Priscilla

Foodblog visiting! I love visiting. Megan having dinner at Daniel's is like when Dan Tanna has the walk-on at the end of "Angels in Vegas" or when the Angels went on the Love Boat or maybe more like when Farrah returned for Season 2 special eps. Ultracool. Megan, you do such a good job showing NYC, and filling your life with good things. Thanks for blogging.

Last night, TV Dinner. Chicken thigh meat marinated in ginger, a little garlic, mirin, a little soy, tossed in cornstarch, deep fried. Thai sweet chili sauce for dipping. Coconut jasmine rice. Broccoli w/mayonnaise. Sake. 3 eps of Ricky Gervais' new-to-DVD show, Extras. Very very very funny, with bonus Love Gifts for EastEnders watchers.

A complete and easy-to-navigate index is a big Love Gift wherever one appears. I singlemindedly habitually go to the back of any book when looking for anything, so I don't even know if some of my cookbooks have tables of contents or not. I like to be able to look up by ingredient as well as dish name and dish type; Gwendolyn's Pumpkin Souffle, in my ideal index would be cross-referenced and quickly findable under pumpkin, souffle, AND Gwendolyn's. An esoteric counterexample is my 10-year+ subscription to King Arthur Flour's Baking Sheet newsletter. Its annual index is so difficult to use it's a testament to how good the content is that I use it all the time. The collection bristles with Post-It notes so that I can find what I want quickly. But I would SO prefer an easy-to-rip-through index. Years after assembling the cmplete Time-Life Foods of the World I happened upon the pamphlet cross-indexing all the volumes... a treasure.

I don't keep mine on the counter when not in use, a combination of very very little counter space and not liking appliances stored out in the open. So I couldn't even if I wanted to. Which I don't. Only the Dualit, among all the appliances, gets to live on the counter. Pilafs and so forth, with sauteed or browned ingredients, as Chris mentions up there, I have not done in the rice cooker, although I know people do. Saute ingredients and then continue in the cooker, I can see that working. I have cooked basmati in a modified chelo style when we need a big amount, and it worked very well, even if it lacked the crusty bottom layer that develops when chelo is prepared in a pan. But the rice itself was just right.

Chris, I have had the same rice cooker for a little over a year. Fantastic machine. At first I felt a twinge relegating to cold storage my faithful Hitachi Chime-o-Matic, which had uncomplainingly, unfailingly, made very good rice for fully 22 years, but I got over it. After the first batch from the Zo, I was over it. A small unforeseen benefit was even though I remain distrustful of no-rinse rice, (and the Nishiki brand I have bought for years is now all Musenmai, no-rinse), using the special setting on the Zo it comes out very nice. Most of the time I'm cooking rice that take rinsing, though, and results have been excellent. (And coincidentally, just last evening, cracked open a brand-new bag of New Crop Jasmine and oh my goodness, it was so delicious.)

What I have is pithless zest from tangerines, removed with a veg peeler. The dried orange and tangerine peels I have seen in Asian stores seem to have pith left on, but Dejah covers removing that in her instructions.

Pulp Fiction?? J.T.?? ← Yes, it's Quentin. Also right there, observance of cultural differences in re mayonnaise use on fries.

Royale with cheese.

Everything just seems to go better when my husband and 15-year-old son can assume a Korova/World Peace dough log or 2 in the freezer. I've made the last couple batches w/Maldon salt--really good.

OK, I looked., Wow, I can hope mine bears a passing resemblance. And yay on the vinegar question, because that means I already have everything! Thanks again, Dejah.

Dejah, that sounds wonderful, thank you so much. Sauce and crispness, that is it, the crust just beginning to respond to the sauce a little. What kind of vinegar, black?

Hello, denizens of the Chinese Cuisine forum: I would like to make Tangerine Peel Beef. I don't mind essential sweetness, my favorite restaurant versions have had a judicious amount, balanced with red chile heat and intense tangerineyness. I have dried tangerine peel (from the last of my own Satsumas), very aromatic, which is what gave me this idea in the first place. Light cornstarch marinade/coating for the beef prior to its initial frying, no? Thanks in advance for any guidance.

I like that Butter linoleum. Is Piccolo really piccolo? He'll be glad to get his kittens, I bet, after losing his companion.

I haven't had the new, putatively improved McDonald's, but their coffee is a mainstay of road trips, is often freshly made, and there is real 1/2 & 1/2 provided, even if dread ultra-pasteurized. Starbucks coffee is just so bad, SO bad. Doesn't need to be that bad, and shouldn't be that bad. It is a SIN it is so bad. What, do they squeeze .0003 more cups of coffee out of each lb. by overroasting it to that degree? Pfui.

Philadelphians: No weeniecello? Last evening we had take-in sushi for 2, + sake.

Do you remember where this was covered? In his winner's interview on the Food & Wine website, Ilan says he didn't get along with the chef at Craft and was fired, but that today they are "good friends." Or similar.

Today I read that Ilan worked as a line cook at Tom Colicchio's restaurant! Very disappointing that this was not addressed on the show, esp. when contrasted with the explicit disclaimer staged for the much less worrisome connection cheftestant Mike had with TGI Friday's. Canned eels. Pfui.

Wow I am SO making Cheater Pickles right quick here. Thanks, Rachel! The only pickles I make regularly are Japanese, quick cucumber and other veg, and longer-ferment napa. For dill pickles and cornichon types I rely on the Middle Eastern market, which has an entire aisle devoted to the category. But no sweet chips; Cheater Pickles are just what i need.

Aw Rachel, just lovely. If it wasn't so unladylike, I would have to say that your pickle descriptions are downright salivation-inducing. Those shelves--what ineffable wealth. Somethng about pickles, some combination of ancient and contemporary, satisfaction and refreshment. Essential, in every way a food can be.

Yum! Recipe, please? ← Thank you, George, but they were only very simple, just sliced baguette toasted on one side, buttered and immodestly Emmenthalered on the untoasted side and then broiled, before serving in the onion soup. Last evening, lasagne with ragu Bolognese, lashings of bechamel, some fresh mozz that was kicking around, and Parmigiano. Butter lettuce salade, seedy baguette.

Jennifer, your design is fabulous. Can't wait to see more in progress. Speaking freak to freak, if I may, I wonder: Did you consider (and reject) running your backsplash all the way up to the bottom of the cabs?

i do need to talk more about quinn and i will post more pics. he is my essential kitchen helper. quinn is a rough collie, about 60 lbs. easy to confuse with a sheltie as people are more used to seeing those these days than collies and i didn't give you a good comparison shot in the pics. in my avatar you can kinda see how big he is. ← Oh, sorry! Collie, even better. He just seemed so fine-boned I hazarded a guess. I can see in your avatar his relative size. Very pretty and sweet.

Wow looks good Chufi. I love pea soup. Soup here last evening, too, French onion w/Emmenthaler croutons, a help in using beef stock I'd made previously. And even a little rain, adding welcome evocativeness.

Wonderful to see all the bread being made in this blog. Pam, that rainbow shot is beeyootiful. Our borscht tradition doesn't include marrow bones, but oh my goodness do I want to include them next time. Judith, are more Sheltie pix in our collective future? Susan, I am adamantly, not to say militantly, in favor of children being able to do what they like with their hair. And your perfectly knitted potholders--I am envious, as knitting has successfully eluded me my whole life. I esp. like that soft cotton yarn.

Last evening, Poularde Brillat-Savarin, from the old Conran Cookbook, a chicken cooked w/ butter in a covered pot, mushrooms added, sauce made from reduced cooking juices, little added stock, hit of sherry, cream. (Sir Terrance, or maybe then-wife Caroline, notes this is a good dish, luxurious and simple to prepare, and I have to agree.) Potatoes tossed in chicken fat and oven-roasted, nice butter lettuce salade dressed with mustardy shalloty vinaigrette. Improbably old Columbia Crest white wine off-loaded from a friend's mother's basement, improbably chardonnay, improbably good, esp. w/ the mild sherry note in the sauce. Ficelle from the Vietnamese French baker.