Priscilla

Mother of Mike Muir (Suicidal Tendencies lead singer) 6-pack of Pepsi

I just keep thinking, shouldn't it be Magic Toast-n-etc. bag. Also, golden brown, all the way.

Last evening, having some ragu Bolognese kicking around gave me the idea to make a run on something I'd seen Mario Batali make on Mario Eats Italy, sartu, a pielike affair with layers of this & that inside a rice case. One of those stuffed/wrapped/encased dishes whose cutting open symbolizes the revealing of God's mysteries. Here's the Food Network recipe link. (Looks like it's due to be re-shown November 14 at 4:30 a.m.) I used tortellini (dry, Barilla; not bad at all) rather than penne for the pasta/besciamella/peas layer. My favorite layer was the fried eggs. The Consort's and the 12-year-old's favorite layer was the sausage. The whole shebang blessedly released from its baking vessel -- of course the fear with such preparations is that after all that layering and baking and so forth a broken mass of divergent ingredients will result when turning-out time comes. But all was well. Very nice Romaine salad with balsamic vinaigrette, even though I usually eschew balsamic vinegar in favor of the regular-type stuff. But it suited the flavor profile of the menu, with straight lively olive oil flavor in there, too. Emulsified LAMF, too, as per my ongoing application of Jackal's instructions from his eGCI class on non-stock-based sauces.

I am so digging this. Cooking Rashomon. What will meuniere bring? And utmost congratulations, Seth and Robin and new little Nate... babies are exciting!

What about the KITTIES!!!

Well, lessee. Hottles, for one, an incidental what appears to be a collection but started with a strange feeling of obligatory custodianship. Never set out to own even a single one, even though I do admire to get my coffee refill in one with old-fashioned hotel room service, especially if it's topped with the little pleated paper mobcap. But here I've got, I dunno, 100? I am forced to apprehend their subtle differences, taller/shorter, lid/no lid (got one with the mobcap), smooth/indented for bain-marie usage -- and their not-so-subtle, as in the case of the freaky-ass fired-on-yellow-over-milk glass with wheat motif. They keep suggesting themselves across my purview, and what am I supposed to do? Also little poury things, to the point where the Consort decreed, tried to decree, that I'm not to have any more little poury things. But, again, WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO???

Cool, Chad. Izzat Fiestaware I see? Last evening, leftover lobster kicking around. Leftover lobster, yawnyawnyawn. Lessee, Reservoir Dogs to watch, ongoing rewatchment of the catalogue in advance of seeing Kill Bill. Solitary but sizeable Mr. Stripey tomato from the remaining garden vine. Several slices of Niman Ranch uncured bacon. Portuguese sweet bread made by me the other day. Nice Romaine. Lobster Clubs! And Reservoir Dogs.

Craig Claiborne RIP said somewhere, and I paraphrase, that if he were given a nice steak he would be tempted to grind it up for cooking. Ground meat does have its own charms, doesn't it. Mr. Cutlets, where do you appear on the intact-ground continuum?

In the midnight hour she cried - "more, more, more" With a rebel yell she cried - "more, more, more" In the midnight hour babe - "more, more, more" With a rebel yell - "more, more, more" More, more, more. [sorry, tommy, couldn't stay focused.] I've been asking Southern guys in bars for years what is a rebel yell, presaging, perhaps, Billy Idol's appropriation of the term. I've asked and asked and asked would they do one please, and they all demur and say stuff like, "Oh, little lady, you don't want to hear such a thing," and I keep saying yes I DO but none acquiesce. Rebel Yell bourbon I've always thought had the BEST name, too. And then we get a new neighbor the other month, who is a drummer (see the relevance just keeps on comin'), and who is from MiSSiSSiPPi, and who wandered into our garden late one evening and we invited to sit down and join the assembled, got him something to drink, and I saw my chance, and I asked my question, and he tried saying "that's a Billy Idol song" and I said don't give me that nonsense you know what I mean, is a rebel yell whoo-hoo, or yee-haw, or what IS it, and of course he hauled out the same dissemblement, "Oh, you don't want to to hear THAT, little lady, that's what they did when they were about to KILL somebody," and I said, yes, I DO and wow but then didn't he let rip with a BLOOD-curdling yell that resounded and echoed through the canyon, striking abject terror in the hearts, certainly, of those lucky enough to hear it. It was very rock & roll.

Tommy this is all very cool and evocative. Moremoremore.

New York steaks cooked stovetop, little red-wine pan sauce. As the hour latened the potatoes were changed from stovetop Madeleine Kamman-style rissole to deep-fried cubes, which worked out very nicely. Beet greens braised with onion and butter and creme fraiche, s & p, little nutmeg in there. Beet greens, perhaps the best green, although I'd hate to have to choose.

Reminded, on account of planning to prepare them tonight, of Madeleine Kamman's rissole potatoes, from her Madeleine Cooks, to accompany steak and its little pan sauce, which is what they'll be accompanying at my house. Cut in cubes, browned on all sides in oil, (I'll use grapeseed; sometimes it'd be Canola), turned turned turned until cooked through and crispy brown all over, removed, drained if necessary, copious s & p. She Madeleine says they can be finished in the oven, but I seem to always do them on the stovetop. (Looking for an online source for this recipe, and failing, I did notice that the Amazon.com used booksellers have copies at criminally teensy prices, like $1. A great book, Madeleine Cooks.)

Priscilla: Elaborate, please I cursorily searched for an online source of this recipe so as to provide a link to no avail. It is indeed from Marcella's Italian Kitchen, however, and is prefaced by a typically charming story of how she Marcella came by the recipe. Patate Maritate is a gratin of thinly-sliced potatoes layered with grated whole-milk mozzarella, and a mixture of grated Parmigiano, minced parsley and garlic. S & p, of course ... drizzled with olive oil overall ... the dish olive-oiled and sprinkled with toasted fine breadcrumbs before building the layers ... I could be forgetting something. People'll pretty much faint right at the table. Became an instant staple upon first preparation, whenever that was, like 15 years ago. Also a beautiful main dish for serving to pesky vegetarians, a dish one can serve to vegetarians and maintain one's self-respect. (I firmly believe that for vegetable cookery, which can incidentally sometimes be vegetarian cookery, one could hardly do better than study the Italians, Marcella in particular ... it's all there, everything one needs for perfection in vegetable cookery. Plus a lot a lot a lot of other incredibly wonderful important stuff, too, of course. Some might offer, in trying to save a mixed marriage, the first Moosewood and Enchanted Broccoli Forest, and they probably have done some good in this regard, but they ain't a patch on Marcella.)

Thank you Lala. Nothin' wrong with singing in the a.m., so long as one has established with one's neighbors a tacit understanding. And Episure, thank you for the masala chai instructions ... all those ingredients are always in my pantry. Is the no-milk green Kashmiri Kahwa ever served iced?

Marcella Hazan's Patate Maritate, potatoes married to mozzarella, (with some parsley, a little garlic & Parmigiano in there) from Marcella's Italian Kitchen, I think. SO good. (Dithering over that s.)

Well this is all very inspiring. If nobody minds, I would like to join in after the temp drops below 90 degrees and the air clears of wildfire smoke and I get the relevant book. Doesn't sound like I've got much to commend, IknowIknowIknow. However, I DO have a barn with a PA in it.

Last evening, a 90- or 100-degree, whatever, day, had a duck been drying in the fridge for a few days. It was dry. Almost as dry as the hillsides burning all around SoCal. A choice of turning on the oven, or lighting charcoal with its scary popping embers and the Santa Anas threatening to whoosh in any moment. Like Puddin'head Wilson's advice about putting all your eggs in one basket and then watching that basket, I chose the charcoal, and watched it like mad, powernozzled hose at the ready. All was well. Anyway, cooked the duck on the old Weber not too fast, water in the drip pan, dry skin (the duck's; not mine) brushed with a very little honey I melted over the fire so that salt & pepper would adhere. Made a vinaigrette with white wine vinegar and seedy Dijon which had a little cassis in it, colored furtherly pink with cochineal! Little touch of honey, and grapeseed oil, salt & pepper, and you know what that Jackal is right -- what a thick emulsion with a nearly 2:1 ratio oil to vinegar. Nice rosy color. Courtesy cassis & cochineal. Bed of dressed Romaine, nice sliced duck & skin arrayed, extra dressing available for at-will application. LBB Italian sourdough. Cheap chilled French rose.

I just got a bottle of the L'Etoile Muscat but have yet to open it. Still thinking about what to have on the menu when I do drink it. Did you like it? Oh we thought it was delicious. A pleasure to have a CA wine that is, um, Euro enough to really complement seafood. Be sure to post when you do come up with just the right menu!

OK I planted saffron crocuses for the first time about a year ago, 11 months, according to my earlier post on the subject in this discussion. There was a first weird spurt of growth right away that November, and I had a handful of blooms and enough stamens to perfectly flavor a clear fish broth we served as part of our Christmas Eve menu last year. Exciting! And then, pretty much nothing. I thought for certain they were done finished kaput, that I drowned 'em, or starved 'em, or whatever. Everything that survives in my garden does so by some sort of grace, not by any intervention of mine. And then, just the other day, a hundred spiky shoots, and quickly already three soft purple blooms harboring the very orangey-red stamens which are the reason for the exercise. Very cool! God Bless bulbs.

Last evening, more of the Baja bay scallops from (non-union) Bristol Farms. Scallops, quartered little Creminis, bit of minced white onion, sauteed, white wine/cream sauce resulting -- a Coquilles St. Jacques trip. Quenelles of Duchess-style potatoes around the edge, inspired by Malawry's quenelleology at Varmint's Shindig ... was going to pipe them out, you know, trad, but lookit, quenelles appeared instead! Nice Romaine salad with white wine vinegar-grapeseed oil vinaigrette, touch of truffle oil in among the grapeseed. LBB Italian sourdough. Bonny Doon L'Etoile Muscat.

Oh I love the Quilted Crystal jars ... hope they never change 'em. The little 4-ouncers are so cute. I also like the Kerr 8 ouncers with the fruit embossment. GGMora, a dozen cases of jars! What will you be making? I'll be putting up some green tomato chutney right quick here ... possibly something of pumpkin too. Looking forward to learning about trad mincemeat!

Last evening for an early b.d. dinner for a friend, cheeseburgers. Grilled over hardwood charcoal. Usual condiment platter, usual fake In-n-Out sauce. For some reason everything extra good. Proper frites. Giant chocolate chip cookie candle conveyance, cut in wedges to serve.

In a riff on my favorite bahn mi, Friday used salt-grilled sanma, saury pike in sandwiches. Perfect French rolls from the Vietnamese baker, a little mayonnaise mixed with Thai-chile-infused fish sauce, loads of thinly-sliced white onion and jalapeno, very good. Saturday pizza, one quattro stagione, thinly sliced tomatoes (the penultimate from my Roma vine), thinly sliced Cremini mushrooms, thinly sliced Proscuitto de Parma, pretty thinly sliced artichoke hearts, whole milk mozz. The other was to be shrimp & pesto, (my neighbor still has a nice stand of basil), but when the non-union Bristol Farms fish department had what they were calling diver-harvested Baja bay scallops, it became scallop & pesto. Cooked the scallops a bit over the mesquite fire before they went on the pesto bed. Incredible blast of delicious scallop flavor. Again with the mozz. Very good. Sunday nice roast duck. Braised red cabbage with a little onion and an apple from my tree, a little cream at the end. Rosti potato pancake, which I flipped three times without incident, which may constitute a sign but a sign of what I do not know. Green tomato chutney I made this time LAST year, good with the duck. More Frenchy French bread. Pink French wine. German mineral water.

I, too, am amazed at how few have mentioned Madeleine Kamman, Brad! My favorite being, When French Women Cook. Madeleine Kamman -- her original Making of a Cook was so far ahead of its time, teaching classic formulas and THEN variations. There are dishes of hers from years ago, like the sauteed duck or chicken liver on salad from Madeleine Cooks, that seem eternally self-renewing. Or just the single chapter on breadmaking from In Madeleine's Kitchen -- more good information than in many books wholly devoted to the subject. God Bless Madeleine Kamman.

Yes, NeroW I did poach/boil. In the water, non-diastatic malt and sugar. Pretzel salt, you know, opaque whitey-white large crystals, sprinkled over while wet for adhesion. Have done egg washes, and oh but doesn't that make the salt stick LAMF, too. What about you did you poach/boil? A bagel guy told me once that a bagel is always poached/boiled, while what makes a bialy a bialy is it's NOT having been boiled. And here's me thinking it was the onions and poppy seeds what makes a bialy a bialy.