Susan in FL

John, I'm glad you took my post in kind, or at least so it seemed. I was kidding and serious, both. And yours were great suggestions for "beginner beer" as the original post asked! Yes definitely, we know more than the masses about good beer (well put!), and I have to remind myself about "to each his own" and "it's a matter of personal taste," etc. My husband has also reminded me not to be snobbish about beer, like many are about wine. I love wine, too, but I have pride in that there seem to be less beer snobs than wine snobs in this world. I also want to add that the Mexican beers are like they are for a reason and lime goes well with them for a reason. I prefer heavier beers; as all my beer friends know, I'm a serious hophead; I love drinking stouts, especially in the morning; I love barleywine. But, living in Florida where it's hot more months than not, I have learned that there are times that all one can do is quickly toss down a lighter beer,* and Corona surely has its place. I think it's sort of like the good tasting ice water or lawnmower beer of the tropics. * For me lighter beers do exclude Coors Light, Bud Light, etc. I can't stomach them.

Russ cooked, since I am working five days and three evenings this week (I'm acting like it's going to kill me or something), although there need be no excuse; he likes to cook almost as much as I. As I was finishing up work tonight he told me he was serving dinner family style, which is unusual for us, and I thought uh-oh... Well it was a beautiful presentation and it tasted as good as it looked. He used left-over duck and made a pasta sauce, served on top of egg noodles, surrounded by a tasty "pan-roasted" vegetable combination of Brussels sprouts, mushrooms, onions, and garlic cloves. On the side was a plate of perfectly cooked buttered pencil thin asparagus, and Merlot.

Damn all that food looks good! I must have a pizza deficit, and a burger deficit. Gotta take care of these needs soon. I was glad to see that you are blogging, and even more glad now that I've seen these mouth watering pictures. Looking forward to more....

There were some great meals cooked by eGulls this weekend! Tonight we had chilled vichyssoise with sorrel and asparagus and, inspired by the Danish parts of Anna's blog, open-faced smoked salmon sandwiches. The bread was fresh and soft, with the crusts cut off, and the butter was room temp. Lurpak. The soup's garnish was remarkable in that driving back from my recent trip, in northern FL I found a Harris Teeter store in Amelia Island. I adore those stores, and hadn't been in one since my son was in college in North Carolina. Anyway to make a long story short, I bought some beautiful fresh white asparagus there, which tasted as good as it was pretty, and I garnished this soup with that. The soup recipe which I adapted was this recipe from Cooking.com/Food and Wine. We had a BV Sauvignon Blanc which was real good, and a fine match. I am spoiled by my part-time working status, and so I'm not sure how I'll handle this week. My day job has me working all five days for a computer training (no internet access ), and I work my second job Tues., Wed., and Thurs. nights. So, I'm not sure how much I'll be photographing, loading photos, and posting.

Thanks much for the Peking duck recipe. I like the sounds of that. It's added to our list of cooking methods. (It wouldn't be the first Frug Recipe we've treasured.)

This isn't over already, is it? Wow, if so -- and adding up the days I guess it is almost over -- time flies when you're having fun. Thanks so much, Anna. This was one of my favorites.

Oh my! If it turns out to taste as good as normal sized and as good as it smells... I want one. Please do tell.

Would you be willing to tell us how you did your best poached eggs ever? The only poached eggs I ever made were with those thingies that you put the individual eggs in and steam... an egg poacher. Did you use an egg poacher or did you do it the real way, in the boiling water? I would love to be able to perfectly poach an egg. Thanks!

That is good to hear. When we have extra, and don't have plans for it right away, I'll freeze it. Thanks!Over the weekend our breakfasts were beef hash, made with left over steak from the carpaccio the night before, and eggs over easy, and sliced tomatoes on Saturday; and scrambled eggs with extra yolks in them on Sunday.

I don't have any problem with breasts, either, Eunny (and boneless duck breasts are by far my favorite). It's the whole ducks and actually I'm quite pleased them, but Russ is not as pleased and is determined to find a way to get them crispier! We have duck in one form or other about every two or three weeks, so we will be trying some of the ideas in this post thanks to all of you.

Oh my! ... Out of the mouth of the babe!Don't be concerned about the foodblog right now, and take the time with your family. That's most important. Wishing you well....

Thanks much for the vote of confidence! Sounds like you met the challenge for your dinner last night! My mom always drizzled olive oil and grated Pecorino or Locatelli on asparagus after cooking it. It was the only way she ever cooked asparagus! The David Kinch recipe sounds real good. I'll give it a try. Thanks for both links. And I like your word, "elsethread." Did you make that up? Cool! They both sound good. Just curious since they were experiments... How did they turn out? Will you have to play with the recipes for the cooking show? Are you at liberty to give out the recipes? The southwestern chicken lasagne sounds especially interesting. Welcome, Chufi! Anna's foodblog is inspirational. With all your extra meatballs, you can make some of those sandwiches like Anna does, yum. Glad to hear you enjoyed the cauliflower, too, one of eG's "signature dishes." Hope you keep posting.

Mmmm, roasted red pepper and sausage salad... Sounds delicious and I wouldn't have thought of that. Did you make a basic oil and vinegar type dressing? That is now on my list of things to make, thanks. P.S. No problem on calling me Suzanne. I am called many things, and answer to most of them. It was nice of you to attend to that, though.

Welcome back to this thread, Woody! Thanks for taking the time to update. Some interesting news, and it sounds good. Rehoboth is such a great community. Wishing you and Bruce well...

I'm glad to have provided some amusement. I'm so very easily amused, and that is actually why my husband and I thought to capture it in photos. I shot some photos of him blow-drying the duck, too, but he surely didn't want them made public. We had some hilarious fun with this. We'll try your idea, too. Our grill has a deep-fryer and if a small duck won't fit in it, we'll split it in half and see how that works. Mmmm... maybe reason here to get a turkey deep-fryer?

We think so. I wish ours did, and one of those dishwashers, too! Thanks for all the ideas. I'm interested in more gentle steaming next time instead of the boiling, to see if that makes a difference. I'm not sure a whole duck could taste any better than last night's though... It was delectable.

I couldn't help myself. I just had to take pictures. Not only did it look photogenic, it was all really, really good. This idea of pomegranate glazes is a good one, and so is the salt-baked potatoes, and the little truffle vinaigrette I threw together just made the grilled vegetables (besides the most excellent grill person... he had quite a bit to do with it, too). All these are keeper recipes which we will use again.

There aren't many foods I don't like, and I'm sorry to say this, but jello salads and Waldorf salads are two things I can't even force myself to eat to be polite if they are served to me. I may stand alone in my distaste for it, but it is a serious aversion to me, fashionable or not.

Duh. I am embarrassed, because I should have thought of that, digging it up because of winter. I guess I am a true Floridian now... I forget that it's not warm all the time, everywhere. Please pardon me for what now seems like a dumb question. It has spread so much that it's been hard to keep using it, and so in sections where I didn't cut it back, we have had some blossums, and one year it "went to seed." I threw the seeds back on the ground around it, and it grew more. When I made larb for the first time recently, as you, I went through this thread and some other recipes, making mental notes and adjusting to suit our tastes. Larb is awesome food. I love your saying, make larb not war!

We don't use this hairdryer method every time we cook a whole duck, but we have done it a few times before. I can't help but laugh every time we do. I remember the first time I blow-dried a duck before roasting it. My husband didn't know I was going to use this technique and he came into the house and found me doing it. It struck him quite funny. Tonight we pricked the skin, and then boiled it for a few minutes (we save the liquid and de-grease it and freeze it, and then use it next time we pre-boil duck) and then we used the hair dryer, and then we rotisserie-cooked it on the grill, brushing on a glaze at the end. To what lengths have you gone to get crispy skin on a whole roasted or grilled duck, and what works the best for you? My husband is convinced that we still haven't gotten it crispy-done-to-perfection.

Nice account of your larb making! And, what caught my attention... you dig up your lemongrass? I cut mine, and it keeps on growing, and growing, and growing... Is there any special reason you dig it up?

I think I'm going to take a break from photographing food tonight (unless it turns out so beautiful, I can't resist). I've started the prep, and it's going to be: Pomegranate glazed duck, rotisserie-cooked on the grill; Grilled rutabaga slices and whole carrots, parsnips, and white asparagus, with truffle vinaigrette; Salt-baked potatoes -- I've been wanting these since I saw the idea in the October issue of Gourmet; Shiraz; Roasted Bosc Pairs with Pomegranate Glaze, and vanilla ice cream -- the ones on the cover of the October issue of Bon Appetit; and Barleywine to drink with dessert.

Methinks a little bit of beer snobbery has been shown in the last couple of posts.

We had a variation on our Friday night theme. I ate out for two days while I was away and so instead of going out for happy hour(s) food and drinks, we stayed home and had happy hours on the porch. I made food as if it were from upscale bars rather than some of the other types of places we sometimes go to on Friday nights. It turned into an evening-long thing, taking breaks and cleaning up the kitchen in between "courses." The small local shrimp boats have been visable every time I've been to the beach lately; the shrimp have been delicious, and plentiful in my favorite seafood market. First up was shrimp cocktail, same as recently only with a different presentation. I had a Cosmopolitan and Russ had beer. At Russ's request, next was carpaccio, and Merlot to drink. Then we had a salad adapted from Sara Moulton's recipe, fried green tomatoes with her ranch dressing, topped with red and yellow grape tomato salad. The ranch dressing was supposed to be drizzled over the fried tomatoes and under the grape tomatoes, but I forgot to do that before taking the picture. We drank Reisling with it, but it wasn't such a good match. Last (which wasn't meant to be last, but we were too full to eat the dessert I made... I'll serve it tonight) was slightly warmed brie, with roasted red peppers, basil, and store-bought ciabatta. With this, we finished the bottle of Merlot. It was a fun night of cooking and eating!

Anna, I was away for two days and one of the things I looked forward to the most when getting home was catching up on your blog. I am enjoying it so much, and if I posted my comments and compliments each time I thought them, I would be flooding the thread! I love your presentations and your traditions. You write it well, and the great photos somehow show how good-tasting your food is. I also loved your comment about doing some housecleaning before your dinner tonight because you insist that the house looks as decent for the two of you as it would if you were having company. I'm the same way, and for the candles and table settings, etc., too. Isn't it a wonderful advantage of an empty nest?! I must say I don't get the house as cleaned up as I would like on the days I work, but my intentions are there. Oh yeah, and speaking of the Scandanavians and potatoes, do you ever make Hasselback potatoes?