Smithy

elhamdulilla! At last, I can sleep again. Thank you very much for the explanation and the language lesson! Now, if I can manage to duplicate that sauce...

Here's my report. What with one thing and another, we had a whopping 1/2 hour to walk around through the North End on our way someplace else, too late for lunch and too early for dinner. So much for my advance plans and the lunch recommendations. That evening, we wandered Hanover Street perusing menus, trying to choose among the mind-boggling selection of Italian restaurants along there. Sicilian? Northern? Southern? We were too tired, really, to even be able to think about what we were reading. An observant and enterprising gentleman popped out of a door and pointed to the Specials posted on a blackboard outside. "This is the best place," he claimed, "right here, and we have the best specials!" We bantered back and forth (I'm a sucker for that eye-twinkling sales pitch, all else being equal) and he assured us that if we didn't like the food he'd give it to us for free. (We didn't believe him, but that's the sort of banter I'm talking about.) The specials that day were veal scallopini wrapped with prosciutto and some other things (told you I was tired) on a bed of spinach, and salmon stuffed with something, with a pesto sauce. We liked him. We liked the look. We went in to give our appetites to il Villaggio Ristorante. We came away just on the uncomfortable side of pleasantly full, having wined and dined at a moderate cost. (It wasn't cheap, but it cost less than the surrounding restaurants' menus suggested they would.) Two of us had the veal special, one had lobster ravioli, one had another veal dish. The salads were fine and meals in themselves. The bread - well, I've had better, but the dipping oil made up for it. Whatever unnecessary appetizer we'd asked for first turned out not to be available, so we were each given a glass of wine (a nice pinot grigio) as compensation; the chianti we later ordered turned out not to be available, so they gave us a bottle of more expensive chianti at the same price. As we chatted with the waitress we learned that neither the staff nor the owner of this Italian restaurant is in fact Italian, but it didn't seem to matter. The food was quite good, and I'm glad we went. It turned out that the gentleman who'd lured us in was indeed the proprieter, and I wish he'd been around at the end of our meal so we could thank him for his sales pitch. Add Il Villagio, 230 Hanover Street, to your list of places worth visiting. Monday night was slow, but we were told that reservations (617-367-2824) are a good idea on the weekend. Edited for spelling.

I've picked up several AC SS pieces via Cookware & More and like it a lot. I'd never buy the new stuff from a retail store because I'm too darned cheap. I also don't think I'd get a 10-piece set of anything; my needs are too mix-and-match. I have skillets, saucepans and a braiser. The pieces I use the most are the skillets. I think your cooking style may make the difference as to whether you'll like it or not. I do a lot of skillet cooking - brown meat, then build a sauce around it, or saute meat and veggies then build an Alfredo sauce or a pilaf around it. In other words, I do a lot of browning and deglazing in them, and now that I know how to do it I've all but abandoned my non-stick cookware. They clean up easily. I did manage to boil off the liquid in a would-be shallot sauce in a saucepan, burning all the shallots beyond recognition and browning the bottom of the pan badly. It took a lot of Bon Ami cleanser and bad language to get that one cleaned up, and the finish doesn't look the same. The 13" braiser looks lovely and is a great serving piece, but in the light of my new braising knowledge I'm not sure I'd get it again. It doesn't have the thermal mass to make a good braiser. Still, even if I wouldn't buy it again, I'm in no rush to get rid of mine. It make a good extra stovetop cooking vessel.

Pam, I've been skimming your blog in a futile attempt to catch up since I hit the road. This is my one chance, I think, before your blog finishes, to say how much I've been enjoying this and learning from it. The photos are beautiful. As I read in more detail after the blog is closed, I know I'll learn yet more. Add my admiration and compliments to the rest - how you survived the week - well, it's almost another miracle! Thank you, thank you.

Now, that raises a new question. What happens if you're an observing Jew and break kashrut, even by accident? Is there some kind of penance you can do to erase the sin, or is that black mark with you forever? Or is it neither, just a slip you have to promise never to do again?

It's funny, I rarely do more with sweets than admire them here in the States (it's nothing to do with virtue and everything to do with weight). But during my last stay in B.C. we weren't far from a Tim Horton's. Much ado was made over that place, so I had to go...and I kept going every day for breakfast. Much ado was also made that I had never heard of the chain and didn't know who Tim Horton was. I'm sure they were wondering who let that dumb Yank into the country.

I'm really enjoying it too, and glad for the education. Thanks to everyone for the answers so far, and I look forward to learning more this week.

Our 10-minute meals are called "leftovers" or "cheese sandwiches". The fastest thing we can do is pasta, tossed with sun-dried tomato pesto (a household staple), olives, some sauteed red peppers and mushrooms if we have them, and garlic (of course). This dish can also have chicken if it's handy and we feel like taking the time to saute it, but the meat isn't really necessary to this dish. The dish so far sounds quite healthful, doesn't it? So then I must confess that often, having taken it that far, I'll build an Alfredo sauce around it all. So much for low-cal. Somewhat less quick, but easy and cheap, is chicken pilaf. Saute cubed chicken, add garlic and let it cook slightly, add rice to brown, then add broth and seasonings. Half an hour later, chicken pilaf is to be had. Quick but not necessarily cheap: saute salmon filets, deglaze with lemon juice and wine, build a mustard and garlic sauce around it. This works with other fish too, and just depends on who gets to pick the fish. The salad can be built while the sauce is reducing.

A drain plug near the bottom of the pan...what a great idea. I never knew until now that something like that ever existed. I've been toying with the idea of buying a "sun tea" jar with a spigot near the bottom and using that to drain the stock off the bottom when I'm defatting it. The spigot's too high off the bottom, though, and would need something food-safe to take up some of that bottom space. This thread is bringing up some wonderfully written reminiscences.

Abra, you're a woman after my own heart.

Do you know what they'd check before certifying it?

Ahh. I thought the Hebrew calendar was lunar, but I didn't know about leap years. So now, Passover will fall earlier each year again until another leap year? And, is spring defined by the equinox? Do the months stay more or less at the same time of solar year because of the leap-year month? Easter is semi-lunar but also tied to spring: for the Protestants and Catholics it falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon following the Spring Equinox. The Orthodox calendar is a bit different, and the holidays are about a week apart, but I'm not sure of the specifics. I just know they're always a week or so later. Contrariwise, and I hope this isn't too far OT, the Muslim calendar is strictly lunar, so Ramadan moves steadily forward something like 10 days each year (don't quote me on the number of days). That means you may observe Ramadan during all the seasons if you live long enough. (Ramadan in the summer. Yowza.) Oh yeah - and the question about the Last Supper? I believe they were celebrating Passover at the time, but it was just after that supper that Easter was invented, so to speak. Edited for clarity.

Don't forget dancing.

The whole male/female aubergine business was debunked upthread. Still, people are flailing around to find some way to distinguish between what seems to be two different geometries of the large eggplant we find in the U.S. Innies vs. outies?

There's an engineering adage that says, "The first 90% of a project takes 90% of the time, and the last 10% takes 90% of the time." Dean, the kitchen is gorgeous. Inspectors or no inspectors, you must be ecstatic. I would be! I've forgotten the details of that magic corner. Do those shelves have an interference fit, so they interleave and you have to remember not to take up all the space between shelves on the door? Or does the interior set retract as the door-mounted set moves in? Lovely, just lovely. Congratulations!

This is really interesting. Please forgive some ignorant questions from this shiksa, but I'm likely to have a lot of them! It surprised me that canola oil isn't kosher. Any idea why not? Or is "why not" a useless question? Is olive oil kosher? And what other oils are acceptable, either usually, or even during Passover? For instance: could you drizzle baked potatoes with walnut oil? The potatoes and no-butter thing got me to thinking about substituting oils for the butter. That can be a good substitute, given the right oil. I hope this isn't too far off-topic, but I'd also like to know about the timing of Passover. It doesn't seem to follow the same timing as Easter, and I thought they did. Sorry for asking such basic questions. I look forward to learning a lot this week. Despite my ignorance, I know enough to be impressed - and astonished - that you're willing to blog this week! Thank you!

Are you trying to show your class that good heart-healthy food can be had when cooked by a chef, or that they can do it themselves? I don't know how it is in Norway, but I think your menu would seem so exotic as to be intimidating for most people here where I live (northeastern Minnesota, USA, small town). You might want to consider at least one dish with something more commonplace - a chicken and rice dish, for instance. I also like the previous posters' suggestions about vegetables. Don't forget that olive oil is supposed to be heart-healthy. You might consider a whole-wheat pasta dish. Mind you, I'm not knocking the menu, but I'm considered rather odd in these parts. That being said, I confess that I'm not that familiar with Norwegian cooking. Maybe what you're proposing is not at all exotic to you!

Dant, now you've got me cracking open my Greek cookbook and drooling, and wondering when I can cook some of its other recipes. Your description sounds delicious, so don't disappoint us! My cookbook, by the way, is "Classic Greek Cooking", 1974, and it lists three recipes for moussaka: Eggplant Moussaka, Zucchini Moussaka (just a variation on the eggplant) and Beef and Potato Moussaka. I have to wonder why it took me so darned long to clue in that moussaka is just a layered baked dish. I noted in an edit to a previous post, but I'll say it again here, that this book calls for Parmesan cheese in its moussaka sauces. I hadn't remembered that. I wonder why my other cookbooks call for cheddar? I still think it's pretty much up to the cook.

Thanks. They aren't old at all; I bought them in Luxor, Egypt sometime in the last 5 years. I think they're an old tradition, though. More than once, my husband has gotten excited about finding old broken pots out in the desert, taken detailed notes on them, only to find the exact pots (unbroken) in the souks in town! (Potsherds are not his area of expertise.) It's really fun to see all the different takes on moussaka in this cook-off, and they all look delicious. Even this early in the morning, I'm thinking about getting into my leftovers. Fifi, with regard to the cheese, I think it's as personal as the cook. I don't recall ever having something as tangy as feta with the moussaka I had in Greece, long long ago, nor in Greek restaurants since. In Egypt they don't use cheese at all. I've been happiest with a combination of cheddar and fontina (most untraditional) in my bechamel sauce. I've never heard of parmesan in moussaka before now either, but with my fontina I'm hardly going to knock it. We know parmesan cheese and eggplant go well together. I think you need to pick what you like and call it "Texas-style Moussaka". Edited to add: I just checked my old copy of "Classic Greek Cooking" (1974, Nitty Gritty Productions) and it lists parmesan cheese for its sauce. So much for my memory! They use these proportions in their moussaka sauce: 1/4c. butter, 2T flour, 2c. milk, 4 eggs, 1/2c. Parmesan cheese, 1/2 tsp salt, dash of pepper. They also puts eggs in their meat sauce.

Mabelline, did you manage to take photos before the leftovers went away? I'm really enjoying seeing everyone's photos. I've decided not to bother with the stovetop moussaka I was going to make with my other eggplants; they're just begging to be made into Rachel's cutlets. I've been thinking venison would work well here too, but I was too lazy to grind any. Edited to add: Mabelline, if it isn't too far off-topic, can you tell me how the ranchers are keeping the sheep together? I thought that was the reason for the fencing.

I wonder if the lack of availability of lamb in San Diego is a holdover from the old Range Wars. I wouldn't have expected that to apply down there, but I know it was tough to find lamb in central California when I was growing up because of generations-old hard feelings. This may also be a factor in Texas, that staunch cattle-growing state. Fifi, what do you think? For those of you who don't know, there was quite a prolonged land use argument - I think starting in the late 1800's and going into the early 1900's - between the cattle ranchers and sheep herders of the West. As I understand it, the principle issues were the presence or absence of fences (cattle ranchers didn't want them, sheep ranchers did) and the incompatable grazing methods of the two animals. My grandfather, who never raised either cattle or sheep, nonetheless took the side of the cattle ranchers. To his dying day, he wouldn't eat sheep in any form.

Pretty funny, isn't it? There she was worrying that nobody was reading! Look how many views this blog has garnered!

Burnt cigarette butts, drowned in water? I'm still curious as to what might cause this, but it's strictly an academic curiosity. I hope never again to encounter it in a wine.

Now, for a different take on moussaka, here's what I did yesterday. I started with these ingredients, plus a few I forgot to include in the photo: 2 eggplants, a quart of canned diced tomatoes (approximately 5 tomatoes' worth), 2 onions (no reason for mixed colors - it's just what I had around), nutmeg, salt, pepper, allspice, paprika, ground coriander, and chili flakes. Not in the photo, or added later for sauce adjustments: 1-1/2 lbs ground beef, a small (14-1/2 oz) can of diced tomatoes to balance out all that meat later, and a tube of concentrated tomato paste. I think I ended up using about 2 tbsp of tomato paste concentrate to get the color I wanted. I ended up adding a pinch of cinnamon to the sauce, too, for just that right sweet note. I didn't bother taking photos of the bechamel - ingredients or cooking. I think someone upthread already said this, but I'll stress it again: moussaka isn't really all that mysterious; it's just a layered dish. You can make the layers ahead and assemble it later. When I finally saw a recipe that laid it out that way, a little light bulb went on in my head, and it all became easy. I won't bore the entire readership with the detailed photos, but if anyone wants to see more, take a look at my User album, Cooking Moussaka & Developing my Recipe. Everything has captions if you want to try following step-by-step. I hope this doesn't seem silly, putting in all this detail. Such level of detail has helped me in the past when I wasn't sure what I was trying to do. Cook the eggplant: I like the peel on eggplant, but I often find that it gets tough during cooking and tends to come out of the dish in rings. To get around that I peel the eggplant in stripes. As far as cooking the eggplant goes, see notes above. I fried mine, and the photos show the process. I think Rachel's method looks better, although mine does taste pretty good. I think my oil was a mix of canola, grapeseed, and a bit of olive oil for the flavor. I strain the oil and reuse it on other eggplant dishes, so it isn't wasted. Cook the sauce: I'm really pleased with the way mine came out. I chopped the onions fairly finely, and browned them somewhat in olive and canola oil, then added the meat and let it all brown, stirring as needed. When the meat was nearly done I drained off the excess fat, then added the seasonings and adjusted until I got the right combination of spice and heat. I think I ended up with about 1-1/2 tsp each of allspice, salt, pepper, and paprika; 3/4 tsp ground coriander, a dash of ground cinnamon and a pinch of chili flakes. Then I pitched in the quart of tomatoes (juice and all) and let it start cooking down. At some point I realized I had far more meat than necessary, and added a small can of tomatoes. Then came the tomato paste to get a more reddish color. Finally, as it all simmered, I added about 1 tbsp parsley flakes. (Fresh might be better, but I didn't have any.) I let that all sit and simmer until it was fairly thick. It had a nice heat, some definite sweet/savory spice, but wasn't overly sweet. The cinnamon is easy to overdo, IMO, but just a small shake from the spice jar added the right, er, je ne sais quoi. Make the bechamel: Any standard recipe will do. I used one that called for 4tbsp each of butter and flour, 2-1/2c hot milk, 2 beaten eggs and 1/2c grated cheese (I think I used more like a cup). That made double the amount I needed because of the pots I used, so I could have cut this in half. I'd have needed it all for a 9x13 pan, though. Assemble the dish: Start with a layer of tomato/meat sauce in the bottom, then add a layer of eggplant next. Note, these are my standard moussaka pots because they're the Egyptian moussaka tagine, but they aren't necessary for this dish. A round flat-bottomed casserole dish will work. A 9x13 baking pan will work. Individual bowls or Grab-It™ pots will work. Keep adding layers until you run out of space or layers. I like to finish with the meat sauce on top, and I think that's how it's presented in Egypt where they don't use bechamel. Some of my recipe books call for finishing with eggplant on top, and I see that's what Rachel did. I don't know how much it matters. My meat and eggplant came out exactly right for these, despite my sputterings over too much meat in the sauce. Top with the bechamel. Make a good seal with the edge of the pot. Put the dish on a drip pan before placing in the oven. Bake uncovered at 400F for around 50 minutes, until the topping is golden brown. Let it rest a bit before cutting, if you can, but serve it hot. It does make mean leftovers, and it reheats beautifully. Someday I'll get this photo adjustment business worked out. Sorry some of the photos are a bit faded. Edited to add a small step I'd forgotten.

I too was going to suggest mushrooms for the vegetarian version. My Egyptian cookbook has one stovetop moussaka recipe that doesn't use meat but does have lots of onions, pine nuts and raisins in the sauce. I haven't tried that one yet but I may before this is all done. I have my doubts about the raisins, but I think chopped nuts would do wonderfully. What is TVP?