Jean Blanchard

I'm in. For everything! It's blocked out on the calendar.

Looks great! I'm inspired.

tThere is a recipe for the basic dough in our Chicago paper and I'm thinking of giving it a try. I'll be interested to hear how yours works for you.

Either one works for me. Let me know if I can help out in any way. Jean

I learned that I could stop worrying about everything I make having to be "perfect" before I invited friends for dinner. This resulted in many more wonderful dinner parties and lots of experimenting. I also encouraged my husband to cook more and now his list of things he likes to think of as his specialties is growing and he's enjoying the process.

Love the kitchen! Especially love the floor to ceiling pantry. Who ever has enough storage?? I have a TV in my kitchen because I spend so much time in there. I also now have a laptop that I use to look up recipes and answer emails while I'm watching things simmering. Saves me a lot of time. Enjoy!

Fresh-wave makes sprays, candles that just remove the smells. No heavy, obnoxious sprays that just cover up odors.

I bought tomato vinegar a couple of months ago when I was in France. Mostly because it looked so pretty in the bottle. I've yet to open it. How do you use yours?

The Columbia Crest and La Crema are now in house. If I can find the others, we'll do a tasting and let you know which one satisfied his need for butter

I'll give it a try. Thanks!

My husband keeps looking for an "everyday" buttery chardonnay. Any thoughts on which reasonably priced wines might fit the bill. Anything under $20.00.

Couldn't agree more. Don't open it yet!

That's good to know. I love that cookbook and sometimes forget to use it.

I use Open Table all of the time with no problems. Restaurants I go to regularly still recognize my name and greet me the same way they would have if I had made a phone call. Also, I've put special requests in and had no problem with them recognizing those.

Thanks for the input. I've seen the $150.00 programmable ones and they are pretty well recommended in some cooking magazines. That's kind of expensive though for something I'm not sure I'll use that often. It has been a while since I bought a new toy though. Any cookbooks you like or just using your own recipes? BTW, Marcella Hazan's ragu is the best! Also, my father used to make us oatmeal in the well of our Chamber's range every evening in the winter and it was the BEST oatmeal I ever had. If the crockpot can mimic that, you're right, it would be absolutely worth it!

I don't mind making allowances for finicky friends. When they turn their nose up at the food and say, "how can you eat that??"...I take offense. Actually, I think it's kind of immature.

I used to own a crockpot.....many years ago. Then I bought a pressure cooker and got rid of the crockpot. Now...I want another crock pot....I think. If I buy one, which one? I see that they are now programmable. That looks interesting. Also, any good cookbooks to get me motivated to use it? Jean

I know this is really a long way off but I'm wondering if we're thinking about a date for this yet. Suddenly, I have all sorts of plans being made for my summer and I really want to be able to participate in this! I'll keep watching.

If you go to Carpentras, Chez Serge is a wonderful restaurant.

iii, I agree that it would be interesting to see if there is anything that HASN't been tried yet. There's got to be something! It might be fun to give that a try.

I just wanted to thank everyone again for all of the wonderful recommendations. We did end up having lunch at Chez Serge in Carpentras, Le Mas Tourteron in Gordes, Les Floret in Gigondas and a couple of other wonderful restaurants. Only had one bad meal and that was dinner in Gordes on our last night. After that, we were on to Paris and ate at Le Comptoir, L'Ourcine and La Meditarranee. All wonderful meals. Our last night in Paris, we went to the Ritz and had very expensive martini's and ate the complimentary nuts and olives for dinner. Came back to our hotel and had the pastries we had picked up at Gerard Mulot and fell happily asleep. Wonderful way to end our trip. P.S. If anyone ever need a place to stay in Gordes, I will be happy to give you the information on our rental. It was truly perfect and beautiful.

Wow! A year has gone by already. Of course, I should know that because the first thing I made from Baking was the cake on the front cover for MY birthday. Never have I made so many things from the same cookbook. Now that fall is here, I'll be baking again. Can't wait to try something new. Congratulations Dorie and when is the new cookbook coming out?

There was so much bleeping that there was no dialogue.

Oh my god I totally forgot about this. Wonder bread with loads of butter followed by heaps of sugar....heaven.

I would love to just use place mats but I have found that I spend the entire evening worried that one of my guests will put their wine glass down on the bare table.