viva

Holy cow! Order pizza. Massive amounts of deli takeout. Seriously, I have no good ideas, just responding to empathize with your pain. Feeding 18 with 2 hours to prepare!

The Easter Pie sounds delightful. I'm tempted to make one for breakfast at some point during the Easter weekend...

Thanks guys!

Traditionally I like the avocado, onion, jalapenos, lime, and salt simplicity, but I also like a little surprise of sliced grapes or pomegranate seeds for a little sweet to balance the spice.

Bacon fat will definitely be my next experiment. I can't believe I just ate a whole head of cauliflower. Urf.

Well, I was too impatient to wait for a reply, so I went ahead with a butter and garlic-infused EVOO combo, s&p, cauliflower & sliced red onion. Delicious. I might have roasted a bit too long for the little crunchies/gibbles, they're pretty dark brown, but the larger slices are just right and totally enjoyable. Am eating with spinach fettuccine for some color, along with a little grated reggiano. I think I'll be finishing the whole head of cauliflower tonight. I've never done that before in my life, but it does cook down quite a bit!

Could one use bacon fat or a butter/EVOO blend for roasting? After peering curiously at this thread for the last 6 months, I'm giving it a go today. Have the over preheating as I type. I like that Arizona provides 90% of the US's winter vegetables (lettuce, broccoli, and cauliflower!) - easy to find cheap, fresh stuff.

Does anyone have any good plant information sites that they could point me to? I was a downtown Chicago native for 15 years (read: no plants, no patio, no yard, no nothing), but now live in the Arizona heat - but the 15 years of condo living has left my green thumb sorely underdeveloped. I'd love to start experimenting with gardening herbs, fruits, & vegetables, but I have the feeling that not just anything will withstand 120 degrees and baking sun. Anywhere you guys can direct me for more information? Many thanks...

Are there any new brands that are in the works or that you will be importing that you can share with us? My Brazil project is over, so I won't be able to do any suitcase-importing for quite a while, would love some new sources/brands in the US to buy from. You've got me curious, might try the glass test with the bottles I've stocked up at home...

If anyone could find Germana in the United States, I would be happy. My family has discovered my stash and they like it, so they keep drinking it, damn them.

I have granite tile countertops and backsplash, and it works very nicely. The tile is the 12x12 black & chocolate speckled, and the grout lines are smooth black, 1/16". Only occasionally do I have a problem with flour getting caught in the grout lines, and its usually nothing that a good wet rag can't clean up. It gives me that beautiful granite look at fraction of the cost over a solid granite slab. The only other countertop option I had considered was an acid-stained concrete countertop, but my house is a tract home and not custom, and concrete was just a little too eccentric for my developer/contractor. Granite tiles they understood! For flooring, the kitchen (and well, whole downstairs) is a 7-layer engineered hardwood hickory in wider 4" planks. It's a rich caramel red brown with a lot of black speckles, looks more rustic than a lot of other engineered hardwoods. I think that in addition to being lower-cost, the engineered hardwood is better in the dry heat of Arizona, where I might have to deal with a lot of warping in regular solid hardwood. In a dream world I would have the super-wide plank reclaimed barn wood, but my choice makes me happy in reality.

I'm completely addicted to the Krinkle Cut Kettle Chips, both the lightly salted and the dill & sour cream varieties. IMHO, way better than regular Kettle Chips. I know it's wrong to replace entire meals with chips, but I find myself doing it anyway. They're just so...crunchy. Another favorite that I can't find since relocating to AZ is Old Dutch. Damn fine potato chip.

hi moosnsqrl - I'm not sure which thread ended in October, but there's one that started in October and we've been keeping up to date through February here. It's got a lot of great recommendations in it that should help you on your way to having fun in the sun, including fine dining and authentic Mexican recs, and my own proclivities regarding Los Dos Molinos and Barrio Cafe are well documented. As far as attire goes, Phoenix tends to be more casual given the weather and vacation/resort atmosphere. Dressy casual will serve you well at almost any of the nice restaurants, with the possible exception of Mary Elaine's. Open-toed shoes are a must. It's 89 and sunny today! I just tried a new place last week called Vu, it's at the Hyatt Regency at Gainey Ranch - it was fantastic. Very simple dishes, but with a lot of different and very unusual flavor combinations. There's also a couple of outstanding infused vodkas - a blueberry and a pine - amongst others. Have fun!

LBNoble, thanks for linking to the pastry topic - actually your topic was the one that made me think "hey, where's the general Easter topic?" Anyway, have you thought about mini cupcakes or mini bundt cakes? Cupcakes rock and you could do different cake types, frostings & decorations to make it fun. Just a thought... Liz, this will be my first time grilling lamb, although I'm doing "rack-of" instead of "leg-of". I'm a little nervous too, but I figure since it is on the grill, really my responsibility is to prepare and marinate/season the meat, and let the boys cook it on the grill. Gets them out of the kitchen and also lets them actually do something in preparation for the meal!

Easter being 2.5 weeks away, and having received the flight itineraries of a horde of relatives who will be descending upon me and demanding to be fed...the desert Southwest is so popular this time of year! I thought it might be time to start planning a menu for Easter Sunday brunch. Easter has always been one of the laxest holidays for our family in terms of things that "simply must" be on the menu (unlike Thanksgiving, where scores of dishes are cooked because one family member will be severely put out if something isn't there). All the kiddies are all grown up, so I will have a bloody mary bar to kick things off with some cheeses, crostini, pates, and assorted little dips. Also have a recipe for a nice chilled spring pea and mint soup for a light soup course. It's already getting nice & warm here in Phoenix, so the grill will play a major role in cooking for Easter to keep some of the heat outside. I'm thinking grilled rack of lamb and grilled quails with proscuitto and figs for the main course, with sides of roasted potatoes with lemon salt, Martha's mac & cheese 101 (my forever "must-have" at every holiday), asparagus with a lemon dipping sauce, and carrots (which may be very simple as I have not found a recipe for these yet that is appropriate to spring, but I know I want them for the orange color on the plate). For dessert, a chocolate raspberry pavlova for the chocolate crowd and some mini lemon-blueberry tartlets served with limoncello for the non-chocolate crowd. So, what's on your menu for Easter this year? Any traditions in your family on what to cook? Any traditions in your family for what to do on Easter (have an egg hunt, wear white hats & gloves, lounge around drinking bloody mary's...)? Inquiring minds want to know...

There's probably more crap *in* those hot dogs than there is on that guy's hands. Just sayin'... I'm probably on NulloModo's end of the spectrum. Unless it is blatantly dropped on the ground in front of me, has hair or other body parts on it, or smells/looks funky, I'll probably eat it. Regarding the floor... if it's my floor, the 5 second rule applies. This approach has only come back to bite me in the ass once, while in a small village in Peru. They'd been without power for a few days, and I decided to eat the chorizo and cheese pizza. Who knows, it could have been the sangria served in a shady-looking bottle too. Tasted mighty fine, however.

I read somewhere that the alkalinity of the baking soda is required to loosen the skins off hazelnuts.

There's another wine bar on Campbell that's a lot of fun called Il Postino. It's in the old Arcadia post office, and when the weather is right they open the big old post office doors so you can enjoy the day. If you get stuck skipping the Roaring Fork for dinner, they do have a happy hour M-F that starts at 4 PM, and you can sample the huckleberry margaritas (delightful) and a good selection of appetizers that will give you a nice feel for the restaurant without actually dining there. I actually prefer the happy hour, it is *very* reasonably priced.

Tuna casserole.

Not very close. "ll" is a separate letter in Spanish, and I don't know of anywhere where "ll" is pronounced like "l". "ll" = English "y" or "j", not "l". Anyone disagree? ← A friend who was raised in Ecuador and speaks Ecuadorian Spanish pronounces the "ll" like "ly", with the "l" being very soft but still distinguishable. She actually corrected me when I pronounced tortilla "tor-tee-ya" and said it should be like 'tor-ti-lya". I do not know if this is unique to Ecuador?

so if it starts with an "e" it's pronounced "i" and vice versa? how <i> helpful</i> ← A pneumonic phrase to help in remembering "ei" and "ie" German pronunciation is: EIsenhower's nIEce ← Another helpful phrase taught to me by my German teacher and still muttered when I'm about to order a German wine... Schiessen is "to shoot, " Scheissen is "to shit".

Yes, Roaring Fork is just north of Scottsdale Fashion Square, and Cowboy Ciao is in Old Town Scottsdale. Enjoy! They're both big eats. Right around the corner from Cowboy Ciao is a wine bar called Kazimierz. There's no sign on the door, but if you ask, someone will show you the entrance. It gets taken over by the young-and-scantily-clad crowd after 10 PM, but before then is a lovely wine bar with an outstanding wine selection. It's a nice place to go right before dinner at Cowboy Ciao. Next door to Cowboy Ciao is Sea Saw, which is very amazing Japanese - check out the menu on your way.

As determined by New Yorker Ed Levine in his new book Pizza: A Slice of Heaven, after spending 1 year eating over 1,000 slices of pizza, Phoenix has now beaten out New York for the best pizza in the US, served by Pizzeria Bianco. This, of course, made the front page of the Arizona Republic. Read it here. New Yorkers, is it possible? In the print version of the article, the 4 of the next top 5 pizzerias are NYC: Pizzeria Napoletana (NY), Di Fara Pizza (Brooklyn), Nick's Pizza (NY), Sally's Apizza (Connecticut), and Totonno's Pizzeria (NY). Being originally from Chicago, it upsets me that no Chicago pizzerias were mentioned. But I take pride in my new hometown of Phoenix. Go Chris!

I always enjoy watching Mario on ICA. He always looks like he's having fun, always looks genuinely concerned that the judges like his food, love how red his face gets when they compliment him. Just seems like an all-around good guy. Flay, on the other hand... not so much.

In order of preference (I call them by their real names, which of course are the names I sold them under when I was a Girl Scout): 1 Samoas 2 Do-Si-Do's 3 Thin Mints 4 Tagalongs Remembering back to my Girl Scout days, I always used to try and find a trend between what cookies people bought and what their personalities would be. There was one guy that always bought an enormous amount of the shortbread cookies and nothing else, and I always figured he was boring because he didn't buy anything with chocolate. Such early prejudices as a child.