Megan Blocker

What sort of liquid are you using in the pan to contribute to the "burble"? ← No liquid necessary, believe it or not. The shallots must release the liquid? Once you add the chicken, just stick on the lid and put the heat on low, low, low. ← How long does it take on average, Susan?

Oh, man! I love mixing buttery stuff with my bare (CLEAN!) hands. I love the feeling. I would never use gloves. I feel like I've just revealed something somehow incriminating. On a side (but still hygienic) note, while I never wear gloves, I have really long hair (growing it out for Locks of Love) and I always keep it tied back when I cook.

Chris, I made this duck dish for Christmas dinner - it's a braise but it leaves the skin exposed and crispy. You could easily convert it to chicken (and just butcher your whole chicken at home). It can be made partly ahead, if so desired. It was also super-tasty, BTW...obviously an important bit to note. ETA: The Gourmet Cookbook has a slightly different version with leeks and carrots...

I just finished Toast by Nigel Slater over the holidays. I bought it on a whim - I think it came up as a suggestion on B&N when I was buying some cookbooks as Christmas gifts, and I just added it to my order. Turns out, it's a pretty good book. It's written in short bursts, each section a recounting of a memory tied to a specific food. These little vignettes follow Slater from about age 8 or so to his early 20's, with a concentration on adolescence. One of the things I liked so much about the book (and have liked about Ruth Reichl's work, particularly Tender at the Bone) was its emphasis on the links between taste, smell, and memory. For me, scent and taste have always been the two senses most likely to set off an explosion of recollection (I know I'm not alone here.), and so it was easy to put myself in Slater's shoes when he approached his material this way, even though I had no real idea of what it was like to grow up as a boy in 1960's England. All in all, I'd definitely recommend this one. An extra bonus: it's written in those short sections, which makes it ideal for commuting or bedtime reading, since you don't have that I'll-just-finish-this-50-page-chapter angst.

Oeufs au caviar, roasted tomato soup with gougeres, polenta with wild mushroom ragout, and Jean-Georges' molten chocolate cake. We're going veggie - we have someone coming who keeps kosher (Salmon roe is dairy kosher, apparently!), so vegetarian is just the easiest route. Also doing some cocktail finger food, simple stuff, crudites, parmesan-onion toasts, stuff like that. Pretty low-key!

I like my small glasses and not-too-huge coffee cups. What can I say? I'm a sucker for the visual, and the proportions are just so much nicer...

Mon dieu! Best foodblog pairing ever!

Bacon, duck fat, schmaltz - any kind of animal fat - makes the sprouts delightfully nutty. I like to roast a double helping and use the leftovers in pasta the next day with a bit of red onion, bacon, and creme fraiche.

I just remember not liking her at all...though maybe that wasn't the point?

Mayonnaise, you might want to pick up Waiting, by Debra Ginsberg. I read it a long time ago, but I remember it being a pretty effective memoir of waitressing. May not be as much dedicated to the craft as yours may end up being, but I think it might help you crystallize your thinking in terms of what you want/don't want your book to be.

...Inwood? Raji, one of the best parts of the profile (and by best I mean most entertaining), in my opinion, is the exchange Shafrir recounts between Chodorow and his PR rep (they're discussing just what you mention - the effect of The Restaurant on his reputation):

No, not surprised - I'm a (used to be fluent, now not so much) French speaker. I'd never really thought about the issues with learning a language in an environment where "taboos" weren't clear, though - that part was what really struck me.

I saw this great post from Ms. Glaze today (actually posted on Saturday), all about the colorful (I suppose they're not Anglo-Saxon, so our usually euphemisms won't hold) language she's learned in the kitchen. And, of course, how she's discovering that these phrases are a bit more taboo out there in the streets: You really should click through and read the post in its entirety - it's hilarious. Turns out (though I never had any doubts, myself) that French kitchens use "bad" language as often as those elsewhere. Being a connoisseur of bad language, I applaud. What do you think?

Doree Shafrir profiled Jeffrey Chodorow in yesterday's Observer. At the outset, she summarizes his near-term plans... Quite a bit on his plate, no doubt. So many of the projects seem like theme restaurants, though, and Shafrir does touch on the question (raised in the piece by Eater's Ben Leventhal): are these really the kinds of places that will work in New York?

I'm doing homemade brioche loaves this year, along with Bonne Maman jams. Not the easiest to ship, but it's all for local folks! Gourmet had a whole section on food gifts in their November issue, some of which looked awfully tasty and neat. (Not online, though .)

I do not have a car, therefore I am immune.

Any tips for securing a reservation (days that are typically easier to get in, dialing techniques , etc.)? My friend Faith and I want to Zipcar it up from Manhattan, and would be up for either lunch or dinner... ETA: Turns out, not so hard. Just scored a reservation for Friday, December 21st. Woo-hoo!

I did finish the book, but I agree. ← Ditto. And now that I'm almost finished with The Omnivore's Dilemma, I think I know what bugged me about it. The preachiness combined with the memoir made it almost too personal, too insular, too inapplicable to anyone else's life. That's a huge contrast to Pollan's book, which is so thoroughly researched and manages to be intimate without getting personal. It's not about his wife, it's not about his kid, it's about his own thinking and discovery. Maybe it's the difference between a novelist and a journalist.

Which you can get at Dean & Deluca, Chelsea Market, and Schaller & Weber, to name a few. Citarella, definitely. And, yes, lardons are just bacon cut a certain way.

Does she love it even more than her grandmother's homemade mac&cheese? ← I am afraid so - she also likes canned mushroom soup better than Nana's! In her defence she loves duck, lobster and crab but only the duck is likely to appear on her plate here! ← Kraft dinner is just a totally different dish - I love it, too, but it's a different kind of comfort food. It tastes completely different from homemade, so it's in it's own category rather than being a pale imitation. At least in my experience.

How did pre-sliced apples not turn all brown and icky?

Ce'nedra, those prawns look excellent. Did you make them at home? If so, would you consider putting the recipe in RecipeGullet? I, for one, would make copious use of it.

I feel like it's now the right season to start thinking about making this. Maybe I'll do it for a November dinner party...

Oooooh, this makes me want to go book a Zipcar and hit some farmers' markets!

"The food of thy soul is light and space; feed it then on light and space. But the food of thy body is champagne and oysters; feed it then on champagne and oysters; and so shall it merit a joyful resurrection, if there is any to be." - Herman Melville, Pierre, or The Ambiguities I just love that one, and have completely stolen it from my best friend, Louisa - we share a love of champagne, so now we share a motto.