elion_84

Definitely roast wrapped in foil. If they are small you can do 4 to a bunch. Let cool some, then rub with paper towels to peel.

There's a vendor at the Sunset Valley farmers market who sometimes has duck eggs. He's usually on the middle of the sourth (stadium) side of the market. I've only bought them in the spring. I doubt he has any now because of the heat.

Mix sauteed liver with egg yolks and some mayo. Stuff the whites and top each half with a dallop of mayo.

There was an article in Food&Wine a couple of issues back on this subject. One thing I remember is that you can generally pick a sparkling wine if the dish works well with beer.

From our latke party last Monday. We made several different kinds of latkes: - Plain potato, some where topped with crem fraiche and caviar - Plain potato grated very fine - Sweet potato, topped with wasaby cream, caviar, and arugula micro-greens - Potato and celery root, topped with marinated beet and cabage slaw and duck confit - Zucchini and carrot, topped with sour cream, pepper jelly (Austin Slowburn Habanero and Rosemary, really good stuff), and smoked trout - Cheese latkes, with pear-ginger sauce We also had the requisite sour cream, apple sauce, as well as, pomegranate mollases spiced apple sauce.

Warm crab dip Curried pumpkin soup slkinsey's Turkey two ways Cranberry-orange bread Cornbread, suasage, and chestnut dressing Fennel-roasted vegetables (potatoes, brussel sprouts, carrots, onions, fennel) Twice-baked sweet potatoes Cranberry-apple chutney Cranberry sauce with persimmons Apple pie with home-made vanilla ice cream Sweet potato pie Spiced pumpkin pie with port poached cranberries

Electric kettle rocks! I have the Krups model and it's much faster than regular stove top kettle on 9kBTU burner. The electric kettle doesn't heat up the surrounding space, just the water. It seems to have much less scale build up issues than the stove top kind - and we have very hard water with lots of lime here.

I think Austin has some of the best food at the airport. It's all run by local restaurants. It's not nearly as good as the original places, but beats your run of the mill airport joints.

Last time I served braised rabbit as part of multi-course meal I used one rabbit for 4 people. In the end, 2 got hind legs, and 2 got saddle and front leg pieces. I think everyone was happy with their portions.

What a great thread - it's giving me some ideas of what to try (or skip) on my next trip back to NYC. First, I'm curious about your process - do you bring a camera with you? take notes on each course? Have you had problems taking pics of the food? Second, I have to agree on the GT rating. I think your 8/10 reflects how well it meets or exceeds expectations. In my opinion, it's what American 4 star restaurant should be like. We're all in agreement that rating goes beyond the food. GT provides warm, inviting, friendly service. US has a more casual cutlure than Europe, and GT service reflects that. Rather than striving for an external ideal of 4* dining experience, we should be defining our own standard that's reflects life in the US. I'm looking forward to reading more of your reviews.

I've seen a number of tip-related discussions on eGullet and I'm of the opinion that people who get income form tips prefer the system as it is. If they went to a fixed service charge or higher price to the patron, and a fixed salary to the waiter, they'd make less money. So they prefer the unpredictable nature of tipping, but continue to complain to get everyone to tip more. In reality this is not that different from other occupations. Sales people at my company get base + commissions, with bulk of their compensation coming from the latter. From customer perspective there are not many remedies for mediocre service. Complaining to the manager takes effort and would be considered a confrontational situation by most people. There's a reasonably high barrier to overcome before I would consider talking to the manager. Docking the tip makes the customer feel better. Maybe if you're a regular, and the waiters know that you usually leave 20%, then leaving less may send a message. I doubt that waiters stop to think why someone left small tip - they assume you're a bad tipper. Edited for spelling

Is this a conscious act or something that just happens? I used to hate seafood. Over the past 8 years I've gone from almost never eating it to having some kind of seafood at least once a week. I don't think it was a specific descision to eat more fish, more of "I can make this or that dish" and it kind of built on its own.

I was also inspired by the ice cream recipie and made it last night, despite cool weather. (Ok so it's in 40's - but it's Texas ) I didn't have any thyme honey - just regular local honey. Also it was too rainy and generally unpleasant to go outside for some herbs, so I ended up with Fig-Port Honey Ice Cream. I used the same basic method as misstenacity, however, I actually simmered the chopped figs in some port and added a bit of vanilla extract. I really like the combination of fig and vanilla flavors. Like other posters I had a problem with sweetness. I made 2x the recipe, but only added 1/4c sugar and it was still too sweet for my taste. I think the dried figs are quite sweet (I used 6 dried mission figs for 2c half and half). The ice cream turned out really well, despite being too sweet. I'm sure I'll be making it again.

We have completely switched over to CM European Style Butter. It's much much better than land-o-lakes we used to get. Also, last time we got their CM Organic Milk because it seems to have longer expiration.

The usual suspects - short ribs, lamb shanks or shoulder, duck legs. Also, I love braised fish. I use braised monkfish recipe from The Craft of Cooking a lot.