GordonD

The other night on "Good Eats," Alton Brown recommended skipping the Pizza stones sold in kitchen stores in favor of a much cheaper unglazed quarry stone from your local hardware store. All such items at my local Home Depot were cut way too small to be of any use. Then it occured to me, I live in a heavy quarrying area. I know they have a different composition, but would a hunk of marble or slate swiped from a local slag heap do the same sort of job?

Not too long ago, I made a grilled cheese sandwich with duck fat. It felt like the height of extrvagance. I have also cooked potato latkes in goose fat, which had very pleasing results. I'm pretty sure duck fat would be equally lovely.

I'm curious as to if there was any fallout when those apple people found out about the bit with the Granny Smiths.

Sugar and Spice, a little ways down Route 4.

The only thing I've had a chance to make from this so far is duck legs with carrots, and it was just fantastic. The skin was delightfully crispy, the meat nice and tender. The carrots, having soaked up so much of the duck fat, had a flavor and texture akin to butter. It was also frightfully easy to make. I want to get into pig's tails and ears, but I can't get that stuff around here. I've found all of it and more in Boston, but the people I stay with there are, shall we say, unadventurous in their eating and won't let me bring such things into their kitchen.

I was led to this thread through another thread, and figured I'd best post my question here. I, too, recently bought a bottle of mustard seed oil only to get home and be surprised by the words "for massage only" on the label. So, say I cook with it. What symptoms should I watch out for in case what I have turns out to be the bad kind?

Let us not forget Blue Velvet, with Kyle MacLachlan's affinity for Heinekin and Dennis Hopper's advocacy of Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Does braised pork shoulder count? I'm a sucker for slow-cooked, shredded port and when it's too cold for me to be bothered with the grill, braising does a marvelous job. You wind up with a big pile of super-tender and very flavorful meat that you can find 101 uses for.

I could swear I read about Fox planning something almost identical with Gordon Ramsay a couple weeks ago.

Starting from the humble and working our way up: If you want pub food, Ppeppers is probably the best choice on the mountain for burgers and wings. Outback Pizza is damn good and I have risked my life to eat their barbecue chicken pizza. The Inn at Long Trail has the only properly served pint of Guinness in the whole county and an incredible beef stew that has been written up in Gourmet magazine. Their dining room has some nice choices, including an oatmeal-crusted chicken with a maple cream sauce that you should really try at least once. A little further down the mountain is Heli's Restaurant at the Mendon Mountain View, which does a very nice sampling of central-European cuisine at really good prices. Wienerschnitzle is the house specialty, but they do a veal chop in a port wine reduction that is just fabulous. If you're in the mood for Chinese, you want to keep driving until you get to Rutland. The Panda Pavillion has Peking duck as good as I've had anywhere, and I love Peking duck. For the higher-end, I'd make two recommendations. The first is Little Harry's in Rutland, which has a lot of really good Thai-influenced fusion cuisine. The second is the Red Clover Inn in Mendon, whose chef is an absolute genius who does things with lamb that will bring you to your knees.