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Alex

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  1. Now that we've gone totally OT: what about the different ways to indicate that you are trying to leave the elevator or bus? "Getting out" versus "Coming out." The latter took some getting used to, when I lived in Detroit.  That's dee-TROYT, not DEE-troyt or day-TRRWAH even if it was named for both a French gentleman of that pronunciation AND the fact that it's on a strait (étroit in French).

    And not duh-TROYT either.

    When I lived there the pronunciation of street names got to me: Freud = frood; Goethe = go'-thee; Dequindre = duh-quin'-der; Lahser = lasher. I could go on.

    I'm 30 years removed from NYC but I still stand on line. :biggrin: I also put up some coffee in the morning. Is that a New York-ism or just me?

    And thanks, Hobbes, for posting those pronunciations. I always had pronounced "sommelier" with the final "r," dilligently following the mnemonic I learned in high school French: "Be CaReFuL about pronouncing the final letter."

    I think I'll have a bottle of Château Faux Pas with tonight's dinner.

  2. I also leave the cheese out when freezing pesto.

    I don't see a major advantage in keeping it at room temp. In ice cube-size portions it defrosts very quickly (especially in a microwave) and can be used in small doses without your having to use up the rest of the jar before it spoils.

  3. so i've ordered a free range organic turkey for the big hoilday. amusing in that there are only two of us, and the smallest available is 14lbs. whatever.

    Ditto here. It's worth it, though. We've both slow-cooked and standard-cooked them. This year we'll probably deep-fry.

    The timing appears to be about the same as a standard turkey, but use your thermometer, of course. Brining is good.

  4. Cook fresh cranberries with fresh orange juice and sugar, press through a sieve, and dilute with the cooking liquid to drizzling consistency. Stir some maple syrup into heavy cream. Drizzle on the soup the cranberry puree, then the cream, making a pattern like Japanese brush work.

  5. Roast the sprouts with EVOO and kosher salt.  (Do a search for brussel sprouts on this board and you'll come up with several threads, believe me. :wink: )

    Squash:  roast.  Scoop out pulp, saute with onion and garlic in unsalted butter.  Add a dash of curry powder.  Add chopped apple or pear.  Saute a bit more.  Add vegetable stock.  Simmer.  Adjust seasoning.  Puree in blender or food processor, return to pot.  Simmer a bit more, add splash of light cream.  Adjust seasoning.  Plate.  Garnish with chopped squash and a bit of cilantro.

    Soba

    Alternative garnish for soup: Cook fresh cranberries with fresh orange juice and sugar. Press through a sieve. Dilute as necessary with the cooking liquid. Drizzle over the soup. I also do an additional drizzle of heavy cream mixed with maple syrup.

    Or you can try this recipe from the Heartland Gathering, using butter and a chipotle instead of bacon.

  6. King salmon, roasted; sauce = butter, shallots, morels, tomatoes (fresh + sun-dried), rosemary, cognac (flamed), cream

    Brussels sprouts, chestnuts, and bacon, with a little honey drizzled on top

    Redskin potato

    1999 The Eyrie Vineyards Pinot Noir

    Mini-Mounds bars, formerly residing in the Halloween bowl by the front door

    Decaf

    A perfect fall meal

  7. I'm with you, Tammy; I virtually never order restaurant coffee any more. Perhaps most customers have stopped caring, or just don't speak up.

    There was a recent thread about French press coffee. That, to me, would be a reasonable option. A grinder could be devoted to that purpose, 190-200°F water is easily produced, the cost wouldn't be prohibitive as Kona or JBM isn't mandatory, and training wouldn't be difficult.

  8. As someone who did the Japan teaching thing about 15 years ago, I certainly can support a non-megalopolis option. I lived in the Hamamatsu-Iwata area, and while it supported most of the big-city niceties (including a Häagen-Dazs ice cream shop and the best reasonably priced French restaurant I've ever eaten at) I could hop on my motor scooter and be in the middle of rice and tea fields in ten minutes or at a deserted Pacific Ocean beach in twenty. The cost of living, especially housing, was significantly less than the large urban areas. (Fûkuoka City's population is no small potatoes, though, about 1.3 million.)

  9. Yep, I agree with them other folks: too much hooch.

    Cook's Illustrated recommends 1T vodka per 2 cups fruit (+ 2T lemon juice for plums). They also recommend that the sugar (1c for plums) be stirred directly into the puréed fruit for several minutes rather than using a simple syrup.

    I've also found that the canister needs to sit in a freezer at 0°F or lower for best results.

    Good luck! Plum sorbet sounds wonderful.

  10. Hmmm.  Maybe I'm thinking about it wrong.  I just figured they would think we were "cheaping out" with a brownie bar.  It would be super easy to do a brownie bar with toppings.

    If I were a parent there, I'd be impressed that you actually thought about what the kids would like. I'd be further impressed by the kids' thinking that the brownie/ice cream bar was the coolest thing about the whole party.

    I would have traded half my baseball card collection for a dessert like that at my bar mitzvah reception.

  11. Where do I even begin? My grandmother loved to cook - she taught and inspired me in all things food related. The recipe box alone is a treasure to me, and looking through has left me even more impressed with my grandmother and the way she ran her kitchen.

    Indeed, what a treasure you have! I hope it can be passed down for many more generations to come.

    But back to cookbooks...

    I couldn't resist The Good Cook's siren's song of 4 books for $1 if I re-joined. Winging their way to me are:

    The Babbo Cookbook (counts as 2)

    Forever Summer (Nigella)

    The Paris Cookbook (Wells)

    Also, from Bargain Books:

    Julia and Jacques

    Mostly Mediterranean (Wolfert)

    The Essential Mediterranean (Nancy Harmon Jenkins) -- great book!

  12. ...and this, I hope, also will be my last post on this thread.

    First, an apology. We were having way too much fun at the Heartland Gathering to do a "serious" blind tasting. I did do several tastings on my own with <$15 reds. The results were consistent with my previous tastings and with Mark's. There consistently was a difference between the treated and untreated wines, with the difference disappearing after 5-10 minutes. I often found that the "softness" of the treated wine also meant that it had less bouquet and was less interesting in the mouth than the treated wine.

    On the other hand, the Hello Kitty vibrator (scroll down the page a bit) appeared a little happier with the clip than without.

  13. Butternut Squash with Corn, Spinach, Bacon, Onions, and Basil

    Serves 8 as Side.

    Thanks to MatthewB for turning me on to this simple recipe, which originally appeared in the November 1998 Bon Appétit. I'm sure that it's a given on eGullet, but I'd still like to emphasize that the fresher the ingredients, the better. (The original recipe specified packaged spinach and frozen corn.) Proportions can be adjusted at will. I made this for the 2003 Heartland Gathering in Grand Rapids using thick-cut farm bacon, with the other ingredients coming straight from the GR Farmer's Market. Outstanding!


    ½ lb bacon


    1 large onion (about 2 cups chopped)


    1 large butternut squash


    9-10 oz spinach leaves


    4-6 ears corn or 1 lb frozen kernels


    ½ cup or more chopped fresh basil


    salt and pepper


    Prep: Chop bacon crosswise, ~1/3-1/2" wide. Chop onion into fine dice. Peel squash (and seed, if using round segment) and cut into ~1/3" dice. Wash and coarsely chop spinach, if needed; baby spinach can be left whole. If using fresh corn, remove husk and silk and cut kernels from cob. Wait to chop the basil until it's time to add it.

    Cook: In a large pot or sauté pan over medium heat, cook the bacon until it is just getting crisp. Add the onion and squash and sauté until the squash is just tender (10-12 min.). Add the corn. If using frozen corn or older fresh corn, cook for a few minutes before adding the spinach; if using very fresh corn, add the spinach at the same time. Cook until the spinach wilts. Chop, then stir in the basil. Add salt (careful!) and pepper to taste.

    Keywords: Side, Easy, Vegetables, American

    ( RG737 )

  14. Butternut Squash with Corn, Spinach, Bacon, Onions, and Basil

    Serves 8 as Side.

    Thanks to MatthewB for turning me on to this simple recipe, which originally appeared in the November 1998 Bon Appétit. I'm sure that it's a given on eGullet, but I'd still like to emphasize that the fresher the ingredients, the better. (The original recipe specified packaged spinach and frozen corn.) Proportions can be adjusted at will. I made this for the 2003 Heartland Gathering in Grand Rapids using thick-cut farm bacon, with the other ingredients coming straight from the GR Farmer's Market. Outstanding!


    ½ lb bacon


    1 large onion (about 2 cups chopped)


    1 large butternut squash


    9-10 oz spinach leaves


    4-6 ears corn or 1 lb frozen kernels


    ½ cup or more chopped fresh basil


    salt and pepper


    Prep: Chop bacon crosswise, ~1/3-1/2" wide. Chop onion into fine dice. Peel squash (and seed, if using round segment) and cut into ~1/3" dice. Wash and coarsely chop spinach, if needed; baby spinach can be left whole. If using fresh corn, remove husk and silk and cut kernels from cob. Wait to chop the basil until it's time to add it.

    Cook: In a large pot or sauté pan over medium heat, cook the bacon until it is just getting crisp. Add the onion and squash and sauté until the squash is just tender (10-12 min.). Add the corn. If using frozen corn or older fresh corn, cook for a few minutes before adding the spinach; if using very fresh corn, add the spinach at the same time. Cook until the spinach wilts. Chop, then stir in the basil. Add salt (careful!) and pepper to taste.

    Keywords: Side, Easy, Vegetables, American

    ( RG737 )

  15. FWIW, chined or not (isn't chined a proper term?) that rib roast was . . .

    The Best Beef Ever.

    (As I noted to Klink, this is a fallibilistic truth-claim.  Thus, the nature of the claim inherently allows for future revision.  Nonetheless, we stand by the claim since the proposition captures something true, even if that "truth" remains bounded by our current experience, imagination, & knowledge.)

    To expand the bounds of our experience and knowledge, I recommend additional encounters with klink's smoked prime rib.

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