abadoozy

That's in sync with what I've found from my stock making. 10# bones & 10 qt water doesn't equal 2 qts stock unless you purposefully reduce it. I don't see anything in the recipe that calls for a reduction (that's not to say that I won't reduce it some... it depends on my freezer space). Maybe that's a mistake in the book?

I know this is kind of an old thread, but I'm hoping some past participants who've made Ruhlman's veal stock will still be around. I've got 25 pounds of bones coming to me tomorrow, and I'm going to make this stock. In reviewing Ruhlman's recipe, he says that starting with 10 pounds of bones & 10 quarts water, you end up with 2 quarts of stock. Is that correct? Past experience with beef & chicken stock made in the Ruhlman fashion leaves me with WAY more stock than 2 quarts. I understand that the veal stock cooks for 8 to 12 hours, but even so, at that low of temperature, I don't see that much stock cooking off. Sure, some will cook off... but 8 quarts? At 180 degrees, not even a simmer? Also, I can't see that 2 quarts would even cover the ten pounds of bones and veggies at the end of the cooking time. So... am I missing something, or is the "2 quarts finished veal stock" incorrect?

Nope, that's not it. It was a general-purpose place, not specifically Japanese or anything else.

I know I used to have a link to a place where you sent your knives to be sharpened. Pretty sure it came from eGullet, but heck if I can find it. Does anyone have a link? If I recall correctly, it was about $50-$60 for 5 knives. You paid them, they sent you a mailer, you packed up your knives and sent them, and got them back a week or so later. They got great reviews for the edge they put on them. Anyone?

My microwave/hood just died, and I'm looking to get a new one. I'm intrigued with the idea of the Dacor Microwave/Convection oven. This thread is a little old - do people still like them? Anything new that I should consider? And a question on the Convection part. Does it work just like a normal oven, albeit smaller? Does it brown/roast/etc as good as a "real" oven? My husband is balking at the price, but if it's just like a real oven, to me it's $500 for a second oven in the kitchen - cheap, considering we'd have to do a major renovation to fit a standard wall oven in our kitchen. But I want to make sure of what I'm getting, if it's just so-so at baking and roasting, I may just opt for a standard microwave. Also, does it get overly hot? The space I'd put it has cabinets on either side, and I'd rather not cause any fires :-)

Stewart's Ginger Beer is my favorite. It's the only one with enough ginger flavor to make my favorite rum drink - the Rastamon: 1 shot Myer's rum 1 shot pineapple juice 1/2 lime Squeeze lime, mix with rum & juice. Add some ice and fill glass to the top with Stewart's ginger beer. Top with freshly grated nutmeg. This does NOT work with a less-than-gingery ginger beer. I tried making it with Sprecher Ginger Beer once and it was horrible.

We were at the Coyote Cafe with some friends the other night. No pics, unfortunately, but I can echo the sentiments of previous posters - this place is GOOD. I can't wait to go back just on our own so I can truly savor the meal and not have to mess with that pesky socializing that friends expect :-) The scallop appetizer with the hot Sesame oil is amaaaazing. Along with the scallops and oil there's some salsa-ish garnishes that are really good. The other big hit was the fondue. Gruyere with fingerling potatoes, onion/bacon rumaki, and bread to dip in it. We also had the lobster bisque, which was good but not spectacular (but then again, when is bisque spectacular?), and the Seared Foie Gras and Duck Confit appetizer. I'm not a big seared Foie fan (I like it cold) but the people who are pronounced it amazing. Also fun is the drink list. The blood orange caipirinha was the hit of the night. We also had various martinis - one with an interesting violet liqueur - that were good but not to die for. Overall, in our first month in Santa Fe, this along with La Boca was our favorite restaurants.

Thanks a ton, this is EXACTLY what I needed. It'll definitely get us through those first few hectic days!

My husband and I are relocating to Santa Fe for a few months this winter. As much as we'd like to get there and jump out of the car into some wonderful restaurant, I expect the first few days will be quite busy getting our house & offices set up, recovering from a 3 day drive, and making sure our dogs adjust well to the new place. As such, I expect that we'll be getting take-out quite a bit, at least until I have a chance to run to the grocery store (which could be a few days). Soooo... any recommendations for good take-out? I'd rather avoid pizza if possible. Does Geronimo's deliver? We're near the Plaza, if that matters.

I realize you already ordered, but if anyone else is looking, check out this link. It's a group of monks in Michigan's UP that make jam and some of the very best fruitcakes I've ever had. People who hate fruitcake gobble this stuff up.

A friend sent me a buffalo sirloin steak and a chuck roast. I know that buffalo is very much like beef, only leaner. Problem is that I never buy beef sirloin, much less buffalo. How the heck should I cook this thing? It's just one big steak - maybe 1.25" thick. The roast is a little easier as I have made plenty of pot roasts, etc. But I'm still open for hints. Friend is no help. He's a die hard well-done kinda guy, and says "just throw 'em on the grill until they're burnt." As I'd rather make something edible, I don't think I'll take his suggestion.

I once watched a young couple change their baby's diaper on the table of an upscale Asian fast-food type place. I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing. But there they were. I can't begin to wonder about the cleanliness of their own home.

Yeah, I knew about the chemical preservative. So these freeze OK? I'd assumed that freezing would be bad for them. We've given up eating scallops since we moved to this area where they're not available and shipping them in is prohibitively expensive for all but special occasions. If they can be frozen, scallops may be on the menu again! Yay!

My husband's 50th birthday is approaching, and I'm looking for a good source for scallops. Locally, there's nothing other than tasteless frozen scallops available, and as scallops are one of the few types of seafood he can eat (he's allergic to most everything else), I'd like to get some really high quality ones shipped in. I know there's a bunch of places on the web that offer them, but I'd like some recommendations if anyone has any. Thanks!

My husband used to have an annoying habit of following me around the kitchen and second guessing what I'm doing. This is the guy who can fry himself an egg and occasionally will grill a steak but other than that leaves the cooking to me. Regardless, he was an expert on everything. I'd get hints on seasoning, heat levels, cooking techniques, you name it. Everything was open for discussion, especially when I'm right in the middle of finishing up that that last bit of the meal that involves finishing the sauce, plating the salad, and pulling the steamed vegetables off the heat so that everything is done at the perfect time. I use the past tense, because I managed to break him of this habit shortly before Christmas. It was one of those Friday nights where we both had crazy weeks at work, and were very tired and about halfway into a bottle of wine. I was making an herb stuffed pork roast, and he was miffed at me because he'd asked me a question earlier and I was in the middle of something and apparently was short with him when I answered. He was worse than normal, following me around and second guessing everything I did. I was trying to be patient, but I was tired, and he was pissing me off. Finally, he said something, I barked something back, and he disappeared into his office. I took this as he stomped out of the kitchen, he told me later that he just needed to mellow out so left the kitchen to take a break. Regardless, I got mad. REALLY mad. How dare he stomp out on me! The pork roast was on the counter, ready to be carved and eaten. All this emotion and mayhem, over a silly pork roast. Why'd I even cooked it? We could have ordered a pizza. The pork roast... it was the cause of all this. I must get rid of it. I pulled the garbage from under the sink, and dumped the evil roast into it. But that wasn't good enough... we'd just emptied the garbage and put a clean bag into it. I needed that pork roast destroyed, and it was all too retrievable in a brand spankin' new plastic garbage bag. Luckily, we live on several acres, and our deck hangs out over a steep drop off than ends in a creek. I grabbed the roast with my tongs, took it out on the deck, and threw it as hard as I could out into the night. At that precise instant, my husband came out of my office. His first view was me on the deck, pork roast in tongs raised over my head, ready to let it fly. He was horrified. I think he screamed when he saw me. We fought for 2 days. I had no idea he'd react so harshly, but I really shook him up by throwing that roast. In the end, we talked about things, and worked it all through. And it was all worth it, in my opinion. He's much better at keeping his mouth shut while I cook, or at the very least asking polite questions and not arguing with me when I'm doing twelve things at once. Every once in a while he'll forget, and start back with his old ways. When that happens, all I have to do is pick up the tongs and gesture towards the deck, and he becomes very, very polite.

A local hotel here used to advertise "Duck ala Ronge" on their holiday buffets for a good two years in a row. I was tempted to call them and try to explain, but if the chef was so dim that he didn't catch it himself I doubted I could do anything for him.

I don't braise very often, and I think I figured out why last night. I had some pork shanks in the freezer that someone had given me a while back, and figured I'd braise them, it being a rainy cold day and all. I thawed them, browned them, and put 'em in a pan with onions, carrots, celery, a big sprig of rosemary from the garden, garlic, some veal stock, and 3/4 of a bottle of white wine. Let them cook until the meat fell off the bone. Served them with some baby purple and white potatoes cooked in the same broth and yellow chard on the side. Texture wise, they were great. But tastewise? Meh. Bland. Didn't help that I didn't salt them enough, but it wasn't just that. The braises I've had before have been lovely flavorful things. Should I have reduced the cooking liquid into more of a gravy/sauce thing? Added something else? I think it would have created more interest to have mashed the potatoes with butter and maybe garlic or other aromatics, but still, I'd like the pork itself to have more of a bang. Any ideas?

OK, I've done more research, and now have MORE questions. I've read through a lot of the threads here, and guidebooks, and other websites. What I can't seem to figure out are which towns/villages are good to stay in. For example, one website tells me that Reims is flat and ugly; another touts it as the center of the champagne region and a must-see. Which is true? I've found a fair bit of information about country houses to stay in, and we may ultimately go that route for a bit, but in general we'd like to stay in cities. We live on several acres on the outskirts of a cute small town - what we look for on vacation is a semi-urban feel. Culture, restaurants, bars, etc within walking distance of our hotel. Ideally, I'd love to find picturesque towns and villages where we could get a nice hotel near the city center and do a lot of walking right from our hotel. We'll spend some days driving to nearby villages and wineries, but we also look forward to getting up early and walking a block to a good bakery, or spending the evening strolling through neighborhoods and stumbling on a cute little place for dinner. Given that, can someone give me opinions on the following cities: Reims Eperney Beaune Strasbourg Dijon And if there's other places - say, Dijon is big and modern, but this other village ten miles away is picturesque and makes a good base for exploring the region - please let me know. Same thing in Bourdeaux. I haven't even started doing research for that region, so I'm totally open to ideas.

That was also our plan. Even in the US, city driving is the pits. And for us, the TGV itself is an attraction!

Okay, this is getting beyond eerie My wife & I are going to France as well ... leaving on Sept 16th and returning October 8. You have to be the 5th or 6th couple we've "met" going at the exact same time! That is weird! Or maybe we all just have the same great taste in travel locations and times. We didn't get in at Caron de Beaumarchais - they are full - so we're back to square one as far as where we're staying. We're now thinking more along the lines of an apartment. We just spent 5 nights in a very small-yet-quaint B&B in Wisconsin, and by the 4th or 5th night we were very much wishing we had a little more room.

Wow, thanks for all the info. We very much like the "spur-of-the-moment" travel plan. If we had our druthers, we'd probably book a night or two in Paris just so we didn't have to worry about it when we're jet-lagged and tired, and wing it from there. But we worry - will we run into situations where everything is booked up? My nightmare would be to end up in the French equivalent of a Howard Johnson's in a generic part of town when we want to be in the cute chateau in the city center. Maybe we're worrying too much about that - I know that the time we're going isn't going to be crazy like July and August. Anyone care to comment on the possibility of finding decent places without booking totally in advance?

Pizza! I make a pizza to die for: thin crust, light tomato sauce with a fair bit of rosemary, topped with smoked chicken or duck, goat cheese, and fresh blueberries. 'round here everyone goes "YUK, fruit on pizza?!?" and move on to the boringly predictable pepperoni or sausage pizza that I've made for them. Meanwhile Mr. Abadoozy and I snarf up the blueberry one and chuckle at each other.

My husband-to-be and I are going to be in France for our honeymoon Sept 15-Oct 7, 2006. I've been reading through all the threads here with great interest, and have a long list of notes so far. Still, there are a few questions I haven't seen answered. We plan on spending 5 nights in Paris at the beginning of the trip, hopefully at the Hotel Caron de Beaumarchais based on so many recommendations here and elsewhere. After that, we're thinking of ~1 week in the Bordeaux region and ~1 week in Champagne including maybe a few days in Alsace and/or Burgundy, depending on how much we like Champagne itself. He's never been to France before, and I was there for a few days as a teenager, 20 years ago. We're going for the wine and the food, and will detour to look at the sights and history as well We're thinking of getting apartments/villas in the Bordeaux and Champagne regions, and renting a car for day excursions. Is this a reasonable plan, or would it be better to move around from one town to another and stay in each? We know from experience that 3 weeks of hotels and restaurants get old after a while, and the option to "stay home" a day or two in a place with a kitchen/seating area sounds very good. Our concern, though, is that it might be limiting. Are these areas "doable" as day trips? If so, any particular towns/cities/villages in each that are recommended? We're looking for charm and French culture over touristy and fancy. The idea of a several hundred year old chateau where maybe the electricity or plumbing isn't perfect is preferable to a modern slick place where everything works. I've also heard that September is harvest time in Bordeaux, and the wineries are closed for tastings. Is that true? Is it also true of Champagne? When we booked the flights I'd read that September was a great time to visit due to the harvest- so which is it?!? Champagne: We chose this area simple because we're Champagne drinkers, and have long talked about a honeymoon in Champagne. I get the idea, however, that this area may not be as quaint/picturesque or have as many sights to see as other areas. True? If so, is ~1 week too long to expect to stay in Champagne? Burgundy and Alsace are on our "we'd like to visit" list, just not as high as Bordeax/Champagne/Paris. I know Burgundy/Alsace/Champagne are clustered around north/east France. If we decide not to spend the whole week in Champagne, is it possible to stay in one central town and visit each area in day trips? Or maybe a couple different towns? Or is the area too large? It's hard to tell this kind of detail looking at maps. Any and all recommendations are invited. Other than our plane tickets and the first few days in Paris, we're very open and have not made any reservations. We both speak a little bit of French and are taking refresher courses. Thanks in advance!

Amuses are most often so-so in my experience. Especially when it's at a place you go to a lot, and they never change them. "Ho-hum, here comes the goat cheese again" is what comes to mind. :-) On the other hand, if they're genuinely interesting little treats, then bring them on! Another thing I like is when restaurants use them to highlight a signature item, or something especially good that's out of the ordinary (a great local cheese, or a really nice mushroom, or whatever.) For example, we were at L'etoile in Madison, WI over the weekend. One of the signature items I've read about the restaurant serving is hickory nuts. The amuse consisted of a hickory nut and some cheese on a hickory-nut cracker. I really liked that, because I got to try this thing I'd been reading about regardless of what I chose to order.

I've been asked to bartend at a birthday party. Guest of honor and his wife have recently returned from Hawaii, and the party will have a Hawaiian theme. Wife really wants Mai Tais, but I'm pretty sure she's not talking the classic Trader Vic recipe - what she described to me is what I remember having in Hawaii: a fruity red/pink drink with a dark rum float on top. I plan on making both the classic Mai Tais, and the closest I can come to the "tourist" Mai Tai. Problem is I've never made the tourist one, and although I'm sure I could come up with a sweet fruity concoction, I'm low on time, and would like to have something a bit better than Hawaiian Punch and Rum. Any suggestions?