Gifted Gourmet

Wellll, and only since you asked so sweetly, Carrot Top, a start might be my classic vanilla purist cheesecake, maybe a Heath bar with an Oreo crust, a lemon cheesecake, a marble cheesecake, and a deep dark chocolate truffle .. used to make an 12 inch cheesecake when I was in the catering business ... not cheap but soooo worth the calories, or so the customers told me and each other ...

The cake in the photo is really more commercial (for the Peninsula Grill) in size, not for home baking ... so, if I remember correctly, and the recipe is from 2001, I think I halved it ... and made just 3 layers of the 6 ... I simply recall that it came out deliciously and I haven't made it again because of dietary concerns... and only I eat coconut in this house so it would fall to me to eat it all by myself ... poor little me ...

Why do you think he said this? Possibly because the grade of the meat was so inferior?

So simple that anyone can make it .. even me .. guess that answers your question ... Voila, the recipe is here!

Cheesecake .... world's most perfect food .. and no one on the island will watch my fat cells expand ...

the Ultimate Coconut Cake from the Peninsula Grill in Charleston, SC This is the Rolls Royce of Coconut Cakes ... After you look at it and are craving it, let me know if you want the recipe ...

Lest you become queasy and anxious, this has nothing to do with a mollusc ... nor should you break out the garlic butter and tongs expecting the hallowed escargot ... says a website from Corinth, Mississippi ... and highly unlikely to replace your much adored White Castle, Jason!

Perhaps the issue of length is why one might opt for this choice of "poaching" ... not everyone has one of those shiny, gleaming, pristine, long salmon poaching pans with the lid ... Interesting thought here: when I looked for salmon+poachers, I got a lot of people with criminal records!! Sign of the times??

Search was not productive ... but we had a GG thread on loading dishwashers and the issues between husbands and wives .. and lots of salmon threads of all types ...

If this is not simply the opening of a humorous piece and you are truly interested: Bob Blumer, the Surreal Gourmet and Blumer says that the setting for pots & pans is overkill ....

ah yes, frying garlic in butter gently ... ummmm... sweetest perfume ever!

I dearly love the smell of bread baking, apple-cinnamon desserts baking, roasting chicken, fragrant chicken soup simmering on the stove top, and caramelizing onions. I do not like the smell of cruciferous vegetables at the point (and after!) they are overcooked, overcooked bitter garlic, too fishy anything. So, eGullet posters one and all, what are your top favorite food smells and least favorite?? Do any remind you or either pleasant or unpleasant childhood memories?

Aha, common denominator here for you, TJHarris: saltiness and items which others view as true un-health foods?

So, and you knew I had a question here, do these "guilty pleasures" all have a common denominator? Their saltiness, greasiness, sugariness, or merely unhealthiness ... providing individual "comfort" to the respective diner? Are we, perhaps, inwardly and secretly pleased that others look askance at these delightful dining demons? Or do we eat them in the privacy of some room where only we can thoroughly delight in them??

Now that I have read this interview with Frank Stitt, read his menu, and have my road map, I think this place may well be worth the 2 hours it takes to get to Birmingham from Atlanta!

I know that there is a story here .. care to elaborate, Jason?

interview/review of Frank Stitt's new cookbook Only seems appropriate that with the inception of eGullet's new Southern Food Culture Forum, we pause and reflect upon Frank Stitt and his book and his ideas about southern cooking .. Have you eaten or read anything by this interesting man? If so, please talk to us ... If you are a devotee of southern foods, even if you live outside the South, do you subscribe to Stitt's theory: Any other southern chefs who have done likewise? Scott Peacock comes to mind instantly ...

For many, and I daresay that the producers of the aforementioned Cool Whip will back me up on this, this topping is considerably easier to open and spoon out than chilling bowls and beaters and then whipping the cream and then washing out the bowl and beaters ... simply defrost and go ... and the success of the original Cool Whip led to even more variations: creamier, dietetic, synthetic, flavors, even aerosol ....

First of all, I must thank you for your most generous compliment! And I am pleased that the threads strike a resonant chord within you! I actually lived in Morocco for two years and it was, as you correctly point out, hardly being stranded ... the mint teas brimming with sweetness and the couscous piled under mounds of savoury and spicy lamb made the meals well worth remembering .. I passed on the sheep's eyeballs, served as a compliment to the guest .. that far I was unable to go ...

Perhaps another interesting question worth asking about classic southern banana pies is who ever got the idea to use Nabisco (or something similar) Vanilla Wafers to the finished product? Is this how these pies were originally conceived? What was used before these Vanilla Wafers were invented in southern pies?

For many people who lead busy lives, there is probably not much interest in going through the effort of whipping egg whites and then browning the classic meringue when it is quicker and easier and equally attractive to use a topping like Cool Whip (which complements the creaminess of the banana filling) ... not regional but simplicity probably dictates this method ... nobody is looking to wash another mixing bowl these days ...

Tasso Serrano Prosciutto (pork this time, not duck!) Parma Westphalian CB Radios

Not familiar with the Candy Onion ... what a great name! But, if you want to use it in recipes, you might be able to substitute the Vidalia sweet onions, which grow not too far from me here in Georgia: many right here!

Ahhhh, the very ingredients in my favorite homemade chilled casserole ...

Manresa Chez Panisse Gary Danko have to think over the other two .. don't live in the Bay area (just visit)