slbunge

In our first house we had a great range from the early 50s with a pilot light that kept the interior a pleasant 80-ish degrees in the winter. Not the most efficient thing in the world but a fantastic place to proof doughs. Fast forward to a rented condo in Boston with a pilot-less oven, a cold blue-sky day after a snow storm, and a bit of a chill. I need to get some sourdough starter active for loaves of bread this week and am looking for a nice, warm spot. Some ideas: On top of the clothes dryer which will be used for a load of laundry in a bit. If I could prop the bowl above the baseboards I'd be in business. Perhaps the top of my computer, though it doesn't feel that warm. On top of the water heater? Anyone else in this same predicament? Any other bright ideas?

Actually, another heresy but in a pinch, if you had a nice ripe pear, you could put the flesh of it in the guac to add some sweetness. In general, I would stay away from putting in the creamy stuff because you will lose the delicate texture of the avocado.

Had a splendid food related haul from wife and her family. Schott's Food and Drink Miscellany, a really cool Rifi hand-formed Tagine (from, of all places Tagines.com), a big silpat that indicates it is a 'kneading mat', and a really cool dough whisk from the King Arthur catalog that I will put to use this week when I make a couple of loaves of bread. I think there is more but I can't remember.

The most successful of the new dishes we tried was a soup we had for lunch on Christmas Eve. The idea was to tie us over until while we prepared main meal, went ice skating, etc. Since the 'theme', if it could be called such, was foods that might be scene at an Italian Christmas celebration we chose zuppa di castagne e cavolo nero (chestnut and kale soup) from Dec 2003 Gourmet (recipe from Epicurious here). We substituted a seafood broth for chicken broth and left out the pancetta (used lots of salt in the onion/garlic sautee to help balance) to stick with the tradition of no meat or fowl on Christmas Eve. Delicious and hearty soup, perfect for a cold day. A couple other new and successful dishes include a salt cod and fennel canneloni and rapini sauteed with lots of garlic and marinated anchovy. In all, a great couple of days of celebration and eating.

I was at Giuffre on Saturday and they told me the same. I expected that since they actually care about offering gulf shrimp rather than tiger shrimp that they would be the one to go to. Nope. If I get time, I might try Fresh Pond. It might also make sense for me to call Sea to You since the local sushi chefs may be asking for it. If I learn any more, I'll post.

We have had our KA mixer for 11 years and have not had any trouble with it. Based on the serial number/model number it appears to have been manufactured in 1993 before the Whirlpool change mentioned. I admit that it serves reasonably light duty in our kitchen (I mix and knead bread dough by hand) but is in service many times per month and has yet to fail me. The interesting thing about complaints that they have changed to some plastic internal parts is that without doing that we would all be sitting around complaining about how damned expensive the mixers have become. Machined metal parts (such as the geared power transmission system in the mixer) are quite expensive to produce, particularly in small quantity. In my opinion, kneading bread dough is very tough service for consumer equipment. Perhaps KA should address this by not including the dough hook anymore to try to discourage the practice.

Wow. Thanks. I've been in KitchenArts and it should have occured to me that they could do it. Never heard of Stoddard's, will check them out as well. Now...I think I'll wait until after the holidays because I don't want to be down a chef's knife during this season.

Here in Boston, last night was the first of what I hope to be many cold nights. We ordered a great pizza from a place that delivers, stoked up the fireplace, opened a bottle of wine, and set to baking the last of this seasons' holiday biscotti. In all, an outstanding Monday evening.

We've never washed ours in about 10 years. Just knock the flour off as best as you can and put it away when you are done.

Any suggestions for a good place in the Boston area to get a set of kitchen knives professionally sharpened?

If anyone has a source in the Boston area, I'd be interested in hearing about it. So far, I haven't looked terribly hard but I didn't see any at fish counters over the weekend. (The season started last week, right?)

How about the 'hippy' sorts of folks being refered to as granolas. Not sure if it is meant as or considered an insult.

I still sometimes use the Ginsu knife my wife's parents gave to her when she left for college many moons ago.

Thanks.

This is interesting. My grandmother was born in Calabria in Southern Italy and emigrated with her family to the US when she was young settling in Utica, NY. She moved to the Chicago area when she married and as far as I know always spoke of 'tomato sauce'. Based on the evidence above, it seems like she might have grown up knowing it (in English) as gravy. Anyone from upstate New York care to comment on the use of 'gravy' vs 'sauce'?

The ones with pine nuts at Maria's Bakery in the North End of boston are refered to as 'Amaretti' and are sort of like a macaroon. A few other of the cookies that that fall into the 'not biscotti' category but are in normal supply at Maria's are as follows: -Totos: a small chocolate/allspice/fig cookie that is a mini version of the Christmas specialty Mustaccioli -Umberti: a sort of soft vanilla biscuit -Regina: a little tea biscuit covered entirely with sesame seeds -standard 'butter cookies': at Maria's as at all the North End bakeries, these are factory made with vegetable shortening but still very popular All of these names are from a sort of cribsheet I have from Maria's and I'm not sure how true these names are to the names of real cookies baked by real Italians. And, sorry, but I intend to buy my Italian cookies there so I don't have recipes. Hopefully the names help.

When not particularly delicate you can be called ham-fisted.

Sounds like a nice selection of goodies. Everytime we have served brie in puff pastry everyone ooohs and aaaaahs, which is nice because we use frozen pastry dough so it is quite easy to put together. What cocktails are you serving? Last year, our holiday drink was Tom and Jerry. Sort of fell a bit flat with party-goers although I liked them quite a bit. Something about a frothy/creamy drink that is only barely sweet is hard to sell people who have been heavily exposed to lattes. Still trying to come up with a holiday drink for this season.

I've recently had white pepper ice cream at a local restaurant. Really nice combination of creamy with a warm spiciness. Have had olive oil ice cream at Zaytinya in DC which was very nice and smooth with just a hint of olive. A couple of flavors from the local ice cream places that might be worth a try: grape nut (similar to your granola, great salty crunch), burnt sugar (more intense than carmel), and malted vanilla.

It's on Peterborough Street near Fenway. Small seating area, we usually do cary out.

OK. I am going to print out Pam's post (thanks Pam!) and keep it with me. I have found decent cheap Mexican food here in the form of Ana's Taqueria and El Pelon. Both are good for what they are...essentially taco/burrito joints. What I like about Ana's is the fact that their burritos are not stuffed as big as your head. The amount of tortilla (and theirs are decent) is more to my liking.

Score!

We have entered that time of year when Starbucks' lure for me is no longer just related to the fact that I am travelling, I see one on the corner, and I know what to expect. This is the time of year when I might actually seek out Starbucks though I've got plenty of my favorite roast from my favorite coffee shop at the ready. You see, I really like their Christmas blend coffee. I think it is far and away better than the coffee they normally serve as 'cup of the day'. Good 'spicey' flavor and much closer to properly brewed strength (I often think their coffee is thin and weak for my taste). I haven't tried this year's version yet but in past years it has been far and away above their normal daily offerings. So, as I mentioned above, I'm a bundle of contradictions. I hate them sometimes, maybe even most times. But I can't really stay away from them completely.

I bought my first of the holiday season in the North End (Boston's Italian neighborhood) this past weekend. Have yet to give it a shot. The place has a website if you are still looking for baccala (click). You may want to call since it is a special holiday item and their website doesn't look terribly up to date.

One of the people who jump to mind is Hugo Ortega in Houston. Perhaps his food is a bit short of the 'high end' you were looking for, but his Hugo's is definitely white tablecloth food.