bleachboy

I'm with andiesenji, in that I clean-as-I-go to the extent that I keep my favorite pots (the Falk Culinair) clean so that I can use them multiple times in one cooking session. Once all dishes near completion, however, stuff usually just gets piled into the sink until the next morning. I need to learn this lesson, though: A roasting pan takes one minute to clean the same night you roasted, ten times as long the next day. Alas.

I can't add as much as most others in the thread. My wife (the librarian) brought home this book for me to read, knowing my love of all books culinary -- and double love of all books boozy. It was an enjoyable read, and I definitely recommend checking it out from your local public library. It took me over a month to read, as it sat in the bathroom the whole time. Errr... (Seinfeld reference) "This book is flagged, sir".

My friends and family consider me the cheesecake master. Here's the techinique I use. 1. Don't use a springform pan. I have tried, again and again, and it ALWAYS leaks, and you ALWAYS get a soggy crust. No matter how much heavy-duty aluminum foil you wrap around it. 2. After the cake is done baking (or maybe a wee bit before), crack the door and leave it sitting in the oven in its water bath for one hour. Don't even think about taking it out. 3. Then let it sit on the counter and as mentioned before, run a hot knife around the edge to give it the opportunity to separate from the cake pan. Let it sit for an hour or so. 4. Put it in the fridge. You're done and it's a kick-butt cheesecake. I forget where, and I'll try to find and link the recipe (I think it was from Epicurious) but I made a pumpkin cheesecake last year for Thanksgiving that blew every other dessert away. It was gone before anybody even touched the mud pie. More to follow after I get my wife to remind me where that recipe came from.

Tennessee is a great chow chow state, too. My local meat guy also sells some locally-made Tennessee chow-chow. I frequently give it as a gift to out-of-state residents. It's really a great condiment. Not sure why it's not more popular, apart from the (sometimes) kind of wierd sounding ingredients.

Yeah, I would say that a splash is definitely a larger quantity than a dash. However, I wouldn't get too concerned about it. You probably wouldn't be able to tell too much difference in the finished product. FWIW, I've never seen a bottle of Luxardo that didn't have a pretty stingy built-in pourer. Should be easy to make that do a dash or a splash.

Ever seen the Chappelle Show sketch where they have a little box that says "Wrap it up" and plays louder and louder "Oscar" music? My friend Ben and I have often envisioned a device with big LED numbers on it and a huge button on top that says I HAVE BEEN WAITING: 00:14.32 YOUR TIP IS NOW: 14.54% And when you push the button the "waiting" time counts up and the "tip" percentage counts down. Sure, this is only applicable at places like Denny's really. But it's a running joke.

I'll be honest. I detest Moon Pies. I detest Goo-Goo Clusters. My wife used to eat lots of the "reject" Goo-Goos that they sold for cheap at some sort of outlet stores when she was a kid. But to me, they are ridiculous sugar bombs. If I remember correctly, they both contain marshmallow, right? Ewww. I can't stand marshmallow.

This is my grandmother's cornbread recipe. As far as I'm concerned, it's unparallelled. 2 eggs 1 cup flour 2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. soda 3 tbsp. sugar 3/4 tsp. salt 2/3 cup yellow corn meal 1 cup buttermilk 1/4 cup butter Beat the eggs. Sift the dry ingredients and add alternately with the buttermilk to the egg mixture. Add the melted butter. Lightly grease an 8 X 8 Pyrex pan (or black skillet -- I prefer the skillet). Pour batter into pan and bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes (or until golden brown on top.) Note: Cornbread batter just needs to be lightly stirred together---but NOT mixed with an electric mixer. Also, if you have some cornbread leftovers, place in foil and re-heat in oven the next day.

I made a Julia Child dinner last night, but ate it far too fast to take photos, even though I'd intended to. Roast chicken (spatchcocked, brined) with rosemary, lemon zest, pepper, and tons of butter shoved under the skin, a gratin dauphinois from "Mastering the Art", and French bread with so much butter on it that it was ridiculous. I also opened a very fancy bottle of wine from Vouvray.

Cool link, Roux dude. Thanks!

Does anybody have a decent contact address at Food Network? We should really write in and demand a French Chef marathon in memoriam.

I am doing a roast chicken with buttered green beans and French bread slathered with butter in honor of Julia. I'll take a photo and post it on your thread.

Rest in peace, Julia, and thanks for your wonderful cookbooks, among my most used and most loved.

I'm moving into a new house in about a month. After that, I think I'm going to start a mini-blog on here, trying a different cocktail every day. Including ones I think I'll hate. I have a FULLY stocked bar. Might as well use some of this hooch.

It's the hypnotic ferret, man. I am too weak to resist... Good call! I think it's underrated, too. It's as good as (or better than) higher-priced gins but the huge-ass bottle is like $35 where I live. If I'm mixing it with something that isn't vermouth, it's my house gin. And I have tried them all.

As always, I cowtow to slkinsey. That's why I use Beefeaters for G&T's. It tastes like gin, it tastes good, and it's not expensive. If I have an expensive bottle of gin in the house, I feel it ought to be used for a well-balanced martini -- bliss.

Countertops. Soapstone, bitches, soapstone!!! I don't know how many times I have to say it. Granite countertops are the "avocado green formica" of the 2015's. Sure, they look nice now, but they're trendy as hell and they WILL go out. Soapstone is non-porous, non-reactive, you can put a thousand degree pot on it without harm, you can sand it down if it ever gets scratched, it's the miracle material. Martha Stewart bought her soapstone countertops from this company.

I have been to both places. I would recommend Craftsteak. Prime was exhorbitantly expensive -- that may or may not matter to you. Their shellfish platter was tremendously good and the steak (NY Strip) was superb. Side items struck me as mediocre. Craftsteak has a great bar that can make you an Aviation (I had to tell them how, but they did have all the ingredients. For dinner we had flageolet beans, red king crab cocktail, onion rings (because they looked so damn good when the table next to us ordered them), braised short ribs, and Kobe beef flank steak. That flank steak was definitely in the top three best pieces of meat I'd ever eaten. The menu at Craftsteak, generally, struck me as a much more interesting "steakhouse experience" than Prime, which is quite straightforward.

By the way, I tried Marlene's recipe this weekend and I think it's a keeper. My wife was in charge of salad, and I think we both agreed that you want not just a "squeeze" of anchovy paste, but a "big squeeze". I had made the croutons the night before and sauteed them in garlic oil. I might not bother with this step the next time (doing the garlic in the oil) as the dressing was plenty garlicky on its own.

About the only place I eat raw oysters is at Acme in New Orleans. At wierd off-peak hours, it's easy to find a seat at the bar. If you're lucky. I'm down there often enough to get my fix. After reading Robb Walsh's article, I'm going to be interested in trying to note a difference in taste between Summer and Winter. Not sure my "taste memory" will last that long, unfortunately. I have friends who almost always order oysters-on-the-half-shell at steakhouses here in Nashville, which seems like a sketchy proposition at best.

Thanks for the report, fifi! Felix is very close to my dear departed grandmother's house. My folks and I used to eat there periodically. Your post brought back many fond memories.

This is actually an extremely apt observation by a probable expert. Write it down in your notebooks, students.

Alton Brown's creamed corn recipe is quite excellent. But do leave out the turmeric, which doesn't add anything but a sort-of-unpleasant fluorescent yellow color. The key to this recipe is to scrape off just the tops of the kernels, then scrape out the corn "milk" from the kernels. You should end up with a very honeycombey looking ear of corn.

Gee, thanks. It's time to quit drinking and go to sleep, Tommy.

I have seriously mixed feelings about a child stealing raw green beans in a grocery. On one hand, he's stealing. On the other hand, he's stealing fresh produce.. is that normal for a three-year-old?