BrentKulman

Here's a recipe I picked up from Barbecue University's Steve Raichlen, who strips the husks back and grills the corn over direct heat to caramelize the kernels. Grilled Corn with Cilantro Butter 4 ears corn in the husks 6 T butter, at room temperature 3 T chopped fresh cilantro 2 cloves minced garlic freshly ground black pepper 1. Set up grill for direct grilling and preheat to high. 2. Strip back the corn husks, as you would peel a banana, exposing the kernels. Bring the husks together beneath the ear of corn to make a sort of handle and tie with butcher's string. 3. Place the butter, cilantro, garlic and pepper in a bowl and beat with a wooden spoon until smooth and creamy. 4. Lightly brush the corn ears with the butter and arrange on the grill, positioning the ears in such a way that the husks are away from the fire. Place a folded sheet of foil under the husks to keep them from burning. Grill the corn until the kernels are browned on all sides, turning as needed, brushing the corn with more butter.

I attended a cooking demonstration today by Blake Hartwick of Charlotte's Bonterra Restaurant at the Matthews Community Farmers' Market in Matthews, NC. Bonterra was recently cited by Bon Appetit as one of its "splurge worthy" restaurants in America. Anyway, Hartwick prepared a wonderfully creative White Chocolate and Lavender Risotto and paired it with homemade Peach Ice Cream. Here is the recipe for the risotto: 1.5 oz. butter 1/2 lb. Arborio Rice 1 vanilla bean 1 pt. heavy cream 7/8 qt. milk 3/4 lb. white chocolate 1/2 T lavender Heat cream and milk in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Scrape out vanilla bean seeds and add to the mixture. Reserve. In a braising pan, melt butter and add arborio rice. Saute over low/medium heat until rice is well coated. Add 1/3 of liquid mixture to rice and stir constantly until liquid is incorporated. Repeat two more times with remaining liquid. Cook until rice is al dente. Add lavender. Can be served on its own or paired with peach ice cream. Serves 4-6, depending on whether you pair it with ice cream. (Note - if using dried lavender, add it to the liquid mixture at the same time as you add the vanilla seeds.) A few personal thoughts on this recipe. It could be paired with vanilla or any fruit-flavored ice cream. Black cherry or strawberry come to mind. Also, chef Hartwick prepared the rice al dente. I had not previously tasted risotto prepared al dente but the texture of the dish worked. Cooking the risotto to a more tender state would also work, but you might want to add the liquid in four equal measures rather than three to make sure you had enough (or increase the amount of the liquid by 1/3, just to be safe.)

Gotta have an RC Cola to go with a moon pie. Since I haven't had that combo for quite a while and generally don't drink colas, I hadn't realized that RC Cola had become an endangered species.

Last night, we made a candlelight dinner to honor Julia. Rack of lamb a la moutarde - we painted the racks with a mayonnaise made of garlic, mustard, rosemary and olive oil. roasted them in a 500 degree oven for ten minutes, then topped them with fresh bread crumbs and butter and roasted for another 20 minutes at 400 degrees. (We hadn't done this for many years but the combination of mustard and rosemary is perfect with lamb.) Asparagus with sauce creme - steamed asparagus topped with a cream sauce; "first you make a roux" then mixed it with milk, cream and a touch of lemon juice (Who tops vegetables with thick cream sauces anymore? A nice nostalgic touch to remember when French cuisine reigned supreme.) Sauteed potatoes - cubed potatoes sauteed in butter (Basically, hash browns without the onions.) We were going to take pictures but by the time it was ready the thought had skipped our minds. Trust me, it was wonderful.

I visit the Long Island vineyards once a year when I am in the area. My three favorites, in order: Bedell Pellegrini Lenz Best wine: Bedell Cupola

In my earlier post, I noted that I thought that the old recipe I had was nearly identical to the linked recipe, only it called for different proportions of ingredients. I have always felt that the recipe I had was too sweet, although I don't remember having that complaint when I ate the cake at The Commissary. It now appears that the new recipe is still too sweet, even though it has less sugar than mine did. Although this goes back many years, something tells me that the true filling recipe for this cake has never been released to the public.

Here's another place to buy sausages and other Bavarian products: Stiglmeier Sausage Co.

This thread sent me searching for my old copy of The Commissary carrot cake recipe, which I obtained while living in Philadelphia in the late 1970s. I compared the two recipes, which were very close, and noted only a few discrepancies, primarily in the pecan cream filling. My recipe calls for 2 C sugar, 6 T flour, 1 t salt, 2 C heavy cream, 1/2 lb. unsalted butter, I 1/2 C pecans and 1 T vanilla. The preparation instructions are otherwise the same. For the cake, my recipe calls for 2 C less 2 T flour and confirms the notation at the bottom of the linked page that the amount of baking soda is 1 t. For what it's worth, I always felt that my recipe's pecan cream filling was sweeter than the restaurant's version, so the published recipe may in fact be better as well as more authentic. I'm posting what I have for those who may prefer a sweeter filling. In any event, I have never had a better carrot cake than The Commissary's and it was a sad day for Philadelphia when that restaurant closed (although I was long gone from the city by that time).

A little accounting help for you, gwilson: When a company closes a bunch of locations and/or downsizes, as Schlotzky's did, they will take a large write-off to reflect the costs associated with breaking leases, paying off accrued vacations and other employee severance costs, etc. Oftentimes, they will also use such events as an opportunity to mark down the value of any other assets on their balance sheet that are overstated, such as stale inventory and obsolete equipment. You would have to dig a little deeper to determine the operating loss that is comparable to the $199,000 loss in the previous period and the financial statements that would enable you to make that determination have not yet been released based on my quick review of their SEC filings.

I had fried green tomatoes frequently as a child in the 1960s. Based purely on my family experience, my hunch is that this dish was a staple of what is now called "soul food" in the Central Virginia piedmont. I have no idea how widespread geographically the dish was served but I suspect that it would be found at least throughout the mid-south, wherever fried foods were an important part of the diet. One thing I do recall was that our tomatoes were fried in a combination of flour and cornmeal until they were quite limp, unlike the firmer versions that are typically served these days in restaurants. It takes considerable skill with a frying pan to achieve a softer consistency without burning the tomatoes. I now wonder whether this was a personal preference of the cook or a regional variation of the dish.