Bella S.F.

David, I want to buy the rotisserie based on the look of your chicken alone. How did you get such beautiful looking chicken jus using the rotisserie? I read that they have a drip pan, but thought that it was not terribly big. Were you able to make that beautiful jus with just those juices alone? One downside I thought was that you don't get the carmelized bits to make a good gravy. What have you found? Thanks!

Does anyone have one of those counter rotisseries? I found a copy of Steven Raichlen"s Indoor Grilling cookbook at a used book store for a ridiculously low price so of course it came home with me. MANY of the recipes call for rotisserie cooking. The recipes sound great. I have never even thought of buying a rotisserie, but after reading the recipes and then reading some articles about using a rotisserie I am tempted to buy one. It sounds like a great holiday gift for us. Some women like jewelry, perfume, and flowers. I go for things I want to use in the kitchen. My favorite holiday and birthday presents have been a pasta maker (the hand-crank Italian model), the sausagemaker and meat grinder attachments for our KitchenAid, and a Wolf Range. Is a rotisserie in my future? Does anyone have one? Does the food really come out juicy and with a nice crust. Do you use it for all kinds of meats, fish, and vegetables? Please let me know how you use it / if you like it. Thanks!

HEIDTH , I love the idea of the eyedropper. I find that I spend a great deal of time turning a bottle/jar SLOWLY, having nothing come out, and then I tip it just a LITTLE bit more and it all pours out. Katie Loeb, I have never seen fat free half and half. I see that you live in Philly. When I lived there I always used Light Cream in my coffee. That is not available out here either. You either get Heavy Cream or half and half. That just does not make sense to me. markk, using rice to make "creamed" soup sounds interesting. I have also added buttermilk which gives the soup, in this case Roasted Butternut Squash Soup, a nice creamy tang. I also like the fact that buttermilk is low fat. Doodad, how would you oven fry chunks of chicken for a Chinese dish?(That is what started my idea for this thread. I didn't want to deep fry the chicken for Black Bean Chicken. Sony, I never thought of adding water to hamburgers, but it makes sense. I make the most amazing meatballs. It is a recipe for the meatballs from Rao's Restaurant in New York City that was in a Fine Cooking magazine. They are so very light and full of flavor. Thanks for all of the good tips. I hope to see more.

I just got home from work and I haven't had time to go through the many responses here. I am going to try to get to them after dinner. (A salad and Porcini Ravioli... yum) I wanted to respond to you dockhl. I'm game for going through A New Way to Cook. I have only made one dish from there, Chicken with Sherry Vinegar Sauce. It was recommended by a fellow eGulleteer. Sorry, at the moment I can't remember who. The dish was really good. I would like to try more of the recipes in that book. It also sounds like I need to look through it more carefully for good tips. I have put that on my schedule for what to do over Winter Break. My favorite things to read, cookbooks.

In the quest to make things healthier when it won't detract from a recipe, do you find that certain things do not make a difference in the taste of a dish? Instead of frying eggplant, I slice it, brush it with olive oil, salt, and pepper and roast it in a hot oven. Not only is it easier, it also tastes better. It makes a dynamite chicken eggplant parmesan. Instead of deep frying tortilla strips for tortilla soup, I buy good, thin chips and just crumble them onto the top of the soup. We love the chorizo that we get at the Mexican stores, but do not like the huge chunks of fat and the unidentifiable pieces of ??????? that are always in there. We have started making our own. We can add fat as well as seasonings to fit our taste. We also can eat it about as often as we want. The other chorizo and egg tacos with the fat dripping down to our elbows, amazingly delicious as it was, we figured that we should ration it to every 4-6 months. (a number I just threw out there which never really worked) There are times when I use olive oil and butter to saute things instead of all butter. I also will pan fry things like cutlets instead of frying them covered in oil like the recipe calls for. So, do you have changes that you make that you can share? I am particulary interested in alternatives to deep frying things that do not have coatings. ( like uncoated chicken chunks in a Chinese recipe) By the way, I know that some changes just don't make the dish worth eating. I am interested in the ones that work. Thanks!

C.sapidus, I must have had a real brain fade, or reading page after page to catch up on all that I had missed was not done very carefully. I actually had plans to turn the non-existant Black Bean Beef into Black Bean Chicken. You just made it easier for me. Thanks so much!

Gee, you're sick for a few weeks and then spend a long time trying to catch up with everything that has been going on. There sure has been a lot of great eating. C. sapidus, I was particulary interested in your Black Bean Beef. It looks exactly like a dish that we used to get at a restaurant that sadly is no longer in business. (not closed because the food wasn't good or that people didn't like the place... the owner/chef got tired of never having any time for himself and also found that he just couldn't find a lot of reliable help, so of course he worked even more) I have been looking up recipes for that dish and have found many different versions, many just calling for "beef, cut into thin slices". I would prefer something more specific. Are there some basic hints that you can give to make your recipe? Thanks!

Perhaps this is somewhere hiding in one of the other threads but I couldn't find what I am really after. I am thinking that there should be something to nibble on while doing all of the finishing touches you need to do with a meal as big as Thanksgiving's. I am trying to come up with some appies that people will enjoy but will not compete with a huge meal. A leek and goat cheese tart was the first thing that I thought of and quickly dismissed it as overkill. I already do a ton of stuffing. (Just love the stuff.) (Grin) I also am doing two different pies for dessert. Another crust dish just doesn't seem to fit. The meal is starting with some sort of butternut squash soup and ending with dessert. I don't want to make something too heavy for an appie because I want everyone to make it through the meal. What can people nibble on while waiting for the bird? What is light, yummy, and pretty easy to make?

Made Ce'nedra's Chicken Claypot Rice for dinner last night. It was easy to make, really delicious, and wonderfully comforting. The leftovers are going to make the best lunches to heat up at work. Thanks Ce'nedra for sharing your recipe. I want to mention a great recipe that is in this month's Bon Appetite. Lemon Roasted String Beans with Marcona Almonds. They are amazing. I use extra lemon zest and extra lemon juice. (I really like lemon.) The dish is so good that I have been making it at least once a week. I have even made a meal of that alone. Tonight it wil be a seared ahi salad. Really looking forward to it. May need to start sooner than I had planned. I cannot look at this thread without getting far too hungry.

I was totally unfamiliar with nem nuong paste, so I "Googled" it. Found lots of different versions and discussions. Ce'nedra, it sounds like you can buy the meat mixture already prepared. I am assuming that you go to a Vietnamese grocery store. Has anyone made their own? I found some recipes on Google. I am looking at similarities. I should probably know this, but what is potato starch. Can cornstarch be used instead? Thanks for any help.

Forgot to mention... rooftop 1ooo, would you like to adopt another daughter?

MiFi, Where did you get those gorgeous sausages! You sure cooked them up to a wonderful color. You can taste the crispness of the skin just by looking at them. Ribollita. We discovered that the first time we went to Tuscany. I liked it so much that I ordered it everywhere we went, even though it was June and on its way to being really hot. Every time I make it, I use a different recipe, because I haven't quite captured what I remember from Italy. The soups have all been very good, but I am still searching which is a lot of fun. What recipe did you use for your version of ribollita? I now need to find sometihing to munch on. This thread is dangerous to look at right before a meal. Actually, it is pretty dangerous any time of the day. Grumbing stomach... mouth watering...

As far as the "Chicken Soup Remedy Soup" is concerned... I call mine Jewish/Chinese Penicillin. I like to use homemade stock but of course there are times when I run out. Everything I add does make canned stock taste much better. Like many of you, I do add garlic and fresh ginger (which I marinate in sherry). I also add hot chili oil, some sesame oil, and hot chili paste. I add carrots sometime along the way. (shredded or thin diagonal slices) I like to add some cans of creamed corn, but I do that at the very end. If it cooks too much the creaminess just disappears. Then I usually also add a package of chicken gyoza which I get at Trader Joes. I like them in the soup better than potstickers because they are lighter, although if you cannot get gyoza, potstickers would probably work also. Right before serving I add chopped scallions/green onions. This is wonderful with or without adding any chicken.

monavano, your soups are spectacular. I am not familiar with Caldo Verde. Can someone recommend a good source for a recipe for that soup? Thanks!

Great topic, llc45! I thought that I had an answer "right off the bat", but now realize that I have a few to choose between. Perhaps the one that people ask for the most is a Fattoush salad. Whenever we take it to a pot-luck, take it to someone's house to add to a dinner, or serve it here, people always ask for the recipe. Actually when whenever we make it, we find it difficult not to eat most of it right then. By the way, we are always trying different brisket recipes, meeting with various results. The best is still what my dad used to make, which is more along the lines of an Eastern European pot-roasty brisket. We are looking for more of a smoked or BBQ style. How about sharing your most requested recipe? This could be fun!

David, Please, please, please... I just love fired oysters and can't find them often enough around here. How did you make them? Thanking you in advance and tasting them already.

For a totally differnet type of book... The New Food Lover's Tiptionary "More Than 6,000 Food and Drink Tips, Secrets, Shortcuts, and Other Things Cookbooks Never Tell You" by Sharon Tyler Herbst. She is the person who wrote The New Food Lover's Cmpanion. It is a great book for information, tips, interesting facts, how to ________, etc.. It is really helpful, fun to just open up to a page and read, and... it is full of recipes.

dharold, If you have access to the Amazon in the U.S. (I am curious as to what you get when you type in Amazon.com , although I would imagine that you could go for Amazon U.S.) Anyway... Amazon here has the three books I mentioned with the "Look Inside" feature. You can read quite a lot of each book. They have the Table of Contents and then a list of all of the recipes that appear in the book. Then there is quite a bit of the text ( as in up to twenty some pages) You can get a feel for his writing. In Outlaw Cook, if you go up to P.10 you can read the chapter I mentioned in an earlier post where he gets his first piece of cooking equipment from a thrift shop. As a housewarming present he gets it for a great price as well as instructions on how to use/take care of it from the owner of the shop. It's a really great chapter. I think that you may get hooked. Two of the books are available at very reasonable prices. Outlaw Cook is rediculously expensive which I don't quite get, even for a book that is out of print. I would imagine that there are other ways to find that one. You mentioned coming to the the States. If you want to save some money, you can always get the books shipped to where you are going, if you are visiting someone.

Sounds like a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. Please let us know what you find. Thanks!

dharold, I don't know if you know John Thorne who writes books with his wife, Matt Lewis Thorne. The three I have are Outlaw Cook, Serious Pig An American Cook in Search of His Roots, and Pot on the Fire Further Exploits of a Renegade Cook. He is an enchanting author. Many of his stories come from Simple Cooking, a food newletter that he writes with his wife. From the beginning of his first book, Outlaw Cook, where he tells you about how he got his first piece of cooking equipment, an 8-inch cast iron frying pan, you get hooked. His books make you feel like your have pulled up a chair and you are listening to someone telling you about his life and his passions. You really want to keep listening to him. Throughout his books there are many, many recipes, not inserted as just recipes, but told as an integral part of the story. I would suggest reading Outlaw Cook first, to get a feeling for who he is and how he got to where he is. I find that I can open any of his books, start reading, and also start to smile.

Does anyone know if the 25th Anniversary edition of The Silver Palate Cookbook has been changed in any way from the original? Have any of the recipes been updated, made healthier by today's standards, etc. I have always been told that that cookbook is a must have, in its own way, classic. I do have The New Basics by the same people, and really like it, sometimes more for reading than even for the recipes. So, what's the scoop on the new "Palate"?

It is always so much fun coming back to this thread after not being able to log on for a while and seeing all of the wonderful meals that everyone has made. The only problem... I get too hungry. I am about to find out if all of the kind lessons I received on how to quote a post will work. I looked up "calabacitas" in Recipe Gullet and could not find anything. Emily, could you please let me know where to look for that recipe? Thanks so much!

Wanted to say a quick "thank you" to everyone who wrote to me, explaining how to quote something from a thread. We just got in from a few days staying with friends up in wine country (AHHHHHHHHH), so I haven't had a chance to really read through them. It does look like there is more than one way to go about it. I am looking forward to working it out. Thanks again!

sisefromm, I don't know which of those dishes I want to taste first. The risotto is mouth watering. The duck breast and gnocchi are just beautiful. I love lemon in any shape or form. I definitley need to have some of those gnocchi. Gnocchi Parisenne... could you write how you make them? I can see some kind of herb in them. They have a beautiful golden crispiness to them. How ws the Saint-Georges? What year was it? What a wonderful wine!