ludja

I would also stop by the Jimtown Store in Healdsburg to eat lunch or pick up a picnic lunch for eating at a winery. click If you don't eat at their cafe, almost all the wineries in that area have nice picnic areas.

Congrats and good luck on your new venture, gfron1! I couldn't tell exactly from comments earlier in the thread, but are you still planning on keeping your gourmet food and cheese shop open in Silver City?

Maggi Sauce was invented at the turn of the 19th century in Switzerland and was/is used heavily in Switzerland, Germany, Austria before it spread around the world along with Maggi bouillion cubes. I like a very simple Michelada with beer and the juice of one lime in an ice-filled glass with a salted rim. Per alchemist's suggestion though, I may try making a chile-salt mixture and use that for the glass rim next time.

Good observation on, as you put it, a "pedestrian trend". I recently had a great Shrimp Louis Salad and that classic salad soars because of the great balance of flavors. It is so much more than a bland assemblage of elements to which one just adds shrimp or chicken.

peach melba As chezcherie mentioned, hope the vinaigrette is not super sweet! The spicy, salty pecans would also help provide balance with the sweetness of the peaches and the raspberry. Crumbled feta cheese might also be a nice addition. I might also experiment with some fresh herbs like parsley or tarragon as additions. (Maybe you already use some fresh herbs in the vinaigrette). If it is a "Melba vinaigrette" to me that would seem to imply both peaches and raspberries in the vinaigrette recipe itself. If the salad has grilled peaches and is served w/a raspberry vinaigrette I think the dish would be more like a "Melba grilled peach salad". Hold the ice cream though! edited to add: I just read the name of the dish again, "The Georgia Peach Melba Salad". edited to also add: Regarding the addition of shrimp or chicken, see Holly Moore's recent topic here. I would tweak the recipe to work well with either chicken or shrimp, *if* you can find a good recipe with either one. One could then perhaps offer the salad with or without the one protein...

Peru appears to be the largest world producer of carmine followed by Mexico and the Canary Islands. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochineal I couldn't find anything on the web regarding shortages. If anything, it looks like production was increased in the last 20 years as the natural dye enjoyed a resurgence in popularity as a natural dye. I bought some Campari (new formula) a month ago and was disappointed with the flavor in a Campari and soda. I *thought* maybe I was being unduly influenced by having read this thread. I ran across an unopened bottle of carmine-containing Campari last week and bought it and I am surprised by the difference in color between the natural and artifically colored versions.. The new stuff is much less deeply red colored. I'm going to try a side by side taste on the rocks soon. The color difference alone is quite disappointing.

Thanks for the suggestion. I've paired various French goat cheese with white Loires per suggested classic wine/cheese combinations and it is indeed very good. Thanks for reminding me to try this again. I like NZ sauvignon blancs and while they have a quite a different profile than French sauvignon blancs I think it would be great to try them out this way.

So happy to hear this; thanks for the update. I hope they stay true to the original decor (and nix the tv while they're at it.)

This drink uses a muddled cucumber rather than cucumber water: click (It's a cucumber margarita and has tequila, agave nectar, lime, cucumber and mezcal in it.) Another drink that benefits mightily from a whiff of cucumber is Trader Vic's, Suffering Bastard. It is served with a cucumber spear and mint sprigs and there is also lime in the drink. I think I like that combination... Here's a recipe: click

Here's an online commercial review I found for several mezcals: click (See link for tasting notes; the scores are from 1-100) 97 • Scorpion Mezcal Añejo 7 Years $240. 96 • Real de Magueyes Añejo Mezcal $26.99. 96 • Scorpion Mezcal Añejo 5 Years $180. 94 • Real de Magueyes Silver Mezcal $19.99. 87 • Zacatecano Reposado Mezcal $22.99. 85 • Monte Alban Mezcal $19.99.

Thad Vogler also had a really nice cocktail on the Jardiniere menu with one of the Single Village Mezcals. Single Village Fix, I think it was called, sweetened with Pineapple Syrup and also had a touch of spice. Great feature for that tremendous Mezcal. I'll have to email and see if he'll give me the goods, since I don't believe he is at Jardiniere any longer. ← I had an interesting drink recently at Scalo in Albuquerque that was similar to this but which used cucumber and mint instead of the chile tincture. Here's the recipe from Ben Williams at Scalo in Nob Hill in Albuquerque: click Cucumber Margarita 2 oz. premium silver tequila (I like Herradura) 1/3 oz. agave nectar Juice of one large lime 1 cucumber 1/8 oz. mezcal In a metal cocktail shaker add ice, agave nectar and one-inch section of cucumber, cut in half, lengthwise. Muddle until ice is crushed and cucumber is reduced to a pulp. Squeeze in juice from one lime and add tequila. Shake contents well and strain into an old fashioned glass filled with ice. Top with a small float of mezcal. Garnish with a cucumber wheel. Enjoy the cucumb-ery goodness. I enjoyed this drink so much that I ordered a margarita with a mescal float this past weekend up in Taos at Doc Martin's Adobe Bar. click They call it "Fire on the Mountain" and list the ingredients as: Milagro Silver, triple sec, sweet & sour, topped with a float of Chichicapa Mezcal It was served over ice with a salt rim; the mezcal added an intriguing smokey taste. This may be a relatively common margarita variant but if so, I had never noticed it until after I happened to have the cucumber margarita with mezcal mentioned above. So now I'm on the look out for an appropriate brand of Mezcal to use as an addition to drinks like these... edited to add: I notice that the cucumber margarita recipe I listed does not have the mint I mentioned above when I first described the drink... I think the version I had at the restaurant had a mint sprig garnish. I *guess* I'll have to try it both ways...

Chris Cosentino and Mark Pastore from Incanto restaurant... Boccalone website

I was thinking of making scalloped potatoes but then remembered a great bean gratin that I made a few months ago. So, I think I'll modify this bean gratin and add some ham to the mix... Alice Water's Bean Gratin I used dried garbanzo beans last time and I added some grated dry cheese to the bread crumb topping. I think stewed greens would be a nice side dish with this.

^Hmmm... the ham and leek pie sounds like a great idea. That also made me think of a ham quiche and Denver omelette for some reason.

Thanks for this recipe, k43! I love ham and horseradish together so I look forward to trying this. I'll be needing to use some of the ideas from this thread as we have quite a bit of leftover Easter ham this year...

Thank you for the wonderful blog, lindacakes, with your particularly great writing. I too was intrigued by your two kitchen setup, interesting meals and sweet bird. During a busy week for me, I read your blog in a few visits but did not get a chance to comment before. Thanks again!

Lenten food-related obligations for Catholics were revised about forty years ago after Vatican II. Basically, no meat on Ash Wednesday, Good Friday and all Fridays of Lent and complete fasting on Ash Wed and Good Friday. Here are a few more details: click edited to add: I tried the Wendy's fish sandwich last Friday. Only one sample, but there was not enough tarter sauce for my taste; the sandwich was a bit dry. The sandwich was nice and crisp though; the fish was fine and it also had a piece of lettuce. I might try it again asking for extra tartar sauce...

For some reason this bugs me too...although I can't think of any other times I worry about this sort of thing. I guess I don't like the color, texture and flavor combination of the two.

good news and thanks for the update. I drove by when I was home at Christmas and was wondering if it would really reopen or not. I've had their famous burgers but their own "Dubliner Omelet" w/corned beef hash, Irish cheddar and Irish Sodabread sounds interesting!

Yes, if you scratch a Meyer lemon you'll get a perfume that is distinctly different from a "regular" lemon. It's a bit difficult to describe, but it is less acidic and to me it has a floral component.

I've made garlic flan as an accompaniment to roast meat (eg. roasted lamb).

The really weird thing about this was that apparently the grilled pineapple slice was also garnished w/all the regular burger accoutrements--cheese, pickle, salad. Yuck!

Thanks for linking to your friend's blog; looks quite well done and I look forward to following along. One thing that might be nice would be if he/she had a link index of the cookbooks tried on the sidebar. It would be great to see at a glance which cookbooks he/she has reviewed, etc. (I don't *think* I saw anything like this.) When you start cooking from this, consider starting a thread in the "cookbook and reference" subforum. I have this book too and would like to start trying more things out of it; it would be great to feedback from all who have cooked from it!

^ green chile cheese steak sandwiches... yum, that sounds good. Are they basically a philly cheese steak with roasted green chiles??? What meat cut and what cheese? Have a nice one!

iceberg wedge with homemade blue cheese dressing bacon-wrapped filet potato gratin Scharffenberger pots de creme a good, aged red wine from our cellar (TBD)