Eden

Ok here's the "Micro Batch": Thanks! I hope to try it out this weekend and per this thread I think I'll try it in one of my cute little tart pans

for "the only way" I think "l'unico modo" would be more probable.

If possible, make your wife get rid of the sister, it's her side of the family after all. That said, there are times when family is family & there's not a thing you can do about it but cope as best you can (and if you have a vengeful soul like mine deliberately include any ingredients you know she doesn't like, but the real guests do ) I agree that something like a stew or casserole is your best bet. a pan ful of mac & cheese or lasagne prepped in advance can easily be tossed in the oven while you prep a salad & dessert, serve drinks etc. And really think about whether it is worth sacrificing a days wages to work around this woman???

chefpeon, have you already broken this down into "small managable batch" proportions? I actually need a "big honkin' batch" at the end stage for many of my recipes, but always try them out in home sized portions first, and if someone else has already done the math I don't need to reinvent the wheel

while I love tapas they don't seem to me to be a unified enough idea for a cook-off, maybe if you defined it as bread based tapas/bruschette?I'm all for canning/preserves - it meets the interesting technique requirement for me. Or else trying paella (though mine would be scandalously seafood free ) since we're entering that lovely season, what about fall/winter soups (squash/pumpkin if you want to be more specific?), or timbales/timballi ? so many cook-offs so little time

Up at 105th & Evanston there's a divey looking chinese place that's rotated owners fairly regularly for a while (last round was a thai/chinese combo) and the new sign says something like "North shore hawaiian food" coming soon. If they bring malasadas with them (and don't look like they violate any health codes) I'll be a happy woman!

take a look at Wendy wark's gluten free flour mix you'd have to sub out the cornstarch, but I've found it works pretty darn well for my friends with similar allergies in terms of adding bread products back into thier lives.

Last night was another foray into the bounty of Italian Renaissance recipes. Here's a photo of a salad we made from Christoforo d Messisbugo's 'Libro de arte coquinaria' of 1548. Listed among the menu items at the begining of the book is an entry for "salad of endive radish, rampion & citron". As you can see, we used both red and "white" endive, which was just lovely as a contrast. note that lacking rampions we used daikon radish as I had read that rampions are similar to white radishes. (If anyone who has tried them wants to give me a better description please do!) In place of citrons we used lemons. though we cut them ultra fine they still were a little difficult to eat because of the rind. Next time I will either parboil them and cool first, or soak them in lemon juice for an hour or two to try & soften the rind up so they will be closer to the texture of real fresh citrons. (wish I could just mail order citrons!) We dressed each component in it's own bowl & then plated to be sure they were dressed nicely but also looked pretty...

Thank you Adam! I confess I have been intimidated by these bag puddings, and your demo makes them seem far more accesible. May I suggest a variant filling for another day? I think the tasty filling from Digby's not-quite-contemporary Pippin Pudding would work perfectly with your recipe: A PIPPIN-PUDDING Take Pippins and pare, and cut off the tops of them pretty deep. Then take out as much of your Apple as you can take without breaking your Apple, then fill your Apple with pudding-stuff, made with Cream, a little Sack, Marrow, Grated bread, Eggs, Sugar, Spice and Salt; Make it pretty stiff. Put it into the Pippins; lay the tops of the Pippins upon the Pippins again, stick it through with a stick of Cinnamon. Set as many upright in your dish as you can: and so fill it up with Cream, and sweeten it with Sugar and Mace; and stew them between two dishes. pulled from The Project Gutenberg edition of Digby

does this mean it's OK to eat people, as long as they're not doing anything important? I'm a happy little carnivore, but as many here have already said - I try to make sure the animals I eat have lived a peaceful happy life, terminated quickly & humanely. I do think we have a responsibility to the animals we raise for food to make sure they don't suffer. To me that's the price tag for the ability to reason (more or less ) and the capacity for empathy.

That seems like about the right date. In the Catalan 'Libre Guisados' of 1529 (a copy of a book from 1520) there are 3 recipes with the spelling Escabeche: one for fish, one for rabbit, one for eggplant. Looking at earlier sources we have the following: In the 14th c. Catalan 'Libre di Sent Sovi', the dish is called Escabeyg, also scabeig and esquabey In the various 14th c. Italian cooking manuscripts we find schibecce, "pesci a schibeci", and minor variations of the spelling schibezie. And FYI you can find a translation of a 13th century Andalusian recipe for Sikbâj here.

Here's a translation by yours truly of the original Text from our good friend Scappi: To make tart with diverse materials from Napoli called “Pizza” Get 6 oz of sweet almonds, peeled, and 4 ounces of sweet pine nuts peeled, and 3 ounces of freh dates lacking seed and 3 ounces of fresh figs, 3 ounces of raisins without seed and all things ground in the mortar. Spatter with a turn of rosewater such that if forms like paste. Add with these materials 8 fresh raw egg-yolks, 6 ounces of sugar, 1 ounce of pounded cinnamon, an ounce and a half of must, made into powder, 4 ounces of rosewater and make what comes of everything into a composition. Have the baking pan with a layer of pasta royal, and the tart layered about not too thick and put the composition in the pan, mix with 4 oounces of butter, make it no more tall than 1 finger and without a cover. Make it cook in the oven and serve it hot and cold as you please. In this pizza you can put every sort of seasoning.

To me this is different. In most of the cases you describe, I would not have a problem because they are people you have known for some time. I am happy to shake hands with the owners/staff of some of my favorite local restaurants when we meet because there is already a friendly relationship established. I don't have a problem with human contact borne of genuine friendlyness developed over time, but strangers don't get to touch me - period. I LOVE that your chinese restaurant staff was looking out for your back - that's just sweet!

Something they don't make clear is if the study broke results down by types of restaurants, which I think would show VERY different results than what they gave in the article. I'm solidly in the "don't touch me" camp, but I also don't frequent "family restauraunts" or chain restaurants, which I think it the target market for this article at least. The last time I got forced to eat at a Chili's it was obvious the waiter would have done the hand on the shoulder game if I hadn't made it pretty clear by my expression that I'd break his kneecaps if he even tried...

One of my compatriots revisited the Pizza recipe last week, and just sent me a photo, so here's what our 1570 Pizza looks like (bottom right) The lidded pie is a Tarte of Flessche, with pork, chicken, currants, etc.

We saw one of these in Padua this Spring. I think it's like the Chinese restaurants here in the US that also serve a hamburger or a steak so if you go to dinner with the family Uncle Lou doesn't have to eat that "weird foreign food". I'm guessing this would be so that Uncle Luigi can find something safe on the menu too?

Since we were feeling tired & lazy last night (and wanted to clear some odds & ends out of the fridge) we opted for bruschette for dinner. 1) chopped fresh tomato from the farmers market mixed with pesto. Classics are classic for a reason... 2) chopped leftover roast chicken, and a few little pieces of asparagus over some herbed cheese spread (drizzled with pesto/tomato dribbles from the bowl I mixed the toms in) for a lovely "main dish " bruschetta 3) tapenade. this actually went best with the wine of all 3 flavors Wine: Chateau Ste Michelle '01 Cabernet Sauvignon, Columbia Valley dessert: home-made vanilla ice-cream with Fran's ephemera chocolate sauce

Yes it is. They're very good and have a nice mix of traditional and unusual flavors, plus you get to enjoy your gelato in Lenin's shadow FYI I'm told that the Fremont Torrefazzione will close it's doors on sept 20th. I assume the others will close at the same time.

Here's a first try at an early Scottish recipe Adam PM'd to me: from Lady Castlehill's manuscript (pre-1712) 'To make a rice florendine' This is basically an eggy rice-pudding with minced apples and rosewater baked in puff pastry. It was perfectly nice, but I would do it differently if I revisit it. First of all, it should be completely covered by puff pastry, the parts that I had exposed became a little dry on the top, and secondly I would bake it at a lower temp to avoid scrambling the egg mixture if possible. It's also really important to spice it heavily so the flavors still come through both baking & being wrapped in a crust... quite good with fresh vanilla ice-cream though! Adam I love the color & texture combinations on those pancakes!

Maybe it's the phase of the moon? I was making ashak for dinner yesterday & using my regular pasta recipe, which has behaved beautifully in the past, but for some reason was really sticky yesterday, I kept adding flour & adding flour & finally tried rolling but it just ended up looking kind of cheesy textured, and sad, not beautiful & smooth like pasta should, so we finally gave up, and just made the ashak with wonton wrappers because otherwise we weren't going to have dinner... I'll try again later in the week, when I hope the astrological portents will be more favorable

Modifying Foodman's idea a little, we tried Alton's new vanilla ice-cream recipe and swirled through some sweet raspberry coulis This recipe is much better than Alton's last vanilla ice-cream. Really nice texture (so far, we haven't let it harden yet) and great flavor. This stuff is like the best commercial vanilla you've ever had. it's not as intensely vanilla as say the vanilla sorbet Bill made for me last week with several fresh vanilla pods, but it's really good, and a perfect base for building up other flavors. I got Bill one of the whisks with a thermometer built in for his birthday & he's been going crazy with custard based ice-creams ever since - my life is so rough

It's also available in the freezer case at the Souk in Pike Place Market at least some of the time.

sounds like the pioneer square location has gone downhill since my day (7+ years ago - wow!) I will have to make a pilgrimage to try the location on 3rd one of these days.

whether you like "sour" i.e. cultured butter or not is purely a matter of taste, but the water oozing out sounds like you didn't press your butter after initial churning. Traditionally this is done with wooden butter paddles. The grooves in the paddles allow the water to run out away from the butter as you work it.

Interesting, the gnudi/nudi I'm familiar with (tuscan) are made with ricotta & spinach, but not pate choux. So named (nudes) because they're basically naked ravioli Where was your chef from? My italian aquaintances from other regions all look at me funny when I refer to them by that title, so I've been assuming it was a Tuscan thing. Eden