Megan Blocker

Have you been to Idylwilde Farm in Acton, MA? It's no Central Market, but probably the closest we will get to it in the Boston area. Jim ← I love Idywilde! It's fantastic.

After giving two stars to Cendrillon and two stars to The Modern, Frank has worn me out. I can no longer pay any attention whatsoever to the stars. None, nada, nopers. I understand that different restaurants are rated according to different scales, depending on one's expectations. But Bruni, with the NYT four-star system, does not have the luxury that a casual diner does of, say, describing this restaurant as "excellent, as far as Filipino food in NYC is concerned." Because of the star system, he is bound to one rating scale, and one alone. I wonder if he'd be prepared to say that Cendrillon is just as good as The Modern, full-stop. Not because they are good in their different ways, but because they are equal in food quality, ambience, service... Maybe I'm being too rigid.

I am hosting a bridal shower next weekend for a friend who LOVES Bellinis. I definitely want to include them on the cocktail menu, and am wondering how far in advance I can make the peach puree. I am preparing all of the food, and would like to keep the night before and morning of free for those things. If the shower is on a Saturday at noon, could I make the puree on Thursday and store it, covered, in the fridge? Thoughts?

I've found that shortbread in general keeps very well. Ina Garten has a great recipe for jam thumbprints that seem to keep for days and days!!! I think it's from her "Barefoot Contessa: Family Style" book.

No, no, no. Don't do that, unless you really don't like tomatoes very much. I can live with the rest of that rule breaking stuff, but please don't put 'maters in the fridge. It sucks the flavor right out of them. ← The problem is... when I'm not cooking the tomatoes, I want 'em very cold. ← I would think one of the rules of this thread should be no judgment!!! If people like their tomatoes cold, they should refrigerate them. I never sift, either.

Thank you all so much for your ideas! I'll report back on the results!

They were round...from a caterer, which is why I couldn't get the recipe then and there!

Can anyone help with this? I was in Lynchburg, VA for a bridal shower this weekend. I am a bridesmaid in my Lynchburgian friend's wedding, and her mother's friends threw her a lovely "kitchen" shower. For lunch, which was delightfully Southern, we had chicken salad, tomato aspic, cucumber sandwiches, and the BEST ham biscuits. OK, they were my first ham biscuits, but everyone else said they were exceptionally good, so I assume they were strong specimens. They were tiny (maybe 1 inch across) and light as a feather, with the requsite thin-sliced Virgina ham in the middle. Some of the ladies speculated that they might have been "angel" biscuits...does anyone have a recipe for biscuits that sound something like this? I am throwing the NY shower, and would love to have a plate of these to add some Southern flavor to the proceedings. Thanks!

Absolutely! I regularly call Saigon Grill for Vietnamese, Chef Ho's for Chinese, and Six Happiness for a delicious and figure-friendly steamed version of what I get at Chef Ho's. For greasy diner food, I am a fan of Midnight Express and Viand. Better Burger is ok, but I'd rather have half an order of real fries than a whole order of "air-baked" ones. Another good take-out secret is Eli's (or the Vinegar Factory - either one) for the sandwiches, prepared salads, soups and meals. Great if you have time to stop off on the way home. I usually grab a pickle from the pickle and olive bar, snag a tarragon chicken salad sandwich on the health bread, and enjoy on my couch.

Ditto on the balsamic strawberry foie gras - I had a bite of my friend's last night, and it was FANTASTIC.

I've seen her use bake-off biscuits and packaged pizza dough, but nothing that makes me cringe too badly. Certainly no cake mix or canned frosting. Dessert-wise, she tends to stick to ice cream with warmed fruit, etc. - yummy and fast. She constantly brings up the fact that she's not a baker...apparently she doesn't enjoy measuring.

That's one of the things I actually like about Rachael Ray. She's very good at explaining where to scrimp and save, and where not to. Her recipes are very geared toward quick, everyday cooking, which I think is great. As opposed to Sandra Lee, whose recipes are just...scary. And expensive, I would think, with all that pre-packaged stuff.

Bar eating can be fun, though! The bar at Ouest here in Manhattan is one of my favorite places to eat. The bartenders are all fabulous to chat with, but they'll leave you alone if you ask. I've generally observed that hosts and hostesses recommend the bar as being faster than waiting for a table, but are not annoyed if I decide to wait...

I dine on my own pretty frequently, and I find that etiquette varies from restaurant to restaurant. I don't know that I'd feel comfortable bringing reading material into a very upscale place (Per Se or Jean Georges, for instance), but for a trip to a bistro or the italian restaurant around the corner, I think it's fine. As a general rule, I bring a book, not the paper, because it's a little smaller and less intrusive if you happen to be seated close to another table. If you want to just relax and enjoy your meal, more power to you! But I take a book everywhere I go (welcome to the land of mass transit), so I always have one anyway. I tend not to get sent into a corner if I'm on my own, but that probably depends on the restaurant. People eating on their own in Manhattan is a pretty common phenomenon, so things may be a bit different here than they are elsewhere. One universal rule? Don't talk your head off on your cell phone the whole way through. Annoying!!! And if you do read something, make sure you keep one eye out for the waiter, so they know it's ok to disturb you.

Agreed! Love: Julia (Of course.) Jacques (Adorable, delicious, and fun.) Ina Garten (Everything except her weirdly uncomfortable laugh.) Jeffrey Steingarten (I cannot say enough good things, so I won't even try.) Alton Brown (So entertaining, and I find technique to be more helpful than recipes when it comes to cooking shows, so he rocks, big time.) Like: Paula Deen (I never make her food, but she makes me miss my mom a little less!) Chris Kimball (Have to give him a shout-out, since we went to the same high school.) Martha Stewart (Oddly soothing, and love the celadon-and-cream color scheme.) Tyler Florence (Cute, and decent, simple food.) Mark Bittman (His recipes are not to-die-for, but the way he writes them sure is. He's at his best when paired with a world-class chef - they pull him up, he grounds them in reality.) Dislike: Rachael Ray (Too perky, but the food is actually ok, if not revelatory.) Revile: Sandra Lee (Mmmmm, store-bought frosting mixed with confectioner's sugar makes...truffles? EW. Welcome back to 1959, folks.)

What about risotto? You can put all kinds of nutritious goodies into it, and it keeps pretty well. You can re-heat it in individual oven-proof ramekins or bowls, which keeps it from getting too gloopy (don't re-heat in the microwave).

I disagree. I think some people just don't like to cook, kind of like how I just hate playing backgammon. To many people, it is a stimulating and entertaining activity, and to others it is dull as dirt. Though it's hard for me (and most of us) to imagine such a thing, I would think that many people feel the same away about cooking.

She comes on a few hours before noon here...wow, you must start early! Maybe you should make some of HER cocktails! Ha,ha. I tried one for fits and giggles....ick! ← I think I've found my new Sunday brunch routine...Bloody Mary's and Sandra Lee!

Here, here. I have to say, I'm not an Emeril fan, but the show where he's alone in the kitchen ("Essence of Emeril"?), minus the irritating audience, is fine. And it's on at 9:00 AM on Saturdays, when everything else is cartoons. Let's start that thread right now! I am a huge Ina Garten and Paula Deen fan. I cannot get enough. Paula is just adorable, and Ina's recipes are foolproof. Plus, she and Jeffrey have been married for years and are still so in love, which really gets me every time.

I absolutely agree - I am a huge proponent of natural and even local ingredients in my own cooking, which is done on a very tight budget. This discussion (and the Op-Ed) reminds me of one of the essays from Steingarten's "The Man Who Ate Everything." He cooked for a month out of a guidebook designed for families living on food stamps. Almost everything was made of pre-packaged goods, even though those are often more expensive than their fresh (albeit non-organic) alternatives. His conclusion was that the guide was focused on helping people cook the way the vast majority of Americans are accustomed to, rather than on helping them eat in the most delicious and healthful way possible on the given budget.

Is there any evidence for this claim? ← Not sure...someone else will have to answer this. But whether she's right or not about this, I do have to agree with her overall sentiment. There is something mildly off-putting about the social value we've attached to buying organic, etc., and shopping in fancy places. Perhaps instead of vilifying mass-produced food (as many foodies and New Yorkers in general surely do), we should be concentrating on the fact that mass-production would allow us to truly feed the entire world, should we ever break through the tangle of politics preventing it. A little easy, that, I suppose - but not necessarily wrong, either.

Here, here. Rachael Ray's "cuteness" is more annoying than anything else about her. I don't have any issues with food that does not take hours to cook, and she has some good tips to share for busy people who would still like to prepare food (washing your greens or herbs when you get home, teaching non-cooks to make quick pasta sauces from scratch). HOWEVER - bake-off biscuits as a primary ingredient in so many recipes is vaguely reprehensible. Rachael in no way approaches the ridiculousness of Sandra Lee, however, whose every recipe makes my skin crawl. How did a woman who spends so much time on her centerpieces (or "table-scapes," as she nauseatingly refers to them) figure out so many uses for cake mix?

That's just bad manners! They deserved whatever sugar-loving germs they got.

I first heard of the old movie being a promotional gag when I listened to the commentary on the 25th anniversary edition of the DVD. (The commentary is by the five child actors, now all grown up and working as veterinarians and such - it's priceless.) I think one of them (or maybe one of the accompanying documentaries/making-of featurettes) mentioned the link to the Nestle marketing behemoth. ← I think the best part about those special features is that the interview of the German actor who played Augustus Gloop, and the guy is grown, but still a big guy, and STILL WEARING LEDERHOSEN! ← YES! Augustus is the best. His lederhosen are spectacular. And I get the feeling that he left the viewing room after his character was sucked up the pipe...

I think both of those sound delicious - and since you don't know what you'll be eating, it's really just which she'd like better!