Susan in FL

For each 2 1/2 pounds of trimmed and separated chicken wings: Salt & pepper 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter 3 to 5 tablespoons hot sauce [i used to use Durkee when I first started making these, but I haven't been able to find Durkee for quite a while. Now I usually use Frank's.] 1 tablespoon vinegar [i use white wine vinegar] Very slowly melt the butter in a large saucepan, and immediately remove from heat. Add hot sauce to taste. Add vinegar. Heat oil for deep frying to 375 degrees. Salt and pepper the wings. Deep fry a few at a time until nicely browned and crisp. Drain on paper towels, then add to butter sauce. Toss to coat. Proceed with next portion of wings, repeat, etc. Transfer to platter to serve. Serve with celery and blue cheese dressing of course!

Thanks, All, for the kind words about Saturday's dinner. We did what we call the "Cook Eat Cook Eat" thing, stretching out the fun of making and eating dinner over the entire evening. When we "Cook Eat Cook Eat" we cook together and fix one course, eat it, clean up from that one, and then go on to the next one, and so on. Russ cooked the shrimp, chilled them ahead of time, and peeled them; and then I put it together while he did the dirty job of cleaning up after me. ..... Shrimp cut in half, save whole for garnish The cut up avocado drizzled with a good size squirt of both lemon and lime right away Seeded and chopped up tomato Sliced scallions (they were nice fat ones this time) Minced garlic Fresh cilantro Sea salt, freshly ground pepper A little bit of EVOO to mix with the lemon and lime juice for "dressing" Garnished with skewer of whole shrimp and large pimento stuffed olives LOL, good description. (Thanks, Jinmyo.) We started scraping out the gills of portabellas when grilling them and the inside-of-a-cave black juice would run out and smear the plates with that ugly color! A great discovery I learned from Sara Moulton.

I just found your blog, and caught up on reading it. It is wonderful. I'm so glad you are doing this... I have admired your meals since you first started posting on eG. Now for the rest of the week, I will be checking for new entries on this thread every time I come near my computer!

If you are interested in trying a different recipe, instead of just tweaking your own, I will be happy to post the one I use. Supposedly it is the authentic Anchor Bar Buffalo Wings recipe. I've been making wings this way since I got my hands on the recipe in 1993. My family says they are better than any wings bought out. I wouldn't go that far, but they are really, really good. Have you been deep-frying the wings first, before mixing with the sauce? That makes a difference. Let me know... I'm looking for the recipe now so I'll have it ready in case.

I just love them!

Mexican-style shrimp cocktail Butter-Poached Lobster without Tarragon and with Champagne, from Bon Appetit Steak in a portabella mushroom, with mixed mushroom wine sauce The steak was a totally out-of-the-blue recipe I made up. We want to make it a couple more times and refine it, so we can develop a good recipe. I scraped the insides of the portabellas out, started the mushrooms and the steaks stove top in the iron skillet, and then placed the steak in the mushroom and finished it in the oven. The sauce included fresh shiitakes, fresh button mushrooms, and dried porcini. The wines were worthy of mention. They were all good and matched up well with the food: 2001 Penascal Spanish Tempranillo with the shrimp, NV Lorikeet Australian Brut with the lobster, and 2002 Layland Hills California Merlot with the steak.

Brunch today after a long walk/run was first, a glass of Victory Storm King Impy Stout. Then we had soft scrambled eggs with sour cream and caviar, potatoes fried in chicken fat, bagels and lox and the trimmings, and cheap bubbly (to match up nicely with that cheap caviar). It tasted wonderful, though.

OH YUM!

You should take the credit. However, it would be nice if it was the cut of bison because I have an opportunity for some bison sirloin and I would like it to turn out as you described. Still, if I buy it, I'll marinate it as you did.

It IS, Wendy! Inspirational, you should be proud. I've made only dessert souffles, and after seeing that I'm in the mood for savory. And I like the questions you asked of Jinmyo.

Great blog! Thank you, Andrea. And P.S. I really like the trend that seems to be developing... a parting snapshot of the blogger.

Mmmmm Nice! And as always, great presentation, Percy.

I made braised chicken with bay leaves from our herb garden and chickpeas, sort of inspired by this recipe, served with spinach and a salad. The salad had really good Florida tomatoes, some big ol' red ones from a produce market that is now open Thursday through Sunday and some little yellow pear-shaped cherry ones picked from our garden today. It's rainy, but it's the beginning of spring!

Cold leftover Jasmine rice with milk, raisins, and a packet of Splenda, a delicious discovery.... Good taste, like rice pudding, but costing much less in calories.

I had no idea... that herb-infused ice cream is a "trend." I was just looking through my January issue of Bon Appetit, which of course has a number of those what's-hot-what's-not articles in it, and saw a recipe for Honey-Thyme Ice Cream. It is with Caramelized Pears and Caramel Syrup. It doesn't specify what kind of honey to use. However, interestingly, regarding sweetness, it calls for 1/3 cup of sugar along with 2 tablespoons honey, 1 cup milk, 1 cup cream, 1 1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme, and 7 large egg yolks.

The Tra Chang Brand recommended by many, including Kasma Loha-unchit, has 1% sugar in it, or at least my bottle does. Sugar is in my bottle of Lobster Brand, too. I really like both of them. So if it tastes good to you, I would say go with it! I just love it when I have an experience like you described in a specialty food store. Similarly, when Russ went into one of our Thai markets and she was out of Kaffir lime leaves, she picked some of her own tree and gave them to him! After something like that, we make it a point to go back and do business with them again.

Wendy, did you use pancetta or prosciutto? It looks delicious. Russ made us a spaghetti marinara last night. I cooked Thai the night before, and for tonight, we're not yet sure how we'll fix chicken.

I will try that, thanks. It sounds good. (You come up with great breakfast ideas. )

Thanks for the input, Reesek and Elion! Andrea's recipe called for brown sugar and I probably should have left it at that. Maybe brown sugar is less sweet? The thyme honey is not real real thymey, but it is real real sweet. I think the Port was perfect. I would describe it by saying it gave it a sweet red wine flavor, but only slight. Actually it gave it only a hint of Port flavor, like one might not even know it was in there. If I'm not mistaken, when alcohol goes into ice cream recipes, it can't be much because too much would keep the ice cream from freezing properly. Thanks for the tip on measuring the honey! I usually use cream when I make ice cream, but I was trying not to stray too far from Andrea's recipe. The texture was just fine. Please let us know what you try if you make it. I'm sure the half and half or the use of cream is fine, too. I imagine your addition of vanilla was very good! Elion, when you make it again, please report back about the "revised sweetness."

Our Postponed Thai Quail Dinner The two table sauces besides fish sauce were Chile-Vinegar Sauce, left over from the night before, and the second batch of Vietnamese Must-Have Table Sauce that I've made since this kick for Thai began. I just love the Must-Have Sauce! In case anybody is interested and doesn't have the book: 1/4 cup fresh lime juice 1/4 cup Vietnamese or Thai fish sauce 1/4 cup water 2 teaspoons rice or cider vinegar 1 tablespoon sugar 1 small clove garlic, minced 1 bird chile, minced Several shreds of carrot (optional) The marinade flavored the quail nicely. Even though they marinated 24 hours longer than planned, they still had the quail flavor that we like so much.

Beautiful photos, you guys! Sounds like a Clinton defense to me. To set joking aside and get back to that... I believe you're right that your picture looks different than most others because you started with cooked white meat, and it often starts with raw whatever and/or a darker meat. But no doubt, it's delicious anyway! I read that and was interested in trying her method for Jasmine rice. I have been using the Hot Sour Salty Sweet method. I think I was especially thick-headed when I was reading it. Do I understand correctly that a bowl sits in the steaming section of a steamer and in that bowl is the rice AND hot water? With her emphasis on not boiling the rice, it threw me that the rice would be cooking in water. Snowangel, I really enjoy your contribution to this thread, including your stories. I hope you continue to share your experiences and knowledge.

And here all this time I thought they were foons.

Cusina, you helped me a bit in explaining to myself why I usually put eating first. I love it all, from reading the magazines and menu planning, to thinking about it all times of the day and shopping and cooking. It's everything, but eating is the pleasure I like the most. Usually. Eating involves all the senses... what it looks like, the music that is playing or the football game on TV, the flowers, the candles, the aromas, the company, the texture of the food, not to mention the taste. I know I'm getting carried away, but as much as I love it all, I love to eat. The one example of when eating might not come in first for me is when I'm entertaining. Then I do get a slight case of the nerves and enjoy the other parts of it, including seeing my guests enjoy the food, more than I enjoy eating the meal. That is when I experience what you all are talking about in terms of feeling satiated when it's time to sit down and eat. I think part of that for me is being tired from all the energy I put into the planning and cooking for guests. Eating alone is wonderful! Also, I enjoy dining out, if it's fine dining, as much, and I include enjoying wine to match the food in the category of eating.

Horray! Like they say on the larb thread, it's always good to know someone else has lost her larbinity.

LOL, I'm with you!