Alex

Alex, Have you made the Nutella ice cream from Chocolate & Zucchini before? I tried it a couple of years ago and had disastrous results - a very dense mass that never really froze (no wonder - it's almost 1/2 Nutella by weight!), like a solid version of Nutella. As for the taste, it was so rich that nobody cared for it. Definitely not recommended. On the other hand, my experience so far with all of David Lebovitz's ice cream recipes has been fantastic! Interesting. No, I haven't done a practice batch yet, although I certainly planned to do so before making it part of the trio. Adam Roberts (aka The Amateur Gourmet) also endorsed Clotilde's recipe, so I figured it was OK. Giada D (Hmm, sounds like a rap star) has a more traditional, custard-based recipe on foodnetwork.com. Maybe I should just make a big batch of base and use that for all three.

My latest idea: Tiramisu (David Lebovitz), Nutella (from Chocolate & Zucchini), and Goat Cheese (Lebovitz or Charlie Trotter). It's not as colorful as many of the other combinations in this forum, but I'll bet the flavors will go together spectacularly well.

Las Vegas Sun story What's even sadder is that Ms. Alex is in LV for a conference and had a reservation for tonight (+3 friends). Maybe the rep didn't say anything to the Sun, but the cancellation voice mail message said that they wouldn't be open tonight (nor, apparently, any other night) becaue of the economy.

So, as you know, traveling via Metro is easy. I second what Busboy and weinoo have said. I'll be going to America Eats and Graffiato the first week in August, but of course that's after your trip. Near Union Station, as Busboy said, you can go to Bistro Bis and maybe see Paul Ryan order another $350 bottle of wine. (At least he tips decently.) Here are a few more ideas: I'm a huge fan of the three-course pre-theater menu at Tosca. Bibiana is excellent, too. La Chaumiere, in Georgetown, is a good classic French restaurant for lunch or dinner. The $12 bar menu lunch at Proof is a terrific deal. On the Mall, you ought to check out Mitsitam, although it can get pretty crowded at peak lunch time. The $19.90 three-course lunch at Vidalia is excellent and a great deal. Dinner ain't bad there, either. If you're needing seafood, skip Legal and go to BlackSalt (bus or cab needed).

Lukestar, your request is a rather tall order. As you probably know, DC has become quite a good restaurant city. Please be much more specific about your preferred price range, preferred type(s) of cuisine, what you like to drink with your dinner (and how much you want to spend), willingness to walk or take public transportation vs. taking a cab, etc., etc. Is this your first trip to DC? If not, where have you eaten and how much did you like it?

I have one. Beats the heck out of a similar Krups I used to own. Does a great job with roasting vegetables, baking a potato, top browning/broiling an open-face sandwich, cooking an Amy's frozen pizza, and toasting frozen (or fresh) bagels. Good for warming plates, too. Regular toast is OK -- perfect on one side but striped on the other because of the grates. Worth the money. Buy it and don't look back.

Hmm. I just drank an Argentinian Malbec -- a Clos De Los Siete -- with a burger tonight. That would have been fine with a filet mignon, especially if he ground a little fresh pepper on it. With his filet not being all that assertive or "beefy", I think an Oregon Pinot Noir would have been a good match.

That video is great! It's like giving birth to a hard-boiled egg.

This is a great pictorial with lots of comments - worth checking Thanks for the link, Heidi. This is the one I use. I cut back a little bit on the Szechuan peppercorn, but otherwise I do it exactly as written. As my fellow Michigander Tony the Tiger would say, "It's Grrreat!"

I believe that "grace" ultimately stems from the Latin gratia -- the same root as for "gratitude." And the name Jesus isn't a mistranslation, it's a transliteration of the Latin (Iesus), which itself was a transliteration of the similar-sounding Greek transliteration of Y'shuah.

Ooh, I want to shop at your market.

OK, this is the summer I break out my Masterbuilt (bought before last summer and, for one reason or another, never used). One of my goals is to smoke some U-10 scallops. I don't have an A-Maze-N smoke generator or home-built cold smoking apparatus (yet). Can this be done using the hot smoking method? If so, do you have any tips, tricks, suggestions, etc?

As a blasphemer and/or heretic -- the exact term(s) being dependent on the particular practice and religion in combination with who's doing the judging -- I say neither grace nor my heritage's equivalent, a b'racha, before a meal. However, more than two decades after living for a little while in Japan, I still precede most meals with a quiet traditional "itadakimasu." It's the formal version of the verb "I receive" -- i.e., "I humbly receive." This acknowledges your gratitude to everyone who had a role in bringing it from its source to your table, as well as to the food itself.

Agree with toasting the black walnuts. Stay traditional, but use very high quality, 70%-cocoa, hand-chopped chocolate chunks instead of packaged chips. If you want to bend tradition a bit, add some dried cherries to the batter.

Asparagus. It works the reverse way, too, starting with butter.

A wrap for bulgogi, larb, tabouli, etc.

An interesting choice for a dessert. Or hey, maybe a faux version, using a raspberry-ginger sauce, sweetened goat cheese, and brioche. Me, I'd do a gently flavored egg nog ice cream.

Because I only have a houseful of nieces and nephews during the holidays to peel those pesky chestnuts! Or you can buy these frozen peeled chestnuts directly from Michigan Chestnut Growers, Inc.

The best one I've had in my life was a simple cream of garlic soup at a sadly long-departed little French place in Detroit near the Ambassador Bridge, Aliette's Bakery and Restaurant. Aliette was in the kitchen while her husband took care of the front of the house.

Great ideas, all. Thank you. Please keep 'em coming. I'm planning to make a bunch of peach ice cream (Lebovitz's recipe) tonight or tomorrow. Any thoughts about what'd go with that?

Even though I already had a two-bowl Cuisinart ice cream maker, I recently bought the ice cream attachment for my KitchenAid stand mixer via the wonderfulness that is Craigslist. Why, you ask? I'll tell you. As you've probably figured out from the title of this topic, I thought it would be terrific to make three flavors at the same time, then combine them in a mold à la the traditional Neapolitan (chocolate, vanilla, strawberry). I've been reading through The Perfect Scoop and The Ultimate Ice Cream Book for ideas. My favorite so far combines goat cheese, strawberry-black pepper, and basil ice creams. What three flavors do you think would look and taste great together?

Two more: Dorie Greenspan's newest book plus one about smoothies.

Yes to salad, yes to soup garnish. The stem right beneath the flower can be thick and tough (at least the ones by me), so trim carefully.

As several contributors have pointed out, hardly anyone's hands are completely clean when it comes to ethical behavior. However, that doesn't mean we can't look to improve in that regard. Two perceptual principles apply here ("here" meaning non-free plastic bags, shiitake stems, etc.). The first is that a grocery store (or any large store) is essentially faceless -- just a big "them." So, when we steal (or whatever you want to call it) from "them," it's easier because it's impersonal. Perhaps you also can imagine that no one who matters is seeing you do it. This is reflected in Chris's saying he probably wouldn't remove the stems if he were buying shiitakes at a farmers market. It also was the basis of my earlier question to Fat Guy (and, by extension, to everyone else) of whether he'd do the same thing to a friend. I would guess (and hope) not. The second is that in the big scheme of things, the transgressions are very small, so they're easy to rationalize as being inconsequential for the victim. We think in terms of the individual act, not the aggregate of our acts over time. This was the basis of my second question/observation: If we "steal" 79¢ worth of, say, shiitake stems over the course of a year, that's essentially no different from shoplifting a 79¢ candy bar.

I hope your trip goes smoothly. If you are able to make it out to the truck, unfortunately I won't be there to great you. I actually can't believe I forgot to connect the dates. I will be cooking a guest chef dinner at my other gig, the Kellogg Center. It should be a great meal. A cat named Brian Goodman is in town from Cleavland. He helped open Michael Simon's NYC place. I met him and started on the prep Tuesday. The meal looks really good. It's $60 or 65 for 5 courses with wine. It might be worth calling to see if there are any seats left. (800) 875-5090 Visiting Chef Series Spring 2011 It's $75 according to the registration form. I couldn't find a menu online, though.