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Sandra Levine

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Posts posted by Sandra Levine

  1. Ruth Reichl wrote somewhere about an academic who said it was possible to identify a person's ethnicity and the number of generations a family has been in this country by analyzing the family's Thanksgiving menu.

  2. Here is a link to Laurie Colwin's Black Cake recipe as it appeared in Gourmet Magazine in 1988, calling for homemade burnt sugar rather than the commercially-bottled stuff.  I am always threatening to make this cake, too.

    Laurie Colwin's Black Cake

    I had Black Cake in Jamaica in the mid-60s.  It was served at a wedding reception with small glasses of a sweet red wine that I was only able to identify 10 years later when someone gave me a bottle of port as a gift.  (Weren't they talking about taste memory on another thread?)

    The combination of Black Cake and port is made in heaven -- truly memorable.

    I think I'm really going to make it this year.

  3. We break the fast at my mother-in-law's. After a groaning tablesworth of goodies from Russ and Daughters, our dessert is this:

    Janet Levine’s Break-the-Fast Kugel

    Put 1/2 lb. cooked, fine noodles into a large, buttered baking dish.

    Beat well:

    8 oz. cream cheese, 8 eggs, 1 pt. sour cream, ½ lb. melted butter, 1 cup sugar, 2 tsp vanilla extract.

    Pour mixture over noodles.

    Bake at 325 for about 1 hour.

    Have the cardiologist's phone number handy. It's a good thing we eat this only once a year.

  4. "Roasted Pomegranate Turkey Breast"

    Now that sounds like something different (at least to me). Can you tell us more?

    I found the recipe on-line. If it turns out to be any good, I'll let you know. You use a turkey breast instead of a whole turkey and roast that with olive oil and chopped garlic rubbed on until done. While the turkey is resting, you heat pomegranate juice, white wine, lemon juice cinnamon, salt, pepper and a bit of sugar together for 5 minutes. Right before serving you, pierce the turkey breast and pour the sauce over it and garnish with pomegranate seeds. We'll see.

  5. Here's my menu:

    Halibut Ceviche

    Moroccan Beet Salad

    Roasted Pomegranate Turkey Breast

    Spinach with Pine Nuts and Raisins

    Israeli Couscous with Mushrooms

    Chocolate Mousse

    Joan Nathan's Apricot Honey Cake

    I was going to do a cold soup, but decided on the beet salad instead.

  6. Not a Bresse chicken, by any stretch of the imagination, but the Giannone chickens sold at Jefferson Market and Gourmet Garage are far more flavorful than those you usually see. They are from Canada and appear to have a narrower breast and somewhat more dark meat than the usual Cornish cross available.

  7. My husband's signature (and only) dish is lox, eggs and onions, which he makes maybe twice a year. His secret is to saute the chopped onion first, in butter, then add the chopped smoked salmon (never lox, despite the name) and some additional butter, and after the salmon is heated through, the eggs, with more butter. We sometimes have this for New Year's Eve.

  8. Leave your large walking around bag back at the hotel and take a small, neat purse to the restaurant. Acessorize your black outfit (pantsuit or dress) tastefully and, preferably, expensively, and you'll be fine. Black pants, a black jacket, matching or not and a good white or off-white silk shirt will take you anywhere. If you can't tie the scarf, attractive, conservative earrings or a necklace will do, preferably in plain gold or silver, depending on your coloring. If you are thin, but have some nice cleavage, unbutton the shirt to look a little sexy, but only if you are comfortable.

    A tie will always help a man look pulled together, especially if he is of a certain age. 20-year olds can get away with a much more casual look.

  9. Ferber's book is the ne plus ultra, of course, but Plagemann's Banana Jam (most directly comparable to Ferber's Banana with Lemon Juice), is better than that particular recipe. The others have such a strong component of other flavors that I don't consider them "banana jam," but jams with banana. I mean no disrespect to Ferber.

  10. Priscilla very kindly sent me a spare copy of Fine Preserving by Catherine Plagemann this past spring. Lovely book.

    When summer's bounty is over, you can always make the banana jam from this book. It's better than [heresy] Christine Ferber's.

  11. That seems very odd. Could you provide a picture?

    A few questions: What did you scrub it with? And does it look like you might have scrubbed away >2 mm of copper (i.e., is there a dent in the copper)?

    I used a regular steel-wool pad, and didn't scrub very hard. There was just one little patch that needed a bit of extra attention. That patch is now silvery. There are no sharp demarcations between the silver color and the copper. There is no indentation. I don't have a digital camera, so I can't provide a picture.

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