she was really pretty. I also must admit that when I saw basically no mention of her on the internet (other than the wedding one and right here) the same thoughts you mentioned in your earlier article crossed my mind, that she probably was an image of somebody and a name made up by yahoo to make their article look better. So I guess I'm cynical too. Nice to know that I was wrong, though. Maybe I shouldn't think that way as much as I do, but I probably still will. I'm glad I read your article also for the sandwich idea, which sounds really good. I'm going to have to have one of those as soon as possible, unfortunately it's 1130 and the store is closed. I really like your writing, I'm going to read more.

[Robin]

I was just bringing the coffee mug to my lips when I read that Sandra Lee is Ann Coulter in an apron. Thankfully I'm the only one awake at 5:20 a.m. and nobody heard my mug bang to my desk and me snort and laugh out loud.

If you open and close the fridge door enough times the contents shift and you can find that one yummy thing you've been waiting for.

The peaches look wonderful. It will be years before I have them on my farm so I'll drool over yours til then.

[jimmy combs]

Maggie Nemser is gorgeous too!

[Neil Robinson]

Enjoyed your exchange about Maggie Nemser. I ended up at your web site after googling (is that upper case) Maggie's name. I also suspected Maggie Nemser was a corporate creation, although I wondered how they got someone to allow the photo to be posted (she looks so real and her smile is so genuine). I was pleased to find my suspicion rebutted; and your peachy grilled cheese sandwich came along with the intellectual satisfaction. Is this a great medium, or what? Have you tried the sandwich with frozen peaches?