Abra

I wish there were Smart Turkey! If you've ever eaten Smart Chicken, you know what I mean. It rocks, unequivocally.

I just read through this book from beginning to end. Wow. Where's it been all my life? i want to make every single thing in it. For those of you that have already made her various yellow cakes, which one most closely approximates the crumb of (forgive me) a Duncan Hines cake mix? My husband loves that Southern favorite, Yellow Cake with Chocolate Frosting, but it seems that it has to be made with a mix. I've tried several scratch versions, and none of them cut it with him. In his defense, it's the only thing made from a mix that he prefers to home made. But undeterred, I keep trying to find the perfect recipe, with that totally insubstantial, melting crumb. Is one of these perchance it?

My copy won't arrive for a couple of days, and then I'll be out of town for a week, but I can't wait to get started! I have some gorgeous shallots and some duck fat, so I'd like to do that confit. Is it just unpeeled shallots, covered in duck fat, at a very low temp for several hours?

Such nice ideas! Sugarbuzz, would you please post your chestnut honey ice cream recipe? Chestnut honey is one of my favorites. Hmm, I wonder how that would be with a gorgonzola dolce as a sweet/cheese plate.

I puree the roasted tomatoes with their oil, and sometimes a few leaves of basil, and use it as sauce, or as the base for a more complex sauce. Yum! I'm having blog withdrawal pangs. I'm leaving today for 6 days with no computer access, and will be missing the rest of your blog. I'm sure it will continue to be super!

I haven't been able to find either locally grown fresh turkey, nor heritage turkey that hasn't been frozen. Here's how I look at it: I can go out to dinner in Seattle with my husband and drop $140 on dinner for the two of us. It's probably going to be excellent, but it's just one dinner for two. This way I get to invite a lot of foodie friends to try something new, and if it's not worth it, they'll all tell me so in no uncertain terms! If it's as good as he says, I'll be a hero. I hate the breathless quality of the Rosengarten copy too, but I try not to hold that against him. And yeah, if it's Empire, you still need tweezers and needlenose pliers.

I'm thinking that the "au levain" part makes it equivalent to our cultured butter, which is delicious. I use Organic Valley unsalted, which is cultured and available here, but there are also some European imports that are cultured. It has a distinctively different flavor from regular butter. That pastry cream filling sounds fabulous, Lucy! In the Crenn recipe, does fecule mean fecule de mais?

Does anyone know of really good cooking courses, 3-5 day types, in Bretagne or Normandie?

What I sent her IS chipotles en adobo, the canned version. Here's a delicious recipe Rick Bayless' Chipotle Shrimp and you'll be able to get all the ingredients in Malaysia with no problem. I like to add a little cilantro garnish, and a drizzle of Mexican crema, which is just like creme fraiche, but they're excellent as they are and will give you a feel for how they work. And you'll still have 7/8 of the can left after making that recipe. I'm telling ya, it's a lifetime supply!

I'm delighted to discover that I'm going to Bretagne (and Normandie) next year at this time. After drooling over this thread, I can now set myself a research project of finding and consuming enough of this cake for all of us. Unless, of course, any of you want to meet me there and then I'll be so happy to share!

I must confess that I did order one of those turkeys, because I'm really curious. The cost is silly as compared to other turkeys (I normally prefer Diestel Organic), but in the absolute sense it's not horrific. People pay that for prime rib at the holidays and never flinch. It'll probably be a one-time thing, but even so, it's bound to be entertaining. I actually really love turkey, and we eat a lot of it all through the year, so the prospect of an especially good one is very interesting to me. So, uh, I guess that makes me stupid and gullible, and a snob into the bargain, eh? Oh well.

It's fascinating to see pre-made roux. I had no idea that such a thing existed. Is that a kabocha, or a tetsukabuto, in your co-op pile?

Why did I have to look at these last pictures when I'm so famished? I have a horrid cold and am too miserable to cook, so I'll just have to sit here and drool over your dinner. Thanks, Percy, it's been a real treat!

Awesome, you two! I'll be glued to the screen.

I love specificity, and accuracy! Just yesterday I was making a recipe (the filling for Pain d'Amandes from the Village Baker's Wife) that I've made at least a dozen times before. Since I'm trying to be more accurate with my baking, for the first time I noticed that the recipe read: 2 T butter (2 ounces) So, whereas I usually cut 2 T from a cube, this time I weighed 2 oz. WTF? 2 oz = 4 T. I know that! But I never noticed the discrepancy before. So what does she really want me to use? I went back to 2 T, just like I always use, but now I really wonder. But on the specificity part, I like it when the author tells me exactly what she would use, and why. Then if I don't have that ingredient, or choose to make a substitution, at least I have a clue what I'm doing. I might be able to say "Well, if I'd used coconut vinegar instead of rice vinegar, this would have a slightly different flavor, but I don't think it's enough to make a big difference." Or, alternatively "This recipe calls for almond extract and all I have is vanilla, so if I make that sub it's really gonna be different, although it'll probably still be good."

For some reason I never looked into this thread before, and when I did, yegads. Dog barf everywhere! And then I thought "wait, don't I myself have a couple of pictures that are even more disgusting- looking?" And the answer is: That was an attempt to have very little pasta with lots of greens. Would it surprise you to know that I actually ate that stuff? And then there was the maitake frittata: The veggies look ok, but if mushrooms had brains, those maitakes would be them. Double Dog Barf. But delicious.

Percy, I'm wondering if PA Amish food differs much from what we saw/tried when we lived near Amish country in Ohio. I'd had a romantic notion of old fashioned whole foods type baking and preserving, and was shocked to find, in Amish stores, that it was mainly mixes, hydrogenated fats, bleached flours, and artificial flavors. Very disillusioning! What's the situation in PA? I am so making that akoori!

If that's cherimoya, it is indeed delicious. But it's full of seeds that you have to spit out, so it's not necessarily what one would think of as sensual, unless spitting is part of your thing.

We got those butterscotch Asian pears last year too, and they were magnificent. I can't wait for more of them. Lychees are right up there at the top of my list too, but I still say persimmons, Hachiyas, dead ripe.

Wow, no one has mentioned the most obvious and immediate to me - it's persimmons, by a mile. That translucent, glowing, brilliantly sweet and succulent flesh, lights up the room, slides down your throat like silk.

Well, I have to say that making raisins in a cluster was disappointing. It sounds beautiful, but looks like this I wonder whether I did something wrong, or whether the effect depends on the type of grapes one uses.

Banyuls is so hard to come by here, so I've never had it with chocolate, but I've always heard that it's a delicious combination. Maybe I'll try harder to get some and use it for this dinner, although I've been thinking of something apple, to lighten things up a bit. Apple with Moscato, in general, right? Or something less obvious?

So, you slice some roast pork, put slices of provolone, then top it with warm, garlic-sauteed spinach, which melts the cheese? Or does the whole sandwich get some heat? Toast the bun, or no? I want that sandwich!

I'm another vote for Noble Court, and now I want to try Honey Court, since it's much closer for us. Not that I do this myself, but it's traditional to first select and eat the steamed dishes, and then the fried. You'll notice that they're on different carts, steamed, and fried. Also, the thing to be careful of is not to order everything you see at first. They'll keep bringing more stuff, new and different stuff, and it's a shame to fill up at the beginning and then see something really enticing just when you have no more room.

I must be the only person in the world who thinks that Cab and chocolate are a horrid combination! Now there's a pairing I just don't get.