cakewalk

They weigh their arugula?!! It is an interesting article, but two questions kept looming in my mind. Either I missed what was said about them, or they were never mentioned: 1) Kids. Is there a "children's version" of the diet? If any of these people had kids, would they feed them on a kiddie equivalent of this diet? (And would that be cause for child abuse charges?) 2) Exercise. No mention of it. Can they possibly exercise on a restricted calorie diet? And if they do, do they then get to eat more?

I go to good friends in Philadelphia every Thanksgiving, so I don't cook dinner but I always make some things and bring them with me. Last year I (finally) made the recipe for Cranberry Ketchup I found somewhere quite a while ago (I think on Epicurious.) It surprised us all, it was so good. I also usually make a dessert. I'm not quite sure yet what to make, but I'm pretty sure I will be making lemon bars in addition to a "real" dessert.

Hmmm. Yours are probably scorched and grubby for a good reason -- you've been using them. Instead of scorched oven mitts, would you rather have scorched arms? I think that's probably the alternative. If I take something out of the oven using regular pot-holders, I'm more likely to burn my arm (just above the wrist) on the rack that is above the rack I'm baking on. It's happened often enough that I always reach for the oven mitt, not the pot holder, for things in the oven. I have them both hanging on the side of the refrigerator, so one is just as easily accessibe as the next. I find that using a folded towel is a pain in the butt, quite often not thick enough -- and they don't protect my arms! (I don't think TV chefs use hot ovens, either. The stuff is usually already prepared for the show. They pull it out of the oven, but it's been sitting in a cold oven for quite a while.) So anyway, that's why you must have a pair of oven mitts.

My very favorite coffee mug broke many years ago. I was, of course, devastated. I couldn't find them anywhere anymore, so I had to kiss that one goodbye. Then friends of mine bought me a Yankee mug, and that's the one I've been using ever since. I love it. They bought it for me after the Yanks won the chamionship in 1996. Great mug. I want to get one of those Greek coffee cup mugs, they make me laugh. I absolutely hate to drink coffee out of a paper cup (although at times it is unavoidable.) I only use cups and saucers when I have guests. I love the shape of those v-shaped mugs, but I don't like to use them because the coffee cools down too quickly since they're wider at the top than at the bottom. And I don't like to drink out of a dark colored coffee mug, which is why I hardly ever use my Kinky Friedman mug, it's dark blue. Picky picky picky!

I've never used buckwheat, but I have used whole wheat berries. They're wonderful in cholent because they retain some "bite" even after sitting on the heat for so many hours. I've also added nuts to cholent -- almonds work particularly well, again because they're so hard, so they retain some crunch. I wonder how Brazil nuts would do in cholent. Hmmm. I've never used rice but I suspect it might turn into mush. A friend of mine swears by putting ketchup in beef cholent. It's actually pretty good, too.

Get out of this forum. Right now! ← I'm glad you said it and not me!

Just another example that came to mind: Amarone is in my neighborhood. I go there once in a while, sometimes spur of the moment if I run into someone on 9th and we want a nice meal. It's good Italian food. But if I didn't live in the neighborhood, I wouldn't travel to this neighborhood specifically to go there. Esca is also in my neighborhood. I've never been there. My guess is that a lot of people in my neighborhood have been to Amaraone many times and never to Esca. All of this fits very neatly into Busboy's explanation as well.

I also think the question of availability has something to do with it. For example: with a good neighborhood place, chances are there's going to be a restaurant similar to it in several neighborhoods. Various neighborhoods can have good Italian food, good Thai food, etc. There would be no reason for me to travel from my neighborhood to another neighborhood for this. A destination place is a "one and only" sort of thing. The two are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but there are certainly elements that can make them distinct one from the other.

I was going to make the madeleines but was seduced by the biscotti instead. (I think it was the immediacy that did it.) These are easy to make and really good biscotti (although a bit on the sweet side for me. If I reduced the sugar to 3/4 cup would that mess up the balance of the recipe?) I love it that they're crunchy and don't break my teeth if I don't dip them in coffee, yet they don't fall apart if I do. I had way too many with my coffee this morning. I gave the rest to the concierge in my building. They really love this book!! (I have to get a camera.)

I made this last week, and also thought the same thing. Cardamom and coffee is a lovely combination, but I never would have guessed that orange rind would be so nice together with it. Alas, I left it in the oven a bit too long (note to self: stop watching TV while stuff is in the oven!) so it was a bit dry, but nice anyway. I will bake it again and be more careful about the baking time. I just love cardamom. Next up will be the madeleines. Every time I make madeleines they taste wonderful and the texture is good, but they don't get that darn hump! I've come to realize that the fault lies not in my recipes, but in myself. But I will keep trying.

How long does the roasting process take for your coffee beans? (They look great, I can almost smell them through the screen.) Hope you're feeling better.

Ah, Good Morning America! Who could possibly ask for more! Well it's good for you that you like it so much, 'cause it sure ain't going anywhere. (And I'm sure that the construction that is going on at the moment directly across the street from my building -- at 11:00 pm -- will also be wonderful for the city.)

I don't pine for the old Times Square, not for a minute. But that doesn't mean that the current incarnation of Times Square is "a good thing." The point is that it could have been a nice place for tourists while also being a nice place for locals as well. It could have had some independent stores in addition to chain stores, meaning restaurants and cafes as well as other shops -- book stores, clothing stores, craft stores; tourists would definitely have patronized them. Something that would have offered uniqueness of some sort, instead of turning NY into cardboard. I think that's why it annoys people to such an extent, it is such an example of lost potential -- except for the real estate developers, of course. And for the record, I love it that tourists are back in NY and that they are enjoying themselves here. I just wish they'd learn how to walk, dammit!

Speaking as a New Yorker and not a tourist: what he said. (And Times Square is in my back yard.) But the reason it is hell on earth is not due to the loss of the peep shows!!! It's because "they" (let's not start defining that right now) filled Times Square with one chain store after another, and most of them are restaurants. Basically, Times Square is now a strip mall, just like you'd find in the middle of, well, wherever you find strip malls. It is ghastly. Ruby Tuesday is not going to make a bit of difference one way or the other.

Thanks, SweetSide, that does make sense. And I will watch them as they bake! (Reminds me of something I haven't thought of since I was a kid -- the commercials on TV for Pillsbury cookies and dinner rolls, on TV they would show a speeded up version of these things baking and rising in the oven, and I always loved to watch that happen; so now I'll watch it in slow motion in my own kitchen.)

I just got the book (how could I not?) and made the corniest corn muffins, which are wonderful. I gave some to the doormen in my building and some to my neighbors. (Otherwise I could easily -- very easily -- have finished all 12 myself.) They were so moist and really so corny. Mmmm. Next up for me is the cardamom crumb cake, it sounds like a wonderful cake to break the fast with after Yom Kippur, with a cup of coffee. The hell with the rest of the food. I want to try the translucent maple tuiles, they look so delicate and delicious. But I have a general question (no laughing) -- how do they bake with that lacey, honeycomb pattern? I was surprised to read your recipe and see that, well, they just sort of get like that on their own steam (so to speak), I imagined some sort of complicated, time consuming process. Is there a simple explanation?

Oh it is so refreshing to read through a blog and see pictures of concrete and steel instead of all that green stuff. Like a breath of fresh air, I tell ya. And reading about your neighborhood makes me think immediately of Jonathan Lethem, whose latest book, "The Fortress of Solitude" you should read just for local color alone. What is a terrace bagel? Your kitchen is truly wonderful. Ditto on seeing some good bartending works. And some of the lower Manhattan and meat market hot spots that I never go to because I am too old these days. I hear they "reverse card" down there.

A kreple? What a wonderful word. (And what a wonderful tutorial.) I guess it makes sense that the word kreplach would come from the German. The "lach" ending is usually an affectionate ending meaning "little," so kreplach would be "little crepes." (Just as "kinderlach" means "little children.") Pam -- have you ever made kreplach using lung meat? (From a cow, I guess.) Every time I see an old recipe for kreplach, they mention lung meat as the stuffing. It makes perfect sense with the explanation of having to make use of all parts of the animal so that nothing is wasted. But whenever I think of "lung meat" I tend to cringe. I've never made kreplach. I keep thinking, "maybe next year." Continuously.

How do you wrap the cakes so they don't break apart in transit? I was thinking of baking something for my nephew and his girlfriend, and was considering rugelach because I can put them in a nice tin and they won't be much the worse for wear. A really moist spice cake that needs a day or two to mature is a great idea, but wouldn't it just crumble during shipping?

One more suggestion: make the whole recipe, fill the 6-muffin tray and bake, put the rest of the batter in a zip-lock freezer bag, and freeze it until you want to make the muffins again. All you'll have to do is defrost. But I have to say: I have not yet done this with muffin recipes. However, I do it all the time now with cake recipes. It works wonderfully, and I don't see why it shouldn't work for muffins as well. I just baked a carrot cake last night that had been in the freezer about three weeks. (A commissary carrot cake, no less.) Looks beautiful, we'll eat it this afternoon and put it to the taste test. I currently have three other cake recipes in the freezer (honey cake, orange-walnut cake, chocolate buttermilk cake.) I think the muffins will work just as well.

I can't say I minded the article so much. But I definitely did mind the fact that it appeared on the NY Times op-ed page. I mean really. I get annoyed at the self-indulgence of the Sunday Styles section, so I don't want to see it creeping into the op-eds. Anyway, Nora Ephron has a new book out (you must have noticed), and she must have a lot of connections all over the place, because she (and her neck) is appearing all over the friggin' place these days. But I can't believe anyone would take that article as a serious commentary about restaurants or food or anything else. It was just another opportunity for Nora Ephron's name to appear somewhere.

Duck fat is pretty good, too. ← Oh for sure they're good. (I never met a potato preparation I didn't like.) But I guess I don't consider them "real" mashed potatoes. Well, call them whatever you like, I'll still eat them.

Now that is interesting. I never would have thought that mashed potatoes had so much culture behind it. (I'm not being snide.) True confessions: I never made mashed potatoes. It's the kosher stuff. We were a meat and potatoes family (my father was a butcher.) Potatoes always with dinner. Since dinner was always meat, and mashed potates have milk and butter in them, we never had mashed potatoes. We just had potates that were mashed with a fork. Not quite the same thing. I never had the instant mashed potatoes.

It all looks great, but one question: the watermelon. Is that a regular part of the breakfast? I've never been to Utah, and somehow I doubt if I'll ever get there, so I'm looking forward to seeing if Utah has its own foodstuffs and/or way of cooking them. I've already noticed on the Starbucks priceboard that some things are very[i/] different than they are in NY.

And were you pregnant?