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Klary, thank you so much for posting your trip. We were so glad to meet you and Dennis. And seeing our home through your eyes makes it even more special. What a treat. You certainly ate well. If anybody knows more about that thready bread they had at the Szechuan feast in Vancouver, please do tell. My curiousity is totally piqued.

Nice, and thank you for taking the time to write that out.

Can you tell us how you do that? I am looking for things to do with my starter.

One thing I love doing is waking up earlier than everybody on the weekend (not hard to do in a house full of teenagers), and bake quickbreads. It is such an easy thing to do, the house smells so good, and even though it is not the least bit fancy, that kind of baking really appeals to my senses. Yesterday morning, I made the Coffee Break Muffins. With a whole stick of butter, I was concerned that they might be heavy or greasy, but they came out great. My favorite part is that the crust is crunchy and thin, an dhas great contrast with the light cakey insides. Love the edges! The coffee flavor is buttery, yet still "clean" and true, plus it is kind of a surprise since it isn't a common muffin flavor. Definite do-agains. Dorie, if you are still out there, the book is a treat. Nice layout, crisp and modern, but still welcoming. The part where you dumped a boyfriend because he ordered blueberries and chocolate together cracked me up And, I especially like that you titled the variations as "playing around". It is good to know that we are allowed to play--something I almost always do when cooking, and somehow dont feel free to do when baking. Thanks for that.

Henry and Lorna, Since your blog will have to come to an end sometime soon, I wanted to thank you for sharing this week of your lives with all of us. It was really fun getting to know you a bit, and getting to see Seattle through your eyes and tastebuds. I can see that there are all sorts of new places and things to try just in the year since I re-located out to the boonies foodie wasteland that is my new home. You each have a unique and wonderful way of communicating and of experiencing great foods. And, Lorna, you handle yourself with such grace and generosity of spirit! And of course, your drunken post is a classic, plus we got to see a whole 'nother side of you I am impressed with the way both of you are so comfortable and inventive with recipe-free cooking, even when cooking for a really impressive audience. That's often where I run back to the tried and true. The way you interact with chefs, restaurants, and vendors, is neat, and the sheer number of excellent eating events you can pack into a short little week is boggling. Excellent comes my way maybe twice per month, but you seek and find it twice each day. I want to step up from pretty darn good to excellent. Thanks for the inspiration. PS Thanks for getting me to look at eG again. Its been a great blog.

Peaches are awesome in savory dishes. With the help of a talented friend I canned some spiced peaches in a sweet sour vinegar using star anise and cinammon. They are amazing on pork, and with Asian flavors, like the braise in the oven right now. I'd love to see all the amazing ideas HLo and Ling could explore with some of those beee-utiful market fresh peaches. You really cant go wrong with such a great fruit, so the only trouble is that it may not be difficult enough ingredient.

Lorna and Henry, Welcome to the blog, and thanks for photgraphing and memorializing last night so well. The outdoor deck, burbling waterfall, and gorgeous plantings were perfect backdrops for all that inventive and tasty food and company. We will all enjoy your flirting and cooking this week. And please, Lorna, do tell how you came to be such a dessert master. Have you had this sweet tooth your whole life? Do you exercise? PS The ganache tart and the cheesecake were BOTH wonderful.

Salumi from salumi.

Oh my Gawd!

I just saw this topic for the first time, though it has been on the board for some time. Worms--yuck. But, cooking should do them in, so I may be able to maintain my own personal bubble of denial. But the original poster said that the fish had been cured. Over in the Charcuterie thread over here some of us have been curing fish and meat by salting, flavoring and pressing the flesh. The end result may or may not end up being smoked, depending upon the recipe. Does anybody have a theory about why a week in heavily salted cure did not kill off the worms? The original poster did not discuss the cure, but from what I've seen and done, this isn't saltwater like the sea where those little wormy buggers came from. This is really really salty stuff.

My new home has one of those stovetops too. But I loved everything else about the place, and figured I could always replace it if it did not work out. Well, I've been here a year, and while I would not purchase such a stovetop on purpose, it is totally livable. The "rules" mentioned above have not been an issue, though the person who mentioned no shaking has a good point. From experience, I notice different things: BAD When your pot floweth over, there is not anywhere for the liquid to go, so it floods the stovtop and burns on to the hot burner. You can sop up most of it, but if you are barefoot, like all summer long, a big overflow can spill over to feet. Also, the burners stay hot long after use, but they dont "look" hot. There is a little tiny light, far from the hot area, to warn you of this. The stove usually wipes up easy, but some messes take effort. Unlike with a regular stove, that effort must be scratch-free. I recommend cooking rice in a separate rice cooker and avoiding the overfill to avoid lots of cleaning. My last complaint may be specific to my model and my heavy cookware, but my main burner runs too hot on the middle and low heat settings. I can maintain a full boil at 2, when what I want at that setting is a simmer. I have to really watch close when simmering. GOOD: My biggest surprise is that the stovetop is not so bad. I am no longer thinking about replacing it until it reaches its natural death. CLEANING TIP: The stovetop cleans up easily most of the time. For tough cooked on stuff that won't wipe off with a rag and water, use a special purpose ceramic cleaner (I've heard that BBQ cleaner is cheaper and equally effective, but my home came stocked with so much Ceramabryte that I have not tried the other). In genreal I avoid purchasing extra chemicals for my home, but in this case, I believe that it would be unwise to ignore the marketting pitches for the single use product. If the guck still wont come off, I set a wet rag on the guck overnight, and wipe it down next day. Sometimes I have to do this more than once. Good luck.

Welcome out our way Chufi. I dont think you have set up an especially difficult itinerary, because the route makes sense. But everyone travels differently, so it is just a matter of choice. If it were me, I might leave out Bellingham in favor of LaConner because they are close, LaConner is small and charming, and B'ham is not especially special. And I might not go all the way to Olympia, because surprisingly enough, you dont need to go to Olympia to get to the Olympic Peninsula. One nice trip might be to come south from Vancouver, Take the gorgeous slow and windy Chuckanaut Drive path to La Conner, thave lunch, then backtrack just a little bit so that you can stop at beautiful Deception Pass State Park on the north end of Whidbey Island (Hwy 20), then take a ferry from Keystone to Port Townsend to spend the night. This would put you on the Olympic Peninsula much more quickly than going thru Olympia. Pt Townsend is a very pretty historic town with lots of Vistorian BBs, accomodations and shops, and is a gateway of sorts to the Olympic National Park, including Dungeness Spit, Hurricane Ridge, and some other great viewpoint stops. On the way back, Pt Angeles has ferries up to Canada, and is also on the way to Bainbridge Island. The Peninsula is all small towns, some economically healthier than others. We can guide you to some decent restaurants, but the quality tends to vary over time, so they can be unpredictable. Some are often good considering their out of the way location, but not "city" good, at least not consistently over time. (I'm ducking for all the folks who want ot yell at me for saying that) There are great oyster harvesting places on the coast, 42nd Street in Long Beach is good, especially for breakfast. Once you know your route, we can probably offer more guidance. I hope we get to meet!

And, besides the badfood, Dick's charges for ketchup. That's why they call them Dick's. Sorry, but we almost lifelong locals have been saying that for so long that I had to make sure it was included here.

I'm here to vouch for Abra's green lardo. It smells sweet and porky good. No off notes at all. But it looks scary. I am so sad, and so curious how this could happen or what it might be. It was salted, wrapped, weighted, and inside of a baggie, in a refrigerator. That sure sounds safe.

I want to cure. But I am afraid. Charcuterie recommends 60F/60% humidity for pancetta, and 60F/70% humidity for dry cured sausages. The area that I'd like to use is a dark basement pantry that is running about 63F/40%. I got the humidity up to 49% with a pan of water, but this still seems too dry. Does it really matter? Perhaps I could increase humidity by placing the pan inside of a big cardboard box??? What about a Rubbermaid-type of drawer unit, where the top drawers could serve as shelves, and you could remove the lower shelves for hannging space, a pan of water on the bottom? I am looking for something that can be put away when I'm not using it, but that would let me have pancetta whenever I have a hankering. Any thoughts appreciated.

I've been Braising With Molly for a few weeks now. The other evening, in order to inaugurate my new LC Red Oval, I made Chicken Fricasee, which came out very nicely, quite rich, if not very pretty. I think I will slice the mushrooms smaler next time as they get slippery and kind of hard to chase with your fork during dinner. The leftovers were even better than the dish, and I picked the chicken from the bone to turn them into a wonderful pasta sauce. I've also done the bay leaf potatoes, a fabulous cabbage braise, and beef shortribs with honey and rosemary (excuse for not having the actual titles handy). The tips in this thread have been helpful, and my book is already marked up. I keep wanting to do the Rendang, but it is tough to find lemongrass out here. I'll have to pick some up next time I make it over to the "big city".

If a restaurant manager is not knowledgeable about wine, or perceives that their customers dont focus on wine, then the supplier pretty much makes up the wine list for them. The conversation goes like this: "Merlot is selling really well these days. How many would you like?" You wont hear discussion of food and wine pairing in that type of sales situation. It wont matter that spicy food tends to go well with sweet wines like Pinot Gris or Reisling, and tends to kill reds. You will hear discussion of price point and growth potential. Sad, but true.

You might also enjoy looking at Rick Bayless cookbooks....he uses each distinct type of dried chili to develop a base sauce that is then made unique in a variety of recipes. Its a good approach and it lets you do the time consuming part all at once, leaving you with a great base to play with later with much less effort. It sounds like it may fill the bill for you as he really tries to bring out the nature of each type of chili. Another book I enjoy is a small book The Great Salsa Book by Mark Miller. He has some very unique salsas that make use of dried chilis, some hot, some not. All very flavorful.

Try any Hispanic or Asian grocery. If there are none in the fresh section, they will probably be in the freezer case. If you dont see them just ask. Someone will be glad to help, language or no.

There I am being all open-minded and watching Paula because sis-in-law LOVES her. I've never given her more than 5 minutes of my attention as she really gets on my nerves (never even seen her cook, she just bugs me in a way that is completely unfair, immature, and unreasonable on my part. Paula is on with her two sons. They are good-looking guys, and she is sure to tell us that one or both of them are real chefs. She's a proud mama. They are going to make "mexican" chicken. I love Mexican food, and was curious how the distinctly non-ethnic Paula might approach it Demo begins. Here is how you make "mexican" chicken. You take a can of Campbells cheddar cheese soup and plop it in a casserole. Then you take a can of Campbells Cream of Chicken and plop it into the same casserole. Then, you take a can of Campbells Cream of Mushroom and plop into the casserole too. I cannot provide much detail about how the chicken is incorporated because I became nauseous and outraged and failed to pay attention. Then you cover it all with loads of cheese and bake it till bubbly. It is possible that there was some sort of flavoring in there too, mild chili powder or cumin. I don't know. I was too scared (scarred) to watch. She has some nerve calling this mexican, and even more nerve, because she took a bite, and while chewing with her mouth opn, lied to all of us in TV-land about how good it tasted. I'd like to know where the boys cook so I can be sure to stay far away. I suspect they should stick to cooking with Krispy Kremes.

Brad, Its kind of OT, but I had a twelve year old Calphalon stockpot, wrecked by a bean burning experience. Obviously no box or receipt, but they honored the warranty no questions asked. You have to mail them the damaged pot at your expense. Then after a while of not hearing anything from anybody, a new pot shows up on your doorstep. No note or explanation with it, but they do honor the lifetime warranty. Go to their website for instructions.

I will melt all the butter and cream first next time, then add the chocolate. I put the chocolate in at the same time, so perhaps it cooked too harshly. Thanks!

In the spirit of not making the same mistake twice, and now that my brain came back on again, I'd like to learn from my screwup. I was making a chocolate glaze using bitterweet, butter, heavy cream, and a touch of thick instant espresso, and it failed. It became gritty and ugly instead of smooth. I tried adding a T of corn syrup as a save, but it did not help. The whole thing ended up as a gritty, lumpy, shiny glop. My first thought is that it happened because I substituted 2 oz of unsweetened for some of the bittersweet, but now I wonder if perhaps I just cooked it too hot. I used a metal mixing bowl over a pan of simmering water, but I think I let the water get too hot. Any thoughts as to whether the unsweetened chocolate substitution or the temperature was at fault? edited because clearly my brain is not fully working today

Thanks for the tip Sugarbuzz. Does it matter which type of chocolate you use, unsweet, bittersweet, etc. as far as texture?