Chris Amirault

Cassoulet -- clickety click.

Simple Tomato Sauce (with variations) Serves 4 as Main Dish. This is an extremely simple tomato sauce that's good for pizza, spaghetti, and other Italian-American basics. It's also very easy and fun for kids (though you may want to use the knife!). 1/4 c extra virgin olive oil 2 medium onions, chopped 4 garlic cloves, crushed 1 T anchovy paste (optional) 2 large (28 oz) cans crushed or ground tomatoes 3 bay leaves 1 T dried oregano, thyme, and/or basil salt and pepper to taste 1. Heat a large, thick pot over medium heat. When hot, add the oil. 2. Sauté the onions, stirring regularly, until they are translucent. You can brown them a little bit if you want a richer sauce. 3. Add the garlic and stir until the garlic has slightly browned. Be careful not to burn it! If you want to add the anchovy paste, do so here and stir to incorporate it. 4.Add your two cans of tomatoes, and then add the herbs, salt, and pepper. Stir it to incorporate the new ingredients. 5. When the sauce starts to bubble and pop, turn the heat down to low. You want intermittent bubbles popping every couple of seconds; if it's boiling away, it'll burn. Give it a good stir, scraping the bottom, every few minutes. In about an hour it will have melded and turned into a wonderful tomato sauce (but if the kiddies are impatient, you can serve it before then!). Serve with any kind of pasta, or use as a basic pizza sauce. Variations If you have some extra wine, toss it in just before the tomatoes. If you have some ends of parmagiano reggiano cheese, toss them in with the tomatoes. If you have an immersion blender, blend the sauce (hide the onions! ) once you've removed the bay leaves. Add sliced mushrooms with the herbs for a mushroom sauce. Add pitted olives, capers, the anchovy paste, and a good dose of red pepper for a simple putanesca sauce. Keywords: Easy, Sauce ( RG1438 )

My LeC is Gitanes blue, Andie? Who'da thunk it?!?

If we had it in RI, you'd have seen it in my foodblog, believe me!

I toldja people would find this fascinating, Stash! Thanks and keep up the detail!

Is it made of the same material as the dolsot?

Is that a joke, Chris? ← Yes, absolutely -- Linda Richman reference there flying overhead. Explaining a joke again... I think that part of what I'm trying to suggest here is that the danish v. bagel choice relies deeply on quality of said items, and I can imagine choosing one over the other based solely on that, and not on savory/sweet, etc. Hence the reference to the very un-NYC-bagel-y ABP "bagel."

Ok, let's see a dolsot cover being used, folks!

Click here for a post in my foodblog about Hellen Bakery on Route 246 in North Providence, a very fine source for Middle Eastern pastries, breads, and products. It's just north of Mineral Spring Ave.

menton1, your friend is full of shite. Jasper White, on the other hand, is right as rain -- as usual. And it's Water Fire, fyi.

It's bee-you-tee-full!

I'm ready. Lay it on me.

A nice cheese danish v. Au Bon Pain cinnamon crisp "bagels." Discuss amongst yourselves.

Yes. You are lucky. And I am envious.

This is a true fact.

Say more about creatine, Stash. Is it merely an additive? Does it occur naturally in other aspects of your diet? You know we all want before and after photos, right?

Well, it's high noon, so I'll close out this foodblog. You won't be able to post on this thread after this post. Thanks, again, to everyone for your great participation. You can keep it up by posting in the other eGullet forums. I'll see you there!

I don't know too much about that wine bottle bread. However, I do know where to post the query about it: in eG's very own Pastry and Baking forum! Here's the link to that thread.

Over in my foodblog, several members asked questions about this bread sculpture: I too would like to know more about that wine bottle bread. Way back upthread, Mitch (a.k.a. boulak) offered to tell more about the baking school ovens and answer other questions about the process. Since the blog will be closing soon, here's my request to him to please start a thread telling more about the school and the gear! Let's start with: how do they bake that bread with the wine bottle, without overheating the bottle and/or scorching the label? And how do the decorative bread doughs differ from regular doughs? ← I thought I'd get this started. What tips, ideas, and recipes do people have?

Methinks that Stash's trips to the gym may hold the key to these multimeals...!

Looking forward to this, Stash. I'd lend you my digital camera, except mine keeps murmuring, "No mas, no mas...." For the uninitiated, can you explain "professsional hobbit"?

Well, I think we've reached the end of this foodblog. Thanks, everyone, for your interest and enthusiasm! Here's to you: Cheers.

Well, the curried squash and lamb soup went over very well, surprisingly! Seems consistent with a relatively screw-up-free week of foodblogging! I got home and made dinner in 30 minutes flat. This is one of our go-to dishes, though with the price of scallops these days, I'm not sure how long that's going to last.... Started the evening with this fine little sancerre: Here are the scallops, which have been dried off with paper towels, kosher salted and white peppered: T of butter and T of EVOO into a pan over high heat; melt the butter until it stops hissing: Saute on one side: Then the other: Half a lemon squeezed into the pan to deglaze: Beets from the CSA tossed with black pepper and a tiny bit of aged rice vinegar: Place those scallops and beets on some mesclun, pour on the sauce, and you've got a fast and easy dinner:

Yep, you're right: mandarin orange, licorice, sugar, salt. It's pretty good! Perfect example: sausages with no fat. What's up with that? Thanks, Arne. I appreciate it. And, of course, you know that anyone with a Racilio Silvia must share the fundamentals of your coffee morality, don't you?

They're some sort of citrus peel, but I'm not sure exactly which kind of citrus. Not orange, at least. These citrus peels are sweetened, and I think also contain licorice (I seem to recall reading that from the ingredients). Apparently they're also good for stemming nausea. ← Sounds like we need a photo of what's in that bag, eh?