bushey

Well, I guess you aren't a "fire" patrol chef for nothing. At my favorite breakfast place they usually have an assortment of hot sauces to choose from and I love dousing my open faced omelettes liberally. In a pinch plain old Tabasco will do, but my preferred brand is Cholula. They also have a kick-ass spicy and smoky Mexican brand that is delicious but way too overpowering. First started using hot sauce on eggs after seeing the scene in "An Umarried Woman" where the daughter tells her Mom's boyfriend he must be special if Mom made eggs with hot sauce for him. I figured, "Hey, I'm special, too. Might as well try it!"

Wilfrid -- sounds divine. I'm two for two with you now! Hmmm.....maybe I'd better quit while I'm ahead. Nina -- I agree with you on the color palette of borscht and sour cream but not on the soft palate aspect. I love the creamy texture in every spoonful when the sour cream is completely incorporated into the soup.

Regression to the mean?

I'd never simmer it. I'd stick in a raosting pan with a big fat chicken or turkey and let it cook in the juices. Then, when it bursts open, you get some nice crispy stuff in the pan. Definitely not hot weather cuisine. I'd go for ice cold beet borscht mixed up in the blender with sour cream (strain the beets so you can add them in later). Garnish with boiled potatoes, sliced cucumbers and scallions.

And lots of them would grind the steak up for hamburgers! Would it be better hamburger than the $10/lb stuff? Personally, I find the whole hamburger thing confusing. Many people, including the butchers at my market, say go for chuck, at no more than 80% lean for great tasting burgers. But the ground sirloin, which is usually leaner and more expensive seems like it should make better burgers. Maybe I should just switch threads and learn how to make my own.

Steve P -- nothing so exotic. Just garden-variety 2nd generation American by way of grandparents who emigrated from Lithuania (the " Pale": sometimes Russia/sometimes Poland). We called the leaves bletlach. I think you should start a thread on filled batter pancakes in different cuisines. Blintzes, crepes, dosas, canneloni. Moo shu would be tough call because the pancakes aren't technically made from batter. Are crepes better because they're french? Peter B Wolf -- do you actually buy them from the source at Millie's? I love pierogies, especially the potato and cheese kind. Pan fried in butter, and topped with what else? sour cream researchgal -- I have two favorite spaghetti comfort foods: a shallow bowl of spaghetti topped with butter and garlic oil then sprinkled with toasted bread crumbs and parmesan cheese and a spaghetti frittata. Heat up some good olive oil with a tbsp of butter and throw in a whole clove of garlic and to flavor it lightly. Toss out the garlic and add a couple of handfuls of cold, cooked spaghetti. Just enough to spread out on the bottom of the pan. Let it sizzle until the bottom of the spaghetti starts to get crispy, then pour in a couple or three well beaten eggs. Let the eggs set on the bottom, lifting the sides occasionally and tilting the pan . When it's almost set, sprinkle with fresh grated parmesan cheese and put it under the broiler for a minute or two. Grind on some sea salt and lots of black pepper.

There you go -- it's like deconstructed blintzes. When I was little I loved to watch and help my mother prepare blintzes. It was a once-a-year thing and we'd move the kitchen table near the stove top, cover it with tea towels and flour and go to it. She'd always save some of the filling for me to eat with egg noodles. And since I always have my blintzes with sour cream and a sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar, I just added it to the mix. I still keep a box of Golden's cheese blintzes in the freezer for those times that I just can't figure out what I want to eat and nothing sounds good.

I'll see your egg noodles, cottage cheese, sugar and cinnamon, and raise you some sour cream.

What do you mean by noodles? To me, spaghetti, ziti, fettucine, etc. is (are?) "pasta", not noodles. I used to live in a blue collar town where there was a large Italian-American community and everything was considered "macaroni". Noodles bring to mind egg noodles -- both narrow and broad -- and kugel. No fruit cocktail, no raisins, no apples, just noodles, butter, lots of cream cheese and farmer cheese and sour cream. Topped with cornflake crumbs or brown sugar. A friend of mine makes a killer kugel with cashews that sounds suspect but is delicious. Also Chinese noodles as in lo mein, cold sesame noodles, sai fun. Shanghai style crispy fried noodles with meat and vegetables. Cellophane noodle salad with minced pork, shrimp, heaps of fresh cilantro and mint, fish sauce, lime juice and chopped peanuts. Yum-yum.

Well then just serve them with ham. When I was growing up we always ate our scrambled eggs with jelly, and the Welch's grape stuff turned the eggs green. I still eat them that way occasionally, but I've moved up to red raspberry preserves. I sometimes cook my eggs in oil, as well, but in a wok. I discovered that I really liked the way the eggs turned out when I scrambled them for fried rice. Just heat a bit of oil in the wok until a teeny bit of the egg mixture sizzles, then pour in the eggs. Tilt the wok to cover the bottom with the egg mixture and scramble with a chopstick. They get browned in spots but it's a nice crispy brown. Sometimes I throw in some cabbage, too, and eat them with soy sauce.

I agree with Nina that the results you get from the microwave can be very good. I have a recipe I cut out from Country Life magazine -- why I ever had a copy of that magazine, I'll never know -- for basic risotto with fresh spring peas and it always comes out good. It's great for those times when you want a somewhat special side dish and don't feel like a) standing at the stove and stirring or b) making a "boxed" risotto.

I used to live near a Lebanese bakery that made fabulous food as well as bread and baked goods, and the best thing on the menu was their Tabbouleh. Lots and lots of parsley and mint, heavier on the lemon than the garlic, and the chopped tomatoes were just the right size. It used to be fabulous in a sandwich with hummous. Their pita bread was very thin and chewy. I've tried to replicate it at home, but it never seems to come out right. The closest I've come is to use the Near East brand of Tabbouleh mix and doctor it up.

Kim WB -- I am laughing out loud. My daughter eats just about everything and refuses to eat any sort of fast food, much to the annoyance of her high school friends. And she bugged me about going to Barnes and Noble to get her summer reading books before leaving for camp......However, she didn't sleep through the night until she was four years old. And she spent the first 18 months of her life regurgitating almost every meal (g.e. reflux). She was so little they had to draw in her growth chart by hand because there was nothing under the 5th percentile. A reasonable approach is to give kids many options of healthy foods to eat, not to make any particular food item (e.g. McDonald's french fries) or category (e.g. dessert. as in "finish all your _____ before you can have dessert) forbidden and respect their individuals tastes. Taste, texture, sight and smell all play an important role in what we find appealing and appetizing -- and it's truly amazing at how early an age these are factors. There are so many psychological and social factors surrounding food and eating in our culture that it's no wonder so many food issues are ultimately related to power and control. And working through issues of power and self-control is part and parcel of growing up.

One of the best lobsters I've ever eaten was about 12 years ago at the Ogunquit Lobster Pound. It's on the main route, not in the touristy Perkins Cove part of town. We were there in October, so it wasn't too crowded. At the time you got to choose your lobster, then they put it in a string bag (like the environmentally sound string shoppers) and tag it with a number. Then they swing the bag down into a deep stone pit and steam it. It was clean and sweet tasting with perfect texture. That lobster become the benchmark against which I measure all lobster dinners.

Thanks for the info. Wish I had known when we were there last year. On some days our oldest daughter thinks she'd like to be a chef. She would have really enjoyed a tour. Didn't Bobby Flay graduate from FCI? He's one of her faves.

Excellent eats on July the 4th, despite the heat and humidity. Breakfast was homemade strawberry buttermilk pancakes with applewood smoked bacon. Cooked the bacon in the oven for the first time -- a tip from Silver Palate Cookbook that I never got around to trying. Arrange bacon slices on a cookie sheet and bake at 375 for about ten minutes or so. Excellent results, no splattering all over the cooktop. Lunch -- kid sized soft serve chocolate-vanilla twist with butterscotch dip. Dinner was grilled double thick lambchops with a sprinkling of sea salt and kale sauteed in olive oil and garlic until some of the leaves are dry and crispy. No fuss, delicious food. Dessert was orange ice (Minute Maid frozen push up).

Sounds like I hit the apricot tart on a good night. Can't remember what the others had for dessert because I was too absorbed in mine. I agree that the overall experience was pretty good. We were there as a family so it worked out fine. I think if my husband and I had been dining alone we would have been more disappointed in the service and ambience.

Does anyone know the difference between babybacks and St. Louis (or St. Louie, as my meat store sometimes marks them) ribs? I grabbed a rack of the St. Louis last year and did them on the grill with a dry rub and they came out sensational. Seemed a little less fatty than babybacks, but it could have been my imagination. I'm a big fan of the dry rub method for bbq. Even my daughter who's a barbecue sauce nut likes the way the dry rub results.

tommy -- how unusual for you to be a master of understatement I ate at L'Ecole last year and thought it was very good overall. The service we had that night was a bit unpolished but most of the dishes were delicious and well prepared. I liked the decor and artwork, they offered some interesting choices of wine by the glass, including a delicious sparkling Saumur which I haven't been able to track down. We ordered the three-course menu for $29.95. The entrees, trout almondine and rack of lamb (extra charge) were excellent, with my trout edging out the lamb. What really stands out in my mind, though, was a fabulous apricot tart for dessert. Absolutely luscious ripe apricot and a bit of pastry cream on crisp flaky pastry, with a light glaze and a sprinkling of chopped pistachios. It was the best fruit pastry I've ever had -- the peach tart at Patisserie Payard did not even come close.

I had the best martini in my life last night, and it went down really well on a 80+ degree night. It was a lemon infused vodka martini. There were a few choices of fruit, including watermelon, but our server recommended the mandarin orange or lemon. Served in a mini stainless steel martini shaker, this was icy cold and had an intense but smooth lemon flavor. Tasted a little bit like limoncello Could have drunk them all evening, if the one hadn't rendered me a little too tipsy ....... Anyone know how to "infuse" alcohol with flavor? Is it just a fancy word for marinate?

Okay, I know I said I avoid tomato products but all of this talk about Campbell's Tomato Soup made me remember that when I feel sick I love to have a piping hot bowl of the stuff (made with milk, of course) with lots of ditalini pasta in it and parmesan cheese on top. Not the good stuff; I mean the crappy sprinkle cheese kind of imported Parmesan. Sort of the opposite of wawairis' craving -- pasta on soup instead of vice versa. As for chicken soup, I usually have a container of the homemade stuff in the freezer that I can pull out when anybody's sick. There's nothing like Mom's chicken soup to cure what ails ya.

Definitely comfort food. I crave dropped eggs on toast: soft boiled eggs that are cracked open and scooped out over buttered toast, preferable white or rye. We always referred to this as "eggy on toast" when I was growing up. Hot tea with milk and honey goes down well, too. Another favorite is Campbell's Vegetarian Vegetable soup, though I'd have to pick out the mushy lima beans. Usually, though, when I have a cold I think more about foods I can't stand to eat : salads, anything with vinegar, carbonated drinks, and tomato products, all of which irritate my scratchy nose and throat. Hope you feel better soon. And remember, one person's crappy food may be another's gourmet feast (although let's hope not!)

The crispy green beans, or green bean "chips", are phenomenal. Bet you can't eat just one order.

Adam Balic -- this is one of my favorite summer dinners. Sometimes I use grape tomatoes and feta cheese instead. If I'm feeling very ambitious I mix the tomatoes, cheese, oil and seasonings ahead of time and let them macerate for an hour or so. I keep a half whiskey barrel planter of herbs (thyme, sage, oregano, chives, basil and mint) right outside my back door and just snip whatever I feel like tossing in. Liza -- What are double chocolate chips (and how did you limit yourself to only a few handfuls)? I love the semi-sweet Ghirardelli chocolate bars for baking but I have to hide them in the pantry or the kids devour them. Surreptitiously. And they leave the wrapper in tact so one would think there is still a full chocolate bar inside.

Strega Nona, by Tommie de Paola. It's a retelling of the classic "magic pot" story, but instead of the pot boiling over with porridge, in this Italian town in Calabria the pot boils over with pasta. It's a wonderful book with colorful characters: Strega Nona, the local witch, Bambolona her assistant, and bumbling Big Anthony who always manages to mess things up.