ludja

Squirrel Nut Zippers: Brunswick Stew Elastica: overcooked squid INXS: Fois Gras every night The Muffs: Tuna Fish Sandwich Hole: Toad in a Hole

Jane's Addiction: Absinthe and French Fries

This is probably a silly question, but does anyone know if canned salmon generally uses farmed rather than wild salmon? It seems likely, since farmed is cheaper to produce. My other question, (although I should probably do some googling first... ) is at what time did farm raised salmon take over wild in production? The last 10 years? (That's when salmon prices have seem to have dropped).

I suggest Austrian "Grammelknödel" Wow, lots of cool ideas already. My only challenge is to stop snacking on them (have about 2 cups) so I can use them in some of these recipes... Never would have thought of the hash, cassoulet/stew garnish or stuffed eggs, but these comments have already spurred a number of other ideas. Our family is huge on stuffed eggs (ususally garnished w/an anchovy slice) but also loves krammeln so I may be able to pull off a big coup the next time I'm home. Are cracklings on top of stuffed eggs a 'classic' dish? If so, where from? France? I've never heard of it before. I've never made or had gribenes before either but will definately try. I'm already a chopped liver lover and garnishing w/gribenes sounds like a wonderful gilding. Boris_A: Thank you very much for the knodel recipe. I love Austrian/Swiss/German/Sud Tirol dumplings and have started experimenting with making them more at home. I have never heard of Grammelknodeln and will definately try them out with my current precious supply. Now that you mention it, I wonder if they could also be used in a variant of Tirolerknodel (bread dumplings) using the krammeln in place of speck or smoked bacon... And---I'll hold the schlag, at least during the main course and will take your suggestion of a green salad accompaniment--possibly with kern ol and vinegar dressing. *need to figure out how to insert umlauts!!!*

Hi TrishCT, like your avatar; do you know what type of flowers those are? gentians?

Don't know if I got all the spellings correct in the title, but when I was home at Christmas, my Mom made me up a batch of Krammeln (Austrian dialect for pork cracklings) to bring home. Sweet mom I added in the Gribbenes (though I believe they're rescued from rendered chicken fatty skin) b/c I thought the uses would probably overlap well. My mom's main use is to add them to scrambled eggs or to a filling for potato strudel (both excellent). I've also read about making a crackling corn bread. Any other favorite ideas or uses you have to share? Appreciate it!

Have only eaten in two Burmese restaurants (Palo Alto and San Francisco). Can't remember the distinction very well from Thai--but I did have two unusual salads that I think are Burmese--Ginger Salad and Fermented Tea Leaf Salad. They are both composed of minced ingredients like roasted peanuts, fish sauce, dried shrimp and hot green chiles, frued garlic, cilantro, etc. They were incredibly good; packed w/taste. Reminded me a little of the Thai appetizer, Miang Kum Does anyone else know specialities, distinguishing characteristics of Burmese cuisine?

Also be prepared to drink your coffee standing up; if you sit at a table you will pay 3-4 times more!! Have to admit; I was in Florence for two weeks in August and it was extremely hot... one great cold drink to have are the liquid lemon ices out of those machines... But I also ducked into McDonald's a few times... ONLY... to have a large diet coke filled with ice cubes!!!

Good one; I will definatelly go without rather than eat 'fake' maple syrup. The worst experience I had was at a little diner in SF that is pretty good otherwise... but the syrup was not even up to Log Cabin (I think, it's been 20 years and I'm sure it gone downhill since then). T think what they served as syrup was actually corn syrup tinted w/brown dye and *maybe* doctored up with a few drops of artificial maple flavoring... Corn syrup reminds me of another dish that 'spoiled me'. I have a great pecan pie recipe and the filling uses brown sugar, butter and pecans. Now, I can no longer abide pecan pie in which the filling is a pale jelly layer of congealed corn syrup.... Many recipes out there do use this though, but the butter/brown sugar mix is so much better.

wow, sounds like really helpful advice--may even prompt me to make a BCP (I never have) after checking out the recipes on the other thread! ***I've usually been disappointed w/BCP in restaurants, and thus no longer ever order it, but I think I a nice homemade one would be great. The descriptions of good pastry cream, chocolate ganache and homemade cake have just revitalized my impression of BCP!!!

Thanks for the report on your trip. Sorry that some of the places were closed. I had the same thing happen to me during my visit to Philly last week--heard for a long time of this incredible Italian gelato place that my friend goes to--but it was closed thru Jan 5 and so we couldn't go! Thanks for describing all the places you tried. Quite a few are new to me and I'll definately try some of them out soon.

Looking back over others comments, I also seem to remember lots of flourless chocolate cakes. Could serve w/strawberries, kiwis on the side and the ubiquitous fruit puree design. (I don't really love this combo, but I think it would be very 80's...)

Kiwi is what jumped to mind first also for me... But besides that, I think 'noveau' Southwestern/Santa Fe cuisine was big then--think Mark Miller and Coyote Cafe, John Sedlar, Modern Southwestern Cuisine. Also chefs from Texas like Anne Lindsay Greer and Robert del Grande. Glancing through I cookbook called "Southwest Tastes" from the TV series, Great Chefs of the West here are some of the recipes: Dessert Tostadas (make a shell from deep fried tortilla and fill w/custard and then fresh fruit, strawberries, ????kiwis? Fresh Berry Mousse in Pizzelle Cookie Bowls Cookie Tacos (nut crisp cookie shaped as a taco, filled w/raspberries, strawberries, etc and shavings of white chocolate 'cheese', surounded w/creme anglaise Neon Tumbleweed w/Biscochito cookes (fresh fruit arranged on plate, squiggle of different fruit purees, cookies shaped as cacti) S.Western Fruit Flan w/ Pricky Pear Glaze Peach Mouse w/Raspberry Coulis Red Yam Flan White Chocolate Ravioli This cookbook is actually pretty good--once dessert recipe I have made that is excellent is: Ibarra Chocolate Cake (a flourless chocolate cake w/ground almonds and flavored w/orange and cinnamon, covered in chocolate glaze) The idea is to mimic mexican chocolate flavors w/orange. One thing many of the recipes have is lots of decoration w/squiggles of different colored fruit puree. Also lots of flavored mousses...

1) In and Out Cheeseburger w/grilled onions 2) McDonald's Quarter Pounder w/Cheese (hold the pickles to have it made fresh; big difference) 3) Egg McMuffin

Well, when I was back in Middletown, CT for the holidays I finally (lived there 15 years) made it to O'Rourkes to sample the famed steamed cheeseburger. My dad and I went there for lunch. Great decor; classic old diner, sunny and cozy. The burger was very good; on a nice roll (substantial enought, but not too 'bready' for the burger) and as Jason described (and showed) covered with lots of good sharp softened white cheddar cheese. It was very tasty! Also excellent were the homemade onion rings. Just the way I like them--light crispy (non-breadcrumb) batter, onions cut thinly, crispy on the outside and tender onions on the inside. Per the mention of breakfast above, I also heard they make a wonderful home made corned beef hash; I need to try that next time... or maybe the homemade sausages... Jason also described the wonderful white pie over at Jerry's Pizza, also in Middletown--I'll have to fit that in next time as well! Thanks again for the nice post w/pix reminding me to try O'Rourkes...

When I was home for the holidays, my Mom mentioned that in Austria (where she's from) the traditional 'good luck' food for New Years is a lentil soup with pork in it. I wonder if this was a precursor for Hoppin John? Another German/Austrian good luck for New Year's thing is a marzipan pig! edit: sp

Likewise, thanks for the tip on Naomi's Antiques... Sounds like a fun afternoon, especially since it's best to hit Swan's on off hours to minimize the wait.. thanks for all the other great See's treat descriptions on this post too; I have a lot of new things to try!

Have seen a bunch of my favorites already listed above Zuni Cookbook, Judy Rodgers Splendid Cooking, Lynne Rosetta Kasper Chez Panisse Vegetables and Chez Panisse Cooking (Alice Waters and Paul Bertolli, respectively). also books by Lidia Bastiniach and Paul Wolfert Two others I cook from often and can 'trust' any new recipes from are: Bistro Cooking by Patrica Wells (great basic recipes; everything tastes excellent!) & Biscuits, Spoonbread and Sweet Potato Pie by Bill Neal (great southern cookies, cakes, biscuits, pies, etc)

For a basic lobster (i.e. not a lobster 'dish') - A perfectly cooked baked stuffed lobster at home... the meat is perfect in texture and taste when cooked correctly. Our stuffing is just dried breadcrumbs, chopped walnuts, lemon juice, tomalley, butter and salt and pepper. Hard to get baked stuffed lobsters in restaurants any more and I usually do not like the stuffing--with seafood in it like shrimp. Almost only eat lobster at home because of this.

Haven't compared it to a bunch of other NY delis, but I just had a great chopped liver sandwich at Carnegie Deli (7th b/t 54th and 55th) on Sunday. Yummmm! Split a sanwich w/my Mom; then shared an order of blintzes w/sour cream... I need to start a thread on where to find chopped liver in the SF bay area; now that's a challenge.

This just happened to a friend of mine. Someone came to visit, statyed a few days and offered to cook a meal. Said he would cook his 'specialty' fettucine alfredo. His version included no cream, and instead took a thrify approach and made a huge amount of roux with flour--and oil. Added a little milk and some canned parmesean cheese. Tossed in to make it primavera style were canned mushrooms, canned corn and canned green beans. The resulting mix of wall flour paste and canned vegetable became... voila! fettucinin alfredo al primavera... My friend said it was literally difficult to eat while trying at the same time to stifle a gag reflex with each bite...

wow, thanks a lot for sharing all the great pix. Loved the pheasants and really enjoyed the photos with the chalkboards at the farmshop (thanks for the closeup). Jealous of the great big space for cookbooks also; I have shelves near the kitchen for about 80 books, but the rest are separated in a spare room. So I always have to pick and choose which I keep in more 'active rotation' out near the kitchen. The latkes and brisket look very good; hope you'all enjoyed them. It's wonderful to get a peak at an 'English' Christmas. It's funny, my family all comes from Austria--my mom, aunt and dad, and we have traditional Austrian things on Christmas Eve. But on Christmas day, we have our 'English' Feast of Rib Roast, Yorkshire Pudding, brussel sprouts, etc followed by Plum Pudding. Maybe not traditional, we have shrimp cocktail to start. It is one of my favorite food events of the year (better than Turkey at Thanksgiving...) Thanks again and look forward to the rest of your blog; the preview was nice; we can follow whether things change or if you improvise!

Don't know if you have a torch or not... but if you're using the broiler, it is good to have the ramekins sitting in a deeper dish with cool water coming halfway up the ramekins. Then, put in them into caramelize the topping after the broiler is preheated. This helps to keep the custard from cooking any more... May only be my pet peeve, but for creme brulees I like to have the custard below the topping cool and firm; not warm and melty...

too many choices for worst coffee--and I agree, airline coffee ranks up there as the worst... But a bad coffee 'incident' involved being at a Safeway very early in the am and wanting to get a coffee. The clerk came out to make it, in a huge container and was going to add one 'packet' of coffee for the whole urn. It looked like the amount of coffee you would use to make one or two cups!!! I persuaded her to use *two* packets. Yipee!

Thanks; that's what I figured, although I questioned that when I saw all the different colors. I guess that must be food coloring...