Priscilla

Pork tenderloin, dusted with dry mustard and allowed to sit around a bit for the mustard to activate before being dusted again, this time with flour, and browned on all sides, salted and peppered, bunged into the oven to finish whilst I attended to the closing minutes of asparagus risotto. Deglazed with a hit of wine, seriously reduced, then a little heavy cream, allowed to reduce, salt and (especially) pepper adjusted, to make a little sauce. Tenderloin sliced, arrayed on the very last of my backyard curly endive, bolting faster than I can pick it now, risotto mounded on the other end of the

You are correct, Tommy, the overdub performances are absolutely brilliant. Kitchen Stadium-preferred pronounciations, e.g. the ubiquitously invoked FWAgra, have polluted my personal lexicon. Impressively consistent and respectful work by the actors, I think, and they're obviously working from an excellent, sensitive translation. Priscilla

I hope, IhopeIhopeIhope, that Korn NEVER EVER removes his shades. Such commitment, I submit, is very nearly the quintessence of superhiposity. Priscilla

Please. It is SOYLENT green. Behooves one to keep one's Charlton Heston references straight. You'll find some Yanks are a bit tetchy (today's OED WotD) on that account. Priscilla

Korn the band, or Korn the superhip Japanese musician/sometime Iron Chef judge, Tommy? Priscilla

Yvonne, I already knew you had good taste on account of what you said elsewhere about the Beatles. Priscilla

Wow CK Tillamook whey butter sounds great. (Makes me think of those Italian pigs with the proscuitto-intended legs being fed Parmigiano Reggiano whey.) Is it salted? I can find Tillamook here in Southern California, but never unsalted. I do rely on Tillamook cheese, so dependably good, and, I think, highly underrated, outside the Western U.S. Priscilla

B Edulis thank you for providing those photos. Beautiful work! Very inspiring. Any particular dishware you utilized? (Other than the commemoratives.) I'll be redoing my stove's backsplash soon, and while I am grout-averse in cooking areas, tiling is of course an option. And I ask myself, is broken-plate tiling an option? Hmmmm. That offset-hardware sink is very cool, too. Priscilla

Malawry, Keller's. Thank you. Wonder why they use the two names? Hope you try Lurpak sometime. Of course, there's the unpredictable freshness thing. But one hopes for the best. And I too am intrigued by these Italian butter references. Priscilla

I've been using a Danish butter, Lurpak, for a short while now, which is blessedly cultured and, crucially, fresh. Found it at my local Persian market. (A good place to shop for butter, and other good things.) It is delicious--has become the one to beat. Just about exactly twice what my default good-quality (but not cultured) unsalted costs, from Alta-Dena, a Southern California dairy. But Lurpak's low-moisture density and rich cultured flavor is worth far more than twice the price, to me. I have bought Plugra in the past, at Trader Joe's, but freshness was a problem, or rather lack of fre

Wow that was great! Worthy information combined with good writing. Looking forward to the next installment. Priscilla

Jinmyo, your method is obviously perfection, and, instanteous-like, was adopted by me as my method, too. By your leave, that is. But please everybody don't hate me if I sometimes use Emmenthal. Priscilla

Well, now this is the thing: Croque Monsieurs I have had in France have, to a sandwich, NOT had bechamel! (Made 'em last night here at home, avec, however--so see sometimes the Southern California ones DO, turns out. Had the dread roast chicken on, rather than ham, too.) No less French an authority than Monsieur Jacques Pepin indicates chicken for his Madame. I recently saw a recipe from Nancy Silverton of Campanile and La Brea Bakery where she makes a full-on Mornay sauce which is then broiled, which sounds good, doesn't it? And I think I remember some Patricia Wells citation somewheres

Does anyone else make these at home? They're a staple in my house, and the deconstructed ingredients would form the basis of any Essentials list I might assemble. But ah, what ARE the ingredients. Bread, yes. Cheese, yes. Butter, yes. Ham or chicken, yes. But after that, the deluge. Bechamel? Mustard? And WHAT ABOUT Madame, is it chicken (instead of ham) or an egg (in addition to ham) that makes it Madame not Monsieur? And then, technique. Broiled, open-faced? Oven-toasted, closed? Dip the sandwich, as is occasionally suggested, in egg batter, getting close to what I know as a Mont

I like large-scale flatware with decent table knives. My set is Christofle stainless steel, which I acquired modularly over time, after using a typical cheap disgusting pressed eight-thousand-piece service. It occurs to me I don't know if it is still being made--I've had it for something over 10 years--when looking to replace the odd wayward tablespoon I have patronized this company, Replacements, Ltd., and been very satisfied. I was interested to see the other silverware replacement houses; I do like to survey the available, if possible. I also look for silverplate dessert spoons in thrift

Wow B Edulis, (difficult to keep myself from typing Bedulis), that is a brilliant concept, tiling with plates. I have seen broken dishware incorporated into broken-tile mosaic construction, and wondered if plates so used broke of natural causes. But I guess even if they were broken apurpose they are better off than they would be languishing in a thrift store. In use I never fret much when something breaks. There are so many beautiful dishes in the world I think of it as making room for something else. Priscilla

I know most people prefer white, and that it's the choice too of most restaurants, and I don't hate it, either. But I will put in that quality and design are what's important to me, and there are white dishes and white dishes. But my own very disparate collection, American, mostly, but I do not reject English or French, assembled over years and indeed, assembling as we speak, is typified by pink. Just recently added a couple of pieces of Harkerware with the most beautiful speckled pink interior and semi-matte grey outside. (No Fiesta, Stellabella--HLC's pink is too rose for me.) Course then

Elizabeth David, Madeleine Kamman, Craig Claiborne--books at hand and frequently surveyed. Priscilla

Liza, I was thinking the same thing about you, and not solely due to your ongoing Derek Smallsian Trout Odyssey, although I am fully in support of that and behave similarly. When a high-quality ingredient (that we like) is available, I will work with it over and over. I am used to cooking with what is in season, (as much as possible; I'm not militaristically doctrinaire), and it just seems natural to fully exploit what is fresh and available. This is also applicable to regular markets. Surrounding Easter and Passover there is lamb in supermarkets (here in Southern California) that isn't the

Last night panko-crusted scallops on way-done, very soft cabbage braised with onion and a little garlic, the scallops brown and crispy, barely done in the middle, plenty of salt and pepper. Beautiful giant head of cabbage from one of the organic guys at the farmer's market, big as a Replogle globe, the cabbage, not the guy, couldn't resist it. I'll make good use of what I didn't braise. The Magic of Panko. (Similar to, but much paler in power than, The Magic of Bacon.) Priscilla

Col Klink, short ribs seem ideally suited to smoking. Course I am thinking this just now because you introduced the concept. But I already think about short ribs in general, don't I? Wilfrid, you've mentioned Nero Wolfe, but I can't remember if you investigated his (well, Fritz's) shad roe preparations or not. Also, I know he's unfashionable, but Craig Claiborne, RIP, wrote quite a bit about shad roe. His series Craig Claiborne's Favorites, collections of his NYT columns, is interesting historically, and just, how you say, chockablock, with useful information. I like all his books. Stel

Cooked, from Richard Olney, braised lamb with unpeeled cloves of garlic. I added mint and sage I found outside, sauce later forced through a sieve and returned to severely deglazed pan. He Richard Olney was adamant about not ending up with too much sauce, no more than to coat each piece of lamb, and I followed him all the way there and concluded that he was correct in this. Simple and good. Quite homely. The lamb was shoulder, cut into thick chops by the clueless but pleasant meat guy, good form for the long braise. Broccoli, cooked (through), at room temp, dressed with olive oil and vineg

Hey, Wilfrid, the Consort follows the one-shaker-per-person rule, too! (I suppose it's kind of a civilized-sized shaker, but still.) Sometimes I do take a little one hopes ladylike hit off his hands, Negroni is truly a beautiful and delicious drink, but yowsa, there IS that knocking-sideways thingy, helped along by that magical alchemic easy-drinking quality that belies its 100% alcohol content. Not that I have anything against alcohol content, mind. What do you eat with Negronis? We always seem to require strong-tasting somethings, like canned smoked oysters, even. Priscilla

Usually it's Campari & soda for me, when Campari is indicated. But the other evening when my Consort was having a Negroni I tried the grapefruit juice/Campari recommended and vetted previously here, and it was great! Fresh-squeezed juice from local dark-pink grapefruit. Convenient to get one's Vitamin C and bioflavinoids during cocktail hour. And someone here might well know the answer to this: Is that other Italian liqueur, Cynar, with the beautiful artichoke label, basically the same as Campari? (Allowing for proprietary formulas, of course.) I seem to remember it being even more bi

Last night I roasted a chicken, priming the pump with Lurpak butter, a cultured butter from Denmark that is sold at my local Persian market. Chary about imported butter in general on account of the rancidity thing, but this was fresh and fragrant. Also roasted asparagus, beautiful organic asparagus from the guy at the farmer's market, among the best-tasting asparagus ever, we thought. This seems to be a good year for asparagus. During basting sessions I also basted the asparagus with the butter and rendering chicken fat. Sourdough bread and apricot preserves and more of what remained in t