Suzanne F

All the recent discussions of cookware got me wondering: how important to you is the outside of your pots and pans? Do you buy copper to display as well as cook in, and obsessively polish it to keep it beautiful? Le Creuset or other enamel-ware that matches your wainscoting? Only AllClad Stainless or LTD, because they look so cool? Or, like me, do you buy without concern for presentation / looks, so long as the item works well (so I've got mostly AllClad MasterChef with one LTD thrown in, plus motley LeCreuset and other enamel)? Wish this could be done as a poll, but . . .

Edit: Oops, too late. But just in case you want to know . . . One other possibility, just to confuse things: Le Creuset. I've got a roasting pan that measures 10 x 14 x 3" deep, weighing in at 4.17kg (9 lbs, 3oz). For handles, it has extended lips on the short ends; just barely enough to grasp. I have no idea how much it might cost, because I, um, appropriated it from a former workplace. I can't do anything like a big turkey in it, but for everything else I do the size is sufficient. Perfectly flat bottom, and it definitely works on the stove top. Cleans up like a dream, since the inside is enameled. The only drawback is the weight; but that's LeCreuset for you! It's better than a Dansk pan I've had for years and years -- which is made from much thinner metal, although the enameling has held up very well. The bottom of the Dansk is ever-so-slightly bowed. Works okay, but I prefer the LC. Then again, if I didn't have either one of those, I'd seriously consider AllClad. (But NEVER from Williams Sonoma; their prices are outrageous )

Recycle the Bon Appetit. Or else shred them, pour a can of cream of mushroom soup on top, sprinkle with a little cheese (frome the green cardboard can), bake, and serve to your worst enemies. As for the Gourmet and F & W . . . oh hell, just recycle them.

It was announced tonight that Diana Kennedy is the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Here, here!!! I hope they considered her recipe for English muffins along with all her Mexican food!

Yeah, I got that press package too. But I didn't read it as thoroughly as you did. What I want to know is: will GE now partner with ConAgra, Tyson, and so on, to bring out a line of pre-cut meats and vegetables, plus other ingredients, to use for THEIR recipes (that had better accompany the oven)? Oh, and a special line of cookware, too. Because basically what they're doing is taking the cook out of the cooking. Just plop OUR "meat" and "vegetables" in OUR exclusive cookware, pop it into OUR oven, hit the buttons for that specific program, and come back in a few minutes to a complete "dinner" with almost no effort -- or thought -- on your part. I'm really curious about what the instruction book, and the recipes in it, will be like.

A lot of what you should have done, you know already. Hotter pan, less onion, drain spinach better, etc. So I'll weigh in on the other stuff along with everyone else: Searing and finishing the meat: don't switch the meat to a different pan. If you're concerned that it will overcook in the same (hotter) pan in which you seared it, pick it up and place a baking rack underneath. But you want to keep ALL the fond in one pan. Of course, this means that the searing pan has to be "ovenable." There should be no time problem finishing the sauce while the meat rests. Port Sauce: hey, if you reduce ruby port, you get a purple reduction. No way around it. If you don't want that color, or quite that level of sweetness, use tawny port. Or, as Sandy suggested, add some red wine for acid to offset the sweetness. (Or else reduce the port way way down all by itself, to about a half-cup from one bottle, put it in a squeeze bottle, and squiggle a little on the plate, instead of turning it into a pan sauce.) But if you DO make a pan sauce, try tawny, and add some lamb stock, or chicken stock as a distant second. Not beef -- too assertive. Yeah, shallots might be better, but onion will work fine, just use less, and mince it very fine so it cooks enough in a short time. Then add your wine(s) and stock, and cook down. Season. Finally monter au beurre at the end, just as you did. Blue cheese: Sound GREAT to me with the lamb and sauce. Only, not IN the sauce, and not plopped on the meat. More likely in a potato gratin or puree on the side -- to soften the effect but still let the flavor come through. And it's one more thing to dip in the sauce.

I mostly buy the seedless; no need to pare or seed, so I feel like I'm getting my money's worth. Although in the summer usually it's kirbies from the Greenmarket. Besides, the seedless ones are never bitter, as regular large cucumbers tend to be.

Also plates and chopsticks. Absolutely necessary when sharing with another eater.

I could answer the question addressed to Kim, but I feel that would be rude, since it's HER ex. Anyway, what do you all think of what Julian Barnes says about cookbooks this week in The Guardian? Added: lord knows, I've tried to clean up the collection. That meant throwing out the two books of diet "recipes." -- a whole big 0.36% of the total. But I couldn't bring myself to do it.

Oh, I don't know. The article made it sound kind of scary, too. Even more than dealing with the little old ladies who ram you with their carts at Fairway. It's difficult to get to C-town by bus or subway from the UWS; very easy by bus from the UES, but do those folks ride the bus with us commoners? And carrying loaded shopping bags, no less? Anyway, I prefer Forschner for serrated edges.

Was that the one in which he fairly screamed, "The pudding had too much nutmeg!"?

Pan, all it said was they serve "pub food" -- whatever that means Boynton Beach is between Palm Beach and Boca Raton (with one other town in between in each direction).

I just ordered 2 more

Why do you say that? I'll bet you make water just fine.

please don't ever mention that bar again. ever. regards, tommy Oh????? I forgot one other place: Eat Here Now, a coffee shop a few blocks from Bloomingdale's.

Has anyone yet mentioned Ship of Fools, a bar on the Upper East Side of NYC? Or The Village Idiot, another bar on 14th Street and Ninth Avenue? BTW: Nation's Restaurant News has a weekly feature listing "funny" names that readers send in, from all over the country. A recent one was Rhythm & Brews, in Boynton Beach, FL. And the venerable Phoebe's in the East Village is now called Fuel. Ugh. Maybe because it's just a block away from B-Bar, which was originally a Gulf gas station.

What they both said. A belated Happy Birthday, and SO, WHADJA EAT??

C'mon -- you know that maggots are not spontaneously generated in dead meat, right? So how you gonna get those other nasties if they're not already present in the ingredients? Work clean, and what's the problem? But my offer still stands to help keep you from ODing on any organism that DOES get its nastiness into the sausage.

Well, Mamster, if you want to send some to me ... at least that way you won't get an overdose!

You mean, it's kind of a Slim Jim Thompson? Or high Thai? I'd imagine that as long as you keep everything scrupulously clean, and have good air circulation -- and maybe drape them in cheesecloth to keep them clean -- there should be no problem.

Hungry. PS: are they still doing Flaming Orange Gullys?

I was going to say salmon cakes -- crumb them twice with panko and they'll hold up perfectly -- or salmon loaf (not quite as successful when re-frozen, then re-thawed, though -- too weepy), but others beat me to it. However: how about salmon ravioli? Make a mousse with part of the fish, mince the rest and blend in, and use that to stuff fresh pasta dough. That'll freeze beautifully, and cook up quickly from the frozen state.

i think that's a perfect dish. Me too.

Getting back to crabCAKES: we always enjoyed the ones at Market Lunch in Eastern Market (7th & Pennsylvania SE). He Who Only Eats had them again there recently, and said they were still excellent (lots of crab, a tiny bit of binder; very light coating, if any). We also had very good crabcakes at Bertha's Mussels (Fells Point, Baltimore) -- in fact, they were much better than the mussels. And I still miss driving out to St. Michaels in the Fiat convertible to eat at The Crab Claw -- and not just for the drive. Although I did knock out my garbage disposal thingy with the shells of the leftovers we brought home.

Or THX 1138?