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bushey

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Posts posted by bushey

  1. Stone,

    Double duh :raz:.

    Al, those are great photos. I've been wanting to go to T&C for a few years, but we never seem to be able to get it together. The snorkelling must be spectacular. Been to Anguilla a couple of times and one of my favorite dishes is trigger fish prepared in the local style.

  2. Coincidentally, I've just been wondering how I'm going to manage the mashed potatoes this Friday night when we host our holiday evening dinner.

    Sometimes I make a mashed potato "casserole", aka Heart Attack potatoes. I keep the potatoes on the loose side, with lots of butter, half and half and sometimes cream cheese, then put it in a casserole-type serving dish. About twenty minutes before serving, I dot the top with butter and heat in the oven.

    Definitely a different side dish than mashed a la minute, but we've never heard any complaints -- just lots of mmm's and groans.

  3. Not sure of the arrangements yet, it may depend on how early we can get into Philly. Alyssa used to work in admissions as a campus tour guide so it would be great to meet her on campus and get a private tour. It would be great to have dinner nearby, then we'll take a cab back to the hotel.

  4. Thanks, rlibkind, for the suggestions.

    Update: change of hotel venue. I don't know what possessed me, but I started playing on Priceline to see if I could get a hotel room in the University area. Determined to snag a room at $65 for the night, I let myself get carried away and add "Downtown" to my bid......looks like we'll be at the Wyndham Franklin Plaza.

    Does this change any of your suggestions? And for heaven's sake if it's a crummy hotel or a crummy location, don't tell me! :wink:

    Willing to stretch a little on the $$. I assume dinner for the three of us will end up being around $100 or so, and after the 4 hour drive during prime time I'll be ready for a glass of wine.

  5. Corinne,

    Wow! Thanks for all of the suggestions. When I have a free minute I'll check out the links. I suppose I should email our cousin and find out if she has any food restrictions or strong dislikes.

    I don't think we'll have time for cheesesteaks, though :sad:. We're heading to the 'burbs for my daughter's interview in the morning and will probably leave directly from there for home in New England.

  6. I'll be in Philly next Wednesday evening on a college interview trip with my 17 year old (foodie) daughter. We expect to get into town around 7:30 or so, depending on traffic, and we'll be meeting my cousin's daughter who's a junior at Penn. We'll be staying at the Windsor.

    Never been to Philly, so I have no idea what would be convenient. Looking for a place with good food, not too loud, about $20/25 per head tax and tip inc.

    Thanks!

    bushey

  7. You have to wonder sometimes what people are thinking -- an additional ounce or two would have made your experience and overall impression of the restaurant much more positive at a very low cost.

    I took a wine class with Cat Silirie, No. 9 Park's sommelier, a couple of years ago and was quite taken with her. I learned an incredible amount (yes, a little knowledge can be dangerous!) in just a few weeks and her love for wine was infectious. So it's really very disappointing :sad: to hear about your experience.

  8. I make my pizza dough in the morning and let it rise all day in the fridge while I'm at work. I also try to keep it on the moist side, so it's still a little sticky -- I find that gives me a better texture. Depending on my mood, I might substitute a little whole wheat pastry flour for unbleached all-purpose flour. Imparts a slightly sweet, nutty flavor without making the texture coarse.

    Used to use tiles for baking the pizza, but now I use pizza screens on the lower rack of a pre-heated HOT oven.

  9. It looks like the wines were very thoughtfully chosen.

    At 2 oz pours, that's 14 oz of wine, or almost 3 glasses, with the seven course menu for $25. The nine course menu adds on two high-end wines, the Zind-Humbrecht VT and a Brunello for $25. A little steep for 2 oz pours each, but these would probably go for $16-18 per glass, I'd imagine.

  10. Can someone suggest creative ways to use Dulce de Leche in addition to the ones already mentioned? I'm looking for ideas for a simple but delicious dessert and don't want to go the crepe route. It's apple time in New England and I was thinking about combining the two somehow.

  11. You'll find most of the restaurants you go to are quite baby-friendly, especially after Labor Day when the tourist trade dies down a bit. Actually it's been a very tough season for restaurants at the Cape this year -- we were on Cape twice in July (including July 4th weekend) and in August and found business to be way off.

    Since the baby will be mostly in a carrier seat you can prop it in an upended stool-type high chair to have the baby at table level or just place it on the floor. Even in higher end restaurants that don't have highchairs you'll probably feel welcome. We once brought our baby to Captain Elmer's on Orleans on Columbus Day weekend and even though she spent part of the meal awake, nobody even noticed. As we were leaving, there was a buzz around the place as we heard everybody saying "I didn't know there was a baby here".

    Enjoy your trip! The Cape is wonderful at this time of year.

    bushey

  12. We'll have to check out Ebb Tide next summer. Driven by a few times but it's hard to know which places are worth eating in.............

    This year we had our last dinner on the Cape at Swan River restaurant. Good to very good basic seafood. The clam chowder is excellent, so are the steamed mussels (small, sweet native mussels, not the huge farm-raised ones). Reasonable family place with good service. There's a fish store, also, and we got some mussels, steamers, swordfish and bluefin tuna to cook in one night -- all excellent quality.

    We also did a whale watch (Portuguese Princess) out of Provincetown then shopped around a little and had dinner at Lobster Pot. Another great meal there. Five of us all had different things (broiled haddock, fish n'chips kids' meal, blackened tuna, grilled halibut over greens and pan roasted lobster :wub: ) and loved them all.

  13. [

    Introduce them to the most refreshing cocktail I've ever had: the mojito.....

    They're the best.

    Last night I had my first (and second) mojito ever and it was wonderful. Went to a nuevo latino restaurant in New Haven, Roomba, and they serve it with plenty of muddled mint and a long stick of sugar cane. Mmmmm, good. Great summer drink.

    edited to add in: Ice Cream. A really good quality vanilla ice cream.

  14. A few years ago I had a lovely lunch at Blue Door Bistro, in The Montague Hotel on Montague Street. There was a reasonably(?) priced lunch menu and the food was very, very good. Not, perhaps, a gastronomic find, but a decent option. My friend had lamb shank which was quite delicious, accompanied by polenta fries. I think I had pan sauteed fish that was quite tasty. We were pretty stuffed but managed to share a frozen parfait for dessert.

    The room is quite pretty and was very quiet on the day we were there. I didn't look the wine list over carefully but did order a glass of Fleurie. Click here or here for more info.

  15. I'm at work, so I don't have my recipes handy for reference, but I usually make my rugalach with a cream cheese/butter/flour dough (the same dough I use for my pecan tassies). I think one of the spiral-bound Sisterhood cookbooks I have gives a recipe for dough made with vanilla ice cream (!). Will see if I can find it for you.

    For the filling, I follow my mother's recipe: four-fruits preserves topped with a little bit of cinnamon sugar and some shredded coconut. The coconut gives it a nice chewy testure. I think chocolate-raspberry sounds divine also. We never use nuts because a few people in our family are allergic.

    I had some old correspondence with jaybee about rugelach but I recently cleaned out my archives :sad:.

    Malawry, sounds like it's going to be a beautiful bat mitzvah. When I had mine, the tradition in our synagogue was for girls to have their bat mitzvot on Friday evening, followed by a lovely oneg shabbat.

  16. We ate at the Binnacle in July and while the pizzas and caesar salad were as delicious as ever the service was horrendously slow. The server admitted that he messed up on putting our order in, but we were still a little miffed because we had an 8 yr old with us and it was a long time to wait. I always get the Thai chicken pizza. My husband's favorite used to be the bacon and mustard pizza, but now he usually gets some combo of lobster and spinach.

    Can't say enough good things about Nauset Beach Club in Orleans. On the road to Nauset Beach, a little past where Kadee's used to be (they decided not to open this year). The prices are steep but the food is absolutely delicious and the wine list is interesting. Ask for Rob, the sommelier, and he'll set you up with a great wine to match your dinner and your budget. I had the grilled rack of lamb with preserved lemon and mint gremolata, roasted parsnips and haricot verts.

  17. what s/he said :wub:.

    We don't get into the city often enough, but when we do, Tomoe is our favorite lunch place. If you're not in line by 12:45 (when they open at 1:00), you'll end up waiting for the second seating. That's the bad news. The good news is we found a little grocery around the corner with an excellent beer selection to help the wait go by. My favorite place to sitis at the tiny bar.

    A few weeks ago we were in the city with our daughter and had decided to try Lupa. Walking by Tomoe was tough -- we started talking about how much we love it, the great tuna, etc. and started to waver -- but then we saw it was closed for lunch. What a relief that we didn't have to pass on it by choice!

  18. I know this may sound horribly City-centric and elitist, but by and large these people just don't behave the same way -- the appropriate way, IMO -- as we do in a place like Babbo.

    re: glass houses

    We outsiders sometimes refer to you city-folk as "212-ers". And we get that sinking feeling when approaching some of the restaurants we love in vacation spots (Cape Cod, for example) where there's an abundance of New York license plates in the parking lot -- they just don't know how to behave when they go out :wink:.

  19. Can't beat that price, and it looks quite nice. Isn't Jamin in/near Bois de Boulogne?

    If you haven't been to visit Musee Marmottan in the 16th, I highly recommend it. It's a tiny jewel of a museum with a wonderful Impressionist collection and a room full of Monet's Water Lilies.

  20. My bags are usually in a surplus state. Unless, of course, I absolutely NEED to use one, then it's a deficit situation.

    We use a combination of paper, plastic and paper-in-plastic, depending on how heavy the groceries are any given week. The majority of paper bags go into the bi-weekly paper recycle bin, with a few saved for our can and bottle deposit stash (we go to the bottle shop when we have 6 or 7 full bags) and art projects/book covers. The plastic bags get stuffed into an empty tissue box in a through-the-handle-loop formation so they can be dispensed easily. These get used for poop scooping, wet bathing suits in the camp backpack, carrying extra shoes to work, etc.

  21. tighe,

    You might be surprised at the willingness/ability of the staffto help you with arrangements -- it's worth a try. If you are unable to secure reservations on your own, you might ask them for advice and some suggestions. You never know who may know someone who knows someone........

    Where are you staying? I had hoped to visit Paris this month and was thinking of a couple of ** places in the 7th that were highly regarded on some website. Better a ** that's a cut above, than a *** that's sliding!

    Happy planning!

    bushey

  22. sandra,

    You describe almost to a T the wonderful meal we had the other night at a local Argentinian (/Italian, the owners are a married couple with two heritages) restaurant in Northampton, MA.

    While we looked over the menu we munched on rolled flatbread dipped in chimichurri sauce and sipped some Argentinian wine (an Alamos pinot noir and a cabernet/malbec blend). The menu stated that all of the beef was imported from Argentina. I ordered the sirloin strip and my husband ordered the skirt steak.

    The steaks were perfectly grilled -- char on the outside, medium rare inside -- and delicious. Alongside were tossed greens with tomatoes and red onions, in a well seasoned dressing. No other sides, and we didn't miss them a bit.

    For dessert we ordered Panqueques -- crepes with dulce di leche. They were sublime. Light and crispy on the outside, they had just come from the pan and the whipped cream garnish was melting into them. The dulce di leche was sweet and delicious.

    I almost don't want to eat there again because I'm afraid it could never again be that good :blink:.

  23. Do you mean the Harry's up near Roswell? I spent a miserable (for personal reasons, not geographic ones) six weeks living in the Atlanta area and the only thing good about it for me was going to Harry's. I've tried explaining to people what it's like but it defies definition.

    Locally I have to shop at three or four different places, including local farm stands and farmers' markets, to make up for not having one terrific grocery store nearby.

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