mukki

You could always pilgrimage to Langers...

Ah, it's in stock at K&L. Will pick up a bottle on Friday.

Lucky me that I can get all of those within a 5 minute drive of my house (Beltramo's and K&L). However, I cannot get Marie Brizard or Luxardo Amaretto at either of those places, so I would add those to my wish list. If I still lived near Hi-Times in Costa Mesa, CA, then I might be in luck.

I used to buy an exceptionally thick cream from Trader Joe's in southern California that I think was was manufacturing cream. Came in a blue/white bottle and always had a thick plug of cream at the top. Lasted in the fridge for a long time. I'm guessing it was produced by Alta Dena. Not available in the northern part of the state.

I've been looking forward to trying this and live near K&L, but nobody there seems to have heard of it. Hoping that will change soon.

I have a few of the Libbey ones, and, yes, I feel they're a bit clunky. I've also found a few at Anthropologie stores, though they tend to have a design element (etched, etc.). I bought 2 which are nice and were on sale for $7 each, not bad. Here's a different one with poor reviews due to breakage: http://www.anthropologie.com/anthro/catalog/productdetail.jsp?id=073413&catId=HOME-TABLETOP-GLASSWARE&pushId=HOME-TABLETOP-GLASSWARE&popId=HOME&navCount=315&color=100&isProduct=true&fromCategoryPage=true&isSubcategory=true&subCategoryId=HOME-TABLETOP-GLASSWARE-STEM They seem to be getting more popular. Here are a few from PB (can't tell how big the one in the first link is): http://www.potterybarn.com/products/pb-classic-stemware/?pkey=cstemware http://www.potterybarn.com/products/alessandra-etched-recycled-glass-stemware/?pkey=cstemware

It looks like all the 2011 cookbooks I'm interested in have been published; here are the ones I'm keeping: - Foods of Morocco (Wolfert) - Mourad: New Moroccan - Mozza - PDT Cocktail Book - The Italian Baker, Revised (never bought the original, not sure how much I'll use this one) - Momofuku Milk Bar - Make the Bread, Buy the Butter (have been following her blog for a while, kind of a fun book which has convinced me to try making Camembert at home) - Sweet Confections: Beautiful Candy to Make at Home (hate the title, but I bought it for the pumpkin and chocolate caramel recipes) - Les Petits Macarons - Jeni's Splendid Ice Creams A few that I thought I would like and thus pre-ordered, but ended up being returned: The Food of Spain (did exactly nothing for me, despite the nice photography) Off the Menu Sugar Baby So, what's up for 2012?

New York Flip from Joseph Schwartz (Little Branch) via the Speakeasy Cocktails app. I had one at Silver Lining a few weeks ago and this was just as good. 1 oz bourbon 3/4 oz tawny port 3/4 oz simple (I used 1:1 demerera) 1/2 oz cream 1 egg yolk Shake with ice and grate nutmeg on top.

That's funny, I can't find a recipe for Ti Punch in my copy of Joy of Mixology. And you are right, although the above cocktail does look tasty, it's not a typical Ti Punch (you'd have to use rhum agricole for a start!). What kind of falernum did you use? Sorry, I referenced the wrong book! It's in The Craft of the Cocktail on page 192. I used Taylor's Velvet Falernum.

"Ti Punch" I use parentheses since it doesn't match what I understand a real Ti Punch to be. Nevertheless, it's based off the Ti Punch recipe in The Joy of Mixology, so that's what I'm calling it: 1.5 oz. Appleton Reserve* 3/4 oz. lime juice 1/3 oz. falernum 1/3 oz. Demerara sugar syrup (1:1) Shake with ice and a drop of water. *I've tried both Appleton Reserve and Appleton Extra and prefer the former.

My gnudi recipe hunt is over. Lynch's ricotta gnudi are delicious. I make them with Calabro ricotta and often have a batch in the freezer for a quick lunch with browned butter and sage.

This is the cream I was referring to up thread. I haven't bought it since 2008, but I remember there was always a thick plug of cream at the top (almost solid, really) and it whipped very quickly. I assume it just has more butterfat than the others. I've bought the Strauss cream before in the glass bottle, but I like the yellower, thicker Clover better.

Half and Half is supposed to be 12% butterfat and single cream 20% butterfat. I've never seen light cream sold here in California. My favorite cream was the one I bought at Trader Joe's in southern California in the blue/white bottles. I read somewhere that it's actually manufacturer's cream. Can't find it in northern California. The Clover organic cream I buy now lists only "certified organic grade A cream" under ingredients.

Ethiopian food: tried it and it didn't come anywhere close to the food I get in restaurants. Just not worth the learning curve. Chorizo (Mexican): never tastes as juicy and tasty as the commercial stuff. I'm probably not getting enough juicy pig parts and extra fat in the mix, though there seems to be something lacking in the spicing, too... OJ is one thing I *won't* buy when I can squeeze Valencias at home. I used to be able to get good fresh-squeezed juice at restaurants here in CA, but in the past year, it always tastes pasteurized when I order it. Not sure if there's a new law on the books or something...

I was charged $200 for installation of my Wolf rangetop, so it doesn't sound outrageous.

For anyone who's interested, a revised version of Carol Field's "The Italian Baker" will be published this fall.

I run operations at a start-up in Silicon Valley and have 2 options set up for now ~ one is a Cuisinart grind 'n brew (drip) with freshly roasted beans from Blue Bottle and the other is a Keurig machine with various pods. And wouldn't you know it? Everyone uses the Keurig because they're too lazy to run the drip machine. I guess it's a good thing I didn't spring for a Technivorm!

I've only spent a small amount of time with it, but I'm disappointed. Too many recipes I'm not interested in (rock candy, chocolate-covered pretzels, etc). I also don't like the fact that he uses sweetened condensed milk and a lot of corn syrup in his caramel recipes.

As someone who is always looking forward to the next cookbook, I'd like to know: what cookbooks coming out in 2010 are you looking forward to? Here are a few of mine: Chocolates and Confections at Home by Peter Greweling. Looks to be filled with wide variety of chocolates and candies and hopefully not as complicated as his earlier book. Paris Patisseries: History, Shops, Recipes (foreward by Pierre Herme -- I thought the author was Julia Hung, but this info seems to have disappeared from Amazon). Not much info on this one, but I ordered it anyway. Tender v. 2: A Cook's Guide to the Fruit Garden by Nigel Slater. Bought v. 1 (vegetables) and have really enjoyed reading it. Chapters are organized by vegetable and includes gardening tips.

Went for the first time recently and *loved* the crack pie. I'm definitely going to try making this at home. Cookies were not as compelling as I thought they would be (blueberry, compost and cornflake). They exude an extraordinary amount of grease/butter, too -- soaked through the wrapper and into a paper box nestled nearby. I actually thought some greasy leftovers had spilled, but it turned out to be the cookies, which was oddly disturbing. I'm not a fan of the soft serve (have tried cereal, sweet potato and pie crust). All seem too salty without enough sweet to balance. I regret not trying the candy bar pie and the strawberry milk -- next time!

I received the November (and last) issue in the mailbox yesterday, which turned out to be a total snore. While I was saddened at the news, I have to say that I probably won't miss it all that much.

These aren't necessarily must-have books, but ones that I'll be checking out to see if worth buying. French Feasts: 229 Traditional Recipes for Family Meals and Gatherings by Stephane Reynaud. DamGoodSweet: Desserts to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth, New Orleans Style Stir: Mixing it up in the Italian Tradition by Barbara Lynch (chef owner of No. 9 Park in Boston, among other eateries).

I watched the show last night and thought the exact SAME thing! Never had Baltimore Pit Beef, but it sure looked good.

I don't know about the results, but there are a bunch of raccoon deterrents sold on the internet (e.g., pellets). Might be worth a try? I think raccoons are quite cute, but one of them killed my SO's cat a few years ago when the cat poked around in the crawl space where raccoons had been known to raise young. His sister heard the commotion and never saw the cat again.

I have a set I bought from Costco a few years ago. I believe it's the Profeserie line. While you asked what people like about it, I'll tell you what I don't like -- things often burn around the bottom edge, where the disk stops. Liquids tend to spatter. Maybe I have the heat too high, but it doesn't happen with my other cookware. At this point, I can't help but think "cheap" when I look at them. Ironically, I'm planning on replacing these with the All Clad Copper Core. I know that most here would suggest copper instead, but I have one Falk copper saucier and, while I use it often, I don't care for the clean up. I'm not into the well-used copper look. I know All Clad requires clean up to keep it looking nice, but in my opinion copper *deserves* to look clean and shiny! I love how it looks after I scrub it down with BKF. Plus, the handle is constantly rusting, even with the occasional mineral oil application (interesting that this hasn't happened to my Mauviel saucepan).