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Well, it could be worse. They could have gone with "a thimble of cream" or "a shoe full of cream" or "a hammock of cream." But anyway, the dish's description is a little silly, but I assume you're going for the food, not the literature. I've been disappointed by food that had a great, clear description and enjoyed food from menu descriptions I couldn't even decipher. You never know how it will go when you try a new place.

I do a few things in order to get everything out at the right temperature: -Adjust the menu so that not everything needs to be served hot. -Warm plates in the oven on low (unless the oven is already in use). -Serve family style, not plated. -Avoid individual cuts of meat. No steaks, no fish.

For my wedding, I rented a big cupcake stand from the same place I rented the glasses, tables, flatware, etc from. I think it was $10/day for a big silver metal stand. I thought it would probably take that much in materials to try to make one anyway. Although, these instructions for making one look pretty good.

If you've done a lot of roasting and frying, I'd try a nice poached chicken. After an hour in the poaching liquid (include some ginger and onions), debone and use the meat in a salad or other dish.

I don't think you'd have to go to quite that much trouble. Why not try a 23 oz pilsner glass? If you're willing to go down one ounce to 22, there are a few more glass styles to choose from.

We have a bunch of pint glasses and larger 22 oz "mixing glasses" from the restaurant supply store. In a glass that's made out of glass (as opposed to something lighter, like plastic), 22 oz is about as big as I want to go. We have a couple of steins that are even bigger, but those are a pain to handle. So when I want a big glass of water, I grab the 22 oz. If I just want a "regular" glass of water, I'll grab the pint.

I just did a pretty good appetizer for Thanksgiving. It's from another recipe I have that I thought would work in small bites, and it really does. It should be served warm, though, so it may be easier to bring things that can be kept cool or room temp. You would need: Puff pastry shells (Pepperidge Farm makes some, and you can get them at the regular grocery store. Probably 2-3 packages needed) Chicken thighs with bone in (about 2 lbs) Chicken stock (enough to poach the thighs) Carrots (2), diced Dried mushrooms (1 or 2 packets) (I think morels taste the best, but use what you like) Cream (about 1 cup) White wine that goes with chicken (about 1 cup) Onion (1 or 2) diced Thyme Flat-leaf parsley Salt and pepper Butter Rehydrate the mushrooms in water. Bake the pastry shells according to the package directions and discard the "lids." You can use the lids if you want, but they have something like "top" stamped on them and it looks kind of weird. Poach the chicken thighs in the stock until done. Remove thighs shred into small pieces, discard skin and bones, separate fat and keep the stock. Remove the mushrooms from the water and set aside. Add the mushroom water to the stock. Reduce stock all the way down to about 3/4 to 1 cup. Add white wine and reduce again. Saute vegetables and mushrooms in butter and season with salt and pepper. Remove from the pan and add to the bowl of shredded chicken. In your saute/sauce pan, make a brown roux from flour and butter. Add reduced sauce, then add cream, and let it thicken. Season with S&P. Pour sauce over veg and chicken. Add herbs. Stir everything together to combine, test for seasoning. Spoon into baked pastry cups, then bake another 5-10 mins to warm everything up. Note: You can easily make this without the chicken, so that the only "meat" is the mushrooms. That tastes great as well.

I don't use nonstick anymore because the coating either needs to be babied or it doesn't last. Maybe others have more luck with it, but I don't feel good about using it. So I just use nice stainless pans even for delicate things like omelets and fish.

I eat meat as well, but I don't have any illusions that the vast majority of animals raised for consumption (this includes those raised for eggs, dairy, wool, and other products as well as meat) are treated in a way that is even remotely humane. You don't need to anthropomorphize animals to understand that they feel stress and fear, and that it's unpleasant for them to live in squalor and packed in to tiny spaces. It doesn't say a lot about us that even though we now know a lot more about what animals can think and feel than we used to, that even though we have developed incredibly efficient farming methods and have vastly improved our scientific knowledge, that we still have an industrial food system that really encourages treating animals much more harshly than necessary. Even for foods that are packaged to make us think the animals are treated well, it is often a sham. I was just buying eggs yesterday and trying to decide between "cage free," "free range," and "organic." Which eggs came from hens that were treated the best? According to what I've read, they could all be treated the same, and not really any better than any others. If the hens are so fat that they literally cannot move from in front of their food trough, it doesn't help them to have the door to their cage open. So I honestly have to say, for vegetarians and vegans, good for them for not contributing to this. Why fault them for that, even if some other people can't, or don't want to, live that way? What's the point of reforming people into doing less good for animals and the overall environment?

Oh okay, that makes sense. I sometimes wipe off can lids in order to avoid getting dust or something else into the food upon opening, though I'm not sure it really affects the end product in any significant way. I'm not sure I believe that whatever is on the exterior of an orange will inevitably contaminate the interior in a way that can be smelled or tasted, though. But it is technically possible, and for something with a delicate flavor, it certainly couldn't hurt.

I guess I don't understand the physics of the orange thing. If your dirty orange has dirt and pesticides or other impurities that made their way under the skin, how would washing the outside of the orange rinse any of that off? Is the theory that the water penetrates the rind, grabs the interior impurities, and then exits the rind? Maybe that would work in a long soak, but I can't imagine a quick rinse and scrub would do anything.

I core first with the Oxo corer, then peel with a paring knife starting at the top and going to the bottom in a big spiral. It's easier for me to get started on the peel if the core is gone first. Then, I can slice up the nude apple any way I want pretty easily. I do have an apple peeler/corer device where you stick the apple on the end and it peels, cores, and/or slices when you crank the handle, but adjusting it has proven to be a pain, so it sits in the cupboard until I have more time to figure it out. Oh, and I also have about 20 lbs of Oregon red delicious apples sitting here, waiting to be processed. They were a gift, but they turned out to be mealy, so they'll either become applesauce or compost.

I've done this before accidentally, but what happens to me is that the outer layer of the thing that is being fried gets done in about 2 seconds, leaving the inside nearly raw. The last time I deep fried (admittedly months ago, because I can't stand disposing of the oil) it was for eggplant katsu. So then the only real solution is to finish them in the oven, which takes forever and negates any speed advantage of frying.

I've been going to the Bouchon in Yountville a few times a year for the past few years. So I'm not a regular or anything, but I've eaten a lot of their fries. And yes, they're good, but I don't know if they're the best fries I've ever had. I wouldn't say that they were especially memorable. But if the implications for the home cook are that if we want really good fries at home, we too might as well use frozen fries because the fries Thomas Keller uses are really good and consistent, I would say that would only make sense if we had access to the same quality of fries that he does. There's probably a way I could get my hands on a box of SYSCO fries (if that's what he uses), but realistically, people are going to buy what they can find at the grocery store, especially for something as cheap as potatoes. If regular frozen grocery store fries aren't as good as what he uses, and aren't as good as fresh, then no, it's not a waste of time to cut potatoes for fresh fries. I would also say that in a home kitchen, dealing with the potatoes is not the most labor-intensive part. You're not going to make that many fries; just a few batches, and that's it for the night. Dealing with the oil is the far bigger chore, and frozen fries don't help you with that. In a commercial kitchen, I'm sure it's the other way around. The oil is always going, and they have a system for filtering or disposing of it. The labor would all be in the prepping of the high volume of potatoes. Also, I have to wonder why, if Keller is so pleased with the quality of frozen fries, he bothered including a recipe for frites in his book, Bouchon. One certainly gets the impression from reading the recipe that the restaurant uses fresh cut potatoes. The recipe certainly does not read: "1) open box, 2) toss in Frialator." In any case, when I made the fries from that recipe, they turned out well, and in fact, I think I liked them more than I liked the frites I've eaten at Bouchon.

I will just tell you my experience that when a blog suddenly becomes popular (mentioned in the newspaper, radio, or other media) and suddenly gets an increase in visitors and starts to carry more ads (usually the first ads to appear are google adsense ads), readers complain about the ads. What gives a blog legitimacy is being linked to or mentioned in media or blogs more popular than your own. What makes a blog appear popular to someone checking it out for the first time is having a lot of comments on daily entries. If you don't have many (or any) comments, it doesn't matter who you're sponsored by; it looks like you're just writing to yourself. And the ads, besides that, will look silly on a site that gets so little traffic.

Interesting, I've never heard of google ads giving any sort of legitimacy before. In my experience, people find them irritating and try to avoid looking at them by installing ad-blockers on their browsers. I thoroughly recommend using the Firefox browser and the Adblock plus plugin for just that purpose.

These are our two pets and partners in crime: When we only had the dog Trixie, it was pretty easy to keep things out of reach. You could hold stuff on the table or counters, and it was safe. Sure, if you left something (say, a bowl of favorite ice cream or some tasty cheese) on the coffee table and left the room for a second, the dog would immediately find it and start licking it, but there were higher tables where you could put things down. There were sanctuaries. And then the cat, Andy, moved in. A true scavenger and acrobat, no surface is too high, no treat can possibly remain out of reach. We haven't lost anything big or important yet, but I'm sure it's just a matter of time. I had left some cheese for shredding on the kitchen butcher block for a few minutes and closed the door to the kitchen behind me. When I came back, the kitchen door was open, the cheese wrapper was on the floor, the cheese was gone, Trixie was licking her lips, and Andy was casually grooming his paw. As I surveyed the scene, I figured out what happened, and interrogated the subjects with my version of the crime, like they do on CSI. I asked them if it was true that Trixie had opened the door with her paw (she has been known to open other doors), allowing Andy to jump up onto the butcher block, and knock the cheese onto the floor, where they both ate it. They looked guilty, which I took as a "yes."

Given the way it's described in the first post, yes. This is not the description of a personal/for-friends-only and/or diehard fans site: "It was decided that a ‘portal’ was needed to be developed to support both restaurant’s websites. A re-direction of both restaurants to the one site. In the process of this conversation a lot of banter went around about our marketing plan 2008 and driving our new customers to the website through every marketing initiative we developed for 2008. It was agreed that for this to be successful the site would have to be fun, informative and interactive." He's talking about marketing plans and new customers there. With that in mind, the design is really a problem. I didn't even realize at first that Rare and Metro were the names of Chef Fowke's restaurants. And why are they at opposite ends of the button bar? Having google ads on a commercial website, or even the more casual part of the website, just seems like a bad idea. I use an adblocker anyway, so I won't be seeing them, but instead see a blank column where the ads would otherwise go. But anyway, google ads are for people who have blogs up just for the fun of it and really need that few extra bucks a month to keep the site online. If you have those ads on your portal, it makes you look like you're really hard up for cash, that people aren't buying your food. It basically gives your potential customers the opposite impression that you would want. About the content, there's nothing wrong with putting up gorgeous pics and commentary, but the design of the site really impedes understanding of where those pics were taken, if those are items that are available at either place, etc. I'm sure you could get a web designer to set up a nice, intuitive design that allows you to customize content and add pics as frequently as you want. I would really do that, or at least find a different template to use.

The way I look at it, you might as well use the good stuff on your friends, because even if they don't appreciate it now, maybe they will in the future. My husband and I converted our Corona-drinking friends into great appreciators of Belgian beer, so now we have people to drink our Beer of the Month deliveries with. Same with cheeses and a few other things. If you have enthusiasm for your food and see these people frequently enough, you can probably get some converts over time.

Spinach dip in a sourdough bowl, mini quiches, taquitos. '70s party food to me is a multicultural smorgasboard of flavors. The more foods that don't really go together, the better.

Four days, three Thanksgivings, two turkeys, one unturkey. The first one was fun because it was our favorite foods, done exactly the way we wanted them done. Split-roasted turkey with stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes (with absolutely NO orange juice added), roasted cauliflower, cranberry sauce, cornbread with bacon on the top, and cazuela pie. That was it. There were only three of us, and it was great. Thanksgiving the 2nd mostly involved trying to avoid getting too close to the sick relative who was hosting because she was too sick to come to our house. No, it didn't make sense to me, either. Next time somebody is ill, we teleconference or something because I am pretty sure I'm coming down with her plague. A couple of guests from Brazil brought an interesting dessert -- it was sort of like what you would get if a tres leches cake and a trifle were combined. A yellow cake base with pineapple and condensed milk, covered with meringue and shredded coconut. It wasn't bad. Very wet and gloopy, but surprisingly tasty. And it went well with pumpkin pie. Thanksgiving the 3rd was vegan. That included a great gluten "bird", a homemade unturkey. Wrapped in yuba skin and stuffed, it comes out looking kind of meat-ish. I've never been a great fan of seitan, so I would judge it just okay. The rest of the meal was pretty normal: mashed potatoes, gravy, stuffing, cranberry sauce, brussels sprouts, greens, roasted sweet potatoes with marshmallow, stuffed mushrooms, and my contribution: puff pastry cups filled with morels, carrots, and onions in a gravy made from the reduced morel soaking water and vegetable stock. With added thyme and parsley, they were pretty similar to mini chicken pot pies. And we had pumpkin pie and lots of booze. A pretty great meal. With only 8 attendees, it was a lot smaller this year than in years past, but it was a lot more relaxing that way.

I just received notice that one Thanksgiving dinner has been canceled due to pinkeye. Yes! Er, no, I mean those poor, poor people.

Dry turkey is pretty awful, I'll give you that. Well, it's not awful, but just not enjoyable. The rest of it is all stuff that is kind of hard to mess up. I've always loved the traditional Thanksgiving flavors -- maybe I don't cook enough with sage the rest of the year, but the flavor of it in the stuffing is just wonderful. And squash -- I love squash. Baked, mashed, in pies, in soup, I love it all, but really only make it for Thanksgiving. Same for the rest of the dishes. The total package of Thanksgiving flavor combinations is hard to beat. It does grow tiresome if you have it too much, though. The last few years I've eaten not one or two, but four full Thanksgiving dinners each holiday. Starting with mine on Wednesday, it continues daily at various relatives' and friends' houses until Saturday. No wonder I only make this stuff once a year.

They definitely sell Sonoma and Hudson Valley foie gras, and from at least one French producer. They don't appear to sell any from Labelle, but I can't say for sure that they don't. Labelle seems to sell their foie directly out of Bella Bella Gourmet Foods. I assume, but haven't confirmed yet, that they're associated with Labelle Farms.

In case anyone else is interested, I've found one more producer, though not in NY: Tom Brock in California at http://freshgoosefoiegras.com/ He only sells to California buyers.