Alex

This will be my first year (of many, I hope) of turkey frying. Thanks, fifi et. al. for the info. The great idea of doing a second turkey hadn't even crossed my mind. :duh: I've read that each successive cooling and reheating of the oil makes it less desirable for deep-frying. Would it be much better in this case to do the second turkey immediately as opposed to, say, several days later? I ask because it may be just the two of us this year, so we'll need at least a couple of days to get through the leftovers. I intend to brine my (organic, free-range, fresh-killed, etc.) bird(s). I assume there'll be no problem with deep-frying so long as I rinse and dry them thoroughly, yes? About how long does it take to do a 10-12# turkey? Do you lift it out after a certain amount of time and check for doneness with an instant-read thermometer? Dave, what is the difference between being in 360° oil vs. a 360° oven that would cause a probe thermometer's cable to expire?

And don't forget that calamari is "gahlaMAHD" I think this is more Italian-American though, and not just regional. People would break your chops if you pronounced calamari correctly in my area. Agreed. Perhaps even Italian-New Yorker (or maybe just Sicilian-New Yorker) rather than Italian-American. I remember that sopresata was super-sot, finoccio = f'-nook, etc.

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. 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.

I try to remember to increase my evening water intake if I'm drinking >1 glass of wine with dinner, as alcohol (and, to a lesser extent, caffeine) is a diuretic. If I forget, I wake up with a serious case of cotton mouth.

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.

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.

Sautéed chicken livers deglazed with fig balsamic vinegar. Butternut squash with spinach and corn 2001 Yangarra Park Cab Sauv Ginger tea, zinc lozenges, vitamin c, garlic, echinacea

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.

I ate smoked horsemeat, sashimi-style, when I lived in Japan. It tasted like, well, smoked meat. It was a little chewy but not at all tough or stringy.

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.

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

1. The Cook's Bible 2. The Silver Palate Cookbook 3. The Splendid Table I refer to my bound Cook's Illustrated volumes a lot, but that wouldn't count as one cookbook.

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.

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.)

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.

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.

As a pickled/preserved vegetable, Kimchee should keep for a long time when it's refrigerated, which is how our local Korean markets store it.

Glasses and mugs. Don't see the stemware. http://store.yahoo.com/sanriostore/categor...ccessories.html For the vibrator (your choice of regular or deluxe) and numerous other HK items, go to J-List, click on "View All J-List Products," then do a search for Hello Kitty. I love this web site.

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!

...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.

Like g said, Parm-Reg rind is good. I also add peeled/seeded/chopped tomatoes and some chopped escarole. Some regular bacon along with the pancetta would add a little smokiness.

Welcome to eGullet, jm! I get to A² only two or three times a year, so I really appreciate being able to draw on knowledgeable resources like you, tammylc, and mitten. If you haven't already, I suggest browsing the Heartland Gathering thread to see the great time you can have at next year's gathering (I hope).

I can't speak from first-hand experience, but my wife recently had a good meal at Cafe Lebanon downtown. I agree with bushey about Northampton, if you have a car to drive there. This is a good reference for restaurants in Northampton, Springfield, and other nearby points.

The butternut squash recipe is here. I'm making it again this weekend. I'm also going to make Lady T's apple pancake this weekend. (When she made it for our Sunday brunch, she used half-and-half instead of milk. )

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 )