lala

Christmas eve was lamb steaks with oregano, thyme and lemon, mashed butternut squash, garlic roasted baby yukon gold potatoes and haricots verts with Elk Cove Del Rio Syrah. Dessert was a selection of candies and treats received from friends. Christmas day was a come when you want buffet with hostesses supplied Delice De Bourgonne, Stilton, Pate, Smoked Salmon, Shrimp Cocktails, green salad with hazelnuts and apples, Crab and Plum pud with hard sauce, and Veuve. A happy mishmash to keep the noshers happy as we watched movies, took breaks for walks, and just...rested. Items brought by friends included deviled eggs, Salumi meats, other cheeses, crudites, olives, roast beast with horseradish and cookies. A swell (and tummy swelling!) time was had by all.

Hey Wendy! This is at Met Mart, up on Queen Anne Hill. It had the same shelf lable that they do when the sale is company wide, so if you can't get up the Hill, try their other locations.

I just called, and got a live person. They're open this week, closing at 2:00 on Friday, then closed next week.

Thanks everyone. I think I'll get a couple more and lay them down. I generally have to stay in the under $50 range for my champers, so I'm happy to have found this vintage at this price!

Oh, the memories. On my externship from the CIA, at an exclusive country inn in Devon, we, of course had to work all the holidays. Christmas day, we continually roasted turkeys, as the guests could eat any time they liked. Staff sat down to our dinner in the late afternoon. What we did not know was that the chef had improperly stored the cooked meat above the stove. On Boxing day, the breakfast waitress and myself, the cook took turns, um, racing to the bathroom to be voilently ill. Yep. Good times. Hated working New Years Eve in SF. I always got stuck with the night service shift in the pastry dept, and by the time we were done, at 2am, there were no buses, and there isn't a hope in hell of getting a cab. Walked home, over Nob Hill every time. Worked retail/catering, since then, but while I've dealt with every nut job up to and including Christmas Eve (the public can really try your nerves), I haven't had to work the day in a while. Thank goodness!

I've been reading about the vintage '96's in Champagne, and understand that it was, as they say, a very good year. A local store has the Dom '96 for $99 (off of $150, but it's a generally overpriced store to start with). I bought one bottle, but I'm wondering if this is a good price, and if I should get a few more?I love champagne, but can't usually afford the good stuff, but recently got an end of year bonus, and am willing to make the investment in this case. Any thoughts?

Ok, I'm getting organized here - where is Takohachi? And is there a good garage in the ID? I usually park at Uwajamaya, as I find it so easy to spend money there anyway... To heck with visions of sugarplums, I've got visions of noodles, Bahn Mi, and Fried Chicken dancing 'round my head!

As said, remove the pin bones, and trim it up nicely. Place it skin side down on an oiled sheet. Slather a good layer of pesto on top and roast it at 400* 10 mins per inch thickness (more or less, and to taste). Very good! Alternately, set it on an oiled piece of parchment or foil (big enough to wrap around) with thinly sliced fennel, olives and tomato, basil, oregano, s&p, seal in the foil/parchment and bake. This will steam in all those lovely flavors.

7 Stars Pepper sounds good (I'll look further into past threads, or if you have favorite dishes...?), and I've not had hand shaved noodles before, but I do love a good noodle. Is there a particular one I should order (if there's more than one) at Shanghi Garden?

Fab suggestions, thanks and keep 'em coming! I heard something once about a Salvadorian bakery in...White Center? Anyone know it? And what's the best lunch in the ID? Loving planning this ... I never get out on work days!

Did you taste them? They serve it with really tasty pickled green tomatoes in the summertime. I miss them in the winter. (Still, your server shoulda mentioned that it was intentional!) Me, I'd send it right the heck back if it were overcooked. They know better there. ~Anita ← I did taste them - it was spring, and they were just underripe. Too bad. I'd probably have enjoyed a good pickled tomato!

Our company just awarded us with extra days off during the holidays (yay!), so I now have a stretch of 10 days where I only have to work on one day. It's too late to make flight arrangements to the Midwest, where family is (awwww... believe me, I'm perfectly ok with this ). I'm not rich right now, so I'm not going out of town, but with all this time, I want to try some restaurants that I don't normally go to, particularly at lunch. I tend to stick with the Ballard/QA/Market/West Seattle corridor, and want to get out of that rut. What should I try? I know I'll go to Salumi (only been twice, due to their hours and my work schedule and location). What other interesting, tasty, not too expensive lunch and dinner places should I just not miss? Edited to add: I'm perfectly happy to get out of Seattle, too, including a ferry ride (hmmm...Harbor House Pub on Bainbridge?)! So please don't confine suggestions to Seattle only if there's somewhere good to go outside of the city.

Hell Yes. If I could afford it I would definately dine at Per Se, French Laundry, and all the other top notch restaurants I could get to. I'd love to experience that food, ambiance, service, and wine. The few times in my life that I've been lucky enough to eat in such places, they've been evenings that I always remember. If I had the money, why not?

Two Bells. Not sure about Palace Kitchen, last one I had was overcooked, and the tomato slices shouldn't even have been used they were so unripe.

According to Dr. Suess, the Grinch had "...garlic in your soul".... ...which, while intended to be an insult, may not be one in this group!

No, those certainly can come into play, but that's also ignoring the fact that people, in general, have more money, more access to a wide variety of ingredients, good food has become cheaper when eating out or eating in and some choices, say, supermarket tomato vs vine ripened have nothing to do with time pressures. Someone had to be the first person to buy Walmart pap bread instead of real bread from the local bakery and someone had to be the last person to switch over from bakery bread to Walmart pap before the bakery became uneconomical and shut down. Now both of these people understood what real bread tasted like yet chose to go for the Walmart pap, My question is why? And, more importantly, does the reason you provide make sense if you scrutinize it carefully? ← Shalmanese, Your response to lala's post makes me wonder if you are bothering to read all of the posts in the thread. If you are, then we are reading two different threads. All of the factors lala mentioned are parts of the answer to the question you ask at the end of the post that have been mentioned here. Perhaps the one that hasn't been mentioned is that it's easier to buy at WalMart. You can buy your underwear and your Wonder bread in one place. What exactly is it that you are trolling for? ← Thank you JPW. It seems to me that Shalmanese is just upset because we don't agree with his simplistic statements. And trying to get this bunch of people to fall in line behind a single idea just isn't going to happen. It's sad, because he raised an interesting question that is generating a good discussion. He's just not interested in an actual discussion. He also seems to have some anger issues that don't necessarily have anything to do with this board.

Shalmanese said: "Not anyplace in this thread or even much on the board has the sentiment "These people might know about good food, they might even know exactly how to make it. But, making a rational decision, they choose Hamburger Helper all by themselves because they have different priorities from most egulleteers and they are simply making the most rational choice given their particular priorities." Wouldn't those "different priorities" include lifestyle, money, scheduling, availability of ingredients, ease of preparation, etc. - all of which have been discussed here?

some thoughts I had today after reading the initial posts... in no apparent order, because this is an incredibly complex issue: Economics: People are working harder for less money. They're tired, and don't have the time or energy to cook, going to fast food restaurants or chain restaurants in droves. Economics: Lower income people, particularly in cities do not have the choice of fresh foods available to the average EG'er. Plus, many of them work multiple, minimum wage jobs, but they still can't afford higher end foods (Reggiano vs. Green Can) that many of us take for granted. Economics: Kids from lower income areas don't neccessarily get the education of and exposure to higher end foods, organic foods, and what is generally considered to be a balanced, healthy diet. Parents who are working harder and longer may have other demands on their time than to teach their kids about sustainable agriculture. Economics: Suburbanites spend hours commuting to their affordable houses in their homoginized subdivisions, and get home so late that they either pick up fast food, eat at local restaurants (chain restaurants), or use prepared foods to slap dinner on the table. Economics: re: Costco. The point has been made: we love a bargain. Everybody does. Why pay more for the same stuff? As for those those 350k income folks who shop there - well, the rich don't necessarily stay rich by making money, they Stay rich by hanging onto it. Marketing: Can you avoid the in your face advertising of fast food, chain restaurants, and prepared foods? It's impossible. Restaurant/Product Placement: What's on your way home? What's on every corner? Chain restaurants. Fast Food restaurants. Huge portions of homoginized food, filled with fat and salt, all tasting the same. Eat enough of this crap and you come to expect that fat satiety and salt overload. Scheduling: Everyone's overscheduled, including the kids. See first point. People veiw cooking as a chore, not a delight. You have to think about it, shop, cook, eat, then actually clean up. That just looks like more work to people. Families don't cook together any more, and family mealtime has gone the way of the dodo. Vacation time: See the first point again. Americans take the least amount of vacation time of any industrialized country on earth. No one takes two week vacations any more, it's 4 day breaks a few times a year. So, who travels and eats those different foods that they will remember, and be inspired to find or recreate at home? I know people who on those precious few breaks want to eat what they know, so they don't "waste" a meal on a possibly bad experience. Crappelbys tastes the same everywhere. Others have made this point, it's also "us" and "them", even though we're all in this together. As has been brought to our awareness recently, there are some widely differing versions of America out there. I was fortunate enought to be raised in a family where we travelled - I was eating octopus on Mikonos with the fishermen at age 4. Our family ate dinner together every weeknight. My brother and I, once old enough, were each responsible for cooking dinner once a week. There were no convienence foods in our house. We went to the Farmer's Markets weekly. My friend, raised 4 blocks from me was fed blue box mac & cheese, had free access to sugary sodas, ate beef 4 nights a week, vegetables came out of the freezer, and the only bread was white bread, etc... She and I have completely different food lifestyles. She wouldn't be caught dead without her packaged foods. I wouldn't be caught dead with them. We can only fight the good fight, and encourage people to eat new things, go to the Farmer's Market, try a new recipe. And support those people who have the courage to produce real food in season, living with the rythms of the earth, as well as those who have the talent to work delicious magic with elemental foodstuffs like grapes, wheat, and milk.

Are you using it differently? Did they change the cutting board surface? Is it being stored where the edge can't get dinged? Is someone else using your knife when you're not looking? When I was in the kitchen, I had to really watch where my knives were when they weren't in my hand. They were so good, and sharp that everyone wanted to use them, particularly for things like opening crates and mesh bags.

Caraway Mustard powder Chili flakes Tarragon

My guess is that the Edgewater would be open for breakfast. I haven't had breakfast there, but I've had dinner, including meals on holidays. The ambiance is really nice at the holidays (totally NW Lodge, with that water veiw), and I've been happy with the food.

I have a list when I go to the store, but am very flexible. I look at the flyer, and if something appealing is on sale, I'll get it. I'm also highly suggestible from browsing EG and other food sites, or if I'm craving something, and it's not too harsh on my diet (WW), I'll make that. I do have a stash of frozen stuff that I've made, so if there is no inspiration, I can still eat. Really, anything goes...

I love my local TJ's - everything is about 25% cheaper than the other stores in my neighborhood, and the quality is excellent. My store has a tiny fresh meat section, and while it has a good variety of fruits and veggies, I do go down the street to the regular store for many of these items - as do many of the people who shop in my area. I see a certain set of people shopping at TJ's, then 10 minutes later, when I'm at the regular store, I see about half of those people at that store. I do think that there's a fallicy in the quoted article - while a large percentage of what TJ's sells is their own brand, particularly in the frozen foods section, there are lots of other brands represented as well. And yes, people seem to lose all sense of direction, with carts going everywhere at TJ's. In my store, I put it down to the insanely narrow aisles, many of which have posts right in the center of the aisle! And don't even get me started with that parking lot...

It's always sad to see a business go down, but it seemed to me that they only carried really cheap stuff. Every time I went there, all the cookware had the Progressive lable, so it was all thin pots and flimsy utensils that wouldn't last. Although I do enjoy my cobalt blue fiestaware butter dish that I got there...

9 out of 11...hmmm...guess you can dress her up and take her out!