Genkinaonna

Could you just freeze the soup creamless and have him add the cream as he reheats it? Kind of like your version of condensed soup: Just add cream, heat and serve!

Farmers market, Paley's Place, food carts (went to the Pod on Belmont just today and it was great), what type of food specifically are you looking for? Fine dining, casual, will you have access to a car?

I'll second the vote for pie. And that's very exciting to me, because I LIKE pie!

I'm guessing the mask is going to be a chocolate mold? And if I'm right can I come hang out and cook with you two for a month as a prize?

Ah yes, alcohol and cookbooks, a lovely combo...also I LOVE the whale vase, although it does look a bit, how shall I put this delicately, unwell...and I think I just found another reason to buy an IPad in that magnetic cover. My checking account does NOT thank you for that. Can't wait to see what you have in store for us this week from the other side of the world!

OMG those tacos look incredible! Thanks for all your hard work and amazing writing this week. I really enjoyed it! And after reading about your meals today I don't feel so bad for having food carts for dinner and Voodoo Donut (of maple bacon bar fame) for dessert!

Loving the blog! The closest we've got to RedX would be Fred Meyer, which is clothing, hardware, sporting goods, garden, grocery, and lottery, plus wine (state liquor stores only in Oregon) plus the jewelry store that's in all the malls all over the country and electronics. But the wine tastings are pretty small. We've got so many wineries we just go right to the source. I think you should do another week...just sayin'...

It needs to be dense, not whipped, that's not cheesecake, it's cream cheese mousse cake. And it doesn't need to be twenty different flavors (I'm looking at YOU, Cheesecake Factory) but some fresh strawberries or a tart cherry topping are permissible. I will grudgingly concede that pumpkin cheesecake is allowed, but only at Thanksgiving, and only if it also meets the dense and not too whipped criterion as well. I just made a peanut butter cheesecake with chocolate ganache and a peanut shortbread crust for a friend, thereby breaking my own rules, but it wasn't for me, so I'm in the clear ...

Kim-That duck looks amazing! I had an incredible french onion soup that used duck stock as the base...you might try that if you have the stock just hanging around. Shelby-I'd totally sink into a bathtub of that pie! And the seafood from Pike Place is worth the money, we went there for our honeymoon and my favorite meal was huge prawns sauteed in a little butter and garlic and covered in chiffonades of fresh basil. We get up to Seattle 3-4 times a year, and we always end up bringing home lots of seafood. Last night we had lettuce from the garden with roasted chicken, crispy olive oil potatoes with thyme, and ranch dressing. Light and summery, but filling at the same time. I wish I could say I made the dressing, but it was Kraft (hangs head in shame...)

I made some macarons successfully for the first time about three weeks ago. I used this recipe and method. Her method is pretty well explained, and her pictures are totally inspirational, gorgeous colors and flavors!nnI think I could have folded the batter a couple of more times, there was a slight peak that I had to push down, which made some of the shells less than perfect, but overall they were great. I think the italian meringue method is the way to go, but I think the BEST way to learn is to make them alongside someone who knows what they're doing and can give you pointers step by step. I'm sure there's someone in NY that would do that for you, FG! And perhaps pictures along the way for the rest of us?

"a pocketful of bacon and the scenario would be perfect" ANY scenario would be improved by a pocketful of bacon, silly! Can't wait to follow all your adventures this week. Love your other blog, too, so this should be fun!

I'd second the 3 or 4 items. Maybe one chocolate, one fruity, and one crunchy/nutty item. Good variety and something for everyone, except those odd folks who don't like dessert anyways!

And yet, of unfamiliar foods, that sort of presentation would have the best shot of being eaten by a child. They can pick out the bits they like and dont like. Its mini-tiny bits ("my" size!). Its like playing with your food. You're right, lots of little bits are appealing, I meant more that if the kitchen is taking time to do super elaborate platings with lots of components I'm not going to be a PITA and ask for something in a half portion. I'd just order the whole thing and call half of it breakfast the next day .

Chris Hennes?

Mmm...that duck soup looks cottony! We will be having spinach and ricotta calzones. I made the dough from the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a day recipe. The dough sat in the fridge for three days. I was concerned that it would be too sticky to roll well, but it worked nicely, although this is the second calzone, the first was decidedly less photogenic due to my lack of dough shaping skills. I don't know how they taste yet, they're supposed to sit for 10 min so all the skin in your mouth doesn't melt when you bite into them... RRO, that octopus sausage looks pretty tasty, it's something I haven't seen before. What was the binder? Was it more like a headcheese type formulation, or did it have somthing else holding it together?

Wow that sounds like a great idea...and good for knocking the self proclaimed "wine experts" down a peg or two to the level of us wine admiring amateurs!

I'm almost afraid to ask what they sell there...

As for the original questions, Do you think that restaurants are not catering to kids as much as they should? I feel like restaurants should know their clientele. If the restaurant is more of a fine dining concept, I don't think they necessarily need to cater to children. But then again, I think too many people go out of their way to cater to their little ones' every whim, which doesn't generally make for very nice children in the long run. However, if a restaurant wants to be considered "kid-friendly" ie good highchairs, higher ambient noise level, the menu should at least offer some options that parents can choose from that may contain items familiar to children, or they won't get a ton of repeat business. Not so much fried, as basic type stuff, and maybe a mix and match option, like choose three items for a set price. Don't kids have an influence on where the family goes for meals? My kids definitely have an influence on where we go for meals, just as my husband and I do, they have favorites. But we don't eat fast food, so their favorites and mine coincide a lot more than most families, I think. Should unique menu options be offered to kids to provide them with new experiences? Again, it comes down to knowing your clientele. If you have a certain concept for your menu, like maybe it's a seasonal french restaurant, it wouldn't make sense to have the kid's menu be all american stuff, maybe something more like what kids might eat in France, nutella on bread, ham/butter on a baguette, etc. The other option would be to have a line on the menu along the lines of, "we will happily make a half-sized portion of starred menu items for $5 less (or whatever reduction fits the prices) in lieu of a childrens menu." Clearly, this wouldn't work at a place that has elaborately plated entrees and lots of components to each dish. But those wouldn't necessarily be places I'd take my children anyways.

I generally (and I tip well and am super polite and my kids are super polite too, at least at restaurants) have the kids look at the regular menu and then split an entree for the two oldest to share. Then they have more to choose from. Occasionally I ask for the sauce (if there is one) on the side, since my kiddos do like to know what they're eating, they don't want it covered up by sauce. At most of the places we go, they offer sandwiches as an option, which are a good choice for kids, being easily take-apartable to remove any offending ingredients contained inside. Plus there's usually some lettuce or other greenery snuck in there, and generally nothing's fried... One of the places we go pretty often, the girls (three and five) split steak frites medium rare drenched in garlic parsley butter. Once they had some of mine I couldn't get them to even LOOK at the kid's menu anymore.

Lovely pate de fruit! The first time I made it in culinary school I didn't realize that one of the fruits needed to be acidic and ended up using coconut and banana purees...tasted ok, looked like snot, and kind of oozed like it too Needless to say, lesson learned. My favorite is passion fruit.

We have tons of food carts in Portland, but there are none really close to my house, they're all about 15 miles away or so...most of them are worth the trip, though. However, my favorite street food is the cones of fries they sell in varying carts around the city...with mayo please, no ketchup! PanCan, if I'm ever in Ecuador, expect me at your doorstep, waiting eagerly for a street food tour!

This is actually dinner from three nights ago. I'm trying to feed the family without going to the grocery store this week to clean out the fridge and make a dent in the freezer. We'll see how it goes but so far so good... This is left over potato salad (recipe here) tossed into a hot pan with some butter until crispy and delicious, and then topped (as all crispy potatoes should be) with some poached eggs. Accompanied by a lovely glass of dry rose...all leftovers should taste this good. Of course, the taste far exceeded my photography skills... I'd be happy to cut down on shopping by stopping by any of your houses for dinner this week, everything looks amazing!

I love the idea of something called "delicious" water...that's brilliant. I'd totally buy it if I had it available to me. How could it NOT make everything delicious, it's right there on the label...

Heehee extreme cheese! Can't wait to see what you've got in store for us!

Hmmm...I might have to get that book, I loves me some brioche toast for breakfast! Your kitchen is amazing. It's what I want to have when I grow up! And I like the concept of different produce from different farms for your CSA...ours are usually one farm exclusively so sometimes it's hard to get the kind of variety you want without doing two different baskets per week, which can get mighty expensive. I love Barely Buzzed too...one of my favorite flavored cheeses.