LindaK

Beautiful. Envious. Must plan a trip to Chicago.

It's not a general habit. When I do, it's for the wrong reasons--when my sense of smell alerts me that something is amiss (ex., the fish not fresh, something spoiled, etc.) and that I should approach my food with caution. The one exception is with soups. Something about a steaming bowl of soup invites an appreciative whiff. However, when I'm cooking, I do a lot of sniffing. I can almost always recognize by the smell when something is cooked. Even with baked goods (and I don't bake a lot) my nose is usually a better indicator than my timer when it's time to pull a cake or cookies out of the oven.

Some of my best dining experiences have been solo, especially in Europe. With the exception of London. NEVER a good experience there, always given the worst table, ignored, etc.

Ben, thanks for blogging, it's been great reading. I am marvelling at the offerings (and prices) of the tortillas and masa at Luna's Tortilla Factory. What did you think of their offerings, now that you've eaten there? Nothing like that up here in the Northeast, very jealous.

One of my regrets: when I moved from St. Louis to Boston I decided not to haul my collection of Gourmet magazines, 1985-2000. I gave them to a neighbor, a photographer and foodie, who was thrilled to have them.

Heidi, that is not only a beautiful set of pictures but an excellent tutorial on getting grape leaves from vine --> table.

Hansjoakim, not long ago when dining out my dining companion ordered a braised lamb shoulder that was presented in exactly the same manner as the Ramsey dish you describe--deboned, rolled into a log, and presented as a thick slice on vegetables. It was madly delicious, and I spent some time wondering how it had been prepared. This would be a spectacular dinner party dish. I'll give this a try. thanks!

Now you're making me feel like a complete slob. That's because you're assuming that I mop often. Au contraire. Truth is, when it comes to floors, I'm pretty lazy. I must check out those steam mops, those sound interesting.

What's a steam mop? Swiffer to keep dirt and dust at bay between cleanings. There are various cleaning products for wood floors that I've tried, all seem to work. Use with a microfiber mop (then throw the mop head in the wash). I did it this morning, it definitely gets dirt the swiffer leaves behind.

Here's a maintenance issue and question re: oiling the gasket Earlier this week when using my PC I had some problems. First, I observed quite a bit of condensation dripping from the beneath the handle, which had not happened before. Then I found it difficult to maintain pressure. My PC's user manual "troubleshooting" section suggested that the problem was that the gasket need to be oiled. So I reduced the pressure, took off the cover, dried off the gasket and rubbed a little veg oil over it, reassembled it, and tried again. Problem solved. I'd used this PC half a dozen times before without oiling the gasket and never experienced problems. Is this something I should be doing every time I use it? Is vegetable oil the correct oil to use?

Jaymes, you are sooooooooo right. For those of us who can't get enough BLT, here's our topic: the Ultimate BLT Sandwich. There's a photo of Rico's BLT with shrimp, yum.

Real sun-ripened tomatoes are at least a month away where I live, but I stumbled across this recipe for a BLT using roasted tomatoes and basil mayo that provides temporary refuge--and sounds absolutely delicious. B L (slow roasted) T edited: to note that by pure coincidence (really!) I just noticed that SobaAddict linked to this same recipe in Recipes that Rock 2011.

Bench seating at long tables. Please, I don't care what your interior designer told you. I want to relax when I'm dining.

That recipe looks fantastic. I love the idea of a chilled puree of lettuce soup. I may try it first without the ricotta and eggplant garnishes, but I'll bet those additions really make it.

The parametric recipe for beef stock suggests a split calf's foot, but no reason you can't substitute. MC suggests alcohol for some stocks--red wine for beef.

Last night I made a quick soup with lettuce and good homemade chicken stock. Followed advice and gave it a quick saute in butter first. The soup was delicious, but the red color of some of the lettuce turned the broth a rather unattractive purple color. Is there a way to stop this, or should I use only green lettuce?

Jan, I've done a couple of batches of pressure-cooked stock using MC principles, and the results have been great. There's been some discussion of pressure cooked stocks in general over in the general Pressure Cookers topic, starting here. At the risk of oversimplification, the key is to begin with very small pieces of vegetables and meat, grinding the meat preferably. It not only helps extract flavor but also speeds up cooking time. You'd also roast the meat and bones before pressure cooking. Cooking time for beef stock says 2-1/2 hrs.

One of my very favorite recipes comes from Madhur Jaffrey--a potato salad bound together with yogurt and toasted cumin and mustard seeds, some sliced scallions, S&P. With Greek yogurt especially, the yogurt-spice combo is so delicious, I usually toast enough spices to make extra to keep on hand to dollop on rice/dal, fish, chicken, whatever. I'm also partial to French yogurt cake. Greek yogurt makes it extra tangy.

At family Thanksgiving dinners, there's always a pause before the meal gets underway for someone to give thanks that we're together, in good health, and with such plenty before us when others are hungry. Some guests add their thanks to God. As a grace, it isn't traditional or even terribly well choreographed but somehow it works for everyone.

Emily, using the proportions in MC I used 1 lb of wings and 1 lb of meat for 4 cups of stock. The wings cost me $2.50, the meat was the scrap meat I'd accumulated in the freezer for making stock. I don't find this to be inordinantly expensive or wasteful. There are recipes using carcasses but they also call for adding a small amount of meat. But I've always used some meat in my stocks anyway so this is nothing new for me. To your question about whether the meat/bones are thrown away at the end, the answer is yes. If I had a pet to give it to, maybe not, but what remained was not edible. MC makes a good point about the pressure cooking stocks vs. tradition simmering: "The proof is in a bite of what remains when you strain...the stock at the end of the simmer. If it still tastes like beef, veal, chicken, or vegetables, then the traditional process has not fully extracted all the flavor." That's the key take-away for me, that pressure cooking stock maximizes the flavor extraction from whichever combination of bones/meat we use. deepfryerdan, I have yet to "graduate" to cooking large cuts of meat in a pressure cooker, but I also hear that it produces incredibly tender pot roast.

Here's an eG recipe from 2002, maybe this is the one you mean: Bhel Puri

Emily, yes, MC suggests cooking time for chicken stock as 1-1/2 hrs. That's the low end of the recommended times for various pressure cooked stocks. The time for beef or veal stock is 2-1/2 hrs. Pressure is 15 psi, which is the high setting on mine.

Heidi, my cut was thicker than yours and it cooked quickly. I seared it, skin side down, over high heat and finished it in a medium oven for 5 minutes. Residual heat cooked it a bit more so that it was a touch overdone for my preference. if I'm lucky enough to find more, I'll cut the cooking time by a minute, or perhaps try the broiler.

Yesterday I finally got around to making chicken stock in my pressure cooker, using the ingredient proportions and guidelines from Modernist Cuisine—all very simple and straightforward, actually. It took 30 minutes to prep everything, then it sat on the stove for 90 minutes. No attention required, save the occasional glance at the pressure indicator to be sure everything was operating safely (I’m still overly cautious, probably). Once off the heat, it took about 20 minutes before I could safely open the lid. I am still in a mild state of shock at what I saw. Perfect stock. Clear, golden, limpid stock. It hadn’t been skimmed during cooking and I hadn’t strained it yet and still I saw none of the scum that normally one has to skim off during the stock making process. I strained out the solids, cooled it over ice, then stuck it in the fridge overnight. This morning I skimmed off the thin layer of fat on top and marveled at the bowl of clear, gelatinous stock that remained. If you make stock, do yourself a favor and get a pressure cooker. I can’t wait to try this again with other stocks.

$7.99 a lb? what a steal. That's a lovely dinner. My local Whole Foods had some last week. Needless to say it was $19.99 a lb. But I've never seen it offered before and they seemed uncertain as to whether they'd get any more. So I splurged and took their last piece. It was my first taste of Copper River ever, and I can say hands down it was the best salmon I've ever had. No pics, but I served it with sauteed spinach, jasmine rice, drizzled with some nuoc cham and topped with cilantro and slivered radishes. Fabulous, worth every penny.