Rehovot

Which moshav is hosting the festival?

Or lunch in Plato's Cave.

For a Kafkaesque experience in Prague, look no further than the foreigners' police. But I digress... Another good choice in Prague 1 is the Zlaty Hrozen, on Železná 7, about 50 meters away from the Clock, off a side street. It's not in a basement/cave, but it's small and offers a good array of Czech and Continental dishes. Look for the sign with the golden grapes outside. Very good choices you have there... (The Dvořák, Smetana, and Mozart museums are all worth a trip, by the way...off the well-beaten path.)

Tea. Coffee. Hummus! Olive oil also sneaks into my day, usually, in some form or another, along with butter. Milk. Bread. Dessert.

Or, you can just point and say, this, please . ← Yes, but in Russian.. That's my problem. Dessert was baklava (sorry, baklava fans, not homemade) and the dwindling leftovers of a gingerbread cake.

Hodak's! (Great greasy spoon, but maybe not exactly what you're looking for. And, since my command of St. Louis geography was never good, I can't remember where it even is.)

Lunch was fajitas, today; yesterday, we had chili. (I was feeling very homesick for southwestern U.S. food.) Spicy is good!

Wow, the Kievsky cake looks excellent! I'm sure I've seen it in the Russian market I go to, here. Now I'll know how to ask for it.

It sounds like you have everything under control... Pour yourself some wine, prop your gorgeous boots up on a chair, and relax. I go through Plan B mode all the time; living without a car and somewhere where nearly every store that sells weekend-dinner-party food is closed from Friday afternoon through Saturday night has made me start thinking about Saturday dinner parties on Tuesday. Around Friday morning, I work out the major kinks (but not all, of course) and am usually on Plan Z. Lots of wine, good food, and guests who are good friends will make up for most snafus on the part of the chef, who should also get to enjoy the process and results. Cheers! Attagirl! Edited for spelling

Dessert was Gingerbread (the three-ginger kind--fresh, candied, powdered); I'm almost certain I got the recipe from this thread, so whoever first mentioned it, thank you, thank you, thank you. This stuff is excellent for the darkest days of winter (cough--60 degrees F, here, today--cough)....It's just as dense, dark, rich, and doesn't budge easily...just like me in winter (minus the "rich").

This sounds great. I look forward to trying it. How does the prawn mixture hold together enough to allow you to turn the quarters over? Maybe you have enviable flipping skill...I think if I tried this, I would get minced prawn everywhere. Any other tips you have for making this? It sounds like it would be great as an appetizer.

They're also good if you whiz them finely in a processor/grinder and then sprinke on top of cheesecake.

I will never again --dust the popover tray with butter and...breadcrumbs. --open the oven door to check on said popovers. --scratch my ear while holding a knife in the same hand.

Cup 'O' Joe is a popular coffee chain here in Israel; I can't get that excited about their coffee, but the cafe menu has great sandwiches, salads, and pastas. And I'm happy that they've succeeded where Starbucks did not. The full article is here.

Yum, orange madeleines--Proust would swoon. My most memorable New York dining experience a couple of years ago was in a very tiny Indian restaurant with red lights all over the place. I remember a whole block of these... Is this a NY institution, or was I just way off the beaten path? Fun blog! Good luck with your dinner! Everything sounds great.

On a similar topic...aren't a lot of the Czech hops sold and exported to U.S. breweries? Guilty as charged. Although the caramel undertone appeals more to me than any fruit one. (Starobrno )

Two other good savory ones are mushroom (good as a vegetarian Thanksgiving option) and cabbage and Gruyere. I didn't forsee a whole lot of strudel-making in my future, and then I married a European.

Professors with really good grants can support fine dining, maybe... In Columbia, it often seemed like the students had way more cash to spend than the professors. And the student cash wasn't going toward fine dining....

Peanut butter and marshmallows--my husband abhors these. But he eats soba noodles with peanut sauce when I make it. I like things a lot more spicy than he does, so I'll be making enchiladas, thom ka gai, and roasted salsa. And I plan on not cooking, some evenings....

Try the recipe in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." Tarte Normande aux Pommes. Very nice. ← Thanks, this book is on my wish list. I chopped up the Bad Tart, added some cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, and streusel, spread it on a tin, baked it, and, voila, Good Apple Crumble. Not that I would serve this to anyone but me and He-Who-Eats-Everything, my husband.

Oh, very cool.... I really enjoyed your other blog and diaries--we just had the chickpeas with cinnamon and couscous from your cooking school diary, I think. Great dish--comfort food! Looking forward to this week... Question--are the two classes you're teaching different in any way? Different crowd, menus, etc? Of course, congrats and good luck with the bun in the oven!

Mmm, thanks, GG! Sounds good. And easy. I was worried that someone would suggest I make honey with them, or something.

The garden where we live has a vast groundcover of rosemary bushes that I prune for free rosemary every week. I know what to do with the leaves, but what about the tiny blue flowers that are currently blooming on the bushes? Anyone know what to do with these? Any suggestions?

Grr, I made a French Apple Flan tart from a cookbook-pamphlet that was on sale for 15 shekels (about USD 3.20), and it turned out to be truly awful, except for the apples. The crust (which seemed promising, with ground almonds) should have been blind-baked, which the recipe didn't specify, and I didn't roll it thinly enough, so it's gloppy. The flan/custard is bland and boring, and the whole thing isn't sweet at all. I'm inclined to chop the whole thing up, sprinkle it with sugar and more spices, spread it on a cookie sheet, and give it another round in the oven. My philosophy, here, is that it can't get any worse. (Am I the only one who does this sort of thing to salvage baked goods?) This is the third humdrum recipe from this cookbook, which proves to me that being a bargain-hunter may not be so wise while cookbook-shopping. So I made a backup dessert--the the Cafe Beaujolais coffeecake. Now I'm much happier.

Huh. I love having breakfast in bed...and I'm a neat freak, otherwise. Usually, it's nothing fancy-- toast and coffee, bagels and fruit, etc. I think I like it because I dislike morning intensely, and any way to avoid really getting up sounds good to me. That said, breakfasts in bed involving silverware would be way beyond my capacities both as cook and diner.