Megan Blocker

Yes, it happens to be my own recipe, so I am sharing it, there you go! Only I wouldn't really call it "my" recipe since I just cooked it this once, and happend to write the proportions down because I was calculating the calories . But it should serve your purpose as a cure nicely . Megan, thank you! ← No, thank you! That looks delicious - and easy, too. Right up my alley.

It does indeed! But the real question is, of course: are you going to spring for the extra five bucks and get the sucker finished? I love that there's such a small price difference. Why do I find this so funny? I think I need sleep. Interesting science stuff, Ducky! I rarely have potatoes in the house, so I hadn't noticed this...it's making me want to do some sort of experiment.

Add one for me - my friend Louisa bought me the Gourmet cookbook as a hostess gift for having her to stay this weekend. Two points: a) Lou, you rock!!! b) I cannot believe I didn't own this...I think I bought four copies last year and gave them all away as gifts... ETA: Make that TWO more for me...just got my eBay-ed copy of "Mmmmmm: A Feastiary," by Ruth Reichl.

Do we get an extra amuse for actually making the snorting sound?

Oh, my, Daniel. I particularly love the grits with mascarpone and the cornbread Madeleines. Both seem so...you. A wonderful combination of typically American foods with European ingredients and methods. Fantastic. I, too, would be interested to know how you developed the menu - was it around the shrimp and grits?

Amazing soup, Alinka. I second the recipe question. If it is yours, can you post it in RecipeGullet for us?

Ooooh, Susan, tell us about the success of the schmaltz!!!

Add another to the list of new department store restaurants...David Burke is opening one in Bloomingdale's here in New York. Link to an article on New York magazine's site, NYMetro.com. This looks kinda cool, and may end up being a bright light in Midtown's icky mid-price-level lunch scene. I think I may take a jaunt up that way from my office (in the low 50's) sometime next week...

So true! New Yorkers are a hardy bunch (we may have less snow, as Owen notes, but it gets pretty windy, and we walk around in the cold a whole lot more than people in colder climes, save perhaps Chicago), and these carts are actually pretty snug - sometimes there are even two people working in one cart, which would, I imagine, help you keep warm. Me too! I'm not sure what the issue is...though I have noticed that New Yorkers are totally brainwashed into loving Starbucks, so maybe it has something to do with the fact that we just go there...or with the size of our "downtown?" I have never been to Seattle ( ), so I don't know if this is true, but I would guess that the New York office district (for lack of a better word) is bigger/more scattered...I wish there was some good espresso on the street.

Another great effort, Daniel! Those shrimp look delicious...

Yup, us too! My mom always had a path shoveled to the grill all winter long...

Just had another lovely evening at the Pegu Club last night, full of incredible cocktails. The one dark moment was when some guy took my stool when I went to the bathroom...can we say party foul? Started with a Fitty-Fitty, then moved to a Pegu Club cocktail. Followed that with an Applejack Cobbler (which was delicious - picture to come!), which had (to my fuzzy-ish recollection) Laird's, cranberries, and some other stuff, garnished with a violet (or a pansy?). Beautiful. One question, for anyone who knows (or for Audrey!) - my friend and I both had the Ritz Cocktail, and the bartender held the orange peel over a flame for a minute, and then singed it quickly before tossing it into the drink. What's the purpose of this? Just to release the essential oils in the peel? It was really good.

Incredible meals, all! Wendy, those potato pancakes look delicious...I have a couple of days off this week, and now I know how I'm going to celebrate!

I don't know if we're all using the same recipe (perhaps by accident!). Mine is a single-serving deal, so you might want t expand on it! I let an egg sit out until it's room temp, then whisk it in a small bowl and add between 1/4 and 1/2 cup of finely grated parmaggiano, and mix that together. Set it aside...then I use about a scant 1/4 cup of slab bacon chopped into 1/4 by 1-inch slices and render that in a small skillet, until all the good fat is out and the bacon is crisp but not too done. Then (and this is not totally traditional), I remove the bacon with a slotted spoon and put it at the bottom of a big bowl. I cook down a little bit of onion (maybe two to three tablespoons) and garlic (1 small clove) in the bacon fat, then add that to the bowl. Meanwhile, I'm cooking the pasta to al dente. I reserve some cooking water, just in case I need to loosen the sauce at all. Then, drain the pasta, add to the big bowl, and pour the egg/cheese mixture on top. Mix it all together quickly (I use salad spoons for this!) until creamy...add pasta cooking water if needed, and season with tons of black pepper and more cheese. Yum. Totally easy, and faster than some packaged mac and cheese recipes. The best part about this is that I do not need to chop a ton of stuff, because the German market across the street from my apartment sells little vacuum-packed packages of chopped slab bacon!

And where's the eggnog? I didn't see that one on the list...or did I miss it? Common sense, of course, tells us that cocktails with lots of cream, eggs or fruit juice are going to have more calories (and, with the eggs and cream, fat) than others, or than a glass of wine. I would not have put gin and tonic on that list, though...huh.

Oh, my - that looks delicious! It's like the uber-cinnamon-sugar toast.

OK, is it just me, or is that kind of cool? I mean, nasty, but cool. Oh. My. God.

I'll try and find some (really) old photos over the weekend, and I promise fresh ones on the 10th, when I head out to Queens to relive my childhood, as mentioned above!

Oooooh! Something new to try! ← A little hair of the dog, eh? That does sound good, though - I'm going to try it, too! The favorite of frat boys everywhere.

Like Pan, no holiday season in my childhood was complete without Chinese food with my dad's (Jewish) family (before and after his marriage to my Presbyterian stepmother), and Williams-Sonoma's Peppermint Bark. Sadly, no latkes, but I plan to remedy that this year by participating in the cook-off. And, with my (Episcopalian) mom, standing rib roast. We only have it once a year, really (usually on Christmas Day), and man, is it good. She serves it with a horseradish-mustard sauce, and I just love it. The one time I prefer beef to lamb. I've been blessed to experience multi-cultural holiday seasons, I guess. Though I do have to say that it was my Jewish college roommate who made me go to church during Advent - for the music, of course!

Haven't tried them yet, though I'd be willing to...I'll check Dean and Deluca this weekend, when I go to buy some ginger syrup! Yum. Chiles in my chocolate make me think of that movie, Chocolat. There's one I never watch without a mug of hot chocolate.

And if the photos are this good, imagine how they TASTE!

Gorgeous, Susan. That looks like a delicious meal!

I have to say, I just re-read Tender at the Bone, and I still can't get over the chapters about your mother's food - they are some of my favorite parts, both in how they illustrate your personality and relationship with your mother, and just for the pure shock/humor factor. Ruth, do you think your early exposure to less-than-fresh food helped you develop the strong, adventurous stomach necessary for life as a food writer, reviewer and editor?