A Whistlestop visit to the land of home cooking!

Started work very early today - I have the English version of a magazine to complete by the end of January for EPFL, the polytechnic institute in Lausanne, Switzerland (thus, my relative silence here). I had a lovely surprise visit from the good folks at the Whistlestop Café who are writing a blog these days and who were kind enough to say they feel right at home here!

I have never been to the café itself, not an oversight but just a fact of life: my wanderings around the globe have never landed me in Alabama. I'm beginning to think I should head that way. I paid the café's web site a visit back when I set up this blog in 2005, to make sure there wouldn't be a problem with the name I was using. It seemed our businesses were different enough - international journalism versus good home cookin' - that it would not be a problem.

Now, looking at those delicious recipes and the food I'm thinking I'd better offer to be their European distributor - special deal on all food for me, of course! Sandi, maybe you would like me to become one of your pie bakers? Over on Flickr I have a pie fan club of sorts - if you go to my Flickr page and search for pie you'll find about 50 photos.

And, I'm yet another redhead, to boot (well, it's a bit gray these days). Apparently Sandi and Bill are redheads.

If any of the rest of you are still scratching your heads and wondering why their cafe name sounds familiar, you should consider reading Fannie Flagg's book, Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe. The 1991 movie by Jon Avnet is fun, too.

And now, a confession: when I was in Phoenix in September I bought a box of onion ring batter mix at the last minute, in a rush at the supermarket, and got home to Switzerland with it before I realized it was THE onion rings from Whistlestop Cafe. Mmmmm, lucky me.

Just about time for a pecan roll here; wonder if the café has any they could ship over, real fast. The coffee's already on here.