ScorchedPalate

I haven't tasted it myself but the King Arthur Flour Baker's catalog sells the Lorann peach: catalog page Anyone tasted this one?

HamHocks: Not that you asked but... were I in your shoes, I would copy that post into a letter and send it to the manager. You're about the 6th person I have heard make some serious complaints about this place, and given that it seems to have such potential, I'd hate to see it go down in flames over what are essentially fixable problems. ~A

You beat me to it, Wendy... that's a really bizarre omission.

I second the nomination of the Zuni mock-porchetta. Easily one of the best pork recipes ever. It's even better if you let it sit with the paste in the cracks of the meat for a couple of days. Or you could just make a huge mess of carnitas

Me, that sounds like a recipe for a trip to Kinko's and a listing on Half.com. But then, I have downsized from my past excesses... I used to have no less than 20 cookbooks on the subject of potatoes.

How did this mild-mannered topic turn into a referendum on kids in restaurants?

And all of us who have gone out for a nice, relaxing dinner love you for that.

Search this PNW Forum and you wil find an abundance of information about all of these places. Edited to add: I'd also suggest Dahlia Lounge -- www.tomdouglas.com

T'was my understanding that food-service establishments were forbidden by health code from allowing animals inside. Is this not the case?

Ooh! I have a good one: Squab (better known as park pigeon)

Spanish Table here in Seattle has a stunning porto cellar (not all is listed on their website). It's bit far to ship a port to Switzerland, though.

My talents: anything mexican, getting everything done at the same time, fixing bad recipes on the fly. I can't make biscuits to save my life. Luckily, Cam's got the "biscuit hand" -- he's good with any short doughs. Potatoes sense his fear and turn into a grey, pasty mess... even if I am standing over his shoulder and coaching. He also has a knack of over- or under-cooking meat, even when he's being diligent. Both of us suck at rice, so we have a rice cooker. :)

The one cookbook I would rescue in a fire is my three-ring binder full of printouts, magazine tear-outs, recipe cards, and such. But if you mean the one commercially-available book I would take with me if I knew I could have only one, forever, I'd be hard pressed to say. I'd want a general-purpose book, but none of the ones I currently own fits that bill. Which is probably why I have so many cookbooks! The book I cook out of most often, and most happily, is "Staff Meals from Chanterelle" by David Waltuck. It's got a ton of recipes, and they run the gamut from back-of-the-box (shepherd's pie, sloppy joes) to ethnic (lots of chinese) to company-nice. The trick of cooking green beans is worth the price of admission alone. I can only think of one recipe I have made out of this book in the last 3 years that I didn't like, and that was because I didn't like one of the ingredients. Rounding out the top five: - Asian Ingredients (Bruce Cost) - Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen - Baking Illustrated - LA Times California Cookbook [edited for a grammar nit]

Or you could call it a French 16, the 2-digit code for the departement of Charente, where you'd find the town of Cognac. At least people would know that you didn't mean "75", which would be my fear with calling it a French 76. ~A [edited for clarity]

I suspect this falls into the Vodka Martini category: What's right ain't necessarily what's happening in the world. I love what Drink Boy says on this matter: That said, I prefer the variation with Cognac. In my view, though, drink variations that are so substantial as this should have a different name from the original. I like the idea of calling it a French 76.

I got a copy at Whole Foods yesterday (right before I gave up shopping there because it was literally too full to move). They didn't have the new issue at QFC, though. Robert Hess (DrinkBoy hereabouts) was also on the panel. Many other familiar favorites on the lists as well... Best new: Lark Runners up: Union, Lola Chef to watch: Ethan Stowell (union) Best Chinatown/ID: 7 Stars Pepper Best neighborhood italian: Lago Best cocktail bar: Zig Zag (huge picture of Ben) Runners up: Sambar, Fu Kung Wu Best Pizza: Via Trib Runners up: Lago, Tutta Bella Best-kept secret: Gypsy Readers' Choice Best Takeout: Pagliacci (ties with PF Chang's?!) I also thought that the "10 Very Best" list was better than many lists of this type I have seen. I might quibble with the order, and one or two of the choices, but overall I think it's a solid list. ~A

Only by me, so I'd hardly call that a boycott. :D I know some folks here had tickets to the now-cancelled second night, sadly.

Yay, Carla!! And hooray for all of our other favorites, too. What a great list. ~A

No kids here either, but... I have a co-worker who called her baby Tofu Avocado when she was in utero. My younger dog, Bella, looks like a piglet and as a result is often called Hammie or Smith (for Smithfield Ham). Our ex-chef friend Mark calls her Porcellina (suckling pig). She even makes little pig-gruntie noises...

Lucy: Thank you so much for sharing your bounty with us. My life ground to a halt yesterday evening as I read your gorgeous blogs, both this one and the archive. My husband was waiting for me to pick him up from work. He saw that I was still online, and asked if everything was OK. "No," I said, "it's not. We need to move to France. Now." ~A

Yeah, I can't explain it, but the dudes here will wear shorts (with flannel, fleece, and hiking boots rounding out the ensemble) even when it is snowing. Add it to our list of sartorial sins. And yes, "it rains here ALL THE TIME" ...except for this marvelously sunny, dry spring we're having. (Ooops, not supposed to tell!) ~A

We used a (borrowed) Bradley at class to make one of the bacon batches. We also did half in the regular drum-style smoker with an external firebox. The traditionally smoked bacon was good, but it was more cooked than smoked. The stuff from the Bradley, though, was gorgeous -- great color, not oversmoked or cooked, plenty of good fat left to render. I fantasize about having one of my own....

My trick is shopping in places where I find foods that I'm excited to take home and prepare. I justify the higher prices I pay at Pike Place Market (and Whole Foods, for that matter) with the thought that (a) it's entertainment and (b) if it's gorgeous and fresh and just what I wanted, it's 100 times less likely to languish in the fridge. ~A

I've taken two charcuterie classes at Culinary Communion here in Seattle, which are my only meat-curing experiences. I keep meaning to make some more bacon, but my weekends have been filling up lately... At the first class late last fall. There wasn't a ton of actual curing -- we made a bunch of fresh sausages -- but we did smoke a side of bacon that the chef-instructor had pre-cured. (He explained the curing process, too, so we could do it ourselves.) Mr. Scorched and I took another charcuterie class there a couple of months ago. We made a fair number of cured and/or smoked meats this time around: kielbasa, spanish chorizo, andouille, tasso, bacon, pancetta, etc. The bacon was excellent, the chorizo very good, and the pancetta a bit to wangy for my preference. It'll be good in cooking, but it's just too gamey for eating on its own. I look forward to trying my hand at making some of these at home once the schedule clears out a bit. Edited to add: I also make duck confit a few times a year... which I suppose is technically preserving, even though it's consumed almost as soon as it's aged. :) ~A

Palace Kitchen has a minimum, even midweek. Pretty steep, as I recall. ~A