Priscilla

Yay TDG! Excellent logoage, too. Exciting!

What a cute baby! And, glad to see the traditional, well-fed, foodblog kitties. This is so interesting. Tammy, in planning the group meal, are there any proscribed ingredients or dishes? What has been your most popular group meal menu?

Wowee what a great report from not-long-for-Mlle. Cat! And like you, MtheC, I am SO going to Commander's Palace on Good Friday, SO going, I cannot express how so I am going.

Fantastic looking dishes, Jason. Elie's eGCI Lebanese course is a treasure trove. Why aren't I keeping a supply of garlic sauce in the fridge at all times? Better start.

OK, Miz Mags: Dusting, listening to the Kill Bill Part 1 soundtrack, attritting the return-to-stacks stack stacked on the stairs. Came up with 642 food-related. (I know I've got some additionals out in the barn, inhabiting the precarious limbo between meriting shelf space and being bunged into the Friends of the Library bag, but I won't add any that don't reinsinurate themselves.)

Your kitchen is beeyootiful, Daddy-A! So clean-lined and livable. Have clients ever asked about your own kitchen?

Cute doggies. D-A, it would it be possible, as you blog along, to have a little information about what a kitchen designer chooses for his own cooking environment? I for one would be interested. In the espresso machine photo above, what material is the strip of molding along where the counter meets the backsplash? I think this intersection point can be a problematic detail in a lot of kitchens, but yours looks clean and finished.

Despite an inchoate intention to branch out, last evening roasted asparagus with excellent olive oil, sea salt, and pepper was it again. Suited the menu, the available time, and so forth -- inexorably pointed straight to what was the right thing to do. And no complaints! Seems like a good year for asparagus.

Wow Chufi that sounds good. Is the soup put into the oven as the dumplings go in? Basilgirl your post reminds me of the nice green apple I have in the crisper bought expressly to make Nero's OoE soup again. Today is the day, as there is also the serendipitous 1 c. of heavy cream kicking around. I think it can't help but be heavenly with your way value-added grilled cheese. I will serve it later in the week with whatever shape the leftovers from tonight's Nigella-inspired 24-hour pork shoulder assume.

Second asparagus dish of 2005 (the first was a nice pureed soup, not thick, full of asparagus flavor): Last night roasted fairly skinny spears with excellent olive oil, fresh-ground pepper, sea salt. So good. Looking forward to all the old faves and some new preparations, too. As I said over in the soup discussion, I have issued the standard March warning to my family, look out, asparagus ahead. Nobody minded at all, in fact.

OK, I made Anthony's Les Halles mushroom soup yesterday, for serving tonight. Have not yet added the sherry, as per his directions. Thinking a teensy duxelles garni would not go amiss, but may not get that far tonight. What an incredible soup! Instant staple. Next up, more asparagus soup, I fear. Issued the usual March asparagus warning to my family. (S edit.)

Adam, what a treat this has been!

Inspiring ingredients. What is next to the orange, top right? Is it a cut-open pomegranate? Long red onions look like red versions of Japanese long onions, what will be their fate? Was your menu set by the time you've composed this photo, or is it still in process?

Asparagus soup yesterday, will bring some to my Mom when I see her this week. Cut asparagus simmered barely covered in chicken stock until very tender (tips simmered and removed for later garnish), run through the old Mouli on the finest screen, back on the stove, heavy cream added, simmered. Always happy to see the return of asparagus season.

Patience, Priscilla (I do so love alliteration!). Even if I had any virtues, patience wouldn't be one of 'em!However, I shall for now myself now with your:

Quiche is only one of the finest dishes in the universe. I do not need reintroduction as it has never left -- my cooking world anyways. Because of my high regard for quiche I do appreciate someone of Thomas Keller's impeccable reputation boosting it. That deep removable-bottom tart pan specified in Russ Parson's very good article, however, I shall forever associate with early Williams-Sonoma catalogues -- with the purpose of a deeper, more custardy quiche stated in the copy. In my mind I credit Chuck Williams himself, and for so many other items that have become iconic, or at least taken for granted.

Therese, when will you get to talking about your range? I put the same one (looks like) in my kitchen last fall! What others did you compare it to when choosing? How's it working? Blog on!

And then cold larder for storage? Or refrigerated? (Not that there is anything resembline a cold larder where I live, even during [what passes for] winter here.) In my kitchen the freezer is way underutilized real estate, and I am coming around to exploring freezing -- as long as the loss of quality that has kept me anti-freezer all these years is controllable.

Adam, was the family's boar ragu from the freezer? Or some sort of cold larder? What is the traditional conserving method for ragu? (Important research, for me: Froze my own ragu for the very first time recently, after nearly 20 years of making it and never ever freezing. It came out of the freezer perfectly -- having benefited, even, from the cold storage. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's influence has loosened my anti-freezing ethic a bit, and I'm experimenting.)

Adam, incredibly inspiring, jealous-making photos. Looking forward to moremoremore. Any shots of markets in the offing?

Today I made tuna salad with (the wondrous the beautiful fridge staple) Best Foods orange top, the lime-juice mayonesa. Like the Best Foods I grew up with, only better. And then for dinner we happened to be having a composed salad, including beef & potatoes and h.b. eggs, for which I made a mayonnaise with an egg and grapeseed oil and a good hit of mustard and minced shallot. Also there's the squishy bottle of Kewpie mayonnaise at the ready. Recently met a guy from QP USA who informed me that it's its being made in a vacuum that accounts for its superdense velvetyness. Its acid is rice vinegar, which also contributes to its flavor profile -- perfect for lots of things, but not a replacement for Best Foods orange top, or homemade, neither. Mayonnaise, may she be many and varied.

Making soup today, for future consumption -- NeroW's One of Each again! Have not yet plumbed all the depths of its intrigue.

Ah yes, gezellig, the untranslatable Dutch word! Yes, I think that does describe a sort of homely, down to earth style of entertaining (or just having a family dinner at home), that suits me very well. Not always effortless though.. ← Oh my goodness, not actually effortless, of course! Just somehow the effort behind the hospitality is not visited upon the guests. A very good thing, guest-wise, seems to me. And please forgive my complete and total ignorance of Dutch language cases!

Wonderful chronicle, Chufi. Immediately in my mind was gezeligheid -- a word a Dutch friend gave me to describe the common-sensical graciousness and hospitality Dutch women effortlessly exude.

Got some especially nice oak in a recent firewood delivery. The Consort split some up smaller to fit in the old Weber and cooked two big 3-inch-thick ribeyes over a wood fire. Sliced and arrayed on winter salad mix dressed with olive oil and white wine vinegar, with discs of maitre d'hotel butter melting atop. An excellent baguette from the magical treasure that is Cream Pan Bakery, thanks to Jschyun's putting me onto it. Resolve to cook over oak all the time.