Jaymes

Cheese. Depending on where you live, you might even find it in regular supermarkets.

I make French Toast with it during this time of year.

I have made this with great success, Jaymes, and I made it with a Boursin filling, thus cutting out a step, and then added freshly chopped scallions before rolling up .. it was really amazing, as you so correctly note! Simple yet elegant, looking like a million times more work than the reality dictated ... ← I think this recipe has all of my favorite attributes....it's easy. It's elegant. It's beautiful. It tastes fabulous. And you get all kinds of "Wow, you shouldn't have!" points. Because it also seems so luxurious and just plain special. Folks feel really pampered when you bring it out and set it before them. And to emphasize the 'special' part, I serve it on doilys on a silver tray. Even when the main course is going to be burgers from the grill.

This looks just wonderful. I know I'll be making it. Thanks.

I love eggnog. It was a part of our Christmas as far back as I can remember. My dad always made up a big batch, from scratch of course, sometime around the middle of December. I remember as a child that it tasted great when he first made it, but then he'd add something, and from then on, it tasted yucky. In later years, I discovered that what he was adding was bourbon, rum and brandy, and decided that wasn't so yucky after all. He used many recipes, including one (I believe from an old, original 'Joy of Cooking') made with evaporated milk when he was on a health kick. But however he made it, eggnog was a ubiquitous part of our holiday. My dad even bought a small silver punchbowl set just for nothing but serving eggnog. And the remembrance of sipping my cool, creamy, brown-flecked nog (he always set aside some booze-less nog for us kids) from that frosty silver cup is one of my fondest Christmas memories. In particular, we always had eggnog on 'tree decorating' night. And to this day, I can't decorate the tree without it, because it just doesn't seem 'right.' However, that said, eggnog is so rich that even I can't drink more than one, or maybe two cups at a sitting. I can't imagine going through an "eggnog tasting." I think that'd be horrible. I was unaware that eggnog is "universally loathed." I prepare it for all my holiday gatherings, but certainly don't force it on anyone. And at the end of the evening, it's always all gone, so someone must like it.

Take some Norwegian smoked salmon and carefully lay it out. Combine some room temperature cream cheese and a little butter and some chopped chives. You can add a squeeze of lemon juice, a little fresh dill, and a dash or two of Tabasco or other favorite hot sauce, if you wish. Mash it up good and form a log about 3/4" diameter. Lay it down onto the smoked salmon and then roll it up to make a salmon log with the cream cheese mixture in the middle. Slice the salmon log into rounds about 1" long. Turn each piece up so that the white part is on top (and bottom) and set each one onto a substantial round cracker. Get the best caviar you can afford and put a dollop of caviar on the white cream cheese in the center of each. I think black looks best ... more dramatic against the white ... but red is pretty too. Garnish with lemon wedges. These things are spectacular looking and spectacular tasting. You can't beat them.

Well, my dad has tried to recreate it. He just scrambles up about four eggs, adding good heavy cream at the penultimate moment. And then he lays them in a flame-proof dish. He sprinkles a generous handful of turbinado sugar over them, then flames brandy in a ladle and pours it over. It's really good. The flaming brandy kind of caramelizes the sugar, and it tastes wonderful. I don't know if trifle pudding fits that description. I think of the pudding part as being more....puddingy....if you know what I mean. It's really darn terrific (not to mention blazingly easy and showy) just as it is, but I can't help but wonder about it. If it's a typical preparation....got a name....etc.

Isn't Hanna in Sonoma? Alexander Valley? Someone at another food forum was mentioning it in conjunction with Sonoma. (And yes, the wines are good.) Yep. And it's pretty far north from the well-worn trails. But still, I really enjoy it and the wines are good. Don't know if I'd suggest it for a 'first-timer,' but after folks have already been to Napa, and "done" all the usual suspects, and are looking for other alternatives, I think it's a good one.

I really like the Hanna Winery. There has never been a crowd there when I was there, and it is kind of out of the way, so you don't get as many folks stomping through. At least that has been my experience. And the wine is excellent. Another stop I always make is the Prager Winery & Port Works. It's small, family owned and operated, and that's who's in the tasting room. The port is great. There are sweet ones and not so sweet ones. And there are other wines as well. It's right on the main tourist trail, so it's easy to find. But because it's small and primarily offers port, it's not so well known.

The year was 1956, and the French influence was strong in Saigon. In a small French cafe, my father had a dessert. It was, he says, basically just scrambled eggs that were then sprinkled with raw sugar and flamed with brandy. He still speaks of it often. And so I'm wondering.... Have any of you heard of it? Does it have an official name? Is it a well-known preparation, or do you think it was simply something that that particular chef thought up? If it's a common dish, is there anything special one does, or adds, to the eggs other than just scramble them? Does any of this sound familiar to you?

Great report, and excellent tip about the salt! Thanks.

Yes, order the cochinita pibil everywhere. And get to Mérida. For sure. And go to one of the free concerts....every square in town hosts a free concert on different evenings. And get up to Ría de Celestún....this is a must-do. Hire one of the guys with a boat to take you to see the flamingoes, egrets, and other wildlife in this remarkable preserve. I love the Yucatan.

I used to make stuffed rock cornish game hens which, for the last fifteen minutes or so of their roasting, I basted with maple syrup. Pretty damn yummy. Need to make those again.

To me, it's best by far when cooked over some sort of flame. Depending on where I happen to be living, and what sort of 'flame' I've got handiest access to, my 'stand by' method is to take a flank steak, score it pretty heavily on both sides, slice it across the grain into strips about 3/4" wide, marinate it for several hours, and then grill it on the Weber, or gas grill, or whatever other source of flame is available. When I can't do that, I'll slice it thinly and either broil it or fry it up in a skillet, but that sure isn't my first choice.

Which brand is it that you prefer?

I absolutely loved that post. Thanks.

Look at me...I'm beaming!!! I agree, they are good. Even folks that don't like fruitcake like these. They're sorta the same, but different. Completely different texture....because of course they're cookies, not cake. Thanks for letting me know. Edited to add: I've been to a LOT of cookie exchanges throughout the years, and this is one of my favorite recipes to take. In addition to being delicious, they're very festive and pretty and 'Christmasy' and I've yet to have anyone else show up with the same thing.

Sam Yang Hot

Oh my goodness, Ana....muchisimas gracias!!! Pero... if I can't find corvina, and I can't, WHICH of the commonly-available white fish would you recommend that is most likely to have the same consistancy as corvina? (Are you familiar with white fish commonly available in the US?) That's really where I've had the most difficulty -- finding a good substitute for the corvina.

as someone who likes to get paid as much as possible for everything that i write(well, most, i'm still waiting on a check from fat guy), i'm not so quick to jump on the crass commercialization bandwagon. i'm happy to be out of my garret (or, rather, toiling in a nicer one than i had when i started), and i don't expect anyone else to feel different. everybody has their own idea of how to succeed (and indeed, what success means), and i think what we're hearing from this thread is that though the puck cafes are not statements of art, they do often offer good food at a good value in places where that might not be the norm. what's wrong with that? how is a wolfgang puck cafe different in theory from a bouchon? the practice is different, though and i think the real lesson to be learned is the importance of keeping everything under your own control. agood reputation is too valuable to be risked by licensing it to entities who might not place the same value on it that you do. ← And that's really the crux of it, isn't it? You make your own choices. Wolfgang, or Marlon, or Richard Burton, or Chef Boyardee, or Picasso, or whoever, decides what commodity it is they've got, and will offer for sale, and what they want for it, and what they're willing to give up of themselves to get their price. I, too, will be happy to see little Wolfgang Puck eateries in, for example, airports. It may not be the grand cuisine for which he became famous, but being able to eat better, even marginally, in airports will improve my life considerably more than one or two fabulous restaurants in LA. More power to him, as far as I'm concerned. When society decides that any great artist is "selling out," that's easy to say. But it is, I suspect, a much more difficult decision when one actually IS said great artist. A problem with which I personally will never have to grapple. It's really very arrogant, selfish and presumptuous of us to demand that great talents owe us something, and that they should use those talents, resources and assets only in ways of which we approve.

Yes, there was definitely something of a time warp there. We weren't "Zonians"; we were Air Force -- just visiting the colonial life. First over at Colon for a year, and then at Howard for three. Most of my favorite restaurants are probably long gone: Pesco del Oro comes immediately to mind. Most of all, I remember the ceviche, the Chinese vegetable markets, the saltimboca at an Italian restaurant downtown overlooking the sea, the beans at a Peruvian restaurant you went into from a back door, the many wonderful Chinese restaurants, an excellent Japanese one right by the Japanese embassy, an old Colonial restaurant in Colon where we ate out on a terrace, the 'batidas' that I've tried to recreate but can't get exactly right, the Mongolian BBQ at Ft. Amador, the excellent seafood at that open-air place perched high on the cliff overlooking the ocean just off of the highway up to the Indian market at El Valle, the hotel in the San Blas Islands where they had built a lobster tank by rocking off a part of the sea, and when you ordered a lobster, a barely-clothed lithe young lad would dive in and get you one. I really loved Panama. Must go back someday. Ana, I cannot tell you how pleased I am to have you here, and to be able to read your pieces in La Prensa. This is my lucky day!!!

But on a brighter note, Russ & Robb, if Wolfgang Puck keeps this up, pundits like you will have a much easier time describing the process of selling out one's culinary soul to crass commercialization. I mean, we all noticed Robb struggling with "Chef Boyardee-ization." How much simpler and more descriptive it will be to say, "Wolf-gangPucked."

So, I understand Budo is open. Anyone tried it yet???

In the summers, when the tomatoes are ripe and flavorful, I often fry big slices of them alongside the eggs. I don't necessarily dredge them in flour or anything, although do sometimes, but usually just let them sizzle away naked, and serve hot with salt and pepper. I love 'em.