ludja

Hmmm... sounds good. I might also take the end result and fold it into some cooked pasta or cooked white beans for a main course dish. I've recently been cooking up some kale in a simllar fashion but with no bread crumbs. You can also make a light meal by keeping the greens kind of soupy and then cooking an egg on top. Serve with some crusty bread, maybe rubbed with garlic and olive oil. Nice to add some red pepper flakes to the greens as they cook as well. Could also make varitations on Portuguese Kale soup (Caldo Verde) with potato and linguica...

During a trip to New Orleans I picked up some extra Herbsaint and also Peychaud's Bitters. Along with some Bourbon or Rye and a recipe these became "Sazerac kits" for a few friends. So, I like the idea of putting together a kit but wouldn't buy a pre-made one.

Just noticed in rereading this thread that sangiovese had previously mentioned the Marin French Cheese Company above... Anyway, we had a chance to visit there a few weeks ago. We called ahead in case we had to set up a time for the tour, but were only able to leave a phone message. (Message was not returned, but we only called the same day, early in the morning). We decided to head up anyway as we had a bunch of other plans in the area as well. It turned out that they were not giving tours that day b/c they were cleaning the facility, so if you're going out of your way, you may want to double check ahead of time. I think they also mentioned that the longer tours are during the week, rather than the weekends. The farm is located in a beautiful spot, reached by a lovely drive from Petaluma or an exit or two south of the town off of 101. The property has a small lake surrounded with trees and picnic tables right next to the store/factory. So, it could be a very nice place for a picnic or to have some bread and cheese, etc. There were lots of families there and the kids were having fun running around the lake looking at the duck and/or fishing. Regarding the cheese though, I have to say it was not exactly what we were expecting in that the cheeses, in our opinion, tended more towards the commercial rather the artisanal. The prices reflect this so it could be a good value if you enjoy the cheeses. We thought some of them were nice but not particulary distinctive (say, in the way, Cowgirl Creamery cheeses are). Their selection included many flavored bries such as garlic, pesto, black pepper, jalapeno, etc. For what they were, we enjoyed these better than the award winning triple creme which was bland in flavor compared to French triple cremes I've tasted. I don't want to be too negative, but on the other hand, I would warn against expectations on par with some of the other small Sonoma cheesemakers. If you're in the neighborhood, though, you may enjoy a visit, especially if you have children.

Has anyone else tasted Dr. Bob's ice cream's? link The ice cream is mainly available for retail in CA and also in AZ, but is also available for purchase on line. We were enticed to try them b/c he uses Scharffen Berger for the chocolate ice creams. We had the "Scharffenberger Works" (a very dark chocolate ice cream studded w/cacao nibs) and the "Strawberries, Sour Cream & Brown Sugar". The nibs are excellent in the ice cream and the strawberry is also very good--no icy strawberry chunks, rather the strawberries are pureed into the cream and there are some swirls of strawberry that are almost a jam consistency. Here are some of the flavors: Black Raspberry Pistachio Strawberries, Sour Cream & Brown Sugar Vanilla Peanut Butter Chunk Tahitian Vanilla Caramel (Dulce de Leche) Cappuccino Crunch Brown Sugar Pecan Scharffen Berger Chocolate Chip Scharffen Berger Chocolate Chocolate Chip Scharffen Berger Vanilla w/ Nibs Scharffen Berger Black Raspberry Chip Scharffen Berger “Works” Scharffen Berger Dark Chocolate Schaffren Berger Mint Chip Scharffen Berger Really Dark Chocolate Vanilla w/ Scharffen Berger Nibs

Sorry to hear that, I've had good luck with it so far. Any recipes in particular that you remember were disappointing? For certain recipes, it's true as joiei pointed out, that access to ingredients is key.

Looking forward to your blog from Maine johnnyd! Any blueberries around still?

A Black and Blue pie--half blueberries, half blackberries, a little lemon, sugar and flour. The blackberries add a very nice taste and you get half the seeds.... I usually don't like mixed berry combinations as I feel the flavors of the fruit are too obscured, but with this combo in a pie I feel the whole is better than the parts. Last summer I made a nice rosemary syrup-soaked polenta cake. Very nice with fresh blackberries and whipped cream. I haven't made blackberry ice cream yet but I bet that would be wonderful. Nice too, to be able to strain the seeds out. Frozen blackberries work well for smoothies--you get the great, uncooked blackberry flavor. My "formula" is: some frozen bananas, blackberries, lemon juice, sugar, plain yogurt, milk and ice. edited to add: I love the pavlova idea deensiebat; sounds delicious.

Never heard of a Slow Food in Vienna, sorry. If you search with "Vienna" among topic titles, you'll get a lot of suggestions. If you're capable of reading some German language, have a look at the Speisinger Online Community, probably the best place for current infos about restaurant in Vienna. ← Thanks for the link, Boris. It looks like a good resource.

I think that must be Kelly's Burgers? I don't know if it's still open or not but they did (do?) have a great burger. ← Kelly's Burger is still around, they offer a good grease fix in the middle of the night but I wouldn't compare their burger to Absinthe or Zuni. ← Tried a Kelly Burger a few weeks ago. It hit the spot after a tour of Anchor Steam Brewing Co and the complimentary tasting of their full line of beers... (great tour by the way). Agree with Stone on much of what he wrote a while back. I liked the ratio of meat:bun. The bun had some heft but not too much to overwhealm the meat. The meat was tasty but I also got a well done burger than the requested "medium rare". Excellent, above average pickles and the sides of mayo, tomato and lettuce were nice. Good fries. Price for a cheeseburger and soda was ~ $7.50. I'd go back again, especially after drinking as mentioned above.

I'll add a second mention of support for Firestone in downtown SLO--very nice tri tip sandwiches and fries. I would avoid the pulled pork sandwich there though. The pork was drenched in an extremely sweet honey-based tomato bbq sauce. The sweetness level was on par with the sweet orange chicken found at suburban chinese restaurants in non-Chinese neighborhoods! It is a little outside of downtown, but we really enjoyed the pastries and cookies from the Utopia European Style Bakery. Here is their website. Wonderful homemade, *with butter*, breakfast pastries such as danishes. In addition, they have a great selection of unique Dutch cookies and pastries including a great pastry filled with almond paste. In addition to finding breakfast items you can pick up wonderful sweet treats to add to a picnic basket to bring along to a day of wine tasting. We did not choose to eat there but found top notch classically-made cocktails at the comfortable and funky bar at the Madonna Inn. The decor needs to be seen and can not reallly be adequately described with mere words... A great place to relax and talk over drinks. (We were there during the week, not sure if it is substantially more crowded on the weekends).

I just made a simple but delicious salad from the book: Butter lettuce with thin slices of bresaola and a toasted coriander vinagrette. (I subbed the very similar German bunderfleisch for the bresaola). The mouthfeel of the salad is very nice with the tender leaves of butter lettuce and silky slices of meat. The vinagrette based on wine vinegar is mild making this salad more wine-friendly than some. The spicing is simple, using only freshly toasted and crushed coriander seeds and salt but the resulting flavor in combination with the olive oil and white wine vinegar is subtle and complex. I will definately be making this salad, and variations on it, again.

Thanks for the great post Pontormo re: making the roasted Zuni chicken at home; it's on my list to do. Here is another thread in which people have shared some of their experiences cooking from the book: click I just ate at Zuni about a week ago with some friends. My roasted sand dab entree with fingerling potatoes was excellent. The sauce was buttery with some wine/vinegar and capers added in. For an app I had the daily fritto misto which was squid that day. Finished up with the refreshing expresso granita parfait. Service was a little slow, but attentive overall during our leisurely meal. As usual, we had a great time.

May not work out for you on this trip, as they are located down in Menlo Park (just north of Palo Alto) on the Peninsula, but Beltramo's has a great selection of more difficult to find bitters, liqueurs, etc. 1540 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, CA 94025 · 650-325-2806 (I'd call ahead to find out if they have the specific items you are interested in.)

Ludja, there's this forum, though I don't find it really in the same calibre as the French sites you gave here. ← Many thanks, anzu. I will check it out!

Adam- beautiful pictures!! what is the square of green in this? Is it sea beans?? ← that is one awsome picture and I believe these are a sea weed called Salicornia. I could be wrong though... Elie ← Thanks. Yep Sea beans/salicornia/samphire are the same thing. Very nice it is and considered a bit posh in the UK at the present time. ← Yet another name for them is "glasswort". Here's an earlier egullet discussion: click

A friend recently visiting Edinborough had a really nice dish at a restaurant featuring "red deer". From what I understand this is a species very similar to N.American elk.

I think it has to do with gluten levels. I know you can make pastry flour from 2 parts bleached AP flour to one part cake flour. Cannolis. Wow. Now there'e something I would really need to work up some nerve to make. ← I've always wanted to make these at home as well--am now a little scared by the sticking, but at the same time feel compelled to try my recipe to see if they do the same thing. My recipe source is Nick Malgieri's "Great Italian Desserts". I've had the metal cannoli tubes for at least 7 or 8 years but haven't taken the plunge yet... I think this blog will be the impetus. I'll post back once I try them.

What drinks did you have upon arrival???

That looks so great Chufi! Thanks for the inspiration..

And California's riff courtesy of Cypress Grove... click

Glad that these might be useful! I've been reluctant to join in on them myself so far because while my French is good enough to read these rather easily, I'm out of practice with respect to writing in French. I guess this would be a good opportunity to practice a bit... I also wonder if there are any similar boards in German but that is a question for another subform...

The galette looks very nice and that was a good idea re: the breadcrumbs. Another option in this situation is ground almonds.

Hope this is true or that some other measures are taken to maintain quality. Welcome to egullet by the way!

Here's one site I've bookmarked: MIAM. and another: supertoinette I can't remember how I found out about these (probably from someone on egullet) or else by googling around. I have no perspective on how they compare to other sites that might be out there and I haven't participated on either of them yet... Perhaps someone else will have further comments on them.

Thanks for doing this; it's nicer to not split discussions across forums.