My husband Esteban lives and dies by new technology, which means we're early adapters of all things electronic, but hiding in our bedroom is one dirty little secret: a first generation Tivo with a teeny tiny hard drive that only holds about 8 hours of programming. The reason? You see, when I came back home after spending a life-altering summer in England back in 1996, the only thing that appeased my Anglo-sickness was to watch the nightly airing of a Two Fat Ladies rerun. And from that point forward, each night when we went to bed, we watched them make airy little cakes and buttery canapés, and then regale us with saucy tales, from Jennifer's childhood or Clarissa's career as a top barrister. What does this have to do with my Tivo? Well, Food Network stopped airing Two Fat Ladies back in 2002 and I've got two precious episodes stored on that Tivo's hard drive and Esteban is unable to guarantee that he'll be able to transfer the contents of the hard drive without harming my Fat Ladies, which would make me cry. And so we do nothing.

But! Next month, all episodes of the Two Fat Ladies will be available on DVD! I am ecstatic!

You see, I love them so very much. I love that they use butter. I love that they get indignant about American bacon and wax poetic on good proper English bacon (something with which I heartily agree). I love that they embrace occasional decadence while agreeing that you should not waste your time with inferior ingredients because the end result is just as inferior. There's a school of thought that if you feed your body exactly what your heart desires and do not deny yourself little luxuries, that you will begin to eat intuitively and no longer try to fill the void with replacements or fake foods, and I believe that the Two Fat Ladies are really embracing this ideal.  Clearly, it's a television show that loves to scandalize the viewer with exorbitant amounts of butter and carbs, but really, the Ladies break out some really delicious veggie and lower fat items as well. For instance, scallops with leeks? Definitely not an egregious amount of butter. And they loathed junk food. Clarissa said of a McDonald's hamburger: "It tasted like something died on a wet bun." HA! How can you not love that? The Fat Ladies introduced me to artichokes, taught me how to make a tea sandwich and also, proved to me that it was possible to live without taking stick from anyone.

These ladies refused to apologize for their size and, in fact, by calling themselves Two Fat Ladies, they gave me the courage to identify myself as such without even a bit of remorse. Sadly, one half of the duo, Jennifer Patterson, died of lung cancer in 1999. She's one of two celebrity deaths that have actually caused me to weep and go through a grieving process (Mr. Rogers being the other). Gone with her are the delightful (and somewhat drunken) litanies on the beauty of fava beans with anchovies, or the grumpy gestures with the cigarettes that were her undoing.