Jean Blanchard

Wanted to make the Pot Roast with Rhubarb and Honey. Have it in frig with the rub on it. Can't find any rhubarb. Now what do I do?? Can I just use apples and have a decent product? Help!

Thank you for letting us into your lives and your kitchens. I haven't used my Weber in several years but I'm inspired now to dust it off and do a little smokin' this weekend.

How about individual pot pies for your cute little Le Creuset pans?

Chocolate chip, oatmeal cookies from the latest Food and Wine magazine. YUM!

I like Steve Raichlen also and the Weber Grilling cookbooks has nice recipes with lots of instructions.

I'm headed to Milwaukee next weekend with another couple and they all want a traditional German restaurant - pork, dumplings, that sort of thing. Not my personal favorite but I'm dragging them to the museum sooo any suggestions? jb

Great idea!!

I'm visiting Vancouver and Victoria this summer for a week so I've been reading (of course) about all of your wonderful restaurants. Of course, the list is now longer than the amount of days that I have available but I'll do my best. I'm wondering if anyone can help me with best places to stay since I know nothing about this area. I want to be close to downtown since I won't have a car. How's the Crowne Plaza Hotel Georgia or the Rosedale on Robson? Anything better? Where should I go to dinner the first night? Thanks! jb

Considering how much time all of us spend in our kitchens I'd say that a kitchen is quite capable of making us happy. I have a long galley kitchen that is great for cooking because I can reach everything. I love my kitchen so much that I added onto my house (so that I'd have more room in living/dining room area to entertain) rather then leave my kitchen.

Gael Greene has a book out now called Insatiable. You might want to check that out. She's a pretty interesting character. The 10 minutes I watched of the show were excrutiating.

Great! It's on the menu.

Soup looks great! Did it taste as good as it looks? Don't have my book here at work. How long does it take to cook this up? I'm shopping, then cooking with friends all day tomorrow and wondering if I could whip this up with them for dinner.

Since we're talking mojitos with some experts, what's the best recipe? I also am a martini drinker who loves mojitos. Best one so far, a restaurant in Puerto Vallarta. In fact, several restaurants in PV.

Good lord, I wish I hadn't opened this thread! Just one more thing I don't really need but really want. Somebody talk me out of buying this!

From Chicago - Twinkies and Hostess cupcakes (mom didn't bake). Not hard to duplicate. Good Humor bars, toasted coconut on vanilla ice cream and dreamsicles (vanilla ice cream with orange sherbet). Anything with a graham cracker crust.

I love my Epicurean and I don't feel that it is dulling my knives any faster than my other boards. The fact that it goes into the dishwasher (and doesn't warp) and a huge plus.

I love you guys! I think that people who love good food are the nicest, friendliest group of people there are. It's nice to have you to share my food obsessions with. So far, I've saved tomatoes seeds from Southern Italy and California and grown the best tomatoes and guests rave about them. When I tell them how I got the seeds THEN they roll their eyes. Go figure! jb

I spend the month of February in PV. La Palapa is beautiful but the food is mediocre. Go late and sit in the bar to listen to the owner sing (ask which nights he's there). Cafe de Artiste is very gourmet and beautiful. There are three separate areas to dine in, all unique so check them out and make your reservation in whatever one appeals to you. There is also a wine shop across the street that carries a nice selection of wines. If you find a wine you like at any of the other stores, buy it. You never know if you it'll be there the next time you come back. Boca Bento is a newer restaurant in town, I believe over by the grammar school and it is also fabulous. Some friends who are already there told me that the restaurant (Italian) at the Hotel Intercontinental is very good. Haven't tried it yet myself. Trio is always good and also pretty. Piazzetta is fun and good for cheap Italian and I understand that the owner has added a lounge. Barcelona Tapas is owned by an American chef that used to work at a tapas place in my home town. Very good tapas, ask to sit upstairs. There is a frenchman there who used to own a cute little pastry shop with fabulous, typically french pastries. I understand that after a failed attempt at a bigger restaurant, he has relocated his shop but it's somewhere right in town. Try to find it. It's worth it. There are so many restaurants in PV that it's impossible to name them all. Like anywhere, some of them fail and aren't there when we come back the following year but there's always more to replace those. Have a great time and report back on your favorites. Let me know if I can be of any more help. jb

Ginger snaps in milk! I forgot about how good that is. My favorite though is biscotti in wine.

devlin, I'm sooooo jealous of your oven. Did you build it yourself? Tell me it wasn't too difficult because I want my husband to build one for me. Do you use it often? Plain yogurt with a little homemade granola for me today. Got to get into a bathing suit in a month! jb

I have many cookbooks that I don't use but just can't seem to make myself part with. I guess it's because I once gave away a cookbook that I went looking for a year later because I remembered ONE recipe that I liked. I've become much more discerning when I buy a cookbook in the last few years but I just bought Recipes by Susan Spungen and so far I'm unimpressed.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. I think I'm on track now. It's seems like this is something I've been missing in my life for so long!! Happy Holidays to all! jb

I have a request to make biscuits and gravy (sausage) for Christmas morning. I don't have a clue how to make this. I don't even know what kind of biscuit recipe I should use since I've never had this dish. HELP! jb

About 5 years ago, I cut my little finger down to the bone while trying to separate frozen hamburgers at 6:00 AM while still half asleep. I know. Stupid. A year ago, sliced the top of my index finger off with the mandoline. I still don't have feeling in it. I also gave the mandoline away - so instead, I sliced my thumb with chef's knife last weekend. I keep a large supply of band-aids close at hand.

I pretty much agree with everything you've said. I would never have even gone into the place or examined the cases as closely as I did had I not had a recommendation from others here. The croissant really was the only pastry that held any interest for me but the breads that were available were quite good. I did see the shelf with white breads (he had a lot of those) and those are the ones that I felt were not worth bothering with but I didn't know if that just was my preference for more substantial loaves. The fact that he told me that he couldn't sell the fennel raisin bread at that store even though he agreed that it's one of the best breads he makes tells me that his clientele may be the problem? Now that I think about it, all of the breads he makes for Pastoral and much better looking than what he had at the bakery. You really should try Rolf's for pastries. They are much more impressive. jb