Blake

I live in San Antonio, pretty much the epicenter of Mexican cooking, and have never heard of an electric tortilla cooker. There are tortilla presses all over the place and I don't know of even the most straunch traditionalist of Mexican cookery who doesn't have one. ....and use it. A tortilla cooker is a skillet or griddle. Blake

Treat rabbit like you would chicken. ......no, it doesn't taste like chicken, it just cooks pretty much the same way. I cooked some pheasant recently and don't remember what cooking method I used but I do know that I larded them first and brined them. The guy who shot them said they were the best he had ever eaten. Blake

Pesto is a peasant method of preserving basil prior to the days of refrigeration. We tend to get spoiled and strive toward absolute perfection in regard to health issues in our present era of technology. We also are prone to assuming absolute perfection in the taste of a product. Pesto will never compete with the taste of fresh basil and no preserved foodstuff will ever be perfectly safe. If we want to change this scenario, we need to move to a different planet. Blake

It depends on the gods you worship. Blake

Doing a chiffonade and preparing them like stevea is a great way to do them. One thing that is pretty neat is to chop them finely after cooking and mixing in with a batch of polenta and a splash of cream. Blake

Something else that is kind of neat is to bring the oil temp up after removing the duck and deep frying the shredded zucchini then using it in the crepes. Blake

I would try a confit. Remove as much of the fat as possible and combine that with clarified butter (...you're better off with all duck fat but I don't think you have enough......) sufficient to cover the meat in a nice thick saucepan. Bring the temperature of the oil to 275ºF and maintain for about 40 minutes. Don't let the temperature get over 300ºF. Shred the meat and roll it into a crepe with sautéed shredded zucchini and whatever seasonings strike your fancy. You can also make several of these 'tacos' and cover them with a Mornay sauce and broil until nicely browned. Blake

palate for wine until later in life, and that's a shame. At 24, waiting 10, 15, 20+ years for a bottle to age gracefully isn't a big deal. At 35, 40, 45 years of age, it may be of concern to some people. ********************************** It's a concern to very damned few. I am 59 and think of myself in my mind's eye as in my 30s. I wouldn't hesitate to buy a wine intended to age 30 years if the price were right. (I do have a family history of living well into the 90s and sometimes 100s.) You shouldn't attribute attitudes until you do a little exploration. There is also something alluded to earlier in the post about attitudes concerning drinking and not making a big deal around alcoholic beverages. My parents owned a tavern in rural south Texas and I was surrounded by beer. Nobody made a bid deal of it and we could go up and get a drink of beer from our parent's or friend's bottles whenever we wanted. We didn't want to particularly and preferred our soda. I never drank or had any desire to until I went into the army and to Germany. I was introduced to German wines in the 1960s when a bottle cost 25¢, the same as a bottle of beer. I can't make a steady diet of German wines today because my tastes have evolved to MUCH drier wines but there is still a soft spot on my palate for the Rieslings from Germany. My next door neighbor just got back from a two week business trip during which I took care of his mail and cat. He brought me back a delightful Auslese. Mosel-Saar-Ruwer, 2002er, Osanner Rosenberg, Ortega Auslese, 500 ml. I loved it but couldn't drink two bottles in a row. Blake in San Antonio

We went to a wedding last weekend (10/18) in Livingston at the Crystal Palace. (I live in Texas.) I was amazed at the quality of the food and the service. As is typical of a Jewish wedding there was WAY too much food but it was all of superb quality. After the wedding ceremony, we all retired to one of the lounges and there were at least 15 serving stations set up to just serve appetizers. There was everything from freshly prepared sushi to brushcetta carried around on trays.....as if the stations weren't enough. The dinner selections were one fish, one chicken, and Chateaubriand. All were done to perfection and served with a flair that added greatly to the experience. If anyone in N.J. is looking for a place to have a party, I couldn't possibly recommend the Crystal Palace too highly. Blake in San Antonio

One very low key chocolate dessert are biscotti. Do a search for Double Chocolate Chunk Biscotti or E-mail me and I will convert and post a recipe here.

I just remembered something about a tasting I had last year about this time. It was a tasting of Australian Shirazes and the guy who got the wines for me started it off with a sparkling Shiraz. It was a delightful wine from Peter Rumball at about $15/bottle and I have kept several bottles on hand since then. It does have a HUGE amount of sediment so you have to be careful about pouring it. It is a very soft wine with the distinctive Shiraz/Syrah characteristics.

One procuder that I have enjoyed is Perrier-Jouët. I have several bottles but don't remember what they cost. The Grand Brut is good.