Chufi

everything looks beautiful, what a wonderful birthdaydinner! There's something strangely soothing in watching you cook together and enjoy the food and wine on that lovely porch. Very romantic, too.. I'm interested in the chocolate truffle dessert.. is it like a semifreddo, or an actual cake (made with flour?)

Mine too. But unfortunately (?) this only applies to the dishes, the sink, the countertop and the stove. Everything else in my house is in a much more deplorable state. And everything else really starts right behind the things mentioned above. Kitchenfloor - dirty, check inside of fridge - check inside of ove - check top of oven, where I keep all the spice jars - check inside of kitchen cabinets - I don't dare to look too close but I'm pretty sure they're dirty too. etc., etc. But the dishes get done every single night, with joy. What's up with that??

I have a question Susan I have followed your dinners since I joined EGullet.. and I think your cooking has a very distinctive style.. I was wondering if you would like to tell us a bit more about that.. How did you develop your style of cooking, has it changed much over the years, and how did the move to Florida contribute to this? Not a question to answer in a couple of words, I understand, but maybe you would like to share some musings on this with us.. edited to add: just scrolled up and saw Chris' question.. ah well that makes it easier for you Susan! 2 questions = only one!

Bad day at work but the day got better as I came home and cooked some comfort food.. fennel & pasta gratin with bleu d'auvergne cheesesauce tomato meatballs and rucola salad

YAY! Look who's blogging! I have no questions now but I'm sure some will pop up during the week.. For now I just want to wish Russ happy birthday, and the both of you happy moving-anniversary. I'm looking forward to what will undoubtedly be a week of great food!

I did not think you were preaching, I just did not quite understand your statement in your first post (and still don't). Does the perfect diet, in your words, mean that at home, you prepare, say, a plate of pasta, sit down with it, drink a glass of wine, and then only eat 1/3? Portion control is a big issue for me and I find your suggestions interesting, but before I can have an opinion about them, I have to understand what you mean. edited cause I forgot a word

does this rule apply only in restaurants or when you dine at someone elses home, or also when you eat in you own home (ie prepare the food yourself?) I can understand the rule for dining out in a restaurant. But at home.. For me, weight loss/weight control is all about being conscious of what I eat, the food that I let enter my body, and the respect I have for the food that nourishes me. Leaving 2/3 of lovingly prepared food on my plate, watching it grow cold, fat congealing, and then throwing it out, is not showing it respect... That does not mean that you always have to eat everything that is put before you. But to eat only a third of everything, as a rule, seems to me (I agree with Anzu) a terrible waste.

oh, what a wonderful early autumn dinner! I'm planning a dinnerparty for later this week.. might steal your figs/gorgonzola idea.. I bought a bottle of black bean sauce at the Chinese market yesterday but had actually no idea what to do with it. A quick EGullet search led me to Mapo Dofu.. a dish I'd never heard of.. I'm not very familiar with Chinese cuisine (and would actually go as far as to say that I'm not a fan ) So I combined a couple of recipes and made Mapo Dofu tonight.. it was delicious! I added waterchestnuts because I had some in the fridge and there was 1 recipe that mentioned them.. Sprinkled with ground Szechuan pepper, and served with noodles and stirfried sweet/sour sesame zucchini. I think maybe traditionally this is served with rice.. But I don't like rice with saucy dishes. Loved the combination withs the noodles though. So yes, I made a New Thing again tonight.. very pleased with myself being so adventurous lately!

OMG! I see it! he's kind of cute! now I have to explain to my husband why I'm laughing so hard while reading EGullet

no, I like the picture of your dinner best.. so beautiful, it looks like the plate and the roses and everything are just floating in the darkness.. I've been thinking that autumn and winter food sometimes can get away with another kind of lighting.. But I still have to figure out a way to make my pics less yellow when there's only artificial light and I don't want to use flash.. Our dinner tonight: Pan-fried boneless chickenthighs stuffed with a mixture of creme fraiche, parmesan and parsley. Quinoa pilaf with raisins, tomatoes, fresh coriander and pine nuts Roast cauliflower.. spicy this time, I tossed the raw cauliflower with a homemade spice mix of ground caraway, cumin, coriander seeds, mustardseeds and dried chillies. Heavenly..

Me too, actually (English-Russian) but I was too embarrassed to admit it . The crowd here at eGullet is so articulate that my dictionary is getting quite a workout . ← ha! in Dutch, milt means spleen. can you understand I'm often bewildered in translation here on EGullet? Alinka, your rice dish is too pretty for this thread! here's another one from the archives. This plate looks just plain stupid, with all the elements (cheese-stuffed focaccia, chicken breast wrapped in bacon, and roast butternut squash) in exactly the same elongated shape. It looks like a puzzle or a child's toy waiting to be assembled, not dinner! And then there's the gooey brown sauce on the chicken.. not pretty no not pretty..

from the archives. I think we can conclude that sloppy rice-dishes are not very photogenic red cabbage risotto. chocolate rice pudding: blegh. Both were, in fact, delicious. I'm wondering if there could have been any way to make them look good.

I want to thank you for this wonderful report.. I love all trip-reports, especially when they come with such beautiful pictures.. but I like this one especially because your holiday sounds exactly like the ones I always love to take. I'ts also, yet another, encouragement to think about a visit to your part of the world!

Lovely travel pics percy! I visited Budapest years ago but I did not eat that well.. allthough I did bring back several kinds of paprika, and I do remember some really good cakes. Susan what's a butter dressing? melted butter and...?? Here's our dinner from this evening. A Dutch classic: capucijners (I have no clue what they're called in english). They were fresh from my aunt's garden (by way of my freezer ). With smoked bacon, crispy onions, and butterfried potatoes. The potatoes are Opperdoezer ronde, which are supposedly the best potatoes from the Netherlands.

Inspired by Calipoutine's turkey chili I made chili with barley today. I used extra lean ground beef instead of turkey. Kidneybeans from a can, and seasoned with fresh coriander, chipotle pepper, cumin and coriander seeds.. served with sour cream, grated cheddar and corn tortilla chips.. this was the best quick after work chili I ever made. The barley gave it a lovely texture, it really drew the beans and meat together.. wonderful!

if you do a beet stuffing, try serving them with a gorgonzola sauce (just some gorgonzola melted in a bit of cream). Absolutely delicious.

Yes. I forgot about the music! I always listen to music in the kitchen. In fact, it's the only place I listen to music. When I have a new cd it's sometimes too distracting to listen to it while I'm cooking. But there's nothing better than putting on some new music and doing the dishes. (this has one major drawback. On a daily basis, my dishes don't take 50 minutes . So from many cd's I only very occasionally hear the last songs.. and become very well acquainted with the first half hour!)

beautifully written Busboy. Doing the dishes may be the one domestic chore that I don't mind doing (apart from cooking, which I don't consider a chore). The better the meal was, the nicer the evening, the warmer the bonds of friendship and family have felt, the more I feel that cleaning up is a kind of ritual that is part of the whole experience. Sometimes together with my husband, but sometimes I love to do this on my own.. arrange the leftovers.. think what I'll be doing with them tomorrow.. carefully washing and drying the equipment that helped me make the food that brought pleasure. When the kitchen surfaces re-emerge from underneath the dirty dishes, and everything is neat and tidy, I always say: "look.. as if nothing ever happened here". But ofcourse it has.

well, I finally faced the fact that 'dinner on the balcony' season is really over.. fall kicked in with storms and rain today. So I brightened up the diningtable a bit.. and then thought I hadn't kept my promise of trying more New Things.. and made Mooshmouses MuShu pork wraps as featured in her blog, only without the wraps. Served with sticky rice with sesame and omeletstrips, and stir-fried cabbage with ginger, chillies and coriander instead. Today's new ingredients: water chestnuts and hoisin sauce. The water chestnuts, I don't know, they have a pleasant crunch but I don't see tons of them in my future.. but the hoisin sauce.. how is it possible that I've lived my entire life without hoisinsauce?? this stuff is divine.. I could eat it by the spoonful

Oh Daniel I do love your road-trip reports so very much. They always make me want to hop on a plane and fly to the US and drive and drive and eat and eat!! thank you for giving me the opportunity to take these trips if only in my imagination, thanks to your stories and lovely pictures!

yeah, I'm one of those. And I really have to get myself to bed! It's almost midnight over here! but I want to see more of that gorgeous food! The preview of that tomatodish.. ahh. That's it. Vancouver has to be our next holiday destination.

Wendy that tuna dish looks positively luscious I love white beans with bacon.. I never would have thought of adding tuna to it.. but seeing it in your picture it makes total sense. For how long was the tuna cooked? was it cooked through? would this also work with a grilled tuna steak you think?

running in the door at 7:30 after drinking rose in the park post-work with one of my girlfriends.. hungry.. dinner has to be ready NOW! 20 minutes later we eat: fusilli with homemade roast-tomatosauce (made yesterday) to which I added capers, chillies, anchovies, black olives and parsley; and a runnerbean/basil/pecorino frittata. Wonderful. edited to add: welcome to the Dinner- thread lauderdale 75!

I also never have to dust. I only use the semolina on my baking trays to stop the ravioli from sticking to the tray. The fettucine looks great Susan. Fettucine is next on my list (it'll be nice not to have to deal with stuffing for a change) you're welcome. The thought of someone across the Atlantic, happily dry-frying mushrooms, just because I happened to mention that trick, really made my day that looks fantastic. I have recipe somewhere for a very similar Rotolo, only it's made with pastasheets instead of gnocchi dough. But for some reason, cooking something in a cheesecloth scares me. I wonder why!

Aubergine with mushroom stuffing, bulgur pilaf with spicy (very spicy) fresh chorizo. The aubergine was stuffed with the mushroom filling I had left over from making ravioli on Saturday. I was very pleased with myself for being so creative with my leftovers