hathor

We are in Umbria about 6-7 months of the year at this point, and right now I'm missing home very badly. You go into people's cupboards?? Brava! What fun! I'm very badly behaved and get all preachy about all the prepared foods available in the U.S. My mother gets particularly peeved at me. I just don't understand the rational of all these prepared, pre-flavored, pre-chopped things....and aisles and aisles of salad dressings... Sorry. Its a sore point with me.

ain't it the truth...ain't it the truth brother! Sometimes I can rationalize it that its even more Italian if I use a locally available subsitute. And sometimes I just remember the flavors and wait.

....pssst... I don't have a microwave either. I'm a menace around one, all I want to do is make things blow up. And one of my all time favorite sports is panty/refrigerator shopping! Line up those ingredients and see what happens. We actually named one dish a "starvation salad" (long story....on a barge in France and no food to be had ). But...you mention elderflower cordial. Have you ever made elderflower syrup? Does it need to be distilled or can the flower just steep? anyone? I have a passion for this flavor. Its great in the morning with some bubbly water, makes a great sorbet...I could go on and on.... And please let me know if you head back to Umbria!

Ahh, Marlena, you have a fat mango in January in the UK. You are a lucky woman, indeed! I haven't had consistent internet access lately so I've missed about a year of blogs, but yours looks to be fun. Just as a by the way, sage tea is a good gargle for a sore throat. I have a pudding fascination. We have British and Scottish friends that we quiz mercilessly on the subject of puddings, but I still don't have a handle on them. Not just Christmas ones. Seems puddings is a catch-all phrase for desert, or deserts that need to be eaten with a spoon. What EXACTLY are these 'pooodings' that you speak of??

Thanks to Snowangel, we had the garlic soup last night and it was as good as you said. I had to keep insisting to my husband that there was no cream in it. Not for calorie reasons, but he just thought I was pulling his leg. Very interesting technique with the egg. Wonder what else it will work with... And because it was a sleety, black-ice, no one is going out to the store night we had the Saltar (sp??) potatoes and they were fantastic. I only had some yukon golds around so I washed and dried them thoroughly and didn't run into problems. Other than next time, I make individual portion sizes to eliminate the squabbling. The only so-so recipe I've tried was the asparagus with asparagus sauce and I think its because I used the finest blade on the food mill and I just didnt' get enough of the asparagus peeling essence to fully flavor the sauce. Next time, I'll try a blender. And is anyone esle chuckling at Foodmans line: "Only buy your fat at CM". It just sounds funny, I'm sure its sound advice.

Well done Kevin! I'll dig up some recipes and get going!

Is there a tech school in your area that has a culinary dept? Could be an interesting intro to the cult of cooking. See if she likes the work, lifestyle, heat in the kitchen.

1988 Veuve Cliquot Grand Dame She was a lovely ol'dame. It was just me and my husband, so it carried us thru the caviar, bottarga and butter poached lobster. We barely touched the bottle of Gigondas that was waiting with the salad course. Life is too short to drink bad wine. Happy New Year!

Buon'anno Kevin and tutti! Your Capo d'anno looks just wonderful. That flaky pasta Timbano (sp??) looks like a real tour de fource. And none of us have any regrets as we head off to Piedmonte. Woo-hoo! Get out the butter and eggs! Adam, what an interesting question about Pan-italian cooking. The Italians are so fiercely regional, perhaps its only the straneri who can be Pan about it?

Oh, my! Could you serve some grain alcohol drink in them? Maybe no one would notice! Have you ever gotten a bottle of the "cutesy" Christmas wine? Dear God, people - who thinks that's a good gift? ← Save these glasses for the summertime and put a great, colorful berry sorbet desert in them. Goofy glases can be fun in the summer.

I had a sh*t load of work to do today. What did I discover, this incredible StudioKitchen thread. What did I get done? NOTHING! But read about this amazing chef. It was like reading a suspense novel. Will he really close in September? What new soup will come in the bowl? Can a dessicated tomato really taste good? It was great to see the evolution of his cooking while I read all 9 pages of the thread. Here are my New Year's Resolutions: I will check out the ISO thread thing. I will beg, borrow, or steal, or knock some one down to get a reservation. I will e-mail the great chef himself. Its a very long story..but my husband and I are spending quite a bit of time in Philadelphia recently and we are having a blast trying restaurants and speaking Italian to that lovely white haired man at DiBruno's. After a lifetime of NYC dining, Philly is a breathe of fresh air. There, I've said in public. Now, anyone going to StudioKitchen??? Why no 'grovel' smiley??

And that old classic: never cook naked.

The Norah Ephron article is wonderful! Thanks. Somehow I don't think I'll get my husband to venture uptown to try cabbage struedel....long marriages stay long marriages when you know when to quit. Happy New Year all!

Merci beaucoup for the explanation. We invented similiar theories, but also got a little silly about it as the evening went on. I used a trusted old cast iron skillet that I have for many, many years and I got the charred, smoky cabbage flavor. Honestly, I thought the flavors interesting, but my easy-to-please-will-eat-just-about-anything husband was truly repulsed by the flavors. What an odd reaction. To each his own. Maybe some garlic soup tonight. (speaking of soup, we used the left over bones of the poussin and made an outstanding lentil soup that was 'bumped' up with a little of the left over garlic cream. A bonne femme soup if ever there was one!)

Greetings fellow fans! I've been meaning to add this post for a few weeks now..but holiday madness prevented me. To celebrate the arrival of my new cookbook, we invited over some friends for a Slow Cooking fest. The menu was: roasted poussin with garlic-lemon cream, potato/leek casserole and the cabbage crust apple pie. There was a salad thrown in, but it fast and un-cooked. The poussin with the garlic lemon cream has become a new favorite dish. The first time we made it for the Slow Cook fest, the flavors nearly bowled me over...sinful, sensual, complex, aromatic. Its just incredible. It was the feature course of a long Vigilla dinner and has a new list of converts. The roasted potato-leek dish is also amazing. But I did slightly tweek the recipe the second time I made it. I let the cooked potatoes sit overnight in the refrigerator. That's usually what I do when making rostii potatoes and the overnight seems to help the potatoes hold their shape and texture better. Now, lets talk about the cabbage crust apple pie. What is the history on that dish? We were all game to give it a try, but it was universally disliked. We talked about changing the filling proportions etc. etc, but it all came down to the cabbage aroma with the apples. Has anyone else tried this one? What a lovely, wonderful book. I'm so happy with it that it became a Christmas presents for some near and dear. Thank you, Ms. Wolfert.

Uh-oh... I may have passed along my baccalau problems to you... sorry! But Vigilla looked absolutely lovely!! And what a pretty pussy cat! The braised squid looked especially good. Tell me more about that shrimp saor. I've only done sardines in saor with a recipe that calls for a few days of marinating. Hmmm....wonder if its too late to make some for New Years day.... I think your family was very lucky to have you cooking for them, complimenti!!

Wow Ribklind-Bob, you are an excellent marketer and reporter. I might need to come along on one your forays! Its a long story, but we've been spending some time in PHilly and your reports certainly come in handy! Grazie mille!

Boiling removes the salt from the baccalau. I usually only have access to the board stuff and that requires either multi days of soaking and/or boiling. Mostly its been too salty. My favorite is stocafissa (sp?), the air dried variety but try finding that!

Thank you gentlemen. Most likely I'll retain the part about size.

I've got a Bosch all electric range/oven and I love it. The electric, flat top part takes a bit of get used to, but if you are stuck using electric, its a fine way to go. The oven works like a charm, acutally it works just like its supposed to. I cook A LOT .... and I'm happy.

Dumb question: herring and sardines are diffenent fish, right? The question is prompted by some posts on the Reading Terminal Market thread.

Good lord. I can't get to a computer for the better part of a week, and look what I was missing!! Kevin, if I had known you were making deep fried calzone, I would have been there in a flash, salivating at your doorstep! How coming there isn't a drooling smilie? Some serious good food!! Can't wait to see and hear all about the Vigillia menu. We do a big Vigillia dinner as well, and I guess its time to start planning.... By the way, nice bachelor food!! What did you do to prep the baccala? Soak? Boil? I've tried all different ways and I'm still not thrilled with the results. ciao!

As someone once said, " That which does not kill us, makes us stronger". Use everything learned from this and use it on your next projects. This was not a waste, you learned many, many things and are no longer a virgin. Don't let this stop you or hinder you from dreaming up your next adventure. May the force be with you. Oh, and have a merry and a happy holiday!! cheers!

Ciao. Wonderful idea...but we need a database or it becomes too cumbersome. I'm pretty decent at setting up a database (filemaker), but I wonder how the eG board could handle something like that. I could do the set up ...and then the memebers just fill in. However.... I would cast my vote to also include Italian language info. It would be a shame to not include this vast amount of info.

I have a cast iron fondue pot, and its an all round work horse. As all cast iron is. By the way, I think fondue is under-rated!