I was relatively late to sign on to the computer
revolution for this reason. When I started working
with the things in 1971 or 1972 I thought they
would be the greatest disaster in history for
civilization. I was right, but the guys touting
the benefits were also right.

I started a bit more than a decade before that, and by then I was making
a living working with computers. But, it was probably at least a decade
more before I had one that I owned.

In graduate school, between gigs I worked in
a hospital appointments office with a bunch of
amazing misfits - a would-be tennis pro who
thought that as he was relatively good at
tennis he should be considered an expert at
everything; a narcoleptic depressed old lady;
a fresh immigrant from Israel who had a fine
intellect, but nobody would speak to him, he
thought because he was Jewish but in fact
because he never, ever bathed; my boss, a
quite cute recent Simmons grad who had been
an ugly duckling as a kid and recently had been
displaced in the family by her father marrying
a barely-legal chippie years younger than her;
and myself, who would duck out of to play
concerts at little notice. We were in the main
hospital building, connecting to the computer
center via 300-baud modems. Of course, the
appointments got lost regularly as the parity
errors proliferated. At some point they gave
me a standalone IBM box that was the size of
a refrigerator-freezer and processed data
about as well.

Title: COQUILLE ST.JACQUES SAVOIE

I'm pretty sure I've seen that recipe.

From "Seasonal Kitchen, a Celebration of Fresh Foods" by Perla Meyers.

Ah - a cookbook I used to hold in reasonably
high esteem but never as I recall cooked from.

Butternut squash and sweet potato soup with Indian spices
categories: starter
servings: 4 to 6

1 Tb unsalted butter
2 Tb corn or peanut oil
1 lg onion, peeled and diced
1 ts ground cumin
1/4 ts ground coriander
1 md to lg butternut squash, peeled, seeded, cubed
2 md sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
6 c chicken stock or chicken bouillon
1/2 c heavy cream (optional)
s, p
1 pn cayenne pepper
1 pn freshly grated nutmeg
h - for garnish
fresh cilantro or mint leaves
creme fraiche
1 pear, peeled, cored, diced fine

Melt the butter with the oil in a heavy
casserole over medium heat. Add the onion
and cook until soft but not browned. Add
the cumin and coriander and stir for 1 min.
Add the squash, sweet potatoes and stock
and simmer for 25 min, or until the
vegetables are very soft.

Strain the broth and return it to the
casserole. Puree the vegetables in a food
processor, whisk the puree back into the
broth and simmer for 2 to 3 min. Add the
cream to thin the consistency and heat just
through. Season carefully with salt and
black pepper, cayenne pepper and nutmeg.
Serve hot, garnished with cilantro or mint
leaves or with a dollop of creme fraiche
and a sprinkling of diced ripe pear.

Perla Meyers, Spur of the Moment Cook
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