Priscilla

Everything counts. Dave, I bet I have perused that dressing recipe, online and in the book, a hundred times. Must must must make it finally. And cornstarch (sometimes potato flour) is what gives Japanese karaage coating its essential crunchewiness. I can so see masa.

I added some parmesan cheese, too. The bleu was still the star (especially because I upped the amount), but I have a heck of a lot of parmesan to get through, so I used it. There's no such thing as too much cheese! ← That makes sense flavorwise... Parmesan is definitely the secret weapon ingredient in Marcella Hazan's gorgonzola sauce (not a tomato sauce), a longtime favorite of mine. I really have to get some gorgonzola right quick here.

I also have no use for preseasoned canned tomatoes, Pierogi. Or substituting cream w/1% milk, neither. I'll be glad to make it the original way. Except, as Prasantrin said in her helpful cheese-using-up-hint, I see my way to a little extra cheese.

I had a similar thought about amt. of cheese, except no one has given me a nice wheel to use up. The recipe is for just 12 oz. of pasta rather than a pound, however, so if one were to make a pound's worth one might dispense with an additional oz. or so of cheese.

Me four! Or eight hundred, by now. Pierogi, cursory online searching turned up a tomato-gorgonzola recipe "adapted" from Cuisine at Home. Can you tell us how close it is? ETA: I see this blog appears to have the original recipe. The "adaptation" in the first link seems to have been substituting milk for cream and similar.

OK. Was there again today, and there was saffron. Bought it. Looks good. Also Mario's new book, Italian Grill, just to keep my Mario catalogue up to date. However leafing through I did see grilled polenta, which is something I would like to make more, and have fall apart less.

since about 2 years ago, priscilla. ← Fahncy! And I bet it cuts down on can avalanches.

OK, due to this thread I too made a point to use the soup aisle to get to checkout. Since when does Campbell's have that sideways dispenser display thingy? Not assuming it is even especially new -- I wouldn't know. Scotch Broth, $3.59!!! Cripes. However, price, even extortionate price, can be mooted by nostalgia. But that is a LOT, for a can of condensed soup.

Reduction is a perfectly fine goal, by itself. Every single bag that is used more than once works to mitigates blight.

Ya, it sure should have been Antonia or Lisa. The "only" Polish sausage they are aware of is the Cry-o-Vac turkey type of their unfortunate childhoods? Sausage is one of the world's great foods, and what a gift of an ingredient. And on top of THAT, the incredibly rude swilling down tequila while offering none to their guests/judges. Yuck.

Yesterday, Mark Morris Dance Group matinee, return to find yes, yay, the oven time bake had indeed worked because the chicken was a-roasting nicely. Really good salad mix from my favorite farmer's market vendor, even the little beet tops taste great which is SO not the case w/most such mixes, sluiced w/a little of the chicken juices to supplement olive oil, Balsamic & c. Couple little Hass avocados from Ivan's parents' tree, gotta keep after 'em there're so many. Not-bad baguette from Lee's Sandwiches, where we'd had breakfast that morning. Good garnacha recommended by the guy at the wine store, after a little cold Riesling outside letting the temp fall out of the 90s.

Not in Hawaii yet... Was it featured on an endcap, or was it in the regular spice aisle? I keep checking! ← It was in the regular spice aisle, on the very bottom of the shelf--not really being showcased or promoted at all. I paid $25 for a 5g jar. Is that good or bad? Anyway, I haven't broken the seal yet, but it looks lovely and red-gold. ← I was just at a Costco here in Southern California this afternoon, and didn't find the saffron on the spice aisle. The guy at the front looked it up and said they had a large quantity up to the other day, but then it was pulled and returned to the vendor, system-wide. There wasn't any information where he was looking as to why. Might want to find out the reason before using it, in case it's something about the saffron itself. Although if it was potentially hazardous there would probably be some kind of recall news, I suppose.

Chris, I'm going to try that loop method. Even though I was so late to the party on the pasta roller, I've used the meat grinder attachment for years. Sharpening the blade helps definition a little, after long use. Also the grain mill which I used a lot at one time. Strained the machine a bit, esp. when grinding corn.

I was always amused by the silver polisher that used to appear in the grid of little photos in older KA informational enclosures. Indeed, it's a motor hub, that spins: Why no grinder while we're at it? Or it could power the revolving gel illuminating an Alcoa aluminum Christmas tree? However: Just got the KA pasta roller attachment. Why o why did it take me so long? All sentimental reasons -- my old Atlas has been a good friend since the mid-'80s, its motor attachment nearly as long, which, while amusingly/annoyingly/alarmingly jury-rigged and wiggly, not to mention infernally LOUD, did help the job get done. It was not a night-and-day difference, only an incremental improvement. I'd even found, at some point between 1985 or so and this week, the ravioli attachment new and unused in its box while thrift shopping, and while I did not like the coarse ravioli it marched out in rows and returned immediately to my usual handmade ones, it seemed the Atlas was drawing to itself a little family of discrete, losable, breakable, well-meant but ill-designed parts, an island of misfit toys in my pantry. Sometimes we have to just let things happen. And sometimes through the Cloud of Unknowing we order the g.d. KA pasta roller attachment.

Ahi cutlets, an ongoing exploration: Last evening panko'd, served on top of Swiss chard braised in cream w/double-smoked bacon and a little shallot. Crispy romaine salade w/Balsamic and olive oil. LBB little baguettes.

Hee icanhascheezburger is the first site I visit upon firing up. I think there was even a pug on there at least once. (For my b.d. last month Ivan had the Japanese French baker write NOM NOM NOM NOM on my cake.) I love the utensil forest. More dishes, though, please, if possible. What do you use most of the time, e.g.? Hope your dinner is somewhat earlier tonight!

Last evening, composed salad of leftover grilled lamb, sliced, arranged on romaine w/tomatoes & avocadoes, dressed with homemade garlic mayonnaise.

You really can't go wrong w/ peas & mint, it's one of the classic combinations.

Hope you like it. Give us the verdict!

Last night another good one from Martha's French Chef show that aired on my b.d., this time an Eric Ripert, Braised Halibut and Peas a la Francaise. Beautiful halibut from Costco (a great source for halibut in season), farmer's market white onions and red-and-green butter lettuce, double-smoked bacon from the German sausage guy, mint from the garden. Trader Joe's froz little peas. Water rather than chicken stock. In one pan rather than the individual casseroles Eric Ripert used, but I can see his point -- the fish could cook peacefully undisturbed in each. Excellent! And superfast, incl. prep WAY under an hour, and would have been faster except Ivan was pouring this Morro Bay chardonnay. One more from that show on deck, Daniel Boulud's salmon dish, if we get any wild salmon at all this year.

Lamb yesterday, a great cut from the top of the leg that the butcher shop is calling "Saratoga Chops" for some reason, but I asked them to not cut mine into using-the-term-loosely chops and so I had three gorgeous pieces of boneless nicely-trimmed lamb each about the rough shape and thickness of a hearty trade-size paperback, say the Peter Guralnick Last Train to Memphis that is No. 1 for takeoff on my stack. It's the best part of the leg, if you've ever boned a leg, a task I keep swearing off and then returning to due to circumstance, however if one must the picture-punctuated directions in one of the volumes of Craig Claiborne's Favorites has been a godsend 800 times. We slathered them with a paste made of rosemary, parsley, little bit of mint, judicious amt. garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper and let 'em sit around all afternoon and then later grilled and served, sliced, with nice red potatoes from the potato guy at the farmer's market smashed with creme fraiche, butter, salt, pepper, and Clarissa squash sliced and grilled and drizzled with aged Balsamic and olive oil, salt, pepper. Very nice Garnacha that the guy at the wine store recommended.

Kim, Otis is an excellent name for a pug. I like how the pink striped bowl echoes the pink striped wallpaper. YA lit: Maud Hart Lovelace, Lucy Maud Montgomery? Great food content in both catalogues. Blog on!

Chris, incredible blog -- you are a model for us all. I see over on Dinner that there are some dishes you make when your wife is away -- are there any favorites she requests you make?

Hee. I am a very cheap date in that regard.

Cooking from Marcella's books one does find herself putting stuff in the mashed potatoes. I remember spinach, and sauteed mushrooms and rehydrated dried wild mushrooms, and tomatoes, at different times. All good, and mind-expanding. Haven't tried the zucchini, but now I will!