monavano

My parents told me I'd get worms if I ate too much sugar (or, not wash my hands in the bathroom). Specifically, this was in reference to a treat which had a sour-sugar wand, that you licked and dipped it in a flavored sugar pouch. Can't remember the name of it, but think "Pixie stix".

Amy, the pics are wonderful. I HAVE to get that cookbook. Daniel has posted pics from recipes in it, and ...wow. Damn.

Gnocchi freezes BEAUTIFULLY. Just freeze them on a baking sheet. Once fully frozen, place them in a zip loc baggie. Then, they can go into boiling water straight from the freezer. Easy, peasy lemon squeezy.

Stroganoff????

Utter flatulence. For those obtuse readers, which I'm sure none of you are, that's farting.

Thanks for all those pics of your get together. You and your friends really know how to put on a good time

That is beautiful, torakris! such good knife skills you have!! btw, you're kids are too cute

I second the plea for that souffle recipe!! It's gorgeous. Wow.

That looks beautiful! I normally wouldn't think to prep halibut that way. I definitely need to expand my fish repetoire and will give this one a try!

Last night was braised beef over gnocchi, inspired by a local restaurant here in Northern Virginia. While my gnocchi were not like pillows, ala the restaurant, they were pretty darn good considering it was my first attempt. I had made a batch last weekend, inspired my Michael Chiarrelo on the Food Network. These are the frozen ones and cryo'd beef for stew. I just love our vaccum sealer. Meats can be placed in warm water and defrost withing 30-60 minutes. The gnocchi of course, remained frozen until they were boiled. I was so pleased when the frozen ones floated to the top of the water!! Whew!! Here's the dish. The beef was prepared just as an osso bucco, but instead of veal shanks I used beef for stew. It was braised in my slow cooker on low for 5 hours. The braised beef/osso bucco recipe is credited to Emeril. I finished it with a bit of lemon zest and grated Locatelli.

I have a Thermador hood that could suck the white off rice, and I just love it. We can grill steak, chicken you name it. But still, I crack a kitchen window. Could you get a portable fan and blow the smoke toward an open window?? Or would that make matters worse/...hmmm. How about just sticking to broiling, perhaps.

Man I love tuna casserole!!!! looks like you've got some peas in there too! ← ooops! how could I forget the frozen peas? I luv peas I put frozen peas in my collander the pour the pasta and water over them and presto chango! defrost.

Last night I was in a "comfort food" mode and made tuna casserole. This dish is so easy, yet fun to make. 1. boil pasta 2. combine pasta , couple cans of tuna, soup, mayo, water, spices and cheese 3. bake til bubby then uncover and sprinke bread crumbs on top and dot with butter 4. broil til brown and crunchy 5. Add a salad for a healthy asthetic 6. try not to go for seconds 7 fail #6 and indulge in more

That looks beautiful and tasty. Very attractive plating also. You're off to a great start. More, more , more!!!!

I like the idea of fall also. Ideas that are comming now include pumpkin ravioli with sage butter, crushed hazelnuts and ammoretti cookies. Desert something that revolves around Mexican hot chocolate. To those of you who've done this before, how exactly does it work? I figure your time and skills are donated and I assume that the food cost is covered in the winning donation and the rest goes to charity? How much have you seen donated for dinner for 6-8? How many courses are usually served (I'm assuming it's akin to a tasting menu). I have a beautiful space for dining and entertaining and am very interested in this idea, as a volunteer cook and hostess. I can see how much joy it could bring one both creating in the kitchen, and helping others. Thanks

We had berry cobbler. A mix of blackberries from our local farms in July, which we froze, and store bought frozen raspberries. Made a "coulis" of sorts. Here's the mix and a look at the size and beauty of our raspberries: The yummy topping: Here it is with whipped heavy cream and powdered sugar:

awwwwwwwwwwwww.......that's a great cake!!

Excellent blog. Really beautiful photos. A must do over sometime again (please?).

I would recommend the California Grill. The food is wonderful and the view spectacular. I'm envious!!

I have some stored photos which I'm posting now, as I've just figured out how to post pics (and I'm a happy posting fool right now) Here's some beautiful summer bounty from our DC area farmers markets. Beautiful basil, parsley, tomatoes large and small, peaches and flowers. Sadly, we won't be seeing this til next summer. Fresh salad greens with grilled corn, tomatoes, carrots and bulls blood. Finally, here's another meal I made with the fresh greens: Apricot glazed chicken, cous cous with raisins and chopped nuts, and salad with feta cheese and simple vinagrette.

Actually I should have clarified The egg was raw, and is used just as a binder. Although, I have made meatloaf with a couple hard boiled eggs!! It really packs in the protien The sauce thins out a bit, as the fat renders.

Very nice! Have you ever tried doing this with uncooked rice? The reason I ask is that this was my first time not using cooked rice and I liked the results very much. It seems to me -- and I may be imagining this -- that the rice absorbed the flavor of the cooking liquid and made the rolls that much better. In either case, it saved a step, which was nice and the rice turned out completely cooked. =R= ← I've never tried that, and the rice in fact is "boil in bag" rice Yikes!!

Thanks Daniel! My background is Polish Catholic, but from reading the recent "stuffed cabbage " thread in the cooking forum, mine is among many varied heritages which makes this delish dish. The recipe is just the way my mom , and her mom made it. There were many interesting recipes mentioned. The sour cream dressing is just sour cream, white vinegar to thin as per how you like the consistency, and sugar to taste. Theee best part of this meal (I NEVER break up the golabki, sour cream cukes and mash potatoes trinity) is how everything gets melded together as you eat it.

I posted my stuffed cabbage here: http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showto...dpost&p=1018726

Making stuffed cabbage (golabki) on a lazy Sunday. First, the cabbage is boiled and leaves are removed as they loosen. This cabbage had the firmest core I've ever tried to cut out. I'm lucky I didn't lose a digit! I love the large outer leaves. Leaves are drained and cooled in a collander The filling is a mixture of half ground beef and half ground pork, boiled rice, egg, salt and pepper. Now, ready to stuf and roll the cabbage. The sauce is simply tomato soup and ketchup topped with applewood smoked bacon. First the vein is cut out. A small handfull of meat mixture is place at one end of the leaf and it's rolled like a fajita. It's covered with tin foil and baked for an hour at 350, braising two to three times. Served, as always, with mashed potatoes and cucumbers in sour cream dressing.