jsmeeker

haven't made anything today. Not yet, at least. But that's why I am here. anybody have a suggestion for a cocktail that celebrtes a new job? (no, not for me. For a friend) I know it sounds like a weird thing to ask for if there is a cocktail that might invoke this, but if you know of one, spill.

I thought this show was better than most of you found it. I sorta liked the zoo challenge. I certainly agree that if the "experts" didn't list any meat on in an animal's diet, there should have been no meat. I like that Mark made a good comback after is stumble with his duck dish. He looks like he could be a strong contender. Did someone say Bellinis? I'll go get the prosecco. Edit to add: I too am looking foward to seeing Rick Bayless next week. Love that guy.

I've had luck with it. One of my favorite restaurants in Dallas (Abacus) always has some sort of "game meat" on it. I've had both vennison and ostritch there. They do a nice job with it. Makes me happy to see that sort of thing on the menu. Of course, it's not WILD game. It's farmed/ranched. Still, it's "unique" enough.

wow.. what a disaster that experiment was. The dough was a bit of a pain to stretch out.. But I eventually managed to get it more or less. Into the 500 degree oven. Baked it until the top of it looked like a pizza I normally bake directly on the stone. Pulled the pan out. let it sit for two or three minutes. Then, I tried to get it out of the pan. It was sorta stuck. I managed to cut out a piece, but the bottom was not cooked enough. Back into the oven for a few minutes. Now it's over done on the top. And still sticking. Grrr... Not sure what went wrong, but I think a big part of it was that it was stretched too thin in parts. That, and I think working the dough out sorta embedded the semolina (didn't have cornmeal handy) into the dough too far to make it useful. Not sure if it make sense for me to try this again. Doing a regular pizza turns out far better for me, and really doesn't seem to be so much work.

I would guess the same thing. People have their habit of getting their daily "fix" from SBUX or wherever. They carry it out and hang onto it and nurse it while they go out their business. If part of their business happens to be getting breakfast someplace, the drink just goes with them.

Sensi is one of the newer places at Bellagio. IIRC, it's opened up when they opened their second tower, so it wasn't part of the initial set of restaurants that generated so much buzz. Maybe I'll need to check out Sensi myself this coming summer. I've SEEN it, but never been there. Gonna be tough to pick which places to go to, especially considering I already have severla on my mind. Anyway, back to the request for a pre-"O" dinner. You say you do a lot of "guy trips". If this were one of them, I would suggest "Fix". I think it would work perfectly for that. And it still may work for this trip with the fiance. It's contemporary and hip.

what exactly are people doing? Are they walking into a restaurant sipping their Starbucks drink from the paper cup, then sitting down at the table with it? I've seen this sort of thing myself. More likely to see it at a casual place.

I'm all set to make my first pizza usign this method tonight. How long do you let to do rest once you pull it from the fridge? An hour? The time it takes to get the oven hot? (I think you suggested about 45 minutes). I suppose my dough really isn't "old" by your standard, but I do have more. Maybe I can use that on Friday. That would make 5 days old by then. On a side note, I looked for frozen pizza dough at my local fancy pants grocery store. They didn't have any. I'll look at my regular neighborhood store next, then Whole Foods. (though, really I'm still wondering if it's worth buying if I can make it so easily)

Made some grenadine last night. Went with the "hot" method, except I halved the recipe. 1 cup POM, reduce to half a cup, stir in half cup sugar. I transfered it to a squeeze bottle and it's sitting in the fridge, ready to make a Jack Rose when I get home from work. I also picked up more meyer lemons, plus regular lemons so I can do a side my side taste test. Now I need to see what other drinks I can make with this grenadine.

I'll add a squirt bottle to the list of nice to have things. Cheap and simple.

I whipped up a batch of pizza dough yesterday afternoon, with the intention of using it sometime mid-week to make pizzas my normal way. (i.e. "hand tossed", baked on a stone). I always use canned sauce (Muir Glenn pizza sauce) and standard supermarket mozzerrella (usually, already shredded!! ) I've got all of that at home, plus some pepperoni. So, I guess if I were to try this out, I would do it in a sheet pan, using home made dough (seems silly for me to buy dough for this initial test when I have some in the fridge fermenting away) instead of baking directly on the stone. The question I have for Steven is how much dough do you need/use to full the sheet pan? I see from your pics that you didn't seem to be concerned to fill the pan all the way to and up the edge (like I was expecting). A rough estimate/guess in ounces should be fine. I'll just portion off that much from my dough ball when I get home tonight and toss it into a zip top bag for later in the week.

really?? Where is it? I'd love to know.

So, where is Tony's blog?

Thanks for posting this, Richard. I've had some of there fine baked goods before, and I'm happy that we can get them again in a regular retail setting.

Yeah.. I'll eventually make some. I just happened to be in the liquor store on Friday buying some stuff. They have Roses there, but they don't carry POM pomegranate juice. I've been pretty busy this weekend and just didn't get a chance to swing by the grocery store. BTW, what is "orange flower water" and where do I get it? Is it something from the liquor store? Is it from the grocery store?

Thanks, Janet. I'm going to whip up an "After School Special" right now since I now posses all the ingredients. (gonna make it with Plymouth gin, as that's what I have)

Because of a topic about meyer lemons, I was inspired to pick up a bottle of Lillet (blanc). From that topic, I have one cocktail to make. I'll scan through this one for others. But I have a question.. How long will this last, and how should I store it?? (room temp or the fridge??)

Just whipped up a Jack Rose. I didn't have a chance to make my own grenadine, so I used Rose's This is a nice drink. I think it's pretty approachable and would be appreciated by people not yet into goof cocktails. This is gonna stay in my rotation. Eventually, I'll get to the point where I will make my own grenadine. And I'll try it with standard lemons, too.

Have you seen the thread about Thomas Keller's French Style gnocchi? http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=95409 You may find that it's exactly what you are looking for. I personally have not tried it yet, but am eager to give it a go at home.

That struck me as being very odd. Also, no prizes were handed out to the challenge winner?

fear not! I'm still going to give the meyer lemons a try. The After School Special sounds intersting, as I am lookijg for more ways to use my Chartreuse. But I'm not really familair with Lillet. I've SEEN it, but don't know really what it is.

I repeat, any chef worth their knives going to Chicago to cook for Top Chef without a deep dish pizza in their repertoire is a moron. Who cooks pizza from a recipe? It's a method. you either work it or you don't. ← If I was making deep dish pizza, I would at least need a recipe for the dough. I've never made it before. Only thin crust NYC/Neopolitan style pizza. I know there are difference, but don't know what they are exactly. But one time would probably be enough. However, the dough WAS provided for them. So, really the only "trick" is knowing how much you needed for the size pan they provided. Some people went WAY overboard. Even if you have never made it before, you could be at least clued in by looking at a properly made pizza. Which of course, they had all just seent and eaten. Of course, I'm not a professional chef, so I can cut myself some slack.

tough to get a feel for who you like and who you don't an hour with so many contestants. Right now, I have no feel for who the "superstar" is. But the women had a nice showing in the first elimination challenge. Bordain and Rocco on the same panel. Nice move. Wonder what Tony's blog will reveal. He really did enjoy the winner's dish a great deal. Somehow, I am thinking he had to convince the other judges that was the one to go with. Does anyone think having a couple on the show is somehow unfair? I'm think it's not unfair in anyway. Too many individual challenges on this show. They can't always pair up.

Yeah.. I understand all that. Not really complaining, rather just commenting how much more afforably I can enjoy a nice cocktail if I drink gin instead of Tequila.

Cool!! Maybe I'll sneak into the lab at the hospital next time I am in L.A. and give it a go!! (yeah, like that is gonna happen). I would love to see some video of this. Just a short clip of the stirrer in action.