Rachel Perlow

Many mail order vendors have been discussed in the Special Occasions forum as well.

It came out really good. I used some of my stock concentrate from the freezer (thanks Steven) to make up for not having any bones with the chicken. The chaurice was spicier than regular Spanish chorizo, but it was very good. It started out with the intention of it being Arroz con Pollo, but yeah, it became more of a paella. I also used some canned red pepper from Ole Ole, the saffron was from there too. What's silly is I have some shelf stable chorizo from there, but we used the cajun chaurice from the freezer instead. Oh well.

That eggstractor thing looks like those adjustable containers they were selling on TV a couple years ago. I always thought they'd be a pain to clean. They probably had a lot left over in some warehouse and found a new way to market them! For those who have a ceramic ginger grater, I've found that it does a great job on pureeing garlic as well. And since they are frequenlty used for the same dish, no need to clean between uses. I primarily use my WS ricer with the large holed blade to make spaitzle. I prefer a masher & whisk for mashed potatoes (I like'm a little lumpy). As for my useless gadgets, I have most of those mentioned here: cherry pitter, garlic press, garlic peeler tube, grapefruit sectioning machine, plunger chopping thing, etc. I really should to through my drawers and remove anything that hasn't been used in a year (like going through your clothes closet), put in a box, making a list of said box's contents as it goes in there, and store it in the garage. Once you haven't used anything in that box for another year, time to garage sale or eBay it.

Have you ever tried the Spicy Beef Salad or Duck Salad at Wondee's? Many Thai restaurants have these types of salads, called "yum," that you can have as your main course. I also like Vietnamese salads, especially Bun, which is a noodle salad with veggies and your choice of grilled meat. My current fave is Saigon Republic in Englewood, but when Little Saigon in Nutley rebuilds (they burned down a little while ago) be sure to check them out too. Diners usually have decent salads, where else are you gonna go to for a huge chef's salad?

Don't say sorry, we'll have to try Brasilia some time.

Huh, wha??? That's bullshit, as Penn & Teller might say. Corian is nice if you like the integrated sink look and will be careful with hot pots and scratches (its Corian that can be scratched not Silestone). In fact, Silestone is harder and more scratch/chip resistant than actual granite. I have Silestone countertops. Yes, they are expensive, but not much more than granite. The only bad thing I've heard about granite is that they can fracture along the natural fault lines of the stone if there is a large temperature differential between the stone and something you put on it (i.e. a very hot pot put down in the wrong place on a cold day). Silestone has no natural faults and is very regular in pattern, so there's no place for a fissure to be exagerated. I actually prefer the irregular patterns of natural stone, so that is the only regret I have in choosing Silestone over granite. In addition, granite and other natural stones need to be sealed about once a year. That's a piece of maintanence I didn't want to deal with and don't need to with Silestone. I'll bet even white Silestone would pass your oil & curry powder test -- ask your dealer for a sample piece to bring home and test (or better yet, bring a little bottle of curry oil to test at the store ) With regard to sink, if you go with stone over Corian, and therefore do not do the integrated sink, consider doing a country farm sink, where the front edge and backsplash are integrated with the sink. That way the sides are straight cuts, no extra stone cutting charges as with an mounted sink (under or top). Check out our kitchen renovation thread, here. Here's a pic showing the countertops and our contemporary country farm-like sink, more pics on the linked thread.

Now that Rochelle has started this job, click here, I hope she lets us know how it's going.

Yeah, I feel invested in those phyllo things! I'm sorry Joe (he gave me much assistance via PM). I had bought all the ingredients earlier in the week, planning to make them today, but that didn't happen. I feel better than I did yesterday, but I don't think you want me sniffling and coughing all over everyone. I'm drinking lots of tea, Jason got an interesting Korean honey-citron "tea" at Han Ah Reum today, that was very nice. Have fun. Hopefully, I'll see many of you next week in NJ.

Any way part of the "utility" room could be used as the pantry? It's closer to your prep/fridge area and then would give you space for a mud room at the old pantry. Also, where is the house's front door? Is it the doorway into the Family room (6)? If so, build a closet over there and then you can lose the closet between the DR & LR.

This link has lots of annoying popups, but all the lyrics for the songs. Here's my suggestions from what I found there: "te- a drink with jam and bread," if you can't use the Doe a Deer. Maybe that could inspire an English summer pudding, or a (US) southern bread pudding, with a fruit sauce? And tea, of course. Leisl couldn't "taste (her) first champagne," but you could serve it. How could you forget "crisp apple strudels"? Now that's "a favorite thing." "Cads will offer you fruit and wine" when you're "16 going on 17" but at least Leisl knows that she is "unprepared" for "drinkers of brandies." This just sings of a fruit and cheese platter, and brandy for aperatifs. I was going to suggest a simple cake flavored with orange or rose flower water, but apparently there really is an Edelweiss cake. The recipe sounds similar to a flourless chocolate cake (but it does have a little flour in it), here's a link to Schokolade Edelweiss.

Schnitzel with noodles would most likely be weiner schnitzel aka veal cutlets. In a mostly vegetarian crowd I'll bet the meat eaters would be veal abstainers. Schnitzel could also be made with pork cutlets, or pounded chicken breast. For the noodles, I would go with spaetzle. I use a potato ricer with the largest holed plate in place. Since they cook in small batches, I melt some butter in the serving bowl and keep it warm in the oven. Each time I add a batch, I stir it up to coat it with butter, sprinkle some chopped parsley on at the end. Back to the vegetarian issues -- I suppose you could make some vegetable cutlets and call them vegetarian schnitzel.

Hmm, did you happen to notice if Johnny was there? I was nervous that the food at The Diner would start to slip once Felice opened. I've seen him every time I've been to Felice, so he's probably not at the diner as often.

OK, I finally watched a couple episodes of this show. The dinner party and the international buffet ones. I agree with most of the assessments posted here. This is a very sad day for Food TV. And, while I agree that real whipped cream is preferable to canned, canned whipped cream is preferable to Cool Whip. The only thing I could see repeating myself is the Boboli pizza. Heck, I have made almost that same pizza (but she used too much prepacked (ack) sauce). The most disgusting thing was the final plate of the pinwheel steak stuffed with bread stuffing with a side of potatoes. It would have been so hard to add frozen veggies to round out the meal o'starches?

The steak itself is just under $40 pp, but bring around $100 pp so that you don't get caught short if your guest(s) order apps, drinks, sides, dessert, etc. It's just cash, the leftovers fit into your wallet easily enough. JIC, there's an ATM across the street.

You can ask him advice publically as well. Marco Canora is doing an eGullet Q&A in February.

[ignoring husband's comments] They might have some chicken mole, but there's no place to sit and eat it. [/ignore]

Well, when Amanda starts posting on eGullet, I will thank her. Until then, I will attribute this recipe to our own Jim Dixon who brought it to our attention and will heap on him all the kudos this excellent recipe deserves. Amand Hesser's life-changing cauliflower article including the now-famous method for roasting that appeared in January, 2001. Regrettably, the Times is now charging for this. Toliver, thank you for putting this into words for me. I never read or heard of Amanda's article until Sandra brought it up ages ago. But, JD is the one who first mentioned it on eGullet and that's how I heard of it. Oh, and Amanda does post on eGullet, she started with just her Q&A, but has posted in other areas as well. Edit: Jim Dixon posted in this linked thread...

"The dents don't hurt; I have no idea if they help." The dents in a hand hammered wok are there for a reason. Their texture helps hold the food up on the side wall of the wok when you add the liquid to the bottom when finishing the sauce. Do not get a cast iron wok. Especially an enameled one, why pay for such a fancy wok that will is too heavy and will just get very beat up looking? A well used wok will develop a black patina from the oil and high heat, an enameled surface will get quite scratched up unless you only use wooden chans. If you only have a regular stove top to cook on, be sure to preheat your wok for several minutes before adding anything to the wok. It should be smoking before the oil is added, and you should have your other ingredients ready to go so the oil doesn't burn. If you are cooking on an electric stove or a gas burner where it is a very flat surface and you can't remove the grate, you can get woks that have a flattened bottom for maximum heat retention. We got one in San Francisco's Chinatown that's like that. Currently, we use it on our higher output (but still "only" 18,000 BTU) burner on our Garland stove. I remove the grate so that it sits even closer to the flame. A chan (usually metal with a wooden handle) is the best utensil for cooking in your wok. It's edge is curved like the walls of the wok so that you don't miss anything. I also have a wooden chan (like a flat wooden spatula, but with a curved edge) I picked up on my last trip to the Chinese grocery, I used it the other night and liked it very much. When you clean your wok, you don't want to scrub it till it shines. I once heard a story about a new (non-chinese) bride who wanted to impress her Chinese mother-in-law. After dinner she volunteered to do all the washing up. After a while, the mother-in-law went into the kitchen to see how she was doing, since she was taking a very long time. The daughter-in-law very proudly showed her the wok she had just spent so much time scrubbing to a shine!

Excuse my ignorance, but what is an "angel investor"?

The 25th is the Chinese New Year dinner in NJ.

"Jellied pike-perch quenelles Кнели из судака в желе" Sounds like Gefilte Fish to me!

What were your thoughts about when the Chinese had their space mission this past year? On eGullet,we talked about several comments made by the Chinese space agency about the superiority of Chinese space food. Has NASA consdiered working with the Chinese to share space food technology? Have the astronauts ever requested ethnic meals like Chinese dishes on board the Shuttle or ISS?

Not having any time to read/post on eGullet. Only being able to go to other restaurants once a week or so. As we all know you like to experiment with recipes this one is big: Not having any time to cook for yourself. Does anyone else feel like a rabbi refusing a conversion candidate? Like, if she makes it through all our negativity, she's got a better shot at being successful?

Yes - with Jacqueline Bisset and George Segal. I recommended it to a friend just last night but she couldn't find it in her store (it is a bit older). If you've got a TiVo, just do a search or a wishlist autorecord. I'm sure it airs several times a year, you'll catch it eventually. Click for movie's details.

Hmm, maybe a BBQ Hut?