Abra

And you can't miss the San Juans, and...and...I'd better PM you since I can't think of a thing to say about food here, for once!

That's a beautiful cut on the squash, Ann. That whole dinner looks delightful.

I can still turn them over if that's a better plan - I have the ones I want to take in the freezer now, awaiting inspiration.

I seem to always be getting into baking jams, which never happens to me on the hot side. Here's another "please help, group bake" question. I've been up to my ears in red currants. This particular mountain of them was destined for legourmet's Swabian red currant cake. But, I wanted to make smaller individual cakes that I could take to out of town friends. I doubled the recipe and got 8 individual cakes plus a dozen small tarts. So far, so good. After baking, however, it's another story. Although the pans are nonstick, and I greased them well, evidently I put too much of the meringue topping into the pan so that the meringue stuck to the edges and made a messy, broken cake. Now, picking those currants was hard work, and so was de-stemming them, and the cake itself has a number of steps, so I really don't want to give up on these. First I tried a glaze of creme de cassis, which although it's red, came out beige. Looks worse, if anything, and still looks impossible to transport. So then I decided to try a marzipan wrap, and adding color to the glaze. This is just with the marzipan edges left rough, and is awfully girlie. Here I tried trimming the marzipan edges, but hey, is this even any better? Is marzipan the solution, anyway? And if so, what's the secret to having no powdered sugar showing after I roll it out - rolling on a silpat? But really, you real bakers, is there any way I can make these look less rustic, and make sure they can travel well, say for about 6 hours in the car? I need to say that the cakes are already on the verge of being too sweet, so burying them in frosting isn't the solution. And if I were going to serve them at home, I'd probably sit them in a puddle of creme Anglaise and call it a night. But, perversely, I'm trying to travel with them, and therein lies my currant crisis. Sorry, I couldn't resist that!

Whew, that's a lot of driving! But even though it adds more, I think you should take a little detour to LaConnor on your way down from Bellingham. It's a unique and cute little town, and there are a couple of decent places to eat there. But it's fun for an afternoon all on its own.

Lucy, it's so interesting how different your recipe is from mine. Vodka instead of brandy, the use of citrus whereas mine has no fruit, and then the maple syrup. If I had some more walnuts I'd try a batch of it your way. Next year I will, for sure. Also, I didn't allow any air circulation last year and mine ended up a very deep nut brown, like an Oloroso sherry. So you want it to be actually black? Someone might want to label this thread, now that it's evidently been merged. I looked for it in vain in its former home.

Klary, I have a mountain of red currants now that I'm picking my way through, freezing, etc. Would you share your jelly recipe? Tupac, I know I asked for the ice cream recipes on the Dinner thread, but I'll ask again here, since this is probably more the right place. Patrick, is that black background a setting on your camera? I love the way that picture looks, but I don't know how to achieve that effect myself.

Your menu plans leave me uncharacteristically speechless, so I've only been lurking here until now. But I was all set to post "Shalmanese is a girl???" Whew, I knew you had to be a guy!

That's lovely bread, Ann, and you absolutely get the eG Award for Fridge Emptiness. My fridge hasn't looked like that since the day it was born.

Maple syrup just sounds so...Franglais! But ok, I'm going to add some to one bottle for comparison. Too bad the sugar's already in there.

Thanks for a fun week, Bryan, and I look forward to your Z Kitchen reports.

Dinner thread scores again! Ann's pictures alone will make you gain 5 lbs, so everybody loosen your belts.

Dave, the pate will continue to improve with time. I left mine for a week before cutting it, and it was delicious. Two weeks later, when we ate the last scrap, it was 95% as delicious as after a 1 week cure. Let it rest, if you can.

Geez, Patrick! It all looks deadly, but that ice cream is a thing of beauty, with its little caramel bits. How did you keep them from melting into the ice cream? Klary and Dana, those cakes look scrumptious.

Emma, look upthread, there's some place people have ordered green walnuts online. Something like Lassen Orchard - I can't remember exactly. But you're definitely onthe verge of being too late. Jim Dixon might still have some - you could PM him. Lucy, I did use the exact same recipe I did last year. I divided between 6 1/2 gallon jars: 30 walnuts 6 big walnut leaves 8 liters red wine (a cabernet-merlot blend) 1500 mls inexpensive French brandy 6 star anise 6 cloves 2 large Mexican cinnamon sticks 1 kilo sugar It was so good last year that I couldn't bring myself to change a thing this time.

Beautiful, Richard! It's amazing how the fat stayed so white, instead of turning ivory, which is more what I get.

Why yes, Chef M, I imagine that the limoncello would travel well. The vin de noix won't be ready when I'm up your way, alas. Limoncello and Bonnie Raitt sound like a dynamite combination, Katie. I'll get some into the freezer as soon as it has a chance to mellow with the syrup for a bit. I have no idea what nocino is supposed to taste like, so I'm really looking forward to that too.

I made it exactly as written: 2 cups cream, 5 1/2 cups water. I thought about using milk, but there wasn't any in the recipe and I wasn't sure how the milk proteins would affect the texture, so it was just cream and water.

Nice butt, boys! I too did butt yesterday, along with my usual mess of chicken thighs. I did it spur of the moment, so didn't brine, and I only had 8 hours before dinner, so last night we had succulent chunks of butt in =Mark's sauce, while the rest of the butt hung out on the smoker for another couple of hours to be pulled later. That sauce is so good that it's really hard for me to make any other. It's so good as to make a rub superfluous. My whole family loves that stuff. I didn't take any pictures, because, well, my butt is my butt and pretty much always looks the same. However, the sun was shining, I sat out by the smoker drinking French rose and sniffing the cherry wood-scented air, and thought "I'm having an eGullet day."

Lumas, those blueberry tarts are gorgeous. Here's Prasantrin's Mango Pudding with fresh raspberries. Delicious and light.

Brunch today, savory and sweet crepes. The savory ones were filled with rosemary ham, potatoes that had been roasted with Parm Reggiano, and some shaved extra-aged Gouda. A little sauce of some sort might have been a good addition, but I didn't get that together. The sweet ones were filled with garden blueberries and a little sweetened Quark. I love Sam's recipe! It works so perfectly that even the very first crepe came out just right.

Wow, lemons that go green and start to grow again? That sounds pretty sci-fi. Just for a color check, here my limoncello in progress. I used Meyer lemons and 100 proof vodka, and let the microplaned zest steep for 2 months, waiting for the zest to lose all of its color. It never did turn all the way white, so today I diluted it with 80 proof and simple syrup. The color is more or less like a giant urine specimen. It's shown here with the vin de noix and nocino I was also putting up today.

Thanks to Jim D.'s beautiful walnuts, I now have a dozen bottles-worth of vin de noix started, plus my first attempt at nocino, and some limoncello that also needed attention this morning and gratuitously sneaked into the picture. If you haven't put up your vin de noix for the season, better hurry, while the walnuts are still small. In case you're wondering why I make so much, vin de noix makes an excellent holiday gift. People really love it, and aren't likely to be getting it from just everyone.

The food at Nepenthe in Big Sur won't blow you away, but the setting will. And I haven't been there for a few years, but Cielo at the Ventana Inn had very good food and is also a stunning setting.

The pate I just did was lined with caul fat. Granted, I did it in a terrine pan, but the caul really did hold it together. The only reservation I'd have about using caul in a ramekin is that it's mostly fat, and that fat renders, and your pate will be sitting in a fat puddle. Upside - it should come out easily. Downside - might need a bit of patting down so as not to be too greasy after it comes out.