Megan Blocker

Santa brought me a kitchen scale, a grill pan, an Emile Henry pie plate, a kitchen torch and creme brulee dishes, and two cookbooks - The French Laundry Cookbook and Marcella Hazan's Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking. Yay!

Maybe I should print business cards with the recipe on it and hand them out at bars! Potential dates will swoon...

Bryan, so sorry to hear about your grandmother - my thoughts are with you and your family. Looks like you did a great job of making a classic meal edible! The green beans look especially good to me, and the bacon and vinegar make me think of our posting friend, Daniel! The pomegranate sorbet sounds delicious. Again, all the best to you in this tough time - I know cooking helps see me through the rough patches, and it seems like it helps you, too.

I'm slowly rediscovering parsnips. They're such a humble vegetable but so delicious and complex. How does one make pomegranate sorbet? I've got an extra pomegranate sitting around and a sister who makes all my ice creams and sorbets with nothing to do. ← I, too, am on a parsnip kick these days - those fritters look delicious. All of it looks delicious. Great job, Klary!

Oh, ye of the checkered past!!! I love your posts, and this is the funniest thing I've read today. I DO hope you took a beverage (images of you hiding in the bushes, peeking through the shrubbery for hungry intruders, whilst you're all choking down those furtive sandwiches, dance in my head). And how did you divide the odd two? ← That's me, the "reformed" criminal! We did manage to snag some Cokes - we had stashed them in the lake, of all places, to get them cold quick (New Hampshire lakes being quite frigid, even in June). And they were the most delicious Cokes I'd ever tasted. I think we ended up passing the last two sandwiches around the circle...something we were pretty good at by then!

Wow, Percyn! Those dishes look fantastic...I have to admit, I'm a sucker for curried chicken salad, and I'm willing to bet yours is among the best. And Shalmanese - gorgeous!!!

Fabulous ideas, Daniel and BryanZ! I will definitely be trying both of those... Dinner tonight (chez maman, in Fresno) was roast chicken (rubbed with butter, showered with salt, and roasted with the gizzard, liver, etc. in the cavity) with a reduced jus (thyme added), green salad (romaine and mesclun) with an orange-hazlenut vinaigrette and candied walnuts, and garlic bread (my little bro's particular request). All quite yummy, though no photos to show for it... Missing New York!

← I had drinks here last night...my mom lives in Fresno, so I'm in town for Christmas! Echo used to be down in what's called the Tower District, which was the only part of F-No I'd ever eaten in that wasn't full of strip malls. Now it's moved way up north (not shockingly, a lot of places in the Tower didn't do well, probably due to the fact that is wasn't a mall/plaza area) to a new shopping center. Stopped in for a drink on my way home last night, and it was pretty good. Not a terribly hopping scene (and, yes, Fresno has some places that are just packed to the gills), but my drink was delicious. I don't normally go for complicated cocktails (I'm more of a martini or Manhattan kind of girl), but since Echo's whole thing is local, sustainable cuisine, I decided to try out the Juniperotivo - Junipero gin, fresh mints, fresh lime juice, and pomegranate molasses. Very good - very tart.

Me, too! I got the China one wrong, and then remembered hearing the right answer at some point...wonder where? Huh. Love the Germany one - it's so true!

Thanks, Abra! Actually, I didn't cook it at all, which is probably why it kept its color! Basically, I chopped up to Granny Smith apples and threw them in the food processor with the juice of one lemon and a couple teaspoons of sugar, then added about a tablespoon of water. Zoom - instant applesauce! Probably more like apple puree... I covered it with plastic wrap (pressing it down to touch the puree, so as not expose it to air) and put it in the fridge while I made the latkes...the sitting time really helped it, I have to say. But no cooking! Lazy applesauce, let's call it.

Wonder what's on the menu down there?

Ask and ye shall receive: Velveeta Fudge!

What does the Velveeta do? Guarantee a smooth texture?

AK...I'd be interested to know what kinds of places you supply to...I took a walk around my neighborhood (UES) tonight, and pretty much every place (bars and restaurants) was jumping - normal for a Wednesday during the holidays. Now, of course, these are mostly neighborhood places - we don't have a lot of "destination" restaurants in the east 80's and 70's. I have heard, though, that some neighborhoods are very quiet...maybe more of your customers are in these neighborhoods? I'm thinking places like Midtown might be quieter at night - people leaving early from work to walk home... I also wonder if some people might use the strike as an excuse to take a breather in the middle of an incredibly hectic holiday season. I know I've done that - it's certainly not welcome, and the economic impact on the city is staggering, but I'm glad not to have to go out tonight. This concludes my anti-social confession.

This is truly one of the great "back of the box" recipes, in my opinion - no matter what other recipe I try, I always come back to this one. My friends love it, I love it, and it works every time. ETA: I had never heard of the Ritz apple pie...how odd! For those who are like me, here's a link to the recipe: click!

Ba-dum ching! ETA: Huh, interesting. Must be relatively new - I can't find a recipe for any kind of Manhattan (oh, wait, there is - but it's spelled Manhatten). Well, I can't find a correctly-spelled recipe for a Manhattan. Check THIS one out: The "I Can't Feel My Legs But I'll Have Another Glass." Eeeew.

I will never forget the bacon, peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwiches we made the weekend we graduated from prep school - inspired by, of all people, my grandfather, who went to the same school. At my graduation dinner, he told my friends that he and his friends used to eat peanut butter and mayonnaise sandwiches, as they were the only edible things in the dining halls at the time. On Sundays, they got bacon, so they added strips of it to their favorite treat. A bunch of us went to stay at a friend's parents' lake house for the next few days. After indulging in...various substances, a few of us decided it would be a GREAT idea to make these. And it was. Except we only had four or five sandwiches, and there were ten people. Our solution? The three cooks ran into the woods, hid, and ate the sandwiches. Guiltily, of course. They were delicious, all the more so for the "danger."

Gorgeous, Susan! Well done!

Why don't we consider it the hypothesis section of the lab report? Would love to hear what the crowd is like at Jovia...and anywhere else people eat tonight.

Pretty white here, too - but no green bean casserole to be found. I've actually never, ever tasted it. Not to this day. My mother was never big on casseroles, I must admit...

OMG, Klary - drool!

Thanks, Monavano and Daniel! They really were good...and, I have to say, the homemade applesauce had a really pretty green-ish color to it, and it tasted so good...definitely something I'll do again.

That's New York - nothing stops us from having a good time! Witness the blackout that turned into one giant stoop party... To bring this back to food, I would guess that neighborhood joints are probably prospering (assuming their workers can make it in) - not only because people are more likely to eat dinner at a place they can walk to, but also because folks like me, who normally eat lunch in midtown, are working from home. I've certainly boosted the coffee shops and delivery spots in the 'hood the last two days...

Hmmmm...for me, this has to be the weekend I spent at my grandparents' house in Connecticut. They'd lived in that house for more than 30 years, and sold it this November. Three friends and I took the house over for Labor Day weekend (the GP's were down in Florida, their new home base), and had a grand old time. The house is on the water in Darien, and has a gorgeous, rocky garden, and a pool that looks right down into the cove - an amazing setting for a weekend built around food. We never get to grill (we are, after all, Manhattanites), so we grilled for each and every meal (except breakfast) - barbecued chicken, flank steak with garlic and rosemary, grilled vegetables, grilled, garlicky shrimp...my friends Nick and Louisa brought the excellent wines, including two bottles of Dolce, and we just...relaxed. I'm so happy to have had that time - to have eaten that delicious, simple food, to have spent that time with my friends (Nick and Lou have since moved to Ohio), and to have been able to say goodbye to a place that means so much to me in such a peaceful, relaxing way. The view from my grandmother's garden:

Just ONE? OK, so far, I'd have to say the winner was Chufi's sukerbole... But the latkes I made tonight are close behind...