hathor

The words Moscow and Palermo just don't belong in the same sentence.

Just worked up the courage to fire up the dial up to see what I've been missing! Susan: I love eating flowers...I think I may have been a deer in another life. Nasturiums are my favorite, so nice and peppery. And Cheez Whiz is traditional on a cheese steak...along with copious amounts of grease. Yesterday for lunch we had some delicious tortellini in brodo, followed by a salad of arugula, sliced blood oranges and a little bit of breasola with a raw garlic vinegarette. We had the blood orange/garlic combination at a pizzarea nearby...its an unusual but very good combination. Worth experimenting with. Dinner was an assortment of salumi and prosciutto and a hunk of semi-dry pecorino. ciao tutti!

Grazie for the 'saor' recipe...its pretty much what I thought it was, but I was a bit curious about the type of vinegar...and the fish prep. Thanks! You know...it was a funny trip. It was Carnevale and we went to balls the 3 nights that we were there....and catered food, is well, mass produced and probably not indicative of much. We did have one outstanding lunch at a small restaurant near the Arco di Paradiso. Unfortunately there were no business cards available so I"m going to have rely on my sense of direction and intuition to find it again! We started with the best sarde de saor of the trip...very fresh with just the right accents of sweet vs. sour. Then my husband had an absolutely incredible lingune con seppia. The best I have ever tasted.... buttery and full of intense flavors. Our primi was a house special platter of mixed fish is a slightly, perfectly piccante red sauce. We practically licked the plate clean. By this time, we had discussed world politics, Venetian politics and why her boat was sinking outside the front door...and the grappa had come out...and you know how it goes! But, we are going back when Venice is a bit quieter so we can really poke around. It was far too crowded during Carnevale to do too much serious eating! ciao!

I'm back in the land of dial up...so I've been gone for a few days...fantastic meals all over the world! I'm still pondering: parmesan tuilles with chorizo and goat cheese...what a great idea! Last night: braised coniglio (rabbit) with green olives, finished with a mustard sauce made from the reduced braising juices. Sauteed radicchio Green Salad Lunch today was risotto milanese with some great local salami, radishes and pecorino on the side. Tonight we are having a very simple bolognese sauced spaghetti. To me, that is soul food.

Sorry...I was out fooling around too much in Venice to check in! My, what a party Carnevale is!! Somebody...anybody....what's a recipe for the sardines that are so popular for chichetti??? They are marinated in sweet onions, pine nuts, raisins and are completely addicitve!! Incredibile! I know one of you knows what I'm talking about. Ciao from eteranlly grateful and sardine hungry Hathor!

And why exactly would the US be punishing the truffle exporters? Maybe they don't realize that truffles also come from Italy, not just France....and Italy is part of the 'coalition of the willing'. Good lord. As far as the tax thing goes...its an elegant, bella figura compromise, don't you think? They are shown on the books as liable for taxes, but no real tax is expected. Saves face all around. So Italian....

Ciao Kevin! As it happens, I'm in Venice right now! Friends took us to a very small restaurant on the "Assasin Street"....I'll get a card and accurate name tommorow, and it was excellent! Many vegitarian anti pasto dishes were on the table when we sat down: Belgian endive and walnuts and ...someother vegetable Potatoes, truffles, rucola (very mashed potato texture..excellent) Spinachi con cipolla And a boiled meat and caper dish that was my favorite. I was thinking of you during dinner as the flavors and foods tasted nearly Germanic. This is my first trip to Venezia so I have no idea if this is typical or not. If I see any good cookbooks...I'll let you know!

[ They are not, I repeat not alive when you eat them unless you are eating them without shucking them first. This is a myth that should be put to rest once and for all. However, I do agree with everything else being said in this quote. As my oyster mentor once told me, "An oyster is like a French Kiss that goes all the way!" The Oyster Guy ←

Good Morning Miss Tenacity!!! 5:00 am Pilates....you are insane! Looking forward to a 'chili' week! Blog on!!!!!!!

Percyn: what are Egyptian lentils? They look huge...or is it just the photo? That plate looks delicious!

Phlly. And that's coming from a New Yorker! If Katie Loeb chimes in, she's a great source for Philly restaurant info. She recently sent me to the Penns View Inn which has a massive wine tasting bar. Big fun.

No...not odd at all! A squirt of lemon or lime on a grilled sausage is divine. What a great idea you had!! Sounds yummy.

Hathor, this sounds lovely. Is that the red textured sauce next to the meat in that picture? Can you share how you made it? ← /quote] Hello Pumpkin Lover! (I do share your love for pumpkins..very undervalued in my opinion). Yes, that stuff that looks like red cabbage is the blood oranges. The oranges, after they were all cleaned up and sliced, were treated to a bath of Brazilian rum where they languished while I got the rest of dinner prepared. After the pork was seared with some salt, pepper, and a bit of rosemary, I stuck them the oven to finish. The oranges then got tossed into the pan for a little saute, a bit more rum (this rum is very mild, sugar cane distilled) and a little knob of butter. You needed the squirt of lime to give those mellow oranges a little wake up call. I LOVE blood orange season. The color is sooo intense. Enjoy! Last night was a business dinner, nowhere near as much fun.

Last night was 'tutti' frutti' night: Seared pork chops with drunken blood orange sauce and fresh lime; white asparagus with brown butter and lemon. Then a roasted pear and bleudavergne baby romaine salad. With a nice cabernet... **edited because Image Gullet and I were not exactly seeing eye to eye

What a marvelous and inspiring thread. I'm very grateful. Grazie mille e spero ci vediamo a Locanda!

Saturday night snowstorm potluck: Caviar with some blinis, Proseco for some, Cosmos for others A spicy fish soup finished with lime juice. Really wanted to 'spritz some lime oil' on top, but wasn't really sure how powerful the lime oil flavor would be. Will have to experiment when I'm not feeding a crowd. Sirloin steak with garlic butter Roast sirlon with potatoes and carrots (I said it was a potluck!) Ceasar salad Poached pears and vanilla ice cream You need lots of protein before going out to shovel! Sunday night we took a walk around the neighborhood returning dishes and got treated to a chicken caccitore dinner along the way. What good luck!!

At least it wasn't me that did the dropping. I had just finished picking out about 8 cases of wine and champagne for a very large party for my husband's 50th. The nice man at the wine store then proceeded to pile all 8 cases onto the hand truck...you see where this is going, right? All 8 cases...gone. The owner of the store just told us to leave...they would deliver the replacement. And they did. Bad day for the wine store. A few years ago, our wine cellar racks had become precarious. As in really, really unsteady. My husband walked into the cellar and simultaneously 4 Turleys ejected themselves from the shelf. Dear husband pulled a W.C. Fields and caught all the bottles! I figure I had gotten a one-time pass from the Wine God, so I quickly did a major overhaul on the racking.

I scrub my cutting board with baking soda. Does that dis-infect? I never liked the idea of putting bleach on my board.

WOW! Very impressive. I'm assuming there is no flavor to this enzyme...right? When you cut into it...were the meats firmly welded or could you easily separate them? And that is a very interesting pan you used to sear the meat. I can't really tell from the photo, do the perforations go all the way thru to another layer? Or, are they just little dents? Again, thanks for sharing.

Dear Schneich: waiting for the next installment of this drama is very difficult! Thank you for taking the time to post all the steps of your experiment. The mind reels with the possibilities!

I saw Lidia make fegola on tv a couple of weeks ago. She spread semolina on a sheet pan and sprinkled it with water, then she sieved out the crumbles, sprinkled some more water, sieved more crumbles, etc...then she dried them and cooked them like pasta. Looked interesting and good to me, what about them didn't you like? ← Hello Brite14! The texture was mush on the outside and still firm on the inside and I had cooked them longer than the instructions said because I thought the inside was just too firm. No real flavor...just little balls of dough with under done center.

Good Point. The U.S. population certainly does not have the roots that Europe or Asia. (Asia being a good example of regional differences in cuisine.)

Alberto: no fair! You cannot leave us hanging.... how did you get tricked into eating maggot cheese??! As far as microcosm cusine: I don't think that is at all restricted to Italy. Look at U.S cusine for one example: how many ways are there to make barbecue? Once you start to look closely there will always be differences from house to house and town to town. And I say: Viva la difference!

I had no idea the Friuli cusine was so Slavic-German. I'm completely fascinated by how local cuisines evolve. Please keep the history lessons coming along with the food! That soup looks like something my Polish grandmother used to make. That soup also looks likes something I would enjoy right about now..! ciao!

Heinz: what a lovely meal! And very generous with the truffles!!