Malawry

For my classwork final, I had to prepare this menu: Shrimp-filled ravioli, alfredo sauce Flounder meuniere, nut-brown butter sauce Ribeye steak with chasseur sauce, glazed carrots Pear jalousie One plate of each. There was no market basket aspect to the test. For my final-final (tomorrow!), I have to work with two other students on a group cooking demo. Three hours in front of the rest of the class, preparing a meal with a minimum of three courses. One show portion and sixteen half-portions of each plate, for everybody to sample. Food costing and written recipes required. Each student gets an individual grade and there is a grade assigned to the group as well.

Colorado Kitchen. There's no denying the superiority of this burger. The chef spent years developing her best burger, and it shows. This is not a yuppified foie-stuffed burger a la Bouloud or a greasy spoon burger a la Five Guys, it's the sort of burger I imagine an eGulleteer making for their family on the grill. Intelligent and straightforward.

Tuna melts using fresh-seared tuna on whole wheat bread Garlicky sauteed broccolini I had supersweet corn with s, p, butter; Erin consumed the last of the clam chowder instead

Wow...a final exam with assistants, where you only have to present three plates. Very different from my finals during the classwork phase. My own final-final at school is this week, a group cooking demonstration. I'll be thinking of you during your finals as I go through mine.

NeroW, he'd eat that way every night if he could too! Tonight: Leftover clam chowdah with leftover spiced oyster crackers Salade nicoise, our first of the year, with fresh tuna steaks Homemade lemonade.

Celebratory dinner for my husband's birthday, featuring his favorite foods: Duo of favorite soups: New England clam chowder and roasted creamy tomato, with spiced oyster crackers Mesclun with Balsamic vinaigrette, pickled onions, red bell pepper, and corn-fried chili-spiked oysters Fettucine with tomato concasse and a seared shrimp Lemon-cumin salmon, garlicky spinach, garbanzos with cinnamon and caramelized onions, and raisin couscous (cooked in the raisin soaking water to get the flavor in) Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, assorted chocolates He's a seafood lover and mostly adores good ol' American standards, although he also has a yen for couscous and raisins, both of which I dislike so I never make them for him.

Near the AFI? As in, walking distance? Not so much is there, and what's opening in the near future includes treasures such as Red Lobster, Panera Bread and Austin Grill. Baja Fresh is already open nearby. And there is the Tastee Diner very close by, with standard diner burgers and omelets. There is Crisfield Seafood, which I hear is good but which I haven't tried. It's a family-owned restaurant specializing in crab...crab cakes, crab imperial, crab soup, etc etc. It has plenty of loyal customers, I just haven't made it there personally. And you can walk there from the theatre. Further afield, there's Samantha's and the Tiffin/Udupi Palace restaurants down by Langley Park. Either would be a short car ride from the AFI cinema. Samantha's is excellent Salvadorean food, while Tiffin and Udupi offer North and South Indian cuisine (run by the same family, only a half block or so apart, and Udupi is all-vegetarian while Tiffin offers omnivorous choices). There's also Parkway Deli for your fix of reubens and smoked salmon...one of the few places around town that offers food vaguely resembling what you might find at an Olde New York deli. They're on Grubb Road, just off East-West Highway, not too far from Jones Bridge Road. I live in this area and know it fairly well from a dining standpoint. If you are confined to Metro accessible places or have other questions let me know and I'll see what I can come up with.

Isn't the Rockville location called Lebanese Taverna Cafe or something? I got the sense it was more like a fast-food outlet, while the Woodley Park restaurant is full-service.

Keep 'em coming, pal.

If Varmint is not wearing hot pants, I'm not sure if I can make it. Can a Varmint be a "decent chap"?? Ladies, I promise he is not scary. I've hung out with him a few times now, and my husband didn't have to be convinced to let me do so despite the rascally username. Varmint is a Southern gentleman, even if he is originally from somewheres above the Mason-Dixon line. Will Mrs. Varmint and the Li'l Varmints be in attendance? And if Mrs. Varmint is attending, will you be preparing anything special for her? (She doesn't eat pig, right?) I was actually pondering vegetarian dishes I could bring to help convince my sweetie to come along with me.

Welcome, Chef Jonathan!

Asparagus frittata Wilted spinach salad with pickled red onion Cornbread with Lurpak butter and tart apricot jam

When those seats are gone, they are gone. There is no squeezing in another table. But keep calling and checking if your heart's set there. Something might open up. The one time I ate there, I made my reservation about a month in advance. I called a few days before to confirm and they had my name in the wrong book...the regular Galileo book instead of the Laboratorio book. I got really upset about it. I didn't yell or anything but I know my serious disappointment came across to the reservations person because she sympathetically asked me if it was a special occasion. I explained that it was my birthday. And it was after all their mess-up. She asked if she could call me back in a few minutes. I s'pose she called in a favor for me or something 'cause she called me back and said she could squeeze me in. Then, the night-of, the lab was not even packed 'cause one two-top cancelled at the last minute. So it hadn't been a big deal after all. And this was a "special" dinner, a white truffle meal in November. Keep trying, they might be able to fit you in especially if they know you are serious.

A big, tall glass of filtered water. I've taken a bottle of Ting in and out of the fridge about four times trying to decide whether or not I really want it. Sort of like the character in Thelma and Louise, pulling a peppermint pattie in and out of the freezer and taking a bite each time.

Tuna salad on baguette: seared, roasted fat-marbled tuna, hard-boiled farm eggs, homemade sharp mayo (extra mustard and lemon), brunoised red onion and celery, plenty of s&p Deep green salad of haricots verts and broccolini (previously blanched and shocked but quite crispy) with anchovy vinaigrette

I bet his wife will LOVE that.

I find this whole culture of parents forbidding foods and then hiding them elsewhere to be bizarre. My mom did this too, so it's not unfamiliar, but it is still weird. Even now there is sometimes candy squirreled away my parents' home office. What are the reasons people do this? Should you ban it if you eat it yourself? Is that fair?

We didn't have a lot of sugary cereals growing up but Mom would buy Golden Grahams and Buc*Wheats. (I loved those and wish I could still buy them...wonder how I'd feel about them as an adult? Sadly they are no longer on the market.) Milk with Quik was okay since it got us to drink milk. We had fast food periodically but had to have the orange drink, not soda, with our cheeseburgers. Soda was only permitted on rare occasions, which got more common as we got older. Nothing was ever across-the-board verboten. We didn't eat shellfish or pork at home (we didn't keep Kosher but we were Jewish and this was one of the parental compromises) but we were welcome to consume these foods while dining out. I was always permitted coffee and alcohol. My father thoroughly enjoyed teaching me about alcohol. We had wine with dinner every Friday night to celebrate Shabbat. There was no alcohol mystique in my house, it just existed and if you wanted it you had it but if not that was okay too. (My adult approach to alcohol is strikingly similar, actually.) And I always loved the smell of coffee so I started drinking it when I was 7 or so. My folks mostly had decaf so they figured it wasn't a big deal, and I started drinking it half-coffee half-milk so it wasn't too bitter for me. Mom and Dad figured if they liked it and wanted it every night they couldn't tell me I couldn't have it.

He hasn't mentioned them in a loooooong time. Perhaps we should ask him this week. I suspect he hasn't visited in a while and that's why he hasn't mentioned them. Heather, I'm disappointed to hear they are not so good. I was thinking of trying to visit sometime soon since I haven't eaten there since I became omnivorous (and I only ate there once anyway). And yeah, I remember FFT. I used to get the chili salad there, it was the only edible thing on the menu. Disappointing, I really wanted to love FFT as a vegetarian living in Dupont Circle but I refused to go back after a few tries.

Ortanique-Style Onion Soup 2 white onions, sliced thin 2 T unsalted butter Herb sachet with bay leaf, peppercorns, parsley stalks, thyme and crushed garlic 1/2 c water 1/2 c white wine 4 c chicken stock Salt and pepper to taste Caramelize onions in butter. Add sachet. Add half the water and cook until dry. Add remaining water and repeat. Add wine and repeat. Add stock. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cook 20 minutes. Keywords: Soup, Appetizer, French, The Daily Gullet ( RG499 )

Publication-Style Onion Soup 2 medium onions, sliced very thinly 2 T unsalted butter 1 clove garlic 1 bay leaf 6 peppercorns Pinch of dried thyme 2 1" pieces of parsley stalks 1/2 c water, divided 1/2 c white wine 4 c chicken stock Salt and pepper to taste Melt butter in a large pot over medium heat. Add onions and reduce heat to medium-low. Cook slowly, stirring occasionally, until onions are completely soft and clear and lightly golden brown in color. Season to taste. Lay clove on cutting board and smash with the flat of a knife blade. Tie up the bay leaf, peppercorns, thyme and stalks with the garlic clove in a square of cheesecloth using kitchen string to form a sachet. Add sachet to the onions. Add 1/4 cup of water to the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until the water has evaporated. Add remaining water and cook, stirring occasionally, until the water has evaporated. Add wine and repeat. Add chicken stock. Raise heat to high and bring the soup to a boil. When it is at a boil, reduce the heat back to medium or medium-low and simmer for 20 minutes. Season to taste again and serve. Keywords: Soup, Appetizer, French, The Daily Gullet ( RG498 )

I'll definitely come, Varmint, and I bet the lovely and talented Edemuth will try to make it too. I'd just stay with my folks down the road in Greensboro and appear for the big event. I was going to suggest I bring hush puppies but despite testing about 12 recipes in the past two months I have the feeling Holly's are even better.

I haven't compared and contrasted different diffusers. I own a NordicWare one that I picked up for $20 or so at Sur La Table a couple years ago. I rarely need it but it can be helpful when I do need it, like for keeping soups warm. It works fine on my gas stove.

Vegetarian taco salads with a mixture of pintos and kidney beans from the freezer cooked with plenty of seasonings and canned tomatoes, blue and white corn chips, shreds of lettuce/onion/red pepper/cucumber, 5 year aged cheddar, and a big splotch of Herdez salsa. The first of a long series of summer dinner salads I'm about to go root in the fridge for any leftover pineapple as my dessert. If there isn't any I'll eat some of the Meyer lemon sorbet I found at Trader Joe's the other day.

I love How to Cook Everything. I regard it as a quintessential guide to contemporary cookery, and give it to all my friends who love to eat but don't know how to cook when they decide it's time to learn. How did you figure out what you wanted to put into the book? There's some random really cool stuff in there, like info on making your own vinegar, that I didn't expect to see. What didn't make the cut, and why?