David94928

I welcomed my 40th birthday (in 1989) with a dinner where I served (among other wines) my last bottle of 1970 BV George de Latours Private Reserve. At 19 years old it was in absolute peak condition and perfection. One of my top wine memories. David

I have a bottle of the 1977 Smith Woodhouse that I'm holding for my 60th birthday in 2009. I bought it in 1981 for $12.99. I know that S-W is considered a second tier port house, but at 32 years old (in 2009) it ought to be grand. David

The Kobe beef fillet that just about melted in my mouth piece by luscious piece. As my late father-in-law might have said....I've had gravy tougher than this meat! David

A graphite gray, 5 quart, 800 watt Viking Mixer. Did someone say "let's make some baked goods?" David

I'd forgotten about that even though I have a 15 year old tape of that movie that I watch ever now and again. His name was Miles... or was it Moles (the name his computer keeps calling him when he mistypes it on the keyboard). David

If I remember correctly Miles drank the wine before he heard from Maya by phone - that seemed to happen several months later. At the time he thought any chance of continuing his relationship with her was long gone. A really nice movie, best I've seen if quite a while. David

Hmmm, I'm trying to figure out where the wine dispenses from my computer for those sites. David

I just made some four cheese pasta this past week. Fontina, Gorganzola, Pecorino Romano and Parmesan-Reggiano in decending quantity. Baked for about 15 minutes in the oven to toast the bread crumb topping. YUM!!! David

Two large eggs scrambled somewhat soft sprinkled with Chipolte tobasco sauce, a whole wheat muffing with a touch of Smuckers Whole Fruit (strawberry) and three gorgeous pieces of Niman Ranch Dry Cured Center Cut bacon.....yum! Easily the best bacon I've ever had. $4.89 for 12oz. at Trader Joes. David

As a double-gold medalist it was in contention for "best red wine of the competition". It did not win that accolade. I tried a bottle of this wine right after I heard about the results back in mid summer. Compared to any of the other Two Buck Chuck wines I've tasted this was very good, especially for the price. I would have easily paid $7-8-9 for a bottle of this. Unfortunately when I went back to Trader Joes about a month later they were already selling the 2003 Shiraz. Not nearly as good and much more in line with the other Two Buck Chuck wines. David

Meaty and sturdy Cabernet Franc. Hits you with opium, overdone smoked ham and total absence of fig newton. Drink now through 2004. Now there's a new way to evaluate a wine - by the absence of a certain charater. David

I can drive my wife crazy at times by how much a picky shopper I am. I always examine all of the eggs in a carton before I buy. I look for later experation dates by reaching back behind the first two rows of dairy products. I always check through the vegtables and fruit looking for what I consider to be the best ones. I always try and smell the fruit (except maybe apples). If it smells like the fruit then I know it's ripe. The problem at the supermarket is they keep most of the fruit refrigerated so any aroma is dampened to the point of being non-existent. The farmers market is a good place to smell the fruit. When I buy packaged berries (raspberries in particular) I peer through the bottom of the carton looking for any signs of mold. I always look for the freshest bread products (the plastic ties are color coded by the day of the week the product was produced). David

Exactly my limitation Fat Guy. We live in a condo built in 1980 at the end of the "All Electric House" era and there is no gas piped into the complex anywhere. If we could get gas I'd get this electric range out the door in less than 24 hrs. David

I also have a Kenmore ceramic top range with the bridge burner and a warmer burner which is great for keeping chicken stock warm when preparing risotto. I've never dropped any heavy kitchenware on the top but just after it was installed I found the need to replace the vent hood so it matched the stove. As I was jockying into place I left the cardboard box it came in on the stove top. Good thing I did as the hood got loose and dropped onto the box. That might have been the end of the ceramic top. Overall I've been happy with the stoves performance. I had to get used to the way it heats - slow at first and then it gets hot quickly. I burned onions and garlic several times at first. Cleaning with soft scrub or the low abrasion cleanser doesn't take any longer than cleaning a regular stove. David

Mongo I grilled, BBQ and smoked with an 18 in. Weber for six years. I've done everything from steaks to chicken to ribs and brisket and all have been very successful. The charcoal rails for the 18 in. work great for indirect cooking. The only thing I wish the 18 in. Weber had was a cooking grill with hinged sides so you could add more fuel without removing the grill. This summer I bought myself a new barrel smoker/BBQ and passed on my Weber to a friend for another six years of good use. David

Of course the reason they do keep trying to make more money off of their subscribers is that they get no $$$ from advertisers. So their subscribers are the only source left. I don't mind paying a little extra here and there (for the CI web site in particular) and not have to look at page after page of ads. And, like many others posting here, the engineer/scientist side of me appreciates their delving into what works and why with a recipe. David

Whoah. My mind is blown. Has anybody tried this?! What's it made of? I recently bought one to replace a very old wood rolling pin. The OXO rolling pin is significantly heavier than what I had been using. As far as being "non-stick" it doesn't seem to hold onto pie dough nearly as much as the wood one, but I'd hardly call it completely non-stick. It also cost $22.00. Bottom line a good kitchen tool but a bit pricey. David

The first time my wife had me over for dinner when we were just beggining to date, about 11 years ago, knowing that I was into wine she proudly brought out a 5L box of generic Summit white (a wine being produced by Geyser Peak at the time). I quickly looked into her fridge and found a five year old bottle of Clos du Bois Gewurztraminer. I thought that still had a chance verse no chance for the Summit wine. I was right...the Gewrz still had some drinkability to it. Several months later when we started living together I told her that we should use the Summit wine to soak the red wine stains out of my jeans. (I was working at a winery during the crush). In the 11 years since that she's learned a lot about wine. David

Neither Michael nor Tim has the vision that their father had when he was one of the major creators of the Napa Valley mistique in the 70's. Over the last 20 years Mondavi has lost focus as it put much of its emphasis on growing the Woodbridge label. But in doing so they've lost touch with what brought them their fame in the first place - the Robert Mondavi Napa Valley label. And they even diluted that with Mondavi Private Selection or Coastal Selection or whatever it's called this week. And then their are their foreign wine partnerships and investments. As of several years ago (1999 or 2000), according to their financial statements, they had no positive cash flow from operations (i.e. - producing and selling wine). Cash flow was coming from , in part, selling off of property, facilities and equipment, but mostly from financing long term loans. They have since turned that around a bit now producing some positive cash flow from operations. An interesting view of the second generation brothers seen as wrought from their father and uncle's realtionship. I'llhave to find a copy of the article. David

When I make a New York style cheesecake I always remove it from the oven for cooling (although I have a Lemon Cheescake receipe that I use that cools the cake in the oven for an hour). How I eliminate cracking is to run a paring knife around the edge about five minutes after removing from the oven. That way as it cools and shrinks the edges are free to move with the rest of the cake. Otherwise if the edges cling to the pan, the weakest part (the center) begins to give way and crack. The most exotic cheescake I ever made was a white chocolate and hazelnut one. A lot of work to produce as you have to make a hazelnut praline for both the crust and to add to the batter, but oh so good. I haven't made one in more than 10 years. The receipe came from "The Silver Palate Good Times Cookbook". I used to be more interested in flavored cheescakes (such as chocolate cheesecake) but have in recent times come to appreciate the elegance of the straight forward, no topping New York cheesecake. The hard-to-find bookseller Alibris http://www.alibris.com/ has used copies of "Mother's Wonderful Cheesecakes and Other Goodies" starting $48.89. David

Thanks for the welcome. I've been lurking for about 5 months and finally felt I hd something to contrbute. I did exactly that - took all the ingredients and prepped them there. It was a bit of a squeeze as the hosts have a small kitchen and they were preapring a few dozen things themselves I also brought along a lot of my kitchen knives, tongs, etc. as well as a pot to pre-cook the shrinp and clams. I then used the shrimp/clam water to cook the rice. The burner was "pre-reserved" but unfortunately I didn't reserve the staging table so when I brought everything out the table was piled with the hosts grilling items. I got him another table and reclaimed mine. We just finshed up the paella leftovers for dinner tonight - even better than yesterday. David

Hello everyone. New member to the forums here. My wife and I went to a barbeque/party and I prepared a paella on the side burner of a Weber gas grill. I was unsure of how hot the burner would run and if I could control it to my needs, but it all worked nicely. My only disappointment was that the saffron didn't color the rice very well. We attend a 4th of July bbq/party at this residence every year and as in previous years we should have invited the neighborhood for three blocks around to handle the massive amounts of food prepared. David