Susan in FL

As most of you -- the ones I have "talked" with -- know, I am from Delaware and lived there the first 49 years of my life. Our most recent trip back up there was in April when we sold our Delaware house. Not much had changed from when I lived there. What used to be Ashby's and now claims to be a brew pub was terrible except for one thing. They had Victory Hop Devil (bottled). However, the nachos we ordered were an extremely small portion, expensive, and tasteless. We could not bring ourselves to eat dinner there, so we went to Rehoboth. Our dinner and beers at Dogfish Head were real good. A lunch at the Buttery in Lewes was very fine. A dinner at Lewes with relatives was great... across the street, Striper Bites had excellent food after a Happy Hour at the Rose and Crown. In Rehoboth, we had a special night to celebrate and checked out a few places, but it was pre-season and most of our old favorites were not open. We went to Fusion or Celsius, I think... I get them mixed up. On Wilmington Avenue, we walked in and got a table, squeezed in with other customers so closely that we were touching each other. It was terribly awkward. After we were seated, they ignored us for about 10 minutes, so we left, and went to Blue Moon, where we had a awesome good meal, delicious food and wine and great service. We had a nice lunch in Dover at W T Smithers Restaurant, which was slightly more upscale than the lunch my old friend and I had in Millsboro, Georgia House. It's a local favorite, with good food at reasonable prices, but too "down home" style for me. However, I enjoyed it and especially enjoyed the antiqueing afterwards.

That was a great article. I love pho, but I'm new to it. I didn't even know it rhymes with "duh". Thanks, Andrea!

I love it.This a mouth watering thread. Mojitos remain my current favorite, but I'm entertaining several others and enjoying them immensely. Key lime Mojitos are a wonderful thing, and Katie has me just about ready to launch my mission for the perfect minted- (or other herbed- simple syrup) drink. Katie or anybody, have you done anything with rosemary? I have huge numbers of huge rosemary bushes. And, my Cosmo right now is 1 1/2 ounces Stoli Ohranj, 1/2 ounce Cointreau, 1/4 ounce lime juice, 1/4 ounce lemon juice, and 1 ounce of cranberry juice. As for the ice, I, too, like to shake vigorously. Usually I add a twist of lime or lemon, but please tell me... does anybody know what is meant by a flaming of orange oil over top of it?

Absolutely. That sounds so good!!

Ah, one of my favorite subjects. I like the sliced tomatoes on soft white bread, with mayo, S&P, and -- very important in this family -- a slice of raw sweet onion. We have just started picking ours!

Sorry your experience with brining chicken has not been good, and hope you won't categorize all brined poultry as "a moderately amusing fad whose time has passed." I've never had the problems you described, and do prefer to either brine chicken or purchase kosher. It's not always the cooking method that is why chicken does not "come out right"; it's often the quality of the bird and brining helps, in the opinion of many. I often brined shrimp, too, before moving to Florida and using fresh local shrimp. If the store is out of them, and I have to use previously frozen or farm raised shrimp, I still do. I always brine turkey, I sometimes brine pork, and I've even brined beef a few times!

I'm in favor of buying kosher chicken, or brining... but that goes for ALL chicken. As for PICNIC chicken, this is a great recipe. Of course, I think most old-fashioned fried chicken is great on a picnic. This recipe can be made a day ahead and does not suffer from it. 2 garlic cloves 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper 1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, minced 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 2 tablespoons yellow cornmeal 1/2 cup vegetable oil 2 chickens, (3 1/2 pounds each), cut into 8 pieces each In a small bowl, mash the garlic and salt to a paste. Add the black pepper, cayenne, rosemary, lemon juice and cornmeal and mash until fairly smooth. Stir in the oil until blended. Place the chicken in a large shallow dish and spoon the seasoned cornmeal over the pieces, spreading to coat evenly. Let stand uncovered at room temperature for 1 hour. Preheat the broiler. Place the chicken, skin-side up, on a rack and broil, about 5 inches from the heat, until the juices run clear when pricked with a fork, about 20 minutes per side.

Sadness was upon my heart. Of course after that initial heartbreak, I got back in the groove and was happy for what a good, exciting race it was... And, for celebration of the life of Ronald Reagan, one of my favorite people of all time. Cheers!

And now thank you Fifi (and Brooks, and Curlywurlyfi)! I printed out that recipe and will definitely make it with some fresh local shrimp ASAP. It looks like we should beware... this might be the beginning of something like roasted cauliflower. I've had a great big box of cut-out recipes to go through (unorganized) of my mother's, since she died in 1996. This has inspired me to tackle it.

There for a while I was sorry I didn't give fromages.com a try, but now I'm glad I remained loyal to DiBruno.com. I like to try it all though, so I'll follow this thread (here or a new one), and when there is clear shipping, place an order with them. BTW, new to me this order was the St. Nectaire and St. Marcellin, and the Gouda aged 6 years. Gouda wasn't new to me, but that aged was. I think maybe I need to acquire a taste for that. It surely tastes of caramel... quite sweet. Does anybody have any ideas to share of your favorite uses for it? Certain fruits or drink you enjoy it with in a cheese course? The St. Nectaire was a slight disappointment, and the St. Marcellin is one of my new favorites now. F'real!

Diet creamsicle, my foot. A little peach bitters wouldn't come amiss, though! I, for two, plan to give this White Carnation -- from your original post -- a try. That one looks better to me than the other versions. Go, Smarty. Cheers!

That is so nice to hear. Brought back memories... That's the sort of thing we did for our boys and their friends when they were young. They all loved it, and we had quite a reputation for it. Everybody wanted to be invited! Even on regular week nights, the friends would casually ask what we were having for dinner, because they knew (1) that we cooked a good meal almost every night, even if it was after the ball games and practices, etc. -- only once in a while did we order pizza -- and that we sat at the table to eat no matter how late and (2) it was always something different than they were used to. It was amazing to me how few kids had dinners cooked for them. Often in their families, it was each person on their own, take out or eat out.Congrats to you. Thanks for the post. Great sounding dinner menu, too, BTW!

We agree with Jinmyo, and make them ourselves. It's been a while, but as a guide we actually use the recipe from our old Joy of Cooking.

Nice!! I hope someone can scan and post photos, or somehow get them online. Congrats to you both. My husband and I have had the great pleasure of being served such a dinner at the Pawlak home. The food, and the company, was as wonderful as described.

Sangria, yes... thanks for the reminder, and welcome to eG!

Well Chris, this comes too late to help you decide what to have with your skewers and sauces.... What did you make to go with them? I enjoyed the thread, though... thanks for starting it. We grilled Kobe burgers and sausages and had a corn, avocado, sweet onion and etc. salsa as side dish.

Mojitos here, with lots of lime juice -- more lime juice and more mint than the restaurants and bars serve in theirs. Second favorite summer cocktail is vodka and tonic, using the frozen tonic cubes, with lemon and lime.

Saturday night we had our first Kobe steaks! ...Very, very good, but not so perfect that we will buy them frequently. Just as exciting to us was having the wine we had been saving for a special occasion, Hendry 1997 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley Block 8. With the steaks, we had a mixed mushroom saute with a little drizzle of truffle oil, steamed broccoli, and horseradish mashed potatoes. The first course was grilled quail with a Port-Balsamic-reduction-butter sauce on mixed baby greens, and J. Lohr Merlot. Last night we had grilled chicken, "roadside BBQ style," grilled corn, crabcakes, pasta salad, and Beaujolais. Tonight it's grilled sausages and Kobe burgers, corn and avocado salsa, and other go-withs for a traditional Memorial Day cookout. Happy Holiday to all, with thanks to those who sacrificed for our country.

In case anyone is interested: The phone number for Manhattan is provided in the link that is part of my post above. I've never used it. That recipe was the only time I had heard of the Manhattan brand... good to hear someone's recommendation. The recipe which I linked is much like what most of you are describing. The difference of opinion I usually hear discussed is whether, authenticly, the topping is meringue, whipped cream, or neither. All this Key Lime talk, I think I better go buy a bag of them today, and make a pie! That would be the perfect dessert for this beautiful Memorial Day. I hope everybody is enjoying a safe and happy holiday.

I haven't yet been driven crazy by using fresh key limes, but maybe it's because what I've bought here -- even though tiny -- have been very ripe, soft and juicy. In any case, this is the recipe that I use. I love this recipe. I don't always put whipped cream on top, though.

So sorry to hear that Bertha's is no longer one of the places to eat good mussels. Sounds like the area has changed. My apologies for the out-dated recommendations! Thank goodness Brewer's Art is still good.

We did The Tempura Thing tonight, and it was delicious. It didn't turn out looking like we expected it to -- it wasn't as big and puffy -- but damn, it sure did taste good! For the batter we used two cups of rice flour, one teaspoon of cumin, and "whisked in enough cold club soda to make it look similar to pancake batter." Being experimental, we also added one egg yolk for flavor. That could be the reason it wasn't so light and airy. We did an ice bath, to keep the batter real cold until deep frying, and the vegetables were asparagus, cauliflower, sweet potato, baby yellow squash, sweet onion, mushrooms, basil leaves, and sage leaves. We had this with grilled skewered tuna and swordfish. Next time, we will leave out the egg yolk, just to see if that makes it more puffy, but the flavor is going to be hard to beat. Thanks, everyone.

This brought back real good memories of when we lived in Delaware and often went to Baltimore, mostly for baseball games or the Inner Harbor. There was a real good sushi place, but I can't remember the name. Not right on the water, but Brewer's Art was wonderful. A short cab drive or even a walk away, if you're full of energy, is Fell's Point. Eat Bertha's Mussels!!! That is a do-not-miss, in my opinion. Little Italy which is closeby is good, also. It was fun to go up to Windows, at the Renaissance. I would say stay away from Phillips... they don't always serve fresh seafood. The only problem in my recommendations is that I'm not sure what is still there. If I recall some others, I'll post again. Have fun, and please report back!

We have a bottle of this Italian white wine. I don't know what all the words mean, and I'm hoping that someone can tell me something about it. I know wines fairly well, but I've never learned to read the labels of all the Italian wines. What would be a good food to have with this wine?

Thank you all for the recipes, ideas, and tips. I'll report back, after our first try. Using cold club soda or beer appeals to us, so we'll probably include one or the other. Any additional comments are still welcomed!