bekkiz

We ate at the new Preservation Kitchen in Bothell last night. I believe it opened in September, but I hadn't seen a mention of it yet here. http://www.preservationkitchen.com/ Food was good. Better than good actually, I was really impressed, especially considering it's in Bothell (I can say that, I live here!). I was with a group that's not terribly adventerous when it comes to food, and everyone had a lot of things on the menu to choose from. The space is very nice, in what appears to be an old farm house. There's lots of fireplaces, and the way the dining areas are set up, it's very intimate. Free valet parking, which is a good thing, because the lot is TINY. A couple of highlights: Polenta Tots: I love polenta, and these were delicious. Crispy and salty on the outside, bery soft and creamy on the inside. The dipping sauce was not a favorite of mine, but they were good enough on their own Pulled pork sliders: You could easily go to the bar and make a meal of these with a couple of drinks and another starter or two. Wild Boar Ragu: I did not try this, but my husband, who is VERY picky, especially when it comes to pasta, inhaled it. We've eaten at the Osteria del Cinghiale Bianco in Florence, and he said this could have easily been on the menu there. Butternut Squash Bread Pudding: I'm a sucker for bread pudding, and I love squash, so I went out on a limb here ( ) Very much a sum of its parts. All of the flavors worked well together, and it was a very satisfing dessert. Anyway, it's nice to have a slightly more upscale place up here, without having to spend oodles of money. It was certainly as enjoyable of a meal as Barking Frog or Cafe Juanita, just with slightly less refined food and a lot less expensive.

We're taking a cousin who goes to UCLA out to dinner, after attending a sporting event in Long Beach on a Sunday evening. Price is no issue, but probably no where that has "weird" (read things with foam or menu descriptions that are 3 sentences long) food, as cousin's palate is still a little young. We're working on it So I'm looking for somewhere fun to take her on the drive back to her dorm--something to make her forget all the dorm food she's been eating the past few months!

So, my oven has been broken since...April, about 4 days after receiving my very own copy of this of my own (I had checked it out from the library and fell in love). What can I say, I've been not home more than at home all summer, and just sort of put off getting it fixed (that and my husbands assertion that he could do it..ya right ) Anyway, to celebrate the repairman making my kitchen whole again, I went on a bit of a baking frenzy. No pictures. I can bring the tasty, but not so much the pretty and who wants to see ugly food? To start: Peach Upside-Downer cake w/ some very, very ripe peaches from here in WA state. I love just how easy it was for me to put together. I think the most complicated part was getting the peach slices in the pan in some semblance of order. (see above RE: the pretty). The cake part was tender, very moist from the peach juice and just delicious. I can't wait to try this with pears and cranberries in the fall. Cinnamon Chocolate squares: I made these for a neighbor, but did snag a square for myself and really, really enjoyed them. I wasn't sure how I'd like the espresso powder addition, as I'm not a huge coffee fan, but it was just a hint and really added a nice touch. I may have overmixed the batter a smidge, or maybe overbaked it slightly as the edges were a bit dry/tough. The middle was much nicer. Again, I love how quick and easy they are, and yet very impressive to taste. I will be making them again! I also made a batch of the world peace cookies, and I think I may not have measured the butter properly. The cookies spread SO much. I won't tell you all what my husband said they looked like. Tasted great, but they were NOT the world peace cookies of lore.

I hope Dorie is around to help answer this. I bought the book. I LOVE the book. World Peace cookies--unreal. Chocolate Banana cake--heaven. The applesauce bars--delightful...with one little problem. I went to make the glaze, and I know my stove runs hot, so I cooked it over medium-low heat for the entire 5 minutes. As I was stiring, I could tell it wasn't quite right, but because there's only a time listed in the directions, I wasn't sure exactly what to look for. After five minutes, I "poured" the glaze over the bars. Lets just say, I think it was closer to a hard caramel, rather than a nice thin glaze. It hardened rather quickly, and basically could have broken a tooth, had someone bit into it. Unfortunatly, the bars were unsalvagable (although I did steal some the the delicious cake part from the underside). Please tell me, what exactly am I looking for in the glaze to know when it's done. I think 5 minutes was about 2.5 minutes too long, but again, I'm sort of new to this whole thing. tia!

I am SO SO glad to have found this thread, and I hope someone can help! A couple of years ago, while visiting Sicily, my dad and I tried a prickly pear (or some sort of cactus) liqueur. It was sweet and sort of tropical tasting. It was a bit like Lemoncello in color (yellowish) and viscosity, and served very cold. Both he and I have been searching for a name, an online source...anything! The one we tried came a beautiful blue bottle. No luck in 6 years. I would love to be able to get some for him, he would be so surprised. Any ideas?

Ok, here's a question. I made beef stock w/ oxtails and other meaty bone pieces that I roasted for about 20 minutes at 425. I also roasted th carrots, onions and celery. I covered the mess with water, and simmered/skimmed for a few hours (maybe 4-5). It reduced significantly, gelled very nicely (maybe even too much) and is a very pretty dark brown color. However, it doesn't taste like anything. I added a good amount of salt in the cooking process (I kept tasting, and there was just nothing). And now it just taste like enriched, slightly salty, water. Apparently I'm an idiot. Ideas on how to prevent this the next time around? I'm a little desperate.

So funny, I'm in Banff right now for a family reunion! We've only been here a day, and most of the family are not, how should we say, fine dining types, so I'm not sure what the rest of the meals will be like. Anyway, we (my close fam, who do appriciate a good meal) went to the Maple Leaf Grille and Bar last night and had a wonderful meal. Nearly everyone was impressed. My husband had the bison stroganoff, which I found to be outstanding. I had their signature starter called "Lobster cappuccino," a spicy, frothy bisque--reminded me of a thai curry. I really enjoyed that as well. The only sleeper of the night was a crab gazpacho. My grandfather (who is getting on in years, so perhaps is loosing some of his tastebuds?) found it quite bland and asked for salt, pepper and vinegar to help perk it up. The wine list, from what I could gather, was really overpriced, however, we're from California where good wine is easy to come by. The restaurant is right in the middle of the downtown, though I can't remember the cross street--maybe Caribou? anyway, HTH!

Easter Sunday in Palermo, Sicily and these tiny wild strawberries macerated with blood orange juice over vanilla gelato. Just heavenly. Totally overshadowed a wonderful in its own right Cassata alla Siciliana. A second, and equally lasting, moment of cullinary bliss--though a bit more gauche, was a spicy grilled chicken with chared roasted peppers over the polenta/corn cake thing. I ordered it at 10--the dish being the only thing on the menu I could recognize, and it quickly became one of my favorite things in the world. The restaurant took it off the menu a few years later, and I haven't been able to let go

One of my favorites that I make (albeit very, very sweet, just the way I like it!) is to take a cheapy bottle of white (usually Spanish or Portuguese) that has "peach" in it's description at BevMo. Mix with peach nectar (like kearns) and/or white grape/peach blend, a little sugar (or not, if you like it less sweet), a bunch of peach schnapps and a whole mess of cut up peaches. I let it sit over night, and serve over ice. Again, very sweet (a good brunch drink) and I have often served this with another bottle of white that drinkers can cut the sweetness with. i also like to garnish with raspberries for color, and kind of a peach melba thing. Yummy!

Thank you all so much for the suggestions. We had quite the extravaganza yesterday! We got stuck in some pretty nasty traffic on the way up (a giant semi was completely covered in flames) but got there only slightly frazzled:) We made 2 winery stops first: Cliff Lede- What a beautiful tasting room/visitors center. Our "wine consultant" said they had just had their 1 year anniversary in the new building. We tasted some very good wines here. Between the two of us, we bought Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and the Claret. Miner Family- A little smaller, so it felt more crowded, but they had viewing windows into the fermenting (I think!) room, so that was kind of neat. We bough their Vionger and a Cab Then we moved on to Bouchon Bakery. I was literally the kid in the candy store. We were nervous as it was later in the day (nearly 5) and we thought they might be out of things, but luckily they said they had nearly everything. No pates de fruits though (I was looking forward to those!) We bought a number of things, but haven't eaten very many of them yet. We each had a ham and cheese sandwich on baguette (grilled) and it was wonderful. We also tried the chocolate bouchon (like the best cakey brownie you've ever had) the lemon tart (wonderful, even when slightly melted from being in the car, and the "pop tart" which I had for breakfast this morning. As this was the primary purpose of our visit, we were pretty pleased with out purchases. On our way out, we spent nearly 2 hours at the Bounty Hunter in Napa with a cheese plate, and countless tastes of random things. I tried this very strange concoction from my home region of Italy (Piedmonte) which was a sparkling red wine, but really tasted a lot like grape juice with some black current behind it. Very refreshing, and not too expensive, so I brought home a bottle. A great trip, my friend was highly impressed by everything, and I have to thank you all again for helping me!

A friend and I are making the trek up to visit the Bakery on Friday. Does anyone have a winery or two to recommend in the general vicinity. She like Cabs (And other "big" wines) where I prefer fruity (and sometimes sweeter) whites (though I'll drink a lighter, fruitier red as well.) However, we're both still learning about this whole wine thing and are happy to experiment. thanks for any help (and all the delicious pictures!)

I cannot assure the quality of this place, but I do know it's extremly expensive due to location. We found one of the places right at the Ponte Vecchio (on the more touristy side, on the corner to the right coming off the bridge) that had the most amazing thing-- a semi-freddo mousse concotion. Again, not sure about the gelato, but the frozen mousse stuff was unreal.

That's pretty much where I was leaning;) Do you think we could get in and out of there fast enough to make it to the show? The other option I thought of was to have dinner at Mon AMi Gabi pre show, then walk over to fix for dessert and drinks afterwards. However, the real menu looks great, so I wouldn't want to miss anything, esp. the doughnuts you rave about--those are right up my alley! I wish we had more time, we're flying in late afternoon on Friday, and leaving mid-afternoon on Sunday. Oh well, any time in Vegas is a good time!

I see on the web site the have a pre show meal for O. If we are going to see the show at Paris, can we still partake, or do you need to show your o ticket? The other option is to go afterwards, which we might anyway:) It looks so good. I'm just bummed because this trip is with the in-laws for their wedding, so we have to make all of our plans with them:( I think they'd like FIX though, it's their kind of food

I'm a former banana slug myself, so I have a couple of ideas 1) A really, really great chinese place called O'Mei . It's on mission, near the safeway (across the street and down a bit). It's a little pricy, and not really what you'd find in a "normal" chnese place, but absolutly fantastic. One of my favorites in SC 2. Saturn Cafe is a staple, it's downtown, at the beach end near Kinko's. Pretty typical "santa cruz hippie fare," but with a killer tuna melt and fantastic ice cream creations 3. Great sandwiches at Zoccoli's deli in downtown 4. Pizza my heart, cheap, good and close to the downtown bus station 5. If you're ever down there and want a nice meaty, american dinner, I like Hindquarter's (HQ for short) on Soquel between ocean and downtown 6. Maryanne's on ocean, awesome ice cream, plus you can pick it up at most of the local markets and farell's donuts (near the safeway, which is where the "shopper's shuttle on campus will drop the students off)