Susan in FL

It ALL looks delicious. Did you carry over the same wine into the cheese course? If so, how did it match up? Pinot Noir is a great wine for pairing with lots of foods, and I like being able to have one bottle of wine to carry through two or three courses.

Good question, and I can answer based only on the males with anorexia that I have known... that would be no, about them. You are making an assumption about anorexics based upon one persons battles. In fact-i know this to the be case since I was one for a while. And no pictures graced my walls. I agree. I think a lot of people base assumptions and generalities upon their own personal experiences, whether the experiences are their own or those of somebody close to them. It's natural and understandable to do that, but often the assumptions are not the case for others. I thought about that sort of thing, in my doubts about this restaurant.

That is by far my favorite thing on or with scrapple, a yolky egg. As for maple syrup or anything sweet with it, I don't like it when syrup or anything sweet touches the scrapple, or touches the eggs, etc. If I have scrapple and eggs and also some pancakes, for example, the pancakes and maple syrup have to be on a separate plate! And even then I usually eat the pancakes last with the coffee, like for dessert.

Much of the same psychological and societal factors as for women.

I'm not surprised when people outside of the counselor community haven't heard this. It's not something that most of us who were abused in any way -- physically, sexually, emotionally, etc. -- publicly talk about a lot. People are much more willing to share that they are obsessed with perfection and overly concerned about their weight and appearance and such things than to share their history of abuse. It's not exactly cocktail party conversation. And, there is a significant number of survivors who honestly don't remember their abuse. Obviously it's not a direct cause-and-effect thing, but it is a statistic about those who go into treatment or counseling for the problem. Enough of that... I'm not trying to educate the public, but I do like to discuss something I find really interesting from the perspective of this community of food lovers. Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge about the Malays. I'm not sure if the observations from my professional experience is cross-culturally accurate.

I guess I should have thought of that. The bread, now there's something... I don't quite understand the appeal of some of the dark, dense, dry bread that Morten likes. But he will eat any bread, and loves bread with dinner. Before he came to live with us, we hardly ever ate bread with dinner, and then we developed the habit. I certainly will. We have heard so much about their Christmas and New Year celebrations and they are so rich with with tradition. Actually, that is why we picked this time time of year to go. (I'm trying to stop worrying about freezing to death.)

Great idea! The only time I have done that is at Easter. Why not at any other time? Thanks.

I hope nobody is bristling. There has to be humor in even the most serious issues. In fact, often the more serious the subject, the more need there is for humor. I for one understand that your humor probably means you have a great amount of sensitivity. But anyway, again thanks for the comic relief. Very good point!

Horray, I'm so glad to see you are blogging! I too have always enjoyed your posts, and since we have an "adopted" Danish son, this will be of even more special interest to me. (Finally, we're going to Denmark at Christmas this year.) His Danish parents have visited us a few times, and we have always enjoyed the food that his mom, Lise, has cooked for us. I was surprised in your first photo to see a "closed" sandwich for the Dane but I guess that is more convenient for packing... or is it his preference? Your kitchen is much like ours in layout and in size. I'm looking forward to this. Thanks, in advance!

Michael, that is interesting, and I'm wondering if cultures with less incidence of eating disorders are cultures with less sexual abuse. Do you have an idea about that in Malaysia? Professionally I found that the majority of people with eating disorders had traumatization in their history, usually incest. With regard to cases of anorexia dating several hundred years back in European culture, we know that sexual abuse in Europe dates back. As with just about everything in this day and time, it is more complex and many more factors go into it, not to mention the vast amount of media influence. It's been several years since I worked with these problems, but I would still say it's a very small percentage that are physiological in nature. I wish that was the case; it would be easier to treat successfully.

Behemoth, thanks. I will take a look at that Pad Thai recipe. I haven't taken the opportunity to thoroughly read eG's Cooking Classes, and would like to do that. Eunny, you are just too much! That food is gorgeous, and any time it looks like that, the taste has to be sublime. Your appreciation of the visual appeal, and all the aspects of dining, is awesome. Once again, I salute you.

LOL! I have respect for the seriousness of eating disorders, and we discuss that seriousness quite often here at eG... But Suzanne, that is too funny! Thank you so much for the laugh. It sure is good to lighten up sometimes about this sort of thing.

I just can't understand feeling guilty when enjoying good food. That's life! I do realize that exceptions are those with eating disorders, which have been discussed many times on eG. I get that. But personally, and maybe it's from my own narrow perspective, I can't get into feeling guilty about fine dining. I get great joy from food and all the aspects of it and taking lots of time to enjoy it. I do agree with you Brooks, about how many Americans eat too much of everything as opposed to eating smaller portions. I love eating multi-course meals, with smaller portions of several things, but that seems not to be the American way. I do consider health and fitness into my habits, and could never eat the way I do without my routine of working out and running\walking. We have family in Denmark... I understand, cxt!

I am so happy about this dinner, and this is one of the things for which I thank eG! I had never even heard of Larb before eG. I think I made Larb tonight. I made two recipes from Hot Sour Salty Sweet. At least I should say these were the recipes I used as my main guide. From what I've read and seen in photos here, this seems to be Larb. It was the recipe on page 78, Luang Prabang Fusion Salad. I read several other recipes, too, and each one was different, but I would say the one I followed the most was this one, using pork. Now I know why this is so popular. It was delicious! The same is true about the Pad Thai recipe on page 124, which I made a little soupier than the recipe; although, while I will definitely make Larb again, I'm not so sure about the Pad Thai. I might would rather go to a Thai restaurant. First up was edamame and coarse salt, with Brancott Sauvignon Blanc. Edamame and Sauvignon Blanc is one of my favorite things. Then the Larb, with a Hogue Riesling. With the rest of the Riesling, the Pad Thai. Except for the edamame, this was certainly new territory for me. Thanks, All.

Love it! This morning for breakfast I had brunch at the bar on our porch. It was a pasta fritatta/omelet/pie thingie using left over pasta, some of the leftover Brussels sprout leaves and pancetta, and freshly squeezed OJ.

Thank you for your efforts on this blog, Rachel, and as Toliver put it, for letting it all hang out! It's been quite different for everyone to pitch in and give input. Thank you for your invitation to do so. I'm sure you will be remembered for your unique and refreshing account of learning in progress. I wish you good health, and good luck as you develop your cooking skills. Cheers! P.S. I think the oven thermometer is something we all should have. It's on my list. P.P.S. I sincerely do love your name.

Interesting. Usually Bittman recipes are right on it. Did you put the cast-iron skillet in after the oven got hot, and then wait the full 10 minutes for the skillet to get hot and for the oven to return to 450? Sounds like maybe your oven temperature is off or maybe it is your thermometer that is off. And if your chicken is four pounds + some, it would probably need a little more time. I'm looking at the clock, so by now you've probably done whatever it is you're going to do, but for next time, back to the same theme... trust your instincts, and perhaps use the wiggle-the-leg method or the stick-a-fork-in-it method.

Dinner tonight was just so-so... Pomegranate-glazed cornish hens and roasted root vegetables. (We decided to have a seasonal dinner according to the calendar, rather than our weather.) It was good, but it would have been better if had a grilled dinner, or something more appropriate to our beautiful, still summer-like weather. The Gallo Reserve Cabernet was real good!

I am on the list... Thank you for the compliments and for asking! Behemoth, beautiful and looks delicious.

Scrambled eggs, olives, scallions, and cilantro, over an avocado half, garnished with a dollop of salsa; and Bloody Marys. Msphoebe, what is rosmarino?

Rachel, I thought of you last night when we had the Sauteed Brussels Sprouts with Pancetta from the CIA Gourmet Meals in Minutes book. This side dish is absolutely delicious! The layers of leaves of the Brussels sprouts are gently pulled apart. I could easily get on a kick of eating this stuff, kinda like eG's favorite, roasted cauliflower, except that the cauliflower is easier. I started to suggest that you try it if you like Brussels sprouts, but I won't say that. I would suggest this to anyone, even to somebody who doesn't like Brussels sprouts.

Russ just got over a bad bout of gout, and tonight we celebrated his recovery from it and had SHRIMP!! which is very bad for gout. We had a classic shrimp cocktail made of fresh local jumbo shrimp, and a bottle of bubbly. Then, it got dark, and the photo of this plate of food is too dark and it is way too busy, but it was delicious tasting. It was grilled swordfish steak; yellow squash sauteed in butter, S&P, and savory; angel hair pasta with tomatoes, garlic, kalamata olives etc. etc. etc.; and my current new favorite food, Brussels sprouts with the layers of the leaves pulled apart and cooked in olive oil, pancetta, onion, S&P, and butter... yum, this is almost as good a vegetable as roasted cauliflower. We drank Pinot Noir with it.

What a wonderful breakfast idea. Thanks for the recommendation of the D'Artagnan smoked duck breast. I'm drooling again... The eggs you cook rule! This morning Russ made us sandwiches of sausage, egg, and cheese on toasted bread, with some of our big sage leaves in between the sausage and the cheese.

This food is less noteworthy than the circumstances. Last night over a dinner meeting at my house it was pizza delivery, quickly thrown together salad tossed with bottled dressing! and plenty of red wine. When I host these meetings at home, I like to cook and usually do, but I had a long and tiring day, on the day job, and accepted the offer for this quickie meal. It turned out to be fun. Tonight was happy hour food and drinks at an ocean front bar. The weather is too beautiful this weekend not to do that. It's a "cold front"...crystal clear skies, daytime highs around 80, nighttime lows in the 50's, and very low humidity. Finally it's cooled off enough and dried up enough to open the windows. Happy Weekend, Everyone!

I'm probably not a good one to give you input on something like this -- except maybe to suggest that you relax and have fun and trust your instincts -- because I don't take most recipes very seriously. Maybe that's a function of more years of experience. I really do think you have good instincts, and probably with more confidence you will follow your sense of it more than following the recipe. When I read over a recipe and decide to make it, for example, I never pay attention to the time they say. If I do make a mental note of the time, I just assume it will take me a little longer. I usually only generally follow the recipe, using approximated amounts, changing the order of things sometimes, leaving something out that doesn't sound good to me, maybe adding something else, etc. Of course the exception to this is when I'm baking or officially doing a recipe testing. I read this recipe and I'm not sure what you meant by deglazing with their own juices. My understanding would have been to cook until after the vegetables gave up their juice and after the juices evaporated, and then deglazed. ...Maybe even deglaze with a little bit of wine (to me, I think wine when I read deglaze), and then some of the sauce. There is an example of something I ignore. I always salt and pepper to taste instead of paying attention to a recipe's amount of salt and pepper. Excellent!I understand where you're coming from in your critiqueing of the recipes, being a beginner, and like the other folks here I admire you for sharing your learning experiences with us, in the format of a food blog. You have more courage than I would have had many years ago! However, since you asked for us to make some comments, I thought I would offer my outlook on most recipes, which is to extract the good ideas from them and take it from there. Something tells me you will be doing more of that in the future. Exactly. You're on the right track. Thanks for asking for our feedback, and keep up the good work!