Mudpuppie

My grandmother has CHF also. (Sorry, no advice on the problem at hand.) Congestive heart failure is the heart's inability to pump fluids away from the vital organs. Diuretics are regularly prescribed to help solve the problem -- i.e., ridding the body of fluids that the heart isn't able to handle. Therefore, excess consumption of liquids only exacerbates the problem.

With the exception of a local Indian lunch buffet, I'm not a fan. I have very fond memories of eating at buffets with my grandparents, though. In the early 80s they fled the Midwest for Florida. We'd visit them during spring break every year. (Remember the Seinfeld episode with the early bird special? Well, it's very, very true.) We'd go to eat at 4:00 at one of the all you can eat places. They're very popular among the Florida seniors. Duff's Smorgasbord was my Grandpa's favorite. It was mine too because they had a spectacular gimmick -- the buffet tables were on a mechanical carousel sort of thing. You'd just stand still and the food would come around to you. As a kid, it was very cool. Didn't matter how good or bad the food was.

Hey, I've been there too. My favorite comfort food is starch. That's right, starch. Potatoes (mashed, steamed, boiled, fried, roasted), pasta, mac-n-cheese. Are you a baker? I found baking bread to be very therapeutic after a bad breakup. It's the combination of kneading (grrrrrrr ) and delicious, soothing product (ahhhhhh ) that seems to work wonders. Get yourself some yeast and flour.

Yes, but isn't cioppino originally Portuguese? Maybe so. But did anyone ever define "signature dish"? Seem to me that a dish doesn't have to originate in a city for it to be its signature dish. Certainly pizza didn't originate in Chicago. When I try to define "signature dish," I come up with a) a dish that local restaurants feel they need to include to keep the natives happy, b) something you'd tell people they have to have if they're visiting from out of town, c) the dish most people think of when you mention City X + Food (i.e., cheesesteaks in Philly), d) a certain dish you just can't get anywhere else, unless it's been co-opted. Maybe there's no consensus on what constitutes a "signature dish."

Don't know if anyone's noticed, but the latest song of the day from rathergood.com is actually food-related: A sad tale of when biscuits go wrong.

Aw, man, I thought that was a recipe link.

Hmmm. I trust Robb Walsh's opinons on food more than most other reviewers, and I always enjoy reading his pieces. I found this one over-the-top, though. The food was bad, consistently. Point well made. But is it fair to connect the horribleness of the food with the stupidity of the cooks' wardrobe? To me, that just smacks of extreme criticism, and it's not really something that belongs in a restaurant review. If nothing else, it just proves that he wants to slam the place. And part of the reason he seems so invested in slamming the restaurant is the Texas Monthly review. I mean, come on, is it just me, or is Texas Monthly geared to Junior Leaguer cognoscenti wannabes? IMHO, the only reason it's a "serious" publication is that it's the only Texas-interest magazine that's distributed statewide. They haven't cornered the market -- they are the market. They still have the occasional hard-hitting political article, but good journalism isn't the focus anymore. Rather, the magazine sells itself to new-money Texans who are probably disproportionately interested in NY fashion trends. It sounds like this restaurant would be perfect for the average TM reader. You can't perfunctorally trust the restaurant recommendations (or literary recommendations) of a magazine that features bluebonnets on the cover at least twice a year.

Here's some media coverage of the Quizno's ads, which I kind of like. I also kind of like Quizno's sandwiches -- by fast food standards, they're pretty damn good. And, as noted in one of the commercials, they have a pepper bar. Also, personally, a commercial rarely dictates whether I'll eat at a restaurant or not. I'm obviously not in the target market. Youth culture finding unity with online animations: http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/business/2402614 Bob Garfield on why the ads are great, despite rodent phobias (AdAge, but on Quizno's site): http://quiznos.thegraphicsarchive.com/Pres...spx?AssetID=567

Zima.

Okay, I'm a little late, but still wanted to add $.02. I like this restaurant in principle, but had a really bad meal there. The morels in my pasta dish were as sandy as the beach below. The baby squashes were too bitter to eat. When I informed the waiter, he offered me dessert (which was excellent), but still charged me for the inedible $20 pasta. Sigh. One of my favorite out-of-the-way places is Mendo Bistro in Ft. Bragg. Best. Mashed. Potatoes. Ever. Also, the Station House Cafe in Pt. Reyes Station, and Cowgirl Creamery. (If Pt. Reyes Station isn't out-of-the-way, what is?)

Perchance, is your house overrun with cochineal beetles?

What I learned from this article is that I am among the worst unabashed peerers. I never thought about it before, but next time before I peer I'll stop to ask myself if it will bother the eater. And then I'll peer.

Katherine, that looks great. A couple questions: The recipe I have calls for kneading. Did you just mix and shape, no kneading? Also, after kneading, my recipe simmers the cutlets in broth (mostly soy and onions). You went straight to the saute, right, and then basically braised them afterwards? How much water did you add to the pan? Did it cover the steak? As for proportions, did you add just enough water to make a sticky, glutinous dough, or was there a specific ratio? Thanks a lot. This looks really good.

For the first time in my adult life, I don't feel so neurotic. Thanks, people. The only time I lapse into habits is when I'm cooking with or near other people. Then I realize how screwed up their methods are and feel the need to educate them. But because I live and cook alone, my habits are pretty much invisible to me. The only one I can think of is extreme refrigerator slovenliness. But that's just a bad habit, not a compulsive one.

Hey, what's 10 minutes? It's two and a half songs on the radio, or half a Grateful Dead or Allman Brothers song. Is that worth a good grocery store? I'd say so.

Bah. When did the Statesman start requiring registration? It must be very, very recent.

Un-. Not sure the shells would fit through the bottleneck.

No, no, no. That's all wrong. They have to be Tom's or Lantz peanuts, sold from the vending machine next to the bottled coke dispenser -- preferably in an old hardware or auto parts store.

is the restaurant called "Duarte's"? if so, this recipe purports to be "similar" to their cream of artichoke soup: quick search--cream of artichoke soup recipe sounds good! That's the one. Thanks for the link.

Heh. My dinner artichoke is steaming away on the stove right now. I'm not a fan of the stuffed just because the stuffing tends to take away from the artichoke. Doesn't mean you shouldn't do it, though. When I find baby artichokes cheap cheap on the CA central coast, I'll buy a big batch of them, clean and quarter them, steam 'em, and marinate them in a vinaigrette. They keep for a long time and are good with lots of things. There's a restaurant in Pescadero, CA, that serves cream of artichoke soup that I really love. Don't have a recipe, but would love to get me hands on one.

Er, I found one that’s worse than Beauty and the Bean. Cranberry Tang 2 envelopes gelatin 2 cups chicken broth 2 cups creamed cottage cheese 1 c. sour cream 1 c. sweet pickles or pickle relish 2 Tbl pickle juice 1-1/3 c. cranberries, ground Combine gelatin and 1 cup of the chicken broth. Let stand for a few minutes before stirring over low heat to dissolve. Mix together cottage cheese and sour cream. Blend well. Add dissolved gelatin and remaining broth. Chill until partially set. Fold in pickles, pickle juice, and cranberries. Pour into 2-quart mold and chill until firm. Unmold and serve on lettuce with mandarin orange slices. This has to be the winner, right? I need to put this book away, else I’ll be typing all night.

Funny how most of the disgusting things I’ve come up with are recipes of my mother’s. She brought a dip recipe home once that consisted of some sort of white creamy product (don’t remember if it was cool whip, mayo or cream cheese) mixed with onions, nuts, red bell peppers and lemon jello powder. I considered asking her for the recipe just so I could post it here, but then she’d start calling me to ask if I’d made it yet. I didn’t want to tease her. The worst one I found in my cookbooks is called, no kidding, “Beauty and the Bean.” It’s from The Cottage Cheese Cookbook, 1967. Actually, there are quite a few contenders in this book. Beauty and the Bean 2 envelopes gelatin 1-1/2 c. water 2/3 c. mayo 1 c. creamed cottage cheese 2/3 c. chopped celery 1/4 c. chopped onion 1/2 tsp. salt 1 can green beans 1-1/2 c. hot dog relish with mustard Chicory Parsley sprigs Sprinkle gelatin in 1 cup cold water in saucepan. Let soften. Heat to dissolve gelatin further. Remove from heat and add the other 1/2 cup water. Blend into mayonnaise. Chill a quarter of the mixture until it begins to thicken. Fold in cottage cheese, 1/2 of the celery and onion, and salt. Drain beans and arrange 12 of them around sides of a 6-cup mold. Turn gelatin mixture into mold. Chill remaining mixture until it begins to thicken. Fold in remaining beans (chopped), the relish, a pinch of salt, and the remaining celery and onion. Turn into mold over first layer and chill. Unmold on chicory and serve garnished with parsley sprigs.

I've made it before with varying degrees of success. It's the texture that's usually the problem -- it runs between pencil eraser and dishwater-soaked bread. When it's bad, it's very very bad. When it's good, it's still not as good as the store-bought stuff. Maybe I just need a new recipe.

My advice: Don't try to make mock pot roast or mock anything. Think of it as its own thing, not a poor imitation of something else.