Genny

Mette, these are gorgeous! Can you post the Praline & Black Pepper Ganache as well as the maramalade & Grand Marnier Ganache recipes? Esp the marmalade one, that is making my mouth water! Thanks so much in advance Genny

Hi Abra! What beautiful pix you have here! OMG my mouth literally started to water looking at the poached egg on the salad...I had to go make one for myself!!!! (Seriously, I really did!) How do you get your photos so well lit and crisp? Do you doctor them at all or just publish them as is? Persimmons sound wonderful. I haven't had one in years but I just saw them at my local grocers, I may just have to pick one up to see if they are any good. Here is a fabulous looking idea: frozen persimmon = sorbet for dessert. A beautiful presentation for sure. Here is the Mark Bittman site describing: Frozen Persimmon I'm looking forward to the Belgian dinner (I was reading through thinking DUTCH, please do Dutch!) so it looks like you'll be able to please both sides with this one Happy Blogging! Genny

If you are having sweet pancakes, perhaps a lovely sharp blue cheese to counter the syrup? Cheese course! Add some figs or other fruit and some nuts and you're there...mmmm must be lunch time! ETA: Ham, ham sounds very good.

Semantics can be fun for sure. I have a friend that is a Personal Chef (anyone care to tackle that one?) who did go to culinary school. I asked her about the "chef" label and her answer was, "I had an instructor that said, you are a chef when people start to call you a chef." My bio info says that my husband calls me his chef. Does that mean I'm trying to be something I'm not? I don't work in a professional kitchen, nor do I have any desire to do so. And when asked, I do make the correct statement, "No, I'm not a chef, I'm just like to cook." But surely many words in our language hold variant meanings. I can get a "Rug Doctor" and my garbage collector is a "Sanitation Engineer" so what is wrong with "Home Chef" (which, by the way is a trademarked corporation which sells housewares and gives culinary classes.) The question is: Does "chef" only have one meaning?

White chocolate is also very festive to use with the crushed candy canes. I did this last year but dipped pretzel sticks in the chocolate and then covered with the candy canes. It really is super easy.

The curtain has closed on our leading soprano's lovely aria and the audience is on their feet in a sign of respect for her talents. A standing ovation for sure Kathleen! Bravissima! @}--,-'----- (a rose) Will there be an encore? Dinner tomorrow? Ah, likely not soon, as we must move on to our next talented kitchen maven. Thanks again K!!!

Kathleen, this has been a fun week indeed! Thanks for all your time. So what are you having with the muscles? I would guess some really great bread to sop up the liquor and steaming liquid. Anything else?

I truly cackled through this. Biggest cackle "My momma done told me, bring somethin for dinner." Sing-songed. Bourdaine is such a huge dork, human and just plain funny. (Although I really could have done without the wetsuit shots )

What great news! There is very little out here besides Boar's Head so a genuine NY deli selection will be fabulous! Hmmmm, I usually keep a fridge full for Thanksgiving (house full of family) so perhaps this will be a good choice! Once again Molto, you rock!

Jennifer, surely you understand that for some folks, how humans treat animals is far more important than how they treat other humans. =R= ← You sure said a mouthful there Ronnie. Unfortunate but true. How about t-shirts that say "Got foie?" or "foie gras, parles vous mmmmmmm?" (OK, I don't know any French, so feel free to correct my spelling!) or "I foie gras"

I think I'm going to swoon. Molto, that is incredible! Meeting The Man sounds so very cloak and dagger. So, is it improper to ask, what does one pay per ounce in "the deal"? Also, is there a way one could get in on "the next deal"? OMG, wow. Just beautiful. I'm going for the risotto, myself. And the eggs. Oh, who am I kidding, I'll take it all

Kathleen & Eric- we made your foursome complete...from Arizona. Did you have a favorite offering? Actually, your place looked much better than mine. We have 2 rodizios that I know of here: Rio el Sabor is the one we tried last night. I have to say that the other one blows this away! This had a very small salad bar , maybe 10 feet long and 5 chafing dishes with hot items. The food was fine, but only the pork ribs jumped out as being fantastic. I think there were a total of 7 different meats passed. Ok, Ok, still got full though, but we'll have to stick to Fogo e Brasa for our local Brazilian fill-ups from now on. M.X. what a great write-up! My DH says that in Fort Worth, Texas there is a rodizio that serves lobster tails off the skewers! I could waive off a whole lotta turkey in favor of lobster! Has anyone else experienced this place? So, Kathleen, since the amusing coffee guys don't supply their names, have you provided your own?

Thanks Eric, I just found that on the site of a local place I may try tonight and corrected my post. Those things are dangerous, I could fill up on them alone! Poor thing, I bet you are just wasting away. Sam should go away more often, eh?

Good girl, resiliency is not a trait of the weak! Question: How the hell does one navigate the subway when returning in a slightly buzzed capacity? Friends help with the door-2-door naviagation? Or do you just take a cab? (I always have my dearest Honey as the DD )

mmmmmm coarse meal...sounds delicious! So Kathleen, will you be up to trying the signature drink tonight?

I love this place:Fogo e Brasa one of our local Brazilian chirascaria. Be sure to go with an empty stomach and a hankering for some delicious meats! I really love the cheese biscuits (pao de queijo). Dense and light and cheesy all at the same time. Of course, you must have the Caipirinha to drink. Yummy. Hopefully you can take some pix of the delicious offerings! It is important to strategize, for those who are uninitiated. The all-you-can-eat buffet is tempting, but the highlight is really the meats so don't fill up too much on the buffet! You can always go get some more of something that tasted yummy or looked good once you get going on the meat. Oh, and no tight pants either. Harumph, now I want to go out to Fogo e Brasa for dinner. Vicarious living, once again! ETA: correct cheese biscuit name!

John, thanks for the link...this really made my day! With each of your demo's every question is answered!

Fabulous! Smashing, simply smashing. Now I have everything I need to do this perfect the next time. Yippeeee. I smell chocolate in my near future!!!! Thank you so much for the demo (wiggles, singing Happy Happy Joy Joy!)

Sounds like some kind of come-on... Hung over is my least favorite.... just keep your head down low and don't look to conspicuous at the office. Perhaps they will forget you are there and find someone else to do it. Mmmmm St. Andre. I love St. Andre. Its like buttuh! My new favorite combo over the summer was a panini with brie and avocado. Boo-yah! Now THAT's what I'm talkin' about people! Hey, the Diamond back and the drink you had last night with the cucumber both sound soo refreshing. Wouldn't they be a bit too refreshing in light of the fact that ya'll are in your brisk autumnal temperatures? But the rum drink sounds fantastic, I'll have to try that one out for sure! (oh, and I'm impressed by the drinking capacity ya'll have! I'll have to get myself limbered up for the holidays so I can manage them a bit better )

Many, many thanks John! Where were you 3 months ago?? The process you show here is so neat and simple, this will really help me in my own endeavors. Can you also show the process of filling the cups with ganache, and topping with chocolate for the bottoms as well? Any tricks you can share for working cleanly?

Great chopping skills Kathleen! You could help out in my kitchen any day For cleaning the brussel sprouts: you may need to pick off some outer leaves or trim off the bottoms as well. They can be a bit tough. This is my favorite way to eat them though! How was the coffee?? Did you do it with cinnemon and nutmeg? I tried it with both this morning but I found the nutmeg seemed to mellow out the cinnemon and I really like the punch of straight cinnemon. Ya'll beat me to the roast chicken suggestion! I love the flavor of herbed butter rubbed under the skin as well. Set a 1/2 stick of butter out to soften, mince up fresh herbs you have on hand (rosemary, thyme, sage, parsley) totals about 1/4 to 1/2 cup and mix that into the softened butter with salt and pepper to taste. Use your fingers to loosten the skin on the bird (from the neck end) and stick your hand in gently to loosten the skin. Then you can put the butter in and massage it in (from the outside of the skin is best). S&P the skin, and you are ready to roast! You are doing very well so far! It looks like you know more than you thought about cooking though. If you can pull from multiple recipes rather than having to be a slave to one, you must have the basic concepts of flavorings and methods down. Happy Cooking! Genny (Hmmmm, I've referred to my Cooks Companion and have found no reference to "assload" as a measurement. Can you provide an equivalent in gallons or litres? )

Hi K8, honestly, I did get a mini fountain and the oil had no appreciable taste to it. (I used peanut oil) I'm not sure about cream, this baby has to be pretty thin, but it won't hur to try! The biggest factor I found was that the damn thing must be completely LEVEL for the chocolate to flow evenly over the falls. Good luck!

OK, so we're on the same page! We'll both do the nutmeg & cinnemon in tomorrow's coffee and compare notes What was in the dumplings? Pork & veg? Shrimp? I do love that they are just short of burned....mmmmmm. And the soup does look fantastic as well. We have a new noodle house that popped in just up the street, maybe some hot & sour soup and a side of dumplings is in my future too! (Though, for much more than $7 ) There is a recipe for moules in the Les Halles cookbook that I've been meaning to try and it has chorizo for the flavor base, in case you are looking for a little more inspiration. I've not really had great luck with moules in the past but this sounds so flavorful! Will you have a photo helper to snap some prep pix for tonight's dinner? The jalepeno muffins to go with sound awesome! Perhaps you can share the recipe? We're a spicy bunch here and I'm sure those would be a hit in our family.

Kathleen, have you tried spicing your cappuccino up? This fall my coffee sports a nice dash of cinnemon and WOW it really provides a subtle sweetness and a beautiful aroma every time I take a sip! Just a suggestion for tomorrow's mug if you've not tried it before

They usually jump up on my side of the bed. . . ← Ah, but seeing that you are out of town, if the cute ferret critters are anything like my cute kitty critter, a substitute is in order when the primary sleeping target is not available. (Hope it is a good trip!)