Suzanne F

alacarte: isn't that the same block with The Inn on Irving, Lady Mendl's, and that ground-floor bar/lounge (whose name escapes me even though I interviewed there)? Same landlord?

Nice job, Jamie. We can see how it works, and make any revisions as we need to. (If you make any more changes, email me, please.) I'll bring copies for all on Saturday. Everybody try to remember to bring a writing implement. Sigh. True, true.

Workplace ferret-fondling went out during Giuliani's reign.

I forgot about this thread. But we tried it during the summer. Tasted lots of preciously-named flavors and finally ended up with half-and-half maple and coffee for HWOE, and a full portion of lemon for me. I have to say, they were all excellent, and I could eat the lemon anytime. And I want to get a full set of the containers. The place may be gimmicky to the nth degree, but they make a terrific product. That alone would keep me coming back.

One year I had to do a kosher Thanksgiving -- no dairy products. So when I did mashed sweet potatoes, instead of butter I used canned coconut milk (which is just coconut and water). Ground up some lemon-flavored preserved ginger and candied/salted lemon slices from the Japanese junk food store, and mixed those in. Maybe some grated coconut, too? And of course, added back the caramelized juices that oozed out of the potatoes while they were baking. Yeah, rather untraditional treatment, but pretty damn good, if I do say so myself.

To add another venue: as I recall, Markt had pretty good frites (Belgian) to go with good moules and good steak tartare. But I haven't been there in quite a while. Les Halles (downtown) is very good; and I have to agree that while Nathan's at Coney Island is inconsistent, when they are good they are very, very good. Never crisp throughout the whole portion, but they taste good.

Not quite all . . . but will we have to wear helmets?

Confessed? NO -- proudly claimed!!!

Because blues have such strong flavor, they are great for making escabeche (cook, then pickle with onions and hot peppers) or for provencal- or basque-style preparations (tomatoes, garlic, onions, sweet peppers). As you can tell from my (former avatar) signature, I LOVE blue fish. They sure do taste good! Although they really are gross to clean -- I once found a partially-digested fish in one.

Seth: What's wrong with the green beans? They look great! Although you could do brussels sprouts, chopped up and sauteed with pancetta. Onions: KimWB brought some Mario Batali onions (with balsamic vinegar) to the pig roast; they were soooooo good. A very nice relishy type of onion, much lighter than creamed. And for pecan pie, well, we'll just have to make sure that elyse takes orders for the holiday, now won't we?

Hi, Paula! Thank you so much for opening yourself to us. One of the joys of reading (and cooking) your recipes is the sense of authenticity they carry. There is such a purity to the ingredients; I cannot imagine anything non-indigenous (or at the very not least a close approximation) appearing. But . . . come on, 'fess up: in your own home cooking, do you ever mix widely varying nationalities or ethnicities (for example, using fish sauce in place of salted capers)? Or is that sort of "mongrelization" anathema to you? And if you do it, what are some of your favorite multi-ethnic combinations?

October Savuer magazine lists this as a must have - though out of print. Good find! Ah yes. Ingredients says this about Ostrich's Egg: Also good along the same lines are: The World Encyclopedia of Cooking Ingredients by Christine Ingram (republished in paperback as Cooking Ingredients) and The Visual Food Encyclopedia, although this one is very strangely organized.

Dimitri Steinberg: But the landlord only assumes there is a chance of getting a higher rent from another tenant; it is by no means guaranteed. Nor is it guaranteed that the new tenant will be as responsible as Verbena, make improvements in the property (as Verbena did), or keep the landlord's costs for maintenance and repair to a reasonable level. And if the new tenant turns out to be a bad tenant, the eviction process is costly. Would it not have been better for the landlord to negotiate with the long-term tenant (Verbena), rather than now risk the uncertainty of how much rent will be received, and how soon? BTW: "Property is theft." -- Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

Leftover Pernil and its gravy Baked chayote slices (unlike the one in SethG's signature, mine had fangs ) Green plantain slices with piperade and serrano pepper, sherry vinegar (hot) Sliced avocado Leaves-only salad with oregano vinegar and oo Dr. Konstantin Frank Dry Riesling

Seth, that is the best blow-by-blow description I've read about this recipe. Should be a big help to anyone considering using it. I know for sure now that I won't try it! One thing I don't "get" is: since the bird is encased in the coating, why must one baste? Seems counter-intuitive. Also, glad that Jubilee came through. I was going to suggest that you put the bird in the stroller and carry the child, but I saw that part too late. Finally: hope your finger is healing nicely. A toddler in the house and no bandaids?

I mentioned this on another thread, but I can't remember which: Laurie Colwin has a recipe for a spiced creamed spinach (with evaporated milk, pepper jack, and jalapenos) in either Home Cooking or More Home Cooking, that really is as good as she says. New Kid: I agree with you about the cream cheese being an excellent ingredient for this sort of dish. And I like Wondra, too! therdogg: what proportion of white sauce to spinach do you use? Maybe that's part of your problem, too much sauce to spinach? And if you're making a basic white sauce, do you use the spinach water as part of the liquid? That will bump up the spinachiness some. Although to my palate, the best version is lightly cooked spinach blended with reduced heavy cream -- delicious, but oh so rich.

It says I assume the switch to flip between pounds and kilograms is on the side (from the mailing tube picture).

Actually, that's pretty close to the uptown Fairway. And not very far from the 125th Street and 137th Street stops on the #1 train -- easier to get to than Daisy May.

What's the smallest increment you want? That one on eBay only does .5 oz/5 gram increments over 2 pounds/1 kg. Is that small enough? OTOH, it does go up to 30#/14 kg. Which is more important?

gus -- don't forget the lemon or lime juice! (extra vitamin C).

Wait a minute, we've got to be able to say F. Otherwise, I'm leaving. (For those who don't know, my name that starts with F ends with a piece of the human anatomy I would rather not be called.) And if any of you want to include Big Macs, can you hand me mine outside? The sour smell of the fries inside those places really puts me off my feed. While I'm at it -- can we just have a 0 to 4 or 5 scale, not 0 to 10? I mean, are we really willing to put such a fine edge on it? What would be the difference between so many levels?

I load up my fridge and freezer with condiments, stocks, and sauces, all of which can be used in many different ways to make quick meals. For example: on my last supermarket trip, the "reduced price produce" shelves had packages of red and green bell peppers for something like 39¢ a pound. Most went into the slow cooker with sliced onion, garlic, and a little oil, and came out as 10 jars of piperade -- to be used with a quick saute of a little veal or pork, or an omelet, or mixed with pasta, etc. The rest are now marinated roasted peppers, for use on pizza or who knows what else. I also got artichokes at 99¢ for three, which so far have been used with linguine, and will probably join other pastas at another time. Yes, it took an afternoon of work to prep all that stuff, but now all I have to do is open a jar or thaw a container. Oh, and I save excess sauces from stews, which get recycled into new sautes and pasta dishes.

Only if you want to. Otherwise I can bring my Salton. I'll probably bring some instant-read thermometers, too, so that we can check temperatures.

Aw, it would have been fun coming up with definitions. But just in case we come across a real loser, can the range go from zero on up? I'd hate the thought of giving, say, a Big Mac ANY points on ANYTHING.

I really hesitated before using the comparison to "dirty-water hot dogs" (which I do not eat because they taste bad).