Suzanne F

Thank you so much for joining us. So much of the food culture of the African diaspora in the U.S. was based on ingredients and cooking methods that give big flavor but also add unhealthy elements -- cured pig fats, salt, deep-frying. Over the last thirty years, there have been many cooking writers and educators who have substituted lower fat, lower salt ingredients for the traditional ones, to minimize the health risks while keeping the food delicious. How successful do you think this has been in general -- or has the success be limited to more educated middle- and upper-middle class African-Americans, while still leaving many who need "re-education" to the wiles of KFC and Frito-Lay? (edited because I finally remembered my manners. )

I was a Girl Scout. I hated selling the cookies, even though it was easy in my apartment building. But I LOVED eating the ones with coconut and caramel and a drizzle of chocolate -- what are they called. But I haven't had one in maybe 45 years, since I last sold them.

Incredibly fresh trout from the Union Square Greenmarket, coated in flour+Old Bay, sauteed in olive oil, finished in the oven. Risotto with 3 kinds of mushrooms, finished with parmesan/Romano and parsley/tarragon Baby Bok Choy sauteed in the pan from the fish (already removed), with homemade herb butter and lemon juice Salad of mixed leaves with itty bitty plum tomatoes, English cuke, and fresh herbs (basil and oregano), red wine vinaigrette. Paumonok Barrel Fermented Chardonnay.

If one of those links is to the recipe used at Diwan, USE IT! That was one of the most wonderful cauliflower dishes many of us have had.

That's always the problem with food professionals: no eat, or else taste taste taste taste taste, and since Katie is not in the kitchen it tends to be NO EAT. Where'dja get the pizza?

I say we declare jhlurie the winner and move on.

Oh, Steve, you're just so sweet, sometimes people forget you know anything . . . savory.

Bacon. No, seriously: think about the fabulous Candied Bacon the folks in the PNW have so enjoyed. Cabbage: for the sweet side, cabbage strudel (Gale Gand demoed this on her FTV show recently; her grandma made it because they couldn't afford apples) Sweet potatoes Cucumbers

Um, Rachel, you don't really want our opinions of those 2 Jello molds, do you? As for foods suitable for folks who keep kosher: the "potato salad of mysterious ethnicity" will probably be an Indian-style chaat, no animal products whatsoever. And I think I keep forgetting to mention that I will also bring the remainder -- almost the whole gallon -- of FG's "New Half Sours."

Try broiling it.

Golly, I just boil the hell out of the pan sauce, and get it nice and thick. I'd love to add butter, but HWOE would have a shit fit. How much extra wine/stock do you add to the fond???

At a WCR conference one year, one of the attendees wore a t-shirt that proclaimed:

Oh, fifi, you have to get a duck and have it quartered at the store! Then you can pan-fry/steam it according to Mark Bittman or Paula Peck, 1/4 by 1/4, and add the fat to the collection. Duck is the steak of the poultry world.

Good for you, robkhoo! How do you think I got my LeCreuset baking dish? This post is not intended to condone thievery. It is simply a welcome to a new poster.

Yes yes yes, keep asking questions! Back to shoes: whatever you get, get leather, NOT nubuck. You will never, ever get the flour and gunk out of nubuck.

In a rare instance of eating at the computer: leftover potato croquettes, with chipotle- and wasabi-flavored mayonnaises for dipping.

Not necessarily. Many -- maybe even most -- places partially cook their risotto, and just finish it fairly quickly at service. At least one four-star and a highly authentic Italian, among others in whose kitchen's I've worked or trailed. How did it compare to the risotto at, say, Artisanal, or some other place? Funny how that dish has entered the international -- not just Italian -- vocabulary; I had a really good version recently at Thalassa! (Maybe risotto deserves its own thread, if there isn't yet one??)

You go, girl!

It's difficult to substitute for sugar in baking recipes, because the sugar is responsible for so much of the structure and color of the product. That said, there will be a cookbook coming out sometime in the future for people who have had stomach stapling; while the author acknowledges that Splenda cannot offer the same structure as sugar, she does include a few recipes for desserts and baked goods using Splenda. The title of the book is Extreme Measures, the author is Susan Nunziato Leach, and the publisher is HarperCollins. It should be out before the end of the year, I think. Personally, I find Splenda too sweet, and would have to cut back to less than 1 to 1 if I used it in cooking.

Me too: sweet corn ("Butter and Sugar") with Herb butter Mixed salad with lots of Greenmarket arugula and tomato, balsamic vinaigrette the last of the terrine from the potluck Paumanok Festival Chardonnay

And a marvelous addition, pureed, to a vinaigrette. Although I can't be bothered making salad for breakfast; I just eat what was left over from dinner the night before.

Better - the ones with DARK chocolate. The 70% dark chocolate. Although I just bought a package of LU "Le Fondant" chocolate creme-filled wafers, and they are going fast! I grew up on Pecan Sandies, Vienna Fingers, and Social Teas, but now I find most American cookies too salty. Except for Nabisco Ginger Snaps, which rank in the world's top 10.

Just had a thought: assuming that there are some books in our collections that we would be happy to part with (unbelievable as that sounds), and there are others that we crave, perhaps we can arrange a sort of swap meet, kind of an eGullet eBay without any money. This is just the preliminary thought, details are nonexistent as yet -- but would anyone else be interested?

Katherine, that reminds me of the last time we were in Amsterdam. At the somewhat disappointing breakfast one morning in our fairly inexpensive hotel, the father of a German family was loudly berating the staff: "I did not come to the land of milk and cows to eat MAR-GAH-REEN!" Other than that, though, the breakfast was pretty good.

I am shocked, SHOCKED at the conservatism expressed so far! Not that there's anything wrong with it, as long as it makes you guys happy and doesn't hurt anybody else. But where are my fellow cold pizza eaters and lovers of the occasional Japanese pickled-veg breakfast among the Westerners? If I feel like eating breakfast, I'll try ANYTHING (except natto ). Surely I'm not the only one.