NVNVGirl

Jason, your potato looks YUMMY! Great picture! One of my favorite quick meals is baked potato and I've been known to top it with practically anything and everything. My favorite tho is butter, Star (and ONLY Star brand) brewer's yeast flakes, salt and pepper and non fat cottage cheese. And sometimes salsa too....healthy and delicious.

Yes, it's usually cold and rainy in February. I grew up there and lived there most of my life. It's also why I moved away from there. But it IS still beautiful...it's different when you have to live in it. If it's raining a lot, the crossroads could be closed and will determine which wineries you'd be able to get to. But there's plenty of wineries that are on the beaten path. I think it's a very romantic place to be when it's raining and the restaurants seem so warm and cozy. Golf may or may not happen. I miss those rainy days in the Valley now, but too many of them made me very unhappy! You'll have a great time!

Chow! please do report back on your dinner at Mankas Lodge...it's my most favorite place in the world to eat! I haven't been there for several years and I'm hoping it's just as perfect as it was the last time i was there. I'm dying to take my dh (of 6 yrs) there sometime this next year. I know he'd love it! And do have a wonderful time!

Something a little different and definitely superfluous: Put thick sliced bacon on a rack and then onto a baking sheet with sides (jelly roll pan is best) Sprinkle with dark brown sugar and lots of freshly ground pepper ....you can also use some cayenne pepper if you like Bake till done....it's soooooo good!

Cook, your meal looks divine! We're having my inlaws (mil, bil and sil) and we are very excited. This will be the first Thanksgiving dinner I've ever cooked myself, and since I'm going to be doing meals from munchies Wednesday afternoon thru breakfast on Friday, I'm just a little nervous, but am trying to get as much done ahead as I can (without my dh going behind me eating it all But this is our Thanksgiving Day meals: Breakfast Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins Cranberry Orange muffins Toast Vanilla yogurt layered with blueberries, raspberries and granola and almonds Mimosas Coffee Grazing Buffet: Shrimp dip and crackers Crispix crunchy mix Stuffed grape leaves (yalanchi) Assorted cookies Stuffed cherry tomatoes Borag (cheese filled puff pastry) Antipasto Tortilla rollups Crudites with blue castello dip Dinner Roasted turkey with apricot-wild rice stuffing Grandma's moist bread dressing Mashed potatoes and turkey (brown) gravy Cranberry-Orange sauce Green bean casserole Moderne (Sara Moulton's recipe) Creamy brussels sprouts Honey glazed carrots (Marlene's recipe) Yams (however you make them with the marshmallows on top...I"ve never done them that way before) Festive Cranberry Pineapple salad Cloverleaf rolls Pumpkin pie Apple Pie The wines are undecided at the moment, but it's an almost sure thing that most of them will be Beringer. My FIL was a winemaker there years ago and sadly, he died on Thanksgiving 1988. So it's a nice way to sort of have him with us. Happy Thanksgiving!

Any time estimations for a rotisseried bird? My dh wants to try one on our rotisserie...probably around a 12-14 lb one. He thought it would be a good idea to stuff it too...I said NO....any comments?

OMG, I'm so sorry to be blabbering here, but it's just one of those days Marlene, I just saw the pictures of the food and it all looks fabulous! The pork didn't look THAT raw to me....but we eat our pork a little less done maybe. I do want to say tho, that after seeing the carrots I am even more excited about doing them and I MUST comment on your granite counter...it's absolutely a gorgeous slab of granite! Just beeeee u tiful

Marlene~ I'll add my .02 on the gin also....my favorite is Bombay Sapphire..but that's only when I want to just have ONE....it's like water it's so innocuous...but oh, so deadly, LOL. The kind of drink that when you've had too much, you think you're perfectly fine(until the next day and you wonder how you got home)......but for the normal everyday martini, I go with Beefeaters...like my late father in law, a winemaker, drank....he called it his "English chablis"....he was a cutie. . His wife, my MIL, drank Tanqueray...for me, it's too "juniper-y"....and I know that the gin of choice at some of the big places in SF is Gordon's. At least, that's what I read.

And that voice my friends, is the "late to the party" (I got him signed up here weeks ago), but always avid supporter of my egullet endeavours, my husband. (we're both sitting at the kitchen counter with our dueling laptops.) eGullet, say hello to Don. ← HI Don! I just want to say welcome here and I am also an appreciative fan of your wife's recipes! How funny, Marlene, that the carrots showed up here I am making them for Thanksgiving and am so looking forward to it! Hope your dinner turns out absolutely flawless and nothing but fun for you both!

I hope this doesnt' sound weird, but if you'll be near North Beach, there's a little place called Capps Corner....VERY downhome Italian. Kind of old and funky, but the real life Rose Pistola LOVED it and ate there frequently (I know, b/c she was my nonna ). On the other hand, the restaurant, Rose Pistola is a great place and kids fit in very well there!

OK...along Katie's idea: dolce Which if you don't know, is Italian for "sweet" And maybe you could put underneath Sweet endings

I like the one word in lower case too...that's cool....simple and elegant So....... stacked Sorry, I had to do it But I was serious about the lowercase and one word; I like it!

Unfortunately, if you are a heterosexual man or a lesbian, " stacked " probably isn't going to make you think of cakes or food, but something else. An even worse name is what the soda fountain where I work was called for about 2 years - "Chubby's" Jason ← Yeah, Jason....you got it

My first thought was "Stacked"....but then I got to the part where you dont' want anything cheesy and something to morph into another potential endeavor. I have no idea how liberal Illinois is....but I still think Stacked is a good name for a cake business

Maybelline, I have grown the climbing nasturtiums both in the Napa Valley and here in Palm Desert...they dont' do all that great here, but I had some the first two years we lived here...they were yellow and I loved them! Once we get our side yard relandscaped, think I'll put in some more of them! Thanks for the reminder

I dont' drink a lot of soda as a rule, but I just recently got some Diet Coke with Lime in it and I like it a lot...better than the diet Coke with lemon. Occasionally I like Diet A&W root beer or the diet creme soda...if I'm at a fountain, which is very rarely, I usually mix diet Coke with a big splash of Hawaiian Punch.

How funny! We had the same relish trays...the cut GLASS (I've inherited them ) and the same basic ingredients. We never had dill pickles, but we had radishes instead I guess and green onions...I could never figure that one out, b/c I dont' think anyone ever ate the green onions. But the black olives were ALWAYS gone (usually one on each finger on every child there). Oh, and we had sliced up carrot sticks too....and sometimes green olives stuffed with anchovies. Only if it was a good year tho

I've only been to one Baja Fresh and only one time. That was enough. It was terrible. The only fast food chain that serves Mexican (?) food I've ever liked was Hi Tech Burrito, which they don't seem to have anywhere near me.

I detest drinking wine out of those glasses....and it really irks me when any place sets a juice glass in front of me with wine in it. I've grown up with Italians all my life, and it's mildly annoying at home, but when I go out, I want an appropriate glass. The other glasses that drive me crazy are the "red wine glasses" that are bowl shaped and you have to be careful that you don't inhale the liquid thats' in the glass while you're attempting to take a sip....it's like drinking out of a fishbowl or something. I always return the wine and ask for it in a white wine glass if they dont' have anything else.

Halloween is over....drink it .....it's only one little bottle, geeze

I usually decide on a theme for my menus when I entertain. It all just sort of evolves usually....I either come up with a color theme in my head and start with the tablesetting and then go to the menu from there OR I plan my menu sort of according to the invitees and what type of group it will be and then go from there forward (usually ). I rarely do any theme drink, as I have found with the older, more set in their ways, people here, they tend to drink vodka or scotch...occasionally gin. So that's one thing I don't need to worry about. I always like the idea of doing a main drink, but found that I was the only one drinking them So, I stick with my wine and leave the drinks to the bartender. But I do plan everything down to the last detail myself and I usually set up for it to see how things will look when it's all done. I plan the menu, find the recipes, have them at hand, make a grocery list for each menu item so that I know how much I need .....instead of writing "green onions" and coming home 3 bunches short. And I try to get as many things prepared as much ahead of time as I can so that I'm not in the kitchen for very much time. There's so much that can be done ahead and it's really helped me when entertaining....even if you do work your tush off the couple of days before, it's definitely worth it when your guests remark "You make it look so easy and you were out here with us the whole time". That's my benchmark

So, just what do I fix? Desperately seeking ideas. This a very special occasion, and I want to do it up right, but I don't want to do a lot of last minute futzing (sp?). These will be small affairs -- 4-6 plus my mom (and me) -- each. ← Susan~ you're planning on doing different menus etc, for each one? Are they divided into specific interest groups of your Mom's?

Abalone needs to be pounded pounded pounded! When it's done properly, it's as soft and tender as butter. I have been fortunate enough to have missed out on the tough, chewy abalone. And the flavor I think is lovely...creamy and sweet.

Well, I'm in Central TX and these vines are wrapped around the rose bush that is sitting right out the sun, full day sun from morning to evening, with only a cloudy day to shade it. Certainly has not inhibited it at all! So I say it's worth a good shot. There are so many varieties of passionvine and some are very similar to each other in appearance. ←

I too, remember the big ol' abs my grandpa and uncle and dad used to go get at the coast and bring back to the backyard to prepare. I was also lucky enough several years ago to have some good friends who would dive for them and bring back their bounty and cook them up for a big group of us. Just lemon, garlic and butter....my most favorite food ever! I've never had the lab raised abs but I know they're growing them over by the Natural Energy Lab in Kona too, and my dad says they're pretty good. I wonder if they taste the same as the "wild caught" abs tho....gosh, talk about something you can only dream about