kiliki

I don't. I've had some decent things there but it's not even close to being in the same league as Green Leaf or Tamarind Tree (everyone's favorites), or Monsoon or Bambuza (more upscale choices). That sounds like Vietnamese food to me! I've never had Vietnamese food that DID have thick sauces (or many sauces at all, besides dipping sauce on the side), lots of soy sauce, salt, or cilantro...that sounds like Chinese food to me (maybe not the cilantro).

Epicurious Citrus Sugar Cookies I've made these for 12 years and they are the best I've had--the lemon and tangerine make them so much tastier than the regular ol' sugar cookie. I also like the citrus icing that goes on it, especially when I just use it as a thin glaze (cookies decorated with lots of icing generally taste awful, IMO).

This is something I do not only for crisp skin but to expedite worknight dinners-brine for an hour at night (using 1 cup kosher salt to 2 quarts water--you only need an hour of brine time, and more is not better), remove, rinse, pat dry, and leave in the fridge overnight on a rack over a plate, so it's not sitting in moisture. Roast the following evening after work. My convection oven cooks a butterflied roast chicken in 45 minutes so it's actually become a pretty fast weeknight dinner-I just need to cut up the potatoes or vegetables that I throw in there, too.

Is it really that hard to believe a woman can be pretty AND talented? I can't believe how much crap is still being said in this thread (and how much was on the bravo boards) about her looks. Both Tom and Tony dismissed these types of comments in their blogs; Tom directly addressed the charge that Casey been cast and then advanced for her looks (he did think that a previous season's contestant-some pretty first year cooking school student who clearly didn't belong-had been cast for HER looks. But it clearly was not the case here that Casey didn't belong).

I like these a lot too--they seem to be all reruns now, so I hope PBS springs for more shows!

Cook's Illustrated did some lab lests on this recently, and their results (a diluted vinegar solution wins by a mile) were featured on NPR. NPR/Veggie washes

I hate the trend of servers telling me that something is "very nice." It's especially bad when only one component of the dish is described as"very nice." (e.g. "for our special we have halibut with some very nice seared sea scallops") Isn't the whole dish very nice? Isn't everything you plan to serve to customers very nice? Or is some admittedly total crap and I should only order the things described as very nice? And last, shouldn't I be the one to decide if I think my dish is very nice? This happens to me in very good restaurants, but never in casual places.

I've bought quite a few things at my local restaurant supply store, most recently some inexpensive non stick pans to replace my beloved but trashed All Clad non stick (I'm just not willing to spend the $$ anymore to buy expensive non stick that will be no good in a few years, and though these pans aren't the same heaviness and quality, they will be okay for my purposes ie eggs). I've also bought inexpensive serving platters and linens that look quite nice. The staff really know there stuff and have always been helpful. I think a stock pot would be a great bet. Not sure about a sauce pan, which I would be more picky about-see what they have, talk to the staff and then decide. If you haven't opened your all clad set yet, you might consider taking a hard look at what it included, figuring out if you will really use each and every piece, or if you need each piece to be top quality, then possibly returning it and putting together a collection of pieces that YOU want. For many people, sets aren't a very good deal, since they inevitably contain pieces you don't need (or need so infrequently you could get away with a much less expensive version). Then you end up spending $$ to get the other pieces you really need.

This was the first year I've pickled and canned anything (I've done some fresh pickles before, but never canned). Everyone here seemed to like Joy of Pickling so I used that; I learned a ton from that book. But, I didn't love all her recipes, and I'm still looking for my perfect (cucumber) dill pickle recipe. So, if anyone's curious about the recipes in this book, here's my review: Her spicy crock pickles got a big thumbs down, but that was the first (and last) time I used pickling spice--are there really people who like pickles that taste like cinnamon and cloves?? The Short Brined Dill and Really Quick Dill Pickles were okay but not great. The Pickled Baby Carrots with Dill were good, and I made them with purple carrots from my garden, which made for a gorgeous pickle. They were a fresh pickle and I wish I knew if it was okay to can them, but I couldn't find any guide for this. The Bread and Butters My Way were not good--by far the best B&B I've had was a recipe in the first issue of Cook's Country magazine, which appeared for free in my mailbox one day. Her half-sours are good--maybe not as good as the ones in the "Pickles" thread here, though. I've made the Fresh Tomatillos and the Jardiniere but they haven't brined long enough to try yet. The clear winner of the book is the Zydeco Green Beans. Those were great. I also did a batch of cucumbers with the same brine. I'm also not super happy with the crispness of the picles using grape leaves as she recommends. Next year I'll try Pickle Crisp (calcium chloride). If anyone has a fantastic dill recipe they can point me to, I'd appreciate it. Here are some of the fruits of my labor: Zydeco beans, short brined, jardiniere, quick dill, bread and butter, and tomatillos.

Of course it's not a contest of purely technical skills, but I don't think that means it's some sort of conspiracy to keep the field open and the show interesting. The food has to taste GOOD, and Hung has finished in the bottom enough times (and always refused to admit his dish may not have been perfect) that for all his technical skill, his food apparently doesn't always taste good.

I think Tony Bourdain explains the somewhat vague concept of "soul" in food, at least from the judges perspective, in his last blog. Quite simply, though Hung may have certain culinary skills that Casey doesn't, the judges are saying Casey's food TASTES better than Hung's.

This season was my favorite for the same reason--when I first saw the penthouse and jacuzzi I thought this season would turn into some kind of Real World type show, with lots of sex, fights, etc, and so I'm glad it turned out the way it did. Since a variety of respected judges have loved her food, I think she's clearly more talented than you're giving her credit for. Last night's editing was interesting--in the show, it sounded like the judges had big problems with Casey's dish, and that she could possibly be going, but Tom (in his blog) said they all really enjoyed her dish. They're just keeping us on our toes, I guess.

He undoubtedly did; they just probably edited it out. I geeked out and was watching Sara's exit interview; one caller (yes they have live calls) asked why she didn't win a prize when she won a challenge, and she said she did, but that it just didn't make it into the final show. GO CASEY!! Food aside, her calm, cool and collected manner just blow me away. She's so much classier than most every contestant we've seen each season.

Well I'm so glad to hear I'm not the only one that has trouble getting her jam to set. I've only used Pomona's low sugar pectin, where you mix the pectin with the sugar before adding it to the fruit. So with regular pectin you can just add some at the end if your jam won't set? If that's the case I sure wish I'd known that earlier in the summer. Calipoutine, have you ever made your jam without the apple juice? Do you need it for the pectin?

I also don't like super jelled jam, but when I asked on another board if I could use a smaller amount of pectin so that the final product would be a little soft still, I was told that with pectin, you have to use the full recommended amount to make it jell at all. I didn't experiment with this, so if anyone has info to the contrary I'd like to hear it, but your experience bears this out.

It takes me almost 30 minutes to get up to her temperature (I've used a number of pans), and then I have to be very vigilant, because it can scorch very easily if I don't shut it off right at 105c/221f. The exception to what I said above was her strawberry, which would not set. I boiled and boiled and finally gave up. It does make very good syrup for ice cream sodas. After about 12 batches, I still haven't made my perfect jam. I find Christine Ferber's too sweet, but I don't often don't like the texture of low-sugar pectin jams It's been funny-the low sugar pectin blueberry was great, but the peach jelled practically into a solid!

It moved a while ago...it's in Magnolia near Discovery Park.

It would be quite easy to pop over to Seattle to see the downtown sights (where you wouldn't need a car)-where it gets to be an expensive hassle is when you'll need to bring your car for the Museum of Flight or Ballard. People commute on these ferries so you will undoubtedly have to wait if you try to bring your car on during morning and evening rush hours. I haven't been to the Bainbridge Market but I would definitely check out some of the Seattle ones (esp. Ballard)-we get the vendors from sunny, hot eastern Washington and thus have a great variety of items. Bloedel is wonderful-good choice.

The Cook's Illustrated cookie dough-topped fruit cobbler recipe from 1996. This is one of those recipes that everyone likes--the non-foodie folks love it, since it seems like they've only had cobbler topped with Bisquick, and it's tasty enough to please the those of us that are pickier (so it's a big hit not only with me but my Iowa in-laws, too). I've had countless requests to photocopy the recipe. The magazine had a big chart with measurements for all different types of fruit, but I found the peach recipe online here. The topping's the same for other fruits--it works well with almost any--but you may have to adjust sugar and use whatever (if any) dry spices you might use with a different type of fruit.

I too disagree with the general statement that it's "immoral or illegal" to pick huckleberries. But, the fact is that commercial pickers can do a tremendous amount of damage to the resource. They do use those rakes and other devices to harvest, and forest rangers have found many areas here in WA state that have been quite damaged (entire patches ripped up from the roots) after pickers were through with them. They also ignore legal harvesting dates and areas set aside for American Indians. For these reasons I don't buy huckleberries or items such as huckleberry jam-I enjoy them when I'm hiking but that's it. Here's an article that discusses some of these issues, if anyone's interested. Huckleberry harvesting

Jaymes' salsa. God knows what I'd do outside of tomato season without it. Larb.

The Essential Iowa guide to State Fair food proved to be a great help for our fair visit yesterday. I was skeptical (having only eating very bad food at other fairs) but I had some great stuff yesterday. Highlights were: the smoked turkey drumstick from the stand next to the shade garden at the agricultural building (it was the only place that I saw the turkey legs in a big bbq grill/smoker), the ice cream soda with homemade fresh strawberry ice cream from Bauder's (also by the shade garden), and the funnel cake. My husband LOVED his pork chop on a stick from the Iowa Pork Producers stand (I thought it was good but pork chops aren't my thing). And the wine tasting was fun-we didn't sample anything great, but it was still worth the $. The funniest food thing was the egg producers stand that gave away free hard boiled eggs on a stick (toothpick) in the agriculture building. You'd have thought that they were giving away truffles the way people were mobbing the stand and snatching up the eggs.

Does frozen yogurt this time around taste better than the stuff I used to eat 20 years ago? I've been so puzzled by the resurgance.

I like oysters and kumamotos raw and Pacifics (which are often called something else, such as the place that they are grown) briefly grilled. Pacifics can be really big and strong, which is why they aren't my favorite raw.

I would probably stay at home and gorge on our great local foods like dungeness crab, penn cove mussels and fresh berries if I were moving.