Megan Blocker

So pretty! Wow! I see orange peppers, white beans, avocado, and tomatoes...am I missing anything? Looks delicious.

Let's not forget about the Dasani harvest, when the taps and salt shakers run all night long. ←

Lamb ragout....YUM!!!!

I'm 25, a very good and enthusiastic cook, and have equal numbers of male and female friends in my age group who are of similar inclination. I have plenty of friends (male and female, again) who are not great cooks, but who appreciate good food. And then I have a few friends - MALE and FEMALE - who worship at the altar of the packaged and preserved. Gordon Ramsay is wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Or, at least, wrong to target women. But, I guess it worked, since we're talking about it.

Ten points! ← More like FIFTY points!!!!!

The glaze is gooey and the doughnut is not got (does not have) a little gentle crust on it, it's all kinda like sweet fried sludge sans vanilla... ← The raw part sounds like an error in execution... ← It sounds like Krispy Kreme doughnuts. I've read several recipes here and I'm not sure where but someone said to use day old ones--that would help because that's the nature of a KK donut, soft, mushy gooey sugary sweee-eet. Think glazed white bread without crust. (I think I'm gonna be sick ) ← Mushy sounds like that, but raw could just be not cooked enough...unless by raw you mean mushy and not undercooked. I've definitely had undercooked bread puddings that didn't involve Krispy Kremes...

Token vitamins. ←

The raw part sounds like an error in execution...

Oh, I don't know...could anyone really eat a huge portion of that? It sounds really sweet. Of course, all the whipped cream to cut the sweetness should be factored in, too!

Megan. The Krispy Kreme on 72nd btwn broadway and columbus closed.. And guess what is coming there.. Drum roll....... A Buttercup Bakery.. Oh baby.. ← No way!!! Craziness. You leave the West side for a couple of years and everything changes...

There was a whole thread on this recipe earlier this year...it's such an insane recipe!!! Daniel, there are a few Krispy Kreme spots...the ones that come to mind are 85th and Third (right by my apartment - oh yeah), 72nd between Broadway and Columbus, and 23rd between 7th and 8th. I think there are more...

I don't know about anybody else, but I eat at Mickey D's (primarily only in airports) for two reasons: 1 - The fries, duh. 2 - The Chicken McNuggets. I like them because they're completely processed and unnnatural, not in spite of it. If I want high-quality chicken, I'll go somewhere...high-quality. That said, people who eat more frequently at places like McDonald's may be more concerned about the quality, freshness, healthfulness (these three are not synonymous, and the second doesn't really seem to have ever been lacking) etc. of the food, in which case a campaign like this one makes sense from a dollars and cents point of view. I'll just keep eating my McNuggets and longing for the days when they were made with dark meat.

I think we have a new winner of the Freudian Award.

That cake is SO beautiful! And Daniel - what a dinner! Very impressive. I love your description of panna cotta as heavy cream jello.

So far my cookbook collection is pretty minimal (only about 25), so it occupies a couple of cubbies on my bookshelf - I live in a studio apartment, and I have one of those room-divider bookshelves from Ikea (I sense a theme) that look like cubbies. So, my cookbooks take up two of the "squares." I've totally run out of room on that bookshelf, though, so I just bought a new, smaller one next weekend. Bring on the cookbooks!

My question exactly, Miss Rachel! Happy Anniversary, and let's see the food! Amazing dinner, Daniel - potato pancakes with caviar and creme fraiche are one of my favorite appetizers/hors d'oeuvres...I'm drooling all the way over here in chilly Minnesota (family wedding).

Great first Dinner post, Amy!

As for the puff pastry, you're on! And that gives me time to buy a pastry scraper - something I can't believe I don't own! ← I think I will join you. (if that's allright ) ← Yay! Oh, this will be fun...

It's easy to show interest in such gorgeous food and the photos that capture it! As for the puff pastry, you're on! And that gives me time to buy a pastry scraper - something I can't believe I don't own!

Julia Child's The Way to Cook and Mastering the Art of French Cooking are two of my all-time favorites.

Amazing food and photos, Susan. I can almost taste the steak, and that pasta salad looks amazing (my devotion to pasta is, I suppose, well-doumented on this thread!). As for the puff pastry - I'll try it if you will! I'm out of town this weekend, but I'll give it a go next weekend - how about you?

For the sake of good, lively discussion, I'm going to briefly take on the role of Devil's Advocate. I would like to know what the inherent difference is between someone who doesn't cook thumbing through, say, the Bouchon cookbook and me reading Pride and Prejudice for the fiftieth time (as I currently am!). Both are forms of escapism in their own ways - peering into worlds in which we can never really participate, enjoying stories or pictorials that vary hugely from our own experiences. Is reading Austen (or any other novelist) somehow better than being an avid cookbook-reader-non-cook? If so, how? Does Austen portray a realer (if bygone) world, thereby making the whole thing less vapid? Is it because her words are not tarted up by a marketing machine? I'm very curious to understand how there is something truly disturbing about the voyeurism in the food writing world versus the other arts. I am comfortable with O'Neill's call for more serious food-related journalism, but do not necessarily make the leap (nor does she, I think) to the idea that all "softer" food writing is corrupt. Perhaps I'm reading too much into your post, Pontormo? (Or reading it incorrectly!) Love the fishnet stocking reference!

Tossed salad with grilled chicken, roast corn, tomatoes, cukes and red onion. Yum!

Rocket - that sounds like an interesting thread - maybe you could start it, if you have an article to spring off of? I'd be interested!

An interesting twist to throw into the conversation...an article from today's NY Times about a young "vineyard prodigy" - he's 20! Here's a link.