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By the way, I hope you are feeling better, brngckn. I'm sure eating the brioche you'll make will be the final cure!

I made the twice baked brioche a little late, but it was fantastic! I found it reheats well at 350 for 5-10 minutes--re-crisps nicely. I think I'm going to have to skip the tart this weekend. I think we've had our limit of sweets, wonderful though they've been. Mdt--I agree on the orange flavor, and I don't think the vanilla bean came through very strongly either. I'm not complaining though--it was delicious.

Hi Jensen-- I'll take you up on your lemon offer--don't know if I've got the PM thing down, or maybe Egullet is having tech difficulties? Thanks!

Wow, Brad, great review. I can't wait to try this place out. Yet another excuse for me to visit Lilydale! (I love the Lilydale Nursery) Thank you for sharing your impressions.

I made my first attempt at challah this weekend, and had pretty good luck. I used my stand mixer to knead, but I think I added too much flour, or maybe baked too long. My oven has always been consistent with the temp for other recipes, meaning that I've not usually found it to bake faster than the recipe states, but with this recipe I shaved 10 minutes off the total time. Maybe it's time for a new range . . . I'm looking for an excuse. Did anyone else find that the baking times stated were too long? It was beautiful, and tasted great. Just a bit too dry. I'm looking forward to the next recipe.

After Rick Bayless's spate of notoriety here, I figured I should see what it was he was betraying and bought Mexico, One Plate at a Time. Also bought The Zuni Cafe Cookbook and Slow Mediterranean Cooking. I can't wait to spend Saturday browsing through them . . .

Challah next weekend sounds delish to me.

I'd love to join in, too! It'd be great to get feedback from each other and see how much progress we're making. Thank you for such a great idea, Seth!

Mayhaw Man, I am really looking forward to your blog. I lived in New Orleans for a couple years, and really loved Mardi Gras. Went to parades for three years, but began to sympathize with some natives who said they went out of town during Mardi Gras!! What a crazy time of year. Thank you for doing this!

Last night I made braised chicken from A New Way to Cook - wonderful. I used thyme and juniper berries, sherry and pinot grigio. egg noodles roasted cauliflower and broccoli (thank you EGullet!!) pear and cranberry crumble This was a dinner I brought to the home of good friends who just had their first baby. They were thrilled to not have to cook, and it was wonderful to see the baby. I find this thread to be an inspiration, too. Edited for really bad grammar, and it's not much improved.

My mother made absolutely luscious roast beef and gravy, and her pies and cookies are held up as the standard for everything my siblings and I (six) encounter in restaurants and in anyone's home. But she didn't make roast beef for dinner every night, and she didn't serve dessert as the main course. Vegetables were consistently mushy, pork chops bone dry and steaks done gray. And I can relate well to the Ladies Home Journal type disaster recipes. She has not taken it well that my sisters and I have deviated from her method.

I have never been to Hardee's for breakfast, but now I see I have to go. My favorites: 1 and 2. Chik Fil-A chicken sandwich AND their fabulous breakfast sandwich. I don't know how they get their scrambled eggs so fluffy and moist and delish in a fast food place. Good bacon, great biscuit. Mmm. Since I moved away from Houston to St. Paul, MN I've been suffering withdrawal. If these aren't as good as they used to be, please don't tell me. I want to hold on to the memory. 3. Culver's Butter Burger Deluxe Tastes as close to a home(or restaurant)-grilled burger as you can get without grilling at home. 4. McDonald's bacon, egg and cheese biscuit

A New Way to Cook, Sally Schneider Lidia's Italian Table, Lidia Bastianich Alice Medrich's Cookies and Brownies

I have not made anything from this cookbook yet, and I am interested in your opinion of it--Curries and Bugles by Jennifer Brennan. Would you consider this authentic Indian? Or is it Indian by way of British? It was very interesting reading, in any case. I'll have to look into Madhur Jaffrey.

I'm feeling a lot better about my alleged "cookbook addiction". (My husband alleges.) I've got only 39 in my collection! And counting . . .

I am rereading an old favorite - More Home Cooking by Laurie Colwin. I love her description of lime pickle in this book, and I keep meaning to try it but never have! Jenn

Yes! That's the place. Thank you, Maggie!

I had such a good time reading this thread! One of my favorite sweet/salty/crunchy combinations is cheese popcorn mixed with caramel popcorn. My preferred ratio is 2 cheesy to 1 caramel. I'm a little afraid of the bright orange fake cheese involved, but it does the trick for me. When I've been in Chicago, there's a place that makes the best popcorn--they're famous--I can't remember their name. They do mail order . . . and they sell the cheese caramel combination. Anybody know the place?