Behemoth

I was there about a year ago. It was quite good, inexpensive and I think my fiancee was crushing heavily on the waitress! (She was nice though, so I didn't mind.)

Those currants are really pretty...great photo, too. Do you eat them plain? The ones I've had are pretty sour, I use them like I would cranberries... In the runup to my month o' travel starting next Friday, I am trying to clean out my fridge. I also had houseguests this week, so there is a lot in there. While they were here, we grilled lamb koftas, hummus, lebanese-style greens with carmelized onions, and a tomato & spiced feta salad, olives...with arak and some good & inexpensive (Perrin Reserve) CdR. Tonight I have a friend coming over. I am making chili with some leftover ground beef and a summer squash souffle typa thing from Diana Kennedy's cookbook. I would like to have some greens, too, but I don't want to buy anything. He would probably be willing to eat the rest of the ice cream though, which is what is so wonderful about him as a friend. (The other being that he likes the same movies & books I do). Then I will still have a bunch of white asparagus which I wil probably bake with gruyere for myself tomorrow, and I will try to eat a lot of french toast this week to get rid of the whole grain bread, milk and the rest of the eggs. I had some leftover pasta with morels and prosciutto which I wanted to make into a frittata, hopefully I will still get around to that, would make a good lunch to take to work...and oh I have some potatoes...gnocchi maybe? Ugh, I also have parsely, carrots, onions and celery. What do I do with those? Maybe make a giant vat of stock, to freeze. I should start a "clean out my fridge" challenge thread...

I wondered what the hell that thing was when I moved out here. Thanks for saving me from having to try it. (shudder) I did once buy a box of what was supposed to end up being a tofu cheese. The instructions went something like:"stir directly and let to be immovable". Couldn't figure it out, never got cheese. Some of the typos are a result of not having the right letters. I am a native arabic speaker & see people run into this problem all the time, mangling middle eastern place names. And um, sometimes you just translate literally some english expression and rather than telling your lovely german hosts that you've had enough food, you manage to inform them that you are, in fact, quite sexually satisfied.

I generally try not to pay attention, but today there was a lady with just 8 jumbo packs of hot dogs and two 1.75L bottles of Jack Daniel's. That's gonna be one helluva July 4th!

Give it to the inlaws! (Tell them the recipes are foolproof )

And honey, mismatched plates with the right attitude are very chic

I second (third?) the lasagne & salad advice. And to buy the olives, good salami, & cheese for starters, and to buy dessert. No reason to cook for people who have their wall up, its frustrating and pointless. Better that you have everything ready ahead of time, and can be realxed and confident (and make sure to get enough chianti into your system! ). About the roast chicken -- whenever you want to try it, I do an approximation of Marcella Hazan's chicken with two lemons which has been absolutely foolproof even on first attempt, and I used to be completely terrified of roasting chicken. Now it's become my safety menu. (I use Mark Bittmans' trussing instructions, makes life easier and looks really impressive.) I'd be happy to PM you the recipe if you want. As for coming up with menus, I think it develops naturally...the more you cook, the more you start thinking of what would go with what. I generally keep a reasonably well-stocked pantry and some frozen meats, but try to buy my vegetables at least twice a week. That way I'm not tied in to having to make a certain dish when I don't feel like it anymore, and also its better to not let vegetables (apart from onions/carrots/potatoes) sit around for more than a week.

spaghettti, yesterday was a little better. Since the spouse is away, I get to experiment a little. I bought perch for the first time (it seems to be commonly available in decent quality in the Midwest) and played around with it. I fried a hunk of perch in butter (buerre noisette) with prosciutto slices until deep brown crispy, then deglazed the pan with bianco vermouth. It was a great combination...crispy salty prosciutto against the smooth fish and the complicated slightly sweet & herbal flavor of the vermouth. The vermouth was the kicker. If I make it for guests, I will probably serve it with some sauteed bitter greens like rapini, and pureed cauliflower or potatoes. Lemon dessert, definitely... Er, I also ate a bunch of otter pops, but I don't think that is anything to be ashamed of!

I have a frying pan and a big pot that I think is supposed to be for cooking beans but which I use for yogurt. We used to buy all our clay stuff from a guy near our house -- though he used a wheel. I loved going there as a kid. My mom explained to him how to make a strawberry pot (the one with the little balconies for holding offshoots...) I think he had a hip little business going with those by the time we left. People liked them for spider plants. Somehow shopping for planters at walmart just isn't as fun.

Purslane is what is supposed to be in the Lebanese salad, fattoush. (Here restaurants always seem to use just lettuce or something.) Ms. Wolfert has a recipe her book, "The Cooking of the Eastern Mediterranean". I'd also be happy to post my version, if you want it, though I'm guessing its fairly similar... Sadly, my yard weeds don't include purslane, and I am no longer in Philly so I can't swipe some from my moms garden. I tried my dandelions though, those were okay. (My neighbors think I'm really weird.)

Grew up with lots of Armenian kids, in lebanon. They ate what we all ate, as far as I could tell. But basturma and soujouk were acknowledged to be Armenian foods, though we also had them at home quite often.

Success! They were in the novelty ice cream toppings section of the supermarket I was at today. Funny, that's where I looked in the supermarket near my house. Maybe those guys keep 'em near the juice boxes, will check next time I'm there. You know, I didn't realize what otter pops were until I saw the packaging. In my old neighborhood inner city supermarket, they would stack the flavor pops near the door as soon as june rolled around -- so I'd never had to look for them before, or comparison shop. Obviously the otter pops packaging wins that contest. I need the CD.

Here's a little trick I learned for chili -- if it seems kind of flat, add about a tbsp or so of vinegar towards the end, and see if it doesn't pick things up a little. I find I can get away with a lot less salt that way, and it seems to pull out the spice flavors.

Over the course of 5 hours: glass of orange juice cut with seltzer (take mustard greens out of fridge, stare at them, put them back in fridge.) handful of paul newman black pepper pretzels contemplate making pasta with morels, prosciutto and cream sauce. eat prosciutto with butter on bread take squash out of fridge. Stare at it, look up a recipe, put it back in fridge eat a handful of cherries more seltzer, asprin contemplate calling for pizza bowl of oatmeal more seltzer now, perhaps a beer. (the road to hell is paved with good intentions...)

I love generic ice cream sandwiches. Has anyone tried those snickers cones? I don't even like snikers bars (the chocolate is too sweet for me, the caramel makes my teeth ache) but with the cones -- salty caramel & peanuts, hard chocolate drizzle and vanilla ice cream -- ohhhh. I think I need to make a convenience store run now... By the way, I've been trying to find those (flavor pops?) popsicles that come as flourescent "fruity" liquid in sectioned bags that you stick in the freezer, whatever they're called. They're not a regional thing, are they?

I have to complement you on your pantry stocking skills! And the Mark Bittman book is great, I have it and like it so much I've given several as gifts. Some more possibilities: chicken-tomatoes-sour cream-onions-chilis (do you have a couple?)tortillas = enchiladas in this household. Also, mark bittman has a variation of the "crispy pork bits(?) recipe that is mexican-style -- I have often made it and served it with tortillas & sour cream. (you could add scallions or make a salsa with the tomatoes.) You could make a very nice indian-style stew with the stew meat and turnips. (uses ginger garlic cumin, coriander, onions...) Serve with jasmine rice and if you have some sort of lentil or split peas you could make a side with that too. Do you have a grill? I would grill the tilapa filets & brush with a garlic, lemon & olive oil paste. Would boil the red potatoes ahead of time, then slice and grill, grill the scallions, and make a mustard vinaigrette for them. You could also use the broiler for this. You can make the yukon gold potatoes into gnocchi & serve with a tomato & butter sauce on the side with one of the roasts. You can marinate the chicken legs & thighs in lemon, garlic, olive oil and paprika (if you have it) then brush with the sour cream & either grill or broil. Seriously, in your stead I would search the Bittman book's index by meat product, pick one, then search by vegetable for possible side-dishes. And bacon and eggs and pasta and cheese?? Best dinner ever, spaghetti carbonara! (If you have bacon you have no boundaries.) Good luck!

I buy from them here in Bloominton, IL. So far I have been happy with everything I've gotten...the only semi-annoying thing is you don't have much control over how things are cut, or what's available at any give time. (I originally planned on joining the CSA, but it was way too much beef for our needs. Now I go once a month and buy an assortment of whatever they have. I hoard certain cuts, like ribs and the leg of lamb...more expensive out of the CSA, but still totally worth the money, IMO.) Apparently the kids raise the lambs, for 4-H. I am curious to hear what you think. Hmm, maybe I shouldn't have said anything, I don't want to be competing for my meat with another eG-er edited to fix a typo -- but while I'm here, can I just mention how happy I am that central IL people are such idiots when it comes to cooking? Farmstand people keep giving me free stuff, as none of their customers know what to do with it. Last week, 2 lbs of beet greens, this week, a giant bunch of dill. I am a good customer and all, but given that it's really hard to spend more than $15 at the market each week, I feel kinda bad about all the gifts-with-purchase.

No kidding -- I'm tempted to lick my screen.

Thai theme continues -- shrimp and tofu curry. I can't blame dave thompson for this one though, it was a hybrid of a bunch of recipes so I could use up stuff that was in my fridge. Came out pretty well, too, though now I am absolutely dying for a hamburger.

Thanks! ...though I guess I don't really feel a sense of ownership of the thread, beyond being happy if people are contributing and giving useful, down to earth comments. We can do fruit for the first round, with my personal preference being that we ramp it up pretty fast. For myself I would say trying to take the more "challenging" pics and falling flat on my face a few times before I get something I like really forces me to think hard about what I need to do. As far as meeting my own needs, I have to say even looking at photos I took today compared with ones from last week, I can see a difference. Part of it is learning how to use the new camera, part of it is the very valuable pointers people have been generous in giving. Which reminds me, maybe I'll go post something else in the dinner thread now

So. I’ve noticed several people mention that they feel a bit intimidated and unwilling to post photos on this thread, and I would like to say something about that – I guess the analogy I have been finding to be most useful for myself (apart from the octopus one, I mean ) is that learning to photograph, for me, has been a lot like learning a new language. The whole point of learning how to take good photos is to be able to express to people something along the lines of "look at this great experience I had" or "look at this goofy thing this kid was doing" or "look how great that sunset is" or here, "look at this dish I made last night, I am really proud of it and I want you to see why." Learning to take a good picture is like learning grammar. There are a lot of things to keep in mind: "I need to conjugate that verb and use nominative case and was that thing male or female, anyway?" Eventually, with practice, some of these things become second nature and you can move on to more creative ways of expression. I will make mistakes. People will correct me, or tell me about a better expression for the one I’ve been trying to circumscribe. You would think anyone who expects you to speak the language flawlessly after 1 month, 1 year, or ever ten years is a jerk, and it is no different for photos. Sure, I could memorize a few beautiful phrases of poetry and when I say them in the language they are perfect and charming. But they are not expressions of what I want to say, and therefore useless for communication. I think people are born with "an eye" for photography as much as they are born with "an ear" for language. Which is to say, not at all. Being able to express yourself well in language comes after reading a lot, thinking about how to say what you want to say most precisely. If you care enough, you will work on it, and eventualy develop an ear. No one is born knowing how to speak well. We have to appreciate that similarly, plenty of people have aesthetic taste, but it may not show up in photographs because they are not fluent in the language -- yet. At first you almost always feel like a graceless idiot. This is especialy frustrating if you are used to being good at what you really do in life, be it grad student, chef, lawyer, music teacher, whatever. But eventually, you will have your first successful interaction in a completely new language and be completely blown away by how great it feels. Then slowly these successes happen more and more until people stop commenting on your "fine french" and just have a normal conversation with you, about the wonderful dish you just made, whose tempting photo you just posted on the dinner thread. And that is why I think you should put your pictures up here, critics (both internal and external) be damned.

Boris, this blog has been the nicest way for me to start looking forward to my upcoming trip in July, visiting family in Northern Germany. I have never been able to pinpoint what exactly makes European get-togethers so special -- something about just being willing to sit someplace, unhurried, all evening with a bunch of friends and a few beers or bottles of wine or whatever...not needing to go somewhere, not needing to do anything in particular, not feeling like I need to "have an experience" or rush through dinner so the restaurant can accomodate another set of guests, or so your hosts can go to bed because they need to be up early the next day. I try to stay away from cultural generalizations but there is something more balanced about the pace of life over there. That is probably the single thing I miss most, living here in the U.S. (apart from the sausages, I mean )

Ouch! I have taken to enlarging in my LCD screen the first shot of any scene I am photographing, so I can check where the focus is happening. Often have to dump that first photo, but at least I can then try and fix it...its really helped me. Yet another reason why digital cameras rock.

I've been working my way very slowly through David Thompson's Thai cookbook. This, of course, would be the pad thai*. (Actually, it was lunch...) * erm, subtly enhanced, see Food Photography thread. The taste, however, was all natural and 100% awesome.

Okay, I have been playing around all afternoon with a digital enhancer (XnView for the curious). I can't believe how great these things are, but I can't help but feel like I'm cheating. I can recover almost any mistake with this thing! I am about to post an improved pic of the pad thai in the dinner thread. Yet another frightfully addictive plaything...Oy. edited to reply to robyn -- I am willing to cede the choice of photo topics to the crowd, let's hear a few more opinions before we go one way or another. One option could be to have fruit as just the first round subject, to get people warmed up.