ludja

Another nice frozen pear dessert is the one for pear ice cream in Lindsey Shere's "Chez Panisse Desserts". I served this with her French almost-flourless cake and it was a nice match. Another time I served it w/a pear sorbet (also from CP Desserts). The last poached pears I did were in white wine w/elderberry flower syrup---very nice. For salads I like a mix of pears, blitter greens, roasted hazelnuts and crumbled blue cheese with a simple lemon vinagrette. Speaking of vinaigrettes, I just bought a copy of the wonderful Jimtown Store Cookbook. They have a recipe for a pear vinaigrette that sounds very interesting.

Glad they're feeling better. The addition of ginger, garlic and lemon juice is a wonderful idea I'll need to remember when the next cold strikes our house. Thanks! ← ludja and foodies 52 - have you ever added fresh tarragon to the pot? ← I love tarragon in chicken salad so I can definately picture this. Do you add the tarragon to chicken soups with the ginger, garlic and lemon juice or more on its own, maybe with the garlic? I guess as it is somewhat delicate you add it in just at the end?

Have you tried the recipe in the Les Halles cookbook? It's excellent. We add cream at the end, and a little white wine instead of the sherry. My husband also prefers to have mushroom slices in the soup, so I use a very large teaball, and put extra (additional) mushroom slices in it. Then I pull it out, puree the rest of the soup, and add the mushrooms back in. We love it. ← ditto on this recipe llc45. i made it with creminis instead of white buttons. neither johnnybird nor i are big mushroom fans but loved this recipe. ← Another excellent recipe for a creamless mushroom soup that I was just referring to in another thread is the wild mushroom soup in Rosso and Lukins "New Basics Cookbook". It is mostly button mushrooms but a small amount of dried wild mushrooms. Other ingredients are leeks, chicken and beef stock and Madeira. Creme fraiche and chopped chives for a garnish. I *always* get requests for this recipe when I make it and it is now the soup I make almost every Thanksgiving although I like to switch it up now and then although I think my family and friends are disappointed when I don't make it. It's worth going to the library to get a copy of the recipe!

share some of your ancho chile powder experiments with us, please... edilted to add: does your cookie recipe also involve chocolate?

Ooh... I guess I was forgetting that Chick-Fil-A is more the breaded boneless meat for sandwiches...

Of the two I have to choose popeye's spicy. Actually popeye's is my favorite chicken chain. However, there are many many more chains. A close second from popeyes would be bojangles. I also like Churches fried chicken. ← How does Chick-Fil-A fit in the mix?

Pear pairs wondefully with ginger as well. One of my favorite additions to my fall dessert repertoire is a pear ginger pie from Bill Neal's "Biscuits, Spoonbread and Sweet Potato Pie". The ginger component comes from crystallized ginger and the filling is also flavored with lemon juice and a little tangerine zest. Don't forget nice apple-based cakes and tarts!

Glad they're feeling better. The addition of ginger, garlic and lemon juice is a wonderful idea I'll need to remember when the next cold strikes our house. Thanks!

Super photos, monovano... Caldo Verde is one of my favorite soups and it is so easy to whip up different variations all through the cooler months. That cheddar corn chowder looks and sounds amazing as well. What's your approach to incorporating the cheddar into a corn chowder recipe? Do you basically add shredded cheese at the end of making the chowder and stir to melt?

Almost as simple as eating out of hand, but they are a simple and wonderful addition to cheese platters. We just had some great Medjool dates with some Roaring Forties blue cheese and some toasted walnuts... If you're lucky enough to have a variety of dates, it is also wonderful to compare different types. At the SF Farmers market at the right time there can be as many 5 differeint varieties available and they have an amazing array of flavors.

One of my most requested recipes is based on "Wild Mushroom Soup w/Madeira" from the "New Basics Cookbook" by Rosso and Lukins. A recipe has to be very good for me to repeat it and this is the soup I usually make at Thanksgiving upon popular request. The use of 1 lb of regular button mushrooms along with 1 oz of reconstituted dried wild mushrooms (they suggest morels; I use porcini) makes an incredible non-cream based mushroom soup. Well, good beef and chicken stock (50:50) also helps in this case along with sauteed leeks and onions and Madeira. A small amount of flour is also added to the leeks and onions towards the end after sauteeing them in butter. The creme fraiche garnish they suggest is wonderful with it as well. Love the mushroom dust ideas; thanks for posting those!

Sidenote: The Austrian doughnuts are called, "Krapfen" or "Faschingkrapfen" (Fasching is the Austrian/German word for Lenten Carnival). The typical spirit added to the dough is rum; often Stroh's rum in Austria. These yeast risen doughnuts do have a distinctive flavor and a very nice feather-light texture but I've never made them without the rum for comparison. There's a nice recipe in Rick Rodger's Kaffehaus.

In addition to those already mentioned, I'll add two other favorites for German cooking: "The Cuisines of Germany" by Horst Scharfenberg (very nice selection of recipes for all the regions in Germany; nice background on the dishes and ingredients as well) "Culinaria Germany" from the wonderful Culinaria series. The photos and detailed background on ingredients, wines, beers, other beverages, dairy products, breads, sausages, breads etc are very extensive and help put the whole cuisine in context. There are lots of recipes as well. Good description of the wines, ingredients and dishes of the various regions as well. This is probably the best book I've seen that really describes all aspects of the cuisine. I have lots of Austrian cookbooks as well but that is really a different cuisine although there is some overlap. edited to add: Here is a thread dedicated to books on German baking and pastries: click

Yup, this I've done and it's good. ← This idea *does* sound good... As some others have mentioned, brown sugar. I'll have a plain spoonful or mix it with butter. Crystallized ginger is another favorite that I try to keep around.

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This is a cool blog; I think she is scheduled fo finish all the recipe in a few months. Here is an eGullet thread in which members have added their own comments on favorite cookies from the Maida Heatter book... click You're cooking thru cookbooks past is pretty impressive too!

Maybe you can join a community garden like this one in Irvine: click My sister joined one in Boston this year and it has been working very well--flowers for cutting and vegetables and herbs.

Also, here is an article from a few weeks ago describing the determination, hard work and donations that helped to re-open the restaurant. click

Thanks, TAPrice. Here's a quote from the article before it disappears: Politics aside, I think it's great that they went to a small, family-owned establishment. Man, I want some crab soup and chicken with oyster dressing... I've never hear of Shrimp Clemenceau. edited to add: Here's an article with a recipe for Shrimp Clemenceau from Galatoire's: click

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Sue's Indian Cusine on Castro St. in Mt. View has been a long time favorite. The food is mainly Northern with a few Southern specialities. Some of my favorites are the vindaloos, mushroom bhajee and green chile chicken. And for southern Indian dishes I really like Udupi Palace (408) 830-9600 976 E El Camino Real Sunnyvale, CA 94087

"The Noodle Shop Cookbook: 150 Favorite Noodle Dishes from Seven Asian Cuisines" by Jacki Passmore

I'd probably bring a bunch of dried chiles (habanero, chipotle, piquin) and some ground red chile powder--lightweight, a good addition to stews and much bang for the buck. Do you know if fresh citrus will be readily available there? I recently saw some lemon/lime salt for sale (haven't tried it) but that would provide another major flavor to help stave off repetition in flavors. I like the idea of growing some of your own herbs, etc. Perhaps chiles would grow well in the climate there as well.

This must have been a lovely color and quite bracing... Did you serve it with anything else or what is a palate cleanser between courses? How wonderful to have enough red currants to make sorbet with it!

Interesting question... I hope someone else knows more than I do... I've been looking around for some place like this in Albuquerque or Santa Fe. I've found a few liquor stores (in Albuquerque) that are very well stocked with specialty liquors and spirits but I haven't found a bar that is serving "classic cocktails" of the type you describe or even less innovative but solid classic cocktails.