LindaK

This is one of my bad habits too. It's especially irritating as I've been transitioning to a new range w/ a convection oven, something I'd never used before. Every time I bake something, I swear I'll make a note about temperature, time, convection on/off, especially when something turns out perfectly. But I don't, and end up experimenting unnecessarily again and again. If you cook professionally and repeat dishes many times every night, day after day, this probably isn't an issue. But for us home cooks, notes seem like a smart idea. If only I could remember to do it.

Do they carry Polar in Boston? Their birch beer isn't as easy to find here in southern NH as it used to be, but it's pretty good. I can actually find Boylans more easily than Polar, but it tastes less like the birch beer I grew up with.I not only miss local ice cream stands -- more of them here are year-round places, which isn't the same to me, and the ice cream's not always made on-site -- but black raspberries themselves. My local farmstand no longer carries them, and with all the new housing developments, I no longer know anyone who has them growing on their property. Yes, Polar is a local brand (Worcester, I believe) but I haven't seen birch beer since forever. A great uncle of mine used to make it, nothing better, even as a kid I preferred it to sweet tonic (local parlance for soda). I never see black raspberries anymore either. They sure made scrumptious ice cream. Even better when when eating it next to a field full of the cows that produced the milk. It didn't seem like a luxury at the time. Who knew.

- real bagels - birch beer - ice cream from local dairy stands (esp. black raspberry, a new england specialty in season), back when there were local dairies - inexpensive fresh fish

Let me begin my own late entry into this discussion by noting that today's Boston Globe article on Gourmet's demise quoted our own Chris Amirault from this thread. Read it here. Way to go, Chris. Like others, I have mixed feelings about Gourmet's finale. When I stumbled onto Gourmet in the late 1980s while I was in grad school, it seemed like a huge discovery. My own serious interest in the culinary world was just taking off, and there were few other venues (that I knew about, anyway) that let me eavesdrop onto the debates and discussions that were out there. Almost everything--the restaurant reviews, the travel pieces, the great articles, photos, etc.--were new to me and I couldn't get enough. I owe a lot to Gourmet. One of the dumbest things I've ever done was to sell a complete 12-year set of issues before I moved from St. Louis to Boston for $20 (before eBay, there were only yard sales). Fast forward. Issues and recipes became repetitive and boring. Good writing became scarce. With entire issues turned over to "the Hotel issue" and the like, it seemed as if Conde Naste was trying to force their travel mags down my throat when I wouldn't subscribe to them. I had high hopes for Gourmet when Ruth Reichel became editor but although there was the ocassional good article, one had to wade through all the product placement to find them. Not just food products but all the luxury items one must have to suffer though the flight to Paris en route to that perfect meal. Enough. I haven't picked up an issue in years and haven't missed it. But I will think of Gourmet every holiday season, when I make pounds of the almond butter cookie recipe I found there years ago and has since become my signature Christmas cookie.

Put your sugar in whatever bowl it's destined for, then add the lemon zest (I use a microplane). Rub them together with your fingers. The oil from the zest will flavor the sugar nicely. It's a great trick that I picked up in Dorie's Yogurt Cake recipe, and I've used it ever since in other recipes.

Great videos! Like David, I truss to keep aromatics in a roasted bird, but otherwise I rarely bother. However, if I'm browning a bird on top of the stove, it's sure a lot easier to turn if the legs are secure and not flopping around. That also helps keep the browned skin from splitting where the leg is attached, which is likely to happen otherwise.

This sounds like a must-try. I love celery root but had never tried it as a soup until a few days ago when dining out at a birthday dinner. Before the starters arrived. the chef sent out tiny portions of a creamy celery root soup topped with a bit of mushroom foam and a razor-thin drizzle of a sauce that most definitely included cocoa. It was delectable, and while the whole meal was excellent, it's the soup I'm still thinking about.

Ha! I've done this too. Plus kitchen shears are the only thing I know that can cut through the hellishly heavy plastic packaging that encloses too many small items, culinary or otherwise. On the food front, I use them to cut woody herbs off the plant and cut up chickens. My favorite pair (I have two) is constructed with a serrated edge inside the finger grips that let you grab small, totally stuck bottle or jar tops and twist them open with no effort. It is brilliant. If you are looking to buy a pair, you must look for this feature. No brand name on mine, sorry.

On the other hand, one thing I've learned about myself is that, if I freeze applesauce, I'm much less likely to thaw it in order to make applesauce gingerbread than I am to thaw and eat an applesauce gingerbread that's already been made. Ditto pumpkin puree (except it's pumpkin muffins or loaf, rather than pumpkin gingerbread). But maybe that's just me... Good point, very true, so long as I remember to make enough extra applesauce gingerbread to freeze some. I'm bad about making extras of finished dishes, better at stocking my freezer with the building blocks. BTW, I've never heard of applesauce gingerbread and would love a recipe. Sounds scrumptious.

Clio is wonderful if price is no object and your guests are adventurous. For something more conservative, around the corner on Newbury Street is Abe and Louie's, more of a high end steak house (with plenty of fish too).

I'm also trying to get the hang of stocking my freezer. Ordinarily the only things I ever make purposefully to freeze are pestos and herb butters to get me through the winter. I'm going to try the duxelles, onion confit, and curry pastes. I've also had good luck freezing whole soft rind cheeses when I've found myself with an abundance. Definitely save the rinds from depleted wedges of parmesan cheese--throw them into simmering vegetable soups, tomato sauces, or stews for great flavor and extra body to the broth/sauce. One thing I've found is that the components of many dishes freeze well, while the final dish does not. Leftover cooked and uncooked seasoned meat fillings for cabbage rolls, stuffed pastas, etc. are great to save. Not an instant dinner but lets you pull together an otherwise time-consuming dish quickly. Seasonings usually need to be adjusted, though.

This is a really good point. Only a few of my cookbooks provide weight measurements but I've found that for those that do, large eggs always seem to come in a little underweight--leaving me to wonder about the best way to adjust--more white, or yolk, or both? For supermarket eggs, extra large seem to work more consistently by weight. Though this business about freshness is troubling. Another reason to buy eggs at the farmers market, though I also agree with earlier posts that sizes can vary dramatically. Oh, if only all recipes used weight measurements... paulraphael and others, when you freeze egg whites, what's your system? When I have an extra white or two, I never know if that's too few to freeze, how long they last in the freezer, etc.? Can you freeze yolks too?

Last week I provided munchies for a group of fellow election campaign volunteers, and for something sweet made the "chewy, chunky blondies." They were perfect, a snap to make and so good. I didn't have the butterscotch chips on hand but otherwise followed the recipe. Enough chocolate for those who must have it, but lots of nuts and caramel-ly flavors from the brown sugar for others (like me) who OD easily on chocolate. The coconut was an inspired addition. This recipe deserves regular rotation for potlucks or family bbqs. With vanilla ice cream, I can imagine using this recipe as the basis for a great ice cream sandwich variation. Aloha Steve, report back on your purchases at E. Dehillerin, one of the greatest places to shop EVER!

For me, the start of fall is always a wake-up call to preserve the fragile treasures of summer to liven up a long winter season. Autumn food is delicious, but with summers so short here, I'm in no rush to start fall cooking. So between bites of end-of-season tomatoes and beans, I've been freezing pesto--adding a chunk to a simple vegetable soup in January will make me and my friends very happy. Similarly, I'm making and freezing compound butter w/ tarragon from my garden to top steamed green beans or make Julia Child's casserole roasted chicken with tarragon on a snowy February day. But I will say that when I finally give up and accept my fate, one of the first things I make in the autumn is roasted butternut squash w/ garlic. Likewise, I really enjoy my first bowl of fresh brussel sprouts drizzled with brown butter.

Cambridge isn't far or difficult to get to either by tax or public transit from your hotel, but it will take additional time, so you'd be a little less rushed by sticking to Boston if you want to eat before the concert. It also depends on whether you want to pay for taxis or take the subway (we call it the "T"). No. 9 Park is very close to your hotel, but from there to Symphony Hall would be a long walk, a nice one but not if you're pressed for time. The Park Street T station is close by, from there take the Green line "E" train to Symphony. If you end up in the South End, there's no direct subway connection to the Symphony area, but it's closer so walkable. If you decide you want to go to Cambridge, the Red line also runs from Park Street. Go to Central Square for Craigie or Central Kitchen, Harvard for Harvest. Oleana would require a taxi.

Hello Chicago, one of my favorite cities for food, architecture, other urban adventures. Nine Zero is on the edge of the Financial District and adjacent to the Boston Common. Nice location generally but not restaurant central. My first recommendation would be No. 9 Park. It's just a few blocks and a lovely walk from your hotel and is excellent by any measure. Chef Barbara Lynch has several restaurants in the city but this is inarguably her best. Great space too, whether you eat at the bar or in the main dining area. There are many comments on this board about this restaurant, and all are superlative. Closer to Symphony Hall is tougher. While there are some decent places in the area, most are geared towards the student populations from nearby colleges. But Symphony is adjacent to both the South End and the Back Bay neighborhoods, both with plenty of resturants, but a nod to the SE for better options. Maybe others have specific recommendations. One issue to consider is whether you want dinner before or after your concert. Boston is not known for late-night fine dining, so check ahead for hours. Though I am a proud Bostonian, many of my favorite restaurants are in Cambridge: Oleana, Harvest, Craigie Street Bistro, Central Kitchen. Your hotel is convenient to the red line (subway) so quick to any of these, but they probably wouldn't work with a symphony schedule. Boston is a small city compared to Chicago, so walking/taxi distances are very short no matter where you decide to go.

Has anyone else seen this? Amanda Hesser has started a series of weekly recipe competitions, with the winning recipes to be published in a forthcoming cookbook. Food52 What do you think of this concept? Anyone here participating?

Lately I've started rolling out my pastry dough on one of my Silpat silicone baking sheets. No need to use extra flour to keep it from sticking, and if you need to rotate the dough to roll it out evenly, you can just turn the mat. No sticking, less flour, quick and easy turns--overall it minimizes the chance of overworking the dough. And if for some reason you need to put the rolled-out dough in the fridge before proceeding to the next step, having the dough on the mat makes it a breeze. I usually throw it in the freezer for 10 minutes beforehand, too--not sure it helps but why not.

I'm a big fan of the pinch of cayenne, and find it essential for anything--sauce or otherwise--that uses roux. That means the whole family of bechamel sauces or whenever you might use a buerre-manie (flour-butter paste) to thicken a braise or stew. I also use it when making pate a choux, adding a tiny pinch to the butter-water before adding the flour and eggs. Those times I forget, the resulting dish is noticeably bland. Note: in these instances, cayenne pepper is not interchangeable with pepper flakes or spanish smoked paprika. You may choose to use the latter, if you want their distinct flavors, but they do not fade into the background the way a tiny pinch of cayenne will.

If you really want Julia but fear MAFC, then The Way to Cook is the way to go. I don't agree with the comment above that it's a better cookbook, but it's definitely less dogmatic and intimidating. Pierre Franey is a great suggestion. And I really like Patricia Wells' Bistro Cooking. Easy, friendly, tasty recipes.

The phrase "endless patience" sounds purposefully discouraging. Still, I'm glad people are rediscovering her books. Classics never die. Bravo, Julia.

Patricia Wells' Vegetable Harvest is a recent addition to my collection. Definitely French in focus, but all relatively simple recipes for vegetables or dishes that may include meat or fish but are predominantly about the vegetables. So far what I've tried I've liked. One of my favorite food porn cookbooks is Roger Verge's Vegetables in the French Style. Lovely and unusual recipes for a variety of vegetables with beautiful photos and appealing stories. Recipes range from the very simple to the more ambitious and complex. Everything I've made from this book has been excellent.

It has been a long time since I've had one of these, but it does sound tasty. Sad that one of my first thoughts is "cheese, mayo, butter...how many calories are we talking here?" I grew up with the open face english muffin variation--toast the muffin halves in a toaster, top with tuna, then cheese, broil until bubbly and slightly carmelized. But I've learned to love the grilled rye bread version too. Always swiss cheese, though I don't much care for it in other settings. One key trick I remember--go light on the mayo in the tuna salad, or when it heats up the tuna mixture will seriously ooze.

I'd also like to express my appreciation for what the Silver Palate contributed to my own culinary learning curve. Though the SP was about recipes and not fundamentals, nonetheless I learned a lot from this cookbook, maybe the first I purchased after college. For one thing, there were some basic techniques in there, though never described as such--it was years later, for example, that I realized that one of my favorite SP recipes was a buerre blanc. No one would characterize the SP as a cookbook about fundamentals, but the recipes were careful and respectful of the basics. Maybe more importantly, the SP was comfortable with an array of culinary genres in a way that was entirely new at the time. Today, it's easy to scorn the book's lack of focus or concern with authenticity, but for many people (me included) it opened many windows. It was recipes from the SP that prompted me to seek out previously unknown ingredients such as fresh ginger and sesame oil. However simplistic I may see the recipes today, I know the successes I had from the SP gave me the confidence to read and cook from Julia Child, Paula Wolfert, and others. So, thank you Sheila. RIP.

Where on the site did you register? This whole process is a bit maddening. ← Maddening is a a good word for it. I ended up trying some random Google searches and somehow landed on their registration site: Le Fooding Registration Site Give them your name and email address and you'll be sent a code and link that will let you register. Once having done that, it's not clear whether you actually have tickets or you need to wait for another email. I suspect the latter. Stories about Paris Le Fooding sound similar, so I don't think we're getting special treatment here.