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Priscilla

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Everything posted by Priscilla

  1. Two earlier discussions touched on this, for those interested. This one on flatware, and this one for dishware. I like to have everything that's supposed to be on the table on the table. Sea salt in a shaker and pepper in a mill. Pink taper candles for every day, in holders low enough for conversation. Cloth napkins. Platters and bowls, usually, although there are some dishes that get plated for service. I do like the communal symbology of platters and bowls. Lots of inexpensive French wine glasses, like to have lots because even though they are sturdy as can be they seem to get very hard wear (!). Tablecloths sometimes, for more formal occasions e.g., but just the plain butcher-block tabletop most of the time.
  2. Priscilla

    Dinner! 2002

    Throwback poulet au vinaigre, with some of the last of the Romas from the garden, and just about the last of the tarragon vinegar I put up, the label says, in September 1989. Can this be? No, I mean, can this be that it's been that long since then I have been able to get tarragon to grow? Guess it's true. In 1989 I had a tiny space with a couple of half barrels, and the French tarragon from the herb guy at the farmer's market grew like a veritable weed. A gift--I really love tarragon. Many Bearnaises were made and many bottles of vinegar put up. But no luck since, growing-wise. A big old potato pancake made of shredded potatoes, using as the cooking medium the butter and emitted schmaltz discarded after deeply browning the chicken. Redleaf salad, dressed with more of the attriting 1989 tarragon vinegar, achieving the desired flavor layers, long-cooked vinegar in the chicken, raw on the salad. Portuguese-type rolls.
  3. Interesting. I would guess hope assume that there would be designated fine wines for designated dishes in good kitchens, as you Steven Shaw indicate. But it is good to know there is also sensible use of perfectly good less-expensive wines where they will be suffcient. (Like my kitchen?) Also, a self-respecting fine restaurant kitchen won't be deciding solely by price, either, will it? The everyday wine used for cooking must be more than decent, not just a price point. (Yet more ideas home cooks can lift from professional kitchens. Will they never end? Somebody oughta write a book....)
  4. So there is nothing to the idea that shepherd's pie is made with lamb and cottage pie with beef? Color me disillusioned, as Tommy would say.
  5. All true, what LML said. (Which is usually the case, though sometimes the LML truths are hard truths.) Steven Shaw, am I misunderstanding, which happens all the time, or have you said Lespinasse uses a wine that retails near $3.99 in its kitchen? If true, this is good news indeed. That is more or less the price point I shoot for, too. Of course it's a Trader Joe's $3.99...a supermarket $3.99 is usually utter swill.
  6. This beef information is sososo interesting and valuable. Thank you all, especially Steven Shaw and Nick Italian-for-Cats. The sort of nuts-and-bolts stuff that really helps a person cook more the way she wants to!
  7. Priscilla

    Craft

    Tee hee. Like MST3K's TV's Frank. (OK I shall diminish to the West.)
  8. Priscilla

    Chef!

    Agreed, majorly. But funny, so funny, sometimes astonishingly so--up 'till then.
  9. Priscilla

    Chef!

    G. Johnson are you saying "Absolutely Fabulous" was good or bad? I thought there were parts of that show as good as anything I've ever ever seen anywhere. Related to eGullet, there was an almost-throwaway couple of moments with the adorable Adrian Edmundson going right OTT as a food writer waxing insufferable about "forgotten Andalusia" and so on. Just a tiny thing, but so just right.
  10. Hey that curly stainless scrubber is just like the ones my Mom used to get from the Fuller Brush man all through my childhood. Are they still from Fuller Brush? Is there still a Fuller Brush?
  11. Priscilla

    Meatloaf

    While I do not by any means always grind meat especially for meatloaf, sometimes I do and it is always worth it. Reminded me of something else, though--using the KitchenAid to mix the meatloaf. I know, I know I know I know, hands are the time-honored way and I got nothing against that, God knows. But what I do now, usually, is get the bread & milk on to soak (in the KA bowl), and when critical squishyness is reached add the eggs and seasonings and mix that, before putting in the meat and onion and whatnot. (A hint from somebody's mom long ago, about putting the seasonings in the liquid part. Made immediate sense to me.) And then mix the whole shebang with the flat beater going slowly. More thorough and gentle enough, is my thinking. Yes, of COURSE, CathyL, yet another vehicle for chutney--I am so making meatloaf right quick here.
  12. Priscilla

    Meatloaf

    Meatloaf is just one of the best things ever. Ever ever ever. Especially later, in a sandwich. Bacon draped over, as per Toby and Jaymes, me too. (I put it on diagonally, but this is a personal decision.) Bread soaked in milk as per SA, me too. An egg or two, chopped onion (raw), and any number of other sensible things. I like to see some chopped parsley in there, if possible, e.g. Big shakes of Crystal or Tabasco, Worcestershire, plenty of s & p, the last little bit of salsa kicking around...mmmm all good. And free-form on a sheet pan or in a roasting pan, that's what I usually do, maximizes the bacon-enhanced crust, although baked in a loaf pan is just a different, not necessarily lesser, trip. Combination of types of meat is good, but all beef ain't nothing to complain about, neither.
  13. London broil is good, me too. The Certified Angus type I'm able to get at my local supermarket is remarkable beefy in flavor for such a lean cut. Had two recently, didn't set out to get two but for some reason it was buy-one-get-one-free, and what am I supposed to do? And also, me too, thinly sliced cold with butter and loads of crunchy salt and pepper, but untoasted bread. A lifesaver, any time of day.
  14. Priscilla

    Dinner! 2002

    Chicken-fried steak, using self-styled "London broil," how do they come up with these, cut in half laterally and pounded to a fare-thee-well. Biscuits, employing the very very good advice from knowledgeable types in the Biscuits discussion here in Cooking. Cream gravy, which has, as you all know, not made with cream. Honey & butter mixed, for the biscuits. Boughten coleslaw, which was not too bad. Piper Sonoma NV brut sparkling, very nice.
  15. Priscilla

    Dinner! 2002

    it's very zin-like. as opposed to zen-like. Huh! Zin-like! I wish! (Not really I was lookin' for something more austere than all that, this time.) This CF was just, um, ungood. Had others that were not, ungood. Edit: Alphabet problems
  16. Gorgeous sink, Rachel. And, sensible. Why o why do sinks get made with crevices and seams and whatnot, anyways? I especially like how it makes its own counter edge, and the very rich-looking finish. Excellent choice. I think your new kitchen overall is very exciting--digging the multi-textured tile action.
  17. Priscilla

    Dinner! 2002

    Let's see. Nice pork roast, erm, roast pork. Fresh ham, my Mother would call it. Espied it across the proverbial crowded room, my eye drawn by a beeyootiful mantle of crackling-in-potential. Slivers of garlic inserted here and there, here and there, s & p. Potatoes cut up and bunged in to brown, after awhile. Green beans from my garden which grow royal purple but end up greeny-green, cut longways soi-disant "French" style, although I imagine only us ignorant Americans who don't know how to pronounce words use this descriptor, sauteed with Lurpak and s & p. Roma tomatoes from the garden peeled, and sliced, and drizzled, with a mustardy vinaigrette. Portuguese-type rolls made by me. I was disappointed in my reaction to a 1996 Firestone Cabernet Franc, a grape which perhaps doesn't hold up beyond the turning of the new year after harvest. Or something. Edit: Forgot to say that the cherry tomato preserve I'd made several weeks ago was a good accompaniment to the roast pork.
  18. So true, as per macrobiotics, Phaelon56 and Jinmyo. For reasons that are irrelevant there was a time in the 1980s when I was treated, and I use the term loosely, to macrobiotic cooking over and over and seemingly interminably over. It's an abomination. I always wanted to ask the provider, who also provided to all sorts of wealthy and I suppose hip, hot, hap'nin' clients, WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT TO THAT RICE? What did that poor innocent rice ever do to you?! And the so-called meat so-called analogues. An offense to the universe. WHAT IS SO WRONG WITH A NICE CAKE OF UNMOLESTED TOFU? I wanted to ask.
  19. Priscilla

    Dinner! 2002

    Aaah, the Magic of Bacon. Not to denigrate the contribution of the scallops, I hasten to add. Rosemary can fed for itself, if you know what I mean. Last evening we had burgers, meat run through the old KitchenAid grinder attachment twice, homemade buns, and the requisite Proper Chips, 3/8" cross-sectionally give or take, run through the old deep-fryer twice. Gorgonzola atop for the grownups, Regulation Medium Cheddar for the under-21 set, well, the under-11 (but only just) set. Notable among the condiments (for the frites, too, as per Mr. Samuel L. Jackson's memorable Quentin Tarantino examination of food-habit relativism) was orange-top lime-juice Best Foods mayonnaise, made in Canada, for some reason, but marketed to the Latin consumer, at least, the Spanish on the label leads me to this assumption. Previously boosted by me elsewhere, in some mayonnaise-related discussion.... What a good product. Knocked homemade outta its long-held, heretofore uncontested No. 1 slot.
  20. Interestingly, Jaaamaaay intoned something remarkably similar right on the show.
  21. Priscilla

    Dinner! 2002

    Nice rectangle of steelhead, on the grill, skin nicely crispified. Landed upon very thinly sliced very very ripe Brandywine tomatoes, last-minute pesto atop melting over all. Pointing up yet again how farmed salmon just can't compete, taste- and texture-wise. (...Leaving aside momentarily the question of whether farmed fish is even wholesome, nowadays.)
  22. Lest it go unnoticed by some, Jaaaymaaay has a big old granite rig prominently displayed on the counter of his groovalicious kitchen, and, AND, I saw him use it the other evening, grinding up stuff with which to coat lamb shanks prior to browning and braisification.
  23. Priscilla

    Dinner! 2002

    Sounds like a lovely menu at Toby's. Beet greens are my favorite green. Last evening at the end of a 100-degree day, representing improvement since the day before was 106 or similar, pasta, linguine, with raw tomato sauce. Diced Brandywines macerated with garlic and sage pastified in the mortar & pestle, a little minced onion, olive oil, Pecorino Romano when the time came. Also cymling (pattypan, but I'm calling 'em cymlings now) squash sliced, brushed with olive oil and grilled, seasoned, dressed with a little red-wine vinegar and a little more olive oil, served at ambient temp. Nice French-bakery baguette brought by a guest.
  24. I guess it's beyond me-tooism at this point, after all these estimable responses, but I will anyways add--yes, mortar & pestle. Mine is blacky-greeny solid granite, bought at a tiny store years ago when the Consort and I were rooting around amidst the then-burgeoning wonders of our Little Saigon, and the very nice man who sold it to me that day said, encouragingly, "Many people like." (Instantly became a popular catch-phrase among us, for nice things people like.) And, Liza, at that time I had less-than-zero storage space, no dishwasher, and really, just about no money, either. Just exactly the kind of cook who, historically, the world over, needs and uses a mortar & pestle the very most. Mmmm all the classic mortar & pestle sauces spread out in potential before you...lovely to contemplate.
  25. Priscilla

    Hamburgers

    Where's that confounded...
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