Eden

Thanks for the heads up I will try to be patient then & wait to sow the purslane till it's a bit warmer. FYI my mache (corn salad) is already popping up & thinking about needing to be thinned out.

Your SO's butterfly cookies sound like exactly what I'm looking for. should you happen to notice a brand name or the like I'd be very grateful.

So I did some poking around both here & on the web in general and can't find what I'm looking for, so I'm hoping someone here will be able to help. It seems to me that there ought to be MC Escher-like cookie cutters out there to save on dough and for general coolness. they don't have to be super intricate or even match each other necessarily, they should just interlock nicely, and I'd prefer non christmas themed patterns so they were more usable year round. Has anyone found anything along these lines?

I had initially decided not to make cassoulet this year, and thus not started any confit etc, but on a whim decided to make lazy cassoulet for this weekend using prepurchased duck confit and sausages. Never again. It was not actually bad, and if I didn't know how outstanding it could be I'd be much more forgiving, but it was just eh - overwhelmingly porky and a bit bland I bought good sausages, so they weren't a big detractor. The confit however just did not add significant duckyness to the dish not to mention that in MY recipe the duck gets salted with fun spices before confiting... Also I used beans from castelnaudary instead of my usual soissons and I can't tell if they just don't absorb flavor as well cause they're so much smaller or if it was that the flavor they absorbed wasn't as intense... I'm making a second batch tomorrow and trying to figure out how I can perk it up... (I used the last of my duck stock up making the beans so that's out)

Per a couple gardening sites wild purslane is invasive but the "gerden" and "golden" purslanes (upright varieties) are not. Also they apparently have no tolerance for freezing so are unlikely to overwinter in our area... I agree with tsquare even if the purple beans don't stay purple once you cook them they look so cool in the garden they're still worth growing. FYI those purple carrots when sauteed with the classic butter, brown sugar & Tabasco make for a lovely purple sauce which looks stunning on the plate.

I wonder if the purple beans would keep their color if steamed rather than boiled? as long as your beds are reasonably soft for most of those 12" I think the carrots should do fine. We're growing the little round 1" carrots because we don't yet have good soil for more than a few inches down (each year it gets a little better, but we basically started with sand over gravel/glacial till...) One of the favas is a whole inch tall this morning It's cute - now that my seedlings are poking up you can look at where the line of arugulas begin to peter out & know exactly how far the sunlight extends into the veggie bed. I need to put a marker there so I know to put shady items like lettuce past that point from now on.... Has anyone grown purslane in our area? I got a couple seed packets on spec because it's supposed to be super high in Omega3s...

Thanks! I've added Mood to my list of cafes, and I'm sure my husband will appreciate that last detail Sacra di San Michele looks beautiful! I thought the Palazzina at Stupinigi was closed for restauration through the end of 2008? Did I misread that or did they finish early? I know there are several other royal palaces I can visit but this one was at the top of my list...

"Plant onion seed as soon as the ground can be worked in the spring " Apparently they take quite a while to mature - about 5 months per Seeds of Change

our favas are barely peeking little tips of green above the soil so far but I have faith. There's also what looks like a cardoon coming back - which surprised me because they did NOT do well last year, I think I'm doing something wrong... the mache and arugula are both coming in, and all the chives we scattered under the roses are popping up. I just bought some purslane seeds to try as welj, and am impatiently waiting for tomoto starts because I already know what I want to grow If you come across "Isis Candy" starts I highly recommend it! I love this time of year - every time I walk outside there's something new coming up.

Quinn's was certainly hopping with foodies last night

Did they move from up by Northgate, or is this a 2nd location?

thanks for the reminder! We are in mad seed buying & garden planning mode in the pile are two types of arugula, mache, some lettuce, marble sized 'Romeo' & 'Parisian Market' carrots, romanesco zucchini, fava beans, creeping thyme & a ton of edible flowers I've also been having fun the bare root department this month: We just transplanted a raspberry cane from a friends garden and put two blueberries in a big pot, there's a black currant waiting to be planted once we figure out where best to place it, and I still need to find a huckleberry to replace the one that died last summer Oh and we just started two additional strawberry beds This summer is going to rock!

De Laurenti's in the freezer section, probably PFI as well.

Just to add to the "it's not just the USA" info, I came across this article from Italy today.

I've been thinking about doing this lately myself - not for asian restaurants, but in general. With winter upon us I frequently really want a cup of tea to defrost me a bit when I first walk into a restauraunt, but so many places here are serving Tazo teas now, which I can't stand*. I'm happy to pay full price, I just don't want to drink that stuff, and I don't drink coffee so that's not an alternative. Do y'all really think it's disrespectful/rude when what you're rejecting is not something special they've selected, but just the cheap mass marketed stuff? *When I want black tea I want actual tea, and when I want an herbal tea I want something simple like camomile or mint without a bunch of ginseng & lemon grass & licorice root messing it up!

Ouch! I wonder what they thought you ordered? I'm looking forward to trying the traditional Bicerin, but if it happens to be cold one night I may ask them to make me one ala Kropotkin I have to say I'm surprised at how few guidebooks cover the area, much less in depth. I have a list of things to see/eat a mile long between suggestions here & from the officiial Tourism Website, but if you were to go based on a guidebook, you'd see the shroud and a royal palace or two, eat some chocolate and go home

a whole list of reasons: chocolate of course (the ChocoPass which Divina mentions, was one of the first items we put into our planning budget ) also one of the finest egyptian museums in the world, a love of baroque architecture, a desire to visit new parts of italy, and who could miss the chance to visit the Wax Fruit Museum?!!! I'm curious, the Genepi sounds like an absinthe variant, does it also taste strongly of licorice? We'll add Porto Palazzo & Norman's to our list. Eataly is a must see, though my budget minding husband is nervous about letting me near the place Thanks for the tips!

Hurray, we're heading to Torino for a week this Spring! Not so hurray, the exchange rate is painful, and our budget is tight... We'll have an apartment (right in the center) & will do a lot of our own cooking, but would appreciate any suggestions on good gelato, good pizza shops, bars with great sandwiches etc. Anyplace with classic piemontese food that does a cheap lunch special? gotta save the sheckels for chocolate!

I also faked it - by mixing pomegranate mollases with seasoned rice wine vinegar. Mine was not pink, but a dark burgundy, almost like a balsamic vinaigrette. The dressing got rave reviews, and my husband who is not a big fan of vinaigrettes usually, actually asked me to make the dressing again. Saltedgreens, the sauteed persimmon sounds really good!

I am so sad that they stopped carrying boucherondin, - favorite costco cheese find ever! Word to the wise: I tried the "Natural Petit Fours" they had at the Seattle Costco recently, and they were just awful! And I am so not a snob re petit fours, I will even eat the mail order stuff if I have to I love them that much, but these were just vile...

Last night I threw together a salad (from Bon Appetit) that was persimmon slices, prosciutto and pomegranate seeds on arugula with a pomegranate vinaigrette. It was very good as well as lovely.

I'm sitting here with a winter cold, and this blog is just warming me right up inside. I'm with chufi, the tripe scares me a little, but I trust Abra... And who can complain about eating leftovers when they're of that calibre? I must try violette yoghurt! You could never sell it here - most people are afraid of floral flavors in their foods

I'm guessing that Exotic Meats over in Bellevue could get it for you as well.

I'm a big fresh grape fan and I remember as a kid not being able to have grapes because of the boycott, and how happy I was when we could finally buy them again Also just wanted to add that if you want to talk with your money on this or the Whole Foods Fois Gras issue or what have you, you have to do more than just not patronize a company, you need to let them know why or it does no good. Spelling out how much you usually spend with them is a big plus, cause from their point of view it's all about the bottom line...

Instead of doing a binge of pantry cooking every night for a month, we try to use one random pantry item & one freezer item each week. The freezer is still completely full because we often end up with leftovers, but I'm beginning to see a little progress in the pantry. Not that my shelves are no longer crammed but at least you don't risk dropping something on your head every time you reach for a jar