Priscilla

Thank you everyone for carrying on with this -- Black Velvets (as I now call them, if not in the presence of the Englishpersons who brought them to my attention under the Black & Tan monicker) are a very very good drink. We have always used inexpensive Freixenet cava, Carta Nevada or Cordon Negro, for this drink. I like how the Guinness softens and elevates the sparkling.

Adam, is there a critical mass of worm population which makes fish unsafe? Or is it just the unappetizination factor? Do the worms give off anything toxic in the immediately-surrounding flesh, meaning, how wide a swath should one cut around? I've only run into worms once in fish, and I forget which fish -- coulda been cod, does Alaskan/PNW cod ever harbor worms?

I've been advised by more than one English person that Guinness mixed half-and-half with Champagne is called a Black & Tan. However, there are some people, of various origins including English, who insist that the half-and-half Guinness/Champagne drinkie is a Black Velvet. Both are nice enough names. But which is correct? I don't want to be calling my drink by the wrong name tonight right in front of the beef braised in Guinness and the salad with Irish cream dressing and the brown soda bread, do I.

OK, this afternoon I caught myself all nonchalant-like comparison-shopping for pressure cookers. eBay, Amazon.com, you know -- the usual suspects. It's the eGullet Curse. Either that or the eGullet Blessing. Perhaps there was some collaborative encouragement from growing encroachments on available cooking time, or from persistent pleasant memories of my Mom's stuffed rolled flank steak emerging from the cast-aluminum Presto not unlike Botticelli's Venus from the ocean, or from my 12-year-old son being as tall as I am and showing no signs of slowing down in fact speeding up. But still, I mean to say: Who'da thunken?

This is one of the most exciting eGullet discussions ever! The photos are so over-the-top gorgeous. I made the brownies from BWJ on Saturday -- eGullet's Lesley C recommended them long long ago in some other discussion and they have been my default brownies ever since. Superultrafudgey, definitely for fudgey-brownie fans only (as the brownie eaters in my house are), rather than cakey-brownie fans. The PBS Baking with Julia show was hugely inspiring (like this thread!) ... I could hardly stay in my seat through the 30 minutes for wanting to run to the kitchen and get started on whatever that week's chef was demonstrating for Julia. Wonder if it's available for purchase.

Hey, I prepared a chicken-with-rice dish too. Guess it was in the zeitgeist. Chicken thighs, browned/removed, onion, bell pepper, one lonely tomato sauteed, more than a pinch of Aleppo pepper, bay leaf, s & p, the remaining threads of Penzey's superior saffron so now it'll be onto trying the Trader Joe's in the cute little square jar, a hit of white vermouth allowed to boil away, Mahatma long-grain sauteed before water & chicken added back in, lid clapped on, low heat until such time as it was ready. Broccoli blanched, turned in butter in which anchovies had been dissolved. LBB sourdough, salty Plugra. The dread Korbel brut rose.

My present KitchenAid, with the lifty-bowl, is about 15 years old, and the white coating (I don't think it was enamel, more like vinyl or similar) on either the dough hook or the flat paddle, don't remember which, began to give way years ago. I replaced them both with the uncoated aluminum parts, from Culinary Parts Unlimited. (Probably they are available from other sources, too, nowadays, but God Bless CPU for being there all these years.) Don't the tilty-head KA machines have a screwdriverable adjustment for planetary action?

Last evening, tonkatsu, not with the usual tenderloin but with thin rib chops which appealed to me at the pan-Asian supermarket, which as a precaution against toughness I did pound to a fare-thee-well. Very thin, schnitzele-like, very good. Carrot kinpira, marinated soy bean sprouts, snow peas blanched and dressed with Torakris's sesame sauce. Cabbage pickle, the last of my current batch, time to make more, a splash of soy sauce over. Lovely new-crop Nishiki from the cooker. May be the power of suggestion, that little "new-crop" flag on the bag, but wow it might have been the best rice ever, even among Nishiki always being good.

This is very cool. I'm looking forward to following along.

My reaction exactly, Tommy. Traveling-Wilburysesque talent-layering is demeaning. Chris Cognac, maybe you could ask any of the four if he wouldn't prefer to stand or fall on his individual effort, if offered the choice.

Last evening, lasagne with Bolognese and besciamella, quite trad except I for a little grated whole-milk mozz added with the Parmigiano when layering, by special request of the Consort. First trial for Trader Joe's fresh pasta sheets, which have only flour and egg as ingredients, and which were not bad. I did boil and rinse them first, like I would noodles I made, even though they are sold as "no-boil," giving them every chance to perform. And they were as aforementioned not bad, if slightly coarse in their thickness, compared to the silk-charmeuse delicacy of homemade anyways. However, if one can swallow a little thickosity in the noodle area one can have lasagne Bolognese on a weeknight. Nice salad of butter lettuce with a very buttery olive oil from Greece and Balsamic vinegar. Ficelle from the Vietnamese French bakery, salty Plugra.

Thanks so much for posting that link, Carolyn. Joe Coulombe has always been a hero of mine, business-wise, along with Chuck Williams. My first Trader Joe's was a convenient block-and-a-half away from my first apartment, in 1979, if one doesn't count the mid-1960s Pronto Market my parents would sometimes run into for milk and liquor, and I've never been without one since. (Spelling!)

I sure hope it's settled. I have not crossed the picket lines. If the strike is over, shopping-wise it will mean mostly an increased, or returned, degree of convenience -- the regular supermarket is a supplement to our habitual foraging, although largely due to the strike we did develop an excellent beef source, superior to the Certified Angus we liked from Albertson's. I wonder if the employees will be at all the same -- at least two, both nice, are working at the local Trader Joe's presently. Maybe all the inept unpleasant ones will have found other situations and only the smart nice ones will return!

Typical eGullet serendipity ... riffling through a stack of old Bon Appetits over the weekend that a friend passed on I tore out a Tom Colicchio recipe for portobello mushroom tarte tatin, one component of which is his onion confit, which has optional chopped anchovies added near the end. And then, in Sunday's newspaper, in Parade mag, which of COURSE I never read except for Marilyn vos Savant's column NEVER Personality Parade, but there's Tom Colicchio and what he's now calling, at least for the Parade audience, caramelized mushroom tarts, with another take on his onion confit as well. So all weekend I'm dogged by the half-baked thought, where else have I just now been seeing stuff about onion confit -- oh yeah, eGullet! Doy. All the foregoing discussion has been so inspiring. Another vote for this flavor profile: A favorite pizza topping in our house is caramelized onions, Gorgonzola or another blue cheese, and thyme. Confited onions could only make it even better, I think.

I was party to spit-roasting a whole lamb, once. V-shaped sticks stuck in the ground, a long sturdy straight branch denuded of bark for the skewer, minimalistic seasoning, s & p only, as I recall, although there might've been rosemary in there too. Fire beneath, everyone taking turns turning, turning turning turning. Pretty cool overall.

Oh I love anchovies too. And I am glad to see that even a NYT writer has had hit-or-miss luck with the much-recommended salt-packed. I've assumed, when I've gotten the slimy or the dry or the broken or the otherwise not-appealing salt-packed, that it was just me. I love anchovies so much -- with pesto comes immediately to mind, either integrated or atop.

I didn't know that! How did you ever find that out? I'll take the Bordeaux, anyday. I think it was earlier on in this very discussion -- perhaps WAY earlier on. Who was it pointed it out, was it Carolyn Tillie? Was it another See's discussion entirely? If I have the chance I will try to hunt down the citation. Quite as exciting as See's using Guittard, I think, is reading (in the excellent Charles Perry article referenced above) that C&H makes a SPECIAL brown sugar for See's, for See's to use in Bordeaux. Deep Californianiana. Not unlike Joan Didion going to Hawaii on the Lurline.

Last evening, pasta Bolognese. It's funny, isn't it, how something that takes so long to make actually provides nearly instant dinner later on. The time gets invested on one end or the other, in this case the past week-end when I prepared Marcella-style Bolognese sauce with the excellent chuck we were otherwise using for Sunday burgers. With a de Cecco version of square alla chitarra noodles, (which I know only as a fresh-pasta shape), dry in the yellow and blue box, alla de Cecco. Not too bad, but I'm never as thrilled with de Cecco in general as much as everybody else seems to be. But the sauce was good, tossed with the pasta and showered with Parmigiano and Pecorino Romano. Nice butter lettuce salad dressed with olive oil and Balsamico, baguette. Beringer 2002 Zinfandel, surprisingly good.

What a lovely string of meals. Last evening, crab cakes with meat from Saturday's cracked Dungeness. A judiciously considered hit of minced jalapeno in there along with the usual suspects, and panko on the outside. Served hotly on beautiful butter lettuce from the guy at the farmer's market who sometimes has butter lettuce among his varieties, with teriyaki mayonnaise drizzled over. The dread Korbel Brut Rose sparkling.

Yikes. Jaaaymaaay oughta keep a shorter leash on his team of former delinquents. But, (according to the article), it is not illegal to purchase the fish during the off-season, even though it's illegal to pull it from the lake? Like U.S. prostitution laws, illegal to BE one, not illegal to patronize.

Susan, fabulous pix! Real you-are-there quality. Lessee, last evening, PNW-style Dungeness crab hash, with the (quite a lot of) meat left over from Saturday's cracked. Diced potatoes, onion, as per usual. The Consort's perfect poached eggs atop. Such a good dish. There really is nothing like Dungeness crab. Buttered toasted homemade bread. Mimosas with fresh orange juice and Carta Nevada for the grownups, straight OJ for the under-13 set.

Dungeness crabs, cooked by the nice man at the pan-Asian supermarket, cracked and served atop a newspaper-covered table with mayonnaise and cocktail sauce, also the crab fat and related, which I especially like. Skinny ficelles from the Vietnamese French baker, especially good with the crab fat and related. Broccoli florets, too, with a dab of the mayonnaise, like Japanese restaurants do. Rose of Rioja. Crab shells bunged in the stockpot, simmered a long time with specified seasoning and tomato, portending the dear departed Simon Majumdar's fish soup in the near future. The link for that's hereabouts somewheres ... I'll try to find it when the time comes.

Oh my goodness Camellia red beans are so good. I toted 'em home from New Orleans twice, and also use to order 'em from the K-Paul's catalogue, unless I'm retrohallucinating. Happens. Doesn't Camellia also package tiny adorable delicious field peas? Or, see above re: retrohallucination. Was the rice Mahatma? I love Mahatma. Last evening, big old good-looking thick Niman Ranch bone-in pork chops, brined a while and, since it got too late for grilling, Plan B deployed. Browned on the stovetop, braised covered a short time with a glug of white Vermouth in there, and then glazed with a combination of brown mustard and my friend's loquat butter, made from the fruit of the tree in her garden. Very nice, shiny tangy glazey. Niman Ranch pork, it's a good thing. Big pile of way cooked green beans, stewed in butter and s & p ... mmm good. LBB French baguette, neck and neck with the seedy baguette as favorite, saltylicious Tillamook butter, the fairly nondescript but comfortable red wine called Bocce whose details I ferget.

I'm just now reading Jeffrey Steingarten's second book, It Must Have Been Something I Ate, which has a piece on indoor rotisserie cookery. It details his if not absolutely exhaustive at least thorough and informative personal testing results. Typically interesting, well-written, entertaining. However, the unit that performs best for him is a vintage item, rather than one presently on the market. And he gets his very best results with the Weber grill rotisserie rig attachment, which is of course an outdoor trip. Steingarten unequivocally casts out the venerable Farberware setup, mostly for a too-cool heating element, or a too-far-away too-cool heating element, but my parents turned many a lovely pork roast on theirs, with outstanding crackling development, during my childhood. The distinctive grind of the motor and the occasional sssshhhh of dripping fat, I can hear even now.

Had a nice drink last evening, late, an after-dinner drink, a, dareIsay, digestif. Called Satan's Whiskers, (which is either a slightly naughty or full-on stoopit name, haven't yet decided), I found the recipe on the invaluable Cocktail site featuring recipes and lore from Paul Harrington and Laura Moorhead, and the Consort shook it up as per usual. Despite my reservations regarding its name it was a very very good drink, an alchemic greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts like all good cocktails. Almost uncompromisingly bitter, with complex, ongoingly-unfolding flavors. (The Cocktail website was much earlier introduced to eGullet right here, and I am forever indebted. It's a tremendous resource.) In our house a hit of Cognac or Calvados is much more usual than a cocktail at digestif time, but I am imbued with new resolve to explore this category. Any other digestifing going on out there?